Cecily
Present
There’s barely contained rage burning in Silas’ eyes as he glares at each of my men in turn. His eyes land on me and my body stiffens, waiting for his recognition. I thought fear would threaten to drown me in this moment, but all I feel is a reassurance of strength and protectiveness from my mates. I know no matter what, I’ll never have to face Silas on my own again.
Silas turns his fury on to Marcus. “Who the fuck is this?” he seethes. His hand gestures in my direction without sparing me another glance. “Why are you bringing a human to my home? And a woman, at that. Have you all lost your damn minds? I swear, the lot of you are just a disappointment to our race.” He takes a threatening step toward Marcus as Alex and Klaus step in front of me. “I sent you on a mission to retrieve two shifters, two individuals, who threaten our very existence, and instead, you bring this filthy waste of life into my presence.”
Clearly, Silas haszerofucks to give over me hearing his berating. A fact I find very concerning seeing as how he immediately assumes I’m human. He continues to shout at my mates for several minutes, barely pausing long enough to take a breath, and certainly not long enough for anyone to interrupt. Which I suppose was on purpose.
Having reached his limit, Marcus raises his voice to be heard over Silas. “Uncle, that’s enough. You’re not in a position to question my decisions.”
“Like hell I’m not,” Silas responds with a growl. He makes a move in my direction.
Each of my alpha men straightens their stance, forming a line in front of me as they stand together in unity. “Cecily is our guest, and she will be offered every form of respect as any other guest. It seems best we allow you time to remember who you ultimately report to,” Marcus commands, taking lead once more. He takes a few steps forward, maintaining eye contact with Silas, as my other three mates escort me from the room.
By the time we reach the staircase, Marcus rejoins us and rushes to get in front to lead the way. Anger wafts off of him in a tangible wave of fury. Thunder crashes outside, boom after boom, seeming to mirror the mood inside us.
Marcus leads us down the all-too-familiar halls. The dark stone seems to suck the light from the electric sconce lights, and I’m reminded how much I hated the perpetual gloom here. Strong arms band around my waist and shoulders from Derrick and Alex standing at my sides. Their presence sends the oppressive weight of our atmosphere away, and I’m just left with intense exhaustion.
We arrive at the room Marcus set as his destination, and with a click, the door swings open. The room appears almost exactly the same as when I stayed here all those centuries ago. There are upgrades of course, but it seems to have been preserved magically. For some reason, I’m not surprised this is the room my mates have chosen. With their mate mark having been revealed and simultaneously covered up, it makes sense they would naturally gravitate to anything that had a significance in my life.
I sag into the first chair we pass, exhaustion overwhelming me with all the emotions I’ve been battling. Marcus immediately turns at the sound of the sigh escaping me. Within a second, he’s kneeling in front of me, grasping my hands in his and gazing into my eyes. “How are you holding up?” Concern causes his lips to pinch together.
A loving smile pulls at my own lips and I lean forward to lay my head on his shoulder. “I’m just exhausted,” I reply as I snuggle into his neck.
“Can we do anything for you, Sunshine?” Klaus asks as he rubs circles into my back.
My eyes close at the comforting sensation. “Sleep. I just need some sleep,” I grumble out, as a heavy weight seems to settle over me. I’m not sure I could stay awake if I even wanted to.
∞∞∞
I’ve never had a lucid dream, much less a dream from someone else’s perspective. It’s surreal to know I’m having my own thoughts, but I’m also in the head of Marcellus, living through all of his thoughts in the moment.
We reach her room quicker than I want, it’s always too soon to say goodbye to her, but at least this time will be the last I have to hide my affections for her. Ilean into Cecily and whisper, “I can’t wait for you to be the one taking me on an adventure. I know it’ll be the best one of my life. Just a little longer, my Darling, I’ll be back before you know it.”
Lifting her hand up to my lips, I press a kiss to the back of it. I sure wish I could be kissing her lips right now, to have the taste of her to carry me through the next few hours with Silas. She gives me a smile as I stare at her lips, giving me hope she can read my thoughts.
I tap on her guard’s door to let them know she’s back and it’s time to resume their post. Frances immediately opens the door and gives me a sharp nod, an answer to my unspoken question. Both of her guards are good men. I have full confidence they’re able to protect her if any need arises. Knowing she’s protected, I’m able to walk away from her to find Silas and get the next few hours behind me.
With all likelihood, Silas will already be in his spell room. I never thought about it before, but it seems odd he has it so tucked away and hidden from the rest of the castle.It’s almost like he’s trying to hide what he’s up to, which is suspicious now that I’ve had my eyes opened to how many lies Silas has told me my whole life.
I both look forward to getting this time over with, and dread having to get through it. I want answers from Silas, I want a solid idea of what he’s up to. It would also be nice to know why he lied to me my whole life, but the likelihood of him giving me the answer is pretty low. In fact, he probably believes just about everything he told me, aside from my parents being dead. I don’t see how he could’ve convinced himself that one is true.
Is it actually worth it to me to find out the answers? I should just go back to Cecily now, and we can leave for her home. How stupid am I to ask her for us to wait? I can absolutely get answers later... or not, I really don’t care anymore! I just want to start my life with Cecily.
My feet twist me around to head back to her room, but I run right into Silas. “Whoa there, boy. Where are you going? We need to get started, there’s a lot to get done before the night is finished.” I swallow my disappointment. I came to the realization too late, now I just need to follow through on our plan, and get through helping Silas with his spell so we can leave. I’m not even going to question him anymore, I just want to leave this forsaken place.
Silas places his arm around me and begins guiding me to his spell room. “Big things are going to happen tonight. I’m willing to wager you’re going to fulfill the destiny I prepared for you so long ago.” What is he even talking about?
Thankfully with his excitement, Silas is taking huge strides so we arrive at the room quickly. He has me get to work right away on grinding up herbs, and we settle into a well-worn routine. “I’m going to need some of your blood for this one,” he says as he comes up next to me with a knife and a bowl in his hand. I take the knife and cut my palm, allowing the blood to run into the bowl for Silas’ use to mix into whatever spell he’s working on.
As soon as the blood stops dripping off my hand, Silas picks up the bowl and brings it up to his lips. What... is he... he drank my blood. Only a sip, but still. In all the times I’ve helped him, Silas has never drank my blood, only put it into potions. Shock slams into me, I did not agree to this. The sight makes my stomach turn and I hold back a gag. This can’t be anything good. “What are you doing?” I can’t help but ask, my voice a higher pitch than normal, not quite able to comprehend what he just did.
“Just needed a boost of magic. It’s not quite desirable to drink a magic user’s blood, but it gets me to the end goal, and that’s all that matters.” I go to reach for the bowl he set back down to dump the rest of my blood. I don’t care what his reasons are, I don’t want him drinking anymore of my blood. Before I’m able to get my hand on the bowl, his voice sounds again. “Freeze.”
Without my permission, my whole body stops moving mid reach. I’m only able to keep breathing and can move my eyes to glare at him. What kind of sorcery is this? The way Cecily described magic, they aren’t able to control someone else’s will. This is an evil abuse of something she described as good. I should’ve left while we could. I hope she leaves without me, I need her to be safe.
“Don’t touch the bowl. Now resume what you were working on,” Silas commands. As if I won’t touch the bowl! I reach for the bowl, but my hands pick up the pestle and mortar I was working with moments ago. He throws in a few more of the dried maroon petals as I grind what’s already there. I try to fight my own body into following my instructions, but my arms keep grinding the flowers. My feet won’t even move.
