I crossed my arms against my chest. “I haven’t been corrupted. I will serve Lord Aetherius until my dying breath.”
“That remains to be seen. Remember whose blood stains your nightmares. There is no gray area. There is the light of Aetherius, and there is the dark. Do not confuse the two because you’ve enjoyed visiting that den of sin.”
Carlyle settled a hand on my shoulder, the gesture gentle in shape but heavy as a benediction. “The reckoning comes for all who stray from the True Path.”
“The reckoning comes…” I echoed, the words clinging to my tongue like ash.
“And Sidney? Do not disappoint me again.” He turned on his heel, and the door closed behind him.
I sank onto my cot, head in my hands. After catching my ragged breath, I rose again and crossed to my desk. My fingers found the vial of experimental serum, closing around the cool glass. This was supposed to be the answer, the cure that would save Zane. But what if it never worked? What if the corruption ran too deep, too complete to ever reverse?
What if I wanted Zane anyway?
The metallic taste of shame coated my tongue.
There is no choice but the light.
I tightened every muscle, gripping the core mission like a lifeline.Focus and observe. Analyze and adapt.The list became my prayer. I must complete the mission. Destroy the vampires from within. Cure Zane and Finn.
But first, I needed Adelaide to refresh the glamor. I forced my exhausted body to cooperate as I stood and gathered supplies, including more ration bars and rupture. Everything went into my satchel before I headed for the door.
It was time to face the witch.
Chapter 19
Sidney
Ash waited where I’d left him, patient as a statue. I climbed onto his back, and he took off with that same ground-eating lope. The world raced by, fast enough to steal my breath yet not so fast that it vanished into a blur. Trees flicked past in quick strokes of green and brown as we broke from the forest, skimmed across open farmland, and slipped into the darker hush of the next woods.
Adelaide’s lair materialized through the waning afternoon light, her mushroom-stem house rising from the pervasive undergrowth. Its cap cast shadows that shifted and grasped for Ash and me with spectral fingers.
I dismounted, instructing Ash to wait. He blinked once before melting back into the tree line.
The moment I passed through the gate, the garden closed around me. Vines slithered without wind, spreading out across the ground and rearranging to open a path that hadn’t existed moments prior. Paving stones surfaced through the soil. But the cold, damp leaves pressed against my exposed skin again, and trumpet flowers pivoted my way as I stepped forward.
Something rustled in the undergrowth. I caught a glimpse of a bloated figure before it disappeared beneath waxflowers dripping blood-red nectar.
“Right on time!” Adelaide’s voice sang out from within the greenery. I startled, sending up a wake of buzzing flies from the undergrowth. “It’s so refreshing when clients honor their commitments.”
I followed the sound of her voice, pushing aside willow fronds. A wave of warmth flooded over me as I entered her sanctuary beneath the massive tree.
Adelaide reclined on her living-wood throne. Her green eyes fixed on me, and her smile was all teeth. “You look terrible. Like a corpse that can’t decide whether it wants to rot or rise.”
She gestured, and the ground trembled. Up from the earth rose her wooden table and a second bench.
“Charming,” I muttered, dropping onto the bench. I didn’t bother trying to dust off the dirt clinging to it.
Cris wobbled forward, carrying a tea service too delicate for oversized paws. Dread coiled in my stomach as Adelaide poured steaming liquid with practiced grace. “Wool of bat and tongue of dog today. Died of natural causes, of course.”
I lifted the cup she offered me mechanically. The first sip scraped a harsh, immediate bitterness across my tongue. As I pulled the porcelain away from my lips, face screwed up in displeasure, the aftertaste sweetened into warm cinnamon.
“Delicious, right?” Adelaide asked, watching my reaction. Her eyes were creased with amusement.
Before I could respond, a hiss drew my attention. The raccoon puppet housing Ilyana sat hunched near her grave. One glass eye glowed red with trapped consciousness and rage, while the other remained dim and lifeless. Shelaunched herself at me, and I jumped back, pulse skittering. Yet invisible restraints jerked her back mid leap. Her tiny paws scrabbled uselessly, claws raking the air in my direction.
Adelaide snapped her fingers at the raccoon, the noise sharp as a whip. Ilyana flinched. “You! Go pull nightshade roots from the eastern bed. And if you try to chew them again to escape your suffering, I’ll make you spend your last week as a millipede in a glass jar in the sun.”
A curve of satisfaction touched my lips, acknowledging the perfect cruelty of the threat.
