Page 28 of Six Burning Candles

Chapter Sixteen:

~Keida~

Drip.Drip.Drip.Thevenom from the fangs of a serpent rained over me. I felt the acid burn through my flesh.Drip. Drip. Drip.I flinched away from each drop but there was no avoiding it as the chains bit down into my flesh. Opening my eyes was hard, heavy and crusted with blood, the pain almost equal to the acidic venom eating away at my body.Drip…The venom stopped and I watched Melrose form before my eyes. Holding a bowl over my head, flower petals spilling from the side, Melrose stopped the venom from touching me. They pinned me to an altar, the serpent coiled around its base, a face with three red eyes glowing over me. Open mouthed, the serpent primed to strike but, instead, continues to drop acidic venom over my body.

Drip.A glop of it is pushed out of Melrose’s bowl and fell onto the center of my chest. She screamed at the same time I did, arms coated in tiny burns from where she caught some of the venom splashing. More petals trickled over my head, and I glanced past the serpent to find Cardinal Janus with a basket of wildflowers. He looked me in the eyes, crunching up the satiny petals in one hand, then tossed them out over me like snow flurries fallingfrom the sky.

Beware.

Something else dripped over me, a cold dollop smacking the center of my throat. I gasped. My hands raced to my neck, trying to grab at what it was that touched my flesh, only to have my hands smacked away. “Shh, shh, it’s alright. It’s me, Keida.”

I finally got my eyes open to find Melrose looming over me. She smiled down at me, damp from a bath. Her skin was freshly scrubbed, and hair piled on top of her head with a comb holding her wet tendrils back. Yet one still dangled down by her face, and I felt a drop of cooled bath water fall off it and splash against my chest. The weight of my vision against my lungs lightened as she studied my face with warm, honeyed eyes.

“You had another vision.”

“How could you tell?” I rasped, letting her guide me up from the pillows.

“Papa mutters in his sleep when he’s having one too. I wake up sometimes to hearing him hiss things at the shadows…sometimes he screams.” Her gaze darted away as she backed away from me. Hugging her dressing robe to her body, she stiffened a little too much for my liking. I extended my hands without a second thought and snagged those hands from around her robe. Her gaze rose to my face. I gingerly led her back in.

“I’m sorry, I wish I knew what to say.” I cupped her hands in one of mine so my other could brush the damp tendril of hair away from her face. Tucking it safely behind her ear, I memorized every inch of her face once more. How her skin was slightly red from the hot water, the crispy white outline of the dots on her ears, the curve of her lips, all of it was mine to obsess and love. I brought her knuckles to my mouth, kissing them tenderly. “Would you like to hear it?”

“Yes,” she nodded before grimacing. “You should bathe while you speak. It’s almost breakfast time and I fear Cardinal Janus is already awake.”

“How?” I blinked rapidly.

“I can hear him humming outside,” she huffed, slipping away from me to prop open her balcony door. Much to both our dismays, I heard the familiar sounds of my previous mentor singing to the roses and ivy vines while he did his morning stretches. Janus loved to stand out in the courtyard of the temple and do hisdaily ritualof stretching loudly while singing hymns slightly off tune. Once it was a charming quirk of his…however, it felt ominous after my vision.

“Melrose,” I exhaled heavily, suddenly devoid of all air and desperate to suck in enough to fill my husk like lungs. She twisted back to me, closing the balcony doors behind her. I stood, taking a part of the sheets with me. Stumbling forward, I grabbed her by the shoulder and held her fast. “You cannot go with him to the gardens.”

The serpent was likely an allegory for a betrayal or trick, the acidic venom a reference to…I stopped dead, my heart even hesitating to beat for a moment. “You were protecting me from the venom.”

“What?” Melrose scrunched her face.

“It is me that Janus will target,” I confessed with full certainty I didn’t believe I had. “The vision, you were shielding me from what you could, but it was still harming you, and eventually the venom would spill over and still hit me. Janus intends to go for me, and you will get hurt by trying to protect me.”

“Keida, you’re scaring me,” Melrose whimpered. I straightened, realizing how hunched over my shoulders were when I was forced to correct my spine. “Janus is my godfather. He would never…”

We lingered in that moment, silent and afraid of the truth that lingered between us.He would and he probably will.Out of everyone, I knew Janus best. He may be her godfather, but that man raised me. He put robes on my back and taught me to brush out my hair. Then, as I grew, he taught me to cast, helped shape my letters, and worst of all, he was the one who put me up for the promotion within the Order. He put me here.Goddess, please, it can’t be him.

But all I could hear was her hissed, ethereal warning.Beware.

I slipped away from Melrose, clearing my throat. “Apologies, Melrose. I did not mean to overstep. I should bathe then prepare the clerics today.”

“Of course…” She nodded, excusing herself to her boudoir to dress. Like last night was completely forgotten, there was a strange tension between us. I dipped into the cooling bath water while she pulled on an underdress.Have I ruined something by accusing her godfather of meaning her harm?Was it strange to still feel comforted when she didn’t pull on small clothes. It was ridiculous…and yet, as I scrubbed my arms free of grime and sweat, I studied her. Wondering if she’d come to her senses and pull them on, I reveled in the fact she didn’t. I was enrapt with her as she took extra care to brush out her leg fur, shine her hooves, and even add little flower clips to her hair. She pulled on a mint green dress with long bell sleeves. It was warmer in nature, and it draped precariously over her breasts. Then she pulled a wool cloak out and my eyes widened.

“My cloak?” I exclaimed.

She grinned from ear to ear, pivoting back to see me. Pulling it over her shoulder, she clipped the fabric into place with a simple rose brooch. She looked me dead in the eye and pulled the wool up to her nose. My troublemaker took a deep whiff of it. “Mmm, yes, I would agree.”

“You little thief,” I hissed with utter delight.

“Is it stolen if you gave it so willingly?” Melrose twisted, cutely giving me a one shoulder shrug. “I’ll be in need of a new one soon, though. This one hardly carries your scent anymore.”

My body slipped and tumbled about as I tried to climb out of the tub. Melrose giggled, scurrying from the room with a flirty ‘see you later’ tossed over her shoulder. I finally clambered out of the wash basin and dried my body hastily with the towel.Okay, so maybe not ruined, but Janus is a tender spot.

Drying off sharply, I wrung out my hair and was in the middle of shaking out my wings when there was a knock at the door. I froze behind the privacy curtain.Shit.Eyes darting left and right, I searched for an escape. Even if I pulled on my dirty robes, there was no escaping her room withoutsomeoneseeing me.

“Your Lunarence?”