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A message from my mother. A wordless warning.
She had Katharine.
22
Iraised a hand, wincing as I blocked the sunlight from my gaze. It had been weeks since I had been outside during the day. It took a moment for the white glare to settle and my vision to focus on the frost covered grounds beyond the castle.
It was pure luck that the front door was left unlocked. Perhaps Marius felt no need to keep me locked within anymore. Not with my knowing that I could never leave. Not until the fateful finale that we were racing towards.
I stumbled blindly down the steps and onto the overgrown path. My boots trod heavily across the bundles of weeds that had split through the cracked slabs beneath me.
The chill of winter had proudly settled over the castle, however the sky was cloudless. As I trudged through the gardens, leaving the castle behind me, I melted beneath the slight kiss of the sun across the back of my neck.
It had taken me two attempts to wake during the hours when Marius was comatose. He hardly left my side since we discovered the offering of Katharine’s hair. And I could not scry for answers with him near. So I waited for the safety of daylight to do so.
I settled on the ground, the frozen blades of grass melting beneath me and wetting my trousers. Far away from any window that overlooked this place, I rested the scrying bowl before my crossed legs. I called for the element required until the bowl filled and the surface of water shivered to reveal whom I called for.
“Jak.” Mother’s voice drifted through the water. I had to bite down on my tongue to stop the unravelling of anger I held towards her. Instead I swallowed the lump in my throat and questioned her calmly.
“What have you done with Katharine?”
Mother grinned, her eyes glowing wickedly. “She has been punished for her actions. I trust I do not need to indulge in what for as I am certain you are already aware.”
“Enough of the games, tell me what you have done!” It was not a question but a demand.
“I admit this was not the reaction I expected, although in hindsight I should have seen the signs. All our faith has been put in the hands of a pathetic boy. It should have been me, I have said it all along. If I had your power the task would have had no risk of failing. Yet here you are, worried about what I have done with the creature’s little pet.”
“Her name is Katharine,” I seethed, ignoring her taunt. “I will not ask again.”
Mother liked to gloat, it was one of her many flaws. I knew she would share the information and I was right.
“That girl is a blood whore. She was caught feeding her mother the creature’s gore andthatcould not go unpunished. The mother was easier to deal with for she was already on her death bed, the poor dear. But the girl, she is still alive. For now.”
My stomach hardened and my heart dropped at the thought of murder. Katharine had been caught. If Marius knew…
“Why not kill them both?” I kept my face as straight as I could muster, not wanting to give away the internal turmoil that galloped through me. “Why stop at one when you could have taken them both? Pray tell, Mother, how you held yourself back from committing yet more monstrous acts.”
“Because I am smart enough to see that you are a failure. And when you die, and he breaks free of his containment, I will need something, or someone, to use as leverage against his impending rampage.”
“I will not…” I could not finish what I had to say as the words came out with no thought. I would fail. Mother was right. I could not kill Marius. No longer caring for this illusion I had upheld, I asked the question that I had longed to know for days. “Was it your idea to name me after the boy he once loved?”
“That creature did not love anything but his own desires. And to answer your question, it was. Poetic, don’t you think?”
“You disgust me.” I leaned over the bowl, snarling at the woman through the water. “I die happy knowing you will never experience the power that I have. If he kills me, he takes your chance of a legacy with it. And from what he has warned, your kind will be the first to be slaughtered.”
“You already have detached yourself from what you are,” Mother said, stare glazed over as she regarded me. “And do tell what you believe will occur when he discovers what you are.”
My blood ran cold as Mother spoke aloud the one anxiety that I had buried deep. For Marius to know the truth about what I was. I hated myself for the part I had to play, I could only imagine what it would do to him.
“We are doomed in your name. When he drains the life out of your pathetic body I want you to know that it was your doing.” I expected her words to sting, but they did not. My body and soul became entirely numb as she spat her hate at me.
“Worthless boy. And if, by any stretch of one’s imagination, you make it out, I want you to understand you will have no home to return to.” Mother’s entire face relaxed for a moment, a soft smile lifting her thinned lips. “Unless you bring us his head, that is.”
I had nothing else to say to her but felt the need to stab at her one last time with my words sharpened by knives. “If I cannot stop him, you have no chance, no matter the collateral you hold above him. See you in the underworld… Mother.”
I closed my eyes and tensed as all four elements flooded me at once. The power was under my command. I exhaled and the bowl exploded before me, fragments flying far off into the castle’s grounds beneath the pure force. Euphoria flooded from my body, filling me entirely with its fresh kiss. It had been days without connection to my power. It had built silently within me, accepting the invitation I offered it for escape. A circle of fire exploded from my chest as I released a scream of anger. It rolled across the overgrown garden around me, devouring every plant and weed in its war path.
I longed to unleash my power, my frustration, on Mother herself. She was the beast all along. And me, a beast of her creation.
