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“Mystical guide?” Mira hummed. “That’s not the full truth, is it?”
Embarrassment colored my cheeks as bright as the hibiscus flowers I gazed upon.
“We wanted to continue the show of solidarity between the different factions of the city.”
“Alexei and his precious Council,” Mira groaned dramatically, her face curled in a grimace. “My father strictly forbade him from joining, but Alexei couldn’t help himself. My brother is nothing if not a rebel.”
“What about you?” I asked, not liking the way my body reacted to imagining Alistair’s fury. “Are you not a rebel yourself?”
She shook her head with a pained laugh. “I’m not nearly as brave as Alexei. Father has promised my hand to a vampire from Serbia. I am to be shipped away like a container of rice, morseled out in whichever way benefits him best.”
She followed behind me as I trailed down the rows of tropical plants.
I felt a spike of emotion for the young vampire before I hardened my heart. I couldn’t waste energy fretting over anything besides my sister’s safety.
“I know sunrise is soon,” I said, staring at the snow falling above me through the glass. “But I would like to get some work for the talisman done here in the greenhouse. The plants power my magick, and my time is running out on your father’s commands.”
She looked as if she would argue but eventually shrugged. “Oh, very well. I’ll leave you to it, but only if you promise to return straight to Alexei’s bedroom once you’re finished. It’s far too dangerous to dally in the castle unsupervised.”
Her smile never wavered as she danced back towards the castle, whistling under her breath.
“See you at sundown, witch.”
Once I was alone, I took a deep breath and let some of the tension leave me. The neat rows of plants guided me to a used workbench, and I jumped onto it, unbothered by the dirt staining the pristine evening gown. Near my perch, bowls and tampers sat idly, the scent of crushed herbs filling the humid air like a soothing balm.
After I could breathe once more, I plotted.
Alistair Vasyliev was a tyrant and a murderer who would unleash a war on creatures if I allowed him to reign over the staff, but he also held the keys to my most devastating torment. If there was any hope of protecting Gaia and my sisters, I had to act quickly and carefully. The time for wallowing was done. I was a witch, and it was time I started acting like it.
I had an entire day of sunlight—the opportune time to explore the castle and find the means to destroy the vampire family from within. Without the amulet, I doubted I possessed enough power to do as Alistair asked, even if I felt so inclined. But if I could find a talisman to further my aims, I may stand a chance of reclaiming the staff and using it to bend Alistair tomywill.
My grin grew wicked as I left behind the calm peacefulness of the greenhouse and into the sparkling morning light. If it was war Alistair wanted, it was war he would get.
27
Fortified with a whispered undetection spell to mask my movements, I snuck back into the castle, staring owlishly into the empty hallway. With the coast clear, my feet moved lightly on the carpet runner as I followed the path Mira led me down towards Alistair’s wing of the castle.
The tingling pull of dark magick felt like a map, soon leading me into a palatial library, the smell of aging parchment and wax coaxing me forward. Gingerly, I shut the wooden doors behind me, leaving me alone with my quiet breaths and the flickering of flames from the fireplace in the reading corner.
Everywhere I looked, I could feel Alistair Vasyliev’s overpowering presence.
Expansive shelves stacked well past my head with what had to be thousands of books spanned the first floor. Colorful stained-glass windows saved the library from feeling claustrophobic, the trickle of sunlight sending prisms of light around me. I wanted to ease closer and examine the artwork depicted within the arched panes, but I knew I shouldn’t linger.
I tried to focus my spirit magick, hoping the call of the cursed talismans would be loud enough to hasten my search, even without the amulet. Remembering that day in the woods with Genevieve, I forced all other thoughts to flee and shut my eyes.
Light as a feather, I reached for my spirit affinity within me. I didn’t force it or overthink. My lashes fluttered open and lifted to the expansive upper level of the library.
With a bolster of courage, I crept up the stairs, trailing my fingers along the balcony edge. A small office stood enclosed with the same stained-glass panes from below. The bright colors of the glass paneling did little to soften the grotesque depictions of carnage. Vampires thrust swords into piles of dead mortal bodies, the lands drenched in blood, with one vampire above them all on his golden serpent throne.
The King of the Vampires and his macabre rule.
I stifled a shudder before easing the door open, the feeling of dark magick hitting me like a blunt force. A small desk stood at the center, stacked tall with books and slips of parchment, but it was the tall bookcase housing an array of leatherbound tomes that gave me pause.
My fingers trailed along the unmarked spines. When I reached for a book my intuition felt called to, the shelf suddenly moved, opening into a hidden doorway.
A choked gasp escaped before I realized I hadn’t been discovered but had found the entrance to Alistair’s prized vault. Heart in my throat, I peered inside the dark doorway, gulping at the staircase that led down to the vault, pulsating with dark magick.
Something inside gave me pause as my foot hovered over the threshold, but in the end, my desperation won out. I wound down the stairs to the cavernous room below that shimmered with curses.
