Chapter Twenty-One
1197 Words
Nadaria settled into a comfortable routine over the next week. She and Sorin would sleep late into the day, cuddled close in his closet, then she would wander the castle with him in tow until dance lessons. After that, back to Sorin’s room for almost s*x, and then to the garden with Aurelian until the light of dawn painted the sky behind the trees.
Sorin was a deep sleeper, more so than she’d ever seen before, and she usually slipped in and out of his room without him noticing.
But tonight, she moved to crawl over him, and he caught her waist, pulling her down so she straddled him. Opening one eye, he asked, “Where are you going these nights, only to return smelling like dirt?”
Maybe he didn’t sleep as deep as she thought. She snorted a laugh. “Gee, thanks!”
“Good dirt,” he said, chuckling.
“I’m hanging out with Aurelian.”
“First, he’s some creep on a balcony, and now you guys are best friends. What’s that about?”
“I was wrong about him.”
And she had been. Nadaria had already grown quite fond of Aurelian. They were kismet. People that just fell naturally together in peace, and enjoyed each other’s company without effort.
“You’re in the back garden with him, aren’t you?”
She swallowed, and her heart pinched at the sorrow in his voice. “Yes. I am.”
“He told you why he’s there, obviously.”
“Yes.”
Sorin sighed and rubbed his hands on her back.
“Do you… want to come with me?” she asked.
His eyes closed, and he shook his head. “No.”
“Why?”
“I just… don’t go back there.”
“Do you care that I do?”
“Of course not. He deserves to be in the presence of such bright love.”
By he, she knew he wasn’t speaking of Aurelian.
Nadaria laid on his bare chest, and he squeezed her in a hug. She thought about prying into why he refused to go, but sensed it was a part of himself that he’d nailed shut.
“I’ll be back soon,” she promised.
Sorin kissed the top of her head. “Okay.”
She tilted her face up, cupped his cheeks, and kissed him. His responding aggression surprised her, and he rolled her under him. A breathless giggle danced from her to him, and he kissed her like she thought the sun might kiss his lover the moon if they ever got to meet.
When they broke apart, he looked down at her and ran his thumb down her cheek. His gaze was so intense it stole her breath.
“I think I…” he started, and then stopped, closing his eyes. Her heart leapt to the edge of its seat in her rib cage. She sensed the words love you hanging on his next breath. “Will miss you,” he finished with a sigh, smiling.
She pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “And I might miss you a little.”
Out in the garden, she laughed with Aurelian, lifting and throwing the overgrown vines and weeds over the fence.
“Aurelian, can I ask you something?”
“Of course, miere.”
He called her that, and she’d learned from Sorin it meant honey.
“Do you sleep in your closet?”
“What?” He laughed in his deep baritone, sounding like the soft rumble of distant thunder. “Of course not. That would be ridiculous.”
“Oh… well—”
“I sleep in the cedar chest at the end of my bed.”
She stopped and looked at him, laughing. But she realized he wasn’t joking, a small impish smile pulling at his lips.
“Wow. Vampires. Weird.”
He chuckled and glanced over at the gigantic pile of debris they’d gathered. Dragging the wheelbarrow that he’d patched together, he said, “I’ll get more.”
Nadaria nodded, but as she watched him go, an icy breeze swirled around the skirt of her dress. Intuition pulled her, drawing her to an open spot in the middle of the garden.
She wandered to it, her breaths suddenly choppy. It was just an empty patch of dirt. There was something left of a bench a few feet away.
“We best leave that spot be, miere.”
Nadaria jumped at Aurelian’s voice behind her. She turned and saw he looked more pale than normal and wrung his hands.
“What is it?”
“The tree stood there, where Sorin chained her, and she burned. She uttered the curse there. Can you feel it?”
“Yes.”
It was like sticky black oil ran over her skin, the dark magic so severe. Nadaria knelt and pushed her hands into the dirt. She tilted her head and closed her eyes, overcome by a wave of nausea.
A need overtook her.
Dig.
So she did. Forgetting Aurelian, who stood close behind her and watched. Only six inches deep, her fingers brushed something solid and unnatural.
She pushed the dirt back around it, and Aurelian leaned over her shoulder.
“What is that?”
Nadaria freed it and held it up. Black viscous liquid filled a jar. She could see other things, small bones, and pepper seeds. The lid was sealed with black wax from a candle, and she brushed the dirt away.
“It’s a hex jar.”
She turned it in her hand, and the contents shifted. A single finger floated inside, the nail painted with red polish, and she gasped. Then it clicked, just like that.
“Aurelian? Sorin said he cut off her arms and legs.”
“Yes?”
“Where did they go?”
“What… do you mean?”
“The hands. What happened to them?”
“Uh… I don’t know. I assumed they ashed when the rest of her did.”
Nadaria giggled, and his eyebrows lifted. “What is it, miere?”
“I shouldn’t laugh, because this is the most evil I have ever held in my hand, but I’m ecstatic. I’ve figured it out, Aurelian. I knew that curse couldn’t account for the anti-magic barrier, and the necromancy in the town. There is a black toad among us, keeping part of her alive… doing her bidding.”
He gasped. “That can’t be so.”
“It is so. I need Sorin. I need him to take me to a crossroads.”
“Where?”
“The main road to the house intersects with the road leading into town. That will have to do.”
“Outside the gates again, miere? It is so dangerous.”
She ignored his worry, trying not to vomit. The jar was horrific, containing so much vile energy. She wrapped it in her cloak, trying to tamper it.
“This cannot be broken before we get there,” she whispered. “Go get Sorin and tell him I’ll be at the front gate waiting for him.”
- Writer
