Shadows (Book Two of the Royals Trilogy)

Chapter Fourteen

SKYLAR

I was leaning on the cave wall while I waited for Blair to emerge. My visit to the Chamber of Light had been brief since I just wanted to confirm my suspicions and see if anything had changed in the future, but everything was still the same. I sighed in frustration, I felt stuck in this nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.

I looked at my hands, in them I was holding two small orbs made of something that looked like quartz. One was a greenish-tone, kind of turquoise, while the other was a salmon pink. My animal guide had given me those objects in the vision, but I was still surprised to be holding them in real life.

The wolf had explained to me that Blair and I would each have one with us at all times, that way it would be easier to contact our animal spirit without having to come back to the cave. I suspected there would be a long journey ahead and there wouldn’t be any portals to take us to the Chamber of Light.

I was still analyzing the orbs when I heard Blair shift from where she was laying, after that, she groaned and the quickly bolted up. I chuckled, she would get used to the feeling of falling every time the scenery changed. Blair’s eyes focused on my and she looked skeptical for a moment, “Sky? Is it over?” she whispered but her voice was loud enough to echo throughout the cave.

I smiled and nodded back to my friend as I stood up from the cold, hard floor. “Yes, this is the real world. Took you long enough,” I said teasingly, and she looked at me blankly. I stopped my smile and looked at her with confusion, I was guessing she had seen something that really troubled her, and I wondered if her spirit guide had shown her the same visions as me.

“How long were we out?” she asked as she ran a hand through her tangled hair. I shrugged and looked at my watch.

“About… three hours. Time sure flies in there, right?” I asked and this time Blair did give me a faint smile before nodding. I sighed and forced myself to be more serious now, “did you find the answers you were looking for?”

Blair looked thoughtful for a moment and then she nodded. “Yes, I surely didn’t expect the answers to be so vivid, but they were, and I just don’t know what we are supposed to do now or what our mission even is,” she confessed as I started to lead us out of the cave.

“I don’t know what you saw, or if it’s even the same thing I saw, so I think we should start there before even considering heading back out there to our next mission,” I suggested as we reached the exit and Blair agreed with me.

We took the long way to camp and we made sure to walk slowly so that we could get enough time away from everyone to discuss our visions. It seemed as if Blair and I had seen basically the same things with the exception that she saw her sire and I saw my sister and the Royale Brothers but beside that we had gotten to a common conclusion, Elda wasn’t just a Huntress and she was planning some type of scheme. And whatever it was, it had Blair on edge. I couldn’t blame her, her whole life she’d spent trying to find something bad to Elda and expose her, and now it looked like she would get the opportunity.

“What do you think we should do first?” she asked as she stopped at the edge of the forest. We had kept quiet after our revelations and now that we were at camp, she finally spoke.

I sighed and shook my head, “I don’t know, I mean, I think finding your father is something primary, but I think we need to find the Royale Brothers first, they have my sister and I think they’re in danger, or at least Emma might be.”

Blair remained emotionless as she thought to herself, “Emma would always be in danger, Sky, she’s the beloved of one of them, and as a matter of fact, so are you.”

My body stiffened and I turned away uncomfortably. I had tried to avoid the subject altogether, we hadn’t talked about my relationship with Ethan since Dalia had revealed the truth. “You can’t deny nor avoid the truth, Sky,” Blair whispered softly behind me and I shook my head.

“Ethan is nothing to me, Blair, he was just the person who destroyed my life,” I said coldly, and Blair fidgeted.

“It’s in the nature of vampires to act impulsively, he didn’t you he had a beloved until he saw you, he couldn’t have known, but believe me, if it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have been left alive. Beloveds exists for a reason, Sky, don’t you remember? What we saw on our classes? A vampire needs his beloved to keep the beast inside him in check or else they will always be on edge… Maybe the reason why you saw him in your visions is because he needs you,” he words pierced through me like a knife, I didn’t want to hear any of that. I never wanted to have a beloved in the first place.

“We are on a mission Blair, he is the enemy and we cannot do anything to change that. There is no future for us, nor do I want there to be one, period,” I said a bit harsher than I meant but it was the truth, I didn’t want anything to do with Ethan Royale, I had other things keeping me up at night.

Blair didn’t push the subject, instead, she changed it. “I think we should go talk to Dalia as soon as we can, of course we should be protected when we do so. Once we interrogate her and get what we need, we should go back out there and find them.” I nodded and we continued the way towards the lab.

Inside, it was noisy as Hunters experimented on new prototypes and made blueprints for new ones. “Hello Blair, hey Sky,” Mack greeted us once he saw us walking into the building. He smiled charmingly and ran a hand through his hair, nervously.

“Hey Mack, I had forgotten you were the one in charge in this place,” said Blair trying to sound polite. I raised an eyebrow and looked at Mark, surprised, I hadn’t known that.

Mark smiled sheepishly and nodded, “yes I am, are you looking for something in particular?”

I nodded, “we are actually looking for the technology you used on the pillars that are preventing Dalia to use her magic.”

Mark smiled and nodded, “okay, this way, I’ll take you to the models and prototypes, we actually just developed that technology, with such short notice, we didn’t know what we were up against with the Queen of Shadows, so we took a huge risk when we built those pillars.” His confession shocked me, they had built something new in just a couple of hours and it had actually worked perfectly, that spoke really well of his team.

“I’m impressed, and thankful, you saved us with this,” I said as I looked through the blueprints. They all were prototypes of more precise weapons that were easier to carry and some looked like guns, I assumed it would cause a temporary effect on the magic-user it was used on.

“Are these built yet?” I asked, I was intrigued to have one just in case.

Mark shook his head defeatedly, “not yet, we still need to find a way to stabilize the power harnessed inside the gun.” I nodded and looked through some other models.

“Do these weapons only work on magic-users?” asked Blair, asking just what I was thinking.

Mark shook hesitantly, “yes and no, it works best on magic-users since it is designed principally for their physiology, but it does work on other supernatural, it just causes some discomfort and pain, but once we stabilize the matter inside the gun, we predict that the gun will be able to put any supernatural unconscious in hit close enough.” I nodded and set the blueprints down.

“Well, we’re interested Mack, and if you could, we would like to have one by the end of this week,” I said and Mark raised an eyebrow in confusion, “we’re planning on heading back out there to find the Royale Brothers soon and I think we should be more prepared for when we find them.”

Mark looked thoughtful and then he nodded and smiled warmly, “I’ll see what I can do, I’ll get my best researchers to do a prototype today.”

I smiled and Blair cleared her throat behind me. “Thank you, Mack, that’ll be great. But do you have anything that we could use as extra protection right now? We’re going to interrogate Dalia after lunch,” Blair said with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Mark smiled, “yeah, we had this,” he said as he took what looked like a small lighter and handed it to us. “When you press that button, the intensity of the pillars around you will increase up to a point that it’ll be very painful for the witch to stand too close.”

“Is this like the one Elda has? The one that she used when we arrived?” asked Blair as she eyed the gadget and Mark nodded.

“Exactly like that, I made two, just in case,” he said nervously, and I smiled at him.

“Well thank you so much Mark, we should really get going,” I said, and Blair nodded eagerly behind me. I waved goodbye to Mark one last time before Blair and I headed towards the exit.

“I feel really bad for you guys,” she said once we were in the cafeteria with our meals. I wasn’t really hungry, but I knew I had to keep my strength up, we couldn’t afford any weaknesses.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

Blair rolled her eyes at me and shrugged. “Yeah right, pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.” I looked at her with my raised eyebrow and she shook her head. “Mark and you, it won’t happen, not considering where we live.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed, “how many times do I have to repeat myself? I don’t like him, he’s just a friend.”

Blair scoffed, “well I don’t think he wants to be just friends. I jut want you to be careful, the last time there was a couple together out of love, it ended up bad, they were put on trail and then sent on different, dangerous missions, neither of them came back.”

I knew she was worried but there was no need, I didn’t want a beloved and I didn’t want a relationship, there was no time for that and since my family broke apart, that had been the last thing on my mind. “We should get going,” I suggested once we were done eating.

Blair nodded and followed me out of the cafeteria. We walked in silence to the cells. We hadn’t really discussed what we were going to ask but we knew we needed answers and clues to find the Royale Brothers. We reached the building, there were two hunters guarding the entrance, they looked at us suspiciously but didn’t try to stop us as we walked in.

We followed the path towards Dalia’s cell. She was sitting on a corner, just staring at the ground. When she heard us, she looked up and I could see that age had caught up to her. Her pain was weakening her magic and her former, thick, red hair was now turning gray. There were creases on her face and she looked exhausted. I kind of felt bad for her.

“I was wondering when you’d be coming back,” she managed to croak out and she sat straighter as she analyzed us from the ground. Her face had a scowl on it and her eyes were more hostile than when we first met her. “Why are you here, Anastasia and Blair?” she finally asked, “as you can see, I am not really in the mood for visitors.”

Blair crossed her arms in front of her chest and stepped forward, “well tough luck, we are not leaving until we get some answers.” The witch raised an eyebrow in curiosity, and she leaned closer with a smirk on her face.

“And what is it you want to know, Blair?” there was a gleam in her eyes that hadn’t been there when we had arrived and I tensed, I hoped she wasn’t trying to fool us.

“We want to know where the Royale Brothers are,” I intervened before Blair could continue, I wanted her to leave her questions until the very end to put all the pieces together.

The Queen of Shadows clicked her tongue and then shook her head, “no can do, you see, I swore a blood oath and if I were to break it, I will burn to ashes in a slow, painful and torturous death. So no, I’d like to stay very much alive.”

I groaned, “Tell us Dalia, and maybe we can come up with some kind of deal that gets you provisional freedom.” Dalia kept on shaking her head and no matter what I offered her, she wouldn’t budge.

“Anastasia, stop begging, I won’t say where the Royale Brothers are hiding,” she said smugly and there was a silence between us before she spoke again, “but I can tell you how to track them down.”

I raised and eyebrow and waited for her to continue. Dalia hesitated, I had come to the conclusion that she liked to be the knowledgeful person in the room and she loved the suspense her words caused. “The answer is right in front of you, Anastasia, find your beloved, let yourself feel him, let your soul reach out to its other half and then you will know where they are.” I tensed, why did everything have to go back to Ethan’s and my connection?

“And what will that do? Will that make me dependent to him? Will I be filled with love for him? Will I lose all the power I have on our connection? Because I would prefer to keep that connection broken,” I responded coldly, and Dalia looked amused.

“You really don’t know much about beloveds, sweet girl, your description fits more to mates than beloveds. Although they are similar, they are not the same. Very well, that is the only way you’ll find him because I won’t say another word on the subject.,” she pressed her lips together and just stared back at us.

“Wait a minute, we’re not done. I still have some questions,” Blair said, and I could feel her glaring daggers at me. The witch nodded and waited for Blair to profess her doubts. “How do you know Elda? Why did you agree to erase my memory all those years back? And do you know exactly where and why my father is hiding?”

“My, my, such a lot of questions and I can see you are anxious to hear the answers,” she said with a smirk and Blair stared back at her blankly. “Where should I start? I suppose it would be best to start with Elda. Your sweet mother,” when she said those words, I could see Blair stiffen and she curled her hands into fists.

“I meet your mother years back, when she was just a trainee, she was immature, reckless and very foolish. That day, I was roaming the woods, I was dealing with some pixies that had been wrong to cross me when I felt an arrow pass behind me. When I turned, I saw your mother, along with another young man looking right at me. Of course, I wouldn’t let them get away with it. I quickly disarmed them and had the boy by the neck and your mother was writhing in pain on the floor. They begged for their life until I finally let them go. The boy quickly ran off, without turning back, and then it was just Elda and me. I froze her where she was standing and advised her it wasn’t a good idea to pick on someone much more powerful than she could handle. I decided to let her go with a warning and a condition; she was to serve me whenever I wanted her to, and she couldn’t object. She was my… servant. A very obedient one too until she became the camp’s leader.” She scowled, recalling the memory.

“Everything changed then because she now possessed power from her whole camp and a bit more from other Hunters, I could easily take them on, but I preferred to prevent a war. When she refused to serve me any longer, I refrained myself from ending her right then and instead, we made a deal, she would imprison all magic-users to a specific area, they would be bound to only that range.”

“How did that benefit you?” I asked in confusion.

“I was having trouble keeping my kind on check, they all wanted to out-best me at everything and I was becoming bored with their threats, all I ever wanted was some peace and quiet with the guarantee that I would be safe, isolated form everyone. As you can see my peacefulness only lasted a couple of years before Elda came to me, begging me to erase your memory, Blair, in exchange she was to give me one of two very powerful weapons. The Book of Shadows. It is an ancient text written by ancient gods with very powerful, and dangerous, spells that can manipulate anything into whatever you wished. Hunters had taken the book from my kind centuries back and kept it hidden and heavily guarded where no one would be able to find it. When Elda offered me such a powerful artifact in return to do a simple spell on you, I didn’t refuse and that was the last time we saw each other, until just yesterday. Now, concerning your father, Hunter Liam, such a handsome fellow, sadly he was sent far away from his daughter to die. But he is smart, and he proved to be a great addition to the Argent family line, he managed to survive and now he is somewhere near the Mississippi River, along the Louisiana coast. If I had my magic, I could pinpoint you towards the right direction,” she suggested, and Blair instantly raised the device Mack had given us.

“Don’t you dare use that dark stuff here,” Blair said coldly, and the witch raised her hands in defeat.

“It was only a mere suggestion, and I can understand why you don’t trust me. But I have told you where he is, more precisely at least, now you’ll only have to search for him along the coast of the Mississippi river,” she said smugly.

Blair glared at the witch, “and what will we find?”

Dalia shrugged, “a former Hunter, I don’t think he’ll recognize you now that you’re all grown up but he’ll sure tell you all you want to know about Elda, whatever you think she’s planning, she must have been planning it for years and your father must have discovered some of her dark secrets or else she wouldn’t have sent him away so quickly, don’t you think?” Blair stiffened and looked at me. I nodded, we had gotten all the information Dalia would give us.

“Thank you for your time, Dalia,” I said trying to be polite and the witch looked surprised.

“No, thank you, Anastasia, it was good to talk to someone that is really interested in what is going on around them/ Do come back soon, girls, I’ll be waiting. Oh, and next time maybe bring some snacks,” the witch said mockingly as we walked away and the last thing we heard before closing the prison door behind us was her wicked laughter echoing throughout the cold, dark halls.