She shakes her head. “This isn’t me saying I told you so, El. This is me letting you know I’ll help you. I’m going to go back to the office and clear tomorrow’s schedule. I’ll be here in the morning to brew the Hitch and Cast potion.”
I set the open grimoire down on the sofa and give her a long hug. When she pulls back, she looks at the vent again and then up at the ceiling, then back to me.
I shrug.
“If you see Grams again while I’m gone, say hello from me.”
7
Garden of Dreams
DAMIEN
“Drink from me,” Valeska orders.
It’s still dark, but dawn isn’t far off. Too bad the stars that shine through the open roof of the silo don’t bring me any peace. I’m back in the sunlight cuffs, sitting on the bed. Valeska grips the back of my head with her nails and presses her wrist to my lips.
It’s tempting. My tongue is a leather stump. My head throbs. It’s been twenty-four hours baking in this silo with its sunlight walls and open dome. How have I survived? My blood grits through my veins like shards of broken glass. One bite. Just a nip and Valeska’s blood could sustain me, perhaps even make me strong enough to find a way out of this mess. As it is, I am dying. My body, made mortal by the sunlight, is starving, growing weaker by the minute.
“Drink!” she orders again, and this time she raises her wrist to her mouth and scores the skin with her own teeth. The scent of fresh blood hits me square in the face, my nostrils flaring and my fangs extending. My lips tremble, and I have to close my eyes to keep from striking.
Just a taste, comes a voice at the back of my head. No one will know. No one would blame you anyway for drinking the blood in your current state.
But then I hear my father’s voice, the king’s voice. “Beware food or drink offered by your enemy. At best, it is meant to make you dependent. At worst, it is drugged to make you compliant. Nothing good comes from accepting sustenance from one who would kill or enslave you.”
He knew better than anyone. He’d earned that wisdom. Captured by the dark elves of Willowgulch, he’d been poisoned by sunlight magic and kept so weak that he couldn’t even stand by the time we recovered him. Once he was home, Father rarely talked about those days, but the only way to hold a shade is by light. He’d lived through what I am going through now. If he could survive, so can I.
I turn my head to the side.
“You stubborn fool,” she hisses, then slaps me across the cheek. Pain explodes through my eye and jaw, her vampire strength so much more than mine with my wrists bound in sunlight.
I open my eyes and glare up at her with all the hate I can load into a stare.
I will die before she gets a single clue from me about my mate’s identity.
She bares her teeth. “Fucking pigheaded fool.” She seethes. “I will break you. Mark my words.” She spits on me, and it slides down the side of my face. And then she’s gone, and I’m left with the Kims again as the sky lightens above us.
I study the twins. Tae and Lang look like hell. Dark crescents stain the skin under their eyes. As they perform that strange magical dance they did at the end of last night again, I notice this time that it takes both of them to complete it. My cuffs fade away, replaced by the steady glow of the silo walls. Hmm. Keeping this place lit up like a Christmas tree must cost them a heavy toll of magic. I speculate that one of them must be awake at all times to keep the lights on. I doubt they could make this happen passively.
My lips crack with my smile. If the magic containing me takes two witches to maintain, all I have to do is kill one of them to free myself. I might not be strong enough to overpower Valeska in the state I’m in, but a witch? Maybe.
The Kims wobble as they exit my cell, and my smile grows wider. No, they can’t keep this up forever. Hell, if I survive long enough, one of them might magically burn out without me doing anything. A few minutes in the darkness and I’m gone, never to return.
Until that happens, there’s nothing I can do but conserve my strength. I’ve inspected every inch of this cell, and there is no weakness to exploit. I’ll have to find another way.
I wedge myself under the mattress again, easing as far into the shade as possible. Shutting my eyes and turning my face away from the burning light, I try to forget the raging pain along the parts of me exposed to the sun. Sleep is even more important in this mortal, starving body. With measured breaths, I will my muscles to relax until my mind floats on the dark river toward unconsciousness.
Blackness gives way to the deep green of a shaded garden. The bright moon of Tenebris, oversized on the horizon, shines in the sky above me. The sweet, heady scent of trailing veritas, a vine from my world with neon-violet, orchidlike flowers, grows along the trellis behind me. I sit up from the stone bench I’m lying on, run my hands through my hair. That’s when I realize my horns, talons, and wings are gone. I’m in my corse form, my polite form, the way we often appeared in the kingdom during times of peace.
It’s been years since I’ve dreamed of this garden. I rise and turn toward the castle with its white marble spires and stained-glass windows. I wonder if it still looks like this, like I remember, or if the dark elves have breached our boundaries and leveled it. I wonder if my parents and siblings are still alive and if my younger brother Brahm crawled into a bottle permanently after I left. I wonder if my sister Karyl was married off to another kingdom that could offer security. I frown at the memories. It was a lifetime ago. Lifetimes. Everything must be different now, after so many centuries.
“Damien?”
I whirl to find Eloise standing among the night-blooming roses and midnight lilies. “And just like that, a good dream becomes a great one,” I mumble to myself, thanking every god in the Darklands for this even if it isn’t real. I rake my gaze down her long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans. Focusing, I picture a sheer white kimono, held in place by a silk bow.
Her clothing transforms effortlessly. Fuck, she’s even more beautiful than I remember, her red curls wild past her shoulders, the darker flesh around the tips of her breasts visible through the robe. At my command, candelabras appear around the garden, outfitted with red candles that flicker in the moonlight.
Now this is a dream worth having.
