“Stop lying,” Ventos demands.
“I don’t think he’s lying.”
“Everything you ever loved will burn to the ground,” Tersius seethes. “My only regret will be not being the one to do it. The vampir throne should’ve been mine and I would’ve ruled all of Midscape. I would’ve sat on a throne of your bones and populated the world with the help of your women.”
Ventos lets out a roar. He snaps. And thrusts his blade down.
“Ventos!” I can’t stop him.
In a moment, it’s over. The first hunter is dead. And with him, all the secrets and wisdom he might have held.
“What’s wrong with you?” Lavenzia shouts. “We needed him!”
“He was just going to waste our time. He—He was stalling for something. An attack must be coming. He didn’t come alone,” Ventos says. Though I’m not sure how much even he believes it.
“He had information.” Winny stares down at the remains of Tersius. “He might have been able to help.”
“That man would never help you,” Drew says.
As much as I want to scream at Ventos, what’s done is done. I don’t agree with his actions, but I agree with Drew—there’s no way that Tersius would ever help us. I stare at his old and shriveled body. So much strength and magic, withered and whittled away by time and hate. The once mighty hunter—no, brilliant blood sorcerer—now reduced to nothing.
He was only ever strong because he held the upper hand. He held the secrets. Now that those were undone, he had nothing.
“How do you all feel?” I look to the vampir. “Does the curse still feel intact?”
“I don’t feel any different.” Lavenzia lifts her arms and looks at her body.
“Neither do I,” Winny says. Ventos shakes his head. “Though I’ve never really had a curse lifted before, so I’ve no idea what it would feel like.”
“There’s one way to find out.” But first, I turn to Drew. “You need to go back to Hunter’s Hamlet, quickly.”
“What? Why?”
“The search for a new master hunter will be beginning soon since the raven took flight. Go back and say that you were taken captive by the vampir. But you managed to escape when the raven came to aid you. Unfortunately, the vampir killed the bird.”
“It’s not a full moon, there wouldn’t be vampir—”
“You’re going to be coming back from the dead, I think they’ll stretch their belief.” I take Drew’s hand and pull him to me. “I need you to do this. Whatever it takes, be the master hunter again. I need you on our side for whatever is to come next.”
“All right.” We pull apart.
I turn to the rest of them. “Use the empty vials and collect as much of his blood as you can. Callos might need it for study.” I don’t know anything about curses, but I know blood holds power, and this is our only chance to get Tersius’s. “Then, we’re going back to the castle. There’s one way to tell if the curse lifted with his death or not. Hopefully Ruvan is waiting to greet us.”
And if he’s not…we might be out of options.
CHAPTER45
My feet are weigheddown with every step we take. There is no excitement for me as we head back to the castle. The rest of them are restless with anticipation. I can hear their thunderous heartbeats over our racing steps.
They’re hopeful. I don’t blame them. If I were them, I would be, too. But I’m just far enough from this whole situation to see it more objectively.
It was too easy.
I hadhopedit would be easy. And part of me wants to think it was because of our preparations. It was easy because Tersius was an old man, tired and failing, who had clung to life with stolen magic as the centuries ate him away. He was only a shell of whatever strong and capable wielder of blood lore he’d once been.
He had cursed himself with his own hatred, that much I think is true. But he hadn’t cursed the vampir. He was telling the truth. I can feel it in my bones that if he had been the one to lay the curse, the vampir would’ve been long dead.
We arrive back in the castle, breezing through it, sprinting down to the chapel. I know nothing has changed from the faint red light that glows up to us as we round the stairs. But they don’t slow until they see the coffin itself.
