“Yes.”
“Was Derwin kind toyou?”
“He was, but I did not stay with him at his home,” Ianswered.
“Why? I do notunderstand.”
“There was another boy that I basically lived with; Merc. He was similar to me, in a sense. His father was a member of the Carpe Noctem, but his mother was not a vampire or part of their clan. Merc’s father was told by Lochlaan to get rid of him. He had been exiled from Stonewald, and the Curse of Demons had been put on him too. Merc lived a short distance from Derwin, and that is where I stayed. He was older than me and actually raised me more than Derwin had. He took me with him when he had to go absorb sins. I paid close attention because I knew that sooner or later, I had to begin doingit.”
I looked upward at the sky to find the location of the sun. I suggested that we begin walking again. After a few moments of getting our stride back, she coaxed more information out of me regarding sineating.
“What is it like to take the sins and demons from anotherhuman?”
“It is a heavy task. I will not lie. It is a burden, but I cannot do anything about it. I have come to acceptit.”
I explained to her that my purpose, along with Merc’s, was to simply be available to take someone’s sins and make them ours. We would tend to our own campsite in the woods until we heard thebell.
“I had been afraid when I was young because I saw what it did to Merc. The nightmares were every night, and the stomach pains were frequent. By the time I had my first experience with it, Merc had already stoppedaging.”
“How long did you age for? I was curious if it was like me. I was bitten at nineteen and stopped aging at thirty years old,” Octaviaexplained.
“Same for us,” Iacknowledged.
“Do you remember anything from your first experience?” sheinquired.
“Yes. I remember most of them to some extent. Mostly the demons blend though, and I cannot tell whom they belonged to. But I remember my first. She was a kind elderlylady.”
“Did she have manydemons?”
“She killed a woman in an alley. Jealousy was the motive. Perhaps they shared interests in the same man. Or perhaps the other woman was seeing him on the side. I do not know exactly. But I do know that I will always remember the look in her eyes as she smashed the woman’s face with thestone.”
“And you were a child with this in your head? That isatrocious.”
I shrugged. There was no sense rehashing the past. Nothing could be done; it was mydestiny.
“May I ask you something else,River?”
“Please, ask me whatever you wouldlike.”
“The mark on your neck, I have one just like it on my lower leg. Klyn has one too. You mentioned that yours is scarred because it had been cut from yourskin?”
“Yes,” I laughed at the memory of me being a stupid child. “I was ten, and I had not been able to see or comprehend the hate that my father possessed. I thought that when he heard I had successfully absorbed my first sin, that he would accept me. Or that he would at least acknowledge me as his son. But instead of being proud of me, or acknowledging me as his son, he explained how much he hated me and that the only reason he had allowed me to live was so that he could use me later in life; the prophecy. He took a knife to my neck while his fellow Carpe Noctem members held me down, and cut the Mortas mark from myskin.”
“How fast did it growback?”
“I do not remember, but Derwin told me that he was surprised how fast I had healed. He said that he knew the scar would growback.”
As the day dragged on, we talked about a variety of things, though I would be lying if I said that my mind was not preoccupied with the boys. I wondered how they were doing now. Part of me felt guilty for being the culprit behind putting their bodies through such turmoil and not being there to keepwatch.
The smell of burning wood had grown stronger, and Octavia pointed to the left of us. Maybe a hundred yards away was a witch tending to her kettle that hung over a fire. Ah, that is where the scent has been comingfrom.
“My father tried to help people accept the ideas of witches and warlocks. We wanted people not to be afraid of them or feel threatened.” Octavia laughed as we walked past the witch at a distance. “If we would travel from the castle to Drishane at night, I would lean on the carriage window and try to spot the bright glow from theirfires.”
“Kind of a hobby of sorts,” Ilaughed.
“Yes, I think you could safely call it that. Did Derwin’s fire glow a certaincolor?”
“Blue. It was always blue,” I replied and looked upward at the sky. “It will be dark soon, I suggest we stop for the night. The ground here is not wet, and I think it would be wise to camphere.”
