She spun about, searching for something.
“Andela!” Valek called from the crevice. “What are you doing?”
She stopped and looked at him.
“Come! Now!” he called again. “You will die!”
She panicked. “My wedding band! It dropped in the grass!”
“Andela! You are going to burn!”
She turned her face, now deeply sunken and grey toward the white light overtaking the sky. Flames exploded first from her chest and then her face as she started sprinting for Valek.
He reached his arm out to her as far as he could, but any movement at all was becoming increasingly difficult. He could see her jet eyes now emerging from her burning face. He reached farther, grabbing onto her hand, and pulled her inside. He slammed the door shut against the light, exhausted. His head rolled back against the rock surface of the inside wall.
“Andela.” He breathed. “Are you all right?” But when he opened his eyes to look at her, he saw she had been too late. Her once flawless, angelic face was reduced to ashes. Her exposed jawbone stayed eternally open in a silent scream, her eyes staring horrified at him. His shoulders dropped as he buried his face in his hands. “Andela….” He reached out to stroke her blonde hair, now course and gray. “Say hello to your husband for me. Help me to see my love again as well.” He leaned back, and closed his eyes.
Charlotte eagerly leaned over the palace balcony as she watched the morning climb higher and higher into the sky. It felt like she had lived her whole life and had never seen the sun. It was so glorious and life giving. She squinted, shadowing her eyes with her hand as it gradually shown brighter and painted the sky a brilliant October gold. She shivered a little, despite its warmth; Aiden removed his double-breasted jacket and covered her shoulders with it.
He bent to whisper in her ear. “It’s beautiful.”
She smiled. “It reminds me of you. It always has.”
Aiden was slightly taken back by that statement. “Really?”
She nodded and hugged his jacket tighter. “Yes. Because it’s the same color as your hair. And it is…opposite from…the moon.” She frowned. “The sun is warm and…the moon is…not.” Something else flickered at her mind.
Aiden swallowed and placed his hand at the small of her back. “Right. Well, let’s get you cleaned up.”
Confused, she let him lead her away from the balcony. She turned back before going inside, looking over her shoulder once more at the sky. Just in time, she was able to see the large face of the moon. Silver, fading against the light of the sun, about to disappear back under the horizon. But it would come up again, she reminded herself. It always did.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The smell of burning wood spiraled through his lungs when Valek finally awoke. Smoke crept in through the thin, stone crevices of the mausoleum. He pushed quickly off the slanted wall where he had been resting and with all his might, pulled the door back to reveal winding orange flames billowing high into the stars. Panicking, he bolted from the small grave, dodging through the fire.
“Valek!” Sasha called out. He had just awoken as well, crawling from his own crypt.
“Help me get the others! We have to get out of here!” Valek commanded, ducking under a burning tree limb to pull the doors open to the center crypt where Francis rested. “Francis!”
“They must have found out we were here. The entire forest is burning,” Valek said.
Sarah crawled out from the grave as well, coughing up the smoke.
“Sarah,” Francis began. “Which way do we continue?”
“We have to go northeast. I’ll get rid of the fire, but we need to hurry,” she finished, before she started running for the edge of the field.
Valek and Francis darted through the graveyard to help the rest of the coven to safety. The smoke would have been blinding for any human or animal, but they saw right through it. As Valek ran to help Lusian, something gold glinted in the smoldering grass by the base of the Ezekiel statue. He grabbed for it. Andela’s lost wedding band. He stopped, turning back to glance at the mausoleum where he’d left her resting.
“Valek! Come on! Sarah’s spell is about to wear off!” Francis called, as the rest of the coven had been resurrected. Valek could also see the silhouette of the large spider on the other side of the flame walls. He had already made it out. Valek turned back to where Andela was, held the ring up and nodded at her, and put it in his pocket. He leapt through the opening in the flames, but the icy blue eyes of his coven did not meet him this time.
“Valek, run!” He heard Sarah scream out.
His gaze circled around the embers, searching for her face. One by one, fire Elves emerged from all corners of the perishing graveyard. Each one had a dour grin about their slanted faces as they set their eyes on the only Vampire left in the burning field.
Valek took off like a condor in flight. He burst through the flame walls. Valek felt them pursuing close behind him. Out of one corner of his eye, he saw a ball of flames rip through the trees toward his head, then another, Panicking, he switched directions — the entire forest melting together into the same tree. The flames continued to fly around him. But there was no way to escape them. He suddenly skidded to a stop in the mud and mulch. He looked up to see the army of Regime guards had slowed also, but were ever approaching.
The head officer grinned maliciously, fists blazing at his sides. “Your Charlotte is dead, Vampire.”
Valek searched the Elf’s thoughts and found what he said was indeed true. He was not lying. His chest sank to his spine. His heart to his stomach. “Say again, Elf?”
“The Lord Vladislov killed her. However, it is such a pleasure to see you again.”
The forest around Valek spun as he stumbled backward onto a tree trunk. The deep indigo shades of the night only looked black and gray now. He opened his mouth, gazing at the muddy floor that seemed to suck him under. No cries ripped from him. No lamenting bellows escaped his jaws to linger in the tree canopies. No ruby tears buried themselves in the dirt below his face.
“What did you expect? She was human, living in the underworld. How did you ever believe she would survive?” The fire Elf continued, growing ever nearer to Valek.
Valek shut his eyes against the world, clutching the bark to keep him there. How could this be the vision Sarah had seen? Gone? How could she who had been there for too short a time be gone? He opened his eyes again, and though the infantry now stood just before him, he did not see them. But he would see her again, he decided, and held his arms out to them. If they killed him, then he would fight the armies existing in heaven so he might see her there.
“There, Vampire.” The officer snapped shackles closed across Valek’s wrists. “This will all be over very shortly.”
“Valek!” A small voice cried out somewhere from behind the Elves. “Don’t listen! It’s a trap!”
Valek’s eyes widened. “Charlotte?”
“They are lying, Valek. They are using magic to guard their thoughts from you!”
He peered around the officer to see Sarah in the shadows atop the spider. A wave of true reality punched him in the ribs. He turned on the Elf in front of him, the cold flesh in his face an entirely different shade of gray. His pupils swallowed the rest of his eyes in a consciousless void and an enormous roar, like a demon escaping hell, tore open the Elf’s inner ear.
The platoon turned at once on their heels and started retreating in the direction they came. Valek tore the shackles from his wrists, sending the splinters flying out around him as he trailed them now. He leapt from trunk to branch, and back to the earth, until he caught up. The guard was just in front of him. Valek reached out one of his
