The silence stretched while Finn waited for Violet to start brainstorming and popping suggestions. With her current state of mind, pushing her wouldn’t work, so he came up with another approach. “Would ‘Open Sesame’ work?”
As he hoped, she snickered. “That’s to open a door, silly.”
“Well, maybe there’s a door nearby.”
“As nothing opened when you said the words, it’s clear there isn’t a door, and it’s not working.”
“Agreed. Is there a spell to find your way when you’re lost in underground tunnels God-knows-where?”
It took a few heartbeats and a deep sigh to get his answer. “Several, but for that, you need to have functioning magic.”
“I’m sure yours still is. You just have to find your way back.”
Her voice sounded small when she spoke again. “I don’t think it’s lost. I think it’s dying.”
The finality of her words didn’t make sense to him. “Wait. You can’t know that for sure. You were traumatized…”
Violet put her hand on his knee. “Listen. It’s not the first time I’ve experienced something tragic. The death of my parents and you may not know it, but many of the cases I’ve worked for the High Council weren’t a walk in the park. I’ve been attacked and wounded before.”
“What!” His angry growl reverberated against the endless tunnel walls.
“Easy, I’m fine now. And what I’m telling you now must stay between us. Valeria and Sera don’t know. I’m telling you this so you understand that even through pain and hardships, my magic always remained with me on some level. I could always sense it shivering nearby, waiting for me to get better and connect again, or surging through me when my life was in danger. But now, I feel it less and less. My magic is dead.”
Her voice broke slightly at her last words. Finn took the hand she had lain on his leg and brought it up for a kiss. Her skin was cool against his lips.
“I don’t think your magic can truly leave you, Violet. There’s magic everywhere, in every being walking this earth. Nature is magic. I’ve lived a long time, and I’m convinced that if you’re breathing, there’s still magic inside you. You just have to find a way to access it again.”
Her head leaned on his shoulder. “I hope you’re right, Finn. Because I don’t know if I could survive not being a witch.”
With renewed determination to push the gloom aside and free them, Finn kissed her brow. “I’m male and a vampire, I’m always right. So, now we’re on the same page, that we’ll see it through, is there a way to create a door or discover one without using pure magic such as a spell?”
“There are herbs, like worrywort or magniscence, that may help, but I doubt there are any lying around here. There are songs, but I’ve never learned them, mostly because I don’t know how to sing, although if I did, I might bring the walls down, which is one option. I know in Norse lore symbols can be used to create a door.”
Glad her voice was growing stronger and firmer as she explained, Finn let her take his hand. She turned it palm side up and started drawing a symbol against his skin. “That’s a symbol for a lock. And this one is for closed.” Her finger glided as she showed him what she knew despite the utter darkness. The intimacy, their heads so close together, the sides of their bodies touching, her caressing his skin was starting to get to him.
His voice was thicker, grittier when he spoke again. “So just by drawing the symbols, they have power?”
“Yes. These aren’t simple shapes. They’re intricate, and only those who have studied them could draw them with enough accuracy where they held power. A mere human couldn’t do it.”
As she spoke, Finn’s mind started to detour. “How many symbols are there in the world?”
“Thousands and thousands. Each lore, each magical being has their own, and others were created and passed on from generation to generation.”
“As vampires, we have symbols, but they’re more for distinction and identification than magic itself.”
“Symbols are used in various ways. Instead of vampires using symbols, dark magic would be a better choice as you draw your power from that kind of magic.”
Trepidation overtook Finn. In the back of his mind, he wasn’t sure if he was ready to broach that particular topic. Since he’d had found Violet, he’d known something was off about her, but he knew it wasn’t her magic. The way her blood now tasted different was a significant indicator something was wrong. People didn’t change their taste unless they were affected at a primal, cellular level. Also, she was colder than usual, and he suspected it wasn’t by chance that she’d found the door. Violet had shed blood on that wall. Those were signs that she’d been affected by dark magic. He wanted to test if his theory was right, and as she was the one with magical abilities, it had to come from her.
“There are a few symbols I’ve seen but I don’t know what they mean. Maybe with your knowledge, you can help me figure them out.”
His attempt at humor worked as her laughter echoed around them, quickly followed by a gasp when he took her hand and turned it palm up as she had done to him. Finn’s body surged, but he pushed the lust away. It wasn’t the time or place, and the more he had Violet, the more he craved her, almost as powerfully as he’d craved blood when he was younger.
Ignoring his cock pushing against his pants, Finn focused on the game he wanted to lead her in to. His fingers traced her stretched palm, starting with a design he knew. One symbol he’d seen in a crypt, ages ago. As he predicted, Violet gave him the correct answer. Building on her confidence, he swirled other marks, he knew all of
