I didn’t respond.

The longer I’m here within you, she insisted, the more danger you’re in. I have no wish to live forever. That desire vanished the moment you were born. I would do anything to protect you. Now let me go.

Tears slid down my cheeks. I ignored them and looked down at the knife. The dried blood had liquefied. The spell had worked.

Blake’s blood shimmered darkly in the moonlight.

I tilted the knife and the blood dripped down the blade, pooling at the tip.

I had to do this now or I would never find the courage. I pressed the dagger across my palm, wincing as it cut me. Drops of blood welled on my hand. I rubbed them over the blade, letting them mingle with Blake’s. A sharp sting shot through my hand, but it barely registered. My mind was fixed on the next part of the spell.

I held the dagger over the earth, letting the blood drip down onto the ground, and began to speak the ritual words:

By blood and breath, by night and sky,

The binding of souls I sever,

Let what was trapped be freed to fly,

No longer bound forever.

From heart to soul, from blood to bone,

Let life return where stone has grown.

What’s chained away, shall now take flight,

Awakened be the soul tonight.

The final words hung in the cool night air as I finished.

I waited for something to happen.

Did it work?

My heart sank. We’d failed.

I can still hear you, I said sardonically. So, no, it didn’t work. Fuck. What do we do now?

We don’t use curse words, for one, my mother chided.

Really? You’re going to lecture me about that now, of all times? I exclaimed. I would have thought you’d be more worried about the fact that, oh, I don’t know, that you're still here.

It is strange, Orcades said thoughtfully. I feel different. And yet as you say, we’re still intertwined.

I stopped breathing for a moment. Realization hit me in the head like a brick.

I stared down at the dagger in my hand.

“Oh, shit,” I whispered aloud.

Well, that was only our first attempt, my mother continued, still oblivious to what had happened. We’ll try again tomorrow night. If that doesn’t work, there are always other books. We’ll figure this out, Medra, one way or another. I suppose I was too greedy to think I might simply go free. Perhaps the option with the anchor would have been simpler somehow.

I think you’re right, I said slowly. It would have.

A pause. You sound rather certain about that, darling.

I am certain, I said, gritting my teeth. Because it’s already happened. You aren’t in my head anymore, Mother. You’re in this dagger.

A longer pause this time.

By the gods, I think you might be right. Oh, for fuck’s sake. Of all the slip-ups. I should have foreseen this. You were holding the object as the blood fell.

I bit my tongue to keep from laughing hysterically.

But we used the right words, I reminded her. We used the spell that would free you. Not the incantation for the anchor. So why didn’t it work?

She sighed. That’s magic for you, darling. Magic is a fucking mess.

Oh, we’re allowed to curse now... I meant to tease her, but the words caught in my throat as the ground beneath my feet suddenly trembled.

A shudder ran through the Dragon Court as all around us the castle walls began to shake.

I fell backwards, hitting the rough bark of a tree, my hand still clutching the dagger.

The trees swayed slightly, leaves rustling in the unnatural wind.

Then the wind fell silent. The ground stopped shaking.

I breathed a sigh of relief. What the hell was that?

Some sort of minor earthquake, I suspect, Orcades said thoughtfully. Perhaps this place is built over some sort of a plate in the earth. Like the ones in the arena. They shift from time to time, you know.

I frowned. I was about to say that sounded as preposterous as a theory I had once read in a book that claimed the entire world of Aercanum was being carried on the backs of four prancing unicorns when suddenly, I saw movement across the courtyard. I slunk down closer to the ground, my head leaning against the tree trunk.

Blake Drakharrow strode into the Dragon Court. He scanned the area, clearly checking to make sure no one had followed him.

I knew he had heightened senses as a vampire. I wondered if those extended to being able to see in the dark.

Nervously, I crouched even lower into the shadows.

Blake walked swiftly towards the grove and my heart sped up. If he came much closer, he’d see me.

But to my relief he stepped behind the sculpture of the red dragon. Bending down, he touched something on the ground. One of the flagstones.

I heard the rasping sound of stone on stone and risked raising my head a little.

There. On the ground amongst the flagstones, I could see a small area of pitch black. An opening of some kind had appeared.

Blake glanced around one more time. Then, he stepped down into the opening. A hidden staircase.

Follow him, my mother suggested. You know you want to. We’ll deal with this situation later.

I nodded, quickly wiping the dagger off on the grass, then sliding it into my boot.

Slipping out of my hiding place, I moved towards the secret stairs.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER 30 - MEDRA

The opening was pitch black. I could see the first two steps, then nothing but darkness.

My heart was hammering. What was I doing? I had no idea where Blake had gone. What I did know was that he wouldn’t take kindly to being followed. Especially if he caught me.

He was obviously up to something. Something he didn’t want to be caught doing.

My pride was still burning from our encounter in Professor Rodriguez’s office. He’d used me. Pried inside my mind as if he had a right to.

It didn’t matter that I’d, eventually, managed to do the same thing to him. He’d started it!

I needed leverage over him and something told me now was the time to get it.

I heard a grating sound. There was no time to lose. The opening was starting to close.

Stepping down onto the first stair, I silently prayed the stone slab wouldn’t decapitate me as I was halfway down.

The narrow staircase descended steeply. A few seconds after my head had cleared the opening, the stone slab shifted shut.

Inside the stairwell, the air changed immediately, thick with the scent of damp earth and mildewed stone.

The darkness was absolute.

I stumbled a few steps along the way down and caught my hand on the cold wall to steady myself. How the hell had Blake even found his way?

He was used to the dark, I realized. He had done this many times before. The steps were familiar to him. He didn’t even need a light.

The steps seemed to go on forever. Each footstep echoed faintly in the deep silence. Just when I thought the darkness might swallow me whole, my foot hit solid ground. Cautiously, I took a few steps forward. Then a few more.

I stumbled, cursing, and nearly pitching headfirst down a second set of steps. Fumbling along the wall, I went down the next flight.

My pulse quickened as I finally glimpsed a glint of light there at the very bottom of the stairs. A torch, mounted to the wall.

The light was my beacon. I moved carefully towards it.

When I finally reached the torch, I could make out the faint outlines of a long, narrow corridor stretching out ahead.

A second torch was barely visible in the distance. I hoped there were more along the way.

The unsettling quiet magnified every sound. The shuffle of my boots on the stone. The faint swish of my cloak.