 |
| Dominique & her bath of blood |
The night lingered creeping closer into the midnight hour. The moon above Goodwick gripped on to the night sky like a pendant pinned to a black wool cloak shimmering under a thin veil of clouds. Inside Cyfrinach, the chaos of Sinead's sudden death had yet to filter into the Doshall's upper apartments in the west wing.
A maid from the village walked from a washroom with wall-to-wall white tiled floor. In that room there was a well that held dark crimson liquid that she would lap up with a ladle into a large pail and then carry into a side private corridor that led into Dominique's apartment.
Dominique lay in a porcelain tub, pristine and white but there was no water.
The maid came in and poured the pail into the tub where Dominique lay -- it was a bath of blood.
She washed her naked body, all over skin red like the liquid velvet. She became a wash of the most violent of ruby that glistened sickly in a way that made the made almost vomit every time the vampire heiress caressed her hands over her naked skin with the blood.
Dominique looked up towards her maid, she made eye contact with her in a way that seemed to almost tease the poor, exhausted woman. She knew how vial it was but enjoyed the grotesque way it made the maid sick.
The blood was one of the most powerful elixirs for a being like Dominique. It seeped into Dominique's skin rejuvenating her. Revitalizing her for a long night ahead. Only the sickle shaped moon to finally kill the mixling and use his sacred blood to revive Alexandre would she then return her own body to a new youthful glow.
After her bath of blood and washing off in ice cold water, Dominique dressed in a silk robe and tinkered with a giant ruby necklace. She covered her face with her customary lace vail and made her way to visit her father. His health was failing and the worry in Dominique's heart that he would not make the night of sickle moon felt real and frightening.
She walked into his room, Arameed, the family mystic, greeted her by standing and bowing his head. She passed him and sat across the bed from Arameed and watched her father's breath fading slowly.
But Alexandre woke. He could smell the blood that had been all over Dominique's skin. It was a scent that made him lick his lips. He could tell she was freshly washed and reached for her hand.
"Father?" She said, standing over him.
His eyes opened, small yellow circles empty with life but filled to the brim with rage and cravings. He opened his mouth and whispered to her in a low growl of a voice that sank into her skin like the blood in the bath,
"Bring me the one that will revive me whole." He said.
"Soon." She whispered back. His eyes narrowed, the anger with the waiting palpable. He then reached his withered hand up to her and grabbed her arm, his long yellow nails digging in her hand hoping some blood would seep out of for his own pleasure. The pain only temporary, he pulled his hand back and sucked on his nails hoping for a taste.
Dominique grimaced with disgust but as he lay his arm down again on the bed she saw the burn from the sunlight that occurred when Evie visited him.
"What's happened here?" Dominque asked.
Arameed's brow raised. "I saw it too. No maid has knowledge of it."
"And you? Can you find how it happened in a vision of yours? How was my father exposed to sunlight? When?"
Arameed's furrowed his raised brow he felt a tone of blame in her voice, he did not like her accusatory action "I know nothing of it either, Dominique. But you've brought strangers into this house. Strangers who are curious and reckless with our ways. Something to this end was bound to happen. I'm surprised it was not worse."
"You know why they're here." Dominque said annoyed with Arameed's lack of worry for how this happened. She kissed his hand. "And what good is a sorcerer if he can't tell me what's been done behind my back." She scoffed.
"How goes the mixing?" Alexandre weak voice asked, surprising the other two.
"Father don't speak." Dominique hushed. Standing now to face him. "We're waiting the sickle moon, it's only nights away. And as soon as it's here, we'll bring you the mixing. He's well. He's a boy of just 3 years and healthy. His life force is strong."
"I smell the life in you." The old vampire said.
She smirked realizing what he meant, her bath of blood.
"Father, how did this happen?" She asked, touching his burn.
Alexandre winced in pain with her touch of his blistering withered hand. He pulled it up to hold it himself and tried to remember. There was a woman he said, a woman who came to see him. A servant perhaps? He wasn't sure. She woke him and his instinct was to attack as it was not time for him. The servant woman, or whoever she was, screamed and fell. Then vanished.
"A woman? He has no servant woman." Dominique noted.
"Perhaps one of yours?" Aremeed questioned with a clever switch of blame.
"He was alone?" Dominique asked, knowing Arameed should have been with him - again switch back blame to him.
"Dominique, I am as old as your father. I try my best to be here when I can, but I need to rest myself. Without my own rest I can be no use to you." Arameed defended.
She scoffed again at him "There's always an answer, isnt there old Arameed?" She shot back.
Arameed quickly reached down under the soft chair he sat on and showed her what he was good for. A shiny golden sickle shaped knife with a handle that had grooves for a tight grip for the user.
"For the ceremony of the mixling." Arameed said handing Dominique. "I've readied it."
"Its shines." She said, her eyes sparkling under her vail at the weapon to use on Gabriel. "Look father, we have the arm. Its finally here for us. The night is coming and when it's finally here --you'll be free."
Arameed motioned to speak with Dominique to speak with her so that Alexandre could not hear. She obliged and walked over to a balcony with French doors. She placed her hand on the doorhandle, but Arameed stopped her from going out.
"Is the father of the mixling well?"
Dominique sighed "He's new to our way. I know that he is eager to please us and wants to belong but for now he knows not of his child's gift for us. I don't want to scare him away. If I were to be truthful with him, he would surly leave. I cannot have that." She said.
"He must be told that his child’s life will be sacrificed for the sake of us all."
Dominique arched an eyebrow and took in a deep sigh. She was lethal but hated the idea of speaking out loud the act of infanticide. She chose to work in more clandestine ways, using others to do her dirty work kept her hands clean yet the job done. Despite her closeness to murder and death she found it all vulgar, but nothing took that feeling away like the taste of power.
"Why?" She asked aloofly, still hoping to keep her found obsession with Sebastian far away from his truthful reason for being at Cyfrinach in the first place.
Arameed scoffed in frustration, Dominique continued: "If I tell him his child’s life’s end means for ours to continue— he'll leave Arameed. We need Gabriel. No Sebastian, no Gabriel. My father's life is fading away. Look at him. Look at the bones in his body slowly withering into nothing, into dust. Without the mixling we all die, do you understand? My father's life is our life."
Finally the moment Arameed had been waiting for. He saw no future in Alexandre's continued rule, he saw no need for the creature who was bedridden for all these years and such a slave to the dark. He knew there was no way forward with the man who'd already lived his 350 years. Arameed could only see a future for the Court of the Saints of Goodwick with regime change. With that, he could live long too, and there was only one way to go about the change.
Sway Dominique to this idea.
He grabbed Dominique by the wrist and tightened his grip. She tried to pull away but he looked her dead in the eyes, those dark eyes beneath the vail.
"There is another way for life." Arameed reminded her. Dominique knew what he was speaking of quite instantly and reached for the door handle to exit onto the balcony.
The wind blew her vail off her face exposing her white perfect skin. Arameed's beard too lifted with the wind's cold kiss. She closed the French doors behind her and looked at Arameed with stern eyes.
"I don't want him to hear you speak of the ‘alternatives’." She scolded.
"You are the alternative. If the mixling’s life force is reserved for you then Alexandre should parish. The Court is yours for as long as you want it. You become the leader. You would reign supreme." Arameed explained.
"That is not what I want. I want my father to live and reign the way he has for centuries. That is what I want." She replied.
Arameed though knew different. He knew she admired Alexandre but he also knew a truth that Dominique kept close to her vest about their supposed close family tie. It was a truth that fueled her craving for power that would only come with Alexandre’s death. It was a craving almost as strong as the one for human blood.
Arameed, for his part, dared to dangle this reminder of how close to ultimate power Dominique was just as his eyes looked towards the golden sickle blade in her hand. He wondered how his days could be numbered if it were to get out that he tempted her with this idea.
To reach this peak of power and regain his life to rule for another 3 centuries, Dominique would have to slit the throat of a 3-year-old mixling child and feed the blood to her father.
Or…she could take Gabriel’s life for herself and let Alexandre fall.
"There is no safety in this world that will guarantee what will come next, if I were you, I'd let the last of this man's life fade away and seize Cyfrinach and all the fruits of what comes with it."
"Such ideas! And yet, I can’t help but wonder what’s in it for you old Arameed?” She asked narrowing her eyes in his mystical direction.”
“I only want what’s best for you.” He answered.
"What's best for me is always what's best for you!" She laughed. "How dare you pretend like it won’t benefit you to have me around longer!” Dominique shouted at him, the wind blowing in her dark robes around. "My father's life is our life, I keep saying that to you."
"And I tell you it is not so. You can rule for just as many centuries with the mixling's lifeforce as your father would. In fact, a change of the guard may do this court good. Time comes and takes away the leaves of the tree that weigh it down. It's time for new leaves here at Cyfrinach, Domonique."
"What you speak is treasonous and betrayal. You want me to let him die and take over, if we were discovered, it means certain death. For you and me.”
"Betrayal of who? Of you? You cannot betray yourself, Dominique, you would betray no one. You would only do what kings and queens have done for decades and centuries before you, they've succeeded their predecessors and sat upon a throne to finally make the world in their own eyes." The mistic vampire explained.
"I -- I don't know what to do. You’re confusing me. Since Sebastian and Gabriel’s arrival we only spoke of healing Alexandre and you’ve suddenly changed ideas.” She said staring at her the sickle knife in her hand, her reflection in the shiny blade missing.
"I see he is wasting away. He is no match for time, and the writing is on the wall. Fate has come and given you this opportunity on a silver platter." Arameed said, pointing to the knife. "Take it. Let it be -- let it pass to you."
"And if I do this, if my father does die, what exactly will happen to me?" She asked.
Arameed's brow lifted and slightly smirked noticing her sudden switch in tone to his idea. "The entire court will be yours to rule over. This place, the castle and village will be yours. You'll be like a queen in her own realm. And you'll live for 300 more years -- plenty of time to find another mixling to keep you the way you are. Young. Viable. Powerful."
"This mixling will not do that?" Dominique asked, Arameed shook his head.
"No, another will come, especially with handsome Sebastian at your disposal to use to woo a potential new mother down the line.” Arameed said.
“Have Sebastian father another child?” She asked.
Arameed smiled “When you finally begin to age years from now, and Sebastian is under your ultimate control you can have him create a new mixing after Gabriel is gone. It’s a never ending cycle Alexandre was foolish enough not to use — on you. When he could.”
A shiver went up Dominique’s ice cold spine finally seeing where Arameed’s mind went connecting the sick dots of her one history with Alexandre. Arameed’s idea to lock her possible reign in place having Sebastian father children with other mortal women to make mixling’s whenever she needed.
Arameed continued "This ceremony must still happen, with Gabriel before all else. But the blood shall be for you -- for your life -- for your coronation. Dominique: The Countess Doshall."
The title sounded almost too perfect for her. Her father's title. Something that she never thought would be for her but there it was at her fingertips. Dominique looked into the glass of the French doors and saw her sleeping father, his face gaunt and sunken in around the bones. His eyes almost tiny pinpoint of blackness and his lips dry and craving human touch, human blood, human flesh.
"It's time for the countess." She said in a low whisper seemingly ready to decide to let her father finally die.
Arameed smiled from ear to ear and repeated her words "Its time for the countess."
As the two looked into the room from the privacy of Alexandre's balcony, Kildare entered the room. His face was panicked. His eyes wide. He was sweating from running from the other side of the castle to meet Dominique.
Dominique could see his expression clearly through the glass and instantly knew something was wrong. She quickly replaced her veil and made her way back into the bedroom and took Kildare into the hallway away from her father.
"What is it?" She asked one of her most trusted village goons.
He didn't know what to say, he didn't know how to say it. He stammered. He sweated. He shook his head as the glimmer of the sickle knife in her hands flashed in his eyes.
She slapped him softly across the face to get him to focus. "Speak man!" She exclaimed.
His breathing picked up pace. He couldn't catch his breath and finally just said "Sinead is dead."
"WHAT?" Dominique gasped.
"She was pushed out of a window, and she fell to her death on the gates beside the courtyard.
"What window? Where in the courtyard?" Dominique asked mentally mapping out the castle in her head to figure out where this happened.
"The Eastern lot." Kildare said.
"Eastern? The only windows there are the ones where the mixling's mother is being held. She was pushed from Evangeline's window?" Dominique asked connecting the dots.
Kildare nodded confirming.
Dominique’s eyes turned black. Her fangs lengthened, her heart beat raced. She became deeply enraged. Her hand gripped the sickle knife tightly.
"Why the devil was she in that room?!! Why did she go in there? Where is Evangeline?" Dominique raged.
"We don't know why she went there and --- the woman is gone." Kildare said.
Dominique turned and stabbed the sickle shaped knife into the wall, furious at what had happened. She couldn't believe that she was just in the middle of a conversation that would change her life for ever only to come to realization there was chaos happening only feet below her in another part of the castle. She felt like a mother unable to control her children, and now one of them one was dead.
Her jaw tightened and she only mouthed one sentence, a sentence that would finally get to the bottom of the chaos all around her and the source of who she believed might be responsible for it all.
"Bring me Roman Ashby, bring me him now."
****
 |
| Evie searches for Gabriel |
The halls of the castle were dim, glowing with angry orange light from torches that clung to iron grapples nailed to the ancient stone walls. Evie slithered about the castle, hiding in doorways, cloaking herself in long dark drapes as several servants of the vampire cult scavenged the grounds and many rooms of the castle for the escaped supposed murderess.
Evie knew she had to find Gabriel and escape. They were after her for Sinead's death, not knowing it was an accident. The entire reason didn't even matter anymore -- the Saint's of Goodwick had convened in one of the major halls of the castle and decided to stay put allowing the villagers who worked to find Evie and bring her to them for punishment.
They searched high and low, every crevice they could, every room, every nook and cranny but Evie was always one step ahead.
As she quietly made her way through the treacherous pathways searching for her son, a storm exploded in the air outside. Twisting and churning the clouds into a frenzy and dropped rain like buckets of water onto the village.
Evie shivered, she had on no shoes and only the silky black dress with chiffon sheer sleeves she came in. She Slid in and out of rooms hiding under furniture and in closets all the while searching for Gabriel.
As she went room to room she felt the heaviness of eyes on her. She was being followed. She picked up her pace, faster down a hall as the person continued behind her picking up their pace.
Had she been discovered?
Evie's heart raced. Was it Sebastian? Had he found her?
She reached for a door that led into a small private library that was on the fourth floor in the west wing of the castle, just before she could sneak in, the person caught up to her, grabbed her on the shoulder her and turned her around.
Evie instinctually turned and punched the person in the face then she fell to the floor expecting some kind of retribution. But when she felt nothing, she opened her eyes to see the person she hit was rubbing his sore jaw with his hand smiling at her.
"Well, I guess I don't need to teach you how to do that!"
**
 |
| Evan & Sebastian in the ballroom |
As the villagers searched for Evie, the vampire court met in the ball room. They were horrified that someone could have done this to Sinead, under their very room. How could anyone have allowed Evie to get so close and have the ability and strength to push one of their own out of a window.
"We should have never let her in." One vampire said.
"Agreed, the minute she stepped into Cyfrinach, we should have gutted her. She's of no use to us." Another vampire said.
Sebastian gulped. He would never accept that Evie did any of this on purpose. She was not capable of murder, but he knew that when push came to shove, she would do anything to get to her child. Perhaps, Sinead did the pushing and Evie did the shoving -- resulting in a fall out of a window.
Many of the other courtiers surrounded the devastated Evan who paced a small area of the ballroom. They wanted to contain his anger, they knew that time was ticking away to day light, they could not allow him to leave the protection of the ballroom and be caught in the light.
"I want her dead. I WANT THE MORTAL DEAD!!!" Evan shouted.
"She didn't do this. I swear she didn't." Sebastian told Evan.
"How can you say that? She killed my sister in cold blood after everything we've done to protect you and her child, we offered you all family and life-ever-after and she killed one of us! Sinead wanted nothing more than to befriend her." Evan said, lying. He knew Sinead's true intentions. Her visit to Evie's room was only part reconnaissance trip - she did want to hurt Evie and ever expected the end result.
"You don't know her." Sebastian said stepping up to Evan. "I do, she would never, ever do something like this." He growled.
Evan slowly walked the few steps to Sebastian. He stared at him with a deathly look in his eye. He could tell there would be nothing anyone could say to Sebastian that would make him believe that Evie was responsible for the death.
"You are turning you back on your own kind." Evan hissed, his fangs suddenly drawing out. His eyes blackening. "You don't deserve us."
Then Evan lunged at Sebastian mouth agape ready to bite.
**
Evie looked up and in the shadowy hallway of Cyfrinach Castle she saw the face of her cousin Roman Ashby.
Evie leaped up and hugged him, happy to see a friendly face.
"We need to get you out of here, they think you've killed Sinead Sheernan." He said.
"No! No!! I didn't. She was in my room and she was talking about ... I don't know, it all happened so quickly. But we fought. And I fell to the floor. When she went for me she tripped and fell through the window." Evie recalled.
"They would never believe that. It's too dangerous for you here we have to get you out and get you to your friends." Roman said.
"What? My friends?"
Roman smiled. "There is news that there are strangers in the village asking about the castle. They're asking about you and Gabriel." Roman replied. "They're names are Matthew and Hope."
Evie's eyes lit up, Matthew had come for her. He had found a way to get to her and save her even after everything she had put him through and breaking off their engagement for a second time. She couldn't believe he had come all this way, miraculously and found where she and Gabriel were being held.
"How? How could they have found us?" She wondered. "We have to find Gabriel and then get out. I don't want Matthew hurt, knowing him he's trying to figure out a way to get into the Cyfrinach and I don't want anyone to hurt him." Evie explained.
"Evie, there may not be time for Gabriel. I-- I don't know how we can get to him without being caught by the servants, we still have 5 hours until daylight but even then, the villagers might already have his room locked off." Roman explained.
Evie grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly, "I am not leaving here without Gabriel, Roman. My son's life is on the line, and I cannot leave him here with Sebastian."
Roman knew a mother would never leave her child, it was obviously too much too ask of her. He agreed and grabbed tightened his grip on her hand. "We have to be very careful and very fast."
"Very careful, and very fast." Evie repeated.
"Quickly!" Roman said, as he slid a panel of the wall open revealing a secret passage that led into the depth of the castle's insides. The narrow passage was secret to many, except for those close to the Doshalls. These were passages ways that were meant to make secret escapes should the villager's revolt in an attempted coup.
Evie prayed she'd find Gabriel, escape, and find Matthew to save them all from the hell that was Goodwick, Scotland.
**
Back in the ballroom tensions escalated between Evan and Sebastian.
A lightning strike lit up the large ballroom windows as Evan lunged at Sebastian.
The two men roared and ravaged each other like two male lions fighting for their pride. The other courtiers hiss with their own mouths showing vangs hoping for bloodshed.
The blame was on Sebastian for bringing Evie, Sebastian bravely defended his former wife and mother of his child despite that only evidence showing that quite possibly Evie did kill Sinead.
The vampire men continued to battle, ripping at each other, nicking at each other's skin but never allowing either one to firming plant their mouth on the other's neck allowing a fatal bite.
Then, as the fight overturned chairs and table, Dominique entered the back of the room slamming the doors behind her. The entire court turned to the noise seeing the veiled figure standing tall with her arms carefully folded over her stomach.
"His woman killed Sinead!!!" Evan shouted, spit flying from his anger mouth.
Dominique slowly walked over to the exhausted men, she put her hand up in Evan's way stopping him from saying anything further, his black blood quickly boiling over at her choice to silence him.
"The way forward is not to kill each other." She only said, her veiled eyes never leaving the handsome Sebastian's gaze.
"She didn't do this." Sebastian said softly as his fangs retracted.
"He's lying. He doesn't know what happened in that room." Evan replied, he too returning to his handsome humanlike visage.
"And neither do you." Dominique responded turning to Evan coldly. "This very well could have been all a mistake, we all know how reckless Sinead could be."
Evan's eyes narrowed.
"You've made a very, very grave mistake in allowing her to stay here. If we had removed the mortal long ago, we wouldn't have had to deal with the death of my sister, no matter how you spin this, Sinead's death is on Sebastian and Evangeline. I will not change my mind."
"I made a mistake?" Dominique asked confused at Evan's brave words against her. "I don't make mistakes Evan Sheernan. Sebastian has brought us the only thing in this world that can keep us alive and safe for centuries to come. Do you think that is a mistake?"
Evan sighed irritated with the continued story of the mixling prophecy. The courtiers murmured amongst themselves as rain fell outside in drops of rain as thick as green grapes.
"You say this, and yet we've seen nothing of the child's power." Evan replied as he turned to the other's watching "Have we?!"
The other vampires murmured again, they had not seen anything.
"He's only a child. I don't understand what my son can do for us at such a young age. He's done nothing to anyone, and -- and -- putting so much pressure on him won't do any good." Sebastian replied failing to gain the other's favor.
Dominique smiled at Sebastian sensing his tender heart for his son "He's very much a powerful being, Sebastian. No matter his age." She then turned back to Evan "But there are laws and rules that we follow. We don't attack one another. We don't kill one another. And we follow the laws set by my father's father and his father's father and his after that. They all are awaiting the mixling's arrival and they all died awaiting him too. But that ends here."
"What about Evie? The mother of this mixling has killed one of us." Evan said. "My sister died for nothing."
"I should have never brought us here. It was a mistake." Sebastian said.
The others fell silent as Dominique grabbed Sebastian's hand kissed it.
"No, this is where you belong and this is where you will stay. With me." She said. "You've come to a place where you are loved and where you can live out the rest of your life amongst those that are like you Sebastian. You have to see that a world that doesn't understand what you need will always be against you. Here, we are not against you no matter what ..." She paused and turned to Evan "some may think or say."
"Evie doesn't belong here. She needs to go back home to her own family. It would be better for her." Sebastian said.
"Perhaps." Dominique replied. "But since we cannot find her, we cannot help her and all I want to do is help her."
"Help her????" Evan shouted. "You are going to help a murderer! Where is this coming from? Where is your loyalty to us, the ones that have been by your side for as long as we can remember. The ones you created!"
"EVIE IS NOT A MURDERER!" Sibastian shouted going again towards Evan, but Dominique held him back.
"If I find her, I'll destroy her, I will rip her throat out with my bare hands I promise you this." Evan said. "My sister deserved better."
"If you think of laying a hand on her I'll -- " Sebastian begin before a thunderclap came at the same time as Dominique shouted: "ENOUGH!"
"We have no time to bicker here. We are three hours from sunrise and if we continue to keep this pace of anger and blame none of us will be alive. Evangeline is gone -- we'll find her and we'll ask her to tell us her side of the story. No one will hurt her."
Evan scoffed in shock at Dominique's decision.
"Thank you." Sebastian said softly.
Without saying anything else Evan stormed out of the ballroom. He had had enough of Dominique siding with a stranger to their court. A man she barely knew and was only keeping close contact with because of his son's powerful link to her own father's life. The doors of the ballroom blew open and Evan was gone into the shadowy corridor.
"Sinead, like many foolish moths, stood too close to the flame. Her flame of life snuffed out. It is what it is." Dominique told the other's still standing in the ballroom. "Let that be a lesson to you all. Don't be the moth."
"Evie is a kind person. She's given me a son and she's taken care of him through many tumultuous times in our lives. She would never hurt anyone unless she were to be threatened herself. I know this for a fact. She just isn't that type of person." Sebastian said.
"Do you love her?" Dominique asked.
"I supposed I do. She is the mother of my child."
"Does she love you back?" She asked.
Sebastian paused, rain continued to pour outside dripping down into the ballroom through the stone walls. The other vampires scattered about the room, now, allowing for quiet moments between them as they awaited instruction from Dominique.
He did not know how to answer if Evie loved him. It was enough for Dominique.
"You see? Perhaps there are things about her that have finally made sense. You and the mother of your child have gone through a world of events that have finally taken it's course. And life goes on. At least for you. But---only if your child saves you. And us." She said.
"But how? How can Gabriel help us that way?" Sebastian wondered.
Dominique smirked and turned to the others "I want you all to go back to your apartments. Prepare for sunrise and prepare for rest. Sinead is gone! That is a fact, and that is the past. Tomorrow night we rise again and I promise you, it will be a better night for us all. I will bring you all good news."
The crowed began to disburse, eager to rest and wake the next night to see what news their Defacto leader would have. Dominique then turned to Sebastian and whispered in his ear.
"Come, I want you to meet someone. I want you to meet my father, Count Alexadre Doshall. I think it's time."
"Is he well enough?" Sebastian asked.
She smiled and leaned on him as they walked together out of the ballroom.
"For what we have planned, he's well enough." She answered, with Arameed's voice in her head telling her to take power from her father. Perhaps the next step in that motion was now coming.
 |
| Matthew & Hope enter Cyfrinach |
As the castle's resident's began to wind down and the servants continued to search for Evie, Matthew and Hope slowly made their way up the windowing staircase from the servants’ entrance into the first layer of what they were sure was going to be frightening encounter.
A small door opened into a large foyer in the center of the castle. It was dark. Humid. The rain outside had made the foyer chocked with moisture as the air within the stonewalls became trapped and stuck to everything it touched.
Hope pointed to the paintings on the large walls. Faces she never knew, and yet the energy she could feel that she did know them. Faces of men, dark souls that once ruled the halls of Cyfrinach Castle and the people of this small Scottish sea village.
Matthew pointed to hallway that led deeper into the castle.
Hope followed.
They slowly walked into a dimly lit area from the main foyer. It was slightly brighter than the last room thanks to the fireplace burning in front of them.
"Where should we go?" Hope whispered.
"In there." Matthew pointed. "We have to keep going room to room to find some way up. We have to get to where the private rooms are."
"What about a cell? Or a dungeon?" Hope asked.
"Sebastian would never let them keep her in something like that. Not after the trials we just suffered through. Sebastian is a lot of things, but he isn't cruel, not when it comes to Evie."
Hope smiled at her brother, his kindness even for a man he disliked shined through. He could find the humanity in someone even in the most darknets places like Cyfrinach.
"You give him a lot of credit." She said.
"He loves her." Matthew replied.
"You love her." Hope said.
"I love her more. Come." Matthew answered.
As the rain continued to pour outside, Hope decided they needed extra help getting to Evie. The castle was far too large and too dangerous to simply wonder around aimlessly. She took a breath and stood firm in the center of this room with the fireplace and closed her eyes. Seeing that she did not readily follow him, Matthew turned back and saw his sister with her arms stretched out wide with her palms up.
She was humming a song again. The same song, a song he could hum too.
The fire in the fireplace burned hotter. It became larger without additional lumber going into it. Hope's energy seemed to feed the fire; the fire seemed to give her strength too. The light from the flames became so bright and hot Matthew had to turn away.
In her mind, the flames lit the castle as bright as day. She could see inside the upper layers, and she saw the rooms where the creatures slept. She saw them going into their crypts and sleeping awaiting night fall again.
They could sense Hope too, they twitched in their crypts feeling watched, feeling seen but not knowing where these eyes were.
Then as Hope continued to search for Evie through her mind, she saw two people quickly making their way in the passages within the walls of the castle. It was woman and a man, and she knew instinctively it was Evie, but the man she did not know, Roman.
Hope followed them. Her eyes invisible yet the creatures knew. She continued to follow, they were fast hurrying along the secret passages.
"Hope," Matthew whispered as the power of the flames continued to hear the room "What do you see?"
"They're in the walls." Hope said back. "They're in the walls."
"They? Is she With Gabriel?"
Hope shook her head but kept her eyes closed. "I don't see a child."
"Sebastian then?" Matthew asked.
Hope shook her head again.
"Come, we have to go. We can't waste time." Matthew added. Hope agreed.
"This way." She said, telepathically following the direction Evie and the man she did not know were going in.
"Wait, where are we going?" Matthew asked.
"They're going this way." As she grabbed her brother to take him in the right direction she realized he needed to do this himself. To once again reconnect to the gifts he'd inherited from his people.
"Try." she added.
"Try?"
"Close your eyes and feel the heat of the fire in the heart. Let it warm you, let it heal the cold from inside your heart and let it guide you like a lighthouse in the direction of what you seek. Go on, try." She said.
Matthew closed his eyes and thought of Evie. He thought of her running for her life trying to get away from something while searching for freedom within the terrifying walls of the castle. He could feel his heart beat faster but he did not see anything. The light of the fire dimmed again without Hope's powerful lure. She encouraged him to try again.
"Go deeper into your mind, you know you can do this. Feel the fire, Matthew, feel it's light and let it guide you."
Matthew nodded and thought of the fire again as a guide, it lit his mind. The fire burning hot in the heart again, this time with Matthew's power. He could see what Hope did. The layers of the castle, almost as if he were flying inside of it seeing through the antient stone walls. He was frightened by the crypts and the creatures that writhed around their coffins knowing he was watching but not knowing hot to get to him. He continued on his way through Cyfrinach and then -- there she was, the woman he loved and would risk his life for running though secret passage after secret passage with an unknown man.
"I see them." Matthew said.
"Lead the way." Hope replied proudly.
And the siblings quickly made their way into the halls that would lead them on the chase to find Evie.
They were not alone. A shadowy figure saw them enter; the figure saw them use their powers to connect to the flames to light their way to find Evie. The shadowy figure, small in stature followed on their quest.
