Prophecy: Child of Light (52 page)

Dmitri had refused her request for help in finding Valentine. Mia had done nothing to change his mind.

She could understand their reluctance to offer her assistance. After all, it was her fault they had lost half of their army of werewolves in a battle that shouldn’t have been fought. She should have listened to Valentine. She should have trusted him like her mother had told her to in her vision. But then her mother had told her she would make mistakes and those mistakes would show her the path in the darkness. She wished she could make sense of that and see something positive in it. She felt weaker for her mistake, not stronger. Her mistake had cost her Valentine, and subsequently Mia and Dmitri.

The only one on her side now was Venturi, the man walking with her to Elena’s place, and he was the one she’d thought would shun her.

“I can’t see why you came with me,” she said, avoiding his glance.

“I have pledged my allegiance to you and it stands, regardless of what you have done by killing my lord. My family can take care of themselves. They do not need me as their lord to lead them. Tenebrae blood is strong. We are natural leaders and work best without the restraint of a master. They will be fine. Someone must help you since the werewolves will not,” he said in a low voice, as though he was frightened of someone overhearing them.

She glanced around them at the deserted street. The weather had driven everyone inside, leaving the streets mercifully clear of tourists. She couldn’t face them right now, not when she was barely holding on.

Her companion hadn’t spoken much during the journey to Venice, but she had managed to pick up the tiniest trace of Italian in his accent. The rest was as muddled as Valentine’s and the other vampires she’d met, all except Mia. Prophecy frowned when she thought about her. She had believed in her heart that Mia would have wanted to help her find Valentine, but she supposed that the Venia had to do as her husband wanted. Dmitri was a powerful werewolf and commander. For all Mia’s power over him, she knew that when he gave a command, not even Mia would disobey. In time, they would forgive her. Mia had promised to keep her eyes and ears open for anything that would give them a clue as to Valentine’s whereabouts, but that was all she could do.

“They have every right to be angry. They lost so much because of me.” Prophecy looked up into Ventruri’s blue eyes and found he was frowning at her. His look softened a fraction and he turned away, staring up at the sky.

“We have all lost something,” he said.

He couldn’t have spoken truer words. She had taken his lord from him, leaving him as the new master of his bloodline, and in turn, fate had taken Valentine from her. Her chest tightened.

Valentine.

His name brought fresh pain each time she thought or said it. She wished that she knew where he was. All she had to go on was the fact that the portal Valentine had disappeared through was similar to the one she had passed through in order to enter Elena’s hidden home. She wanted to believe that she would find him on the other side of the invisible barrier, but her mind overruled her heart and said different. There was no reason for Elena to take him from her. She hadn’t forgotten the way Elena had openly flirted with him when they were last here, but a voice at the back of Prophecy’s mind reminded her that there was only one man in Elena’s heart and she had lost him to Ineru. It made no sense for her to take Valentine.

Approaching the end of the road, Prophecy stared at the black water on the other side of the low wall. The thought of what she was about to do still scared her. She could still see her mother in the water telling her not to be frightened and could almost picture Valentine when he’d held his hand out to her and said exactly the same thing.

Stepping up onto the wall, she took a deep breath and prepared herself. No matter how much she tried to control them, her emotions still ran riot inside of her. In the depth of her heart, she wanted revenge for what had happened at the castle, but she knew that letting that emotion rule her would lead to her killing Elena before she had any answers. It had been the idea of avenging Valentine’s disappearance that had led to the magic taking control of her at the castle in Romania and then it had ended in disaster.

She had to go in feeling as calm as possible and had to remain that way if she was to get the answers she needed.

Besides, she had no proof Elena had created the portal. She had only ever seen one. For all she knew, they could all look blue.

She turned to face Venturi and smiled when he cocked a brow at her. It seemed as though the roles were reversed. Where she had once been the reluctant one, she was now the leader in this step into the unknown. It was now her companion who had a flicker of fear in his eyes.

She extended her hand into the portal, feeling the cold as it disappeared but not looking at it.

“There’s land on the other side,” she said.

“What trickery is this?” Venturi stepped forwards, his brows knitting tight and his eyes narrowing while he reached out and pushed his hand through the invisible barrier.

“Witchcraft. Very powerful witchcraft.”

He stepped back and looked at her. “You believe this witch has your precious Aurorea?”

“His name is Valentine,” she ground the words out and then relented. Every time Venturi had mentioned Valentine during their journey, he had avoided saying his name. She was growing tired of hearing her love labelled as a child, a youngling or an Aurorea. She was growing tired of correcting Venturi.

He brought his hand down over his face, clearing it of water and then ran his fingers through his dirty blond hair, tousling it further and pushing it out of his face. Thick strands of it fell back down, the tips of them grazing his chin.

When he finally brought his eyes back to her, she gave him a hard look and stepped through the portal.

She didn’t wait for him to follow. He had followed her this far without her asking him to, she was certain he’d continue now. A portal to a magically cloaked world wasn’t going to stop him.

“What?” His tone was one of disbelief and shock.

Not looking back at him, she smiled to herself. “I forgot to mention she has a tendency to dress people a little differently.”

Prophecy glanced down at her clothes. They were different to last time. She was wearing all black and it made her feel as though she was in mourning. Looking over her shoulder at Venturi, she couldn’t stop herself from grinning. He looked so annoyed at his new outfit of dark brown breeches with a white shirt and matching dark brown jacket. She mused that he deserved it for being so obviously amused about being disrespectful to Valentine.

When she came out of her thoughts, she found that his expression had changed. In place of disdain there was a hint of desire in his eyes as he stared at her apparel. He moved closer to her, his eyes lingering on her chest. Her gaze fell there when he reached out towards her.

“What is...?” he said.

She moved the silver star she wore around her neck to one side and then ran her fingers over the black, intricate star that was drawn over her heart.

“It’s just one of many. See,” she said and pulled the shoulder of her dress aside to reveal the star on her skin there. “I was marked all my life without knowing it. The Three of Paris brought the marks to the surface and activated them. They focus the magic within my blood and this allows me to use it.”

He stared at the amulet on her hand when she held it out to him.

“How?”

“I’m not wholly vampire. It’s a long story and one that will have to wait.” She looked at the large house that loomed out of the darkness, filling her with the same sense of foreboding that it had given her when she’d first laid eyes on it. She closed her fingers around the stone in her amulet. There was no point in removing it this time. Elena knew of her power. It was time she knew where it had come from. Something told her the witch would recognise the amulet.

Starting towards the gate of the house, Prophecy took another deep breath and sighed it out. She was strong. Valentine believed in her. She could control her feelings long enough to discover what had happened to him. She was in command of the magic, not the other way around.

Passing the gate, she mounted the steps, keeping her eyes locked on the wooden door.

She stopped just short of it and looked at Venturi who was standing a few steps below her.

“She may try to test you. She’s a necromancer. Resist anything she tries. If she attempts to control you, I’ll make sure she stops.”

He nodded and walked up the last few steps, coming to stand beside her. “I came along to protect you and here you are protecting me.”

She gave him a deadpan look. “I’ve never needed protecting. Valentine could tell you that.”

She noticed the way his eyes darkened when she mentioned Valentine’s name and smiled inside. It was strange to see a man she barely knew so jealous of one he’d only met on the battlefield. She wondered how Valentine would react to having Venturi around. From the way Venturi was acting, she got the impression that he hadn’t followed her all this way just to protect her. She had realised that night at the Creator Day masquerade that her power attracted other vampires, especially the male ones. Venturi raked his eyes over her. Maybe it wasn’t just her power.

Rapping her knuckles against the door three times, she waited in silence, ignoring the way Venturi continued to look at her dress and the mark on her chest. She was tempted to place her hand over it and hide it from view but realised that she would probably just draw even more attention to her modest cleavage. She didn’t want Venturi staring at her breasts. So far, he’d managed to keep his eyes purely on the mark, but she wasn’t blind. She knew he wanted to look.

The door opened and she raised her eyes to see the same maid who had answered it before.

“Where is Elena?” Prophecy said and pushed past the girl. She looked around the large entryway and then up at the door at the apex of the stairs. She could sense power up there. Her eyes dropped to rest on the maid. “Take me to her.”

The maid curtseyed and led the way up the stairs. Prophecy kept her focus on the power she could feel and then reached out with her senses and searched the vicinity for a vampire signature other than hers and Venturi’s. There was nothing. Maybe she had been wrong about Elena being involved, but she could see something terrible had happened in the house. Some of the marble tiles were fractured, as though something had impacted against them, and there were splinters of stone and dust coating the mosaic in the centre of the entrance hall below her.

She stopped breathing when she approached the door and the maid left them. Pushing it open, she was ready to fly at Elena but her words fled her lips when she laid eyes on her.

The witch was sitting in the same chair she’d occupied when Prophecy had come to the house with Valentine, only this time she didn’t look as beautiful or perfect. Her milk-white skin was broken and bruised. Her clothes were dirty and ripped. Prophecy inhaled, catching the scent of dried blood.

“Where’s Valentine? I know it was you, Elena. If I didn’t have proof before, your condition gives it to me.” She stopped just short of the witch and kept her expression hard when Elena slowly raised her head, looking through the straggly matted threads of her hair. Prophecy’s fingers twitched with magic and the marks on her skin pulsed with it. She fought to remain calm and not let her feelings take over.

Elena moved a little and looked past her at Venturi, and then sank back into the chair. “I do not know.”

Prophecy barely heard the whispered words. Venturing a step forwards, she flexed her fingers and struggled to hold her power at bay when her emotions got the better of her. She could easily make Elena speak, but there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t go that one step too far and kill her.

“It was your magic that took him!” She couldn’t stop herself from shouting. How could Elena appear so calm after what she had done? How could she sit there and not look the least bit remorseful?

Elena swallowed and sighed. “It was, but I did not wish to use it. I am sorry for what I have done. Truly I am. If I had known then what I know now...”

“What do you know now?” she said. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Venturi move closer to her. It was such a familiar move, exactly the kind of thing that Valentine would have done. It was as though he was silently backing her up, showing Elena that if she didn’t answer, she would have more than just herself to deal with.

“That you’re in love with him, that you need him so much. I can sense it in your magic...it’s in disarray without him. Your feelings govern it.” The witch slowly stood and smoothed down her clothes with idle strokes of her hands. Her eyes remained fixed on the floor, and Prophecy narrowed hers.

Prophecy clenched her fists, struggling for control over the magic and her emotions. Elena was right. With the loss of Valentine, her feelings had become a turbulent sea of anger and discord, and it was affecting her power. If things continued like this, she would have no way of controlling her magic. She feared it would begin to control her.

Closing her eyes when it surged through her, causing her skin to prickle and burn, she took a deep breath and told herself to calm down. It was no use. Every time she tried to calm herself down she ended up thinking about Valentine and the situation got worse.

The threads of magic tickled as they arced along her fingers and she shook her hand, trying to rid it of them.

“I am sorry...I should have been stronger, but...” Elena raised her head.

Prophecy looked at her, seeing for the first time the sorrow in her dark eyes. The sight of it caused her feelings of anger towards the witch to abate and she sighed.

“What did they do to you?” she said, giving Elena a concerned look. “It was Arkalus and Kalinor wasn’t it?”

Elena nodded and wrapped her arms about herself, shivering as she did so. “They...I tried to resist them...they made me weak.”

Prophecy watched the tips of Elena’s fingers as they dug into her upper arms. She was holding herself so tightly and it made Prophecy realise that Arkalus and the lord of Aurorea had done terrible things to her. Stepping forwards, she reached out to draw the hair away from Elena’s neck but the witch jerked away from her.