CHAPTER19
The metal dooris before me. Even if I hadn’t recently seen it in my dreams, I would know it’s important at a glance. It’s at the end of a long hallway that opens up just before it and is different from every other door we’ve seen. Unlike in my dreams, it’s tarnished with age. Cobwebs are thick around it, clinging to the dulled symbol on its front.
“It doesn’t look like anyone else’s made it yet,” Ruvan observes solemnly. There’s nowhere for them to hide in this small antechamber and they certainly cannot open the door for reasons I now understand.
“You don’t think anything happened to them, do you?” I find I no longer wish to see them die horrible deaths.
“I hope not.” The answer isn’t as reassuring as I would like. I know how much they mean to him. “But they knew the risks of being awoken during the long night. We all did.”
“You keep saying awoken…”
“I’ll explain more once we have survived and are back in the upper castle. For now, we keep our focus.”
I catch his hand, bolder than I’ve ever been with anyone, much less a man. “Do you promise you’ll tell me?”
The question draws his sole attention to me. The air around him feels…hesitant. Almost scared. But what is he afraid of? Certainly not me. Promising something to me? I think we’ve already made the ultimate promise to each other by becoming bloodsworn.
“Yes.” He faces off against the door again. I can see his shoulders tense and feel his apprehension. “Now, I want to see what’s inside. I’m ready to find this curse anchor and put an end to all this.” I reach for the handle but he stops me with a touch on my wrist. “I should warn you that—”
“There’s a small, silver blade on the other side of the handle and that’s why a vampir couldn’t open it,” I interject to finish for him.
“How did you…”
“Already told you, I saw this in my dream,” I say somewhat impatiently.
“Have you had any other strange dreams?” He focuses intently on me.
“A few,” I admit.
“And you didn’t think to tell me?”
I arch my brows. “It’s not as if we’ve been on the best of terms this entire time.”
He opens his mouth to object and slowly shuts it, reconsidering. Then says, “Tell me of them when we return to safety. For now, let’s focus on our mission.”
I nod, close my fingers around the handle, and feel the familiar prick on the pad of my hand. There’s a surge of magic that flows to the door. It draws blood and power from me in the same way that Ruvan drew from me last night. The symbol in the center of the door glows a faint crimson, burning away the cobwebs and age. A lock disengages deep within. I pull and shake off the remaining dust to reveal bright silver, as though it is freshly forged. As the metal dulls I’m reaffirmed in my suspicions—it’s not solid silver. The handle is, but the rest is different.
There’s something special about the metal this door was made from. I’ve never seen a metal like this before—it’s smooth with the faintest swirl of red, almost rust-like.
Ruvan doesn’t move. He stands there in silent awe long enough that I shift to face him.
“Is everything all right?” I ask.
“Ever since the discovery of this door in Jontun’s records by the awoken Lady two thousand years ago, it has been a mystery. And every clue any lord or lady has ever found since points to this place as being one of the best possible locations for the anchor of the curse. It’s one of the original blood lore workshops; it was sealed off, a perpetual mystery… Now we’re here. And—” A rumbling from up the hall interrupts him.
“That’s not good.” My words sink with my stomach.
“Get inside.” Ruvan grabs my shoulder and pushes me within, following just behind. He positions himself by the door. Holding it from the inside, ready to push it shut. He narrows his eyes at the darkness behind us. I stay close to him, hand on my sickle.
“I don’t know what the point of this is!” Winny’s high voice cuts over the growing cacophony. “We’re about to run into a dead end.”
“Close that door!” Lavenzia shouts back. The sound of splintering wood echoes down to us. There’s a grunt. Followed by a screech. “Get off him!”
“We’re here,” Ruvan shouts up the hall. “Keep running!”
Winny is the first to emerge from the thick shadow and into my realm of perception. Her eyes widen as they meet mine. She calls back over her shoulder, “Lavenzia, Ventos, you owe me three of your vials. She is the real hunter deal.” They did suspect me. I wonder if Winny will resent me when she realizes that I’m going to make her lose those vials.
Lavenzia comes next, helping an ailing Ventos down the hall. “Now is not the time for gloating, Winny!”
