Chapter Forty
Sage
W ith every blow, with every drop of Evaline’s blood that swept down the throne room’s drains, my stomach twisted and the nausea crept up my throat. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, Vasier had promised he wouldn’t hurt her, that she was safe, and here he was subjecting her to torture every few days on top of the soul death he had planned for her.
Evaline was on the ground, sliding onto her knees, and thrusting air toward Broderick until he was flying out of the window, where the ocean swallowed him whole.
I’d worried for him since the moment Vasier put him to the task of fighting her. After she’d killed the last Vasi she fought, I feared she might kill him too. And as he fell back into the water, as she bled more and more, I held my breath for the both of them.
The Vasi around me grew tense for a moment, I’d chosen not to stand by Vasier today, I was still angry with him. I hid amongst the throng of Vasi and watched as Evaline turned around to look at Vasier.
Vasier nodded slightly and strode toward her at the same time that Broderick breeched outside, the sound of his gasping breaths startling me as Vasier approached Evaline.
“Good,” he said, before quickly biting his wrist and handing it to her.
Lauden used the blood that already drenched her body to seal her magic back, and as he did all I could think about was how wrong all of this was. That she was locked up here, that I had no way to get her out. The ward locked her inside, how could I save her if I couldn’t get her out?
My eyes drifted up to Lauden and I tossed away all my own personal hatred for him as he sealed her magic back into the ward, and I realized that I’d watched him prepare wards a hundred times. Practically knew the words by heart.
If he could build a ward, why couldn’t I take one down?
My heart fluttered in my chest, finally, there was something I could do to help her.
First, I’d need her blood, and I couldn’t have it without the Vasi smelling it on me and questioning why I had it. Even if I used the blood she gave me in the jar for Maddox, they’d question why I’d unsealed it.
And they would know the moment I unsealed it. I’d already heard several of the Vasi behind me at these tests murmuring about how tantalizing her blood was, that it was the most alluring they’d ever come across. Not to mention how several of the Vasi had to leave the test, and that the only reason they’d come today and worked even harder to control themselves, was to protect Vasier.
They’d know if I used her blood.
But, there was another way to get it, and for them not to question me.
I didn’t look down at the drain as I strode across the throne room, headed right for Evaline and Lauden.
As soon as my foot hit the blood-soaked drain, I let it slide until I was falling face first into the puddle of her blood that was slowly flowing down into the stone floor.
“Sage, what is wrong with you?” Vasier snapped, walking over to grab my arm and pick me up.
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t look where I was walking.”
He sighed and started to turn toward the window that Evaline and Lauden still stood in front of.
“Go clean yourself up,” he spoke. “My study, now,” he addressed Lauden, who nodded and followed after him. I hadn’t spoken to either of them since the incident in the hall and wondered how Vasier would encourage him to manipulate me today. As if he could, anymore, anyway.
Vasier dispatched another Vasi to take Evaline to her room, and I went to mine. Only mine. I’d thrown Lauden’s shit out of it as soon as I’d gotten back from seeing Dean that night.
As soon as the door shut behind me I listened for any sound of Vasi outside, then rushed to build a fire, hoping that the roaring of its flames would dull my whispers enough to hide the incantation I was going to recite.
When it was sufficiently noisy, I stood and ran to the window, opened it, and stuck my hand out. There was nothing, my hand passed through the ward easily.
I smiled and swiped my hand over the soaked shirt on my abdomen until it was coated in Evaline’s blood, then stuck my hand out again. It didn’t make it two inches out of the window before I felt the invisible wall of the ward. I squeezed my eyes shut and recited the spell to break a ward.
If I could pull this off, I could dismantle the ward, give Evaline her magic back, and portal the two of us out of here.
But when the incantation finished, I still felt the wall of the ward beneath my hand.
If it had worked, there should’ve been give, some indication that the ward was gone.
I tried again, and again, and so many times that I had to continue coating my hand with her blood, because it dried too quickly. By the end, I had to wring my shirt out to get a few fresh drops.
I recited the words until they sounded foreign in my head. I said them until a pain beat behind my eyes, and my body felt as if I’d run a thousand miles from the exertion.
I ground my teeth, maybe I needed Evaline with me to completely undo the ward.
I thought of the pain on Evaline’s face when she endured the tests. I thought of the sight of her blood coating the already crimson floor. I thought of how much pain I’d already caused her.
But there was no use in trying right now, I was so depleted. I moved to the bathing chamber, grimaced at how stiff my clothes were, and used the fireplace in my bathroom to warm a bath.
When I was finished scrubbing her blood from my skin and settled into bed, I lay for hours without being able to sleep. My mind tossed with what I could do to save her. With whether I was even saying the incantation properly—though I was confident I was, I’d heard Lauden repeat it so many times.
Mostly I just thought about how powerless I felt. I was a Sorceress with the ability to portal, but I couldn’t offer that same escape for Evaline—
I snapped forward, and up in bed.
My portal.
I hadn’t even considered it before, but why couldn’t it work? The ward hung in the air around us, it protected Vasi from coming in as they walked along the land. But my portal didn’t pass through the air, it passed through the land.
Laughs down the hall shook me from my thoughts, and I slammed myself back down into bed and flipped onto my side away from the door, afraid of them as if they’d been able to hear my thoughts.
To hear my plan.
I waited until their voices drifted away and down the hallway, then I counted to a hundred. When I was confident they were far enough away not to notice my portal, I threw the blankets off of me and jumped from the bed. The portal bloomed at my feet and the ocean waves drifted through as I stepped in.
I’d told Evaline she could trust me, and I’d meant it.
I couldn’t control Vasier, but I could control my own magic and actions, and that was one thing he’d never take from me.
Not again.
I portaled into Rominia and waited until my portal completely closed behind me before I called out for him.
“Dean?” I didn’t hear a response so I jogged down the loft’s steps. I looked in the greenhouse, then in the kitchen, and when he was nowhere to be found I couldn’t help the disappointment that radiated in my chest.
Of course I knew it wasn’t likely he was here, this wasn’t the time of the week I normally came.
I swallowed it away and instead dug in the drawer of the table for a piece of paper and something to write with, and scribbled out my message for Dean.
I need to talk to Wyott. Please make sure he’s here for the next blood drop-off.
Sage