Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter Forty-TwoEvaline

Chapter Forty-Two

Evaline

I had just finished adjusting my braid and the barbed wire that lay within it, when there was a knock at my door.

Gods-dammit , I sighed internally, dreading whoever stood on the other side. I prayed it was Maeve, but knew it was likely someone summoning me for another test. It’d been a few days since the last, and I’d been thankful for the break.

But just in case it was, I cast a shield around me and bent to the hearth, sticking a hand beneath it to grab the vial of Maeve’s blood and the circular tie that I created with a ripped piece of cloth. I quickly wrapped the tie around my left wrist and placed the vial inside of it, to hold it steady in case I was thrown around the throne room as I had been so often lately, and slid my long sleeve down over it.

At the door, I shoved the armoire, now mirrorless, out of the way and pretended to fix the hem of my shirt as if I’d just finished putting it on as I opened the door to Sage standing on the other side, and Broderick with his back against the hallway wall.

“It’s time for another test,” Sage said, and where I thought my stomach would drop, dread sinking it low, energy flit through my veins. What little magic I had there woke, and trembled with the thought of flooding my body again, permanently.

I nodded and turned into the room. “I have to put my shoes on,” I said as Sage nodded and entered the room, shutting the door behind her.

I sat on the chaise lounge in front of the bed and bent to grab a boot, then cast a shield around us.

As soon as Sage heard it slide around us, she rushed forward.

“Evaline, you have to listen to me because I don’t know how much time we’ll have.”

I looked up at her, brows furrowed.

“Vasier and Lauden do intend to harm you.”

I sighed and continued putting on my boots.

“As if that’s even a surprise, Sage,” I muttered. “Or did you not see the several stab wounds I’ve endured the last week?”

Her hands were on mine, her knees hitting the floor in front of me, in an instant. “You have to listen, Evaline.” I met her eyes to see that they were wide and frantic. “Vasier is going to put your mother’s soul into your body.” Her words rushed so quickly I could hardly process them. “He’s going to merge you until you’re gone, and your mother has taken over your body, like a Vasi does to a Kova.”

I shook my head and pulled my hands from hers, continuing to put my boots on.

Her head tilted. “You have nothing to say?”

I slammed my now booted foot down and stood, crossing the room. “What do you want me to say, Sage? You betrayed me, again. You kept something from me, again. And I’m the one forced to pay the price, again. ”

She stood and whirled to face me. “I haven’t lied to you since the moment we stepped foot in Mortithev. All of my lies, every single one, stopped and I’ve been loyal to you. It’s why I’m coming to tell you now.”

I crossed my arms. “How long have you known?”

“Four days. But I’ve told Dean, they know.” She shook her head, and her breath hitched with annoyance. “Stop arguing with me, we don’t have much time,” she snapped and it only made my anger spike, but when she met my eyes, there was only determination. “I think it’s possible to portal you out. My portals don’t adhere to other physical boundaries, I don’t know why a ward would be any different.” She reached for my hand. “We don’t have time, you have to trust me and still the land below us while I open the portal, or Broderick will hear.”

I didn’t know if it was the adrenaline coursing through my blood, or the blind hope I had that somehow, I could survive this place, but I closed my hand in hers and still the floor beneath us.

“Now,” I said, and immediately, a portal sprung to life below us. There was no sound, and no shake, and my heart thrashed inside as my hope blossomed even more. Hope that I’d survive this, hope that I’d get to see Maddox again.

But the portal snapped in on itself, closing before it ever opened more than the size of a dinner plate.

Sage’s brows furrowed and she shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense. That’s never happened before, except when I try blood magic.” She let go of my hand, casting a worried glance to the door, and opened another portal.

This portal grew to its normal size and then shifted soft blue.

She smiled at me. “It’s the loft,” she said, reaching for my hand, but as soon as we touched, the portal snapped away again.

Her head was shaking frantically and I stepped away from her.

“This was cruel,” I whispered low, hate filling my voice. “Did Vasier put you up to this?”

She shook her head. “I swear to the Gods, Evaline, I am genuinely trying. I want to save you. I already told you that I’ve told Dean about everything. I’m meeting Wyott the next time I drop off blood and we’re going to figure out a way to save you.”

I shook my head, tears burning them at even the mention of my friend’s name. “How can I possibly believe you?” I asked, swiping a hand down my face to wipe the tears away.

She took a step toward me. “I told you that I was sorry. I’m going to make this right, I know you don’t trust me, but if you can, trust that.”

I took a shaky breath and my thoughts drifted back to what she’d said about Vasier’s plan.

“How is that even possible?” I asked. “To add a soul to a body?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. He knows that you can bring your mother through the veil, and he knows I can portal us in and out of the Night.” She took another step toward me. “He needs us to even attempt this. We have so little control here, but at least we have that much.”

I took a deep breath, to say what I had no idea, but it didn’t matter because the door swung open behind Sage, and I dropped the shield around us.

The noise of the world rushed in and Broderick’s brows shot to his forehead.

“What are you two doing?” he asked, flicking his eyes between us both.

I crossed my arms. “Nothing.”

He took a step toward us, eyes narrowing. “You were quiet. So you were either standing here silently looking at each other,” he said, his eyes moving to me. “Or some kind of Sorcery is going on.”

There was no use trying to deny it, instead, I embellished it.

I let out the tears I’d been holding back at the news. At what Sage had said about Vasier but more that she was already working with Wyott to save me and that my friends back home weren’t giving up on me even though I told them to.

“Gods I’m so sick of being monitored!” I shrieked, stomping my foot on the ground in frustration. “Everyone can hear everything I say, every noise I make. I can’t go to the bathroom, or take a bath, without every Vasi in this fucking castle knowing about it.”

Sage raised her brows at me but didn’t speak and didn’t turn toward Broderick, who stood halfway between us and the door, frozen mid-stride.

“Yes,” I hissed. “I can use my Air to silence my room for a few minutes.” I threw my hands into the air. “Gods, is that too much? Is it too much to ask that I have five minutes alone with Sage to scream at her for betraying me? Can I not have at least that?”

As if knowing her cue, Sage’s face dropped into a look of devastation as she turned toward Broderick.

His brows furrowed but he only looked between us, straightened, and cleared his throat.

“Uh—Vasier wants you both in the throne room, now.”

And with that, he turned and walked out of the door.

Sage didn’t dare look back at me as she followed him, and I allowed only the smallest of smiles to grace my face as I shut the door to my room behind me.

If the smile hadn’t already been hidden away before we entered the throne room, it would’ve fallen, because again there were countless Vasi huddled inside the room, waiting to watch my torture.

Lauden stood near the same window as always, so I strode toward him as Sage diverted to stand beside Vasier. Broderick walked beside me and pulled out a dagger from his hip. He handed it to Lauden and I sighed, extending my right hand towards him to cut, and felt my heart leap when the magic poured into my veins.

Immediately Broderick offered me his bleeding hand, and I took a quick sip to heal my cut.

“We’ve seen you fight a Vasi when weakened,” Vasier said behind me and I turned to face him.

“Stabbed, you mean,” I corrected and he stared at me blankly.

“Now,” he said, ignoring me completely. “We have to see how you fight magic, while weakened.”

“Stabbed,” I corrected, again, but terror lit through my chest as Vasier’s eyes flicked to Broderick beside me, and I heard the swish of air before I felt his dagger dive deep into my side.

I cried out, unable to help it, and bent to push my hands over the hole that the Vasi had left when he’d pulled the blade from my body.

“Lauden,” Vasier said and I looked up to see him staring at my blood as it dripped down my form and onto the ground below.

The Sorcerer came from behind me to stand beside Vasier and turned to face me.

“Fight,” Vasier instructed, but then his face grew stern. “Do not kill each other.”

Gods, there’d be nothing sweeter in this world than killing Lauden.

I straightened, as best I could, and backstepped to put distance between us.

He didn’t even allow my feet to halt before he struck out a whip of fire toward me. Water flew up from the ocean, crashing through the window, and put his Fire out before it made it halfway.

He cleared his throat and reset, and threw a ball of flame.

This time I sucked the air away from the fire until it fizzled out and disappeared into a puff of smoke nearly as fast as he’d conjured it.

Lauden ground his jaw and took a step toward me, and for the first time, I decided to make an offensive move.

As he took a step, and seemed to be contemplating what to do next, I threw out a wall of fire a pace in front of him and heard the screech of his shoes skidding to a stop.

When I let the fire fall, I could see the rage in his eyes.

“Not good enough,” I mocked him.

He took another step toward me, eyes ablaze, and I knew what was coming next.

He threw a beam of fire at me, faster this time. Harder.

And aimed directly for my head.

I’d already put a wall of my own Fire on every side of me as he threw it, and every inch of it died against my wall, a breath from my face.

I dropped my wall when I felt his Fire flare out, and when Lauden saw me, his rage had only increased, but behind him, Vasier’s was worse.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Vasier shrieked, coming forward and grabbing the back of Lauden’s neck.

“I said not to kill her.”

Lauden looked up in fear. “I didn’t!”

Vasier scoffed. “You could have! You went straight for her face. Had you been successful, I’d have a Sorceress with a hole through the center of her skull right now.”

Lauden tried to come up with another excuse, and Vasier shoved him toward the window behind me. “Lock it up, and then disappear from my sight,” he commanded, and Lauden walked forward toward me, eyes shooting beams through me as if it were his Fire, and I turned, my heart racing in my chest.

Broderick moved to cut me again, but I reached for the blade.

“I can do it myself,” I hissed, and turned toward the window and Lauden who stood there simmering in rage. He made a show of rolling his eyes and holding out his hand expectantly, and I knew this was my chance.

In one fluid motion, I pretended to swipe the dagger across my palm as my thumb and index finger pulled the vial from my sleeve, sliding it against my arm to jostle the cork out of place and splashed the blood across my hand as I pulled the dagger over it, making sure to leave my thumb wrapped around the underside of the blade to actually cut my other hand. I knew the Vasi would tell the difference in scent between my blood, and Maeve’s. But considering how all of the Vasi reacted to my blood, how they crazed for it, I hoped it was potent enough to hide hers.

And it must’ve been, because I shoved my hand against the ward without handing it to Lauden and giving him a chance to see that there was no cut, and Broderick said nothing as I slid the vial up into my sleeve, hid the cut of my thumb, and handed the blade back to him.

Lauden finished the spell and stormed off without acknowledging me, Sage, or anyone as he fled from the room.

I followed Broderick silently, accepted his blood when he offered it to heal my hand. As soon as I shoved the armoire in front of the door to my room, I ran straight for the ward that I knew hung just in line with the edge of my balcony. I pushed my hand against it and felt the same dismay I always did when the ward pressed back, locking me here.

But it didn’t matter, at least not right now. Sure, I was still stuck, but now, I had my magic.

Thank you, Gods. I prayed and all my magic rolled with glee inside, as if to answer back.