Vanquished Gods (Hallowed Games #2)

Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

K ill the kids.

He looked like a weak old man, but there was no doubt that a monster lurked beneath that surface.

“How many witches shall we choose for the interrogation?” asked one of the soldiers.

“As many as you can find. But make sure they have magic before you bring them to me.”

“Yes, Blessed Pater.”

“The stronger the better,” added the Pater.

The Magister bowed. “As you wish, Blessed Pater.”

The Pater shifted in his bed, lying down. “You’re dismissed. Let me rest. Leave two of your soldiers outside my door.”

The Magister Solaris gave one last glance around the room before leading the remaining men out. The sound of a closing door echoed in the room. As the Pater blew out the candle next to his bed, darkness filled the room.

Still, frail as he was, I wondered if another fatal blow would take him out of this world for good. How much of that stolen witches’ magic still lived in his bones?

I leaned back into Sion’s steely chest. We needed to wait for him to fall asleep before we could escape.

My bum was nestled in Sion’s lap, and both of his enormous arms were wrapped around me. It was so strange to be pressed up that closely against someone and not feel a heartbeat. No pulse, no sign of life at all, except the firmness of his body and the magic that rippled off him, caressing my skin.

I supposed I did feel safe with him, as long as we were on the same side. I’d seen what he could do to his enemies.

His chest rose and fell, and I wondered if he actually needed to breathe, or if it was just an old habit.

Sion’s chin brushed against the side of my face from behind me, and for one insane moment, I wondered what it would feel like to kiss him. I closed my eyes, willing my mind to go blank, filling it with the least sexy thoughts possible. I imagined the Pater bathing, and I shuddered.

When I heard the Pater snoring gently, we had our moment.

I turned my head to whisper to Sion, and I realized that my lips were almost brushing against his. “Did you hear all that?” I whispered.

“Of course I did,” he said. “My hearing is much better than yours.”

“Lyramor.”

“Yes, I heard.” His warm breath on my neck sent a hot shiver over my skin.

My mind was a whirlwind. “He’s weak now,” I whispered. “Maybe if I kill him, he won’t come back.”

“You might as well try.”

As I pushed against the wardrobe door, my heart beat loudly in my ears. Slowly, carefully, one inch at a time, I opened the door, taking care that the wardrobe didn’t creak. I held my breath as I stepped gingerly onto my tiptoes. Silently, I crept to the sleeping Pater. As he slept, the moonlight spilled onto his aged, gaunt face. He looked so harmless , but this man wanted to kill kids, and he ordered people to be carried, broken-limbed, to the stakes. Harmless, he was not.

I touched his forehead, and as I felt the life drain from his body, ecstasy rippled through my muscles. Glorious.

At my deathly touch, the Pater shook, and blue veins shot through his skin. I closed my eyes, breathing in. My mind danced with visions of bodies enveloped by the earth, then of the bluebells and mushrooms that grew from the soil. A dark euphoria coursed from my fingertips, up my arm, and into my chest. The Pater was dead, but I didn’t want to take my fingertips off, not when I felt this power rushing into me. I sighed. I could wrap the world in the soft caress of death.

Pater, I could follow you into that quiet abyss, see my father again…

I felt dizzy with exhilaration, as if I were standing on the edge of a great void and wondering how it would feel to jump in. Then the Pater’s body simply…disappeared.

A sharp tug at my elbow pulled me away from the thrill of my magic.

Sion’s eyes pierced the shadows. “If I hadn’t stopped you, you’d have been here all night, reveling in his death until you were caught in the morning.”

“No, I wouldn’t.” My fingers twitched, and all I could think about was touching more skin, listening to the final death rattles. I curled my fingers, trying to push those images out of my mind.

“Are you wondering,” Sion whispered, “why you never feel so alive as you do when you are killing?”

That was exactly how I felt. “No.”

The look he gave me told me he knew I was lying. “Now, let’s get the fuck out of here before we end up in one of their dungeons. Your glamour has faded completely, and while I much prefer this version of you, it will get you killed here. When we step out of this door, I will try to take you on a route that avoids soldiers as much as possible. But we have to get past the two new guards first without causing alarm. You take one, I’ll take the other. Let’s get it done quickly and silently. We need absolute stealth in order to escape this castle unnoticed. And if we take too long, or if one of us stumbles, the shouts will alert all the soldiers in the castle. If any problems arise, I’ll cloak everything in shadow, and then I’ll find you.”

I nodded at him.

And the moment Sion opened the door, I lunged for one of the guards. This time, it wasn’t a brush of my fingertips. I simply smacked the guard across the face before he had a chance to draw his weapon. Immediately, he started convulsing, then dropped to the ground. My fingers twitched, hungry for more death. I hoped a whole legion of soldiers would try to take me on. I’d fell them all, one by one, like cutting the heads off lilies, their dying stems bowing to the voracious earth…

I could devour lives like a blight spreading across the kingdom, like the evening shadows crawling over the earth to consume the day with darkness…

I turned to see Sion wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. Something about the blood drops on his fangs made me snap back to reality.

Sion grabbed me by the arm, pulling me along. He led us in a quiet sprint through narrow, empty castle halls. We ran, twisting and turning through slim corridors full of cobwebs and the scent of must, in a route that might not have been used in centuries. He really did know the place like the back of his hand, and we careened through the halls at a shocking speed. But I was running out of breath, my lungs burning. I started to get dizzy, rasping for air. I was in great shape for a human. But compared to a vampire? I could not bloody keep up.

“Sion,” I gasped.

He whirled, and in the next moment, I found myself pressed up against the wall with his hand covering my mouth, his large body pressed firmly against mine. His golden eyes darkened, and he frowned as he listened to something I couldn’t hear with my human ears. With a cautionary eyebrow, he pulled his hand from my mouth and lifted a finger to his lips.

My pulse raced.

We’d been caught, hadn’t we? And by then, our glamour had all but disappeared.