A Shade of Vampire 81 A Bringer of Night - Bella Forrest Page 0,98
we won’t get far… the invisibility pills won’t work on her! Besides, we have to get Ansel out of Tristan’s room, too.”
Panic threatened to paralyze my brain, but I couldn’t give in.
I had to find a solution. We’d been entrusted with her body, and Nethissis deserved an honorable funeral. We couldn’t exactly just leave her behind. I hated myself for having to do this, but I decided it was our only choice until we could find another way to get her body out of the palace.
“Grab her legs,” I said.
“What? What are we doing?” Amane asked, her eyes round and glimmering orange.
“Remember the secret staircase?”
Her expression lit up. Over the weeks we’d spent here, Amane and I had taken the occasional break to explore the entire floor without anyone keeping an eye on us, and we’d discovered a hidden door in the wall paneling. It led to a narrow staircase downstairs, ending in one of the dressers of a guest room.
My sister and I had speculated about what the staircase was for, figuring it must’ve been used for servants to move around undetected. Assuming, of course, that the Rimians and the Naloreans working here weren’t as compliant with the empire as we’d thought. Whatever the reason, it didn’t really matter.
The guest room at the bottom of that staircase was currently unoccupied.
“We can put her in that dresser,” I said. “At least for a couple of days, until we figure out a way to get her out of here safely. I mean, we’ll be invisible. We can sneak back in.”
“Yeah, we just have to sneak her out…”
The invisibility pill wouldn’t work on Nethissis because she was dead, so this was our only other option. We lifted her off the table and snuck through the secret door, bags on our shoulders. We pulled the panel shut and stopped to swallow our invisibility pills. Once we’d donned our red glasses, we made our way down the staircase.
Just in time, too, as we heard the door burst open back in the study room, the gold guards snarling and searching for us.
“Jeez, that was close,” Amane whispered.
“Come on, let’s get her to relative safety,” I mumbled.
It was weird to handle Nethissis like this, but given the surge of adrenaline flowing through me, I didn’t have time to worry about it. We did our part and carefully positioned Nethissis in the massive wooden wardrobe. The preservation spell kept her body warm and soft and easy to handle.
Once we were done, we snuck out of the wardrobe and locked its doors, hoping no one would need this room anytime soon. Considering the turmoil that had just taken over the imperial palace, I doubted anyone was in the mood to visit.
“Dammit, this is insane,” I managed, trying to catch my breath.
Amane took my hand with a reassuring smile. “We’ve gotten out of much worse, remember? Now, let’s get Ansel out of here too.”
I nodded and followed her outside into the hallway, unseen by anyone.
Yes, we’d been through much worse. But the Aeternae were not to be trifled with. Danika was troubled. Acheron’s death had messed with the decision-making part of her brain. Now she was guided by emotions, not by logic, and that could turn out to be extremely problematic.
Our work had to continue, and it would. We just couldn’t allow anyone to pin us down. After everything we’d endured under Ta’Zan, Amane and I were not going to let the Aeternae put us in chains.
Kelara
The fourth Beta element had given me a troubling glimpse into Cruor shortly after its last wood nymph had perished. I came out of that memory bawling like a little girl, shedding tears for every tree, every flower, every creature that had died from the Night Bringer’s pain.
The Elders reigned supreme, shapeless and black and angry…
After breaking it, I felt a titanic weight settle in my chest that refused to go away. It shot deep into my being, and I had difficulty walking. Soul was there to hold me up as we searched for the last of the Beta elements.
“Something tells me this one’s going to be the worst,” I groaned, the Night Bringer’s agony spreading through my limbs and turning my knees to lead.
“We have to end this,” Morning sobbed, leaning into the Phantom. She was suffering, too. The more I’d seen of what had happened to Cruor and the more of the Night Bringer’s memories I’d released, the more it hurt her.
Hell, even Soul, Phantom, and Widow looked worn out.