Page 16 of Elegy of Twilight
Before I could stop myself, the lines danced across my vision.
Send me a priestess, the one with the silver runes, and we shall come to a deal.
VK
My heart sank. I read the words again and ran my fingers over the insignia. VK. Initials that I assumed meantvampire king. I pressed a hand to my lips. So it hadn’t been by chance. The vampire king wanted me specifically. I glanced at the letter again, looking for a date stamp, anything. When had it been sent? Why was he threatening the garrison? Anger rose, and I spun around, wishing Captain Elroy was available to explain.
That’s when I saw the door to an adjoining room. His private chambers? It was cracked open as well, and I strode toward it, pausing as indistinct sounds came from the other side. Voices. Low and high, then the sound of heavy breathing, and through a gap in the cracked door, I could only see one person.
She was naked. I glimpsed her bare breasts, bouncing as she moved, and then her hair. She threw back her head, eyes closed, mouth open, but I’d seen enough.
Turning, I fled out of the office, shutting the door firmly behind me with shaking fingers. No one should see that. No one should know. I snuck back to my room, my mind reeling. What was Edith doing with Captain Elroy?
It stung knowing my best friend was keeping asecret from me. A secret likethat. I went to her room, knocked on the door, and then let myself in just to confirm what I’d seen. As I’d suspected, her room was empty. I let myself out again and closed my eyes. What right did I have to judge her when I was also keeping a terrible secret?
High Priestess Merci had warned us against keeping secrets, especially ones that would expose something terrible because they could be used against us.
A dark thought crawled into my mind. Secrets could also be used as blackmail, and now I had a dark truth to hold over Captain Elroy’s head. If he didn’t provide answers to my questions, I could tell the High Priestess what I’d discovered about him and Edith. He’d loose his place and Edith would be punished. It was wrong. All of this was wrong. I put my hands in my head, overcome and overwhelmed by the choices that lay before me.
“Lucia?”
I jerked upright as High Priestess Merci moved toward me. She held up a scroll. “I was looking for you. Here, it may not give you the answers you’re looking for, but it is a start.”
“Thank you,” I said, fingers closing around thescroll, not sure if I wanted to read or if I wanted to know. “I’m going for a walk,” I blurted out.
“I’d prefer you stay inside, especially after nightfall, but if you must, at least stay within the walls of the abbey.”
I bade her goodnight, and then, scroll in my hand, I went in search of Titus.
8
LUCIA
Titus did not expect me to come to him tonight, and as I walked through the shadowed wood, I wondered if one of the other vampires would find and attack me. Titus claimed he’d put a mark on me for protection, but would it work? Did I dare trust his word when the words of those around me were unraveling in my mind?
Edith, of all people, had a terrible secret. She’d all but forsaken her vows for intimate and physical pleasure. What did she see in Captain Elroy that compelled her? A darker suspicion arrested my thoughts. Did she have a choice? Had he compelled her in some way? The image of the priestess and the knight speaking together in the hallway drifted across my memory.
Captain Elroy was much older than me. In fact, I saw him as a father figure. He was in his late forties, about twenty years older than me, which meant he was about twenty years older than Edith. Streaks of silver peppered his hair, and the lines of his face told of a man who was no longer a youth and had faced many trials.
Suddenly weary, I stumbled to the boulder that perched over the pool and stared down at my reflection in the dimming light. My runes reflected back at me, and my eyes were clouded with confusion. I wanted to confront Edith, but it would be better to let her come to me. No matter how terrible the secret she carried was, I was willing to listen openly, without judgment. There had to be a valid explanation. But her face. It didn’t look like the face of one in pain or being forced to do something they didn’t want to do. The other consideration was that she was truly in love with Captain Elroy, and if so, why keep it a secret? The discovery would force her to leave the abbey in shame while the truth would give her a choice. Stay or leave. Perhaps Captain Elroy didn’t want to resign his position and leave with her. The scandal alone would throw into question everything the abbey and garrison did.
Sitting up, I unrolled the scroll as the first hushedhum of a stringed instrument lit up the night. A voice sang out, coming from somewhere above me, and I froze, listening. This was the first time I’d heard Titus sing, and it was beautiful. His voice was deep and rich, and he sang in another tongue, the swells of his voice bringing me to tears as he held long notes.
Once I’d heard of a great opera house set in a city far away, a sinful town called High Tower that was situated on a lakeside, where the best voices in all the world could be heard, it was said, voices that were cultivated in the great city of Solynn.
Titus had spoken of a past, and I wondered where he’d come from. I’d been so focused on myself and the village that I hadn’t asked him what he desired, what he wanted, and what his passion was. It was clear that music brought him some kind of joy, and, as if on cue, my runes began to shine.
Warmth flooded my body, making me want to run away from it, but I forced myself to sit still. Breathing deeply to calm my panic, I placed the scroll in my lap and held out my arms. Silver light glowed, taking on the azure hues of the pool of water and the diamond flicker of the waterfalls. How? My heart pounded, and blood roared in myears. I moved one hand over the runes on my arms. Heat ebbed from it.
“Control it,” The order came fromhim.
“I don’t know how,” I gasped.
“Close your eyes and focus. It comes from within you.”
I closed my eyes, still working to steady my breath. I felt my feet, my toes curling in my shoes, the way my knees bent, the chill of the damp rock against my bottom, and the heat flooding my entire body. It made me want to strip off my clothes and plunge into the cold water.
A cool hand brushed my cheek, and I opened my eyes to see Titus frowning down at me. Slowly but surely, the glimmer faded, and the heat went away. I waited, frozen in place, while my heartbeat returned to normal.
