Page 32 of Elegy of Twilight
Edith’s brow furrowed as she glanced from me to the window. “That’s the secret Elroy was keeping. It has to be, but I don’t understand why. . .”
“Did he tell you about the letters? The demands from theVampire King?”
“Lucia, what is all this about? You’re frightening me.”
Leaning my head against the wall, I closed my eyes. “Sit down, Edith. I’m going to tell you everything.”
Edith listened wordlessly, her face paling at the vivid and dangerous tale I told, of love and lust and danger and. . .worst of all the letters. Demanding me. “But Edith, there’s one more thing the knights don’t know.”
She gasped. “What is it?”
“Titus has a brother, so they might have captured him, or they might have captured his brother. One of them is the true Vampire King, and I don’t know which is which.”
Edith frowned and crossed her arms, pacing. “This is it, Lucia, the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. We have to go to the dungeons and find out which brother they captured.”
“And then what?” I asked miserably, partly shocked that Edith was talking sense instead of yelling at me for keeping dark secrets.
“Then we end this, once and for all. Only a vampire would truly know how this ends.”
“What will you tell Captain Elroy?” I asked, wiping away the tears that wouldn’t cease.
She sighed. “He kept a dark secret from me. I had a feeling something was wrong, but he wouldn’t share his burden with me. I’ll think about the best way to confront him and convince him I can help.Wecan help. There’s nothing to do tonight, though. The dungeons will be heavily guarded, and they’ll be more interested in getting information out of their prisoner.”
Torture? The very idea made my stomach roil. The knights of the garrison were guards of the land and of blood. They guarded the trade routes and they fought and killed vampires. Did they torture them, too?
My heart ached at the idea, and I could only hope that Titus was still free and they had the wrong brother. I wanted to put a light in my window or storm the dungeons and rant and rage, but Edith and I had a plan. There was nothing to do but wait.
15
LUCIA
Waiting was hard. I tried to focus on anything else but my ignorance of which man was in the dungeons. But my mind strayed, even when I went upstairs to listen to Indie’s findings on vampires, but I was too distracted to add my opinions. Besides, it was the same information I’d heard before.
The mornings spent in the garden, pulling weeds, clipping back the hedges, and gathering herbs only increased my anxiety.
During the two days, High Priestess Merci was missing, and my thoughts spiraled to the worst. Edith assured me she was spending time alone in her rooms. Why? I could only speculate and hoped she hadn’t been attacked when she went out with theknights. But at last, nightfall came, and Edith and I snuck into the garrison.
Earlier, while the knights practiced in the yard, Edith had stolen the extra set of keys to the dungeons. I didn’t want to think about the conversation that she and Captain Elroy would inevitably have, and I wondered how secure their love was if they were doubting each other’s trust. Not that I was judging them—because I had no place to judge. It would have been better if I’d fallen in love with a knight instead of a vampire.
My runes itched as we descended, sneaking around the knights until we reached the dungeons. They hadn’t been used in a while. Ever since the scourge of the vampires, the robbers and mischief makers had made their way south, leaving the village in peace. But the knights still needed to protect us from what lurked in the dark. Except that Edith and I were headed directly toward horror.
He wasn’t in the normal cells but in a hole in the ground, where he’d have to be lowered in by rope, making it impossible to escape. It was unguarded since the knights were certain he wouldn’t find a way to climb up the sleek sides.
It took both of us to move the weighted grate. The entire time, I was afraid a knight would hear usand come running. There was a chain nearby, used to lower prisoners in and out, but I waited, blinking against the darkness, trying to see who was inside.
A low growl came, the inhuman sound sending goosebumps up my arms. Summoning my strength, I demanded, “Who are you?”
“Lucia? Is that you?” a hoarse voice rasped. “Did they send you here to seal my doom?”
My heart squeezed. “Titus, I came to rescue you.”
Edith worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she reached for the lowering chain.
A low chuckle came. “Rescue? Sounds like a trap to me, but then I’ve never been good at avoiding them.”
The chain snapped into place, the links stretching as though taking on a heavy weight.
“I didn’t know about the trap,” I told him. “I was going to warn you, but they tricked me, sprang it before I had the time. Titus. . .”
