Looking around, Chloe asked, "Where's Greer?"
The two questions seemed intertwined, one bleeding into the next.
Her ancestor glanced back to Cosnoc. "The witch let me out—not without effort. I believe she might have wanted me to have time to see you." He looked stunned at that. “Before you were lost.”
To be fair, Mikar was stunned, too. He hadn't even noticed that Greer had disappeared. That didn't quite answer the question. "But where is she now?"
“Asleep. She'll have to lock me back in my cage when she wakes.” He bared his fangs. “The slayer child took her. Black-haired, gray dress.”
Ah. Ruby.
Greer was safe, which brought up the next issue they had on their hands. Levi was the one to bring it up. "How did the arrow manage to cross the border in the first place?" He went to retrieve it, his eyes flashing in anger as he took in the weapon that had killed his mate. For a hot second, but still, Mikar could tell Levi didn't hate it any less. He still seemed shaken, pale, his eyes cold as ice.
The black-tipped metal shone violet with Chloe’s blood in the darkness. Levi sniffed at the tip and frowned, handing the arrow to Mikar. He looked at it and smelled it too. Underneath the potent scent of Chloe's blood, there was something else. Some sort of potion, he thought.
Eirikr extended his hand. There was no denying the likes of him. Mikar handed him the arrow. The first vampire merely looked at it. "Vladrien."
The word—or name—sounded fairly familiar. "Wasn't that one of your slayers?" he asked Eirikr.
"Hardly. I turned Vladrien before any other. He used to be a friend, in my mortal life, and he was dying." His jaw set. "Vladrien loved the power, the rush, the strength of this life. He never understood why I condemned drinking from mortals. He resented me for it. So he left, and found Ariadne. For a time—centuries, I think—he was by her side, a protector specifically designed to keep me at bay. Ariadne knew I wouldn't wish to destroy an old friend."
From the way his cold eyes narrowed, that feeling was in the past.
"I know no one else who could shoot from such a distance. Still, time has changed…it could have been another." Regret etched the edge of his features. Then his jaw set. "But this is his arrow."
"That doesn't explain how he could see Greer. Or even how he'd know we were here." Blair waved her hands. "It's not like we go to the lake every day."
Suspicious gazes were cast all around, some of them landing on Seth, others on Diana. Mikar saw her flinch at the unsaid accusation. Despite everything she'd done today, she did attract some suspicion because, well, she was the stranger here, no matter her last name. The gazes soon looked away, as they remembered that she'd raised Death itself to save Chloe. And a good thing, too. Mikar would have gladly ripped tongues out if any of the idiots had voiced suspicions.
"He may not have had to see her," Eirikr replied. "Vladrien has many witches in his service.”
None of this was good news.
"Why would he attack us now?" Levi asked Eirikr. "You said he serves Ariadne. I have no reason to believe she wishes us any ill."
"He served her," Eirikr replied. "Till she tired of him as a lover, at least. For long, he's been on his own, attaching himself to whatever woman he finds most appealing." His eyes were ice. "It would not have taken great effort for Aveka to seduce him."
Aveka. So that was the queen’s name. Mikar didn’t think he’d ever heard it.
He liked having a simple, if perhaps a little unusual name to call her back. “The queen” made her sound like someone who held too much power and authority. Someone they should fear.
“Aveka” sounded like a petulant, spoiled child.
"Wait." Seth held his hand up and waved, like he was in class. "When you say Vladrien, you mean Vlad? Tall, graying hair, empty eyes, great at murder?"
Eirkr nodded. "That's accurate enough. You know him?"
Seth nodded. "Yeah, he does hang out around the queen like a lost puppy. She doesn't really pay attention to him, but he's trying. I see him on the island pretty often. He goes by Vlad. The queen sends him out to do her bidding from time to time but…" Seth frowned. "I never thought of him as much of a threat. To witches and humans, perhaps, but not to us." His tone was matter-of-fact, devoid of arrogance.
"Only fools dismiss the power of witches." Eirikr sighed. "And Vladrien has a habit of collecting them as allies. When he cannot, he destroys them."
Mikar remembered how he'd heard of Vlad. That vampire had been the one who had killed every witch in Greer's coven when she'd been a little child. Greer had transported herself here, where she would be safe, by some sort of miracle—more than likely, her ancestors had looked after her.
“Vlad is the least of your problems now. This arrow is coated with magic. Strong magic.” Eirikr’s gaze traveled past the lake, to the cliffs in the distance. “Unless I’m much mistaken, this weapon could have damaged your wards. And he intended to murder the witch so she could not rebuild them.”
Everyone stilled, taking it in.
“The wards are down?” Mikar didn’t feel anything.
“Not yet, but they’ve been breached. Like a shot in a wall of glass. All it would take to make them crumble is a little tap. This place is going to be attacked, and soon. Aveka may know the witch was saved and want to act before the wards can be rebuilt.”
“And who knows how long it’ll take until Greer wakes up, if she used up her magic?”
Eirikr had the answer. “She told me five or six hours. That was perhaps half an hour ago. She won’t wake until sunrise, and she will be weak when she does.” He paused. “We’re on our own all night.”
Who knew what was going to be unleashed?
"So, it was that queen again." Chloe shook her head. "Aveka," she said, echoing the name Eirikr used. “We're back to this. Fighting for our lives because she wants Oldcrest. Why is she so intent on killing us? Me?”
Levi kissed her forehead, and walked a few steps away, pulling his cell phone out. “It’s me. I’ll need you to come. Bring what you have.” He’d hung up before anyone could answer on the other end.
"Maybe we should just leave," Cat said, grimacing. "Let her take it. It's just a place. We can make our home elsewhere."
Silence fell as they weighed her words. She blushed self-consciously, as all eyes were on her, some nodding in agreement, others shaking their heads.
Eirikr stared at her in disgust.
"No." Chloe's voice was hard and steady as steel. “It’s not just a place. This has been your home for centuries. Levi's, Alexius's. Cat, you have a legacy on the hill. So do I. So does Tris. And you chose Oldcrest because you wanted to be here, not because Night Hill is a symbol of power. I'm not leaving. Eirikr is here. I love the school, I love my friends. Hell, I even love Skyhall. Besides, we could go to the end of the world—she'd still hunt me. She had assassins sent for me when I was mortal, in New Orleans.” She seemed so frustrated. “I just don’t understand.”
“I do.” Eirikr stopped speaking for so long Mikar thought he might have left it at that. "Deep under each of the seven houses, there's a tomb, where one of the oldest immortals of each family rests—not quite dead, certainly not alive. Their life forces and energy have been linked by a spell meant to increase the power of all that share their blood. It’s a binding spell. The seven families have chosen to do it in order to further their power."
"What?" Chloe was appalled. She looked at Levi, who nodded. Her jaw fell open. “That’s barbaric.”
“I would have forbidden it,” Eirikr assured her. “But I was imprisoned when they cast that spell.”
"I took no part in it." Levi paused. "But I didn't stop it."
"The Stormhales couldn't shake the heavens with their thunders before. The Helsings' voices were always sweet, courtesy of the blood of the half-siren, Desideria. But they didn't hold the power to sway the heart of Death itself until then. And the Eirikrsons, my children…" Eirikr swallowed, not adding another word.
Chloe went to him, taking his hand, and squeezing it. "Do we need to know?" she asked him.
After a moment, Eirikr nodded. "My children already stood above all. They could have refused to join it. But they feared that if they didn't take part in the ceremony, the other families would end up surpassing them, and grow beyond their control. So they participated. But they were a tight, close clan. They would not have wished to condemn one of their own to a fate worse than death. I fear..."
Mikar was the first to understand. "You think they took Aveka. That she was the one in the tomb under Skyhall."
Eirikr acquiesced. "Aveka died at the hand of her mother centuries before the spell. Of that, I'm sure. Her being here, alive, is an impossibility I can only explain with the darkest of magic. She was brought back to life and made immortal. I do not see for what purpose, other than to force her into that sacrifice."
Mikar could see it. A poor, scared child brought back from the darkness, just like Chloe had been. But not to be hugged, saved, loved. No. Then, she would have been locked away and left to rot, to fester.
He hadn't thought it possible that he could grow to feel sorry for that self-appointed queen. That he could finally understand her motivation. Revenge. Not just revenge, but survival too. She saw the Eirikrsons as her enemies. She saw Chloe as a monster who could—and would—destroy her, burying her alive again.
"How would she have escaped the tomb?" Levi wondered. His tone suggested he'd already accepted Eirikr's theory.
The ancient glared. "Well, you conveniently slaughtered every Eirikrson, but for a mortal child, I suspect whatever magic bound her weakened enough for her to rise."