Page 46 of Potion of Deception (Potion of Deception #1)

DEAD END

F inally Violette was able to settle down in the inn.

Her room was quite small but cozy and most important: it had a shower.

Washing away the atmosphere that was still lingering on her skin after the visit to the Vampire Kingdom was ineffably releasing.

She felt like rinsing all of the bad that happened this evening, even though it was far away from the truth.

This little trip to the vampire's lair put only more weight on her shoulders and no water could sweep it away.

She let the water flow for some time, staying under, completely zoned out.

These couple of hours taught her a few things for sure.

First, Dante was a dangerous vampire, however this was to be expected, he couldn't be put in the mask for something like stealing the candies in the store.

Still it was hard to gather her head over all of it.

And Caidas…Caidas tried to warn her about the terrible outcome if she'd help him to take the mask off.

He doesn't want him free so much that he's ready to kill him, if he could of course.

Instead, he was asking her . The image of the dark blue hilt of the Vampire Slayer, still laying in the bag, flashed in the back of her mind.

All of those things and thoughts drained her, she felt her body was craving the soft material of the bedsheets.

There was a lot to unpack and she wished to think about it more, to have more time but her eyelids felt heavy and her body sank into the soft mattress until all her thoughts turned into darkness.

It was already a late hour as Dante and Violette sat together in his room. She wasn't sure how much he had slept, if he even was in a bed: the blanket looked untouched, while she had a deep long sleep before.

His suite was slightly bigger than hers and had a simple chair where she decided to settle down as Dante passed the window, still covered with drapes.

“What exactly do you think I should look for?” she questioned, her fingers squeezed the delicate ruffled fabric of her skirt.

She was wearing a grape-colored dress with a layered skirt, laced on the hems. A heart-shaped neckline with almost black frills along with the underbust corset elegantly emphasized her slender figure.

And the thin lilac straps made of silk on her shoulders were covered by a short dark violet cape, folded on the back of the chair.

“If I knew, I wouldn't ask you to do this,” Dante said with ease.

Violette slid her eyes to the book cover and leaned in the back of the chair, opening it. She must dive in and be much more attentive than yesterday, any detail could be a breakpoint.

A few hours passed by as Dante left her alone with the book. The ink on the pages started to intermingle in Violette's head, paper felt harsh between the fingers and she didn't count how many times she changed position while reading.

The pictures on the parchments resembled little doodles and quaint sketches, others looked like symbols or signs.

Some of the words were underlined or highlighted with little notes above.

Howbeit, nothing of it seemed to Violette valuable or something she'd understand.

Next to some recipes she'd found little sketches of flowers and some ingredients, and she counted ten lupin flowers in the last one hundred pages.

The drawing of gnarled trees awakened flashes of the Forest of Somber Eyes in her mind, goosebumps dotted her skin.

A calendar with the moon phases and an eclipse calculation spread over the other page; another showed a foreign symbol made of twirls and waves.

She flipped a few pages over, her eyes lazily running over the words she didn't understand until the image in the right corner moved from its place on its own.

Violette blinked. She couldn't be that tired, right?

Her spine straightened up as her gaze fixed on the picture, waiting for it to move again.

It didn't happen but she still examined the symbol.

It looked like a coat of arms: big letter A centered between ribbons, surrounded by a garden.

She flipped the page one more time, until her eyes came across a page with a big sketch of a stone arch that looked like an entrance to a cavern.

Below a little doodle of hands, a crescent moon above.

A bird cage next to the detailed drawing of the cavern, and a keyhole beside.

She tried to make out the words but as was expected, everything was written in the bizarre Heggas’ language.

The door opened, putting a tremble over Violette's shoulders. It was Dante, one of his hands clenched a little brown paper bag.

“Any progress?” He made it across the room and put the bag on the writing desk.

Violette looked again at the pages and then got up from the chair.

“I found this symbol which looks like it was written much later than anything else on the page,” she declared, showing the book. “Do you recognize the sign?”

The vampire towered over her, sloping his head to the pages. “It looks familiar.” His eyes narrowed. “Seems like a coat of arms of one of the noble houses, a house of Adrogans, if I'm not wrong. And I'm rarely wrong.”

Violette wrinkled her nose at his last words.

“So what is so important about this house so the Queen decided to put it here?” she asked.

“This is good food for thinking.” He took the book from her hands and flipped the page, then back again.

On the same spot but on the back of the page there was a symbol Violette saw before: two crossed swords with the blue chiffon flower in the center, as she assumed – the coat of arms of the Queen's house or her kingdom.

After Dante examined the page, he skimmed through a few pages right to the one with the drawing of the cavern.

“This one,” he pointed at the curved tracery above the cavern and then rotated the book to the side: G rotto of Spells and Relics .

Violette bolted her gaze to the pages, closely scrutinizing it. Indeed, the pattern which looked like senseless hundreds of twirls turned out to be stretched letters.

“Do you think it's what we're looking for?” She patted her lashes.

“Possibly. But I am not sure I know where it is,” Dante said wistfully and sat on the bed, continuing to study the pages.

Violette started measuring the room with steps. She spun back and her thoughts were dispelled as her gaze fell onto the paper bag on the table. The pleasant delicious smell reached her nostrils only now.

Dante, as if reading her mind, stood up and handed her the bag.

“In case you are hungry.” Violette looked at the bag agazed as if he was offering her poison. Well, it was more likely.

She took the package and squashed it in her hands, while Dante settled over the desk.

The smell of the baking and braise released in the air as she opened the little bag and her eyes fluttered shut in satisfaction.

Her hand reached to one of the buns with chicken and mushrooms, still warm.

One delightful bite and happiness spread throughout her body. In two minutes the bag rustled again.

Dante raised his eyes to Violette and noticing it, she immediately stopped halfway through the second bun.

He turned his gaze back to the paper. Was she too loud?

Or was he hungry as well? Thinking about it, she'd never seen him eating.

She wasn't sure if he was able to eat with this thing on his mouth but then it leads to the question: how was he fed?

She also doubted she wanted to know, it's unlikely that the answer would please her.

Still, she saw him drinking, it wasn't hard, the lattice was wide enough for it, but she believed it took time for him to adjust and not spill it everywhere.

“How are you able to eat?” she asked directly.

The answer followed immediately like he wasn't actually that deep in his thinking, his eyes remained on the pages of the book. “You'd already asked me this question.”

“And I didn't get an answer.”

“Some people it stops,” he said coldly.

“I am persistent.”

“I'd say stubborn and nosy.”

“It's a part of the equation,” she waved. “So how?”

He just leaned back in the chair, not taking his attention off the book. Violette rolled her eyes and savored another bun.

Hours of searching only led them to nowhere. It seems Dante had never seen this place and had no idea where it was. There must be something else they were missing out on. The picture was not clear.

Violette was sitting in the chair for too long, trying to connect all of the details together. By the end of the night she felt bored and tired.

“How can we find a place which you, neither me, know where is?”

Dante was standing by the window with the book, she didn't know how long he was staring at these pages. They were sharing theories for a few hours already and it didn’t bring them anything.

“I think that Adrogans family has something that we need,” he enunciated, finally raising his eyes to her face.

“What for example? Another riddle?” She fetched an irritated sigh.

“No. I actually think that what we are looking for is a map for the place on these pages. I guess this cavern is our final point.”

“How can you be sure about it?”

“I didn't say I am sure. I need to check some information first.” His eyes trailed to the clock on the wall as Violette yawned. The hand stopped at four in the morning. “Enough for today,” he let out and the dull sound of the book hitting the table’s surface disturbed the settled atmosphere of serenity.

Violette took a deep breath, it seemed as if her back was already glued to the back of the chair as it was hard to stand up. She pulled forward trying to get up, however her legs hardly listened to her.

“You are not going to sleep, are you?” she asked at last as her hand pulled the doorknob.