Page 19 of Sophie’s Ruin (Crimson and Shadows #2)

When I closed my eyes at the break of dawn, I didn’t dream about Henry.

Instead, I was in the dark place again, with shadows whispering things to me.

Strangely enough, I was no longer afraid of them.

My breathing and heartbeat were even as I sat down cross-legged in the pool of darkness, closing my eyes and resting my hands on my knees.

Somehow, I knew I was dreaming, so I just sat there quietly, waiting to wake up.

The darkness lapped at my skin and tugged on my hair, and I let it, barely noticing the icy-hot touch.

At one point, I opened my eyes and ran my hand through the wispy black tendrils that surrounded me.

They wrapped around my fingers, tickling my skin, and a faint smile graced my lips.

“You’re not scary at all,” I said, my voice echoing in the large, open space. “Perhaps you’re just misunderstood…”

As if in response, the smoke slithered up my arm, perching on my shoulder.

It caressed my cheek, and I turned my face into its gentle touch, closing my eyes with a soft exhale.

My mind became empty as I sat there, wrapped in the darkness’s embrace.

I didn’t think about Henry, my mother, or the fate of the world.

I simply existed, unburdened and free. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed as I floated in the nothingness, but the next thing I knew I felt myself beginning to wake up.

“I have to go,” I told the darkness, opening my eyes again. “I have to keep working on my magic so I can rescue Henry.”

As soon as I’d uttered the words, the thoughts of him rushed back in, pushing me to my feet.

“I’ll be back,” I promised the darkness. I knew sooner rather than later I would return to this place where there was no end and no beginning. The thought didn’t terrify me anymore. On the contrary, excitement sparked in my chest…excitement and anticipation.

“Until next time,” I whispered, as I felt myself beginning to float up.

My heels separated from the floor first, then the balls of my feet, then my toes. Oily, tar-like substance dripped from them as I floated up, higher and higher, until I broke through the surface of my dream, taking some of the darkness with me.

I didn’t bolt upright in the bed like I’d done in the past few nights.

My breathing was steady when I opened my eyes.

The darkness didn’t terrify me anymore. I understood it better now, and it had felt wrong leaving it behind in my dream.

It understood me, too. I’d felt…at home when I’d been surrounded by it.

That couldn’t be right, I thought to myself as I scowled.

My home was where Henry was. Nothing else could provide the same sense of security. Or could it?

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I left the bed and got ready.

Once I was dressed in black leggings and a simple white tunic, I tied my hair at the nape of my neck and put the Tear in my pocket.

Ready to leave, I stepped closer to the bedroom door, but froze when I smelled Celeste on the other side.

A frustrated sigh left me as I yanked open the door, glaring at the witch.

She glared right back, her face set in determination.

“You are not going to sneak out this time,” she said coldly, her tone final.

“I wouldn’t need to sneak out if you didn’t feel the need to hold me back,” I bit out, my voice as cold as ice to match hers.

“I am not holding you back. I only implore you to take it slow. To approach the magic with the care and respect it deserves.”

“It’s my magic, so I get to decide how to handle it.”

“You have so much to learn.”

“Then teach me!” I raised my voice at the witch.

Celeste opened her mouth to reply, but clamped it shut as her gaze drew distant. I knew that look.

“What is it?” I asked, trying to glean the answer from her face. Her warm, beige skin paled as her lips pressed together.

“Nothing,” she finally said after a few seconds’ delay.

Lies.

“You’re lying. The world whispered something to you. What was it?”

“It was nothing. Nothing that is in your power to change at the moment.”

My heart sank as a cold feeling invaded my chest. Telling myself to breathe through the increasing sense of unease, I closed my eyes and tapped into the world around me, picturing a myriad of shimmering strings carrying pulses of information in short, rapid bursts.

As I opened my senses, voices rushed in, flooding my head with sounds.

My brows pinched in concentration as I began wading through the bits and pieces of information that the voices were whispering, talking over each other.

She’s here…the clans…right on the border, I heard the words rising and falling like a tide, growing louder at times before fading into the jarring chaos of noise.

Over the next few seconds, the whispering intensified, growing louder and louder, until it reached its peak, and the voices shouted all at once, He’s here!

My eyes flew open, my chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Sophie—” Celeste warned, but I was already gone, flying through the forest.

I skidded to a halt in the tree line facing the stone wall of the border with the Empire.

“Stop,” came Celeste’s voice from behind me a second before her hand landed on my shoulder, her fingers digging into my skin and bone.

I froze, my eyes trained on the border, where Camilla paced the top of the stone wall with feline grace. The twin chips of ice that were her eyes glided over the tree line, and my breath caught when she looked right at where Celeste and I stood.

“She can’t see or hear us,” the witch said as Camilla’s gaze slid past us. “And she can’t smell us. I have cast a masking spell, but I need to be touching you in order for it to project onto you.”

“Okay,” I said low, my gaze tracking Camilla’s every movement.

The Lady of the North stopped her pacing and planted her hands on the stone ledge.

“Are you out there, Sophie?” she called out, leaning slightly over the edge.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” she taunted with a chilling smile, showing the gleaming tips of her fangs.

“It’s been nights, Sophie,” she said, taking her hands off the ledge and inspecting her pointed nails.

“I’d have expected you to come for him by now.

” She paused, her gaze flicking back to the woods. “You know, we almost killed him.”

When a growl rumbled from deep within my throat, Celeste’s grip on me tightened.

“I am willing to bet he sometimes wishes he’d died that night. Death would have been easier than enduring everything we have put him through. It’s only been four nights, but we have ensured it felt like an eternity to him. An eternity of pain and suffering.”

My body was frigid cold and didn’t feel like my own. I was floating above it, watching the entire exchange from afar.

I didn’t move, didn’t breathe as Camilla continued, “How long are you going to let him suffer?” she called out into the pitch-black darkness of the woods, where I stood frozen, blending in with the shadows.

I imagined myself a part of the landscape, imagined the darkness wrapping around me like a blanket, dulling the pain Camilla’s words caused. They were lashing at me like whips, breaking my skin until I was bleeding on the dark forest floor. Or at least that was what it felt like.

Camilla’s smile disappeared as her features became all sharp angles and hard lines.

“Bring him out,” she barked an order over her shoulder without taking her eyes off the woods.

I closed my eyes and tried to force down the lump that had formed in my throat.

It didn’t budge, clogging my airway. I choked on it, wanting to claw at my neck, but I couldn’t move as I listened to the commotion on the border.

His scent reached me first, nearly knocking me off my feet.

It had been here all along; I’d just been too shocked and blinded by my rage to notice it.

Blood. I smelled his blood, the scent so potent that it overpowered the fresh and woodsy notes of him.

In a heartbeat, I knew why when I opened my eyes.

There was no point in keeping them closed—I couldn’t hide from what was unfolding right before me on the border.

I shattered into a million tiny pieces when my gaze landed on Henry being dragged out from behind Camilla by Moreau and Beatrice Stern.

He was covered in blood. His blood, I knew from the smell.

It matted his hair and ran down his bare chest, trickling from open wounds and lacerations.

His pants were soaked with it. He wasn’t healing.

As I’d suspected, they’d been withholding blood from him so he would be too weak to fight or escape.

My vampire ears picked up on his ragged breathing and the sluggish beating of his heart.

My own heart lurched in my chest as if trying to rip out of my rib cage and launch itself toward the border to reunite with Henry.

My muscles tensed as I prepared to run, to close the distance between us.

In the back of my mind, I knew it wouldn’t be smart, but I didn’t care.

I couldn’t stand here and do nothing. I refused to spend another second separated from him.

“Don’t do anything foolish,” Celeste warned from behind me.

Snarling at her over my shoulder, I went to rip myself out of her grip. Except, my body didn’t obey. All my muscles locked up. I couldn’t move.

“It has to be done,” Celeste said low from behind me.

The bitch was freezing me in space, preventing me from going to Henry. I thrashed in the hold of her magic, or at least I thought I did. The fight was happening on the inside. On the outside, I was just standing still, my muscles stiff.