Hellfire - The Awakening (Complete)

Chapter Eleven *

For some people being marked would make them want to give up and accept their fate, or run to the guards and plead for help, but I didn't have the luxury, because it wasn't just my life on the line, it was everyone’s.

I'd been unable to sleep and had spent my time decoding the journals, I hadn't learnt much except for the fact that once the black orchids appeared, deaths started shortly after.

I knew that I should probably find Cinder, but that meant telling him that I'd been marked and I wasn't quite ready to discuss it just yet. 

I sighed as I wrapped my quilt around me and grabbed my journal, taking care to reread all of the notes I had made. I was certain that Carnelian had discovered the rogues and figured out about their movements and I was sure that he had also died doing so, yet if that was the case what had stopped the rogues from attacking the Schwarz manor? Evangeline had clearly survived to birth Cinder and his siblings. I racked my brains for an answer but nothing came up hopefully speaking with Evangeline herself would give me some answers.

I flipped to the poem and scanned through it one more time, it still made little sense and I decided to reread it and make notes on possible meanings.

In the centuries to pass, in the depths of the night

stands the unwilling, the chosen, the black one.

“In the centuries to pass…”That had to mean in the future, but did that mean in the future centuries after Carnelian’s reign or was the poem written to describe the events of Carnelian’s time? It would be easier to analyse the poem twice, once to detail Carnelian’s time and one to detail current events.

I was unsure of the meaning of the second line if the poem detailed Carnelian's time, it wasn't about him. He had chosen to take on the rogues and Cinder and I had previously established that this section referred to a rogue.

I skipped to the next lines of the poem:

Tainted by evil’s sickening bite,

a weapon for war which the corrupted once won…

I read the lines several times, if Carnelian had been transformed into a rogue, then surely he had been tainted. That reference to evil made complete sense to after all the rogues were the epitome of evil.

I had no idea if Carnelian was alive or if he had been alive but I had a feeling that I was close with the meaning for that particular line. I'd tell Cinder about my theory for the line's meaning, but decided against telling him my musings about his father's death, there was no point in unnecessarily aggravating him.

I flicked through the journals wondering how vampires became rogues. I was certain that Carnelian would have included something in his diaries about them. I pondered trying to fit the pieces together and then I realised, I didn't have all of the journals after all; Cinder had half.

I leapt out of my bed and dashed to my wardrobe, there was no time for delay now that my marking was proof that the rogues were on the move.

I pulled on underwear, jeans, a black top which was designed to look like a corset and boots and grabbed my messenger bag hastily stuffing Carnelian's journals, my own journal and several pens inside.

I got ready quickly only bothering with eye-liner and foundation, thankfully when I left there was no sign of Masquerade or Ash; probably because it was so early.

When I reached Cinder's room, I held my breath as I knocked on his door. There was no reply and I held my ear to the door listening for a tell-tale snore to prove that he was inside but I could hear nothing.