Bleeding Demons: The Dark Bloods - Book III ✓

Chapter 17 - The Brushstrokes of Memories

She stiffened. "Right. I'm ready."

"You do know how to locate Auronmar's castle, right?" Verden asked seeing through her answer.

It wasn't so much that she didn't remember but that earlier Verden had said she should use her newly acquired see magicka to help her find it. Everything about her powers made her nervous. She was either going to fail, lead them on an unneeded goosechase, or maybe actually find it after weeks of circling around.

But...

She did remember how Gahn had showed her and Dante how to do it. All of those under King Auronmar had been sealed with an invisible mark. It not only allowed them to enter the castle, but also find it. The imprint was like a magnet, drawn to the castle. It was how his troops knew where to go. Though those that came back were always fewer and fewer.

Reyna recalled when Auronmar had placed the seal on her and Dante. It had been one of the first interactions she had had with him since living in his castle. Her nerves had turned into snakes under her skin when she had walked up to him, but her anxiety had been for nothing. All Auronmar did was touch her forehead and smile, saying Gahn would explain how to use the mark he had placed upon her. Rarely she had used the seal since she had always stayed within the boundary of the castle's own, and when she had left it and lived with Verden, she had found no use for it.

Reyna brushed her forehead with a finger as she gazed at the fragmented horizon. "Yeah, I know what to do."

A heat began to coil inside of her. It was calm and soothing, a tiny flame on a candle in a darkened room. The warmth gathered on the left side of her body. She turned and the heat moved, settling on her chest and on the tip of her nose and toes.

"I suggested to Master Auronmar to make it like that hot or cold game where ya tell the person if they're getting warmer to what ya hid from them. I thought it would be fun," Gahn had told Reyna and Dante when he had taken them outside the castle's seal. "Now find ya way!"

A sad smile sat on her lips as his voice faded inside her head. "This way," Reyna said, pointing in the direction the heat spoke to her. The tip of her finger burned the hottest, the closest part of her to where the castle was.

"Such a convenience," Radi said.

Reyna knew she wasn't originally supposed to be there with them and laughed softly.

"Don't get any ideas," Verden said. "You're only here because of your own stupid decision. I should have know you would've done what you did." He said the last sentence more to himself than her.

She ignored him.

"Is it far?" Radi asked.

"I don't think so. Walking, we can reach it there in a few hours." She hoped they took her not so subtle suggestion for them to walk. Though their powers had returned to them recently, the fatigue was obvious on all their faces and Reyna didn't want anyone else to faint again.

No one protested but no one raced off either.

⁎⁂⁎

Mundus was unsettled. That was all. He should have been angry, distressed, grieving, horrified. Maybe even slightly elated, but no. he was unsettled. As simple as that and it bothered him. His mind hadn't been able to process anything since... He paused. Was it really since Erian's death? Had it started when his father died? Or with the strain of his tensed arm as he beheaded his mother?

It hadn't been her. The woman he had held hadn't been his mother. She looked like her with her soft skin and flowing hair. When she had called him "dear" it resonated in him the way only a mother's voice would. He had fit in her arms like he had when he was a little boy crying over a skinned knee. So it had been easy to tell himself that it was her.