Wakefulness hauled her to pain, and as her eyes fluttered open, a distressed moan stemmed from her throat. Blinking rapidly against a sickening, horrendous throbbing in her skull, her awareness was slow to focus on anything other than the incessant hammering in her head.
A fire could be heard snapping nearby, tossing a delicate glow of light across a ceiling of ... stone?
For a suspended moment, Elle could do no more than gape at the rocky surface above her, all the while, feeling the cold, uncompromising earth beneath her.
Another strangled sound of pain swelled from her throat as she propped herself onto her elbows, instantly regretting her decision as an unbearable stabbing panned an agonizing path through her head, her stomach churning as she shifted into an upright position.
There was a heavy pressure in her head and terrible ringing in her ears, and as she dabbed tentatively at the tenderness at the back of her skull, she could feel her hair matted with dry blood.
It was then that everything came flooding back to her in frightening detail, that vital source leaching from her face as her heart lurched with panic against her breast.
The four men on horseback. Prudence had led them into a trap. Solomon striding towards her, an explosion of pain, and then it all went dark.
He had struck her. Hard.
The thought had her softly touching the back of her head once more, grimacing as her fingers brushed over a large knot.
"Elle?" quavered a familiar, terror-stricken voice from her left.
Tremendous relief swept through her as her eyes collided with Esme's, but that solace was short-lived for she realized that her sister had not escaped and was sitting adjacent to her, currently bound at the wrists.
Elle was surprised to discover that she was not bound in a similar fashion. Indeed, she was not bound at all.
Why would they not restrain her?
A meager fire waned between them, the piddling flames suppressed by a gust of icy wind as it howled through their solid enclosure.
Elle trembled within her cloak; the threadbare material not fit to withstand the freezing elements for long.
"Elle," Esme rasped, tearful eyes steeped with equal parts despair and enormous relief, "I thought you were dead."
Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes as she gingerly crawled to where her sister sat, propped against the stone wall. Throwing her arms around Esme's quivering frame, she squeezed gently, saying in a voice painfully dry and in desperate need of water, "I'm sorry. Are you hurt at all?"
Esme shook her head, sniffling as Elle pulled away to sit back on her haunches, "This is all my fault."
She clenched her eyes against a bout of dizziness, saying, "Don't think like that, you couldn't have possibly known this was going to happen."
Wide pools of blue stared back at her, her face ashen, "You said to wait – you tried to tell me, and I wouldn't listen!"
Reaching out, she gripped Esme's shoulder, her tone consoling and meant to reassure, "We're alive, and that's what matters right now."
"But for how long?" her sister croaked, dread shuddering through her body, "And you don't look so good, Elle."
She didn't feel good, but the last thing she wanted to do was inflate her sister's hysteria.
"Do you know where we are?" Elle asked, hoping to distract and calm Esme when on the inside, she was barely keeping it together.
Teetering on the edge of hysteria herself, fear was a massive, tangible force within her chest. As for her physical condition, she could hardly keep herself upright, the injury to her head proving unbearable. But she didn't want to alarm her sister, so she fought to keep her composure for Esme's sake, and for her own.
"We're in some kind of ... cave," Esme remarked.
Elle glanced around, noticing that the cavern narrowed at the mouth, its jagged roof steeping low, creating the perfect shelter – or prison, against seeking eyes.
Her heart soared with hope as her eyes lingered on the unimpeded entrance, their captors nowhere in sight.
"What do you think they want with us?" Elle found herself asking, her eyes rapt on their glaring escape route; nightfall beckoning just beyond the rocky aperture.
Were their captors just outside, lurking and waiting for them to make a run for it?
"I don't know," Esme whined, her eyes fixed on something sitting opposite the fire. "Mayhap she knows."
Shifting carefully to peer on the other side of the cave, Elle was stunned to find a girl situated across from them, shrouded in vacillating shadows, slumped against a stone wall.
Could it be ...
"Abigail?"
Staring absently into the low fire, their neighbor offered them nothing, not a flick of her lashes, not a voluntary gesture, not even a simpering plea. If not for the subtle rise and fall of her chest, Elle would have thought her dead. She remained stoic and unmoving.
"She hasn't said a word since they dragged us into this dreadful place," Esme stated, "I think she's in shock."
"Abigail?" Elle called, flailing her hand, "Are you hurt?" but the girl's vacant stare never deviated from its mindless trance.
It was very unsettling to observe.
"You're not tethered, Elle," her sister motioned with a nudge of her chin towards the entry of the cave, "You could run and get help."
"I'm not leaving you!" She whispered.
"Don't be ridiculous!" her sister snapped, "What other choice have we?"
Elle turned to survey the opening, her muscles tensing as if in preparation for flight, her heart thumping with pure adrenaline at the very thought of escaping, but like before, she couldn't abandon her sister, or Abigail, for that matter. "They could be anywhere. Watching us. Waiting for us to blunder."
"Who are they?" Esme questioned, tugging at her restraints, "What could they possibly want with us? How could Prudence betray us like this?"
"It isn't Prudence," came a brittle voice from across the way.
Esme and Elle gasped, their focus circling widely back to gawk at Abigail when moments ago, she'd been an empty shell at a frozen standstill.
"What?"
Abigail shook her head, thin wisps of dark hair framing her full face as her eyes flitted with honest emotion to the gaping entrance of the cave, "Whoever she is – whatever she is, it isn't Prudence."
Esme shifted uncomfortably beside her, twisting harder at her restraints, "What nonsense are you spinning, Abby?"
Abby continued to gaze at the open cavity of their cage, terror rising to the glossy sheen of her eyes, "She is not ... human. Prudence is ..." she visibly swallowed, tears streaking a path down her cheeks, trembling as if recalling Prudence's last moments. "That w-woman took possession of her body!"
Elle dragged slow, painful breaths into her lungs, the blood rushing through her ears as disbelief and horror washed over her.
"What are you talking about? You're not making any sense!" Esme shrilled, her voice thinning with fear.
"She's a witch," Elle blurted, dread cinching her stomach.
She felt their eyes clash with fright.
"What? How can you be sure?" Esme asked in a tremulous tone, and when she didn't offer a quick reply, her sister added, "Is that how you gained your vision, Elle? Was it a ... witch?"
She had no way of knowing, but it all had to be connected.
And she didn't have a chance to answer.
Two silhouettes, one significantly larger than the other, breached the mouth of the cave, their presence an ominous force driving the three of them to shrink back against the stone as their captors steadily approached.
Fear slammed into Elle as Solomon emerged from the partial darkness, coming to tower over her, his wrecked-mouth peeling into a grin as he reached out and wrenched her away from her sister.
Esme cried out but was helpless to do anything.
A terrified breath lodged tightly in her throat as he leaned close, his breath hot against her face, his black eyes roving her body in an animalistic way, like a predator admiring its prey just before the kill. Those blackened depths promised pain and unspeakable things as he crooned against her ear, "Do ye see me now, little bird?"
Her stomach pitched with revulsion and bile seared her vocal bands as he traced the curve of her cheek with a grimy finger.
"Get your filthy hands off of her, you disgusting swine!" Esme spat, her fear taking a back seat to the rage that mottled her face. "I'll kill you myself!"
Solomon's eyes flitted with annoyance in her direction, hardening just a fraction before finding her face once more. "Bird and I have unfinished business, and this time your beast is not here to stop me."
Esme heaved a sharp, audible gasp, "You did that to her face."
His grin broadened, exposing yellow, jagged teeth, "I intend to do more."
"Dog!" Came a harsh, feminine voice.
The jarring inflection wrenched Elle from her frightened reverie as Solomon shoved her away and shot to his feet, turning to confront the thin figure standing just beyond the fire, draped in a heavy cloak.
Slowly, the woman crept closer, revealing Prudence, but her eyes had an unusual luminosity to them, as if they glowed from within, appearing almost otherworldly as they cut a direct path of unbridled fury to her. "You will not touch this one."
"At the castle, ye offered her to me." Solomon sneered, "Since when has that changed?"
"I gave an order to rough her up a bit, you imbecile." Prudence hissed, inching closer, divulging gray, thinning hair, a gaunt face, and stature so frail, a stiff wind could have easily toppled her over. It was a startling and shocking sight. It was as if she had aged rapidly overnight. "I said nothing about violating the body I intend to inhabit indefinitely. You will do well to remember that." She waved him off with a flick of her hand, "Amuse yourself with that one over there. This one is strictly prohibited."
She had motioned to Abby, who had stiffened in abject terror, her face turning a frightening shade of white beneath Solomon's black regard.
His hands fisted as he averted those obsidian eyes back to her, the blooming fury there making her recoil in her cloak as Prudence's words rang sharp within her frazzled mind.
I said nothing about violating the body I intend to inhabit indefinitely.
Oh, God. She was going to be violently sick. Whatever that meant, it did not bode well for her.
"Ye've been slithering around in my head for days, viperous witch," Solomon snarled, dragging his eyes away from her to glare at the woman standing before them, "Making demands of me and my men, forcing us to do yer petty biddings ... where is my compensation? Where is the gold ye promised me?"
Prudence's head whipped around to pin him with fiery eyes, "Watch your tongue lest you lose it, you overgrown oaf." Lifting her chin, "You forget who you are dealing with. When I have what I acquire, you'll get your damned gold."
"And what about the Rossetti Beast?" Solomon growling, gesturing to his face, "The bastard nearly killed me."
Elle's heart staggered against her breast as his black eyes fixated on her.
"He'll come for her."
A breath wedged itself in her lungs as Prudence stepped towards her, glaring at her with a hatred of a thousand suns. It was so intense, that she flinched as if it was a physical blow. She didn't understand the animosity there. She didn't understand any of this. "My sister tried in vain to shield you from me, your beast tried, to no avail, to protect you. But alas, I have found you, the elemental host."
Her spine ached as she pressed harder into the stone, wishing she could just disappear from this unfolding nightmare, from the uncanny eyes examining her so closely, and from the leering soulless eyes of the man standing just beyond Prudence's shoulder.
Swallowing hard, she said softly, "Who are you?"
Prudence grinned, "I am your end, weakling." And then after an unnerving pause, "I am Seraphine de Ceville."
A sharpened exhale left her lungs as Lucy's words came rushing back to haunt her.
Veda and Seraphine were natural-born witches. They were renowned for their practice of the dark craft. The sisters were a duo of nightmares.
Seraphine. She was the witch from Don's harrowing past. The woman who had cursed him for all eternity, branding him a beast. His former lover, whom he claimed to have killed, and yet, here she was, in the flesh, well not in its entirety. It was Prudence's body, and there was a rapid decline pervading that said body. Elle could see those infinitesimal changes in the sinking of her features, her lagging movements, and the dullness of her hair and skin whereas earlier, she had appeared youthful and healthy. Was Prudence in there somewhere behind those peculiar eyes? Or was she truly ... gone? Was it Seraphine's voice she had heard in the corridor just after she'd been attacked? That voice then had sounded different, but the cold and harsh inflection remained the same. If she was stealing bodies as Abby proclaimed, then what did that mean for them? Was it Seraphine who had given her sight? If so, why? Why was any of this happening?
Your beast tried, to no avail, to protect you.
A storm of emotions flooded her chest, building until she could no longer hold back the tears that brimmed in her eyes. Don had sent her away to protect her. To keep her safe. Did that mean he hadn't meant all the terrible things he had said to her?
"I can see you putting the pieces together, weakling," Sera smirked.
"He killed you," Elle muttered in shock.
She snickered, "Interesting, he said the same thing." Her eyes narrowed as she added, "And I'll give you a similar reply as I did him. He tried, but the ground would not have me. Don will get his comeuppance, but I have need of him first."
"What do you want with me?"
Her grin deepened, "What every immortal in a position of power wants ... more power, and you're going to give it to me."
She paled beneath the fervor of her stare, frightened by the intensity there, shaking her head, "Whatever you think I can do for you, I cannot."
Prudence – Seraphine chuckled, "You haven't the slightest clue what you are, girl. What your body was created to do, but you will find out in three days' time when the full moon is aloft."
Elle didn't know what that meant, she didn't know what any of it meant, but a mindless terror was taking hold of her, and she was losing to it fast.
"If it's me you want then let my sister and Abby go."
"Elle, nay!" Esme cried, "What are you doing?"
Sera's mouth twisted into a partial grin, "How very noble of you, but every chattel has its purpose in life. Your sister and the girl will not be spared."
She could feel the panic rising, usurping her fragile calm. "You loved him once."
Sera's unusual eyes hardened and then flared with anger, "Do not try and appeal to my humanity, mortal, for I have none." Her hand snaked out and gripped her around the throat, her fingers tightening to the point of pain, nails drawing blood.
Elle gasped, her hands grappling at Sera's slender wrists that exerted a shocking amount of strength given her weakened condition. "I could snap your feeble neck if I desired it, but why settle for instant gratification when I could prolong your suffering instead?" she shoved her away, coughing and clutching her throat as the witch added, "And suffer you will, plain one."