Chapter 36
Something clicked in my mind as I finished dancing with Callan. We parted ways after that as he wanted something more than my orgasm in his mouth—blood. I slipped away from the ballroom behind Callan and went to the right where the room were located. Alexandria was in the ballroom, attending to everyone.
It was the perfect opportunity to go through her library and learn about the curse, since no one else was going to tell me.
The hallways were empty, but there were guards located in every end and it was hard to get past them all. I stood at the end of the hallway where I had already been. Just in one of the room, there was Alexandria's library, the place where I had met her for the first time.
I couldn't forget it.
I waited for the guard to turn around, or his attention to get diverted as he stood just a few inches away from the door. I peeked out, waiting, and suddenly, a sharp pain spread through my head. My jaw clenched tight and I held back my hiss while holding onto my head.
What was that?
The pain in my head—it wasn't going away.
"Shifts are changing," I heard someone say. "Take care of the door, there are many people gathering there. I'll send someone else up here."
I peeked out again, watching another man approach the guard and speak to him. A moment later, they both were gone and before anyone came, I opened the door to the library and rushed inside while looking on either side of the hallway.
No one.
My heart raced in both fear and thrill. What I was doing was dangerous. But what more could Alexandria do with me? She needed me for whatever sick reason she had, and somehow, I didn't understand why me. Why couldn't it be anyone else? There were plenty of witches around here, some of them even practicing black magic.
I wasn't special.
My eyes scurried around the shelves and shelves of old and new books. I began to search, pulling out books and flipping through their pages. I scanned the tiles and the text, looking for anything in regards to the curse Alexandria spoke about or if it even existed.
I recalled her pulling out the mark of the pentacle from one of these books. Maybe there was more information here.
An old, thin book came into my hand. I rolled through the pages till a small piece of paper fell onto me and slid down my dress. I stepped back in surprise and my gaze landed on the paper.
It was the mark of the pentacle.
Reaching down, I picked it up and opened the book again to figure out where it came from. A moment later, I had found it. The curse.
Curse of the Enslaved Magic.
It was written by Stephan Sven, who had cursed his daughter, Alexandria Sven, and taken away her magic before his death. He died exactly a hundred years ago, and it was his death that begun the curse. The four men, they had the power to open a kind of magic that had never existed, but in order to retrieve the magic, the Queen had to kill all four of them and take their powers, their immortality and their strength.
Only then, she could be strong, strong than the Gods and Goddess'.
I slammed the book shut, placing it back into the shelf before running out of the library. My heart pounded in my throat while the hair over my skin rose. I rushed down the stairs and into the nearest washroom I could find.
Getting past the line, I slipped into one of the empty room and grabbed onto the sink before coughing hard. Blood spilled from my throat and onto the white basin. I continued to cough for the next several minutes till my face had turned entirely red and sweat was dripping from my forehead.
I took in a quick breath before turning on the tap-water and cleaning my mouth. My makeup creased on the side of my mouth. I wiped it away, not caring much of how I looked right now.
I was taking four men to their doom.
Two of them being Dion and Callan, who I shared bed with, who I began to have feelings for, who were the only men in my life who actually cared for me and didn't see me as a useless girl.
I washed my mouth again before cleaning all the blood I had choked out. My hand then went again my lips and I breathed hard. My eyes stung as tears formed within them. What had I done? I let out a soft sob and a storm broke outside at the same time.
A loud thunder echoed before lightening up the dark skies. I gasped, stepping back and scurrying out of the washroom.
Alexandria was going to kill them. For what? For magic. That was all.
"There you are! Where did you run off to, little witch?" Callan asked, approaching me as I returned into the ballroom. His eyes fell over my face, studying my sickness before concern spread in his voice. "Are you okay? Did something happen?"
"Yes—no, nothing. Just feeling a sick." I held my stomach, acting as if it was the problem.
How could I tell him that I was leading him to his death?
"Do you want me to take you to the court? You can sleep with me." He offered while his arm went around my shoulder in a caring motion. He pulled me closer to himself and I barely met with his eyes.
"No," I shook my head. "I just need to divert my mind."
The orchestra continued to play music while the dances never stopped. Callan and I stayed by the sidelines, watching until Dion appeared. Both of them shared a signal to one and another.
"I've to go handle something, little witch, but I'll be back in a few minutes." He whispered in my ear before rushing away.
My brows furrowed. What was it about? I went straight to the edge, wondering if he got a hindsight of what I had been doing, or if he found out.
As the night wore on, the ball continued to swirl around me in a blur of music and laughter. There were only going to be a couple more dances before the food. I sipped on wine with Dion. We agreed on tuning in for the last dance since we both were terrible in it.
Callan was somewhat better, but I believed he had quite a lot of experience.
"It appears it's going to be flooded by morning." I said, hearing the thunderstorms from the distance and heavy rainfall.
"Ah, yes. It's going to be terrible. It's worse than the last storm."
Something crawled up my spine. My neck tilted and brows furrowed in concern as the itch began to spread everywhere. I couldn't scratch it off. My nerves twisted. Dark energy flooded into the ballroom. It was darker than the night, then anything I had ever imagined.
It was vicious.
My mouth reached the glass of the wine, I took another sip, hoping the feeling would wash away. But it didn't. It grew worse and worse. The lights dimmed as someone walked in.
A man.
My head turned to the direction of the Queen who was now seated, watching the dances from a distance while surrounded with other powerful women. A man, wearing informal clothes, approached her. I didn't see anything but his back which was covered in a black shirt and his messy hair.
My throat tightened. I cupped the glass of wine harder in my hands as the odd sense of danger consumed me.
"Who's he?" I asked Dion. "The man speaking to the Queen."
Dion turned, watching what I was seeing. It took him a moment to understand before he responded to me with surprise in his voice. "It's Elijah."
"Who?" My forehead crinkled in confusion while my heart beat faster in fear as if I needed to flee.
Right now.
"Elijah Sven. The Queen's son, and he hasn't appeared in Vragus in over thirty years."
The man took Alexandria's hand, and kneeled a little before kissing the back of it. She smiled at him and it confirmed it was her son.
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