Lux
The world fluttered into focus, and so did all Lux's aches and pains. Her temple throbbed where she'd been struck, and small, sharp objects pricked her back, digging in as she rolled to her side. But none of that scared her as much as the absence of her channeling stone.
"Lux?"
She pressed the heel of her palm against her brow bone and fought the urge to vomit as she sat up. Vision blurring, she looked around the dark space. "Declan?"
"Oh, thank god. I couldn't tell if you were breathing when they brought you in here." Sharp gasps punctuated his words.
"Where is here?" she asked, the room becoming more visible as her night vision adjusted. A thin stream of light filtered from a crack in the doors above her head.
"The cellar." A rattling sound drew her eye to the right corner. Declan's long legs were stretched out in front of him, and his arms were raised above his head. Iron cuffs bound his wrists, the chains hooked to them attached to the wall.
She crawled to him, holding her stomach to ease her nausea, but at the sight of blood oozing beneath the cuffs, all thoughts of her own discomfort fled. "What have they done to you?
"Don't," he commanded when she reached for the chains. "It's cold iron. Any attempt to magic it off will only result in harm to you."
"But you're bleeding," she cried.
He dropped his head against the wall, the movement clearing the hair from his face and revealing a large bruise across his cheekbone. "Cold iron is a weakness of sorcerers. They did it to keep me from drawing on any of the magical properties in this room."
"It was Kitty. She's working with the Bloodborn."
"I know," he said. He sounded tired. Defeated.
"But why? She has her own magic. Memaw said that Kitty is from a family that's been part of the First Circle for generations."
A cough and a groan sounded from another corner, making Lux and Declan tense. "Kitty is being forced to work with that witch."
"Memaw," Lux shouted, scrambling to the other side of the small room. Memaw's petite frame was slumped against the wall, the area not reached by the dim light. "How did you get down here?"
"I followed Kitty into the woods when I saw her carrying you out. Thought I'd rescue you and solve the mystery of the Bloodborn all at once. What an old fool."
"It's Daphne, Phoebe. I saw her," Declan groaned.
"Daphne. As in my great, great grandmother? How is that possible?" Lux asked. She put her arms around her grandmother and helped her move across the room so they could all sit together. Lux ran her eyes across Memaw's body, searching for wounds, but none were visible.
"She's been collecting magic from other witches because they bound her powers," Declan explained. He jerked on the chains, the movement making a fresh wave of blood drip down his arms. His next words were part of a sob. "She tricked me. She said her vision showed her I needed to be here when the Circle was reborn, but she's the one who set the parameters of the sleeping spell. She must have set it so I would awaken when the next High Priestess was born. My waking didn't save you; it put you in danger. I lost my family for nothing."
"Hey," Lux whispered, grabbing his face and pressing her forehead against his. She could feel the heat of his tears against her cheeks. "Not for nothing, and it did save me. Without you, I would've succumbed to my power a long time ago. We're soulmates. Don't you remember?"
He nodded, and she kissed him. It was short and light, but filled with promise. "I love you."
She jerked back, his words only a sigh, but they struck her as if he'd screamed them. They buzzed through her veins, more potent than any magic she'd ever channeled. "I love you too."
Memaw cleared her throat. "As lovely as this is, it doesn't help us in this situation. I'm guessing Daphne wants Lux to remove the bind on her magic?"
Declan nodded. "Yes, that's what she said, but we can't let that happen. With the powers she's stolen, and her own magic combined... she'd be a force to be reckoned with. Even if our Circle was trained."
"How is she not crazy?"
"She has to have been capturing the souls of the witches in their stones. It's the only way for a Bloodborn to use the magic without losing their sanity."
Lux covered her mouth. "Oh god. Corinne. How terrible for those girls. Is Leora's soul in her stone?"
Declan and Memaw fixed her with wide-eyed stares. Declan leaned forward. "Lux, no one has seen Leora's stone since she died."
Lux wanted to tell him she'd found it, but another question sparked in her mind. One she'd never asked. "How did she die?"
"You read her diary? You saw the entries about the attacks that began?"
"Yes."
Declan swallowed and turned away. "We wanted to protect her. I became a constant guard. She wasn't to leave the house alone, but one night, not long after the first demon attacked, I looked into her room to check on her. Her bed was empty. She'd sneaked out somehow. I didn't know then why she would risk it, but Daphne told me the truth today."
"You can't trust anything she says," Memaw fussed, placing her hand on Declan's knee and squeezing it.
"No, Phoebe. I believe her. That entry- you know the one, Lux," he paused. She nodded, her heart constricting as she remembered the passionate encounter Leora had described. "It was all a part of her and Daphne's scheme to set me up. My guess is that after they failed in their attempts to get me to sleep with her, she ran away."
Nausea flooded her system once again, but this time it had nothing to do with the blow to her head. How could someone who'd proclaimed to care for a man as kind and strong as Declan betray him in such a manner?
"I sounded the alarm and activated the tracking spell I'd put on her as a precaution, but when I reached her, she was in the middle of a fight with another witch. It was Madeline Nox."
"Ruby's family?"
"Yes, Daphne had warned us of the jealousies within the Circle, and the Nox's had never been fans of the Godelieve women. Leora was holding her own, but I wanted to help. So I jumped into the fight. We thought we had her beat, but at the last minute, Madeline cut herself and cast a spell with blood magic. It threw me into a tree, and just before I passed out, I saw Leora fall. When I woke up, they were both gone."
"So you didn't see her die?" Before he could answer, he twisted away from her and retched into the dirt. Convulsions wracked his body, and even when he stopped throwing up, he continued to shake. "Memaw!"
"It's the cold iron," her grandmother said. Frown lines marred her face, aging her. "It feeds dead magic into the sorcerer's system. It'll kill him if we don't get it off."
"Get it off," Lux screamed, lunging at him and clawing at the iron bands. Everywhere she touched burned, and the smell of burning flesh filled the room.
"Stop," Declan insisted, his voice weak. "Don't hurt yourself."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"It doesn't make any difference, you knowing. And no Lux. I saw Leora die. She fell at an angle that was far too unnatural for her to have survived. We searched for days and never found her. Only the body of Madeline Nox, and the stone was nowhere to be seen."
"Until now. It was with the journal. It was in a jewelry box, and for some reason it opened today. In front of Kitty."
Above their heads, the cellar doors rattled, sending a spray of dirt and dust upon their heads. Angry voices drifted down to them.
"Lux, did Kitty get the stone?"
"Yes."
"Shit," Declan swore. "If she has the stone, she can challenge you for your place as High Priestess. She would have control of the Circle."
A lock clicked above them. "The girls wouldn't follow her," Lux said.
"They wouldn't have a choice. It would bound their magic to her, and with it," Memaw stopped to draw in a deep breath, "with it, she could open the Gateways and unleash hell on earth."
**************************************************
Declan
"Let's hope she's more concerned with removing the binding on her own powers," Declan said, "no need to go borrowing trouble."
Hinges creaked overhead as someone tried to lift the heavy doors. Phoebe thrust something at Lux. "Here, take this."
Lux's brow crinkled as she stared at the ring in her hand. "Memaw, why are you giving me your stone?"
The older woman drew in a deep breath. Its shaky quality concerned Declan, and he wondered what they'd done to the elder witch when they brought her down here. "She didn't take that from you?"
Phoebe shook her head. "Guess she's not concerned about a half trained old lady. Lux, do you remember that day on the swing? When I showed you this for the first time?"
"Vaguely," the girl responded, sliding it on her finger. "What did you just say?"
"No one said anything," Declan replied, his expression puzzled, but Phoebe looked victorious.
Phoebe rushed to speak before their captors returned. "I'm a spirit witch- nothing as strong as an Opal witch, but my stones heighten that ability. When you held it that day, you could pick up on my thoughts. After everything that happened later, I told myself it was a fluke, but you just proved me right."
"But that's crazy," Declan insisted, leaning forward to get a better glimpse of Lux's face and wincing as the iron bit into his tender skin. "Channeling stones aren't supposed to work like that."
"They don't for normal witches, but Lux is not a normal witch."
That was all Phoebe said before the doors were finally flung open and Daphne descended into the darkness. Kitty's pale shape followed behind, but the young witch kept her eyes downcast.
"Oh good, everyone is awake," Daphne said, clapping. Her short hair was mussed, and dirt tracks covered her cheeks. "How you feeling over there, Declan. I really hate using those things."
"Then take them off," he said, wheezing.
Daphne clicked her tongue against her teeth. "I'd be happy to. Just need your little girlfriend here to cooperate, and I'll whisk them right off."
"You know," Lux said, standing on quivering legs, "I'm pretty responsive to being asked nicely. Ever thought of trying that?"
Daphne sized the young witch up, her lips knotted into a sneer. Declan tensed as the tale-tale soft glow of a channeling stone appeared. Without access to the magic around him, he couldn't see what spell Daphne was working, but judging by the venom in her expression, it would not be pleasant.
"Oh, little Lux. I've looked forward to meeting you for so very long now. Did you know I used to dream about you as a little girl? Long before they bound my powers, your face would appear to me. I used to think of you as an imaginary friend, but then I saw the truth. I saw that you were my descendant."
"I'm waiting for the part where you tell me why that pissed you off," Lux retorted. She kept her back straight, and her chin lifted. Just a few days ago, Declan had mourned the loss of that fire- had watched it dwindle and sputter as pain dimmed her light. Seeing it back in full force made his heart soar, but as Daphne's hands clenched at her side, he wished he could tell Lux to bring it down a notch.
Wait, I can tell her. Lux, don't antagonize her. Lux flinched but didn't give any other sign that he'd addressed her.
"Oh, I see," Lux said, ignoring his warning. She closed the gap between her and Daphne. Mercury blazed in the veins of her hands. "It wasn't bad enough that you were playing second string to your sister, but then you saw that I was going to be really powerful. You're jealous."
"Lux," Phoebe said, her voice a hoarse hiss. Her hands were clasped together, the once manicured nails broken and dirty as they dug into her skin. Her time in the cellar had only been a few hours, but her physical countenance had aged in years.
Daphne let loose a strangled scream and wrapped her thin fingers around Lux's throat. She didn't squeeze, just let her hand linger there- a blatant threat as light laced through her fingers. "I've been around for over a hundred years, child. Don't play head games with me. You want to know what I've seen- you want to know why it pissed me off?"
"I'm waiting."
"Your birth required the downfall of our Circle- the loss of my birthright!" Daphne forced Lux back until she was pressed against the same wall Declan was chained to. "I wasn't against a sacrifice if it was for something worthy, but you are an abomination. A seed planted by the enemy. You think your parents are some great love story? No, they were just cogs in someone else's plans. Someone who wants to break open the gateways we've guarded for a millennium, and they're going to use you to do it. They orchestrated everything, down to forcing the bindings of those who would inherit the greatest Circle in existence, all so you would be born."
Declan curled his fingers around the chains, the cold iron cutting through to his bones, but he needed that pain to distract him from the dread unfurling in his stomach. "You lie," he shouted.
Daphne cackled. "I think you know I'm telling the truth." She released Lux and squatted in front of Declan. "You see, I knew you could never love my sister. I knew you had a rare blessing waiting for you in the future, and I thought I was giving you a gift and saving her at the same time. Without you, Lux would have already succumbed to the power. She'd be with the enemy."
Phoebe pulled Lux to her side, putting her arms around her granddaughter and never looking away from her own grandmother. Kitty openly cried, her hands cupping her face as her shoulders heaved.
"I let them bind my powers, and I married and did all the things a good, southern woman did back then. When my daughter was born, I cried because I knew it was the next step towards Lux. But I believed we could save her, and then I learned Leora's secret."
Daphne stopped speaking and stepped back, a cruel smile sitting on her face as she watched the three of them absorb her words. The only sounds in the room were Declan's labored breathing and Kitty's sobbing.
"You're a murderer," he said, "so why should we believe anything that comes out of your mouth. You set all of this up because you knew you couldn't get out of your powers being bound. Don't act like this was some act of selflessness on your part!"
"Declan," Lux said, her head moving from side to side, "she's being honest- or at least she believes what she's saying."
Daphne narrowed her eyes at Lux before turning to Kitty. "Tie up Phoebe."
"Kitty, darling, you don't have to do this. Whatever she has over you doesn't matter."
"You're wrong. It means everything. Please don't fight this Ms. Godelieve."
Lux slid down the wall and pressed her face into Declan's shoulder. He wanted to hold her, but the room was swimming in and out of focus and everything was cold. So cold. "I love you, Lux."
"I love you too," she whispered, her lips on his ear. "Whatever happens next, remember that."
"What do you mean?"
"Someone's coming," she said, her gaze rising to the entrance.
"Lux," he groaned, shivering as they pulled away her from him. Daphne dragged her to the stairs, her grip harsh even though Lux wasn't resisting. Lux looked down at Declan. Dark hair was matted against her face and dirt streaked across her cheeks. She'd never looked more beautiful than in that moment- love burning brightly in her eyes. He reached for her. "Please don't. Whatever you're planning, don't."
The silver in her hands was creeping upwards, and as she turned away, he caught the first glimmer in her eyes. The light flaring across the room was the last thing he saw before he lost the battle against the iron seeping into his bloodstream.