Page 16 of When Roses Burn

My fingers trailed over the polished mahogany railing as I climbed the stairs to the second floor. I didn’t know who kept the harem clean, but everything gleamed, and the spicy scent followed me. My mother probably sent servants here at least once a week, but I wasn’t privy to that information.

On the second floor, I encountered much the same as the first, except there was also a mermaid. She lay on the shores of a pool, her tail flapping against the water as she sang while braiding her hair. I had no idea what crime the beautiful woman had committed, but she didn’t acknowledge my presence, and she wasn’t who I was looking for.

On the third floor, a few of the rooms were empty, but more eternals occupied the others. Panic was starting to mount as the number of rooms left to search decreased, and I still couldn’t find Seth.

Did my mother remove him to keep him from me? Did his father manage to free him?

The possibility had never occurred to me before entering this place. Until now, I’d been so certain she’d make sure to leave him here for me to see, but maybe she’d decided to take the money or that his presence would deter me from choosing the night caster side.

Heart hammering, I stared in dismay at the last, empty room as I tried to figure out what to do next. Trying not to panic, I turned away from the door and flattened myself against it as my chest heaved with my breath.

My eyes spun wildly before landing on a staircase ten feet to my right and hidden in shadows. I stopped breathing as I took in the set of stairs winding up to the tower.

Then my heart gave a mighty lurch as my throat went dry. Closing my eyes, I breathed in and out as I tried to calm my racing pulse; I never wanted to enter a tower again, something my mother probably realized.

Which meant, if Seth was here, then she’d most likely moved him up there.

You can do this. You can do anything for him.

And that was the truth, even if every step toward those stairs terrified me. With an increasing sense of urgency to finish my search, I moved faster until I was running up the stairs to find the only one who’d kept me going for these past ten years.

I was more terrified to discover Seth wasn’t here than I was of the tower, but each step closer to the door above caused my chest to constrict further.

CHAPTER TEN

Knox

“Are you sure about this?” Lyra asked.

Standing on top of a hill, I stood with my friends as I gazed at the harem below. I’d seen it only twice before… on the day Marina imprisoned me in it, and again on the day I freed these three and fled with them.

I hadn’t been here when Briar entered, but she was in there. Not only could I smell her strawberry and eucalyptus scent, but I’d seen the night casters strolling away from the harem as they headed back to their castle.

Marina’s probably at the front of that line.

My claws extended and retracted as my fangs throbbed. One day, I’d kill that queen bitch, but before then, I’d make her traitorous whore of a daughter pay.

“I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life,” I replied. “The time for revenge has come, and she will help us in Wildwood.”

“They might have left someone behind to protect her in case you arrived,” Pierce said.

While that was a possibility, I doubted it. “If they did, I’ll kill them. Besides, the casters won’t break from their traditions. Not to mention, so many spells protect that shithole that the casters are confident no one can get in or out… again.”

“But they know you did escape once,” Lyra said. “And they’ve probably added more spells since then. If you go in there, you might not make it back out.”

“While they might have put new spells on there, they won’t be as powerful as the ones originally placed on the harem. Don’t forget, the tribunal banded together and bound the casters’ collective powers as punishment for what they did to Wildwood,” I reminded them. “A single caster’s spell won’t hold me.”

That was also one of the reasons Marina never hunted us after we escaped the harem. We’d somehow managed to break free of the casters’ magic that had been interwoven and strengthened throughout the millennia.

She didn’t dare come after us without the combined might of all the night casters, and the day casters wouldn’t help her. They had no hand in the curse cast on Wildwood and, therefore, retained the full force of their powers. In fact, even though they were evil fuckers too, they helped the tribunal punish the night casters, and it was not out of the goodness of their own hearts.

Despite the night and day casters being much the same and having many of the same traditions, an open animosity had always existed between them. That acrimony only intensified after the day casters helped to bind them.

The other reason she let us be was because the tribunal had promised further retribution if anything happened to us. She couldn’t risk being stripped further of her powers.

I lifted the dark sorcerer we’d caught in No Man’s Land. He was arriving when we discovered him in the stable. I didn’t give him a chance to react before I buried my claws in his skull and dragged him onto my mount.

My claws remained in the caster’s head as I waved him in the air. He emitted gurgling sounds as blood sprayed from his mouth.