The Golden Chalice

✰✦✰ Chapter 39 ✰✦✰

✰✦✰ Chapter 39 ✰✦✰

" Agora & Apheses "

MY BODY TURNED hot and cold at the same time. Memories and nostalgic, forgotten feelings resurfaced.

No. No, he was lying.

He was an Olympian and, if the things he'd just told me were all true, then he was the worst of them all, meaning he'd had every reason to lie to me.

We weren't back.

Hadn't they gated off the place? They had. They had. They definitely had. I'd been here one time since the kingdom had fallen and there had been Guards standing outside, not seeming to care about the vines entrapping the castle. It had made the place look as if no one had stepped in it in centuries. It had made it feel dead. Because once upon a time, the castle had had a pulse, one beating and alive with sunshine and now that pulse was gone.

"What?" I whispered, but I barely recognised my own voice. I sounded weaker than weak. More childlike than when I'd been one.

"I knew you'd be surprised," Apheses pointed a finger at me. "I was sure the Chalice was beneath The Blue Sea for the longest time, but no! The Chalice was hidden under the bloody castle for centuries!

"I should've guessed instantly. I just never believed Agora stupid enough to hide it somewhere so obvious." He spread out his arms and spun around. A cold laugh caused my heart to ache and he faced me again. "Oh, Scarlett. I need you here, dear, because you are the only one able to open the chamber. The famous chamber within which the Chalice lies. If Agora hadn't locked me out once she discovered my plans to fight back, I would never have abandoned its preciousness. She wiped my mind, did you know that? She forced me to forget where it was hidden. The only thing I had was the picture I'd taken. . .and even that had to be swiped from me for the Quest. I discovered she'd stolen from my memories once I began receiving flashbacks so vivid and quick. It was as if my mind was desperate for me to fight back. To do something.

"It's disappointing, really," he rambled on. "How close Agora and I were. And then she decided to fight me. Fight me. Oh, it's just as ridiculous as it sounds. Anyway," he sighed, "I'm here because you were chosen, Scarlett Solaris."

My eyebrows knitted together in anxiety. "Chosen by whom?"

"Chosen by Agora herself," he said with a fake sweetness laced to his voice. "See, she suspected me. She knew I was trouble," He laughed, "and she was sure I would attempt something. Then again, she never knew I would plan something so elaborate. Anyway, the woman couldn't handle the suspense anymore and chose a name from a girl whose life had not yet begun. And that," he said, "was you, my dear. You were chosen before you even had the chance to be thought of. You are The Aureate Witch."

My world was tumbling down on me like a tsunami. "W-Why?"

"Olympia knows," Apheses confessed comically. "That is something only Agora could explain and she isn't here to do so. I only know that you won't disappoint me. Because once you open that chamber, I will drink from the Chalice," he spoke dreamily, "and my powers will be restored in full once again."

"But—the Chalice? How can it—I don't understand—"

"The Chalice, you idiot girl," he spat viciously, "is the source of the power Agora once possessed. You see, she feared me and my abilities. A part of her knew that I'd be the one to take them down, that I wouldn't give up. So, she locked her powers away into a damned goblet so that no one would get to them—just you, just the chosen girl. For centuries, I waited for you to come of age. For her prophecy to come true. It made it all the more easier for me to destroy Agora, with her being so powerless and embarrassingly weak at the time, yet. . ." His jaw clenched. "Not to reach my end goal. Because of you."

"But I'm. . ." I tried to drink in all the information he was hurling my way. He knew this overwhelmed me—he was doing it deliberately. "I can't be a witch—I'm not a witc—"

"The Aureate Witch," Apheses cut in annoyedly. "Aureate meaning gold. Gold symbolising Agora herself. That letter of Eche's you found?" His grey eyebrows rose. "It speaks of you. It was how I knew this quest would lead you straight to me."

My breaths came in short and shallow. "You betrayed your own family. Your own friends."

He studied me as though he were taking in my words. "And what else is family for if not trials and tribulations?"

"No—" A thought stopped me in my tracks. "My friends. What have you done with them?"

For a moment, an air of cluelessness surrounded the Olympian. It even fooled me into believing he had no idea—until he chuckled and cocked his head at me like I was incompetent. "Your friends," he said, "are fine. Well, truthfully that depends on your definition of fine. To me, they're living luxuriously considering the trouble that that boy caused me. Bloody Crimson criminals. . ."

Darius.

What had he done? Had he gotten them in more trouble than necessary? But they were alive. They had to be. That was the most important part.

They were alive.

And though they were probably agonised and traumatised and scarred for life, they were alive. I repeated it to myself like a mantra, like a rope I was clinging onto for dear life so that I wouldn't slip into the abyss. That had to be enough for me right now. One of the few things keeping m—

An ear-splitting cry echoed through the dungeons.

A man's.

Apheses smiled cheerfully, jamming a thumb in the direction of the source of the sound. "There he is."

I was helpless. So helpless and useless. "What are you doing to them?" I cried quietly.

"No matter," Apheses rubbed his hands together and gazed at me expectantly. "We ought to get a move on." He glanced at the dimly lit corridor beyond my cell and called out a name. "Vilkov! Could you please come fetch our guest for me?"

I surveyed the corridor for any movement until someone walked in. A shadow appeared first, telling me they had to be tall and male. I couldn't make out more until they were under the light.

I all but fell to my knees when Jacks appeared.