Winter Fire [ Book 1 ] ✔

Chapter Thirty Seven

 Claire kept falling, tumbling down through a tangle of twisted limbs, being pulled deeper into the writhing mass of darkness towards what she didn't know. Death, perhaps? If that was the case, she hoped it was a quick death.

When she did finally hit the ground it was not with as much force as one might expect considering how far she had fallen. It was enough to knock the wind from her lungs and she immediately felt the cold chill as something wet began to soak through her clothes.

The pungent odor of wet earth invaded her senses and when she moved to sit up, her fingers sand into half an inch of mud.

"We really need to stop meeting like this," a voice drawled from the darkness.

Claire's head snapped to towards the sound and she saw the outline of a figure lurking in the shadows. Fear and apprehension coursed through her, causing her to tremble as she tried to scramble to her feet.

The mud was thick and slick, clinging to her hands and her clothes, causing her to slip each time she tried to rise. By the time she got to her hands and knees she felt exhausted, as though she had just run a marathon uphill. Her heart was hammering in her chest and her breathing had deteriorated into short, ragged gasps.

"Now, now, Claire, you mustn't strain yourself," Sevik cooed, moving to stand over her. His feet made soft squelching sounds as he approached and Claire felt her stomach role. "Considering how sick you are."

Sick? What the hell was he talking about?

"What are you talking about?" Claire asked breathlessly. It felt like no matter how much she tried, she just couldn't seem to catch her breath.

Sevik chuckled, crouching down beside her. She felt his hand on her cheek as he brushed her hair aside. "Dear, sweet, Claire, don't you feel it? Can't you sense it moving within you? Consuming you little by little?"

"If you're trying to scare me, it's not going to work, I feel perfectly-" Claire was cut short by a sharp, cramping sensation in her abdomen. She toppled forward into the mud again, drawing her knees to her chest as she tried not to scream. It felt as though someone had taken a heated fire poker and started ramming it into her stomach.

"It affects some slower than others," Sevik said with a casual shrug.

After a minute or so the pain subsided and Claire found she could breathe again.

"What have you done to me?" Claire gasped, unable to find the strength to pick herself up out of the cold, wet muck.

"Nothing that can't be undone," Sevik said, "if you give me what I want."

"I'd rather die," Claire snapped without hesitation.

Sevik chuckled. "How unfortunate for you, Claire," he said, rising to full height. Claire heard him move away, heard the soft hiss of a match striking stone and then light flooded the room. It was so brilliant, so unexpected, that Claire was forced to close her eyes until they grew accustomed to the pale yellow glow.

As she looked around, Claire realized she recognized the tiny dirt room. Somehow, she was back in the cellar where Sevik had held her hostage. Towards the back of the room she saw the overturned chair she had been held captive in, she saw the glint of silver where the dagger still remained buried in the dirt wall, and then there was Sevik.

He was leaning casually against a table, a wine glass filled with crimson in one hand, the other still held the dead match which he twirled absently between his fingers.

"It's not the sort of sickness that is going to kill you, no, nothing so...benevolent," Sevik continued. "The shade's venom is very potent, I am genuinely surprised you lasted this long, perhaps I did underestimate your strength. No matter, it won't be much longer now..."

"Until what?" Claire managed as a fresh wave of pain rolled over her.

"Until you become one with the others, one with the shades," Sevik finished, sipping at his wine as though he was discussing a change in the weather and not Claire's inevitable descension into darkness and eternal servitude.

"You're lying..."

"You know that I'm not," Sevik replied. "It doesn't have to end like this. You can have your happily ever after."

"There are ways to stop it before it consumes you," Sevik explained casually, as though he were giving her a recipe for chocolate chip cookies and not talking about her life. "The first one is easy, you can go back to your world, Claire. You can leave Alek, and all his little friends, and this foolish notion they harbor of rebellion and restitution. You can go back and you can pretend that this was all just one bad dream. Wouldn't that be nice?"

"Option number two?" Claire pressed from between gritted teeth.

"Well, you can bring me the prince, and I'll, in turn, grant you your salvation," Sevik said with a nonchalant shrug. "Then you can stay here and play happy housewife with Drosselmeyer, and I promise never to darken your doorstep again."

Those were the choices? Leave Alek, or betray him? She should have known whatever game Sevik was playing involved getting his hands on the nutcracker.

"I'll find my own way," Claire hissed, "I'll do whatever I have to do, but I won't betray Alek."

He rose to his feet and stared down at her.

He was smiling, but his dark eyes shone bright with malice. "You say that now, Claire, but when the time comes, when you fully grasp what your future holds, I think you will wish you had just given me what I wanted.. I will give you twenty four hours to decide at which point I will come to you again. I suggest you think quickly. Your life depends on it."

"Wait-"

Before Claire could finish, Sevik reached out and tapped her square in the force head causing her entire world to go black.