Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

LOMD Chapter 20 - The Girl On Blue Fire

Chapter 20

VIVIENNE WOKE UP on the mossy floor beside Blake's body. She noticed that he felt cold to the touch and the wounds in his chest had slowed their bleeding. Maybe, he was healing or he was dying. Vivienne didn't have time to wonder. She reached for his wrist and nearly dropped it in horror as she noticed a jagged wound like he had been bitten. Vivienne felt a wave of nausea sweep over her and she nearly started dry-heaving. But at the same time, she also noticed the knife wound in her side was gone.

Vivienne willed herself to focus. It was almost morning.

Vivienne quickly unbuckled the watch from Blake's wrist. She took it from him and placed it on her own arm. Somehow, looking at the pale gold clock face, she couldn't help but feel as though she was looting a corpse. There wasn't time to think, there were only twenty minutes until sunrise. Vivienne stood up and ran to the wall with the carving of the willow tree. If Blake's memories were correct, just beyond this wall was the original Segais tree. Yes, a tree needs light to grow, Vivienne thought to herself. This tree must grow below the sinkhole in the forest.

Vivienne remembered Sebastian Thorne saying that explosives will be placed under the Thorne family seal. Now, there was the question of how to trigger them. Perhaps, that was the reason Blake wore this particular watch down here that day.

Vivienne pointed the watch face to the center of the willow tree and slowly approached it. She wasn't sure how close she had to be to trigger it. As she came within an inch of the wall, a crack formed in the cave. Vivienne jumped back and shielded her face. There wasn't an explosion. Instead, the walls of the cave moved and a doorway formed where the tree had been.

Vivienne slowly understood. This was the shortcut Sebastian Thorne had spoke of. Perhaps, their work had never finished rigging the cave with explosives. Something had happened, and Sebastian's plans were never carried out. Vivienne stepped into the doorway and smiled. Before her, stood a majestic tree standing stories high.

~*~

Vivienne walked up to the magnificent century-old tree. The ground under her feet was covered with leaves. She touched the twisted bark of the tree and it momentarily glowed in blue-gold. Vivienne looked up, wondering if the branches stretched all the way to the surface. Taking a deep breath, she looked up and saw light-blue light filtering through the branches high above. Dawn was coming. Vivienne could almost feel the light of the sun on her face. This had to be the way out.

"So, there you are, cunt," a voice came from behind her. Vivienne jumped and spun around. At the end of this long night, the last thing she wanted was another fight. Standing there, his gigantic frame blocking the entire doorway was non-other than Ashlar. He was smiling at her, his eyes glowing with demonic light. He coughed out a mouthful of black water as he approached her. He was holding a knife in one hand and Zissa's staff in the other.

"You killed the girl I love," Ashlar snarled. "Once the waters rose, I was going to spend eternity with that hoe."

"She obviously didn't want to spend eternity with you!" Vivienne curtly responded as she backed into the tree. Her hand went down to her bag and found one of her stakes. She only had one left.

Ashlar's eyes followed her hand into her bag. He chuckled at her and continued slowly walking towards her. The leaves crunched under his feet and withered into dust.

"Your boyfriend," Ashlar said. "He told me to say his name, didn't he? Where is he now? We can finally face each other demon to demon. Or is he sending you to do his dirty work? Where is what's-his-face?"