Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

DB Chapter 15 - Snowfall

Chapter 15

ALLISON HAD NEVER SEEN where Blake resided. Going back home with him was strangely, uncomfortably intimate. They rode in silence. He stared out the window, lost in thought. Allison saw her own reflection in the car window as it gradually started to snow. She had a feeling that the road now led back to Lewisville. She supposed she should have been grateful to escape with her life.

It didn't surprise her in the least that he lived in a fortress-like tower surrounded by a hidden garden in the middle of the city. She would have expected no less of him. The car drove them through a maze-like underground complex before finally emerging on a road through the garden. It was beautiful here, especially in the rain. The trees bloomed with winter jasmine, and the ground was covered with snowdrops.

She recalled Blake once told her that his mother loved the rain, but he preferred the snow. From what she knew of Odelia, Allison could see the tall, beautifully stern woman telling her son that she would always be with him when it rained.

What would you turn into if you fail in this mission to Aethon, Blake? Allison wondered. Would you fall around us like the winter snow?

Blake got out of the car before Glenn could come around and open the doors. Allison stepped out and realized the snow had already started to stick. Her shoes made footprints, and the flakes stung her bare skin. Blake was standing alone, staring at the sky, as though the stars would offer him an answer to his vampiric plight. He never looked as beautiful as he did then, even though he was still covered in black blood.

Allison wondered what he was seeing in the blackness of the sky. Aethon offered a dream of a future he dared not hope for. Would he briefly see Vivienne's starkly pale eyes playfully batting at him as she tossed her straight jet-black hair, wearing a dress of champagne white? Could he see the faces of their future children?

Allison suddenly laughed, echoing around her. Two boys appeared like ghostly phantoms, running through the corkscrew willows. One had blue-green eyes, and the other, who came closer, had darker features.

A little boy with black hair and eyes reached for Blake's hand. He didn't feel it because he didn't see the ghosts; only Allison did. The boy took a step back, and his silhouette melted into that of a young man, about their age.

Father, I miss you. Does the snow fall in Mearnox tonight?

Allison blinked, and the ghosts were done. Blake was staring at her as though she had gone mad.

"What happened?" he asked. Allison realized all the blood had drained from her face, and she felt dizzy.

"I think I had a premonition," she whispered. Maglania's power at times allowed her glimpses of the future. When Maglania placed the red thread in Allison's neck, a piece of her passed into Allison. "I saw a child. He called you father." Allison swallowed hard. "He wanted to know if snow fell in Mearnox."

"Then, I must be dead," Blake noted with a sad smile. He flexed his hand as though he too felt the ghostly child's hand. Then he stared at his feet and smiled again; this time, Allison saw genuine happiness. "Did he look more like me or like Vivienne?"

"Neither," Allison responded, carefully. "But I didn't get a good look." Blake had so readily assumed these children came from Vivienne that Allison didn't want to suggest anything to the contrary. The young man she had seen had stronger, more masculine features, unlike any she had seen on anyone in the Great Families.

"If your visions are true, I may have to make good on my promise to Charlie Liang," Blake joked.

"I hope that betrothal goes smoother than yours with Eden."

Blake's face immediately fell. Allison realized she had touched a nerve with those words. She couldn't recall if Eden had dark eyes or not. Eden was beautiful, but her beauty was not memorable. Poor Eden, holding out hope for a boy whom she deserved according to her rank and status. But that boy had long since been bewitched by another. Allison wondered if Blake's hypothetical son would show more loyalty to the wishes of his father than Blake had to those of his mother.

"I have ceased to care what Maglania knows, but I don't particularly wish for her to appear in my apartment at will," Blake stated, redirecting the conversation back to the matter at hand. "Do you mind if I seal the Thread of Menjure around your neck?"

"No, go ahead." Allison brushed her curls aside so that he could see the thread that ribboned around her throat down to her collarbone. He had manipulated the thread in her neck before, but it had been only for a short period. It wasn't like this. This time, Maglania would know that Blake had altered it because when the Princess woke, she would undoubtedly know that Allison had fled.

If Maglania and Gabriel had discussed Blake harnessing the six powers, then they must have some inkling that he, too, could manipulate the Menjure as the Sarastri Princess was able to. Blake placed his hand on her neck, and Allison struggled not to think about how warm his touch was now that he had been taking the Lumins. He practically felt indistinguishable from a human.

Despite his relatively privileged upbringing, she could feel the calluses on his fingers. Allison struggled not to think about how it felt to be touched by him. She noted that he had somehow managed to wipe the dried blood from his hands during the car ride over. Her eyes followed his arm up to his face. She saw him close his eyes to concentrate. He always had the kind of eyelashes one could write poems about.

"As long as you're not placing your own Menjure on me," Allison joked.

"Even if I hadn't nearly bled to death on her bedroom floor today, attempting to do that would surely kill me," Blake replied under his breath. Allison's lip flickered up in a smile, but she gasped as her neck suddenly felt as though it were on fire. Then, it dulled into a mild numbness and tingling, as though the thread and the pain it carried with it had been walled off from the rest of her body.

Blake withdrew his hand and motioned for her to enter the private entryway into the fortress.

"It's not gone, but we'll save that problem for another day."

Allison saw Blake rub his hand against the side of his blazer as though he, too, felt that sensation of burning. He smiled sheepishly when he noticed her worried eyes linger.

"I'm not as adept as she is with the Menjure," he explained as the elevator doors opened. "Not even close."

"You get by."

"Getting by isn't enough to break Jaduerial's curse in Aethon."

Inside the elevator, Allison noticed that Blake was leaning against the railing at the back. Binding the Menjure had taken even more out of him than being beaten half to death by his duel with Orlin Bonds. Perhaps he was right to hesitate to venture into Aethon. But she had seen the ghostly vision of the two boys with her own eyes. That meant there was a future in which Blake broke the curse and became human.

Allison doubted Blake had any ability to see the future. That was an ability that even Maglania dared not to exercise. Allison's brief glimpse probably meant that Maglania was losing her ability to control what powers she was using at any given time. If Maglania died and there was no clear successor, this city would descend into chaos.

Allison chewed on her bottom lip. She didn't like any of the children of the Great Families. But out of all the ones she had met, she knew that Blake was the best chance this city had at any stability. He knew Aethon intimately, he understood the inner workings of Sulia, and most of all, he had a motive to keep the peace. Peace was what he needed to keep Tercel going, to keep a steady supply of Black Waters coming from Aethon.

She was already staying here out of the goodness and generosity of Blake's heart. It wouldn't be right for her to tell Vivienne about the curse. Even Julian had tried to convince Blake to tell Vivienne, and he had failed. As frustrating as it was, it simply wasn't a secret that was hers to tell.

He needed to tell her personally. To do that, he needed to learn to ask for help. Allison sighed. This wasn't going to be easy.