“Ah yes,” she said as her expression turned from one of intrigue to one of sadness and empathy. “I am sorry for your loss. From what the children have told me, Gretel sounded like an honorable woman.”
“She was.” Cai fought against the stinging in his eyes and bit back the pain that was still as fresh and raw as if Gretel’s death had just happened all over again. But he had to stay focused on why they had come. The dark sorcery would return soon, and they didn’t have much time. “Are the children here?”
“No, I’m afraid they’re not back yet. I told them not to go out, but they said they had to get something, something for you.”
“For me? How did they even know I would be coming?”
“I’m not sure,” the woman said as she shook her head. Her fingers jittered nervously against the teacups. “I didn’t want them going out. I told them it wasn’t safe and the plague would return, but they wouldn’t listen. They were adamant that they needed to go. They promised me they would be right back, but it has been several minutes now, and I am worried about their safety.”
Cai was worried too. He looked at Astra for an indication of when the plague would return. She immediately knew what he was thinking.
“An hour,” she answered before he even had to ask the question. “Maybe less.”
“I’m going to find them,” he said. “You two stay here with this woman and her boy. I’ll be back soon.”
“No,” Celeste protested. “It’s too dangerous. They could be anywhere, and the plague will return while you are out there.”
“They’re not anywhere. I know where they are.”
“Where?”
“They’re at my cavern.”
Celeste’s eyes widened, and she put her hand to her chest. “But there’s nothing left there but destruction and sadness. Why would they go there?”
“I can’t explain it; I just know that’s where they are.” He turned to Astra and took her hands in his. “You need to trust me, and you need to stay here with my sister. I’ll be back before the plague returns, I promise.”
Astra nodded and leaned forward to kiss him as his blood-red eyes looked deeply into her eyes filled with stars.
Cai ran across the rope bridges that led to the mountains as quickly as he could. He knew that time was not on his side. What he didn’t know was how to cross over to the mountain his cave rested within, now that the bridges leading there had been severed. He stood at the end of the last bridge and looked across. Then he remembered who he was and what his magic could do. He hadn’t ever used his dark magic for something like this; he mostly used it as a weapon, and sometimes it just came as a usurping reaction.
He thought about what Astra had said, that he could use the magic for good things. Cai closed his eyes and pulled against the power inside him. He felt it trying to run free and pour out of his skin like a wild wind. He felt his eyes sting against the back of his eyelids and realized that they must have felt this way ever since they traded their pigment for the redness; he hadn’t even noticed until now. He focused on being across the chasm and at the mountain, and he let go of every other thought in his head until it felt like there was only him and the stone beneath his feet. When he opened his eyes again, he was standing just outside the entrance to his cavern.
CHAPTER THREE
Cai’s hand shook against his thigh. He grabbed it with his other hand and pressed it tightly to stop himself from shaking. It was an involuntary tremble, one he didn’t even realize he was doing until he heard the rings on his fingers clatter against the blade that hung at his side. The last time he had been here, was when he had found Gretel’s dead body and had torn the place apart in his fury and sorrow. He hadn’t expected to ever return. He took a step inside the tunnel that led into the cave and noticed that even his leg was trembling now.
He didn’t know how he knew Gretel’s siblings would be here; he just did. Maybe it was because he would have done the same thing if he thought it to be his last moments alive before a massive plague came and carried him to the afterlife. If it were him, he would have gone back to his childhood home, the place where he cherished his last memories of his mother. It made sense to him that the other children would come here, to the spot that held their last memories of Gretel.
With each step he took closer to the opening of the cavern, violent and torturous images of Gretel’s brutally murdered body flashed into his head and nearly stopped him in his tracks. He felt like he was having a panic attack and a stroke at the same time. Even the fact that he now felt something for Astra, something that seemed to be fated in the stars if he were to believe her about it, still didn’t lessen the grief that haunted him with Gretel. He didn’t even know why he felt so strongly about checking on her sisters and brother. It wasn’t as if they were his children. But he had cared so deeply for Gretel, and he wanted to do right by her, even in the afterlife; so, he took the final step into the large, open room of the cave and into the light of the lit candles that were placed sparingly around the room.
They were there, all three children, just as he had thought. They sat on the ground in front of an unlit fireplace, huddled together in one of Gretel’s old blankets. They looked up at Cai as he entered with their wide eyes. They didn’t seem scared, or surprised, or really any emotion at all. They just looked tired, and cold, and hungry.
“You remember me, don’t you?” he asked as he walked in and took a knee down beside them.
The boy sat between the two sisters with his arm around both of them. For children who were still at least a year or two away from reaching adolescence, they had a much wiser look on their faces than their physical years gave them credit for.
“Yes,” the oldest of the two sisters said. “I remember when you played with us here in this room.”
Cai smiled. “Yeah, that was fun. I miss that.”
“You miss her, too,” the boy said to him. “Don’t you?”
Cai’s voice cracked when he spoke. “Terribly.”
He sat all the way down beside them and crossed his legs beneath him. “Why are you all here? The woman you live with said that there was something you needed to go and get. What is it?”
The three children exchanged glances, and then the older sister nodded to the younger one. “It’s okay,” she told the smaller girl. “It’s for him anyway.”
There was a small rustle beneath their blanket, and then the little girl pulled out her hand and produced a round, metal talisman that housed a single green stone in the center of it. The entire piece was as big as her small hand, and her fingers barely reached to curl around the edges of it as she handed it to Cia. “Here,” her little voice said.
Cai put his hand out, and she dropped the talisman into his palm. It was solid and heavier than it looked. He lifted it up to his face and turned it around in front of his eye to take a closer look at it. The curved silver edges were tarnished, but the circular stone in the middle was as brilliant in color as if it were new.
“What is this?” he asked.
“A gift,” the elder girl said. “From Gretel.”
Cia’s eyes immediately darted from the talisman up to the girl’s face. “Gretel?”