Legends of Astræa: Cupid's Arrow Book 1 (Legends of Astræa Series) Read online

  “I can’t leave you here. None of this would have happened if—” I broke. It was all my fault. I had called too much attention onto Gavril, and Ash had noticed my fondness for him, as well as everyone else. “I’ll find help,” I whispered to him.

  “Don’t bring Francis. He will use him or me against you. He and Count Dracula will keep me alive—for leverage.”

  “You mean the Count is alive?”

  He made a “duh” face back at me. Count Dracula, as Gavril called him, shouldn’t have seen the sunrise after Gavril left the palace. But he did. Why? And much to my misfortune, I had the strong suspicion of who this he was. Ash. Gavril was right. I couldn’t bring Francis into this.

  “How do you suggest I help you then?” I asked him, feeling helpless.

  “By not coming here,” he plainly said.

  Crap. My gaze traveled the room. I recognized the Spartan fireplace next to him. No, no, no, no. This was impossible. Gavril was inside the Our Lady of the Stars convent. He shouldn’t be there. How about the Sisters? Were they safe? It was winter, so there wouldn’t be any students left this time of the year. I hoped.

  “How in the world did you end up here?” I asked him, ultimately shocked, examining the room.

  “Let’s say I didn’t expect it.” His gaze was lost somewhere in the room.

  I used my mind to unlock his shackles. Four clicks announced he was free. He rubbed his wrists to take the painful stiffness away. I could just have imagined.

  “Was it at the palace?” I asked, afraid of the answer.

  He avoided looking at me.

  “Who?” I prompted him for an answer, but he still wouldn’t tell me. “Please tell me, who?” Perhaps it would be better not knowing.

  “The One Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken,” he said, quoting a famous line from his favorite book. God, he was still joking. Ash. Of course… who else. Crap. Crap.

  There was a moan. I turned around and found another terrible sighting on the other side of the Spartan room, hidden among a pile of old blankets. Suddenly, I recognized the strange and mystical glimmering teal-and-gold signum on a very grimy arm and shoulder. Oh, God—a Strzyga.

  Her auburn hair was matted and very long. Her torn gown had once been a shimmery expensive silk that had become dirty and grimy rags. Her hands and feet had been once protected with the finest. Now they lay bare with loose shackles and chains to the stonewall.

  I had seen her face in the dream Demyan had concocted for me and every day in the large painting over the large fireplace mantel of the queen’s room. Although she looked dreadfully emaciated, I recognized Nicholas’s good looks in her. I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how long she’d been a prisoner against her will. There was nothing unreal about this. This wasn’t a movie, a dream, or my imagination. My hearts went out for her.

  Her face looked at me with wonderment.

  “Vous êtes un ange?” Sounding disturbingly sick and exhausted, she asked me if I was an angel in educated French. Her question caught me by surprise. As surprised as I was, I knew she could see me just like Marcum or Gavril had.

  “You are Nicholas’s mother and Our Majesty.” I gave her my recognition even when she was far from the looks of a queen.

  “I am Anne.” Her eyes filled with regret and hope. “My Draugr needs help. He is dying. Please, could you help him?” She begged me. There were tears marking trails along her dirty face. I guessed she had seen me heal Gavril.

  I had no idea where her Draugr was, but I followed my instinct and moved like light into another confined, darker room, crossing my finger no one could see me as I easily crossed through walls and doors. My body softly illuminated the small room as I approached the poor creature. I knew this small room. I used to play hide-and-seek with Mother Clarisse when I was barely a child in this room. It was used as the linens storage. The Sisters used it to keep the embroidered white linens they created during the winter season to be sold during summer.

  A beautiful creature with iridescent ethereal skin like the night and large, folded bat-like wings and a long, pointy tail lay on the cold stone floor. I could see him plainly with my body of light, just like I could in my dreams or through reflections. His wrists and legs were chained to the wall. I caressed his face and wished with all my heart to help him. At that exact moment, my wish projected like a one sunlit ray that struck the creature’s heart.

  His body lifted slightly from the floor as greenish-blue tendrils of energy embraced him like an intricate woven of healing light. This was as close as I’d ever gotten to using the core of my life energy. I had healed Émil, but it had been different from doing it with my light body. I wished I had a name for this.

  I watched as the green energy invigorated him. I knew then I had given this creature a second chance. The Draugr was elated with his healing. It looked at me with worshipping eyes. To avoid his attention, I focused instead on his shackles. They popped open.

  “Thank you, child,” he said with fervent gratefulness.

  “Don’t thank me yet.” I had to find a way to free them first—away from Ash’s attention. “Anne, she needs you. You must be the strong one for her,” I added, knowing it was going to be a surprise for him to be heard.

  “U muste bee ‘Zee legend—Astræa,’ u arr er. Zee goddess dat can astral project.” He paused in thought.

  Astral project? Was that what this was called?

  “My name is Miko.” He extended his hand to shake.

  I giggled when he realized I was made of energy as his hand missed holding mine in the air.

  “I am Ailie. I will try to help you out of here. Until then, stay strong.” I promised the creature without knowing exactly how I would do that and departed. In an instant, I was back in the presence of Queen Anne. She was beautiful despite her unhealthy conditions.

  On the floor, a pitcher of water was half full, and an empty plate the Sisters had probably given her called my attention. She was going to need her energy back until I could figure how to help them escape off the island.

  Then out of somewhere in my mind, I recalled something about the vibration or frequencies applied to water. I had never done this before, but at the moment, it seemed like a good idea. I was going to give her energy medicine, sort of like one of those energy shots that people buy in stores. I wished at that moment I had one—since my energy started to feel intermittent and very spotty—as the blue-greenish tendrils of energy wandered out of my hands and touched the water inside the pitcher. The water fizzled with small bubbles, radiating a beautiful blueish glow. Queen Anne saw it and gasped. Gavril was standing next to her.

  “You must drink some,” Gavril said to her, instinctively understanding what I was trying to do, also because he could see my intention in my mind.

  I nodded and focused on the shackles of the queen. I did the first one of four when we all heard the lock of the door being open.

  “Go! Now!” Gavril ordered me. “Go. Don’t come back. I’ll figure out the rest,” Gavril said as they both watched me fade away.

  I was in trouble with Gavril. More precisely, I had left them in trouble; the queen wasn’t free. Crap.

  The room was spinning when I came back. I managed to crawl back to my bed—very slowly. Crap. My body wasn’t ready for more astral trips. Now was time to make that call.

  I clicked Francis fast-dial number and inhaled before he answered my phone call.

  I rushed to apologize first. “Francis, I didn’t mean any of those awful words. I trust you. I am so sorry.”

  “Why did you say them?” He managed to ignore my apology. He was upset with me. Crap.

  “Because… Hum, I was trying to protect you and Gavril.” But right then, and for some unknown reason, it all sounded childish and rash. Like I could protect anyone. Gavril was in trouble because of me—again.

  “Good. Funny that I was trying to protect you too.” Francis pointed out the obvious. “If your idea of calling on the primordials as a distraction
was your intention, your plan almost ended as a disaster.” He paused his parental chastising. Somehow, I felt like I deserved it. After all the hurtful things I’d said to him. Wait, he said… crap, not them.

  “What do you mean primordials?” I already knew the answer to that, but I needed to hear it.

  “Your letter said you had arranged a grandiose distraction that would enable Master Demyan to come and rescue you from your fiancé at exactly eleven. Am I getting something wrong, or has the loss of blood made you forget?” Crap. He was really, really pissed off, much more than Demyan Greco.

  “Francis, the distraction was supposed to be hundreds of large rodents running amuck in the middle of the dance floor. Not primordials.” God this whole thing was really getting out of hand.

  “Ah, those,” Francis said almost disappointed. We both sighed at the same time. “I see. I accept your apology. How are you feeling?” he asked. I wished I could hug him at that moment. He was a remarkable person.

  “I feel okay. If only I knew… Where am I?” I ventured to find out my whereabouts.

  “We must not speak of that over the phone for your security. You should know better than that.” Back to chastising me. Crap. “However, I can tell you the large Chihuahuas did help Master Demyan and me distract four primordials. Two of them helped break Rurikovich free from the dungeon.”

  The Count wasn’t dead, like Gavril had said. Crap. I had caused havoc, and I had distracted them from the task at hand. I shook my head. I had accused Demyan Greco of being late when it had been clearly all my fault. Crap.

  “The other two were determined to reach your room, making us delay your rescue,” he complained again about my terrible plan. However, I could tell he was enjoying giving me grief for my stupidity. “Of course, these two primordials were remarkably different.”

  “Define different,” I asked.

  “Supernatural. Their behavior was not human. They had the power to levitate in the air and had unnatural strength to fight.” His voice raised with concern. Crap. It sounded totally like Ash, a.k.a. Asmodeus, was the one responsible for that kind of weird.

  “Francis, I know where the Count is. He has Gavril and the queen,” I told him.

  He gasped over the phone. “I thought the mongrel had left for good.” He sighed with dark emotion. “Is the queen alive?” His voice almost broke. He wasn’t fooling me. He would never break into emotional distress for Gavril, at least not like that.

  “Yes, but both are in great danger, Francis.” I felt him holding his breath. The uncomfortable silence in our phones was charged.

  “Ailie, you must tell me where they are. I will find them,” Francis said in his let’s-do-it tone of voice. The type of tone that left no room for excuses.

  “Don’t get upset, but I cannot tell you. Ash will use you against me too.” Ash would kill you like he did Mother Clarisse. I was not going to get him in harm’s way. No. He didn’t deserve such a fate because of me. No one did.

  “Ash?” he asked.

  I blurted into a small giggle. I had forgotten that was the name I alone had used for Asmodeus. I had to start from the beginning, hoping he wouldn’t think I had suddenly become insane. I sighed.

  “Francis, you need to hear everything, from the very beginning.” So I told him about how Mother Clarisse died, Ash’s visits at night, how I met Gavril, and most importantly, I apologized for not telling him about the golden arrow and how it affected Nicholas and me. “How is he?” I had to ask.

  “Our Royal Highness is being taken care of. However, he feels terrible for what he’s done, as he should,” he said, disapproving what Nicholas had done to me. But it wasn’t Nicholas’s fault.

  “About that. Uh, don’t get mad, but I stole the Count’s notes,”

  “Go on,” he prompted.

  So, I told him about each of the notebooks and how I believed Nicholas could be saved with those formulas. Then I told him about the elder Marcum.

  “You WHAT?” he screamed, just like Demyan had before.

  “Francis, you got to listen. Marcum and Nicholas need our help. We have to find a way to fix this, or there will be no kingdom left.” I reminded him who the future king was. At this point in time, I wasn’t even sure if we could fix them. All I had was hope.

  “Ailie, listen to me. We shall figure out what to do. Please, you must trust me and tell me the queen’s location when we meet.” His voice had that commanding tone I had come to know so well. And yet I felt someone like him, strong and a mighty power to contend with, would be so fragile against someone like Ash. I felt terrible for not telling him. For not trusting him enough to survive this.

  “Francis, Ash is all powerful. You would be another pawn, just like Gavril and the queen are. Now, if you think like Ash would, he would track you to find me, so meeting me is out of the question. Gavril is right. You should not be here or there, because if he gets you, I will come and try to save you, knowing it is a trap.”

  “Ailie, even though it comes at the worst possible time, I see you are finally thinking like a war strategist and not a compulsive silly princess. I am so proud of you.” He was mocking me, tenderly.

  “Well, something from Sun-Zi must have rubbed off on me—I hope.”

  “In the meantime, you must stay safe there. Be where your enemy is not.” Francis forewarned me. Right. “Promise me.”

  I couldn’t. “Uh, Francis, by the way, Lord Aurous, Asmodeus, and Ash are one and the same.” I avoided lying or making promises I couldn’t keep. “Be careful.”

  We both knew he wasn’t going to sit down and wait, nor was I. No one could ever know where I was going. This was my battle alone. But I needed strategy.

  “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle,” Sun-Zi. I had to find Ash’s weakness before confronting him. So what kind of information did I know about Ash?

  He was a Fallen, he was evil, he pretended to be a Strzyga elder, and according to Émil’s paintings, Ash was holding Demyan with a chain—which was more than a coincidence when I’d discovered that Demyan Greco has known him as Lord Aurous for a long time. I wondered if I could Count on this piece of information. Could I trust Demyan telling me anything? There was just one way to know. I closed my eyes.

  Zoom…

  Chapter 49

  The room was large, tall, and spacious. A stone throne in the center dominated the torch-lit edges. It was empty, or so I thought, until I heard the steps of fine shoe-soles echoing inside the large chamber. Instinctively, I hid behind the shadows of the dark walls over my left side, where I could see most of the room, including the big stone carved throne. I wondered what kind of place this was.

  Just when I saw the blood red cloak and gold mask, strolling side by side with Demyan Greco, I wished I hadn’t known. Demyan Greco was a trained warrior, and he was much more dangerous than I thought. Was he evil? Most importantly, did he kill my father? I didn’t want to believe he had, but anything was possible. Despite our unspoken friendship, there were still many questions and doubts about Demyan Greco.

  Ash fatherly patted Demyan Greco on his shoulder. He seemed to treat him with certain fondness. Why? More importantly, why was Demyan in Ash’s lair? Crap, just my luck. I couldn’t hear anything Ash was saying.

  “As you predicted, my Lord. The kingdom is without an heir,” Demyan Greco said. Crap.

  Predicted? More like he was the cause of it. The Count had poisoned Nicholas, but I had the distinct wisdom that it had been Ash manipulating the situation all along. Ash said something to Demyan, and he snorted, amused by Ash’s words. I focused on Demyan’s mind, hoping to hear his thoughts. Nothing. I could not listen to Ash’s words in Demyan’s head. Ever since the golden arrow, I hadn’t been able to hear him… except I could see him now, when I was in my astral body. Crap. I felt vulnerable and fearful for my soul just then. There was no telling what Ash could do if I was discovered.

  “The future holds different scenarios, my lord. Wearing the cr
own is just one of them.” Demyan casually strolled closer toward the throne with his gaze at the space in front of him, right where I was hiding and right at me.

  Crap. I gasped, stepping back within the wall.

  “However inconvenient, it seems I might have to take over the kingdom if no one else steps up to save it,” he said, turning his gaze back to Ash. Demyan flicked his hand, and the torches flared larger. Nice trick. I supposed Francis had taught him that trick. I stepped back more, wondering if the torches were actually hiding my light body. I wasn’t sure, so I stepped farther back. I was literally inside the stone wall.

  Ash magnanimously sat on his throne and opened his hands with his innate god-syndrome. Then he proceeded to interlace them, assuming a contemplative posture, as if he was pondering what he was telling Demyan. Crap. What I would give to know.

  “The world has my entire attention as it is. As you well know, my lord, I hold bigger ambitions. And beauty has never deterred me from my goals. However, once she understands her role, she will see the truth, and she will come to you, my lord.” Demyan Greco paused to listen to more words I couldn’t hear.

  Were they talking about me? Why? I shook my head. Ash, Lord Aurous was waiving his index at the open air. If I could just read Ash’s lips, but his gold mask covered his face entirely. Then Demyan Greco kneeled in front of the throne.

  “My lord, you are a father to me. Your wisdom is my wisdom,” Demyan Greco kissed Ash’s hand. What? Oh, God. I thought I was going to be very sick.

  Fine, I was naïve when it came to danger. I examined facts. His emotional control was more than scary, and he was a lethal warrior and utterly charming. Why was I ultimately attracted to danger? I sighed, yearning for his kiss, but I hated all those disturbing feelings he instilled in me at the same time.

  He was friends with the evil that took Mother Clarisse from me. He had also avoided telling me anything of what had happened to my father. At that moment, I hated Demyan. I hated him with utter disbelief. He had betrayed us all. He had betrayed me. Trust no one. I came back to my room.