A Shade of Kiev 3(5)

I ducked down further into the bushes, waiting with bated breath until he’d disappeared from sight. Then I crept toward the door. I fumbled around for the clasp and lifted it up. I hurried down the steps and shut the door over me. I had to hope that none of the witches would need to use the room for the next couple of hours. If someone came in and asked what I was concocting, I’d just have to make something up.

I looked around the dim circular chamber. A rusty smell of human blood wafted into my nostrils. Shelves of potions and leather-bound books lined the walls. Also fixed to the walls were wide wooden counters, upon which lay various knives and other metal utensils. Two young women were chained in one corner, both on the floor, unconscious.

Focus, Mona. You don’t have much time.

Averting my eyes away from them, I approached one of the shelves. Heaving off a thick black book, I placed it down on the counter. I flipped through the fading parchment pages until I reached the recipe I needed.

My breath hitched as I looked at the complexity of it. I looked around the ingredients shelves and prayed that we had everything.

I approached one of the cauldrons in the center of the room and stoked a fire. I ran around the room, collecting bottles off the shelves and tipping them into the black pot. Fortunately, we did have everything. Arielle always made sure that we were well stocked.

The cauldron bubbled and spluttered as I churned it. An hour later, it had formed into a thick orange liquid. I sniffed it, worrying that I might have burnt it.

I scraped it out of the cauldron and poured it into a metal goblet. Then I cleaned up, leaving the room in the state that I’d found it.

Concealing the goblet with my cloak, I climbed out of the spell room and closed the trapdoor behind me.

Then I transported myself back to Rhys’ chambers to check if he had returned yet. Relieved to see that he hadn’t, I walked straight out of the room and toward Kiev’s apartment. I ducked down in the shadows in the far end of his corridor and waited.

It was ten o’clock and Tiarni still hadn’t shown up, so I could only assume that Kiev had gotten her in there before I had arrived. Either that, or he’d failed to lure her in.

I walked over to his door and placed my ear against the door.

Soft moaning.

She’s in there.

I opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind me as quietly as I could.

I crept along the hallway and peeked through the bedroom door, which had been left open.

I felt a sharp twinge in my chest as I caught sight of the redhead lying beneath Kiev in his bed. Although they were still clothed, the way he was touching her cut me deep. Swallowing back the pain, I ducked down on the floor and crawled until I was as close as possible to where they were lying.

I raised my head up to the bed’s level. Tiarni’s eyes were closed as Kiev kissed her, but he noticed me. I held up the goblet. He seemed to understand.

“Close your eyes,” he whispered into Tiarni’s ear, his voice hoarse and seductive.

“Why?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Okay,” she breathed.

He kept one hand over her eyes while he reached the other hand out to me. I passed him the goblet.

“Open your mouth.”

Tiarni did as she was told and Kiev tipped the liquid down her throat. She coughed and spluttered.

“Wha-what are you…”

Her voice trailed off as the liquid began to take effect.

Kiev crawled off of her and stood next to me as we both stared down at her. Her eyeballs rolled in their sockets and her whole body trembled. As soon as her lips began to swell, I gripped her head between my hands and closed my eyes, picturing the visions that I was about to implant in her as memories.

The night the humans escaped The Shade, you let them out. You also let the humans free on your own island. You did this to take revenge on Rhys for shunning you all these years in favor of Mona who is nothing but a traitor. You’ve never forgiven him for it. You knew how important his and Isolde’s rituals are to him right now, so you wanted to disrupt them. While you were freeing the humans on your own island, Celice followed you and tried to stop you. You killed her and dumped her body in the sea.

I let go of her.

She stopped trembling and her eyelids flickered shut.

I swallowed back the lump in my throat and looked up at Kiev.

“There’s no ritual tonight,” I croaked. “She needs to stay with you now until morning. By about nine o’clock, she will wake up with the memories I implanted in her… and her confession will force out of her lips when Rhys interrogates her.”

“What confession?”

“You’ll see.”

My hands trembling, I rushed out of the room.

Tiarni always had gone out of her way to make my life hell, but I knew the kind of punishment that would befall her now. A punishment that even she could never deserve.