I curse and fling myself down, back on the same boulder.
The sooner I get this blasted collar off me, the better.
I’m anxious waiting for night. When it finally comes, I breathe a sigh of relief and venture to the edge of the waterfall. I look down.
Whoa.
I’m standing high above the sheer cliff face of a mountain. The falling water disappears below me in a shroud of mist. I can’t tell exactly how long the drop is, but I know it’s sizable. Impressive. Perhaps even…
Frightening.
There is only so much force a vampire can withstand without shattering his bones. And even if the impact won’t kill you, healing from such a fall could take days.
Do I have days to spend lying broken on the ground, knowing Mother’s guards are coming after me? And what about the sun? I’d be unprotected down there. It would scorch my skin and eventually kill me.
“IF YOU JUMP, WE WILL FIND YOU.”
I spin around. “Who said that?” I hiss.
“TRUST, BROTHER. TRUST IN US.”
My head! It’s the Voice in my head again. But this one is different from the one I heard in my cell.
“Who are you?”
“TRUST,” the Voice repeats. “TRUST AND JUMP. TRUST…”
It fades away. In its place comes a stark emptiness.
I eye the space before me. Do I dare listen to the Voice? Am I going crazy? Maybe such a long exposure to silver is making my mind imagine things that are not there.
“Voice,” I say. “If you are truly there, give me some sort of proof!”
Silence greets me.
I scoff. “Just as I thought,” I mutter. I edge my way closer to the opening. Maybe I don’t have to jump—maybe I could scale my way down, and—
All of a sudden the ground starts to shake. I leap back from the edge. There comes a monstrous roar, and next thing I know, the roof is caving in behind me, sealing the river off as more and more rubble comes crashing down.
The loud noise disorients me, all because of the silver collar. I lose sense of where I am, and my head starts to spin. I stumble, and, in the shaking, trip and fall.
Thankfully, I’ve gotten far enough from the ledge to avoid that endless drop.
After what seems an age, the shaking stops. I wipe the dust from my eyes and look out at the end result of the quake.
The way back is completely sealed. Only the tiniest trickle of water makes its way through the rocks.
“IS THAT NOT PROOF ENOUGH FOR YOU?” the Voice screams in my mind.
I bolt up. “You did this,” I say.
“YES.”
“And you want me to…” I look out over the edge. The fall is bottomless. “…jump?”
“IT IS YOUR ONLY WAY OUT.”
“And so it is,” I agree.
I mutter an oath and step out over the edge to plunge into the nothingness far below.
Chapter Twenty-One
ELEIRA
My mouth tastes of ash in the aftermath of Morgan’s senseless murder of the boy.
I want to say that I cannot believe she would do something like that… but it isn’t true. I know how much value the Queen places on human life.
It isn’t much.
I’m part of a solemn group that follows her through The Haven. We’re going back to the castle, from which point Morgan will lead us to James’s cell.
“If I find out that any of you had a part to play in this,” the Queen says as we delve into the darkness below her fortress, “the consequences for you will not be pretty.”
Raul and Phillip shoot each other an unreadable look. Smithson glares openly at the two of them.
“Eleira, come away from there,” the Queen beckons. “Walk with me.”
I glance at Raul, who gives me a miniscule nod.
I walk forward and join Morgan.
“You’re troubled,” she tells me. “I can see it in your eyes.”
I press my lips together.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one, I think.
“You don’t like the way I handled things with the villagers,” she continues. “Your flaw, my dear, is that you have a weak heart. You’re still hanging on to the parts of you that are human.
“That will pass, given enough time. We must both stay patient, and it will pass. Soon, you will fully embrace all your vampiric gifts. Small trifles like a single human life will mean nothing to you.”
“You’re wrong,” I say. “If you think I’ll ever be like you—”
She cuts me off with a delicate cough. “You’re already more like me than you think.” She glances at my free hand. “That ring on your finger. Where did you get it?”
Immediately I cradle my hand into my body, hiding it from her. “It was a gift,” I say.
“You weren’t wearing it when you escaped The Haven. Who did you get it from? Let me guess… James? No, that’s not his style. Perhaps somebody you met as his captive? But that doesn’t make sense either. Hm…” she taps her lips. Then she lifts one finger up. “Ah! Of course, I know. It came from Raul.”