Eternal Conflict - Book 7 (The Ruby Ring Saga) Read online

  Confidently, Gwendolyn answered, “Victor will not harm his brother. We’ll negotiate a deal to make everyone happy. We’ll stay on our land, and I will keep Ethano in line. Victor is a kind king and wouldn’t dare do anything to hurt me. I know we can make this all work and come to a peaceful agreement. I love them both, and they will honor that. Perhaps being in the middle will allow me to help them come to a peaceful resolution.”

  One word came to my mind: Deluded. Gwendolyn wasn’t seeing things straight. We could not possibly let Ethano live, or he would start trouble again, maybe even kidnap our baby. Nevertheless, I knew it was best not to argue with her any longer, so we said our goodbyes and left.

  Chapter 9

  As I trotted down the path, I gazed over at Liz. “Think about it. That book has to be pretty powerful if Jackson wanted it so bad that he came back here. He dropped everything to retrieve it.”

  “The creature is banished to the castle. I highly doubt it’s ready to start a book club.”

  I sighed. “We can’t let anyone use it against us either. That Armand character could summon someone to do his bidding.”

  “What about the war? Aren’t we supposed to be concentrating on that? I’m ready to face bloodthirsty warriors, but I’m in no mood to battle a disappearing, rock-collecting vampire.”

  “Well, I’ll gladly return to the battlefield after we obtain the book and hide it in a safe place. Victor and Charles are skilled warriors and have been fighting for centuries. This is what they’re trained for, and they won’t give up, even if it goes on for weeks. Still, what good will it be to get our kingdom back if we can be attacked again, when some evil force uses the book against us?”

  “You’re right. We definitely need to get our hands on it. We have to dispose of it, hide it, learn its secrets, or return it back to its original owners in our old world.”

  “It will be safest with us. We will make sure it won’t be used for evil purposes.”

  She shook her head. “You’re right about one thing. I don’t feel safe leaving the book with that creature. It could be used against us at any given moment. Victor has many enemies, and we don’t know who will come at us next.”

  “Exactly. That’s why we have to get the book back. I say we find this castle and talk to this creature.”

  “True, but we need a plan. We can’t just march in there, or it’ll get us all killed—us and our hubbies. I say we dig up more info on the legend of the creature, so we’ll know what we’re dealing with.”

  “I can’t argue with that, but how do you expect to do this research? Last I checked, there’s no Wi-Fi.”

  “God forbid I make any suggestions,” Liz said, laughing. “And besides, there was life before Google, you know.”

  “Sorry.” I glanced back at the castle. “For now, there’s only one option. We come back tonight and retrieve the glowstone.”

  “Then find Count Suckula’s castle and offer him the glowstone?” Liz asked.

  “He’s desperate for a cure,” I said. “We can use our invisibility power to find the stone. If only we knew what it looks like. We don’t even know what we’re looking for.”

  “Hmm. I’m pretty sure it looks a lot like this,” she said, pulling a stone out of her satchel and waving it proudly in the air.

  “Whoa! How did you get that?”

  “I went invisible during your twenty questions. I’ve always said you talk too much, but this time, it was a great distraction.”

  The heavy gallop of horses and snorts made me glance over my shoulder, only to see the unwelcomed sight of an army of fully armed knights fiercely giving chase behind us.

  “I’m gonna take a wild guess here,” I said. “Gwendolyn discovered you took the glowstone.”

  She winced. “I’ve gotta go with a big, fat yes on that one.”

  “Then we’d better get outta here. Looks like they sent the repo men.”

  Chapter 10

  I gave my horse the cue to lengthen his stride, applying pressure by squeezing with my calves and heels. He took off with a burst of speed. We crashed through shrubs, logs, wildflowers, and honeysuckle. When more riders suddenly cut us off, I gasped. I glanced around and noticed we were completely surrounded, so I brought my horse to a halt.

  Gwendolyn’s horse trotted toward us. “We trusted you,” she said. “How dare you steal from us?” She glared at me, shaking her head. “You had no right or reason to steal from me. That treasured stone is ours. Give it back.”

  “We can’t do that,” Liz said.

  Her gaze narrowed. “So you admit to pilfering the stone like a common thief?”

  “It’s for a very good cause,” Liz said.

  “A proper princess would never steal,” Gwendolyn said. She then glanced at me. “And Victor’s queen would never condone it. I’d only expect behavior like this from a lowly servant, at best.”

  Liz let go of her reins. “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to resort to something else too. I’m sorry if it is not in the Princess Handbook.” Suddenly, she threw her hands up, and a blue light flashed all around us. All the knights were thrown off their horses and unconsciousness, Gwendolyn along with them.

  “Liz! What did you do?” I shouted.

  “Just letting them take a little nap so we can get the hell outta here, that’s what!”

  “Victor isn’t gonna like this one bit,” I said.

  Liz shook her hands. “Wow. That was a new and improved sleeper move. It’s a lot more powerful after Jackson’s little ceremony.”

  I shook my head. “Too powerful! You just put out all of Gwendolyn’s knights.”

  “Calm down, sis. They’re just snoozing,” she said. “I wouldn’t hurt them. Victor will understand, and thanks to your bond, there’ll be no secrets anyway. You’ll have to fess up.”

  “He’s in battle right now,” I said. “He’s too busy fighting for his life to pay any attention to visions.”

  She motioned to the slumbering bodies. “Do you really wanna argue about this all day? They’re gonna wake up soon, so we’d better get a move-on.”

  I glanced down at Gwendolyn, guilt flooding through me. “We have to pay her back for this somehow…and for taking the glowstone.”

  “So you can take her out for dinner later. Now let’s go!”

  We galloped hard through the woods, then burst through a copse of trees and out into an open field.

  “C’mon,” Liz said, then led us to an ancient library that was overseen by a church, hoping we could find some information there on the creature we were dealing with.

  Overhead, candles flickered in wrought-iron chandeliers as Liz and I combed through ancient books and manuscripts. A priest was nice enough to bring us lunch. Liz had known him for years, so I knew he was trustworthy.

  After hours of searching, I finally found something. “Look,” I said, pointing at the book.

  “What does it say?” Liz asked. “And please give me the short version.”

  “It mentions a vampire named Armand Domontoes, cursed by a witch. This is him. It says he was cursed to drink blood, is bound to an ancient castle, and can only come out at night.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like the one we’re looking for.”

  “I can’t believe I’m hunting for a vampire,” I said.

  “Well, you used to do this for a living, right?”

  “Yeah, but vampires?”

  “Hey, after everything we’ve seen, what else is new? Maybe after this we can go searching for the Loch Ness Monster.”

  “To be honest, I’m a little worried about releasing him from the curse. I mean, surely it was put on him for a reason. I certainly don’t wanna unleash some unnecessary evil in this world. There’s enough of that with Ethano.”

  “Well, let’s keep digging,” she said, opening another leather-bound volume and carefully turning the yellowed pages.

  “Hmm. I don’t see anything about any glowstone,” I said. “That guy who told us about all this seemed sincere though,
and Gwendolyn clearly wants us to stay away from the bloodsucker. She’s been friends with Victor since childhood, and she even tried to rescue him back at Ethano’s castle. And how do I repay her? I steal her freaking rock.”

  “For a very good cause, mind you. And technically, I was the one who stole it, if that takes a little guilt off.”

  “I was your accomplice.”

  “Nope. No court in the land would convict you. You didn’t even know I snatched it.” She pointed back to the books. “Just keep digging. We have to do what we can to keep this world safe. We have to find that book.”

  I turned another page and saw more about the cursed immortal. As I skimmed through it, I realized we were on to something. “We have glowstone info!” I said.

  “Really!?” She shut her book in a cloud of dust and rushed over next to me.

  “Says here the creature can, in fact, be released from its curse by the glowstone. He’ll return to the honorable person he once was.”

  “So we don’t have to worry about this guy opening the gates of Hell or something?”

  “Not according to this. I sorta feel bad for him now. He was blamed for abducting children, but before he could prove his case, a witch named Hazel cursed him.”

  “Witch Hazel? Really? Isn’t that the stuff they use for—”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know, but I didn’t make all this up,” I said, playfully smacking my sister. “Anyway, I think we should offer him the glowstone in exchange for the book. He can have his sanity back, and we’ll be able to ensure that the book doesn’t cause anyone any harm.”

  “But he’s killed so many people.”

  “In his cursed state, yes. I’m not sure he’s that sinister, that he means to. I’m sure he’s just desperate to find the stone so he can be freed from his curse.”

  Liz sighed. “Then we’ve gotta help him,” she said.

  I pointed to a sketch of a dark, creepy castle. “According to this, he lives here.”

  “Whiteland Castle?” Liz said, noticing the caption.

  “Yes. Do you know where it is?”

  “About a day a way if we leave immediately,” Liz answered, tapping her finger on the table. “I still don’t know about all this though.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not gonna lie, Sarah. I’m scared. You’re talking about jaunting off to some castle where a real vampire lives. Whether there’s a good guy behind those fangs or not, it still terrifies the heck outta me.”

  “It will be fine. We’ll strike the trade and leave. Easy in, easy out. I don’t think he’ll hurt us if he realizes we’re just there to give him the stone he’s been looking for,” I reasoned

  “What if he takes the stone from us and kills us anyway?”

  “I can hide it using our invisibility powers, till we have time to broker a deal. He just wants the curse broken. He won’t harm us if he thinks we can help with that.”

  She blew out a breath. “Right.”

  “There’s no guarantee though. If you want to return to Charles, I understand, but I’m getting that book back, with or without you.”

  “Gosh, Sarah. You’re so freaking stubborn,” she said, smiling. “You must have gotten that from Mom.”

  “So.”

  “So…there’s no way in the world I’d leave you, sis. Somebody has to cover your back.”

  Chapter 11

  We paid a guide to take us to the ruins. Stars glittered overhead in the dark sky as we rode along the moonlit trail. It was chilly, so I was thankful for my dark maroon cloak. I listened to the clattering hooves as I pondered everything. I missed my baby something fierce, and I also missed my king.

  I sensed that Victor was lurking around deep in the foliage, staking out the enemy, preparing to ambush them. His thoughts brushed across my mind. I knew his plan, what soldiers were next to him, and I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. As much as I knew about him, I couldn’t let him know everything about me, and as bad as it felt, I had learned to block certain details from him, for my sake as well as his own. He had a war to concentrate on, and the last thing I wanted was for him to be distracted by worrying about me. Victor knew I was going to make a trade, but he had no idea it would be with a bloodsucking, flesh-devouring, cursed immortal. I knew he would never let me go if that little tidbit of information whispered into his thoughts. Liz agreed with my theory on keeping a few secrets; she said us girls had to have some privacy. I knew Victor had hidden things from me, and I could never break the barrier that held those memories. For all I knew, it was better that way. I wasn’t sure I could handle seeing all the bad parts of his past, the wicked man he used to be. The past was the past, and I only wanted to look to the future, to an eternity of happiness with my king and our little prince.

  When we arrived on the vampire’s territory, we stopped at the bronze gates. Ominous statues, winged bulls with bearded human faces, stood on each side, like limestone guards. They stood over twenty feet tall and were as impressive as they were frightening.

  I pointed to the top of the archway towering over us. “What does that writing say?”

  “It says, ‘All who enter shall die,’” our guide said, his voice trembling.

  My gaze shot over to him. “Not us.”

  “I fear this is the last time we shall meet,” he said. He then bid us farewell, turned his horse, and left.

  “He’s being overly dramatic,” Liz said.

  “I’m sure they all fear this Armand. Clearly, our guide couldn’t wait to get away from his hunting grounds.”

  “Yet we continue to go into its evil lair.”

  “That’s the plan,” I said, cautiously passing the towering structures above me.

  We slowly walked through the entryway, onto the cursed land. The moon cast an eerie glow through the towering trees, their bony branches swaying in the wind. A translucent veil of fog surrounded us, as if warning us to leave. The black silhouettes of crows perched high in the trees, against the yellow moon, gave me goosebumps. It was such a creepy landscape, and it seemed like the howling wind and shadows were warning me of what could be lurking inside that forest. I began to think we should have come during the daytime, but since the creature never slept, we couldn’t sneak in anyway. He did have the freedom to leave at night, probably to stalk his prey and feed.

  “Ah!” Liz suddenly screamed, pointing up at a face in the branches.

  I peered through the darkness and saw a figure towering over us, with bushy hair, sprawling arms, and open hands. My heart thundered in my chest at the sight of the unexpected visitor. Liz threw her arms upward, but no electricity sprang from her hands.

  “What happened to my powers?” she asked.

  I stared at the figure even harder and noticed that it wasn’t real. The trunk was its body, and that led into the carved face, in complete detail, and waving arms. Every tree carving was different and unique, some more creepy than others. Clearly, the vampire had a lot of time on his hands, and I wasn’t sure I was glad he was so good with a carving knife.

  “Liz! It’s—”

  “I know, I know,” she said, clutching her heart. “It’s not real.”

  I glanced up at all the haunting faces in the trees surrounding us. “He must’ve designed these.”

  “So that’s what he does during the day? He’s an artist and a murderer? How nice.”

  “I guess so.”

  “Man, those are creepy. It’s like they’re watching our every step.”

  I let out a trembling breath. “You’re right. It’s downright disturbing.”

  “Do your powers work?” Liz asked.

  I opened my hand but couldn’t create my famous fireball. “Hmm. I dunno. I can’t get mine to work either.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I have no idea? Maybe it’s this place.”

  “We’re screwed without our powers, Sarah.”

  “We still have our immortal strength,” I said.

  “Yeah, but that won’t me
an anything against the creature. Plus, for all we know, he’s got some evil immortal army to back him up.”

  “Don’t get all Hollywood on me now, sis,” I scolded.

  When a twig snapped, I turned. A hooded male and two women instantly attacked, throwing me roughly to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Liz fought hard. Before I could get up, I saw a blade hovering just inches from my throat, glinting in the silvery moonlight.

  “It’s only a woman,” the man said.

  “Same here,” a woman said.

  “Why are you here?” the man demanded. “What would possess you to enter such a wicked place? Do you not know the demon will find you and devour every drop of your blood?”

  I scrambled to my feet in a blur. “I could ask you the exact same question.”

  “Do you desire a tree in your image?” he asked.

  I cocked a brow. “Huh?”

  “The demon creates a tree after every kill.”

  “Talk about psycho,” Liz said under her breath.

  He held out his hand. “I am Timothy.”

  We made brief introductions with the entire group, everyone looking at us suspiciously.

  His gaze drifted to my ring. “You’re immortal!” he said, his eyes wide.

  Meanwhile, several men flailed on the ground from the beating Liz gave them. When I looked, Liz was fighting another man.

  “Liz!” I shouted. “Stop!”

  “This is the vampire’s security detail,” Liz said, her boot on one man’s throat. “They only got the jump on me because I was distracted by those gross trees. Should we just knock ‘em out or what?”

  “Please do not hurt us,” the man said. “You will leave us vulnerable to the black demon, and my sisters will have no chance.”

  “We do not work for him, as his guards, but h-he has my wife,” the man pleaded.

  Liz let him go.

  “Who are you really?” I asked.

  The man stepped forward, his face frantic. His clothes were torn, and I knew he had to be one of the local villagers.

  “We’re here to rescue our sisters who were claimed by the demon,” he said.