Sarah yanked Charlotte by the shoulder down a different hallway. “No one is dying that I care about.” She huffed as she held out her enchanted needle to the floor. “To the dark!” she ordered as a large, gaping hole in the floor appeared, swallowing the two of them. They plummeted until Sarah waved her needle again, slowing them just before they hit a stony bottom. She pulled open a large, wooden door, and they ran down more steps, until they finally found themselves at the beginning of the dungeon.
The rank smell hit Charlotte’s nose and made her stomach turn. She wrapped her arms around herself as they slowly began walking. Memories of her past continued to come back to her in waves. Meredith’s potion had been very strong, and Charlotte fought to remember Valek’s face. All she could see in her mind, though, were his blue eyes.
Sarah turned to her, holding a finger to her lips again as they passed several cells filled with Vampires and other creatures of the dark. “Do not look anyone we don’t know in the face,” Sarah whispered.
Charlotte nodded as she saw several dark figures reach out toward her from the corner of her eyes.
“Blood,” they moaned at her. A few of them hissed. “Please.”
Charlotte shuddered but she did not look until she heard her name called out to her.
“Charlotte,” Mr. Třínožka weakly groaned from behind the mucky bars.
Charlotte ran over, stretching her hand to him. “Pane Třínožka! Are you all right?” He was too weak to answer. She saw that his goggles had been cracked, and Edwin was lifeless again, hanging limply from his vest pocket. “It’s okay, Mr. Třínožka. We are going to get you out of here.”
“Charlotte!” Sarah called to her from down the hall. She turned to see the Witch beckon for her. She left the cell of the Phaser and ran to see Sarah standing before the cell of the most beautiful man Charlotte had ever seen. A face she instantly remembered belonging to the hands in her dream. Her heart thudded against her chest as everything finally flooded back to her. “Valek!” she cried.
He lifted his head to her. “Lottie….” He groaned quietly. She could see the battle he had been through painted on his face and clothes. The sides of his face and shoulders were blackened by his grappling with the flames, and his once beautiful lips were scarred beyond recognition.
Charlotte fell to her knees, her arm extended all the way toward him between the bars. “Valek….” Tears rolled down her face again. “Come on! You have to fight this. He will have me marry him tomorrow,” she cried. “They will kill you. We can’t give up yet. You promised me.”
“I love you, Lottie.” The words barely came out.
“Valek, you have to get up,” she begged him. “I can’t do this without you!”
“Charlotte,” he murmured. “You cannot marry him.”
“I know!” she cried. “Please. You have to get up.”
Sarah reached behind her head, unclasped the necklace, and tossed it between the bars to Valek. It clamored on the stone just inches in front of him. “Wear that, Valek,” she instructed. “The sun will be up soon. They will kill you. You have to put that on.” She helped Charlotte to stand. “We have to get you back to your room, Charlotte. If anyone discovers we are down here, we will be in more trouble than we are now.”
The two of them hurried back through the long dungeon hallway. Charlotte could not control her sobs as Sarah tried to hush her.
“Y-you don’t understand.” Charlotte ferociously wiped at her face. “He will die and I–I won’t even get to say goodbye.”
Sarah frowned as well as more tears swelled in her own eyes. She quietly opened the door before looking one last time down the dark corridor in Valek’s direction. She willed his consciousness to return, begged him to rise from the ashes just one more time, and closed the door behind her.
Once they found themselves back in Charlotte’s bedroom, the girl was inconsolable. She buried her face deep within her pillow, lost, her arms wrapped around her middle in an effort to hold herself together. Sarah sat on the edge of the bed, running her hand along Charlotte’s spine.
“Charlotte, you have to calm down,” Sarah said. “Valek will find a way to come through. He always does.”
“How can he?” Charlotte turned her face to one side. “They’ll kill him. And I will be getting married to that ugly coward.” She continued in broken sobs.
“Oh, Charlotte.” She sighed. “Where is your God?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The End
Charlotte, who had finally cried herself into a deep sleep, jumped at the sound of a hard rapping at the door. This woke Sarah as well. The two of them sat up, staring eagerly at the door.
“Charlotte,” Sarah whispered. “Whatever happens, we are with you.”
Charlotte swallowed as the door swung open to reveal Meredith Price and the other wives of the Regime Order. They were positively beaming with excitement.
Meredith clasped her hands in front of her face. “Oh good! You are already awake.” The lot of them stepped farther into the room. Meredith regarded Sarah on the bed. “Thank you, wench. You may leave.”
Sarah and Charlotte looked at each other in absolute horror.
“Now!” Meredith screeched.
Sarah got up from the bed, and with one last look to Charlotte, slowly and silently, made her way out of the room.
Meredith turned to Charlotte. “Good. Now then, my dear, sunrise is only a little while away. Let’s get you into your wedding dress!”
Several stories below, the onslaught of the coming morning was beginning to plague the enslaved coven and the rest of the Regime prisoners. Valek, since last night, had gotten some of his strength back after reaching for the small, enchanted whistle. He was now lingering against the cell bars, waiting. He bit down on his lower lip, tasting the cold, previously ingested blood. Despite the massive overbearing noise of moaning and hissing, he heard Francis and Lusian stir in the cell next to his.
Francis, are you with me?
Yes, we are here — barely.
And what of the others?
The rest of the coven mentally answered him back in faint mental sentences.
And the lot of you down the hall, Valek’s thought was a holler to those Vampires he had not yet met. They also responded, some largely stronger than others.
As the guards in the palace above began to rally together to begin their dissention into the dungeon, Valek mentally laid out a simple, but potentially effective plan. They probably would not survive with the coming of the day, but if they fought right, Francis would be able to take out Vladislov, distracting the Regime guards while Valek disappeared in an effort to find Aiden and destroy him before his wedding. They would all surely perish, but Charlotte would be safe with Sarah, and the Regime would finally be overthrown. It was the last and only way Valek could save her. All of the Vampires in the rotting jail fervently agreed.
Upstairs, Aiden sat on the edge of his bed, turning the small, gold wedding band over and over in his fingers. He had not gone to bed that night. Instead, he contemplated if what he had done was entirely wrong. Charlotte’s teary, fearful face flashed in the dim glint of the gold ring.
Aiden had never wanted to turn into this — into Vladislov. He believed if he ruled over the mortal world with a mortal wife, there would be freedom. It would be what the empire had wanted for decades. But instead, he fell victim to his lust and his greed for her. The thoughts of having her next to him for his entire reign ruled over every other form of rationalization. He gripped the ring tight in his fist and leaned his forehead against it.