Chapter 3
Violet woke to the sharp, metallic scent of blood.
Her own.
Her body felt heavy, weak, as though every movement took every ounce of strength she had left. The cold, unyielding bars of a cage pressed against her back as she shifted slightly, her wrists throbbing where thick iron shackles dug into her skin. Panic fluttered in her chest, but her limbs felt too heavy to move. She tugged at the restraints, but they only tightened, causing a fresh wave of pain to spike through her.
She swallowed hard, her throat dry, struggling to take in her surroundings. The air was damp and heavy with a strange, acrid scent, and the faint murmur of voices drifted through the stone walls. Weak, flickering torchlight danced along the room, casting eerie shadows that twisted and flickered like ghosts.
Nearby, a low wooden table stood, stained with something dark red. The sight of it made her stomach lurch. On the table, several glass vials caught the dim light, each filled with dark, crimson liquid. Her blood.
A figure loomed beside the table; his black wings partially unfurled. He didn’t look at her as he carefully sealed one of the vials, his movements precise, deliberate. Another man stood further away, pacing. His voice was low, tinged with an unsettling calm.
“She’s awake,” he said, almost as if it were a passing observation, his tone oddly amused.
The first man didn’t seem to acknowledge her at all. “It doesn’t matter. We have what we need for now.”
Violet’s heart pounded in her chest as she swallowed again, her mouth dry as sand. “Where’s Arnese?” Her voice came out hoarse and fragile, barely a whisper. “Where’s Nova?”
The two men didn’t answer, and her stomach twisted painfully. She strained against the shackles, fear and desperation making her voice tremble. “You won’t get away with this.” She put as much strength as she could into her words.
She wanted to get up, to fight at the shackles that restrained her, but her body was still so weak. Whatever they injected her with hadn’t quite warn off yet.
The second man’s lips curled into a slight smirk, and he turned to face her for the first time. His eyes gleamed with something cruel as he spoke, his tone almost playful. “Get away with what, exactly? You don’t even understand what’s happening, do you?”
Violet’s gaze dropped to the floor, unable to hold his stare. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides, but she still couldn’t summon the courage to speak back. She could feel the water pooling in her eyes, she wanted Arnese. She wanted Nova.
He let out a small, mocking laugh. “Doesn’t matter, I suppose. You’re exactly what we need.”
The first man - the one who’d been working with the vials - finally turned to her fully. His dark eyes studied her with a strange mix of triumph and cold calculation, and he stepped closer to the cage, his presence overpowering.
“I thought your kind was gone,” he murmured, almost to himself, as he eyed her with a mixture of curiosity and disdain. “The Keepers fell long ago. Our leader made sure of that.”
Violet’s heart skipped a beat, her breath catching in her throat. Keepers. The word echoed in her mind, like a distant memory just out of reach. It stirred something deep inside her, but she didn’t know what it meant.
“Our leader did what had to be done,” the man continued, his voice low and smooth, as though he was speaking to a child. “The Keepers were too powerful, power that should have been his. But people were stubborn, uncooperative. It was their fault, really. It was their fault he destroyed the aetherstone. Their fault there are no more Keepers.”
His lips twisted into a cruel smile. “Or so we thought.”
Violet blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fog from her mind. She didn’t understand. What were they talking about? The aetherstone? The Keepers? She couldn’t even focus.
She gathered what little strength she had left to whisper, her voice trembling, “What do you want from me?”
His eyes glinted with malice as he finally answered, stepping even closer to the cage. “Your blood.”
A cold shiver ran down her spine, and she instinctively shrank back into the corner, though the iron bars wouldn’t let her escape.