A Meet of Tribes (A Shade of Vampire #45)(64)

But I couldn’t do it any longer. Not like that. My anguished cry echoed through the chamber.

I had to face the hard and painful truth. A sacrifice would have to be made for this.

I had to be ready to give anything and everything in order to bring down Azazel and save my brother, my friends, and the billions both in this world and mine.

“I will give anything… I will sacrifice everything, even myself, if you release the book so my friends can use it to rid Eritopia of the disease that is Azazel.”

Hot tears streamed down my cheeks. I had been in here for so long, I would either die of starvation or die getting that book out of its box. Whichever way this went, I braced myself for my own end. Resignation was not something I’d ever been used to, but when it came, I felt enlightened. I barely recognized myself.

“I’m ready to give my life for a greater purpose.” I sighed, leaning forward and shuddering from crying hiccups.

“You are willing to sacrifice yourself to save Eritopia?”

“Yes… Yes, I am… I truly am…”

An excruciatingly long second passed before the box finally replied.

“What about the Druid?”

“What… What?”

I blinked several times and stood, my mind blank and eyes stinging.

“How will he live without you?” the box asked.

What did it know? How much did it know? What was the purpose of such a question?

“What do you know about the Druid?” I replied, squinting my eyes.

“How will he live without you?”

“You didn’t answer my question!”

“I’m not here to answer your question. You are here to answer mine.”

I wasn’t going to win this one.

I took a deep breath and went for complete honesty, suspecting that the box could read my mind. It was already tuned to my honesty, given the long winding road that had led me up to this moment.

“Neither I nor Draven matter much in the face of the darkness that is about to swallow Eritopia. The Druid will have to live on without me if need be.”

“Are you sure he will be able to live on without you?”

“What kind of question is that?! He will have to!”

I choked on another wave of tears and swallowed as much of it back as I could. My heart was torn and twisted, my stomach in a lot of pain, my lips dry and crusty.

There comes a point when one accepts the inevitable fate drawn out before them, my father had once said to me. I saw him clearly in my mind, alongside my mother, my grandparents, and our entire family back in The Shade.

At least they didn’t know I existed. At least they wouldn’t suffer.

“Just end it already and kill me. Give us the book.”

Silence.

I let out another sigh, feeling my shoulders slump. The prospect of dying wasn’t something I was comfortable with, not in the least. But if I was to go, I’d go on my terms.

“Just kill me! I’m ready! Kill me!”

“Your willingness to sacrifice yourself for something greater than your own desires is what will bring you victory. Only in the face of death does one see that. There comes a point when one accepts the inevitable fate drawn out before them—”

“—and that is where true strength lies. In sacrifice.” I completed the box’s sentence.

I was stunned. How was it quoting my father?

The box clicked again, and the front side fell forward on the black marble surface. It granted me access to the book.

I stood there, breathing heavily as I reviewed everything that I had said and heard in that chamber, retracing every step that had led me to this point. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into walking in, but, as relief of cosmic proportions washed over me, I realized that I knew exactly what I was walking out to.

I reached out and took the book with trembling fingers, caressing its leather cover and smelling the musky pages inside. I cried again, this time tears of joy and relief, understanding that it had all been a test to prove my strength.

A cruel, but effective test. My mind was clear, and my heart was stronger than I had thought.

I heard the wall slide behind me with a long crackling sound.

I turned around and saw Inon standing at the back of the tunnel. Hansa and Bijarki sat on the floor. Draven was slumped on the side in front of a small oil lamp. Its flame flickered timidly in the semi-darkness. They looked exhausted, and I wondered how long they’d been there.

At the sound of the wall clicking open, they all looked up. Draven was the first to dart up and run at me. His beautiful eyes filled with tears as he took me in his arms and squeezed me. His breath was ragged, and his voice was raw. I dropped the book.

“I thought you were dead,” he gasped, tightening his grip while his hands ran up and down my back, as if desperate to feel every inch of me.

I melted in his arms, overcome by a million emotions at once. I saw Hansa and Bijarki beaming at me, a tear rolling down the succubus’s cheek. She quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand. A chief could not be seen crying, I figured.

“You’ve been in there for two days, Serena,” Draven’s voice poured into my ears, soothing my soul. “I’ve tried everything I possibly could to get you out of there. All the magic in the world couldn’t work… I…I tried…I even tried brute force. Nothing worked…”