A Shield of Glass (A Shade of Vampire #49)(7)

I grabbed the keys from the cage, eager to return the others to the sleeping Heggel—after removing the golden one. I had my own obsidian cuffs to remove. I managed to slide the golden key from the ring and was about to stash it in the pocket of my dress along with the knife, when a large shadow cast a blood-chilling darkness over me.

I turned around, keys jingling in my hands, to find Damion glaring at me. I froze as his yellow gaze darted from the empty cage to the keys, then back to the cage, ultimately settling on my face.

“What did you do?” he hissed.

I had no quick answer for this. I’d been caught red-handed and with absolutely no excuse. Worst of all, I hadn’t gotten a chance to hide the little golden key, my fingers clutching it to my chest while I held the knife in my other hand. He was livid.

I instinctively brought the blade up, but he slapped it away so fast that I didn’t even have time to react. I just gasped in response as the knife landed somewhere on the floor.

“I trusted you. I encouraged Azazel to trust you as well. You betrayed me. You… You have no idea what you’ve done to me.” Damion bared his fangs at me.

I took a couple of steps back and moved to flee, but he wrapped his large hands around my neck, blocking my airway. I struggled in his grip, dropping the keys, my sweaty fingers desperately scratching his as he tightened his hold. I felt lightheadedness slip through me.

“You betrayed me!” he growled, as my vision went blurry.

“You’re hurting me,” I managed to croak before I lost contact with the rest of my body.

Damion stilled, perhaps realizing he’d let his rage get the best of him, and immediately released me. I staggered, choking for a few seconds before I breathed in a lungful of damp dungeon air and felt it scratch my throat. This definitely wasn’t the time or the place to tell him about the other Druids, he was too angry and obviously devoted to Azazel. I needed a better setting if I wanted to sway him toward our alliance.

“You really need to get that temper under control,” I muttered.

That didn’t sit well with Damion either, and his arm shot out in a mind-numbing backhand that knocked me out of consciousness.

The last thought that crossed my mind before I faded was of Bijarki. Whatever was about to happen to me—whether I’d wind up in a cage or in a glass bubble—I knew he was on his way. My incubus was coming for me.

I just had to try to survive whatever Azazel threw at me next.





Serena





Come morning, we were all gathered in the archive hall, with more hands on deck to help sift through the Druids’ carefully labeled mountains of records, spell books, and information covering all twenty planets of Eritopia. Jax, Hansa, Jovi, and Zeriel each covered a section, along with Rebel and Thorn. Draven and I continued searching through the registries to find out more about the young Druids and Jasmine, who’d disappeared without a trace, based on the documents we’d read so far.

The Druid and I occasionally glanced at each other, his steely gaze setting me on fire whenever our eyes met, reminding me of the previous evening. Something had deepened the connection we shared, yet I knew we still had further to fall.

I made notes of everything I figured might be of use, including accounts of Master Druids regarding the young ones in the Grand Temple. One passage drew my attention in particular, and I read it out loud.

“Thadeus of Bellaria, third in his class and increasingly adept at fire spells, has a peculiar skill where his serpent form is concerned,” I read from the notes of Master Druid Yoran, who died during the Grand Temple siege. “Most of us can only shift into one specific serpent; whether endemic to saltwater or freshwater, desert or jungle, whether venomous or a massive eater, we can never take the form of more than one serpent. It is the creature we bond with during our First Circle Ceremony, during which we discover our inner ophidian, and it is the shape we live with for the rest of our lives. However, there have been cases of Druids with the ability to morph with more than one snake when they acquire their First Circle. Though anomalies, Druids like Thadeus can shift into any serpent they wish, of all sizes and origins. The last such Druid I had the honor to train was Patrik of Raymer City. While rare and strange, Druids like Thadeus and Patrik find it easier to adjust to hostile environments, unrestrained by a single serpent form.”

“Thadeus is one of the young Druids hiding on Marton, if I remember correctly?” Draven asked.

“Yes, he was taken by Destroyers along with Damion. Is this true?” I replied, flipping through the rest of Yoran’s journal.

“It is.” Draven nodded. “Such Druids are rare, but they do occur once or twice in a generation. They cannot be identified until they go through the First Circle Ceremony. However, I had no way of knowing Patrik was one such anomaly.”

“What’s the First Circle Ceremony?” Jovi asked from across the table, his lap filled with scrolls from Purgaris, the Third Kingdom, which Azazel had first been assigned to rule.

“When we turn seven, we are taken into a tent with a teacher or a Master Druid. We sit in front of a blue fire as the elder burns some highly noxious herbs and crystal powders—as dangerous as they may be to most creatures, they merely induce an otherworldly state in Druids. It takes us away from reality and deep into ourselves. We spend the next few days in a trance,” Draven explained. “Some of us take two, maybe three days, while others have been known to stay under for weeks. Once we find and commune with our inner ophidian, our serpent soul, we morph into it for the very first time. That is the First Circle Ceremony, the discovery of the snake. That is when the elders give the First Circle tattoo.”