Chapter 28 CHAPTER 28

Chapter 28 CHAPTER 28
SERA'S POV

“What do you think?” Dante asked softly, coming to a stop. I clung on to him for dear life, my heart racing faster and I clenched my eyes shut.

“You can open your eyes, Sera,” Dante chuckled in my mind. I inhaled the clean and and lifted my eye lids, opening to seeing we were no longer in the castle. We were standing in the middle of an open meadow, the dark sky clearer than usual and the air cleaner.

“Oh my God,” I breathed, spinning around. A breath escaped my lips, and suddenly, laughter followed. “What, you blurred me here so you could get rid of me easily?” I asked.

Dante frowned. “Clearly you have unwavering faith in me,” he replied aloud, letting go of my waist. It felt colder as he did, but I bit my lips, forcing myself to not lift his arm back.

Dante brushed past me as he walked deeper into the meadows. “This used to be the original location of the southern wing,” he said quietly, his voice floating in my head. “Before it was relocated.”

He stopped and I stared at his back, hearing him suck in a deep breath. “This place,” he said with quiet nostalgia, “was filled with every type of exotic flower you can imagine. Gardens, fireflies that floated in the night, so much music.”

I walked to him, standing not too close, but close enough that I could almost reach him.

Dante’s eyes were closed, a tear streaking across his face. “Since the curse, the land withered. Everything just became dormant, all the fireflies, lost.”

He looked so sad, his lashes wet. “I would give anything you know,” he whispered. “anything to go back there. Which might happen, if you break the curse.”

I stared at the grass, the brown leaf bent by time. This was not just a place, no this was centuries of a past he craved for, a past he wanted, no hope I could take back for him.

I ran my finger along the grass, wondering how green it was before.

A tiny flicker of light shines underneath the tip. “Dante—”

He was already next to me, his eyes wide. “Do it again,” he said, his voice sharp.

I stroked the grass, the light coming back on, but flickering off almost immediately.

“I can sense something,” I groaned, reaching for the yellow light I saw. “It's in it, it wants me to touch it, yet I can't reach it.”

It's the same sensation I felt when I made that flower bloom, the one Viora had taken. I had tried to replicate it, and failed, yet without trying, I touched it again.

“Ugh,” I groaned. “You know what? Maybe Althea is wrong. Maybe I am useless,” I sighed, dropping my hand from the blade of the grass. It returned back to how it was, bent, withered, faded. “I can't do anything, not until I connect with my core and no matter how much I try, I can't.”

I wanted to give him hope, to show him just a glimpse of what he has and I couldn't even do that.

Dante gently lifted my face to his.

“You're forcing it,” he said quietly. “You cannot control your core, using it should feel like breathing to you. Like turning on a bulb. When you're in the dark, you don't fight it. You just decide to see.”

“That's easier said than done,” I sighed.

“I don't think you have anything to worry about. When the time is right, you'll do it,” he smiled.

I studied his face closely. He has not shaved, and there was a small stubble forming above his top lip. His eyes seemed much calmer now, and I could tell all he had told me tonight was the truth. “Are you not worried?” I asked.

“Worried?”

“Yes,” I replied. “the longer I can't access my power, my training with Althea delays. I won't be able to save you.”

Dante closed his eyes. “I admit, I am worried,” his voice filtered into my mind, “but that fixes nothing. Especially tonight. You are not a Catalyst, you are just Sera. This is your distraction.”

“Please,” I scoffed. “If this is your idea of a distraction it's no shocker you are single.”

Shit, why did I say that, I cursed internally.

Dante paused. “I am sorry. Because of my curse, this is the safest place I can bring you to. Everywhere else is a lie, but here, nothing is twisted. Nothing is contorted, everything just is.”

My heart dropped. I should apologize, but instead, I looked away. “There's a game I used to play as a child,” I said. “Would you join me?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“We used to twist leaves into rings and satchels,” I giggled, bending down to pick up some grass.

A thorn picked my finger, blood forming quickly.

I slowly got up. “Shit, I got pricked.”

Dante grew stiff, his eyes growing dark. Black spider veins crept along his face and his fangs started descending.

“Oh shit,” I took a step back from the king. This was his curse, not him. What can I do, what can I do?

How did I manage to be alone with a vampire in a weird fucking field?

I lifted my hand up, sucking the bleeding finger into my mouth. The taste of mercury filled my lips, but I watched in horror as Dante’s eyes crept along my body, settling in my collar bone.

I followed his gaze, seeing a silver drop there. “Dante—”

He grabbed me before I could speak, catching my wrists easily and holding them in one hand. His face was inches away, his teeth sharp, hot breath fanning across my face as I stood still, fear coursing through me.

Dante’s head lowered, his eyes glassy as his tongue came out, licking the blood off my collar bone.

Shock runs through my body, my back arching into him as the contact sends a million waves through me. Dante’s fangs stroked along my neck, and I tilted, offering myself to him.

Please…please….please…

Dante suddenly let go of my wrists. He swept me up in the same breath, and then he began to move, blurring once more. I grabbed on for dear life, wind blowing my hair as the field disappeared behind us.

In less than a minute, Dante stopped. I opened my eyes, shocked when I saw we were in my room and he set me down in the bed.

“Dante?”

His eyes rake over my body, black veins still crawling beneath them.

“Don't do that again,” he said, his voice tight. I tried to reply, but he's gone, the cold air blowing me the only way I knew he was actually there.

I touched my collar bone slightly, the warmth of his tongue still there, even as shame flooded me. I gave in. I wanted him to bite me.

I fell back, my head hitting the pillow as a loud groan left my lips.

I was way too fucking easy. Way way easy. Somehow, the moon goddess had decided that my fate would be to hate vampires, and drop me in the den of the most irresistible men ever.

And the worse part was, I wished he had lost control.