Gothicana

Corvina somehow took his advice as things slowly started to make sense. “You burned her after we went in the woods and found the shack, didn’t you?” It was making sense now.

“I had to,” Jade wiggled her toes. “Nobody used to go in the woods so it was never a risk. And then, thanks to you, people got curious. God, I tried to warn you away so many times. I couldn’t risk her getting identified.”

Corvina looked at the girl, a dead weight settling in her stomach. “Did you have something to do with Troy’s death?”

Jade gave her a look, her eyes gleaming. “Of course I did. Troy was… suspicious of Alissa’s death. He began to investigate why she had gone to the roof. Someone told him they’d seen us going together before I came down alone. He began to wonder if I’d run away to throw people off my scent, and I had. I really liked him, but I had no choice.”

Hot rage pulsed inside Corvina, her eyes stinging as she remembered the amazing, smart boy who had lost his life because of the evil of one woman.

“You gave him the Devil’s Breath?”

“Yup,” Jade nodded. “And took him to the roof. This one right here. Told him to walk right off it. Nobody suspected a thing.”

The wind whistled over the roof they were on, picking up speed, making Corvina’s hair fly.

“I did,” Corvina told the girl, anger raging in her veins. “I knew he wouldn’t have killed himself. I told his brother the same.”

Jade chuckled. “But no one can prove anything.”

Which meant Corvina was never meant to make it out of this conversation alive.

“And the disappearances over the last century?” Corvina asked. “Did you or your grandma have something to do with that?”

Jade shook her head. “Nope, I genuinely have no idea what happens on Black Ball. My grandma doesn’t either. We both wondered quite a lot about it.”

“So you had nothing to do with Roy being in the lake tonight?”

Jade looked puzzled under the moonlight. “Roy? Why would I do anything to Roy? I like her. Is she okay?”

Corvina got whiplash from the way this girl confessed to killing in cold blood one minute and being concerned about a friend the next.

This girl was going to kill Corvina. She knew. Lying on that roof, talking to her, Corvina felt the truth sink into her bones.

“Why kill Alissa?” she asked the girl, buying more time as she tried to figure out a way to get out of this.

Her limbs didn’t even twitch under the effect of the drug. If she didn’t get out, she would become another tale at Verenmore, another unknown death.

Jade’s eyes flashed, something going off behind them. “Exactly why I’ll kill you, Corvina. Even though I truly loved you like a sister in the begi

Corvina stared at the girl, trying to understand what she and Alissa had had in common. The answer came to her on a chilling realization.

“Vad,” she breathed.

Jade smiled. “Vad.”

Corvina blinked. “But… why? I don’t understand.”

“The slut went and slept with him,” Jade grit out, leaning forward. “He was mine.”

“He’s… your grandfather is same. He’s your family,” Corvina stuttered.

“He’s mine,” the girl shouted suddenly, making Corvina flinch, her green eyes going wild, the wind hard in her short hair. “We both have Deverell blood in us. That makes us strong. He’s the devil of this castle and I’m the devil’s breath. Together, we would be a force to be reckoned with. We could leave behind a legacy for our children.”

The vomit rose up to the back of her mouth, and Corvina swallowed it down. This girl, whoever she was, was truly, deeply sick.

‘You’re sick too, Corvina,’ the insidious voice said. ‘Or else why would I be here?’

‘Focus on the girl, Vivi,’ Mo cajoled.

It was harder to focus this time.

“It’s so wrong,” Corvina muttered, her entire being disgusted. “He would never have accepted you.”

Jade smiled a smile that chilled her to the bones. “He wouldn’t have had to, Cor. He wouldn’t have had a choice. He will accept me after you’re gone.”

The sickness couldn’t be contained anymore. Corvina heaved to the side, her stomach empty but her throat burning, the idea, the very idea of her Vad becoming a helpless victim to this girl’s deceit making something red hot come alive inside her.

No. No.

‘Kill her,’ the insidious voice said.

‘Vivi, focus,’ Mo was loud.

God, they both needed to shut up. Her head was pounding.

If she was going to die tonight, she was going to take this girl with her. There was not a world in which she would let her live and make her lover a slave. No.

“We would’ve never come to this, Corvina,” Jade sighed, finally standing up, dusting her ass. “I tried to warn you away from him so many times. You. Just. Wouldn’t. Listen. You went ahead and spread your legs for him like a whore all over the castle. I just couldn’t take it anymore.”

She stood up and brushed off her hands, walking a circle around Corvina’s helpless body. “Now, you’re going to jump off this roof and he’s going to find me. We will share the grief of losing you, and I will help him heal,” the earnestness on her face truly made Corvina want to kill her.

The betrayal was so deep, of her, of Troy, of Alissa, of everyone she had ever come in contact with.        

Corvina tried to will her hands to move, her legs to move, for anything to move at all, and nothing happened.

“What is this drug?” she asked the girl.

“I don’t know the exact composition,” Jade walked to the edge of the narrow roof, looking down, the girl who had clearly lied about her fear of heights. “Grandma said it's native to the Amazon. Someone must have planted it here years ago. It has scopolamine, from what she said, and something else. Depending on the dosage, your will is mine. For example, I told you to come with me to the roof and you did. Do you remember?”

Corvina shook her head once, her heart pounding at the black before she’d woken up.

“That’s because I told you to forget it. Now, I’m going to tell you to stand and walk to the edge of the roof.”

Corvina wouldn’t have believed it possible if her muscles suddenly didn’t relax, sending feelings to her limbs. She found herself standing up even as she fought it with everything inside her. Her body stood upright, the muscles in her feet urging her forward as her brain tried to override whatever was happening to her.

“You’re resisting,” Jade’s surprised voice came from behind. “That’s not possible. Usually, the consciousness isn’t at the forefront when the drug takes effect.”

She felt Jade come to stand in front of her as she stood shaking in the strong wind, her hands fisted by her sides.

Green eyes looked into hers, and for the first time in her life, Corvina felt truly terrified. She was looking true evil in the face. The monsters were real, and they didn’t live in her head. What existed in the world was scarier than anything her mind could conjure. She was seeing one with a beautiful, i

Her time for the dance with death was coming, and Corvina didn’t want it. She had to go see her mother one more time. She had to get herself a dog, a family. She had to find her happy ending with Vad. She wanted a life with him, even if it was a life of risk for her mind. She wanted to kiss him out in the open without fear anyone would see. She wanted to travel with him to places she read about in her books. She wanted her ending like in the books she loved. She wanted to one day have a child with him. She wanted everything.