“This is the sweetest thing anyone has done for me,” I hiss.

“Also super dangerous, since the Simpletons got an invite as well. Why did they come?” she asks.

“How was that?” I hear Damien asking, as Arion steps onto stage, looking entirely unimpressed.

“Dick,” Arion says just loud enough to carry over the microphone at a murmur.

I’m so lost.

“Where’s Vance?” I ask, as Arion instructs everyone to the grounds for the next event.

“Flying at outrageous speeds,” Anna states dryly.

“Do I want to know?” My eyes turn to hers as the question leaves my lips, and she shrugs while staring down at her nails.

“It’s probably a secret,” she says, giving me a smirk, as she looks up to meet my eyes, a deviousness resting in her gaze.

“Then I don’t want to know,” I say very decidedly, nodding my head as I move to the field next to us.

It’d be shitty to expect their secrets if I’m not telling all mine. I already feel as though I’ve invaded too much of their privacy by seeing so many personal details from their pasts.

I really expected Vance to shine in the archery tournament. The Salt Wheeler tournament…may have been Damien’s only possible sport to win, judging by how very obviously the first Morpheous flops.

“Oops. How clumsy of me,” the woman says as the arrow stabs the ground. “Guess I’m disqualified for missing the target. Terrible shame,” she carries on as she goes to drop to her couch.

I notice Arion roll his eyes, while Damien grins.

“Teenage boys,” I mutter.

“I’m starting to think they like being this way. You may just have to adapt to their dynamic, or…loan me your body. I could so—”

“Anna?”

“Yes?”

“Shut up or get salted. Again,” I state with zero emotion in my tone.

“You used to be more fun. Maybe sex was bad for you—”

The salt crashes against her face, and her eyes widen in anger, just before she disappears.

“I warned you,” I tell the empty air.

My eyes drift toward Emit, finding him smirking at his brother, who lands the arrow perfectly in the center of the target. He actually looks to be enjoying himself.

Which is a relief.

Maybe the timing was better than I thought, even though I know he has to be sick at his stomach.

There’s an uneasiness in me today that wasn’t in me before I realized just how severely I underestimated Idun.

I really am reckless.

My age is finally showing, because Idun is centuries ahead of me.

She wasn’t supposed to be my problem.

Chapter 29

VANCE

I’m barely under the time limit when I drop from the chopper, falling the forty feet to the ground, and land with a slight grunt. A mild sting of pain shoots up my legs, burning through my spine next.

As I straighten and stare toward the eternally foggy cemetery, the pain quickly numbs, and my eyes narrow on the cottage in front of me. The chopper flies away, unable to stay longer, since the fog rises when an aircraft is too close.

“Vancetto Van Helsing,” a familiar, almost chime-like voice says.

The wind carries the words toward me from five different directions, giving me very little indication as to where she is.

“I came in good faith. Alone. I hope I’m being wise and considering this a friendly meeting between old friends,” I call into the fog, as I crunch over dead leaves on my way through the creaking, heavy gate.

The feel of the rust grazes my fingers, and I cringe, because that’s disgusting. Rust is offensive to most all the senses.

The distraction pulls me away for only a brief moment, as I focus my gaze on the thick smog surrounding me. It swirls and blows, a path appearing like a long hallway. It doesn’t stop until a silhouette at the back of the cemetery becomes visible at the end.

An ancient witch with an undetermined amount of power left, lurking at the back of a cemetery that stays hidden from the human eye by a mystical fog of undetermined origin.

Not worrisome.

Not at all.

“Curious why you wanted to meet here,” I say when she maintains her silence.

I can feel her gaze on me, even if she’s nothing more than a dark shadow to the eye.

“Did you know this is the one and only dragon that was ever discovered in the history of the world?” she randomly asks.

I bristle, unsure why we’re here to discuss the dragon bones.

“I’d consider that good news, since humans would have been extinct long before we were born, had they bred as easily as most creatures do,” I say, rolling with it.

“I bet it was magnificent. Even as old as I am, I still missed out on such a brilliant piece of unnatural nature. As it turns out, this one was a reptilian mutation. A fluke of nature. A natural monster with no discernable purpose. Just one. And, if I read the bones correctly, it looked just like the vast majority of legends described them to be,” she carries on, as I take a measured step in her direction.

When she doesn’t object, I take another step. And another.

I pause when she starts speaking again, simply because I’m desperately trying not to rile her. If she’s as crazy as Arion swears she is, then this could get bad for no reason at all.

“That one magnificent creature left chins wagging for centuries long after its death. Dragons are still relevant in myths and storytelling to this very day,” she carries on.

“They’re almost as popular as Pandora’s box. The one and only Pandora and her devilish box,” I tell her, smiling a charming smile as I begin moving toward her very slowly once again.

“No need for flattery, Van Helsing. I’m well aware of my name and how it’s grown over these many centuries. I’m a footnote in another’s story. A mere plot device to make up for the sins of others. Everyone needs someone to blame. I’m the perfect villain or victim, depending on the storyteller,” she rambles.

“Is the reason you chose to meet here because you know Idun is far away and preoccupied?” I ask her.

She’s quiet for a moment, and my footsteps slow to a near crawl, as just a hint of moonlight streaks down on a fourth of her face. Her eyes are solid white, and my breath seizes in my lungs, as something happens to my knees.

My body is falling before I even realize what’s going on, as my head swims with dizziness. My stomach clenches, as bile rises to my throat, and within seven minutes after arriving, I’ve decided I was an idiot to think she could be trusted.

“I brought you here because one magnificent beast that inspired so many tales of destruction and death has a lot of power a blood witch can siphon from. My magic dried up ages ago. These days, I can’t use it unless I steal it from something or someone else. I’ve been saving this for something special,” she continues to say, even as her voice seems to grow more distant.

Gasping for air, my lungs nearly scream in agony, as the world around me dims. My head is too heavy to move, and my body is weighted down just as severely, leaving me helplessly stuck to the ground.

“You’re so desperate to finally overtake her that you rushed here without hesitation, shamelessly hoping you could trust me. Did you forget how the world really works all because you found a new girl to love with all your shallow heart?” she says in her distant tone, mocking me.