“What are we going to do now?” she asked.
“We can't stay here for long. I know you're tired,” he said. “But we need to go somewhere else, far.”
Violette's brows arched down, a vertical line formed on her forehead. She didn't want to go somewhere. Not with him, and yet it seemed like she had nothing else to do. Her eyes didn’t dare to look in his. She didn't want to. Her fingers, her whole body, every muscle were tense and any words couldn't make it disappear.
She helped him to get rid of the daggers from his back, despite how terrible the sight was.
Dante stood up, his legs seemed to listen to him again. She remembered how fast he healed after the meeting with the robbers almost two weeks ago, it probably was in the vampire’s nature.
“I'm not done with your wounds,” she stumbled.
“It doesn't matter. We should go,” he protested. “Get all your stuff as quickly as you can.”
He left her room in seconds, leaving Violette staring at the closed door.
A lonely tear ran down her cheek.
Chapter 32
TO RESTORE WHAT WAS LOST
As they left the inn the moon was still high in the sky. The Western Forest in front of Violette's eyes made her swallow, and although it was in the total opposite direction from the one they escaped a few hours earlier, it was the last place she wanted to go; it didn't seem a safe place for her after this night – it barely was safe before.
“Don't worry, vampires won't look for us there,” Dante expressed, noticing the change of emotions on her face.
“Why?” Her voice came out uncommonly quiet.
“Just trust me,” he said and moved forward.
Trust me…He's insane thinking she'll trust him after everything that had happened.
Her face frowned, entering another deep forest. Though now she wasn't even as scared to meet monsters as she was on the Road of Nightmares – she wouldn't have been scared that time either, if she'd known that the actual monster was walking beside her.
Dante had been keeping silent all the way before he offered to make a little stop. And while it caught Violette by surprise, she didn't voice any objections.
She realized why this stop was needed – they had yet to discuss the magic map. She’d entirely forgotten about it since the last time she saw it on the floor when she got changed and the parchment fell out of her corset. She almostforgot that this night started with a ball also. It felt like a fever dream, a dream that had never happened. The magic of the evening snapped away the moment the carriage stopped in the forest. Nothing about that ball was beautiful anymore, all she could imagine – the ballroom flooding with blood. A scene that couldn't leave her mind: Dante’s palms and face painted with red in the middle of the chaos, rivers of blood beneath his feet. The cries in the distance. Something shrank inside her.
Her eyes fell onto the map on Dante's lap; he was searching for something in the Hegga's book and then Violette distantly heard him call out to her.
“Where can we find these ingredients?” He stood up and passed her the open spellbook. The page was covered with a recipe she saw before – the spell of emergence, a potion for breaking spells cast on the map. The ingredients were familiar to her and, surprisingly, instructions weren't written in any strange language. Though she'd never seen this recipe before, she didn't doubt she could actually brew it. It was quite an easy thing to do.
“These two are very rare to find even in the Magic Lands,” Violette pointed to the ink on the page and lifted her head, her eyes finding him before she quickly escaped his gaze.
“What about others?”
“Some could be found in nature but we still can't do it without a potions shop,” she mumbled.
“Fine. When the sun rises vampires won't be our problem.” He scratched his temple. “We'llgo to the nearest town. We can stop for a while until the night comes again and you'll be able to go to the potion shop to buy the ingredients,” he finished.
Violette nodded. This idea seemed quite pleasant. She wanted to rest for a bit, ideally, to sleep. The night was coming to an end, the sky already faded to the light blue color, stars were getting dimmer. The anxiety that was drugging Violette's heart this night seems to slowly disperse along with the moon.
Bottles of potionswere clinking under the touch of Violette's fingers. She'd been sorting through powders and liquids in a hope of finding the right ingredients for the potion that would remove the spell off the map. She was lucky enough to find three out of seven, and wondered if this little pharmacy had more or if it's not as advanced as the potion shops in her homeland. She was holding onto the last hope of hers that she was wrong thinking this way.
Her eyes trailed from one shelf to another with a small basket full of dried petals. As her finger went through it, the floral smell burst into the air. And finally she foundanother component – petals of Calantise – a magical white flower.
After spending another hour in the store and then in the town she got back to the inn they stayed in. At least, she was not empty-handed. Although, last two ingredients were really rare, the third one could be found in the forest – the Folicaplantgrows in the mud, and was known for its love for dampness and moon bathing.
Violette’s mind was an insurmountable maze with thousands of threads which were leading her only deeper, every step a new thought, every breath a new question, but despite that she fell asleep very fast, completely taken by exhaustion. Then she tried to force herself to eat before their new adventure but not a single piece went down her throat. She was thinking it would be the right thing to get something for the trip, maybe later her stomach will be more inclined to it. With that thought she stuffed her bag with sandwiches.
