Page 180 of Castings & Curses

“But I…” I began, my voice barely a whisper. I felt like I was gasping for breath, a sensation I hadn’t felt since my transformation. The thought of leaving Sage, of letting her go, was suffocating.

“Choose, Lazar,” she commanded, her voice reverberating with her immense power. “Your love for the witch or your life. Choose wisely, for this decision comes with grave consequences.”

Her words bounced off the high vaulted ceilings and settled on my shoulders like vultures. The council’s ultimatum presented an impossible choice. How could I explain to them that we were searching for a way to reverse the curse, to end the bitter feud between our races? They wouldn’t believe it was possible. I wondered if they would even want that. They wore their hatred of witches like crowns and believed in their own immortal superiority.

And so I remained silent.

The council waited, their eyes boring into me, their anticipation palpable. I knew, deep down, that no matter what choice I made, I was already paying the price.

“Sage… She means more to me than you can comprehend,” I said.

Edeline’s gaze turned icy, and her bearing stiffened. She was a monument of composed hostility in the face of my defiant confession.

“She’s a witch, Lord Lazar,” she hissed, her tone seething with centuries of ingrained disdain. “Can you not see the danger she poses? To you, to us?”

My fingers curled into fists at my sides. “I see her for who she is, not what she is,” I defended.

A ripple of surprise ran through the council, faces hardening further, if possible.

“And what of us?” Edeline demanded, leaning forward, her eyes burning into mine. “What of your loyalty to us, to your own kind?”

My kind.The words resonated within me. Were these truly my people? Did our mutual condition, our nocturnal existence and shared hunger, bind us in an irrevocable bond? Was I expected to abandon my heart’s desire for this fellowship?

“And if I choose her?” I finally dared to ask.

“Then you will condemn us all for no reason. She is a mortal, and will live only a fraction of your long existence. Eventually, she will be as a fading star in your memory, as meaningless as a forgotten conversation. But we”—she swept her hand to encompass the council and beyond—“will suffer because you will have invoked the curse. Already there have been whispers of vampires losing some of their abilities. It will only continue to get worse if we don’t stop it now.” She leaned forward on her ebon throne, gripping my gaze. “Lord Lazar, you are but a fledgling, and you have no concept of what a tapestry of time lies before you. Because of that, we are not wholly unsympathetic to your plight, and so we do offer you a choice. But if you choose her, then you force our hand.”

In the hardened gazes of the council members, the tightening of their lips, I saw that they were united against me. I would be cast out, considered a traitor to my kind, hunted, and despised. I would be alone, save for Sage.

But as the image of her face surfaced in my mind, her smile radiant as a moonbeam, her eyes twinkling with boundless affection, I realized that I could endure anything, even exile or enmity, for her. And in that moment, my heart, though cursed with immortal near-stillness, had never felt more alive.

“I will choose her,” I said, my voice unwavering, ringing throughout the chamber. “Every time.”

A murmur swept through the council, a low buzzing hum that skated over my senses. A dull throb began in my temples, the vampire blood in me roaring against my audacity, my defiance of our sacred order.

“Then you’ve made your decision.” Edeline’s words were final, a chilling decree. “You have chosen your path. You are no longer one of us.”

I looked into the faces of the council members, these ancient beings, etched with ages of wisdom, power, and dogma. Their disapproval radiated through the chamber, a palpable force that stirred the stagnant air.

And yet I stood tall. My decision was not born of impulsive youth or short-lived passion. It was cemented by an irrevocable love that transcended the divide of our species, broke the shackles of our feuding pasts.

“Yes, I have chosen my path.” I echoed Edeline’s words, not out of defiance, but out of resolution. “And I am ready to face the consequences.”

As I exited the chamber, a newfound resolve settled within me. There was no looking back now, only forward to a path unknown, where uncertainties loomed and dangers threatened. But I would tread it with confidence, for there was Sage at the end.

The night had never felt more alive, the stars twinkling above in silent acknowledgment. I felt the night breeze whip around me, the scent of damp earth filling my senses. My preternaturally still heart roused, thumped with the rhythm of my decision, each beat drumming out the name of my beloved: Sage.

As I set out into the unknown, the words of the council still ringing in my ears, I felt a strange serenity. The calm before a storm, perhaps. Or maybe the calm of one who had accepted his fate, and embraced his chosen path, however fraught it may be.

And so, under the gaze of the ever-watchful moon, I stepped out of the council’s territory and into the wilderness of my new existence. A vampire, yes, but now also an outcast, a renegade in the name of love. I carried that title with pride, a badge of my undying love for Sage.

It was just the beginning, the first step in my battle against time, destiny, and the chains of my supernatural existence. But whatever lay ahead, I knew I was ready.

CHAPTER17

Sage

I had been confinedin my cottage all morning, studying any ancient texts that offered even a glimmer of hope for Christian and me. I penned down another potential spell that promised to break the curse. Lost in my world, I almost missed the three knocks that rattled my door.

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