The Blood Bracelets #1: Blood Bound

Chapter Twenty-Four

Seth was called away and though Taryn was grateful for his company all morning, she was glad to have the time to explore on her own. She still hadn’t seen the entirety of the building yet, so Taryn walked up the stairs to the gallery floor opposite where her room was, the same side Asina had taken her and Seth to. All the doors were closed and Taryn wasn’t that curious to open them and intrude, since she presumed they were all bedrooms for visitors as well.

Instead, Taryn walked to the end of the floor and turned up another set of stairs to reach a third level. What she stepped into was something akin to a museum, with podiums and display shelves set up around the room and lit by bright spotlights, brighter than the main lights in the ceiling. Intrigued, Taryn went to the first podium where a chalice was on display but as she neared it, the chalice began to disappear.

Taryn slowed and then took a few steps back. The chalice reappeared. It was golden bronze, the stem etched with engravings that she couldn’t make out from where she stood and lining the edge of the chalice’s lip were glittering stones, but stones that were either the colour of midnight or the colour of the ocean depending on which way the light hit it. Her curiosity piquing, Taryn dashed across to the display with the hope that she’d catch the object before it disappeared.

It vanished instantly.

‘What is it?’ she muttered, reading the sign underneath. Her eyes widened. ‘The Holy Grail?’ And apparently it had a habit of turning invisible when it didn’t want to be seen. No wonder no one ever found it.

Taryn turned to the next artefact; a silver ring. It had a familiar symbol of a pentagram repeated right around its body. She read the sign and found that the ring was known as the Seal of Solomon.

She looked around the room once more, feeling as if she was standing in the middle of the Museum of the Supernatural. The pseudo-museum didn’t take up the entire floor, since a wall divided this room with the one beside it, a double-door offering passage between the two.

In the far corner something glistened, catching Taryn’s eye. She walked toward it, realising it was a sword almost identical to the one Seth carried. It was mounted on the wall, surrounded by dozens of smaller versions of itself with a small plaque underneath to explain the sword’s origin. It was said that these holy blades were derived from the Sword of Michael, the very weapon that had defeated Lucifer.

She glanced around, checking no one else had appeared in the room, and reached up to the sword. As the tips of her fingers touched the steel, something sparked from the blade itself and Taryn was suddenly pushed back, sent skidding along the floor with a sharp pain coursing up through her fingers and into her arm.

Taryn clenched her fist, biting her lip at the pain. It began to ebb away so she stumbled back onto her feet, shaking her hand to rid the last tingling sensations out of her fingertips. The sword was emitting a dim glow, as if warning Taryn away.

For a moment she wasn’t sure what had happened, until a voice whispered something amongst her thoughts, stirring a memory from when Seth had shown Taryn his own sword. Only pure beings can touch it, he had said. Yet she had touched the sword just fine then.

So what had changed?

*****

‘It won’t hurt for much longer,’ said Eden.

Kael pulled his shirt back on, grimacing at the tenderness of his skin as his muscles moved, stretching the mark now scorched over his heart. It hadn’t literally been burnt into him, but it felt as if it had. The symbol was a knot of black lines, representing the binding over his abilities and demonic energy, tying it up so he couldn’t use it. Kael hadn’t planned to use his energy while in the Immortal Halls, but apparently everyone else was expecting him to – hence why he now had the option taken away.