Vasilisa's POV
Madge was banging down my door in the middle of the night. I could hear her voice calling for me.
I was awake, but if she were here, that had to mean something was wrong.
I raced out of my room and to the door flinging it open "What is it? What's wrong? Is it Scar?" I asked the questions so quickly the words got tangled up as they spilled out of my lips.
She quickly pushed in the door and shut it securely behind her "Your room, girl."
I lead her there, my stomach knotting in dread.
When we got there she shut my door securely too. "Madge, what's going on?" I asked, feeling desperate.
She looked around and ordered then "Close your window." I did.
"Will you tell me now?" I asked.
She scuttled over to where I had been reading the book of spells by candlelight. My mother dug it up for me.
"Are there passages reciting how to preform sacrificial rituals in here...with human life?" She asked swiftly.
I frowned "I don't...I don't think so. It's all basic things, lighting fires, bringing light showers for crops, all of that stuff. There's a few curses in there I think...but it's for measles and mumps, the only sacrifice it requires is burning incense."
She turned to me and eyed me "Are you sure, girl?"
I shook my head "I haven't read it all...but nothing looks that malicious in there."
She looked at the book herself and thumbed the pages "I believe you, girl, but Scar may not. The woman they found yesterday, she was sacrificed. I'm not sure for what exactly, but it was obviously pernicious. Do you understand what this means if he finds out you're a witch?"
I froze "I would never do that to a human being."
She turned somber "I know that, but he's on edge now. He and Kendra, though not close, have known each other for a very long time. I saw what he did to you when he found out you were a woman..."
She didn't have to go on. I sat on my bed and took deep, calming breaths "I don't know what happened to Kendra. I was too shocked when I saw the body to do much other than gawk, not examine."
Madge sat in the chair I'd been occupying not moments ago "There were various cuts along the body, made to drain the blood. She was tied by her wrists and ankles and suspended. She was beaten quite severely and then she was drowned."
Madge sighed "The only thing that doesn't fit in are the signs of sexual activity."
I gasped "What? She was raped?"
Madge nodded "Either that or she liked it rough."
I bit my lip and stood, pacing "It's been, what...a week or so since we returned from Dentrow?"
Madge nodded "Give or take a day."
I asked "How long does it take for signs of regular intercourse to go away?"
Madge peered at me with her glittering, multi-colored eyes "What are you getting at?"
I gave a little groan "Uh, the day we visited the Vampyres, Talon asked me to wake up Scar. When I went to his room, Kendra was there. They'd obviously been...engaging in amorous activities."
Madge gazed at me, her jaw setting "My dear, are you alright?"
I whipped around to her "Why wouldn't I be?" I asked a little too quickly. I still felt a deep ache in my chest at the thought that Scar would sleep with that woman.
Madge saddened "Oh, honey, no reason. Yes, I suppose it's possible, that if she were killed a few days ago, then the signs of intercourse still could have been visible. If she'd been with anyone in the time frame we're trying to recover, then that would also explain it."
"But then that could put you back in the hot seat." She said.
I shrugged, sinking back onto the bed "Yeah, it could."
Madge pursed her lips "You'd have motive too." She mumbled. "She slept with your mate after all."
I felt my stomach drop "What?" I whispered, in shock.
"You really didn't know, did you?" She asked incredulously.
I slowly shook my head "But how..."
She stood, taking her stick with her and clicking over to where I was siting. She could look me in the eye from her height, standing, where I was sitting. She grasped my chin and pulled my face up to look at her "You'll get through this girl. You and your mate need to talk things through, sooner rather than later, because if it's not soon enough, you might find yourself in the middle of a war that could have been avoided."
She left as fast as an old hunchback woman with a walking stick could...which turned out to be pretty fast, actually.
I watched her from my window and when I could no longer see her in the dark of the night I turned to my desk. I shut the book and blew out my candle.
I consumed tonight's sip of the concoction and pulled off my skirt, just leaving my shirt untucked to sleep in. I climbed under the blankets and stared at the wall. So many thought whirled around in my head.
Scar is my mate.
Scar slept with another woman.
Scar knew he was my mate when he did this.
He didn't know I was a woman.
Does that excuse him?
Maybe.
Does that make it any easier?
Definitely not.
I closed my eyes and fell into a restless sleep.
Scar's POV
It was dawn when the loud banging pulled me out of bed.
I'd been lying awake for several hours now.
I opened the door and was shocked to find a very angry Vas there.
The skin under her eyes was a dark color, her skin was pale, and her eyelids were swollen.
She obviously hadn't slept last night.
"Vas, are you alright?" I asked.
She glared at me "No, I am not." She stated, every word being bitten out.
She barged in my room, looking around and seeing that it was all dark.
She whipped around to me "Say it! Just spit it out!" She hissed.
I felt my stomach knot "Say what, exactly?" I asked calmly.
She inhaled "Madge told me, Scar. What I want to know is why didn't you? There's been plenty of opportunities. But no! You just keep going on as if nothing ever happened. Madge told me all about them...and Mary and Mable just go on and on about it all the time too. Did you think I just wouldn't find out, or were you thinking that you could keep it from me forever so you didn't have to act on it?"
She sounded deranged, but her hurt was evident on her face. I felt terrible "No, no, Vas, of course not. I thought you were a man before..."
She cut in "Okay, I understand that, but what about when I wasn't, huh? You find out about my gender situation and the first thing you do is try to strangle me. I wake up and then it was off to the dungeons. Next you take me out to the woods and give me this fiddly diddly speech about rape, which I already knew about, and tell me I have no sense of self preservation, when in fact the reason I dressed as a male was for said reason. You could have said something then...or yesterday..."
I would follow up on the thing in the woods later. She had been lying about that, but now I needed to take care of something much more important.
"Oh and I suppose it's just that easy? You just spit it out?" I asked.
She inhaled "Yes! It is!"
I scoffed "Alright, give me an example then, if you're so good at it."
She announced swiftly "I found out a week ago how to do this." She looked around and suddenly all of my candles lit themselves.
I froze, my veins chilling.
The features on her face were taunting me to do something about it. She knew what I was thinking.
"No, I didn't torture and sacrifice your precious Kendra." She hissed bitterly looking away with a sick look on her face, tears burning in her eyes "I would never do that to another person, and for you to even think that is terrible of you. Now, I'm going to go home and actually try to sleep. When you're ready to be honest with me, like I'm trying to be with you, then feel free to visit me."
I didn't stop her as she ran around me and exited the door.
My mate was a witch. My mate knew she was my mate. My mate wasn't happy with me.
God, at this rate, it'd be ages before my father had grandchildren.