Black Blood (Series of Blood Book 4) Emma Hamm (popular novels txt) 📖

Louis was normal. They might have met on a street and smiled at each other. She hadn’t realized just how much she had missed that kind of normalcy.

“Louis?” she asked.

“What can I do for you, Lydia?”

“Can you hand me one of the books on that shelf?”

Her slender hand pointed up to the highest piece he could reach. The journals were different there. Unlike the others, which were leather bound, the higher books were bound in fabric.

Louis reached, grabbed, and handed her a bright blue volume. Her hands stroked the worn edges.

“Thank you, Louis. You may go.”

“Ma’am?”

“I’ll be fine alone. This is something I need to do by myself.”

“All right,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “If you need me, just holler. I’m sure the house will let me know.”

“I’m sure it will.”

She smiled at him until the door closed. The book in her hands felt heavier. It weighed upon her palms and made her biceps quake.

“I need to know,” she murmured, “I have to know.”

Lydia licked her lips, opened the cover, and read.

She stepped into a world of swirling colors, bright lights, and strange creatures. The glow of the chandeliers blinded her for a moment, their Fairy glow burning above her. This memory differed from the first.

Gone was the beautiful forest; she stood in a grand ballroom. The floor was polished black marble and the walls were waterfalls of molten gold dripping from the ceiling. Crystal chandeliers the size of cars glistened with vines of diamonds.

All around Lydia, creatures of myth and legend mingled. A Minotaur, dressed impeccably in a brocade vest and emerald green velvet, danced with a Unicorn whose pale skin sparkled with rubies. A Banshee curled clawed fingers around the arm of a Shifter who growled under her breath.

Sil and Pitch paled compared to these stunning specimens. Lydia twisted and turned so she could glimpse all of them at once.

Though it was a memory, she felt as though it were real. These were her bloodlines. These were the people whom she may have met.

No one could have guessed what their creature’s souls looked like in real life. Some might have attempted to depict themselves in a drawing or painting, but none could do what was happening right now in Lydia’s mind.

She might have met that Nymph on the street. She might have bought groceries from the Sphinx reclining in the corner. All these creatures surrounding her in a whirl of fabric and movement were still alive to this day.

Everything was so opulent that it made her ache. The gold. The jewelry. The impossible fabrics. Some dresses pulsed with glowing light. Others moved on their own accord only making their wearer more graceful.

She was drab next to all of them. Lydia was in simple pajamas Pitch had gotten her when she first arrived. If she had been in her own, it might have been worse. Lydia liked elephant prints to sleep in. As it was, she had on a peacock green nightdress.

It was hardly the outfit one would wear to a ball. An arcing hand slid through her stomach and reminded Lydia she wasn’t really there. She was a ghost watching a memory that felt more real than herself.

She stepped through the crowd as though parting a wave. The dancers moved away from her and few passed through her body. The floor gleamed as though lights sparkled beneath her.

Lydia paused and stared down at her reflection. Though it was a memory, Lydia’s presence was captured in the floor.

“What magic is this?” she murmured.

Her reflection looked up at her and pointed at a dark corner of the ballroom. She realized with startling clarity that she had done this before. In some other timeline, she had left a message for herself, hidden in the floor.

“Clever,” she murmured.

The shadowed corner wasn’t as intimidating as she had expected, and it hid an archway to a balcony.

Voices murmured in the private corner. Lydia crept carefully forward, pressing her back against the wall although they could not hear her.

“Everything will be fine,” Pitch’s voice was recognizable. “They will love you.”

“They do not know me, Pitch. An outsider is still an outsider.”

“This dimension is not the same as yours.”

“Please don’t trivialize my fear.”

Sil was as beautiful as the first time Lydia had seen her. Molten silver fell like a waterfall off her body in an ever moving wave. Diamonds swung from her horns as she gestured with her hands.

“I’m not trivializing-”

Sil interrupted him. “You think that I’m afraid because I don’t know what they can do. But I know what they are capable of, and how intelligent they are. They know what creatures they made, and I am clearly not one of them.”

“You were different to me,” the harsh expression upon Pitch’s face softened. He reached forward and brushed a silken strand of hair behind Sil’s ear. “And I fell in love with you.”

Lydia must have jumped forward in time farther than she expected. She hadn’t seen the tender moments leading to this point. The look in his eyes was painful to see. He adored Sil. He thought she deserved the world and would hand it to her on a platter.

Lydia wasn’t certain she could say the same for Sil. There was a tenderness there as she leaned into his touch. But there was a cold detachment in her eyes.

“Go ahead,” Sil told him. “I will follow you in a moment.”

“I should be here with you.”

“I just need a few moments to breathe. Let me make the grand entrance I had always planned.”

He nodded and pulled himself from the shadows. Lydia’s breath caught as she saw the black velvet which molded to his body. Gold buttons and thread created a sense of light within the darkness. A long cape fell from his shoulders and trailed after him as he swept from the balcony.

Although it was likely all in her mind, Lydia swore she could smell the sweet scent of roses and cigars.

“This is not an easy path,” Sil’s voice cut through