The heavy door closed with a thud. Verra and Loreth walked slow, holding the torn dresses against their bodies. Their legs still shook. The sweet rose smell from upstairs was already gone, replaced by the cold, wet air of the basement.
They reached the corner and sat down on the dirty straw. Loreth pulled her knees to her chest and looked at Eon.
“Eon,” she whispered, voice small and cracked, “what was in that little bottle?”
Eon opened his tired eyes. He had been waiting. A weak smile came to his face.
“Payback,” he said quietly. “I just gave him the same thing he gives everyone else. Only worse.”
Loreth didn’t understand. Verra looked away, biting her lip. She already knew.
Eon reached into his shirt and took out two tiny glass tubes. A soft silver liquid moved inside them.
“Drink this,” giving one to each of them. “It’s the cure. You breathed a little of the gas too, right? This will negate it.”
Loreth stared at the tube in her shaking hand.
“Cure for what?”
Eon drank his own tube first. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall.
“So we can sleep,” he said with his eyes closed, voice already heavy. “Without this, none of us would ever sleep again. And right now only three people have the cure. You, your mother, and me.”
A second later he was gone, really asleep, breathing slow and deep. He had not slept for almost two days. He had stayed awake all night breaking bottles, trying again and again until the new potion finally worked.
Loreth turned to her mother.
“Mom… what did he do?”
Verra pulled Loreth into her arms. She was shaking a little too.
“Last night, after you slept, Eon woke me. He said he wanted to try making something new. A potion that takes sleep away forever. He said the person who breathes it will stay awake, always, no matter how tired they are. The body will beg for rest, but it will never come… unless Eon gives the cure.”
Loreth’s mouth fell open.
“Haha. I know, silly right? I also thought he was joking,” Verra went on, voice breaking. “I laughed. I told him to stop being silly and go back to sleep. After all it should have been impossible, right?”
She looked at Eon sleeping so peacefully, like a child.
“When I woke up this morning he was still sitting here. Many broken bottles were around him. His eyes were red. His fingers were burned from the chemicals. He did it. He stayed up all night and made it real.”
Loreth had a look of disbelief in her eyes.
“And Julius… he breathed it.”Loreth finished her words.
Verra nodded. She held her daughter tighter.
“He will never sleep again. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Never. Not unless Eon wants him to.”
Loreth hid her face against her mother’s neck.
“Why?” she asked, voice muffled. “What is Eon going to do next? I’m scared.” thinking the consequeses of what they have done made her a little afraid.
Verra kissed the top of her head, the way she did when Loreth was little.
“I don’t know, baby,” she whispered. “But for the first time in ten years, I feel hope is coming.”
She rocked Loreth gently.
“Just trust him, okay? That’s all we can do right now. Trust him.”
Loreth sniffed, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and nodded.
“Okay, Mom,” she said in a tiny voice. “I will have trust in him.”
Verra held Loreth close, both of them shaking in the dark, feeling a tiny spark of something they had almost forgotten: hope.
Upstairs, Julius lay soaked in cold sweat, staring at the painted ceiling while every muscle screamed for rest that refused to come. His eyes burned, his thoughts spun in sick circles, and for the first time in his life he understood what real helplessness felt like.
Down in the basement, the elf who had brewed his nightmare slept like a baby, chest rising and falling in perfect peace, while the young master’s endless night had only just begun.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter