Chapter 104: Dmitri’s Past
Dmitri POV
The old portrait burst into flames the moment I touched it.
I jerked my hand back, watching three hundred years of careful preservation turn to ash in seconds. The picture had shown my maker, Elena, the night before the Void Walkers killed her. Now it was gone, just like everything else they’d taken from me.
"Dmitri?" Caleb’s voice came from behind me. "We felt the magic from outside. What happened?"
I turned to find Caleb and Sage standing in my study doorway, their faces worried. They’d come to ask for my help finding Lily after she’d slipped into whatever dimension the brothers were trapped in. But seeing Elena’s portrait burn had brought back feelings I’d spent centuries trying to forget.
"The Void Walkers are stirring," I said, brushing ash from my fingers. "Things connected to their last appearance are starting to react."
That was putting it lightly. For the past week, ever since Lily’s sacrifice, items from my past had been acting strange. My maker’s jewelry had turned ice cold. Books from the old country had their pages rearranging themselves. Even my image in mirrors had started looking different - younger, like I was back in 1724.
"You’ve faced these things before," Sage said, stepping into the room carefully. "That’s why you know so much about them."
I nodded slowly. There was no point hiding it anymore. If we were going to save Lily and the Silver boys, they needed to know the truth about what we were really fighting.
"I was there when they were first banished," I revealed. "Not as an ally helping with the ritual, but as a victim who barely survived their attack."
Caleb’s eyes widened. "You were there? But that was centuries ago."