And Then There Were Four (Lilith Carrie)

Chapter 157: Anna

Cassie.

When Silas told me he knew of a place for us to go, I was expecting something fancy or perhaps something that was more… elegant, marble, and who knows what else. What I wasn’t expecting though was for him to take us to an old brick building with broken windows that looked wildly out of place to be within Asgard.

Pollux, Trixie, and Sansa decided to stay behind and snoop around the school to see if they could find anything that might be useful. With them looking around, no one would suspect them for doing anything, me, however, they would.

Yet, even though they were busy looking for information, I wished they were here with me. I wanted Pollux to see this building, to see how beautiful and strange the land around it was. One thing about my brother that no one knew but me was his love for history–a love for the past because the past makes us stronger.

The building reminded me of old ruins of castles in a way with its intricate archways and carved designs within the stone. I couldn’t help myself when I passed them to reach out and let my fingers brush against the ancient markings. My mind wandered to who these people must have been because it was far older than anything here now.

“Where are we?” I asked softly, my eyes turning to Silas, who smiled down at me with amusement. As if he knew a mil-lion secrets and wanted to tell me but didn’t know how.

“This is a structure from another realm, one that we no longer speak of because of the battle that commenced there thousands of years ago,” he replied as he gazed up at the structure running his own hands against the broken rock. “During the battle, they sought to escape and when the portal was opened, it moved the earth they stood on and anything else around.”

“Who is they?” I asked curiously, trying to understand how anyone could be so powerful that they could move all this earth and even structures.

Silas chuckled though as he glanced back at me. “You don’t know any of the stories, do you?”

I wasn’t sure why he was amused by me not knowing the stories of this place, and shaking my head, he pushed open the large wooden and brass door before us. The creek of the wood echoed against the silent air around Silas and me. I found myself stepping into a hall of darkness filled with cob- bled steps and cobwebs.

Silas moved forward down the cobbled steps further into the darkness, and I hesitated for a moment, I took a deep breath and forced myself forward. One thing people didn’t know about me was the internal fear I had of darkness. Not that anyone would suspect it–I hid my fears very well.

“Silas.” I called out into the darkness having lost him in my delay as I reached the bottom step. My eyes strained to see through the black void that filled my vision in front of me. “Silas?”

“Over here!” The dim lighting of a torch coming into view as he came around a corner, and once again I was able to see his smiling face. “Come on, what are you doing?”

What am I doing? Jesus, like I meant to get lost.

“Nothing, right behind you,” I replied, pushing a smile onto my face as I watched him turn, my steps right behind his. There was no way I was going to allow myself to get lost in this place again.

After a few minutes of walking, we came to another arch- way that opened up into more darkness. Silas stopped in his tracks and turned to the right, letting the lit flame of the torch to touch something on the wall, and as it did a wind blew through the room lighting every torch in sight.

my breath as I took in the sight before me. Bookcases reached high into the ceiling, multiple levels of books as far as the eye could see. Never

causing me to turn

voice echoing, “how is this kept like it is? I’m surprised people don’t come here every day.”

looked around as if contem- plating what I had said. “It’s been forgotten, honestly. Not to mention the school explained to the gods it wasn’t a safe place for students to be. So it went vacant

step after the other, I wandered

From hand- carved tables with toppled chairs, tons of books that littered the floor, as well dust that laid blanketed upon every surface in the

something so old and beautiful at the same time. I let my fingers brush over some of the multicol- ored spines as my feet crunched upon

we will find what I need to

I turned to look at Silas from over my shoulder, he stood

way?” I repeated, furrowing my brow, “what do you

forward, his arms falling at his sides he stared at me, and the intensity of that stare made my breath catch in my throat. I didn’t understand what it was about him that made my heart flutter like it did, but twhen he stepped inches in front of me, a wave of nervousness washed over me

for you to learn about the past. About the gods, and more importantly about who you are, Cassie. Odin and the others have been hiding the truth, but

truth. Yet, knowing Odin- my grandfather–and the others were hiding things from me didn‘t

his hand down my shoulder gently before moving a strand of hair from my face. “Because they don’t think you’re ready to know. I was ordered never to

was looking at me, I could almost tell what he was going to say. He was going to tell me how he cared about me, but I didn’t need him to tell me for me to know. I should have been disgusted with him advancing on me

kiss me… part of

a small smirk cross his lips as he stepped back, and picked up

know, I will tell you,” he replied as I took a seat in the offered chair, watching him move about the room to a bookcase as if he had been

know this

popped his head back out

to quickly come

everything in time… for now,

me and flipped the book open to a drawing of a woman with reddish brown hair and blue eyes. She was strikingly beautiful, but what stayed with me the most is how much she

tearing my gaze from the book only to see him staring intently at the woman as if seeing her face brought back memories he hadn’t seen in forever. “You knew her,

averted his gaze from the woman and frowned. “Something like that.

flip. the pages, I settled in for whatever story he had to tell me. If it would help me get closer to figuring out what was wrong with

union to him was actually formed in a blood promise her mother had made before she was born in return

showed me the images of Bjorn and many other people explaining how the twos‘

bared many children, but in the great war,

him but his best friend killed