by Eva Brandt
“I know that,” he said. He caressed the edges of the second card, and I realized it was the jack. The jack of hearts, to be more precise. “I just can’t help but wonder what I’m missing. If I could’ve done something more.”
“Alois will come back, Malachai,” I told him. “Even if we don’t manage to find him now, he’ll always come back.”
“Is that really good enough? We can’t keep going forever, Mathias. We’re not all like you.” His claws went straight through the card he was currently holding. Maybe he wasn’t as unaware that he wasn’t in his right mind as he seemed. “We’re running out of time and not just because of Pierce.”
“Which is why it grates on me that I have to sit on my ass, twiddling my thumbs, while Darius and Declan are out there, fighting alone.”
Malachai grimaced. “I suspect we’re going to wish for that luxury soon. I can’t imagine Declan will handle the confrontation with his pack well.”
I supposed Malachai would know. In this life, he’d been the one closest to Declan before we’d met and I’d given Declan back his memories. “He’s strong,” I told him. “He always has been. No matter how much it’ll hurt, he can take it.”
“That doesn’t make it right. That doesn’t make any of this right.” Malachai shot me a disgruntled look. “And it doesn’t make me any less frustrated with you. Why do you always have to be so cryptic?”
Before I could find a way to answer him that wouldn’t involve crippling his mind further, Bjorn twitched on the floor. Both Malachai and I felt the surge of mind magic and rushed to his side.
I grabbed Bjorn’s hand first. Even in Darius’s body, I was a formidable mind mage. Pierce might have been able to fight me off the first time, but that didn’t mean I’d just let him do what he wanted.
I didn’t expect what happened. The moment I touched Bjorn’s shoulder, a female figure manifested from the purple mist of his magic.
She looked exactly like the day I’d killed her, so long ago, blood-stained gown included. She didn’t seem put out by the hole in her chest. “Well, hello there, dearest nephew,” she said. “We meet again.”
“You! Why in the world are you here?”
Anna’s lips twisted in a small, smug smirk. It was identical to the way she smiled when she was in her Louis de Hastingues persona. “You didn’t think you could kill me so easily, did you?”
“If only I were so lucky.” Unfortunately, my constant quest to kill her and make her stay dead had yet to yield satisfying results. I’d thought I’d gotten rid of her when I’d ended her first life, but she was persistent and had come back over and over. When it had become obvious that she was as trapped in this circle of repetitive lives as Dahud was, I’d tried imprisoning her like she had me, but that hadn’t worked out well either.
Unlike Dahud, though, Anna always remembered everything, and she reveled in all the damage she could do with the power she accumulated. No, that wasn’t exactly accurate. She didn’t care about it, as long as she accomplished her purpose. In fact, I would’ve bet what little soul I had left that it was why she’d showed up here, to further her goals in some way that involved me.
“I’ll give you one last chance, Mathias. You’re still my nephew and despite all the... unpleasantness, I care for you. I’m aware I wronged you. But you can still have your soulmate. There’s no reason why Pierce should be the one to claim Lucienne.”
Once upon a time, the offer would’ve been tempting. I might have thrown everything to the wind and embraced the possibility of my future with my soulmate.
But I was a demon as much as my aunt was, and I knew that deals with beings like us never had good results. The price Anna wanted for this ‘gift’ would be much too high. Darius, Declan, Mathias, and Malachai would have to die. I wasn’t willing to allow that, not when I still felt there had to be another way, not when I believed that Lucienne’s life and sanity depended on us sticking together.
“It’s been over a millennium since you cursed her and you still don’t realize what you’re doing,” I told Anna. “When will you ever learn that magic mutates? You can’t force it back into what it was. It doesn’t work that way.”
“On the contrary, Mathias, you’re the one who is in the wrong. It’s precisely because life, matter, and magic are in a constant state of flux that I can undo the spell I cast. Every vicious circle can be broken. Every lock can be opened, as long as you have the right key.”
“You’re starting to mix your metaphors now,” Malachai piped up, speaking for the first time since Anna’s arrival. “Get lost, lady. Mathias won’t agree to do your bidding. He’s on our side.”
It was unclear if he realized who she was or if he didn’t. Even so, he showed no distress at her sudden appearance. At this point, he was probably accustomed to things like this happening out of the blue.
For a few seconds, Anna just stared at him, as if not knowing what to make of his words. Then, she burst in peals of laughter. “Mathias is on no one’s side but his own, blood-sucker. But if you want to deceive yourself and think that he’s your friend, by all means, do so. I’m certainly not going to stop you. You’re a fool for hoping and trusting, but trust and hope is always for fools.”
Malachai rolled his eyes at her. “There’s only one thing I believe in, and that is the taste of someone’s blood. I think I remember yours. Don’t I?”
Anna instantly stopped laughing and her gaze flashed with dark power. “I killed you once, Malachai Braun. I can do it again. Don’t test my temper.”
“That would intimidate me more if I hadn’t known for a fact that no matter what you do, I’ll still be reborn.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure, blood-sucker. Unlike Mathias here, you don’t get any special treatment.”
“Knowing your view on special treatment, I don’t think that’s something he should regret,” I intervened. Even if centuries had passed since Dahud’s death, I’d never forget being entombed alive because of my aunt’s actions. “There’s nothing here for you, Aunt Anna. In case I didn’t make matters clear during our battle, I intend to crack you open slowly and painfully, to make you feel all the agony you’ve inflicted on everyone else.”
“You might find that a little difficult, if you don’t want to cripple your beloved soulmate,” Anna said. “But do whatever you want and don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
She shot me one last smile, this time sad and melancholic. “Goodbye, Mathias. For what it’s worth, I am sorry.”
Despite myself, I remembered a different time, before we’d been enemies, when she’d taught me how to read and write, when she’d told me stories, given me advice, and finally, when she’d offered me a blessing that had turned into a curse.
It had stopped mattering more than a millennium ago. If I’d ever been inclined to forgive her, those feelings had vanished the first time I’d held my dying son in my arms. “Apologies are worthless to me. Next time, I won’t fail. No matter what body you use, I’ll find a way to end you.”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she vanished, leaving behind only the slight trace of corrupted, dark magic.
As soon as she was gone, Bjorn opened his eyes and let out a sharp gasp. “I figured it out. I know what’s going on, what they’re planning.”
I suspected what he was about to say. Anna had more or less been trying to do the same thing for ages. It was just that she’d never had any luck before. Had she gotten lucky this time around?
“They have a ritual, something to absorb all of us back into Pierce,” Bjorn said, confirming my worst fears. “And now that Louis is back and they have Lucienne captive, they can make it work.”
Fuck.
Eight
Determination
Declan
Over twenty werewolves had died in the confrontation in the sewers. I’d been the one to kill over half of them. I could still smell the scent of their blood and taste its metallic flavor in my mouth.
It should’ve bothered me. Instead, it felt distant
, like it had happened to someone else.
A twinge of something deep and mournful coursed through me when I watched my defeated brother being dragged away by the plagues, but it was shrouded and veiled. I wasn’t all that surprised at my detachment. Mathias had warned me that something like this could happen. It was just a little unexpected that it would come to pass so quickly, but then again, we were dealing with the Accursed Syndrome here, so it stood to reason that everything else that was wrong with us would work faster.
For the most part, I was okay with it. I understood that I needed to sever the bonds that belonged solely to Declan—to this life—in order to move forward. My brother would never be able to understand the burden I carried, and even if he had, he wouldn’t forgive me for what I’d done, or find all the bloodshed justifiable. And maybe he was right. Maybe we were monsters for choosing this path. But I’d long ago stopped caring.
Darius cared more than me. As soon as we were on board the jet again, he pulled me aside, away from the plagues and our captives. The first thing he did was to slap me hard across the face. Jolts of electricity rushed through my body as his skin made contact with mine. “Snap out of it, Declan!”
Obeying his orders had always been as easy as breathing, as easy as loving Lucienne. Everything inside me responded to his voice and his touch. Slowly, the fog that lingered over my mind started to clear.
I blinked and I was myself again. “What... What in the world happened?”
Darius passed an agitated hand through his hair and leaned against the wall. “You were still a little lost in your head after what happened in the sewers,” he explained. “We both lost it back there, Declan. It was bad. If I hadn’t contacted Lucienne, I honestly don’t know what would’ve happened.”
Lucienne. I did remember hearing her voice and glimpsing her face, for a few seconds, but I’d thought I’d imagined it. “How did you manage that?”
“No idea.” Darius shrugged. “Desperation? I still have a strong mental connection with her, I guess, and it’s not just in my mind, but also in my body.”
I blinked owlishly at his statement, trying to understand what he meant. It was then that I realized that we weren’t in the most private spot in existence, and he was trying to avoid mentioning his true identity. In all likelihood, it had been Mathias’s connection with Lucienne that had allowed Darius to contact her, but he couldn’t say that, not out loud.
My head was beginning to hurt at the logistics of our convoluted situation. “This is ridiculous. She belongs with us. We should just track them down and take her back.”
“You know it’s not that simple. If it were, we would’ve done it by now.”
Yes, I did know, but that didn’t make me any less irritated about it. It didn’t help that Lucienne’s absence was only part of the problem. I’d just killed people whom I’d once cared about deeply. I tried to not let it get to me, but rational thought was both a blessing and a curse.
I leaned against Darius’s shoulder, feeling drained of strength. “Why do we have to do these things?” I asked. “Are we really damned? Is there no way out for us, no way to escape this curse?”
“Of course there is, and we’ll find it, once we find her and Alois. Don’t lose faith, Declan. We have to move forward, no matter what.”
His words would’ve encouraged me more had he not admitted that he wasn’t doing very well either. But what was the point of feeling sorry for ourselves? Grief and madness could be just as dangerous as physical illness. I knew that better than most.
If I lost the battle with it again, if I succumbed to my beast and my insanity, everything would undoubtedly fall apart. I couldn’t allow that.
The thought steadied me, the memory of past failures bringing me back clarity and determination. I couldn’t allow myself to drift into the same mistakes I’d made in my previous lives. I had to cling to my reason with all my might, even if this whole thing with Kai was threatening to sabotage my efforts.
“Your brother might still survive this,” Darius said, petting my hair. “Not all is lost when it comes to him. But that’s going to have to wait. In the meantime, we have to stick to the plan.”
Stick to the plan. Return the prisoners to HQ and then track down the Alarians, find Alois, and from there, rescue Lucienne. That sounded sensible. Yeah, I could stick to the plan.
In my new state of mind, I’d have probably wiped the floor with Darius’s family, but once again, something went wrong and I never got the chance to try. When we returned to base, we found the plagues staffing the building in an utter panic.
“What happened?” Darius asked as he stalked off the plane. He grabbed a nearby man and shook him, electricity already sweeping over his skin. “What is this chaos?”
The plague whimpered in Darius’s hold. “I-It’s your captive, Your Lordship. We were the target of a mental attack from the recently awakened Prince Darius Alarisson. He’s barricaded himself in the infirmary, and we’ve been unable to get him out.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Excuse me? Darius attacked you? That’s impossible.”
It was rude and inappropriate of me to intervene in my leader’s conversation with his subordinate, but I’d had a shitty day and my wolf still lay in wait, much too close to the forefront of my mind. I deemed it a miracle that my words came out as coherent sentences, instead of incomprehensible snarls.
“It’s absolutely not impossible,” the plague defended himself. “The wave of mental magic that came from the infirmary could’ve belonged to no other.”
I tried to process the absurdity if what he was telling me, but I just couldn’t do it. I closed my eyes, focusing on tightening my hold on my wolf. If I moved a single muscle, I’d rip someone apart, and that wouldn’t help us right now.
In the background, I could still hear Darius arguing with his subordinate. “Fool! Have you completely forgotten the enemy we face? Louis de Hastingues is a nightmare. He isn’t hindered by geographical limitations. He must’ve found an opening in our defenses after I was gone, and you played along with his game by attacking the wrong person.”
I suspected that this incident might be connected to Bjorn and his offer to keep an eye on Pierce and Lucienne. It seemed like a pretty big coincidence for this to happen right after he’d presumably begun observing them.
Louis de Hastingues was an ancient creature, with plenty of tricks up his sleeve. It would’ve been easy for Bjorn to stumble into some kind of mental shield and accidentally cause the backlash of magic that had disturbed the plagues so much.
I hoped Lucienne’s father hadn’t done too much damage. According to the plague, Mathias was staying put inside the infirmary and keeping everyone out, which meant he wasn’t dead or seriously injured. Bjorn and Malachai’s condition was less certain.
We really didn’t need this bullshit right now.
“I really don’t need this bullshit right now,” Darius said, echoing my thoughts to the letter. “Check the perimeter for any intruders, for fuck’s sake. See to the prisoners. I’ll handle the issue with Darius Alarisson.”
His voice held so much poison the plague pissed himself. “Yes, Your Lordship. I understand, Your Lordship.”
Without another word, Darius headed toward the healing wing in a rush of angry, electric magic. I followed, but everyone else gave us a wide berth. In a strange twist, I was now stuck trying to calm him down like he’d done for me earlier. Since we didn’t have time for heartfelt conversations, I went with my gut and took his hand.
A simple touch between people who loved one another could hold more magic than a powerful enchantment. This was a lesson I’d learned a long time ago, the hard way. Maybe some people would’ve found it strange, old-fashioned, or embarrassing, but for us, it worked.
Darius didn’t look at me. He clutched my hand so tightly he’d have broken my bones had I been human.
The door to Mathias’s healing room burst open under the assault of Darius’s angry magic. Mathias’s enchantment
had been powerful enough to hold the plagues at bay, but not a real challenge for Darius. Knowing him, he was waiting for us.
“Well, I was wondering when you’d all show up,” Mathias drawled. He was still on the bed, right where we’d left him, playing cards with Malachai. “Your people have been going crazy out there.”
“Yes, I’m aware. What happened here? I take it we had an unwanted visit.”
“You could say that, yes,” Bjorn replied. He stood in front of the window, with his hand pressed to the glass. “We can’t wait any longer. We need to set everything else aside and move. If we don’t attack now, it’ll be too late.”
Well, that wasn’t news at all, but the way Bjorn stated it suggested real urgency. At one point during our absence, shit had hit the fan.
Darius closed his eyes, as if trying to restrain his temper. “Louis was here. He’s awake.”
Bjorn flinched, looking stricken. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I was reckless when I spoke to Pierce.”
I didn’t blame him for what had happened. Everything we’d been doing was reckless in the extreme. I doubted he’d gone any further than me and Darius.
Darius seemed to agree. He shook his head and looked at Bjorn once again. “It might be unrelated. I’m more inclined to believe that it’s because we turned to Lucienne for help in our fight with Alpha Whelan.”
The others had no idea what we were talking about, of course, but they didn’t ask either. “The reasons are beside the point,” Mathias said. “He’d have woken up anyway. What matters is this. We have the following information. Lucienne will meet with an Alarian delegation tomorrow. Instead of going to the Palasion, we hit there, hard and fast.”
“Mathias, that’s crazy,” I protested. Coming from me that was saying a lot. “They’ll expect it, if they even go through with the meeting at all and it’s not a trap to lure us in.”