“Please,” Laith said. Carefully I sent them the memory. They watched with bated breath. Out of all of them, Fiona was the most affected.
“She knew Jonathan’s allegiances had changed and was hoping to harness that. An arsenal of powerful beings that could protect them and her from the Destroyer getting his end of whatever bargain they had.”
“And she killed the others, erasing all evidence of the deal.” Fiona let the leaf flutter to the ground. “I have a hard time believing Gayle was the only one still involved. We must allow the new coven leadership to bring their grievances.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Violet said. “A witch press charges against an immortal? Since when does The Three ever submit to mortal laws?”
Fiona raised a brow. “We don’t, and we won’t, but I’ve decided to allow it for good reasons. I want to know how deep this betrayal goes. I also have no doubt this event will incite some serious feelings. It could be useful in drawing out the individuals causing the breakdown of the veil.”
“Why can’t the little one use her powers to find them?” Violet smiled at me the way only a proud mother would.
“No,” I said.
“You can’t blame a resident just because they have a bad thought or are unhappy with our decisions,” Fiona said. “I would be kicked out on a regular basis if that were the case. There has to be—”
“Mal-intent,” Jonathan said, finishing for her.
Fiona nodded her assent. “And that involves action.”
“If we can weed out those who are hostile to our cause, it could strengthen our borders,” Elisa added.
“I agree with the Healer.” Jonathan stood by my aunt, then looked to me with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “And you all know I’m up for getting rid of traitors.”
I tsked, feigning annoyance, but in all honesty, I wasn’t upset he had killed Gayle. I barely made it from her room without killing her myself. Jonathan saw her betrayal as an act of war.
Fiona sighed in an effort to ignore his comment. “We get the information we need, then move the compound.”
Darius looked out over the expanse of green acreage. “It’ll need to be remote.”
Elisa nodded. “Of course, and we’ll scout the area the second we arrive.”
Laith shoved his hands deep into his pockets. His brows pinched together. “I don’t know. I don’t like it. We’ve never done this before.”
“But our borders have never been compromised so badly,” Elisa argued.
And it was all my fault. Had there been any other time in their history that such a division had occurred? I didn’t have the heart to ask. Guilt compressed against my chest, causing a deep pain to pulse through my veins.
Darius sensed my reaction. He tugged at my sleeve. “Stop it. This is not your fault.”
I pished beneath my breath. “Isn’t it? None of the residents wanted me. I have a personal demon.” My gaze slid to Violet. “Two personal demons. I’m freaking everyone out with my…” I waved a hand in the air. “Abilities. A witch is dead because of me.”
“You didn’t kill her. I did.” Jonathan folded his arms across his chest.
“Think clearly, my niece. This circumstance has been growing to a head for years, starting with our first brother, Nikolaos. This is far from being your fault. And you—” A heartbeat later, Jonathan was on his back and Fiona was above him, her hand to his neck. “Gayle was my friend, and my responsibility,” she said in an even tone.
My breath skidded to a halt. Momentary fear froze me. I pushed out with my powers, but the feelings coming from Fiona were out of place with her movements. She had already forgiven my demon but felt her actions were deserved and even necessary. Cedric grinned as he watched his mate.
I relaxed a fraction, waiting for my demon’s response.
Jonathan smiled, exposing his teeth. He spoke strangely against her grip. “Yes. A friend that betrayed the first Defender to her death and invited a demon to participate in a mating ritual with unaware, very attractive, young witches. She’s fantastic.”
She released him, brushing nonexistent dirt from her clothes. “Yes, well, we weren’t that close. But because of your decision, the residents will no longer trust you.”
He shrugged, getting to his feet. “They trusted Violet. Not me. And for good reason.”
“And should we trust you, Jonathan?”
He hesitated, his gaze seeking mine. In the depth of his curious onyx eyes, I read desire, but this time it was a desire to be something more than what he was. What he had been.
“I am my own person. Trust that I will act according to what I deem right… which may not always agree with you. Ava knows me, who I am. She can trust me.”
27
Claims and Allegations
The library was packed. The smell of pressed bodies in a too-small room assaulted my senses. It reminded me of the original council I had attended upon first arrival. The same faces cast their worried eyes to me, then away. The security team lined the walls, minus Zane, who sat at the head of the room. Excitement lit his ready expression.
I swept over the gawking crowd. The witches had yet to make their appearance. A part of me—all of me—wished they wouldn’t show, but Fiona assured me this was a good plan. I couldn’t help noticing how the numbers of residents had decreased since my arrival. Even so, their numbers pressed against me, making it hard to breathe. I wiped sweaty hands on my black trousers.
We had dressed in full combat gear, which aided the tension of the room. The moment the council was over, we would escort Roslyn out and move the sanctuary. We still hadn’t decided where, but The Three knew of several remote locations rarely touched by man. We would go to one of them until the residents calmed down. A small hope within burned. Maybe after a few years, our problems would all blow over. I wasn’t the only one who hoped this.
A jumble of mental musings saturated the air. It was hard not to reach out with my powers to pull a string of conscious thought, but even then, it wouldn’t be easy finding who any one thread belonged to in a room so congested. Despite me keeping my new gift in check, mental guards were up. Whether strong or weak, walls had been built to protect information residents didn’t want me to find.
Some saw me as an enemy—a troublesome newcomer—while others were more tolerant. Loved me even. Gerald, Madelyn, and Cheryl sat across the room, smiling encouragingly. There were others as well. The security team had long before accepted me as their own. Zane had forgiven me for Charlotte even before her soul had passed, and even Roman and Logan the hothead liked me.
Violet sat in the far corner under watch of her favorite security guard. Jonathan was not allowed to come, nor did he want to, even if Fiona permitted it.
I took my seat at the head of the room next to Darius, in the semi-circle of chairs set up for The Three. Elisa and Laith claimed the ones to the left, followed by Cedric to the right. Fiona stayed standing to start the meeting.
Suddenly the door pushed open. Roslyn paused on the threshold, her face red. Sweat beaded on her brow and dripped from her neck. She wore a black pantsuit that pulled in all the wrong places. Her hair sat high in a severe knot on the top of her head. She wore every piece of jewelry that had once belonged to Gayle, including the turquoise bracelet, making her look ridiculously overdone.
Her gaze swept the room until she found the Mother Witch. “You couldn’t have sent the car for me?” she said, clearly annoyed.
Fiona raised a brow but otherwise remained unmoved. “We’re not a shuttle service, and Ava can’t read your mind that far away. If you needed a ride you should have called.”
Defiance rang in her voice. “I don’t want her to read my mind, and you know I don’t have a cell phone.”
“Well?” Fiona displayed her hands in front of her as if helpless. “Why don’t you take a seat.”
Roslyn stomped halfway down the aisle of residents, dangerous in a pair of black stilettos. “I’d rather get straight to it, if you don’t mind
.”
“Fine. What do you want?”
And that was all the permission she needed. She turned to the residents. Her eyes swept over the rows.
“I’m honored to be among such raw talent and intelligence. You will understand the difficulty of the situation at hand, relate to it, even.” Her face softened; sadness swept her eyes. “You once were tracked down by the Fallen because of a gift you possess and have since traveled here for protection. While we do not share your home, those of my coven share those same difficulties.”
Fiona cleared her throat, speaking over her. “This is not a trial, Roslyn, and the residents are not a jury. What grievance do you have?”
She whirled, red-faced. “I demand justice for our fallen leader. Ava Matthias should be stripped of her rank and title as mortals’ Defender and punished for the crimes against her.”
The room buzzed with energy. Excitement mingled with worry and blended into fear. Darius squeezed my leg, a gentle reminder to stay calm—that we had a plan.
Cedric held up his hand, silencing the crowd. “But as we now know, Ava did not kill Gayle.”
“If her demon did it, he did it because she ordered him to. He’s a Fallen—a Fallen who follows the directions of his leader. And we all know who holds those strings now. Jonathan would never have acted on his own.”
I tipped my head to the side. “You don’t know Jonathan at all.”
“Know him?” Roslyn glared. “I don’t need to know him. He’s the scum of the earth. That you haven’t killed him yet goes to show that you cannot be trusted to act in the best interest of your people.”
“They’re not all scum,” a feminine voice called out. Emily’s face turned red when all eyes shifted to her. Whispers broke out.
Roslyn smiled. “Oh. This is the mother of the new Guardian. Your sacrifice is well-known throughout the witch community. You were honored for your valor. Then you returned with a dark secret… you fell in love with your captor. Another Fallen that I learned today was inside your sanctuary.”
Beside me, Darius clenched his jaw. Voices grew to epic proportions.
She went on, ignorant of his growing hostility. “The Defender has her own private assortment of demons and often councils with them privately.”
“Violet is not a threat,” someone called out.
Violet looked down at her hands folded neatly in her lap.
Hector’s fists were tight at his sides, his knuckles white. His thoughts were exposed, his feelings conflicted. He ached to touch her, to comfort her, but knew better than to show such affection in view of everyone present.
Next to him, Logan stood, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. “You know I wasn’t so excited when she first came, but I’ve watched our Defender closely since her arrival. She’s not perfect, but can we really expect that?”
“Shouldn’t we?” Roslyn reached the front of the room, turning to look at her audience. “She’s been given more power than any of us have. Shouldn’t we expect more? And how can we trust someone who can manipulate our minds? We deserve so much more from our leaders. Did God intend his way to be so perverted?”
“No!” shouted several in the group.
I closed my eyes, seeing their faces in my mind. I knew Fiona had a reason for this meeting—a reason for me to stay calm—but the plan was becoming harder and harder to remember with every passing accusation that I could not defend.
My heart sank. I felt dizzy. Only a few months ago, Charlotte had caused enough turmoil within the residents to create open animosity. However, faced with the possibility of The Three’s destruction and losing the protection of the sanctuary, they risked their lives to stop the Annihilator. How quickly they fell back into faithlessness.
“There is a sickness in this leadership,” Roslyn continued. “A sickness that must be purged, starting with Ava Matthias and any others who object.”
A flicker of light invaded my sight, turning my stomach. The crowd ceased to be there, then flashed back into place. A second later, it did it again.
I grasped Darius’s hand. “Something’s happening.” But my voice sounded as if I were in a cave. It echoed against the walls in my mind.
I closed my eyes, allowing the sensation to take over. I knew what was coming. I tuned out the outside commotion, the residents, and their judgmental thoughts. I tuned out everything, searching for what sought my attention. Another wave of dizziness hit with additional power. I stood from my seat.
Ava.
A familiar voice called to me, turning my blood cold, but Nikolaos wasn’t in the room. He couldn’t be.
“Ava, what’s going on?” Darius asked, but I could no longer see him or feel his hand in mine. My Demon’s Eye beat along with the quickening rhythm of my heart, growing colder.
Ava.
A vision snaked into my mind. I welcomed it, watched it grow.
I stood just within the sanctuary. The veil shimmered and waved like a flag caught in a breeze. The English countryside spread out before me in a welcoming display of spring perfection, but there was nothing there. I turned a circle, searching the orchards around me.
Ava.
The wind kicked up my hair, blinding me. I hastily tucked it behind my ear, spinning toward the voice. Figures took shape beyond the veil.
A row of thirty witches knelt on the ground. Their clothes were torn and filthy, their faces covered in dirt. Ordered to pray, they muttered pleas through cracked, bleeding lips. A Fallen guard stood over each one.
Bailey knelt at the front of the line. Defiance hardened her face, now swollen with purple bruises. She had received the most damage of them all but refused to cower to her captor.
And my heart swelled. Tears rose to the surface, but I blinked them away, afraid to lose sight of the vision.
“We have brought them as a gift to you.” Nikolaos spoke into my ear, but I did not jump or show him any fear.
“A gift?”
“A wedding gift.” He hummed softly, and the sound launched wild shivers of anger down my spine. He lowered his face level with mine, scanning me with his strange, crystal-blue eyes. “Unlike us, they are unworthy and have been found guilty of treason. They seek what is not theirs. I do not deem them worth saving, but I have a feeling you will.” His lips parted in a smile. “You can’t help it. It’s the same sickness my wife had.” He backed away, gesturing to the lineup. “So save them, great Defender, if you can.”
“I’m not making any deals with you,” I said through clenched teeth.
“That offer’s not valid any longer. Word has it you’re tainted goods.” His pale finger lifted, trailing an imaginary line up my arm. It landed on the black stone of the Demon’s Eye. “I’ll take this instead.”
“This is what Annie wanted. Where is she?”
He shrugged, turning his back towards me. “Indisposed. You deal with me now. Give me the Demon’s Eye, or all of these witches will be killed.”
I scoffed. “You can’t think—”
“Starting with that one.”
A Fallen in the middle of the line grabbed a witch by her hair and pulled. His blade sliced across her throat. Before I could inhale to scream, it was over. My vision glazed to the sight of so much blood, but I saw the whites of the witch’s eyes before the demon threw her lifeless body to the ground.
I choked on a sob. Bile rose in the back of my throat. My tears threatened to blind me, but it was anger that held them off. I spoke through clenched teeth. “That was the wrong thing to do.”
Nikolaos smiled at my reaction. He stood in front of Bailey and almost lovingly cupped her battered face. “No more threats. You have one hour to bring it to me, or the others die, starting with her. Oh, and one more thing.”
His wide crystal eyes met mine and his soul opened to me. A vision within a vision slammed me to the ground. His darkness surrounded me, so dense I thought I had lost consciousness. Slowly my sight adjusted. Familiar outlines of trees grew into focus until I recognized the orchard outsid
e of where the sanctuary had been stagnant for almost nineteen years.
A shadow moved. A woman, a memory, lifted a baby from the leaf-covered ground, its cry weak and frail. The shadow turned, and my breath froze within my chest.
It was my mother. Pale and thin, she looked too weak to hold the child, but she tucked it—Charlotte—close to her and stumbled toward the veil.
I opened my mouth, but it was Nikolaos’s voice, not my own, that came out.
“Rachel!”
Rachel spun, knife already in hand. Her eyes locked on mine… but it wasn’t me she saw. It was Nikolaos. My heart broke into a million pieces. Disbelief overtook her features.
Nikolaos held his hands high as if in surrender.
The remaining blood drained from her face. “No,” she croaked. “This isn’t real.”
He smiled, his lips as pale as his face. “It’s real, my love.”
She flinched. “Don’t call me that. You—you were dead. I felt you pull away—your essence.” Her words sent a chill through me. I had always wanted to hear her voice. It sounded like mine, but with the tenor that came from having lived for so long.
The tear that slipped from the corner of her eye matched mine. She dashed hers away. I wanted to comfort her, to embrace the woman I had always wished to know, but all I could do was wait as the events unfolded according to her first twisted mate.
“I’m sorry. I had to leave.” Nikolaos’s voice was sincere. Hurt infused his words. “I was suffocating.”
“Suffocating?”
“Trapped in a world with too many rules that no longer applied. I asked you to come with me.” He took a step forward. “I ask that you come with me now.”
Her chin lifted a fraction. “You abandoned me.”
“You gave me no choice.”
Light flashed in her hazel eyes. “And you took mine away. I’ve accepted another Guardian.”
He gave a small start. I felt his pain through the memory. The treason behind her actions. “That can be overlooked. With time, all things can be forgiven.”
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