by Sadie Moss
“I’m going to kill him,” Dmitri seethes. “I’m going to rip him apart, I’m going to flay him, I’m going to—to—”
“Stop it.” Cam gets his hands on Dmitri’s arms. “Dima, stop, that’s not going to help anyone. You’ll die, and then where are we gonna be, huh? We can’t lose you, all right? We’re going to figure this out.”
Dmitri shudders, and for the first time since I’ve known him, I see him really collapse. Cam pulls him in, hugging him tightly as Dmitri clings to him like I’m clinging to Roman. I can’t hear what else Cam is saying as he murmurs softly in Dmitri’s ear, but I hope it helps him.
Fuck. Agustin was controlling my mind, but I’m the one who did all this, I’m the one who was here—and I can’t help but feel like it’s all my fault. I’ve made Dmitri this angry, this helpless, this hurt. I ruined the night and destroyed the dining room. I knocked Asher’s brother unconscious. I wounded Cam.
And what if this isn’t the only time?
Now that Agustin’s been in my head, what’s going to stop him from getting in again?
Roman carries me upstairs. Maddy looks shocked and upset but stays downstairs to help with the cleanup. God, I want to just run away into the night and never come back. I hurt my family, hurt the people I love. How can I possibly come back from that?
Asher leads Roman into his room, the one he shares with Cam now, with the blue walls. The two of them use Roman’s small levitation charm to push the two beds together, and then Roman sets me down on the mattress. I feel exhausted, weak, and shaky—probably a combination of having my mind invaded and having so much magic flowing through me as I tore through the house.
Asher sits down on my other side, taking my hand gently.
“You can’t babysit me all the time,” I point out, shaking my head.
I start to wipe at my eyes, and Roman passes me a box of tissues from the bedside table.
Shooting him a grateful look, I grab several, then blow my nose and wipe the tears from my eyes. I must look a complete, disgusting wreck. That’s what I feel like anyway.
“You have to sleep, for one thing. And that felt… I felt really powerful. Like nothing I’ve ever felt before, like it was all so easy. It felt effortless just to mirror you guys and unleash on you. Putting my sonic boom in my fist like I was about to do to your brother, Asher—I had never thought of doing that before, never thought I could. What if the next time I’m so powerful you can’t stop me?”
Ash and Roman exchange a worried glance, but don’t say anything.
“The whole time I was attacking, I wasn’t in control, but I could still see what was happening. What if next time he takes me over so much that I’m gone? I’m just in this little black cage at the back of my mind, and he’s got full run of the place? He could use me like—like a clone and mirror his own magic. I’d be able to mirror everyone around me, and him. Any of his powers. I’d be the ultimate weapon.”
At least until he can get to me in person, then use his power to kill me and take my mirroring abilities for himself. Which reminds me…
I look up at Roman, a knot hardening in my stomach. “He still wants you,” I whisper. “He still wants your death touch and your necromancy. He wouldn’t let me hurt you because he needs you.” I glance over at Asher, tightening my grip on his hand. “You too.”
Honestly, I don’t know which idea is worse to me—the fact that Agustin wanted me to just kill everyone, or the fact that he wanted me to keep Roman and Asher alive to steal their powers.
Both are just as awful, in different ways.
“I’m too dangerous with Agustin in my mind. This can’t be a permanent solution, Asher watching me. It’s not enough,” I insist.
“You’re right, it’s not,” Roman replies gravely.
I blink. What?
“Did you just agree?” I thought he was going to fight me a bit more on this.
“Yes. But I’m not going to agree with whatever else you’ll say.” His cobalt eyes flash, the silver specks in his irises almost seeming to glow. “About how we need to get away from you or whatever insane heroic nonsense you’re about to spout. But I do agree that you can’t go on like this, and neither can Asher. Agustin’s remote mind control powers are obviously stronger than any of us gave him credit for. I should’ve seen this coming, I should’ve known he would try to take over one of us.”
“You can’t blame yourself for not knowing the next step of an asshole,” I point out.
“Or a madman,” Asher adds. “We can play the blame game all we want with ourselves, but it’s not productive. How I ended up with three Broody McBroodersons, I don’t know,” he flashes a soft smile to let us know he’s sort of joking, “but I’m not letting you two or Dmitri go all Batman on this, standing out in the rain and talking about how you have to go it alone and you brought this on yourselves. All right?”
Dammit, he knows me way too well. All of us, really. Because there’s a good chance I would’ve suggested something along those lines—that it’d be better for me to go it alone. I hate to even think of leaving my men, but I hate the thought of what Agustin could make me do to them even more.
“I know someone,” Roman says, breaking the silence that’s settled over us. “My old mentor. Liam. He took me in when I was a kid, after I killed my parents.”
Asher’s eyes widen, and I feel his body stiffen a little with surprise as he glances up. He’s aware of Roman’s magical abilities, but he didn’t know about his past. Not all of it anyway. It took a long time for the darkly handsome man to open up to me about it, and I know it’s painful for him to talk about.
Roman sighs as he shifts his gaze to Asher. “You know that my third power, the reason Agustin wants me so badly, is a death touch. I touch someone, I take their life force, they die. I was one of those rare Unpredictables whose magic sparked when I was just a child, and I… when I was young, I accidentally killed my family with it.”
His voice hitches a little, but the words seem to come easier than they did when he told me. I hope saying them out loud to another person, and seeing sympathy, not disgust, flash across Asher’s face, will help Roman take one more step toward forgiving himself for something that wasn’t his fault.
Then again, I can’t forgive myself for what just happened downstairs, so I’m not really one to talk.
“As I use that power, the hunger to keep using it grows,” Roman continues. “And I was so young and inexperienced that the High Circuit wasn’t sure I was safe to be around. Liam disagreed. He took me in, raised me, and taught me everything I know about control.”
“When Agustin first took control of me,” I say slowly, a shiver working its way down my spine, “I saw flashes of his life. The moment when he first killed and took the power of a water mage. He used that to pose as a water elementalist, so no one even knew he was Unpredictable, and he’s been stealing power from other Unpredictables ever since. It’s such bullshit. He’s so entitled. He truly believes he’s better than all of us, that he deserves our worship and fear.”
I let go of Asher’s hand and run my fingers through my hair, which is a little tangled and knotted from the fight.
“But something else I noticed was that his power, I think, is kind of like yours. He was hungry for more, to take more power, just like you feel when you use the death touch. Only, instead of fighting it or controlling it, he decided to feed it. I was seeing through his eyes and hearing—no, not just hearing, having his thoughts. It was like I was him, for those moments. I don’t know if that’s just how his process works for taking over people’s minds or if it was an accident or if he wanted to show me all of that, but I could feel what he felt, and he felt that same hunger, that craving.”
Roman nods. “That’s good. There might be some way we can turn that against him.” He looks at Asher. “I’ll get in touch with Liam. He’s completely off the grid now. He wanted to retire and was sick of people coming to him for assistance with things or judging him for his magic. He was
always reclusive, but by the time I left, he was well on the way to becoming a hermit. I suggest we leave tonight.”
He kisses me softly on the top of my head, squeezes Asher’s shoulder, then leaves the room.
Asher pulls me into him, his citrus and lemongrass scent soothing me as his arm wraps around my shoulder. “You look exhausted.”
I nod, tears gathering in my eyes again. I am exhausted. Completely wiped out. More than that though—I feel like shit. Like I don’t even want to be myself anymore.
Asher puts his fingers to my temple. “Then sleep, Elle.”
And just like that, I do.
Chapter 14
While I sleep, wrapped up tightly in Asher’s comforting arms, everyone else gets ready. Roman said he wants us to leave tonight, and I honestly don’t blame him. We need to get me away from civilization, from other people I could hurt, as quickly as possible. Not to mention the fact that our commotion probably alerted the neighbors. I think Mr. Prince has to cast some kind of illusion spell on the police officers who come to check out the disturbance and make sure everything’s okay, since Asher’s with me and can’t use his powers to simply convince them everything is fine.
Cam wakes us up when the time comes to go. His arm is all bandaged up now, and he tells me he and the others who were injured got healing potions from Linda. But he still looks a bit pale, and I immediately feel like shit all over again.
Asher and Cam help me downstairs. I can feel Ash’s power wrapping around my mind like a shield or a warm blanket, muffling my senses a bit—but if it keeps everyone safe from Agustin, safe from me, I’ll take a little fuzzy-headedness.
The rest of the Prince family is gathered downstairs with Maddy, Justin, Dmitri, and Roman. Dmitri’s face still looks like thunder. His already dark eyes look almost black, and his hands are balled into fists.
I almost burst into tears again when I see Asher’s family. His brother is awake now, also bandaged. Everyone’s got some kind of bandage on them, honestly.
After my fight at the holding facility, I felt so proud of myself. I loved my powers, I felt confident. I loved that I was getting stronger.
Now I feel like shit, and I wish my magic was weak and uncontrollable again. That I hadn’t had the power to do this.
“I’m so sorry,” I tell them, my voice rough as I force words past the lump closing up my throat. “I’m so, so sorry. You’re wonderful, and I just—I have nothing to say. I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Linda insists. She hugs me tightly.
Mr. Prince shakes my hand, holding it in both of his. “It’s okay, Elliot. We know it wasn’t you. This is Agustin’s fault, and his doing. Not yours.”
Asher’s brothers say the same thing, smiling warmly at me and telling me to come back and visit again when this whole thing has been cleared up so I can spend more time getting to know everyone.
It doesn’t make me want to throw up any less.
We get into the cars. We have to take both vehicles because Maddy and Justin insist on coming with us. Normally, I’d argue about that. I’m not going to have my little sister anywhere near me if Agustin does that to me again. But I’m too exhausted and dazed to fight her on it right now.
“Okay, here’s the plan,” Roman says as he slides into the driver’s seat. The guys are all crammed into his car—none of them were willing to separate from me. “I have a damn good idea of where Liam is. He’s got a hidden place up in the Plumas National Forest. But I’m going to need you all to follow my lead and do exactly as I say, no questions, no hesitation, got it?”
Everyone nods.
Just how insane is this guy we’re going to see?
“I thought you said you’d get in touch with him,” Asher says.
“Well, I tried. It’s not like he has a phone number I can just call. And I don’t have a week to send him a goddamn raven.”
“A what?” Cam snorts. “Are we in Game of Thrones?”
“Oh, can it, wise guy.”
Roman starts the car, and behind us, Justin flicks his headlights on as his engine rumbles to life too.
I lie down in the back, cradled between Asher and Dmitri with my head in Asher’s lap, his hands on my head. The fuzzy feeling in my head intensifies, and I know he’s strengthening the shields around my mind. “Sleep some more,” he whispers. “You’ll need it.”
Just like that, I fall asleep.
Over the course of the night, I phase in and out of sleep, waking up for restroom breaks or when there’s a bump in the road. Asher’s with me the whole time, his hands on my head, his fingers lightly combing through my hair. I hear the others talking from time to time—they’re updating the rest of our network, letting them know that Agustin has come after me.
“He specifically wants her,” I hear Dmitri growl into the phone, I think to Brodie. “He wants all of us gone, but he wants her as a weapon. He’d be unstoppable with her at his side. She’s his priority.”
There’s a pause as the person on the other end of the line speaks.
“We’re getting her someplace safe,” Dmitri replies, his voice gruff. “Or as safe as possible anyway.”
I fall back asleep again.
When I finally wake up for good, the first hints of pre-dawn light are turning the world outside a hazy grayish blue. I feel the car pulling off to the side of the road, slowing and crunching over rocks and gravel.
“We’re here,” Roman announces from the front seat.
Asher helps me sit up. Ugh. I feel like shit, and not in the guilty way like earlier, although I do still feel guilty about all of that, thanks. Don’t think that’s going to go away anytime soon.
But this is just a plain old massive-headache-and-exhaustion type shitty feeling.
“I’m sorry,” Asher murmurs, and I realize he can probably feel my mental pain right now, since he’s tapped into my mind. “It’ll get better soon.”
He sounds more hopeful than certain, like he’s convincing himself that Liam will be able to take the pain away. I hope like hell he’s right. I don’t want to walk around like this, or to have to stand by uselessly while others go and take care of Agustin for me.
We all get out of the cars, and Maddy walks up to me and wraps her arms around me. “How are you feeling?” she whispers.
“Hhnngh,” I tell her.
She hugs me tighter.
“Okay,” Roman says. Everyone turns to him, Maddy letting go of me to focus. “Liam doesn’t like visitors. And this place is going to be well protected. So I want you all to be careful and to follow my lead. Stick together. Don’t touch anything. Step only where I step and let me lead. Understood?”
Everyone nods. Hoo boy.
Asher and I take up the rear with everyone else ahead of us, walking in a line, Roman at the front.
This looks like a section of ordinary woods, not like some special protected place. I don’t even have a clue where we are—and I realize with a start that this is probably part of why Asher had me sleep the entire time. Not just for my own sake, but so that Agustin can’t search my memories to find out where we are and send a huge army after us.
My head pounds in time to my footsteps as we trek deeper into the woods, and as we walk, I get a sort of a shivery, crawling feeling along my skin. Magic. This place is coated in it. Non-magical people probably feel something similar and think these woods are haunted and creepy, and stay away. But magical people recognize the feeling for what it is. There are a crap ton of magical enchantments on this place, meant to keep people out.
Roman suddenly holds up his hand, curled into a fist, his arm bent upward at the elbow. We all freeze.
I don’t hear or see anything—other than the feel of powerful magic that’s all around—but Roman clearly does.
He bends down and moves some branches out of the way, revealing a pit trap right in front of us.
Holy shit. I would’ve had no idea that was there. Left to my own devices, I would’ve walked right in
to it.
Roman puts a finger to his lips, then points down into the pit.
We all carefully crowd around to peer inside, and my heart fucking skips a beat.
There are three corpses, walking upright, milling about in the bottom.
You know, I was feeling kind of hungry, having not eaten since dinner last night and barely even then because of my headache, but right now I’m super glad I haven’t eaten because I just might throw it up again if I had.
Roman leads us silently around the pit, then puts the branches back in place in case one of Agustin’s agents is following us.
“I thought you could only revive the dead for a few minutes,” I whisper, glancing back at the hidden pit as Roman leads us onward.
“You can technically keep them around for longer,” he replies in a low voice. “But the longer the undead remain that way, the less of who they were in life lingers. Their personality, their soul, fades away, and they turn into what you saw in the pit. Ghouls, with their human needs warped. Humans need food, sleep, and companionship. A ghoul can’t sleep, and they lose the ability to understand companionship, and so the hunger is all that’s left to them. It takes them over, and they become zombies, essentially.”
“Holy shit.” Cam’s eyebrows shoot up, and I can see him scanning the ground around us, as if he’s waiting for a decaying hand to burst up from the earth. “That’s dark.”
Roman shrugs. “Necromancy is… complicated. The longer a person has been dead, the harder it is to bring them back properly. Their soul begins passing on, and if too much time has gone by, I can’t recall it. In my line of work with Liam, we often reanimated bodies of people who had a connection to a crime or murder—sometimes even the murder victims themselves. But if we got to them too late, it was much more difficult to get useful information out of them.”
I cast a glance at Roman, taking in his slightly hooked nose, black hair, and strong jaw. His expression is serious and focused, and even as he speaks, I can tell his senses are totally alert, scanning for traps.