“So she has not forgotten about me after all,” Qin remarked, shutting and clasping it with a nod. “I have not forgotten her either. Tell her that her victory is assured. Adrius sits uselessly on her throne, waiting while the world passes him by. Without a leader, the rest of us spend more time fighting than anything else.”
Julian leaned in, memorizing every word, though he felt his sweat sticking his clothes to him as his nerves reacted to what he was hearing. How had these people not realized there was a spy amongst them? And what did it mean for Alex and Violet, who stayed here under their protection without knowing one in their midst would knife them in the back for money?
“However, she should not discount that there’s been a breakthrough for them recently. Adrius allowed two people to stay here—one of Sirius’s bloodline and the woman she chose to turn into a Sorceress. They’ve spoken some sense into the group, and now Neala and Adrius are tentatively accepting Gwendolyn’s presence.”
He reported at length on individuals, revealing that Neala had gone to New York to hunt for Lucia and was taking shelter with Coven Rehnquist. Julian winced because he knew he’d have to repeat that to her. He dreaded telling her any of it, recognizing that it made him complicit. Lucia would have to keep her thumb on him permanently to prevent him from warning his friends of the coming danger.
“The young Sorceress is progressing well. She’s unlocked all of her magic and mated to her companion, meaning she is ready for the queen’s purposes,” Qin said, leaving the briefcase in a shadowy corner before he beckoned to Julian to follow. He put a finger to his lips and headed through the ruins, dodging piles of seaweed and rubble with practiced ease.
He scaled a building that was mostly intact, using loose bricks for handholds. Resting on a pillar sturdy enough to take his weight, he beckoned to Julian again and made room for him. From this vantage, they were able to see a halo of light around two people. With a lurch in his heart, he realized it was Alex and Violet practicing. She was holding a glowing object and gesturing with her free hand, sending out a wave of fire in a bright lash.
Alex dodged to the side with his inherent grace, hands behind his back as if taking a stroll in the night. “They are…they mated?” Julian asked quietly. Lucia and Elandros hadn’t mentioned questions in their orders, but he technically wasn’t barred from asking them.
It was just…his eternal bachelor of a coven master was mated. Maybe Armando wasn’t so off with his comments about what the two of them had been doing here. “Yes. Just as Lucia was waiting for.” Qin nodded, casting him a glance askance. “I’m sure the queen will be interested to know how she fights. Luckily for us, clumsily.”
Gwendolyn’s stooped form came within the halo of light, shaking her cane. He couldn’t hear what she was saying from this distance, but she corrected Violet’s stance. “Her strongest magic is in shapeshifting,” Qin added with an edge of scorn. “She won’t be able to hold Lucia off.”
They watched quietly as Violet trained and tried a variety of magic under Gwendolyn’s tutelage. Julian was impressed inside, cheering her every success. She’d already come so far from the scared woman who’d arrived at their coven barely alive from her brush with a hellscape. Now she was Alex’s mate and capable of slinging lightning, fire, and even spikes of ice. Incredible.
He didn’t know Lucia’s plan, but he didn’t need the specifics to understand she was posed to destroy it all. And all he could do was watch. She meant to torture him with this knowledge that he was so close and couldn’t tell them of the danger lurking just beyond the halo of their light.
Qin glanced over his shoulder and nudged him. “Seems the queen is calling you back. One more thing before you go—Taryn is not constantly watched. We will be able to release him when she is ready.”
Julian looked back as well, seeing a portal waiting for him. If it were that easy to place one, she could’ve easily called Qin through to report by himself. She wanted Julian to know his friends were in danger.
Chapter 36
Alex
TIME PASSED TOO quickly. Alex helped Violet as much as he could, even if all he could offer was the rock of his emotional support. She was as ready as one could be in a few short days of training. Gwendolyn gave her rare approval, even though Violet struggled to hit a target with magical force. Any magical force. She hadn’t grown up a fighter, and to think she would become one in less than a week was foolish talk.
Perhaps their best breakthrough was an advanced shapeshifting move that not even Alex could attain for long. She sprouted fangs and claws at command, shifting only part of her body to gain the best attributes of an animal while maintaining the control of a human form. Gwendolyn called it a demi-shift. “I’ve only seen it in Sirius,” she remarked. “This may not help you fight a Sorceress, but having enhanced reflexes and strength by being only part animal will help you against anyone else.”
“I don’t want to fight anyone,” Violet said with a sigh.
Gwendolyn patted her shoulder. “You have a good heart. Soon you’ll face someone who will exploit that goodness and use it against you. But it’s time to retire early. I’ll rouse you both when the sun rises on midsummer day.” She glanced up at the dark sky. “Elsewhere in the world.”
“Sounds good,” Alex said.
“Meet me at the Eye of Worlds.” She made a portal to return to her own home, wherever that might be. And Violet, proud to show off something she could do, cut the air beside them to make a doorway back to their room.
He kissed her before heading through. “Showoff.”
“You like it.” She laughed as he caught her on the other side, her curves pressing to his chest as he drew her close. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.”
His beast was more than willing to push her behind it, ready to protect with the snap of fangs. But he recognized that, should anything involving magic come up, their only hope was something she and Gwendolyn could do to counter it. “I wish we had more time,” he said, not liking the feeling of the unknown before them.
He wished they could consult Cossette. Their last talk had been cryptic at best and felt like it’d happened years, rather than weeks, ago.
“I can make us a portal back to New York,” she said, feeling his turn of thoughts. “I wouldn’t mind a night in a real bed either.”
He echoed that sentiment with a sigh but shook his head. “It’s not safe.”
Chewing her lip, she gave a half-hearted shrug. “I can portal us out of danger if any presents itself. I’m not a damsel in distress anymore.”
He smiled with pride, hoping she could feel it over their bond. “You’ve come a long way. I just think a future-seer will know when we spend time in New York and plan around it. We should just stay here and get some rest while we can. When it comes to Cossette…well, she originally hosted Lucia and gave her a platform.”
“You think we can’t trust her now?” she asked.
He hesitated to answer, considering how long he’d known Cossette. The little girl and her coven were allies in the past. He’d always trusted her before, even when her prophesies were cryptic nonsense. When had she ever lied?
“You know what, what’s the harm in asking?” she said. “I can make us a portal to the mansion, we’ll be together for however long it takes, and then we can come back.”
There was less risk in that, he thought. As long as they stayed together, he was more amenable to the idea. At his nod, she made a portal to his—their—bedroom back at the mansion. They both flopped into the bed’s plush warmth. His mind wandered and strained, trying to make mental contact with Cossette as Violet curled up against his chest with a content sigh.
“Good evening, Mister Rehnquist,” Cossette’s young, chipper voice echoed in his head.
“Got her,” he said aloud, petting Violet’s hair idly as he responded. “Good evening, Cossette. I need some guidance.”
“Don’t we all?” She sounded grave and mature, a good sign for getting something ser
ious from her.
“Can you help me?” he asked.
Cossette didn’t reply right away, but he heard her hum. He gave her that time, watching Violet doze with a warm feeling in his chest. If only they could stay in this moment, just the two of them. In this calm between storms. He could lay here and hold her forever in a safe and warm embrace.
Cossette’s voice intruded on the moment too soon. He sighed to himself but paid close attention for any double meanings. Any advice was valuable. “Future sight isn’t as straightforward as you might think. It’s not like I can close my eyes and see what’s going to happen ahead of time like a movie about my life. Things come in bits and snatches, out of order and context.”
“Yes, but that’s not what I wanted to ask you about…” His brow furrowed. What did this have to do with Lucia and what might happen tomorrow?
“But I can search the future for things I’m involved in or conversations others have about me. You see, the focal point is always me in one way or another.”
Oh. Good thing he hadn’t said any names. Cossette was sharing valuable information after all, assuming Lucia’s future sight acted anything like hers. If they didn’t mention her name, this conversation would seem like one of little interest to Lucia—it wasn’t directly about her.
“I see what you mean now,” he said.
“Okay, cool. So, as I was saying, if I had a lot of time to see the future, I still would need something to focus on, namely myself and things I was going to do. If I wanted something to happen, I would try seeing different possibilities and actions, which creates a new layer of visions. Things that would never actually happen unless I made them happen.”
“You’re giving me a headache, but I think I follow.” Lucia had seen the future in her sleep, and with plenty of time to play with the odds, she was manipulating her way to some end goal. That’s what he heard in Cossette’s wording.
“If you want to beat a future-seer like me, you have two options. You can pick out the strange behavior and what results from it. That way, the end result isn’t a surprise. Or—you’re really good at this, Mister Rehnquist—you can act erratically instead. Change the variables that no future-seer could predict. Does that help?”
“Immensely.” He wished they could’ve had this conversation sooner. “Are you all right?”
“I haven’t agreed to anything yet.” Her response drew a sigh of relief from him. With their covens combined, they could feasibly match the mega-coven Lucia was already assembling if it came to that.
“What does tomorrow bring?” Despite her advice, she hadn’t said a word about what would happen while the midsummer sun hung in the sky.
“What does any tomorrow bring?” Cossette giggled girlishly. He sighed to himself, wishing her serious phases lasted just a while longer. Just one more answer, that’s all he wanted. “Excitement. You’d best rest up, Mister Rehnquist.”
He wondered how he could rest, his mind pulling apart the few clues they had as to Lucia’s end goals. He kept circling around to things that he’d been told about her from Gwendolyn and the other Ancients.
The strangest thing she’d done was save Violet with the rare and valuable silver potion he still carried on his person. If his mate was involved, he was sure to have a hard time resting until he’d solved the puzzle of her behavior at last. “I will try,” he said, gently rousing Violet with a shake to her shoulders.
“Mmm? Did she tell you anything?” she asked. She stretched as languid as a shapeshifter.
“I’ll tell you once we’re back in Nyixa,” he said, hoping it wouldn’t distress her as much as he was troubled.
“Oh, one more thing,” Cossette said as Violet flashed him a concerned look upon sensing his shift in emotion. She opened a portal back to the dark island with a frown.
“Yes?”
“Go to her dreams tonight.” With that, the Ancient was gone from his head.
Shaking his head, he followed Violet through the portal. They traded a solid mattress for a nest of sleeping bags and pillows. Once settled, he repeated everything to her despite the growing unease he felt building over their mating bond. “I just don’t see why she made me a Sorceress and then didn’t kidnap me or something. I mean, why me? I’m nothing special.”
“You’re my lifemate. I think you’re rather special.” He said it to tease but wondered if that was really the point.
“But her worst enemy is training me to use the magic that she gave me.”
He shrugged because that’s where he lost the logic as well. “We could go in circles about this for hours. I think it’s time to be erratic instead. Follow our instincts.” His inner beast purred in agreement.
Now that it was active, he baited it with thoughts of dream walking. With mate? It purred harder, always keen when Violet was concerned.
“Are you trying to tell me to go to sleep?” She nestled into his arms with a sigh, sounding tired enough to do just that. Once she drifted off, he then allowed himself to do the same. His worries faded as his inner beast tugged him quickly to unconsciousness, obliterating thoughts of plans and convoluted schemes.
They drifted into darkness. At first, they were cocooned in a general warmth of togetherness, a dreamless sleep spent entwined. But that gloom mounted and deepened, creeping in on restless tendrils of night. Alex felt them shift into a dream all too familiar as screams and cursing echoed in a small room. A room where Violet was trapped and bound.
Elsewhere, wood smashed, and glass tinkled to the ground as it shattered. Those sounds drifted closer.
Open your eyes, the beast whispered.
“You there, check out that noise!” Kim Cox ordered.
When this really happened, Alex knew that Violet had been near death, unable to see what was going on. He still agreed with his instincts. “Open your eyes,” he urged. Somewhere in the dark, Violet groaned. “This is a dream. You’re a Sorceress now, far, far past this.”
Wavering at the edges, when she opened her eyes, the rest of the dream came into focus. They watched Will Jaxom’s body fly past and turned to the doorway as it slammed open. The dream blurred, as if she struggled to remember. “Focus,” he urged. This could be their missing piece to Lucia’s plan.
When Violet focused, a part of Alex really wished she hadn’t. There was a sense that they both recoiled from what floated there while Kim Cox screamed, “What the—? What are you?”
“Is that Lucia?” Violet asked. They had manifested bodies to lucid walk through the scene, and she paused what lay before them with a lazy gesture.
Alex’s inner beast was impressed. We haven’t figured that out yet.
Take notes then, he thought back to it, his face set in a grimace.
He inspected the feminine figure, not wanting to get closer even with it frozen in time. It had Lucia’s dark hair, but that’s where the resemblance ended. Her lips were pulled too far back, revealing sharp teeth dripping with blood and bits of flesh. That blood ruined the collar of a fine wedding dress still shrouding her in white silk and pearls.
Her eyes were Fell-like, twin pits of pure black, and inky veins ran over her face and the exposed flesh of her neck. “I daresay that is Lucia,” he agreed.
“That’s not how she looked in the Eye of Worlds.” She rubbed a rise of goosebumps from her arms.
“If you had incredible magic at your fingertips, would you want to look like that, love?” he asked dryly.
Instead of replying, she let the nightmare play on. Lucia turned and lunged, ripping a vicious bite into Kim Cox’s neck. As she fell, she stayed down, knocked unconscious. When Julian had reported on what he’d seen in the warehouse, apparently, all of the Haveners were taking a nap at the time. Now they knew why.
The veins around Kim’s wound stood out red and black, like an infected spider bite, before healing preternaturally fast. By then, Lucia was turning to the chair, where a version of Violet was still tied up and dying. She stroked her cheek tenderly with the backs of sharp claws
that’d punctured through a satiny pair of gloves.
“I…I think I’m going to be sick,” Violet said beside him, the real, dreaming one. He didn’t turn away, morbidly transfixed as Lucia drew a full vial of silver blood from a pocket.
“Just a little longer,” he urged.
He’d heard most of Lucia’s whispers before.
Poor thing.
Fated to die so senselessly.
You are victim no longer.
But she turned to leave as she finished feeding the old blood to Violet. “Now rest. I will call for you when it’s time.”
The nightmare shattered as Violet woke violently, throwing herself to her feet in a wake of cold sweat. She covered her mouth with her hands, gesturing to open a portal, but put her palm up to him afterward. “I understand,” he said, knowing she needed a moment.
After what they’d seen, he didn’t blame her.
Chapter 37
Julian
JULIAN SPENT WHAT felt like days sitting in one place, left only with the image of Armando’s unconscious face and the slow creep of cold. It came from himself, his own aura turning against him as it trickled up his limbs like liquid ice, starting at the fingers and toes. He figured it was another slow torture from Lucia, of whom he saw none of. Instead, it seemed he was sitting in Elandros’s quarters. The Blood Prince came to occasionally check that he was still under thrall.
He was otherwise left to wonder how Lucia had turned his aura into an icy punishment. Under the influence of another vampire, his thoughts were too blank, even with Armando’s memory to remind him of who he was. That left his attention to drift to the slow creep of ice crystals over his exposed skin, as if he were turning into a statue.
In those quiet moments, he vowed that he hated magic. He would put a blade through the real Lucia’s heart for doing this to him.
Dream Walker: Blood Legacy Series Book 1 Page 22