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  But Thierry was gone and the blackness within was worse than the inky blackness without.

  He rattled the chains again, hoping Aurelia’s power would fail, even for a second. Then he’d snap these chains and be gone from there and back to—

  Back to where? Wherever Thierry had been, he’d been home.

  Until his brother’s betrayal.

  No. Home had never been home, just a mess of hurt. The grip of Henri’s fist on the back of his neck as he’d pinned him down. Aurelia’s smug satisfaction, pleased her brother was getting what he deserved.

  Ghosts crowded him and probed with their pokey fingers. They broke through the skin and gouged the infected wounds around his heart. He shifted and caved against their examination, his breath shaky as he forced it out along with their assault.

  Fuck you all.

  He bared his fangs, then clamped his jaw shut. What he needed was blood. Any blood. His stomach tightened the more he thought about it, thought about it the more it tightened. He fought to calm the clawing thirst. He slammed the back of his head against the stone behind him, but it wasn’t hard enough to dull the pain. The stone remained inviolate. That way offered no escape.

  He’d have to hang awhile, imprisoned with his thoughts, his hunger and the ghosts in their crowded cell.

  Henri with his malice.

  Aurelia with her resentment.

  Thierry with his disgust.

  And their mother…?

  Ashes and dust. Too many people writhed inside his head like worms in muck. Besides, how could he hold a grudge when he could barely recall her face?

  He let her go.

  The darkness crushed him, and he fought again, testing the limits of his sister’s prison. He cursed, and a sound broke out verging on a pathetic cry before he cut it short. But it squatted in his throat, pressure building until it joined with the weeping in his heart. He strained against his bonds, snorting with the effort like some demented minotaur, scrabbling against the stone to find any leverage. He’d tear his hands off if he had to, to get out and get away. And once he was free, he’d decimate his remaining family members.

  Aurelia. Thierry.

  Dead.

  And then?

  Then he’d truly be free.

  II

  Olivier’s screams mixed with a disturbance on the astral plane that cut Aurelia’s spine. Her heart steeled against them, she blocked her hearing a second before the connection she shared with her mother, Sinara, wrenched inside her and forced her to her knees. She braced against the floor. Palms pressing into cool stone, dress tangled about her legs, inner realm tilting, she delved to check the conduit to her mother’s power.

  More timid than ever, she stretched her shaken awareness to the reassuring source that twinned with her own…

  There!

  Her desperate sigh righted the world. Sinara’s power still flowed, still enhanced her own, but… What the hell had happened? The connection wouldn’t reveal any details, only that Sinara may be in danger. She hurried down the hall to her room and rushed to settle on the bed.

  ‘Aurelia, stop!’ Hame burst in with Carn following hard up behind him.

  ‘Sinara needs me.’ She lay back and searched the rock ceiling for something to focus on. She needed stillness and then she’d be out and with Sinara and there’d be an explanation for—

  ‘You won’t find her.’ Green eyes brimming with knowledge implored her to stop. Hame’s hand slipped into hers. ‘She’s gone.’

  Her molars ground together. He lied. The connection remained. ‘You’re wrong.’ The words came out jagged.

  ‘Xadrak attacked her and she’s vanished.’

  Her breath vibrated. Couldn’t he see he was delaying her from doing what must be done? Xadrak wouldn’t attack Sinara. He’d never been so bold before, so why now?

  ‘I still have her power, now leave so I can find out what’s really going on.’ She sharpened her eyes on a crack in the rock.

  ‘You want to know what happened? Fine.’ He nudged her over, forcing her to sit and make reluctant room.

  Carn’s blue slate eyes met hers, and his disapproval — of her, of what Hame was doing — knocked her. But why should she care what the treacherous witch thought? She wanted them both gone. Hame wasn’t letting go.

  ‘You’re not going out there,’ Carn said.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere, but she will see what I saw.’

  Hame lay down and shut his eyes. His mind nudged at the edge of hers, growing more urgent, more forceful. Carn sank into a chair by the wall, his elbows pitching on his knees, his chin resting in his hands, his eyes watching Hame, watching them.

  She tried to swallow, but what little saliva she had tasted chalky. What would Hame show her? She settled next to him, his fingers twined theirs together, his grip strong and resolute, but it paled to the insistence of his mind. She must see, as much as she didn’t want to. Her eyes closed and she opened to him.

  Here is what happened.

  Hame’s memory drowned her, bringing Xadrak and an army of his followers — twenty, thirty, forty! — before her. They surrounded Sinara in her demon form as she protected a a…a…person? Human-shaped but bathed in violet light, its features indistinguishable, a soul on the astral that Sinara shielded with her body and life. But more than human, it was—

  The key!

  She shivered with the possibilities. After all this time, it had been found. An end, previously abstract, solidified in their future.

  She wanted to dart forward and interrogate the vision, but an opaque shield hid the key as Xadrak’s forces attacked. Were they insane? Were they trying to kill the key after all?

  Aurelia covered her mouth with her hand while magic rained down and Xadrak roared — that’s what she’d felt earlier. His frustrations. His fury. He added his strength to the assault and cracked Sinara’s defences. An explosion erupted where she and the key had sheltered, and Aurelia closed her eyes against the blast.

  When the light faded, Sinara was gone.

  The key too.

  The vision ended.

  Fresh air hurried to refill her lungs.

  If you knew this was going to happen, why didn’t you warn her? she asked Hame.

  It’s not a vision. I was sucked into observing it as it happened.

  Where is she?

  More importantly, where’s the key? Hame said.

  She shoved him out of her mind and opened her eyes. Hame squeezed her hand. He meant it to soothe, she was sure, but she pulled away and climbed off the far side of the bed to pace.

  ‘You see? Sinara’s of no use to us now,’ Hame said. ‘Not until she returns to a form that’s recognisable.’

  Carn swore. Then swore again.

  Of course.

  He’d not received Sinara’s power. After two hundred years of Xadrak’s enhancement, he was again ordinary. He still had his strengths. But he — like much of Aurelia’s coven — would remain weaker against Xadrak’s army.

  Xadrak’s large army.

  There had been at least forty. Had Xadrak held any back, even to retrieve such a prize out of Sinara’s clutches? His arrogance may have allowed it. She curled the end of her braid.

  ‘At least we know the key exists,’ Hame said. ‘We can find it.’

  ‘And how are we meant to do that?’ She glared at Hame.

  ‘Easy, Aurelia,’ Carn said.

  ‘It’s fine.’ Hame waved away her outburst. ‘She’s right. We’re back to being just as lost now that Sinara is gone.’

  His words inflamed the wound in her heart. ‘She’s not gone!’ Her voice cracked. She’d managed for centuries without her mother’s aid but now…so much more was at stake. They balanced on the edge of a chasm that a child’s breath could knock them into. She tugged at her hair with a force that whipped her mind out of its fugue.

  Find the key. Bring forth Xadrak. Open the portal. Send him back to Crion.

  That was the plan.

  So simple.
/>
  So direct.

  Without Sinara, it had never seemed so impossible.

  ‘But we’ll get through this,’ Hame said softly, a warmth encircling her mind, offering a comfort she allowed herself to seek respite in. For a moment. Until her heart repaired. Until the worry over Sinara’s whereabouts — of losing her mother yet again — dulled.

  ‘Should we be worried about Thierry and Peter?’ Carn asked.

  ‘Your son is safe,’ she murmured. Xadrak’s future earthly vessel was under guard with his family in Tuscany. ‘But Thierry—’

  Her fingers twitched to reach for her braid.

  ‘Maybe it’s time to put him under house arrest,’ Hame said.

  ‘But whose house? We can’t have him here with Olivier.’ The thought of locking Thierry away, so soon after he’d rediscovered Etienne — Alex — soured her stomach. Her brother should have some freedom, some joy, but weighing that against their need to keep him safe…

  Perhaps Thierry could have it both ways.

  ‘We saw about forty acolytes during the attack,’ she said. ‘Do you think Xadrak has more than that?’

  Carn scratched his throat. ‘Maybe,’ he said in a way that was more yes than no.

  Her twenty-nine against their forty — or more. She didn’t have enough. And only a handful of them were linked with Sinara’s strength. ‘We need to thin the herd.’

  ‘We need to cull the herd, but how do we do that?’ Hame asked.

  The idea that had whispered inside her head had been small but certain. A cold decision. If she wouldn’t lock Thierry up, then he must pay for his freedom.

  ‘We’ll team Thierry with a squad of witches. Use him as bait.’

  ‘That’s risky, Aurelia,’ Hame said. ‘Verging on stupid. If they capture him, they’ll have half the portal.’

  ‘Even if they did, they still can’t use him without the key and Olivier. This way we can keep an eye on Thierry, he’s not locked up, and we can even the numbers.’

  ‘What if Xadrak’s entire force comes after him?’

  ‘It’s a chance I’ll take, and they’re unlikely to resist sending a few after him.’ She paced again, wishing the room were bigger. ‘We capture one or two, interrogate them, get the information we need to find more.’

  ‘What if they’ve gone for Thierry already?’ he asked.

  She stopped. Did Hame really consider her such an amateur? She had only recently reconciled with him; would his doubt of her abilities be one of the things she’d have to repair? ‘His presence is masked.’

  ‘I want to help,’ Carn said.

  Hame’s head whipped round, and a fierce light shone in his eyes. ‘No, you’re not strong enough.’

  Carn winced. ‘No one builds a better shield than me. I can protect Thierry and hide our forces so Xadrak’s army won’t know they’re there.’ He turned to her. ‘I need to do something.’

  ‘I would have thought you’d want to watch Peter.’

  Carn gave a small shake of his head, and this giant of a man, who towered above her and Hame, shrank. He massaged his palm with the thumb of his other hand, marking a small circle built with a force that bulged the muscles in his arm. ‘I know what must be done, but I don’t trust myself not to try to stop it. Let me help take down acolytes.’

  Hame brushed Carn’s fringe from his forehead. ‘Are you sure? I don’t need you to be a hero.’

  Carn smiled like the first warm day after a long, dark winter and basked in Hame’s sunshine. ‘No chance of that. But I’ve sat on the wrong side of this fight for too long to take a break. I’ll be safe. I’ll come back to you.’

  ‘And I’ll be watching you every step of the way.’

  ‘I suppose it’s too much, considering what I’m about to do, to ask you not to go onto the astral plane,’ Carn murmured.

  Hame shrugged, his eyes twinkling. ‘An oracle’s gotta do what an oracle’s gotta do.’

  ‘We need him, Carn,’ Aurelia said. ‘He might find the key.’

  ‘We live in hope.’ Hame chuckled with more bitterness than mirth.

  She rubbed her arms to distract from a chill she couldn’t melt. ‘We should get moving. Xadrak’s forces would have scrambled. I need to talk to the others, and we can pull together the teams to take his army down to manageable levels. Carn, start watching over Thierry and Alex. I’ll follow with a squad.’

  ‘Will you tell Thierry what’s going on?’ Carn asked.

  She bit her bottom lip. Always she’d hinted at Olivier’s importance, at his future as a sacrifice, while obscuring Thierry’s. It had seemed kinder. It had given him hope. But now…

  ‘I don’t know. He might be more pliable if he’s kept ignorant, but there’s a greater chance of things going wrong if he’s not aware. Either way, hold off making contact with him unless it’s necessary.’

  Meanwhile she’d check on Peter and let his guards know what had happened. The last thing they needed was to wake up and find Xadrak standing in front of them.

  III

  Aurelia emerged out of the ether on the gravel driveway leading to the villa. The house in the village of Monsagrati was of the usual type, a two-storey terracotta-coloured building with arches, shutters on the windows and a few blue glazed pot plants positioned out the front to offset the yellow. It was more than adequate as a place to hide Carn’s son, Peter, and his family.

  Before she knocked, Zoe opened the door and greeted her with a big white-toothed smile. ‘You’re just in time. We’re about to play charades.’

  Aurelia rolled her eyes.

  Games at a time like this?

  Aurelia entered, and Zoe looped their arms together as they walked down the hall. Her friend’s easy companionship muscled its way inside her heart, nudging aside some of the concerns about Sinara. Being with Zoe made it easier to escape.

  The newfound friends were in the living room, wine glasses — some empty, some half- filled — littered the coffee table. A collection of chocolate wrappers and plates with smears of leftover cream and raspberry coulis were dotted about. On one couch sat Peter with his wife, Jane, her slightly protruding eyes giving her an endearing quality, a church-mouse kind of woman. Diana, petite yet chubby, sandwiched between her parents, fixed Aurelia with an intense stare that prickled her skin before she’d seen it. The little girl tracked her across the room. On the other sofa lounged Zach, who was closest to Peter, and the two had smiles beaming. Auburn-haired Mira perched in an armchair. Somewhere in the house must have been another few of her witches, because someone had to be controlling the family’s mind.

  Peter jumped up and offered his hand, stumbling from imbalance or wine. He gave his name and introduced his family. There was little doubt who Peter’s father was. Their colouring was different, Peter’s hair russet to Carn’s wheat, but both were tall, broad of face and appeared warm and welcoming — when Carn was in the mood to be so.

  She forced a smile. Seeing Carn’s son’s family together, even in this fantasy, she wished it had turned out different, that Carn could be here, and that she could have enjoyed herself as well.

  Snap out of it.

  Whatever was being done to keep the fantasy going, she needed to help. She smiled easier this time. ‘I’m sorry I’m late, I hope I haven’t kept you waiting.’

  A momentary flicker across Peter’s and Jane’s eyes, and their faces becoming slightly neutral, before the narrative was reformed in their heads and Aurelia’s presence slipped in as easy as if she’d always been part of the group. But even though they were controlled, it was easier to talk without them listening.

  She froze the family and stoppered their ears. ‘How have they been?’ Peering into Peter’s eyes, she hoped for some sign that Xadrak lurked within. But his eyes were glassy and the same stormy blue as Carn’s.

  ‘Fine,’ Zach said. ‘They respond well to mind control, and there haven’t been any slips or struggles. They’ve actually been fun to hang out with.’

  ‘Don’t get attached.’
The words flew out.

  ‘We’re not getting attached, Aurelia,’ Mira said behind her. ‘We’re doing our job. All Zach is saying is it’s much easier than we thought.’

  ‘And no sign of Xadrak? No acolytes?’

  ‘They can’t find us. We’re locked up tight.’

  ‘Then how did I get up to the door without being stopped?’

  ‘Because we knew it was you,’ Zoe said, a tough tone in her voice. ‘We knew you were here the second your feet touched the ground, and if it were anyone but you, we would have been gone in an instant.’

  She’d overstepped, calling her soldiers’ abilities into question. She should have known better. She’d trained them after all. She swallowed hard, her skin prickling at knowing she was wrong. The old Aurelia would have ignored it, but these were trying times and she didn’t have the luxury of burning her bridges — just acolytes.

  ‘I’m sorry for questioning you.’ The words came easy. ‘You’ve all done really well.’

  Zach looked at Zoe then back to her. ‘Are you feeling alright? You’re sounding a little…off.’

  She sighed. She may as well tell them. ‘Sinara is gone.’

  ‘What do you mean “gone”?’ Zoe took Aurelia’s hand. ‘We’ve still got her power.’

  ‘I know. I do too, but…Hame saw something. She fought Xadrak and his acolytes and they…they attacked her. She didn’t make it out of the fight.’

  ‘But she’s spirit. She can’t be dead. We’d know. Wouldn’t we?’

  ‘I’m sure we would but it worries me. Not everyone’s been given her power — Carn for one — but that’s not the worst of it.’

  ‘There’s worse?’ Zoe asked.

  ‘Sinara found the key and was protecting it but that’s gone too and we can’t find it.’

  ‘You’re shitting me,’ Zach said.

  ‘Afraid not.’

  ‘And Xadrak definitely doesn’t have it?’ Zach looked at Peter.

  ‘We’re sure, but yes.’ While her witches fidgeted, their nerves making them clench fists or rub their mouths with their hands, she screwed herself in place to be pilloried with their questions. She squeezed her wrist as the only outlet for her fear.