Chapter 32

32

VIOLET

Everybody is obsessed with this duckling, as if I've performed the most abhorrent act imaginable. At least the bird's fuzzy, endearing features distract Holly from the discussion occurring between her parents and mine outside the door of her new hospital room.

"Did you bring me a ‘get well soon' duckling?" asks Holly as she captures the bird in her palms.

"I couldn't find a piglet."

"You once told me you don't tell jokes, Violet. I may have mental issues right now, but I know that's one." She studies the duckling as she speaks, mouth turning down.

"You do not have mental issues," I say stiffly.

"Not ones that the doctors could medicate." She looks up, face drawn. "A witch did this. It's a spell."

I shift uncomfortably in the seat by the window. "A temporary spell."

"How temporary? Is your father going to fix me?" She inclines her head to the door. "Dorian wants to take me to Scotland. I guess I'll visit your house after all."

"Scotland? He never informed me." I glare at the door. Dorian wants me under his watch, and he knows I'll join Holly. "But I suppose you will be safest there."

"And you'll come too?"

"Naturally." But I have plans. Find Dashiell.

"You don't sound happy about that."

"I have a lot on my mind," I say curtly.

The contact from Viktor last night constantly cycles in my mind. I've waited for days, but expected the communication to be more surreptitious, perhaps a hint, or a message on Instagram.

But this. Asking me to meet him alone and handover Dashiell in return for Holly's safety? A dilemma. The guys want to stop me, naturally, and I've an extra struggle on my hands with Rowan's bond to me. He won't make sensible decisions if he believes I'm under threat and shouted at me for making my own crazy ones.

I must carefully consider how to handle this, but one thing is sure: I am not telling Dorian.

Holly nods and strokes the duckling's head. "Do you know if Dash is okay? Dorian hasn't… hurt him?"

Of course, Dashiell is on her mind too, as always. "Why the continued concern for one of your abductors?"

"Dash wasn't an abductor. Not really. He got mixed up in something he never wanted to."

"Dashiell told you this?"

"Yes."

I make a derisive noise. "You may not be mentally damaged, but you're not thinking straight. Dash isn't an innocent bystander."

"But—"

"I don't wish to talk about him," I interrupt.

No. I only want to extract Dashiell from wherever Dorian hid him and take the shifter to Viktor before killing that murderous witch. I'm not as naive as Holly, perfectly aware that this meeting won't be a simple exchange of shifter and unpleasantries between Viktor and I, then everything tied up. Even if Viktor doesn't bring associates, it will take more than handing over Dashiell to save Holly.

Viktor wants to give me a reason to walk away from him rather than continue to pursue him, but if there's the remotest chance handing over Dashiell might help, even if it's just locating Viktor in order to kill him, I will. Although I'm confident that Eloise will succeed in helping, Holly's mind contains a timebomb that Viktor controls.

What if Holly is in his grip for life?

Nobody has found anything inside Holly's head yet; the spell is more entangled than Leif's. Viktor proved Leif's still exists even after his time with Eloise. One session wasn't enough.

Dorian is attempting to contact somebody who's talented in mind magic—more so than Eloise's hybrid spells, and he grew annoyed when I suggested that he'll need to ask the person nicely rather than make demands. I'm worried that Eloise is the only option. She wouldn't deliberately hurt Holly, but Leif didn't fare well after Eloise examined him.

I can't wait. Viktor could act at any moment. Last night, the witch confirmed that he knew Leif's whereabouts, and so was aware Leif would be at the hospital. My guts twist further to think Viktor may've prompted that painful, frightening episode for Holly. Was this staged as proof that he isn't lying about the spell on my best friend?

The door opens and someone slips inside before quietly closing the door.

Eloise's warm expression cools, and the smile that she walked in with slips. "Violet, sweetheart, what is that?"

"A gift for Holly?" I suggest.

My mother walks over and holds out her hand, and a pink-cheeked Holly gives the duckling to my mother. "When did you use necromancy?" she asks stiffly. "How many more constructs are there? Please don't tell me you reanimated a whole family again."

"A family ?" squeaks Holly.

"A family of ducklings and their mother." Eloise remains looking at me. "Violet?" I shake my head. "And do you have any other animals hidden in your room at the academy?"

"No."

Eloise examines the duckling more closely and her lips purse. "And this one's… undamaged?"

"Yes. Why does that concern you?"

"Because your magic is improving." I smile but Eloise doesn't. "Do not tell your father."

"I don't understand what is wrong with practicing necromancy!" I protest. "I didn't kill the duck."

"Wow, Violet," says Holly softly. "It's unnatural. Dangerous. Wrong ."

"As is much in this world," I retort.

"I'd hoped your new connections to the living would sever some of your obsessive link to the dead." Eloise sighs and hands the duckling back to Holly. "Bring the bird with you to Scotland."

"My parents agreed?" Holly asks.

"With some persuasion." Eloise glances at me. Mental persuasion ? "You will accompany us, Violet. I'd like to keep an eye on your activities since you're making unwise decisions such as this. Your boys can stay away. Dorian isn't in a good mood recently."

But I have plans. Necessities. "I don't?—"

"And while we look into Holly's issue, we can unearth what's trapped in Dashiell's mind too."

I straighten, all protests drifting away. "You're taking Dashiell to Scotland? Or is he there already? Dorian told me he wasn't!"

"Yes. Dorian placed him somewhere on the estate."

Holly's face beams, the girl I know shining through again. "Oh, that's fantastic!"

"Good grief, Holly. You're not joining him for a vacation."

Holly pulls a face at me. "Fantastic because Dash is safe in Scotland. Nobody can get onto your estate, so nobody can hurt him."

"Mmm." Well, this narrows down his whereabouts greatly, and saves me the headache of convincing Dorian to tell me where Dashiell is.

"Eventually, you'll all discover he isn't a bad person."

I close my eyes and take a despairing breath. Is this infatuated delusion part of the mind spell? Or is this a bizarre emotional imprinting response by Holly onto her perceived rescuer? Holly hasn't mentioned Chase once since she returned, and she never stopped extolling the unpleasant individual's virtues before the abduction. Either way, we must keep them apart before somebody manipulates Holly further.

Not that Dashiell will have much chance to interact with Holly once I receive the time and place for meeting—and ending—Viktor.

I can only hope that Dorian reveals Dashiell's location on the estate tonight in order for me to remove him.