Chapter 27

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

I screamed and lashed out with my magic?—

—or tried to.

Instead, I found myself rooted in place, my magic completely suppressed by a witchy ward drawn on the floor in chalk. I'd walked right into it.

Matthias had apparently waited for me right inside the door. He wrapped his enormous arms around my torso from behind, immobilizing me and pinning my arms to my sides. My mug hit the floor and broke, splashing my leg with coffee. Angry and confused, I fought him, but Matthias only growled and squeezed me tighter.

In my peripheral vision, I spotted Sean and Malcolm by my desk. And Carly was standing in front of me, holding an ornate hand mirror directly in front of my face. All of them looked furious, but I didn't understand why. What had I done?

Worst and most confusing of all, in the mirror it wasn't my face looking back at me, but Valas's—ancient, terrifying, and beautiful, as she'd looked before Mira?'s curses ravaged her and reduced her to scraps of flesh clinging to decaying bones.

The surface of the mirror rippled and pulled .

Another scream—this one guttural and furious—came from somewhere deep in my mind and out of my mouth. I thought my skull might split apart. The agony was indescribable. My legs went out from under me, but Matthias held me up. His entire body vibrated as he snarled and growled.

Something began to tear away inside me, dragged toward the mirror like a tide drawn out by the moon. Panic made it hard for me to get a breath.

"Help me, Sean!" I screamed, fighting Matthias's grip.

Sean took a step forward, his expression equal parts fury and grief.

"Stay back!" Carly commanded, her voice strained and harsh. "Do not touch her!"

He staggered and braced himself on my desk to stay on his feet. Golden shifter magic seared my flesh and I heard the crunching of bones as his wolf tried to force him to shift. The pain must have been excruciating. Malcolm looked agonized too but he stayed where he was.

No one was going to help me, and I couldn't do anything but scream.

In the mirror's reflection, Valas's face twisted in rage, her mouth wide and upper and lower fangs extended as she screamed along with me—or as I screamed along with her.

Carly's mirror was strange and appeared handmade. Pieces of ancient-looking stones with strange runes carved into them ringed an oval piece of glass, which she'd etched with spellwork I didn't recognize.

My body twisted and wrenched as if a pack of wolves were tearing me apart. The haunting memory of being nearly killed by former pack mate Caleb Jennings and all the horrors I'd endured after made hot tears spill down my cheeks.

The agony seemed never-ending, and Sean wasn't providing any comforting alpha magic. In fact, I couldn't sense him or anyone else in our pack. Had he severed our nascent bond? The sensation of being utterly alone hurt me all the way to my soul.

" Leave me be! " I shrieked, and cursed them all in a language I didn't recognize.

But that wasn't me who'd cursed. It was her.

It was Valas , in my head, in my body, using my voice.

She hadn't died in Colorado—at least, not all the way. She'd been lurking in my head, waiting and watching in the shadows all this time.

The horror of that realization left me ice-cold. I made a choking sound.

Carly took a step closer, now holding the mirror just inches from my face, her expression and body language colder and more menacing than I'd ever thought her capable of being. The smell of burned paper—the scent of an angry witch—stung my nose.

" Aanas anjah a skia ," Carly hissed, her voice pure venom. She blew some kind of sweet-smelling dust from the palm of her hand into my face. "Get out of my friend, you bitch! "

The dust filled my lungs. A terrible chill rolled through my body. I convulsed so hard that I felt my joints pop.

Valas's grip slipped just a little.

As she fought the mirror's pull, I shoved at her with all my might, fighting to expel her from my body and mind and push her toward the mirror's ancient magic.

I caught a blur out of the corner of my eye just before Baby Daisy jumped into my hands. As Sean dove to grab her, she sank her tiny teeth into…something…in my chest and pulled at it as he yanked her away.

The tethers that bound Valas to me snapped.

Her spirit tore out of me with the same level of pain and visceral rupturing sensation as a blood mage stripping off my skin. For a moment, I was transported to my grandfather's compound in Baltimore and the stark, white, soundproof torture room where rivers of my blood had gone down a drain in the middle of the floor.

The mirror swallowed Valas's shadowy form into its abyssal depths as she screamed in pure rage.

Carly sagged and almost fell. Holding a howling Baby Daisy in one arm, Sean caught Carly just in time with the other.

"Let go," I croaked.

Matthias's grip loosened just enough for me to bend over and vomit black blood. And then I passed out.

When consciousness returned, I found myself lying in our tub in Sean's arms, with warm, sweet-smelling water up to my chin and the nastiest aftertaste of my life in my mouth.

Oils and herbs floated on the water's surface, illuminated by the soft, flickering light provided by a dozen candles set up all around us on the edge of the tub. Someone had drawn runes all over my body. I recognized the healing and protection spellwork as witch magic, so Carly must have done all this too.

Everything felt hollow and hazy: my thoughts, my emotions, my senses—even my body and memories.

The only thing I remembered with clarity was the face in the mirror, screaming, with fangs bared. That image was crystal clear in my mind.

Valas .

Anger tried to rise, and fear, but witchy magic swept them away into the mist.

"My love." Sean kissed my hair. "I'm so sorry we had to put you through that, but it had to be done."

My throat hurt from screaming, but I managed to whisper, "I know."

He rubbed his chin on the top of my head and gently rested it there.

We lay quietly for a long time as I drifted in the haze of magic. The water stayed warm, probably thanks to Carly's spells, and Sean's body heat and magic comforted me. He hadn't severed our nascent bond after all—just muted it, or Carly had given him magic to put a barrier between us. Probably so Valas couldn't somehow use him or the pack to resist the mirror's magic. Cutting me off like that had to have hurt him even more than it had hurt me, and his wolf must have been beside himself.

When I finally felt like I could think clearly and talk, I rasped, "The Council vote?"

He let out a breath. "The first vote was tied."

I'd expected as much, but I'd still dared to hope we could persuade both Willa and Blake to vote in our favor.

I let out a tiny sound that was almost a whine. "The Council won't do anything to help us?" Then his words sank in. "What do you mean, the first vote?"

"Last night, they voted three-to-three regarding whether to back us against the Court, but Willa has asked for a second vote today after they discuss what she calls ‘new information.' And no, I don't know what she means by that, or whether it's good or bad. She wouldn't say." He cupped my head to his chest. "But they voted four to two to affirm Matthias's asylum status. He's now legally protected under shifter law. Willa and the Council's attorneys are drafting a letter today to send to the Court."

For a moment, I couldn't speak, and not just because my throat hurt. "He's safe?"

He pressed his lips to my hair. "For now, he's safe."

The news wasn't what I'd hoped for. With another vote looming over whatever mysterious new information the Council had received, we still had plenty to worry about.

But I would take this win. I couldn't wait to hug Matthias—or pat him on the arm. Whichever he preferred.

With that out of the way, now Sean and I had something even more unpleasant to talk about.

"I didn't know Valas was there," I said hoarsely. "Just this morning I realized these dreams I've been having were Valas's memories, but I thought they were just echoes she'd left behind when she died. I had no idea she'd found a way to stay alive by hiding in my body." I took a deep, shaky breath. "How long have you known?"

"Only since last night." His voice now had a growly edge and shifter magic prickled on my skin. His wolf was deeply angry.

"How did you figure it out?"

"Ben was the first to realize something was wrong. When he arrived at the ambush scene, he heard you say things that didn't make any sense. And then later when you and I were talking, you seemed to be misremembering—or missing—some events that had just happened, like that you'd spoken to the man Matthias's wolf captured. We sent you home with Matthias, and then we called Carly."

"So Carly checked me over while I was sleeping and found Valas hiding?"

When he didn't reply immediately, I craned my neck to look at his face. "What? Tell me."

A muscle moved in his jaw. "Carly has known about Valas since the night of the wedding."

I sucked in a breath. "But she told me she didn't see anything."

"She lied." He nuzzled my hair. "She had to. If she'd told you then, she had no way to get her out of you. Valas might have killed her, or killed you. Or killed all of us."

I'd spotted no clue whatsoever that night that anything was amiss, and I'd certainly had no reason not to take Carly at her word when she said she hadn't found anything. Carly had fooled me completely—and fooled Valas too, apparently.

"I understand why she couldn't tell me, but she could have told you and Malcolm," I protested.

His long, quiet growl told me his wolf agreed, but he said, "She didn't think she could take the chance. All it would have taken was one unguarded moment and we might have given ourselves away. You can sense emotions through our nascent bond, and I know you feel Malcolm's reactions too. Valas knew everything you did."

For almost a month, she'd lurked inside me. I had to assume she knew all there was to know about me now, from the fact I was Moses's granddaughter to my ability to help shifters through their Change, and everything in between. She'd shared intimate moments like sex with Sean and probably every thought I'd had. She'd even been present when Sean asked me to marry him. I'd wanted that moment to belong to us alone.

Absolutely gutting, and none of it could be undone. I didn't even know if it would ever stop hurting.

"Is that why Carly put something calming in this water?" I demanded. "So I'd be sleepy and less upset when I woke up?"

"Yes." He held me gently but firmly when I tried to get up. "We didn't know how you'd react when you got this news."

Valas had thoroughly violated me, and now Carly's potions were stealing my emotions and suppressing my magic. I couldn't even feel angry about not being able to feel angry, and that made me try to get out of the tub. I wanted control of my body again.

"I understand why you want out of the water, but listen to me for a second," Sean said, and held on when I tried to pull away. "We had to do what we thought was best for you. Please don't be angry at Carly. She worked hard to make that mirror and all these potions and spellwork to get Valas out of you and help you recover. She's been asleep for hours in Matthias's bed. He had to carry her there after she finished making this bath."

That was the closest to a scolding as I'd gotten from Sean in a long time.

"Okay," I said, my voice quiet. "I understand."

He squeezed me gently. "I'm angry too, Alice. My wolf is furious. But I understand why Carly made these choices. She knows how vicious and merciless Valas is. We had no margin for error with any of this. She waited to tell us until she'd figured out a way to extract Valas without killing you, and then we had to make a plan to catch you both totally off-guard. It was our only shot at capturing Valas and saving you."

"You sure as hell did catch me off-guard." I recalled Carly's strange handmade mirror. "Where's the mirror?"

"Carly has it in a box with wards, inside another box with wards. She said she'll hand it over when you've recovered."

I had so many questions about the mirror and how Carly had known Valas had hitched a ride in my body, but I'd ask her later.

"I saw Valas die," I said. "I watched Vlad stake her with her own arm. Her body burned and turned to ash right in front of me. I saw it, Sean." I sighed. "At least, I thought I saw it."

"You probably did see it." He laced our fingers together and drew me closer. "Carly can tell you more, but she says Valas transferred her skia , or shade, to your body. Her body ceased to exist, but her spirit survived."

"Of course it did. She's like a cockroach. You just can't kill her." Realization dawned. " Oh ."

My tone put Sean on high alert. "What?"

"She kidnapped me to summon Vlad, but that wasn't the only reason she wanted me." I moved restlessly in the tub. "She knew her body couldn't hold together anymore, even if she spent her remaining years in a bathtub full of ancient vampires' lifeblood. She didn't just want my magic and my connection to Vlad. She wanted my body . And when she got a chance, she separated her shade from her body and shoved it into me, just before Vlad staked her."

"Carly thinks so too." He wrapped his arms around me and tucked my head under his chin. "I'm sorry about everything, Alice. You didn't deserve this."

We were both still angry about Carly keeping us in the dark about Valas's skia , and Sean's wolf would hold a grudge against Carly about that for a long time, but she'd probably saved my life, body, and soul at great personal cost—all after I'd asked her to help track down a serial-killing necromancer and their pet spirit.

"Carly does these things because she loves you," Sean said when I went quiet. No doubt he sensed my guilt and sadness, even as muted as they were. "And she knows you'd do the same for her without even hesitating. In fact, she told me to tell you not to kick your own ass when you woke up. You couldn't have known Valas's shade was hiding inside you. We all got outsmarted by a vampire who's had more than a thousand years to learn all the tricks. But she's trapped now in that mirror and you're free of her."

I barely heard those last few words.

Maybe Carly's calming potions had started to fade, or maybe a revelation of this magnitude was simply enough to overwhelm the limits of those potions. For whatever the reason, the thought that popped into my head just then made me go cold all over and my heartbeat thunder in my ears.

Sean went very still. "Alice?"

"The child," I whispered. "The son. Sean, the dream I had about being chased though the tunnel, when I almost set the bed on fire…that was Valas's memory, and she had a son ."

And for all her deadly devotion and determination to keep both herself and her child alive from whoever had chased them in that memory, her feelings later about her child were certainly mixed.

How had she put it in the dream? He is my greatest secret and my greatest shame. My greatest joy, and my greatest pain.

"Based on the dream I just had last night, I think she brought him to America with her, contained in some kind of box," I said as Sean stared at me. "What if he's around today, somewhere? What if he's just as bad as her? What if…" My voice trailed off. I didn't even know where to start to begin untangling this confounding revelation.

"How could a vampire have borne a child?" Sean asked. "It's not possible."

"Valas isn't just a vampire," I reminded him. "She told me once that like me, she's many things masquerading as one. She has magic and powers unlike any I've ever known."

In the dream about Elizabeth, Valas had described herself as having the powers of a sorcerer, thanks to a demon lord, and what she'd called the dark arts of the warlocks of the Carpathian Mountains.

I shared that information with Sean. "Vlad was a warlock before she made him a vampire," I added. "It makes sense that she spent time in that part of Eastern Europe. She could have studied their practices and found ways to gain those powers."

He nodded slowly. "So, if any member of the undead could produce a child, it would have been Valas. But who the hell was the father?"

"Good question," I said. "Something tells me it wasn't a simple human who crossed paths with Valas once upon a time in ancient Constantinople. Valas must have used every kind of magic she had to get pregnant. Whoever fathered that child, she chose him very carefully."

Sean looked grim. "What if the father was Vlad?"

Ew—now there was a mental image I didn't need. Vlad's body was twisted and monstrous, and I could only imagine in my worst nightmares what his clothing had spared me from seeing. Even the thought of having sex with such a creature made me nauseous. But I had no doubt Valas wouldn't have let Vlad's misshapen form stop her if she wanted a child that combined her powers with his.

Then again, Vlad might not have had anything to do with this child. This was all speculation.

We didn't know much about Valas's mysterious son—much less what form he was in or even whether he still existed. But my gut told me he did still exist, and that before long we'd find out why Valas had brought him to the New World locked in a box.

We always seemed to be lucky that way.