Chapter 53

Chapter 53

ALICE

T he night of Fey’s initiation into the Queen’s Blades, the night she had first become their sister, Fey had run away.

And it had been Alice’s fault.

They’d never spoken about it, not once, but Alice knew. When Fey had received her mark and sigils, not making so much as a sound through the ordeal, Alice had felt an uncontrollable surge of love for her. Had wrapped the young Witch in her arms the moment they were alone, in adoration. In love.

And she’d felt that small flinch from Fey when she’d done it. Felt the Witch pull back from her.

It had been her fault that Fey had run away from them, that the Blades had almost collapsed. Her fault that she couldn’t keep her family together.

And now it was happening again.

Alice clutched the letter Silas had given her so tightly her knuckles hurt. She didn’t open it, didn’t read it. Her head spun, a dizzying volume of emotions swirling inside her. A thousand thoughts were vying for her attention, a thousand words she wanted to say, to spit, to scream .

“Why?” she said, finally, pushing the words out from between clenched teeth.

“Why?” Silas laughed nastily. He glanced around at all of them, seated at the council table before him, and Alice realized she’d made a terrible mistake in dismissing him so flippantly at the last meeting. He no longer looked at them like they were allies, or like they were working toward a common goal. The way he had looked at them before. No. He looked at them now like they were his enemies. “Because I’m not even supposed to be on this council, Witch. I was here as a favor to Kellos. And now he’s gone.”

“You would leave your Faction unrepresented?” Alice asked, searching, desperately, for anything to keep the council together.

Couldn’t they see? They were all in danger, threats coming from all sides. They had to stay together, had to stay united.

She did this. It was all falling apart around her, and it was her fault. She’d alienated him when she needed him. When the council needed him.

“Not my problem,” Silas told her. “Offer the position to someone else. This isn’t my fight.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she challenged.

“It means exactly what I said. This isn’t my fight, Witch. I never agreed to form this council, and I sure as shit won’t die for it. Find someone else who will.”

Alice blinked at the envelope.

He was scared. He really, truly thought someone had killed Kellos, and he was scared they were coming after him.

“You’re a coward,” she said, voice flat. Emotionless.

Silas snorted. “Yeah, maybe. Maybe I am a coward. But I’d rather be a coward than a corpse.”

The letter crumpled into a ball in Alice’s hand as she clutched it harder, her fingers curling around the words she would never dignify by reading.

“What did you mean by that?” Callum asked. There was no anger to his words, no judgement. His voice was curious and gentle. “About not dying for the council?”

“Someone is killing council members,” Silas said. “Haven’t they told you? First Kellos, then the Vamp, and who knows who’s next?” Then, as though realizing who he was speaking to, Silas glanced away.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Silas said, more to the ground than to the new deSanguine seated at the table. “But you’re a fool if you don’t see the connection. Two council members dead in under a week isn’t a coincidence. It’s a pattern.”

“Stranger things have happened,” Kallista offered. But even she sounded skeptical, now. Alice’s heart beat a little too hard in her chest.

“My father killed himself,” Callum said, frowning. “He wasn’t murdered. He… he slit his own throat.”

Silas’s laugh held no humor at all. “And you believe that?” he asked, sneering. “Yeah, because that’s such a normal way to commit suicide, isn’t it? Tell me something honestly, Vampire. How was he acting before he killed himself? What was he doing?”

Callum blinked.

“He had a meeting with the enfant de sang ,” he told them, voice distant, pain weighing heavy in his words. “He was running late… Winston said… Winston said he collapsed and started acting strangely. He wasn’t making any sense and… he ordered him to leave, to find me. To protect me.”

“And does that sound like a man about to kill himself?” Silas asked, voice cold.

“This is ridiculous,” Alice interrupted, not giving Callum a chance to answer. “No one is killing members of the council. You have no evidence to support any of this.”

Silas turned those sharp, yellow eyes on her.

“Then I hope you’re next,” he said, lip curling in disgust. “And I hope whatever Witch replaces you isn’t so blind to the truth.”

No, not disgust , Alice realized, finally recognizing the emotion in the Shifter’s eyes.

It was hate.

Her chest tightened in panic. How had she misjudged him so completely? How had she let it get to this?

Silas turned, moving toward the exit, and Alice quickly leapt to her feet .

“You can’t do this,” she objected, taking a step toward him. Her fingers twitched, reaching for a blade she no longer wore.

Silas stopped in his tracks. “What are you going to do to stop me, Witch?” he asked, voice low and dangerous. He turned and took a step toward her, and for the first time since meeting him, Alice could see the predator under his skin. “Will you arrest me? Kill me?”

Power roiled inside of her, drawn by the challenge in his voice, but Alice fought against it. He was right. There was nothing she could do.

She’d already lost this battle.

Silas smirked, staring her down. “That’s what I thought.”

He turned to go but paused, glancing back at Callum.

“Get out while you can,” Silas warned him. “Don’t put your life on the line for them. Their Faction never cared about the rest of us. And I see no evidence that’s changed. Don’t make the same mistake your father did.”

Then he was gone, his footsteps echoing on the marble walls until he was out of sight.

Alice couldn’t breathe. It was all coming down around her. She sat back down heavily, in shock.

At the table, someone snorted.

“Well, good riddance to bad rubbish,” Linh said. “If you ask me?—”

“No one asked you, you old bag,” Alice murmured. She couldn’t even summon the energy to put any heat behind the words.

“Do you really believe these two deaths aren’t connected, Alice?” Kallista asked.

Alice looked up, glancing between Kallista and Callum, the last of her council. Was she really so sure? Was she being blind here? Were their lives at risk, all because she was being stubborn?

“I don’t know,” she admitted, finally. “I truly don’t know.”

“Then we should find out,” Callum said decisively. He held her gaze, his eyes serious but unafraid. And for a moment, hearing the sureness in his voice, Alice felt a little hope bloom in her chest. He had his father’s strength.

“We should make finding a new Shifter representative a priority, I think,” Sana said, pen moving quickly over the notes in front of her. “Silas was right, I am sorry to say. He wasn’t meant to be more than a stand in for a few meetings. Maybe we expected too much from him. The Shifters deserve a real representative, one fully committed to the role.”

“Sam,” Alice heard herself say, before she’d even realized she’d started forming a plan. She felt a shift in her emotions, felt her wits begin to gather. They needed someone trustworthy, someone the Shifters would listen to. “He’s a Hare Shifter, well respected by his Faction. I’ll reach out to him tomorrow morning and see what he can do to help repair this.”

They couldn’t lose the Shifters, couldn’t risk alienating so many citizens because of her anger. Her failure as a council member.

Sana jotted it down.

“Perhaps we could extend the invitation to Regina, Kellos’s sister? Or at least make the suggestion to Sam?” Sana added. “Silas wanted us to interview her, after what happened, but maybe she would appreciate being offered the seat on the council?”

It was a good idea. One with merit. Yes, this could work.

“We should reach out to her anyway,” Leandra added in a calm voice. “Whatever she has to tell us about her brother’s death… we should listen to her.”

Yes. They should.

And for a moment, Alice was grateful that the other Priestesses had shown up tonight. She was grateful for their support. They could do this, together. They would do this. The council would not fall.

Not while she still lived.

With a renewed sense of surety, Alice began to plot. She could make this work. She could salvage this.

Further down the table, Linh made a noise, deep in her throat, like a cough.

“What was that, Linh?” Sana asked, not bothering to glance over at her as she wrote in her ledger. Her pen made a playful scratching sound as she wrote. “I didn’t catch that.”

Linh’s only answer was a gurgle, strained, and almost sickeningly wet.

Goddess, is she still ill? Alice wondered, looking over at the High Priestess. She did look pale, and her eyes were glazed, unfocused …

“Linh…” Leandra started, frowning at her. Linh’s head jerked slightly, more a twitch than anything. “Are you ok? You look?—”

WHAM.

Leandra screamed, leaping away as Linh slammed her own head down against the council table.

Every head in the room turned in shock to watch as Linh straightened in her chair again, blood dripping from her nose.

“Linh, what?—”

WHAM.

Linh slammed her head down against the wood again, with a sickening crack. When she sat back this time, there was blood smeared over the table. It was dripping down her face, coating the front of her robes.

Alice was on her feet, a hand pressed to her chest in shock.

“Linh STOP!” Leandra screeched, reaching for the Witch. But her hand barely touched the sleeve of Linh’s robe before the woman twisted away, slamming her head back down on the table again and again.

And again.

“Merciful Goddess save us,” Sana gasped, hands over her mouth.

“Someone stop her! Grab her!” Alice screamed, pushing her chair away and racing toward her.

Kallista was faster. Shadows snapped around Linh’s shoulders, jerking her backwards out of her chair and away from the table. Alice glanced over at the Demon, who now stood, her own chair knocked over backwards behind her and her face just as shocked as theirs.

“I’ve got her,” Kallista said, voice frantic, edged in panic.

Linh fought, struggling against the shadow bonds that held her.

“What in the name of the Goddess was that?” Leandra asked in a shaky voice.

“Something’s wrong with her,” Callum said, stunned. He hadn’t stood, but he looked at the older woman with obvious fear in his eyes. “Why would she?—?”

Snap .

Sana screamed as Linh’s head twisted violently on her shoulders, her neck breaking with a crack like a whip.

Goddess help us all , Alice thought, hand over her mouth, as Linh’s head lolled forward .

Dead.

Linh was dead.

“What did you do to her?” Leandra screeched at Kallista.

“I didn’t do anything!” Kallista snapped back. Her shadows immediately disappeared, and Linh’s body slumped to the floor, lifeless and heavy. “I was just stopping her from hurting herself! Something you should have been capable of doing!”

“This is it,” Callum whispered, eyes wide, as he looked around the room, at them, yes, but also at the corners, the ceiling. “This is what killed them, isn’t it? Kellos, my father…”

“That’s ridiculous, this—” Leandra began, but Alice held up her hand to silence her.

“Talk,” she demanded, eyes on Callum.

He looked at her, pupils blown wide with fright.

“Winston, my father’s servant…he said my father tried to get him to run,” Callum told them. “Tried to get him to hide me, as though I were in danger. As though he were the danger. He wasn’t acting right. It was like he wasn’t in control of himself.”

Alice stared at Linh’s body, puzzle pieces falling into place as she weighed everything. Had she really been this blind?

Kellos, attacking another Shifter, a Shifter he loved. The sister he’d spent his life protecting.

Cassiel, ordering his guards to protect his child, before taking his life by his own hand…

“If I were being controlled by something,” she said, the reality of what was happening finally hitting her. “If I were at risk of hurting the people I love? I would hope I would have the strength to slit my own throat, as well.”

Callum’s head whipped toward her, a look of horror and pain flashing over his face.

She didn’t want to believe it,

No. It couldn’t be.

Please no.

“I know what this is,” Alice whispered, horror creeping through her veins at the realization. Silas was right. She’d been so, so blind. “I’ve seen this before. ”

A Blood Witch.

In the hallway, hidden behind the heavy palace door, Vee smiled.

It served the bitch right after the way she’d spoken to Amalia. She knew enough now from the princess to know that particular Witch had been one of the few who had clung to the idea of the Witch Faction keeping all the power in the city to themselves. She’d wanted to put another Witch on the throne, wanted to keep everything the way it had always been. Maintain the status quo.

The same status quo that had gotten so many people in Vee’s life killed.

The Witch got what she deserved, Vee reasoned. She wanted the city to go back to the way it had been. The way it was before Vee discovered her powers, when strays were dying in the streets every night. When the Shifters were treated like nothing but vermin in their own city.

Popping a macaron in her mouth, Vee hummed in appreciation. Goddess, these things were good. She licked sugar from her fingers, slipping off quietly down the hall, listening to the chaos and sounds of the throne room grow distant behind her.

She was glad she’d stopped by the kitchens before coming here tonight. It had been easy to sneak in and steal some sweets. Just as easy to sneak back to the throne room to watch the council meeting.

Controlling that Witch had been easy, too, almost comedically so. A weak mind, with a weaker body. She’d barely needed to use any power at all.

She’d been even easier than the rats.

But the others? Vee popped another cookie into her mouth and chewed, frowning as she walked. They weren’t going to be easy. Even Kellos, old and weak as he was, had been hard, and the Vampire? It had taken more than she’d thought possible to sneak into his mind, more effort than she’d ever had to use before. He’d fought her, somehow. Pushed her out of his mind over and over. Every time she felt like she had a hold on him, he slipped out of her grasp. It had been like trying to hold water in her hands .

No one had ever broken her hold on them before. And that worried her.

Was it a power thing? she wondered. After all, he was the Fallen King, supposedly the most powerful Vampire alive. Maybe it was just more difficult, the more powerful they were?

That complicated things. Vee wanted to get rid of the whole council, wanted all of them gone. Every last traitor. But if power would be a problem…

That council Witch, Alice, was strong. Maybe too strong. And she was worried about trying the Vampire’s son, after how difficult controlling his dad had been…

Vee weighed her choices as she left the palace, humming to herself. She was worried, sure, but not enough that it bothered her. With the lights from the palace disappearing behind her, and the taste of sugar on her tongue, she found herself in a better mood than she’d been in weeks.

And now that she had Fey on her side? Now that they were practically family?

Well… she was unstoppable now, wasn’t she?