Chapter 55

Chapter 55

FEY

T he sudden knock on the door was so loud and so forceful, Fey almost went to grab her blades.

It was early. Early enough the sun hadn’t risen, so when the knocking woke Fey up and she sat up swearing, Alastair was still next to her, awake, reading in bed.

“Who the fuck is that?” he asked, as though she had any more idea than he did.

“I’ve got it,” Fey told him, throwing the covers off herself and getting to her feet. She grabbed a robe on the way, tying it around her waist.

Whoever it was better have a damn good reason for getting her up, Fey thought angrily, as she unlatched the door and opened it.

It was Alice. Alice, standing at her door, fist raised to knock again. Alice, who stared at her with so many emotions flickering over her face that Fey couldn’t focus on any singular one.

“Have you been here all night?” Alice asked, voice too hurried, too frantic.

Fey’s lip curled. “What in the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Just—” Alice took a deep, shuddering breath, as though to calm herself. “Just, please, Fey. Answer me. Have you been here all night? Since the sun went down? Here, and nowhere else?”

Fey mentally retraced her steps before nodding.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’ve been here since… two this afternoon, or thereabouts. So, all day, all evening, all night. What is this, Alice? What is this about?”

A small look of relief passed over Alice’s face. She stepped inside, and Fey closed the door behind her.

“And the Vamp?” Alice was asking, looking around. “He’s been here too?”

“That Vamp has a name,” Alastair reminded her, coming out of the bedroom and glaring at her. “So lovely of you to stop by, Alice. Now kindly fuck off.”

“I’m not asking you, I’m asking her,” Alice snapped. She turned back to Fey. “He’s been here with you all night? All evening? He can verify that you’ve been here?”

Anger filled Fey’s voice as she answered. “Yes, Alice. He has been here, with me, all night.”

Alice nodded, almost absently. “Good,” she murmured. Her hands came up to hold her arms, hugging herself tightly. “That’s good.”

“Alice, what the fuck is—” Fey had taken a step toward her sister but was stopped. Alastair was there, suddenly, between the two of them, his outreached hand blocking her from moving forward another step.

“She smells like blood, Fey,” he told her, his voice a dangerous warning. “Someone else’s blood.”

“I need to ask you something, babe, and I need you to be completely honest with me, okay?” Alice looked almost crazed, eyes frantic. Fey had never seen her like this.

Fey had never seen any Blade like this.

She pushed Alastair’s hand aside and stepped closer to her sister.

“Fine. Complete honesty.” Fey promised. She crossed her arms over her chest. “And then I want the same from you.”

“Tell me you can’t use the fifth element,” Alice said, taking a step toward her. “I need to hear you say it, Fey. Please.”

Alastair’s temper frayed even further. “Alice, what the fuck?—”

“Swear it to me, Fey!” Alice insisted, ignoring Alastair entirely .

“I can’t do Blood Magic, Alice,” Fey answered in a dark voice.

“Swear it!”

Fey’s lip curled, anger twisting her words. “On the Goddess, I swear it. On my life, Alice, I swear to you that I cannot do Blood Magic.”

Tension washed away from Alice’s muscles.

“Thank you,” she whispered. The hands clutching her arms loosened their grip, and her shoulders eased lower. “Thank you.”

“No.” Fire and rage roared in Fey’s chest. “You don’t get to come in here asking questions like that and then thank me. What the fuck, Alice? What the hell is going on?”

With a groan, Alice put her face in her hands.

“I think… I think the council is in a lot of trouble, Fey… I think…” She let out a long breath and looked up at Alastair, eyes narrowing. “Does he have to be here for this?”

“It’s my fucking house!” Alastair said in a raised voice.

“Yes,” Fey said over him. “He does have to be here. Talk.”

“Fine.” Alice threw him one last reproachful look. “But he might not want to hear this.”

“I’m very quickly running out of patience, sister,” Fey said, voice low and dangerous. “Tell me what the fuck is happening.”

Alice’s jaw tightened. “I think someone is attacking the council members, one by one. I think they’ve been killing them.”

“The council?” Fey asked, frowning.

Alice nodded. “First Kellos. And then…”

Alastair shifted. “My father?” he asked, voice raw.

Alice nodded again.

“And whoever it is…” Fey paused, putting it together. “You think it’s a Blood Witch, don’t you? Someone who can use the fifth element?”

“I don’t just think it, babe. I know it,” Alice said. “They got to Linh, tonight. Someone killed her, right in front of us.”

Fey hissed out a breath.

“It was…” Alice looked down at her hands. “She was like a puppet, being controlled by something we couldn’t see. She was fine just a few minutes before, and then suddenly.” Alice shuddered. “I’ve seen that before. When I was first inducted into the Blades, we were sent to hu nt down a rogue Blood Witch. One the White Priestesses must have missed during her awakening. And she was…”

Alice looked up, staring into Fey’s eyes. There was no trace of the strong, confident Witch Fey knew in those eyes. Alice looked terrified. “She was horrifying. She captured one of ours, used that… magic on her. And it was like, she was a doll suddenly, like she was just a shell with nothing inside.” She swallowed, eyes growing distant, lost in the memory. “Only two of us made it out that night. She took down two Blades before we could stop her, Fey.”

Fey’s eyes flashed. “And tonight, you thought it was me?” Rage rose, suffocatingly hot inside of her. Alastair stared at Alice with obvious disgust on his face. “Me? Attacking the council?”

“Can you blame me?” Alice asked. “You walked away from the antidote with all four pure powers. What if you had them all, Fey? You would have known how we would have reacted to that. How I would have reacted. You would have hidden it. Don’t lie, you know you would have.”

“Fuck you,” Fey snapped. But she didn’t deny it.

Alice groaned, stepping back away from her and looking around helplessly. “It could be anyone, couldn’t it? Any of the Witches we’ve given the antidote to.”

“New Witches, too,” Fey added, thinking. “Now that there aren’t any priestess overseeing the Awakenings, there’s no way of knowing how many are out there.”

Fey took a measured breath, trying to gather her thoughts.

It really could be anyone. Any Witch in the city. And they had no way of finding them.

“I need you to come and speak to the council, Fey,” Alice said, voice low, as though asking it pained her.

Anger, hot and fast, surged through her.

“Why?” Fey asked. “I just told you this isn’t me.”

“I believe you,” Alice said, meeting her eyes. “Truly, Fey, I do. But you have to understand how this looks. Someone has been threatening the council, and now they’re killing them. And it’s your face on those posters, babe. The council is already scared of how much power you have, but if you just let them talk to you… question you… ”

Fey curled her lip in a sneer. Alastair placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Please, Fey,” Alice said, her voice breaking. “They’ll need to hear it from you. And you… you can help with this. If there’s a Blood Witch out there, someone going after us?” Alice swallowed. “Fey, imagine something strong enough to take down two Blades in their prime. Something strong enough to take down the Fallen King. I can’t take someone like that on my own. You know I can’t.”

Fey suddenly understood what Alice was really asking.

“You want me there, with the council, in case she strikes again?” she asked, voice cautious.

Alice nodded. “We need to stop her now. Whoever she is, we need to stop her before she goes any further. Before she…” Alice blinked, a new realization hitting her. Her face twisted in horror. “Fey, what if she goes after our families? What if she goes after Joy?”

Joy . Something rolled through Fey, strong enough to push her anger aside. A sour, sickening emotion. Fear.

What if she goes after Joy? But it wasn’t Joy’s face Fey saw. It was Willow’s. Willow’s face, her mouth open in shock, her throat slit open while Fey watched, unable to do anything but scream.

Willow. Who she should have been able to protect.

Never again.

“When is the council meeting next?” Fey heard herself ask as Alastair’s grip tightened on her shoulder, grounding her.

“Tomorrow night,” Alice answered.

Fey nodded. Under Alastair’s bed, kept in a decorative wooden box, her Queen’s Blades sat, waiting for a moment like this. Maybe it was time to get them out again.

“I’ll be there,” Fey promised.