“I would say that was justified, Morgana,” Lord Eden said with a surprised smile.
“Only because you don’t understand,
grandfather
,” Morg cried, her shoulders rising and falling with heavy breath. “I did the right thing putting him under that spell.”
“And what makes you think that?”
“He was going to forgive her!” she yelled, pointing at me. “I couldn't stand by and watch her taint him any further.”
“Morgana, it is not for anyone to involve themselves with the marital concerns of another.”
“That’s what you say, but my great grandmother is behind me one hundred percent,” she spat. “And she—”
“She is working to her own end, you silly girl,” Dad roared, moving forward. “She does not have your best interests at heart. This god-awful interference was never about something as small as David forgiving Ara. She couldn’t care less.”
Morg’s eyes slowly lowered. “She does. She said she just wants us all to be a family again.”
Dad laughed, all jolly and kind of nice, like Santa, but with an edge of sarcasm. “Oh, my dear girl, you are more naïve than your mother was.” He took a step into her and gently braced her arms. “Lilith is using you. Ask her if she cares what David will do to you when he wakes. He
will
find a way to get to you, Morgana. Not even I can protect you.”
“He can’t touch me.” She aimed a finger at him. “Drake will—”
“Drake will not even know.” He made his voice louder than hers, drowning out the rest of her sentence. “Now undo this spell, and I will do everything in my power to protect you.”
“And if I refuse?”
Dad looked at Jason. “Then we leave the room, and take Jason with us.”
“Is that supposed to scare me?”
Dad pulled himself upright, taking on the pose both Sam and I knew too well. Morg was about a second away from getting a smacked butt right here in a room full of people. And my dad wouldn't give a damn how old she was. “You have five seconds to comply.”
“Urgh! Fine.” She stomped over and grabbed my arm.
“What are you doing?” I squealed.
“Relax,” she said to my guards, spinning me in a one-eighty. “Her royal pain-in-the-ass is the foundation for the spell.”
“How so?” I snapped.
“The identical markings?” she offered. “They tie the spell to the both of you.”
“That Mark on Ara’s back appeared well before David’s,” Arthur said angrily. “How long have you been playing at this?”
“Well—” she knelt down behind me, “—I originally Marked Ara to
repel
David. But it failed. So … I used the original spell to link the new one and bind it. It worked a treat.”
“Wipe that grin off your face.” Falcon took one slow step closer, his fingertips rolling tightly into his palm. “Or I’ll wipe it off for you.”
I heard her scoff from behind me, imagined her rolling her eyes too. It seemed strange for Falcon to address her in such a manner when he used to hold her in such high regard. She was the one who brought us all together, who set this entire operation in motion. But all along, she was the one trying to destroy it. She never cared about David and I having this child. She never cared about the deal her uncle made with her mother centuries ago. No, she wanted her mother freed at any cost, and everything she’d ever said had been a lie to get closer to us—to get that dagger and find the key to Lilith’s tomb.
My eyes flicked across to the dresser where my jewellery box sat in plain sight, containing the last piece of the puzzle she needed to restore her mother. If only she knew how close she really was right now to that key. And after David ripped my Spirit Crux off last night, I was suddenly very glad I heeded Eve’s warning and put that key away.
I folded my fingers around the silver Tree of Life hanging from its new chain and shut my eyes, steadying my rapid pulse as she chanted the spell’s undoing.
“Converterent maledictionem,” Morgana whispered.
Everyone in the room held perfectly still. No one talked. No one even breathed. The only sound was the faint heartbeat of those who still made their own blood.
“Converterent maledictionem.”
A soft blue light rose around my hips, snaking up like steam to my ribs and covering my arms. I looked at Jason then Dad to see if they noticed and, clearly, they could see it, too.
“Converterent maledictionem.” She said the words over and over, getting faster, almost angrier as her hands cupped my hips, thumbs digging in to my spine.
I jolted forward by some unseen force, and Falcon rushed in to hold me up, cradling my face to his big, broad chest.
The pressure from Morgana’s thumbs intensified until my ears rung and my nose felt tight. The noise in the room filled every crack and every corner, getting louder and louder, like a rush of wind and a thousand people yelling over the top of it.
“There!” she said coldly, shoving me forward as she got to her feet.
And David jumped involuntarily beside us, like a bolt of lightning went right through his gut, then he landed in a floppy heap, his breath raspy and labored, the noise in the room gone.
We all watched, still as the dead.
“Is…” I stepped out from Falcon’s arms and faced the witch. “Is that it?”
“I give no guarantees that he makes a full recovery.” She shrugged one shoulder, making a haughty schoolyard bitch face.
“What?” I leaned forward. “Why?”
“Because the spell I used was an expansion spell.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means it gets worse as time goes on,” she explained. “Starts out mild, takes a while to fully possess the host but, when it does, it’s permanent.”
“Permanent?”
“Yup, and I’d say he was about…” she sung the last word while she considered David. “Seventy percent consumed. So, yeah, good luck getting the old David back.”
“Oh God.” I folded my lips in to stop my face crumpling, but my chin quivered horridly as my eyes filled with blinding tears.
“That’s enough taunting, Morgana. Will he be okay or not?” Falcon asked.
“No way of knowing. Yet. I mean, at seventy percent, chances are he’ll always have some niggling pocket of hatred for her, and I can’t fix that.”
Dad moved in.
“I can’t, grandfather.” She cowered. “I swear.”
“You’d better hope the damage isn’t permanent,” Blade said. “Because I will personally rip your eyes out of your head and make you eat them.”
“You think I’m defenceless?” she said with a malignant grin, her keen gaze widening around Blade. “I am not afraid of
you
.”
Blade’s tongue came forward and he coughed once, his eyes bulging in his head as his hands moved protectively up to his throat.
“That’s enough,” Dad said, grabbing Morgana’s arm.
She snapped back from the haze she’d been in and stepped quickly away from my dad, right into the waiting grasp of Falcon. He seized her by the arm and drew her into him, parting his lips to speak. But I saw the change in his mind happen right there in his eyes as he watched Blade recover. Instead of issuing some threat, he simply reached up, placed his hand on her jaw, and twisted it so fast I didn’t actually see her head move, only heard the deep crack of bone popping.
“Sorry,” he said, letting her limp body fall carelessly to the floor. “I didn’t see the point in arguing with her.”
Dad leaned down and hoisted her over his shoulder like a damsel being rescued by a prince. “I would say it had a lot more to do with the need for vengeance.”
Falcon’s lips turned down in thought. “Probably.”
“On the bright side,” Quaid said, “at least now you can lock her in a cell without a fight.”
“All very well if that had been the plan,” Dad said as he walked from the room. “Blade?” he added, and Blade followed, still gasping slightly.
The rest of us turned and focused on David again.
“The Sacrificial should be here any minute now.” I checked my watch. I’d ordered one over thirty minutes ago.
“We’ll have to wake him to get some blood in him,” Falcon said.
“He won’t feed in a room full of people,” Jason piped up from the corner of the room. “First thing he’ll do when he sees an audience is fly right out that window. Everyone will need to leave.”
“He can’t be left alone right now,” Quaid offered. “There’s no telling what state of mind he’ll be in when he wakes.”
“I’ll stay here with him,” I said. “He—”
“The hell you will.” Falcon took a step toward me. “He nearly completely drained you last night, Ara. He clearly has no regard for your wellbeing right now. I—”
“I can take care of myself, Falcon. You know I can.”
“It’s not your job to take care of yourself. It’s my job, and I say you’re not staying alone in a room with a dangerous predator.”
I folded my arms. “Let me tell
you
something, Falcon. He is my husband. He’s hurt and probably going to be quite afraid when he wakes. I will be the one staying here to comfort him, and if that means I need to call on the full force of my power to restrain him, so be it. If I get in trouble, I’ll call out.”
“But he could have killed you last night, Ara—”
“And I’d regenerate—if he didn’t take off with my head,” I added to myself. “He also caught me off guard last night, okay? I’m prepared for him to go crazy and attack this time. I’ll be fine.”
“You
should
have been fine
last night
,” he added. “Why didn’t you use your Cerulean Light? You’ve been practicing for months—”
“Because that’s just it,” Jason said dully. “Mike’s been forcing her to use it in attack mode. By default now, her body won’t call on it when she’s afraid.”
“Yeah, but I tried.” I looked down at my hands. “It just wouldn’t spark.”
“Is it there now?” Falcon asked.
I needed to look at David and think about everything that happened before he drained me last night to feel the warmth tingling in my fingertips, but when it did, it was sharp and strong. I smiled at Falcon. “Yeah. I’m all good now.”
“Okay then.” Falcon put both hands up and took a step back. “You can stay.”
“I can?”
“Yes. Look, I know you can handle yourself, Ara. I mean, hell, I trained you,” he laughed. “But, the thing is, I just got scared, that’s all—to find your bed empty this morning and then a bloodied, naked heap at the end of David’s trail. You can’t blame me for being overprotective.”
“And I don’t. I appreciate it—more than you know. But I’d be very grateful for the chance to prove that I’m not that fragile, timid little girl you met when I first came here.”
He smiled softly at me, then over at Quaid. “What can I say to that?”
Quaid moved to the door, patting Falcon on the back as he passed. “Let’s go see what they’re doing with the witch then, shall we?”
“You go,” Fal said. “I’ll stay outside in case of trouble.”
“Suit yourself,” Quaid said, and skipped out of the room with boyish determination.
Jason hung back a second until Falcon left, taking his last-minute big-brother lecture with him, then walked over and knelt by the bed, placing his hand to his brother’s head.
“When he wakes, Ara, he may initially try to attack you. Just be prepared, okay?”
I nodded.
“The food’s on the way,” he added. “Three, two—”
“Here’s that snack you ordered,” Ryder said lightly, leading a fragile, rather scared looking woman in by the arm. “She’s kindly taken some tranquillisers, so her blood should pacify the king a little once it gets into his system.”
“Thanks. You can just sit down there, please, ma’am.” I pointed to my dresser chair.
Jason appeared standing at my side and leaned a little closer, keeping one eye on the human as he whispered in my ear. “You know he’ll kill her, don’t you? The Pledge is null and void in this situation, Ara. He won’t be able to restrain himself.”
“I can restrain him.”
“Okay.” He shook his head, backing away. “Just don’t beat yourself up if you don’t win that battle. Okay?”
“Okay,” I whispered, and the door closed, leaving me, the human, and a hungry and very violent predator alone.
***
My eyelids felt heavy, closing without my permission several times as I sat in the chair by the bed, waiting. The Sacrificial sat slumped in a rather uncomfortable position at the dresser, her head on her arms, feet sitting at an awkward angle on either side of her. The cocktail of sleeping drugs intended to knock David out after he ate had clearly taken its toll on her. But at least she wouldn't be conscious when he fed from her. She wasn’t new to this world, but she clearly hadn’t been lunch to the king before either. She would have heard of his fetishes in the bedroom and his appetite for death, and I imagined, as I watched her sleep, that she must have desperately needed the money to have put her hand up for this feeding slot. Hopefully she didn’t have a family out there—a child or a sick parent that needed the money to survive because, truthfully, her number was probably up.