Page 37 of Winterfall Destiny

Shit. If I can't exert control over Andrei, we've no chance with the First. But did I honestly expect mind control would be a remote possibility with the creature? No.

I press deeper, dipping into gaps, reaching out to catch any glimmer of another's influence. What would we do if the First had a hold on Andrei?

The creature's influence is clear from the changes caused by the blood, but the First doesn't whisper in his mind, and would mock me for my failed invasion if it were inside Andrei. The conduit I'd feared existed between Andrei and the First isn't here.

But he's holding back. I'm not only unable to take a hold of his mind, but his thoughts slide through my fingers like mercury running along my skin. His heart beats steadily, lulling me to pull back, but I stay as connected as possible.

"Maeve," I say. "Show me Maeve in your mind."

Andrei doesn't respond, verbally or mentally, and the bright barrier flares.

"Andrei." I'm looking at him but through him, our minds connected but his slithering away. "Show me what you think of Maeve. Prove that she's safe."

His voice echoes through my mind. "I can't."

"Can't show me?" I speak the words out loud, stomach lurching.

"I can't think about Maeve." The barrier begins to blind. "I won't focus on what she is."

"What's happening?" Jamie's voice comes from the edge of my awareness.

The same fear as the first time I saw Andrei with Maeve by the summer house washes over me. What is Andrei hiding?

"I could ask you the same thing, Tobias. Should I take a look?"

Pressure fills my head, the light from Andrei seizing hold and strangling my mind, squeezing out things locked in the depths where the desires surrounding Maeve intermingle with my past. I gasp as something tears apart my own barrier and the light becomes a solid beam that pierces and scrapes.

Voices and images flood, memories and thoughts racing through my head. I can't catch any, but Andrei seizes them all.

The piercing pain intensifies, and I struggle to open my eyes. Jamie's voice, more distant than usual, urging Andrei to stop. Something chokes me, and I fight to take in breaths, forcing my eyes to open.

I'm no longer seated opposite Andrei, and the choking isn't imagined by my splintering mind. Eyes glittering with the stars bore into mine. "If you ever try any of that with Maeve, I will help her tear you to pieces."

I can't tell Andrei I don't understand; that I’m unaware what he saw in my head.

"Don't force yourself too far into my mind if you don't want me to see what's in yours," he spits. "You're a fucking hypocrite."

"Andrei." From the edge of my vision, Jamie reaches out to pull at Andrei but the aura that engulfs the First, that stops anybody touching her, surrounds us, a moat Jamie can't cross.

Andrei's breathing remains even, the touch on my neck barely there but the same as if he had me in a chokehold, blazing eyes still stabbing at my vision.

"You shouldn't worry about what's in my mind," he whispers. "But you should worry what I could do to yours if I wanted to."

I'm on the verge of passing out, unable to focus on where I am, ears ringing as Jamie shouts at Andrei. The pressure and burning drop away as I sink to the carpet, blinking away the black dots before my eyes.

One hand goes to my chest, the other to my forehead, and Jamie kneels in front of me. "I can't breathe," I rasp out. "My head. Fuck."

"What the hell happened?"

Andrei's energy leaves the room, taking most of mine with him. "I'm not sure," I say weakly.

"Did the First fight back? Is it in him?" Jamie's voice wavers and his face loses all colour.

If I fooled myself, I could tell Jamie, yes, that the retaliation came from the First, as punishment for invading her puppet's mind.

But Andrei isn't the First's puppet. There wasn't a whisper of the creature influencing him.

"No."

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