Page 54 of Winterfall Destiny

"You're right about her chess game. The thing made its next move," says Tobias. He rests his back against the counter, watching. "The First intends to bind the Winterfalls and Blackwoods to her."

"You said." Silence. "In what way? What are you holding back?"

The uneasy atmosphere that joined us in the lounge when the pair spoke about their experience with the First becomes suffocating.

"A way that shouldn't happen," says Andrei softly. "The First wants you to be like me. Part of what it is." He squeezes his eyes closed. "For me to turn you."

I take a sharp breath and move from the door. "What? No. I can't become... that. I don't even want to be immortal, let alone with its blood."

"I know." Andrei reaches out to me. "And I promise that won't happen."

I look wildly at Tobias, who joins us, a hand on my arm. No, I'm not about to lose my shit, but his calming skills could help right now.

"Is the First intending to kill me if I say no? That's been its plan all along—the creature's waiting until we're done with Gabriella, isn't it? Watching its little game play out. See who dies and then kill the rest of us."

My stomach churns, bile moving upwards, and I'm unable to speak. The shadows don't stir because my mind won't comprehend what I'm told.

Andrei takes both my hands. "Don't consider it for a moment, Maeve. This could be another trick."

Kill the rest of us. The words still won't settle in my mind.

"A trick because the First will kill us all anyway, whether you bind yourself to her or not," says Tobias.

"Apart from me and Andrei. And the Blackwoods," I mutter. “The creature loves the idea of controlling us all." Yanking out a kitchen chair, I sit and stare absentmindedly at the takeaway menus pinned to a noticeboard above ‘House Rules'. Stay calm.

"Trapping the First again is our only way forward," says Andrei.

All my remaining breath leaves. "And lose you? No."

"I'm one person out of thousands, Maeve. The First's counting on you refusing to act against it because of me, but I don't want that." He pauses. "Everybody I care about is in danger if that thing remains free."

"No," I repeat softly. "There's another way. We broke Tobias's curse."

"The situation isn't anywhere near the same," Tobias says cautiously. "That curse was a witch's. This creature... the First's a whole other level."

"There's a way," I say firmly. "We always find a way."

The pair fall quiet, and I swallow down the sickness. Have we encountered something that would finally beat us?

"I don't want Jamie and Ash to know. Not yet," I say to Tobias as he sits beside me. "I know we agreed no more secrets, but they'll lose focus on finding and ending Gabriella."

"I'm not sure, Maeve," says Tobias. "We tell them tomorrow. Andrei and I didn't say anything earlier because we wanted you to know first."

"In case I behaved in the same way as the last bad news you gave me?" I sigh and look at my hands, outstretching my fingers. "No shadows." And this news is about me, not somebody I love. "The fight with Gabriella buys us time." I say through gritted teeth. "We're the First's avatars in a fucking game.."

"And nothing will end well until the First is trapped again." Andrei's eyes are earnest as he repeats his thoughts. He genuinely believes that's the only way forward?

"Even if I saw that as an option, we don't know how to," I say weakly. "The First destroyed the Winterfall and Blackwood grimoires."

"The runes will still exist," Andrei says. "Ones as powerful couldn't be destroyed."

I blink. "They're buried beneath tonnes of rubble, Andrei. So that's not an option."

"She's right," says Tobias, and Andrei drags a hand down his face, turning away. "But we don't give up," he adds.

There has to be an answer. Another way forward. One that allows us all to live and eradicate the First from the world. This can't be the first time the creature escaped from captivity, otherwise the First would never create the living dead vampires it hides. The creature would've manipulated and killed people in the past in an attempt to stop her incarceration happening.

Standing again, I tiptoe to press my lips to Andrei's, spreading fingers over the back of his neck as I do. "Thank you for telling me."

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