Page 35 of Omission: Part 2

The sincerity in his voice melts a bit of my resentment away, allowing my heart to be a little more rational. Glamoured individuals are puppets, and for a century, the former king was ayesmanand nothing more.

“You think so?”

“I know so.” Conviction. Honesty.

Take this olive branch. Please don’t let me down.

“Then prove it, Grand-Père. Please, help me find your daughter.”

* * *

The car stopsabout twenty yards from the geographical location on the map we brought with us from Leo’s coven. It’s quiet and it should feel breezy with how the trees sway, but all I feel is cold.

Barren and desolate coldness. The kind that seeps into your bones and leaves you aching for hours unless you bundle up and hide under a blanket. Then, there’s the lack of animal noises, especially as we watch what looks like pigeons circulate the top of an awkward treetop, the top misshapen into a pointed incline, and I tilt my head to the side.

“Too many oddities.”

“Agreed.” Grandfather takes a step forward, and then another, abandoning the area where we parked and studying. A particular spot near the bottom left of a gnarled tree trunk.Glitchingwould be the best way to describe it, fluctuating between a solid mass and an opaqueness in tones that are not normal. Especially not in nature. “You’re seeing that, right?”

“I see it, Luca,” Leonardo answers, his arm around my waist pulling me back into step with him. That was his only rule; I’m never to be out of his arm’s reach no matter what. My safety is his priority. “You think they glamoured this place, too? How are they managing the amount of magic needed to keep this illusion running?”

“That might be the scariest answer we find.” Bending at the waist, I find a no-bigger-than-a-fist-sized rock and hand it to Leo. “Can you toss it right at the edge, between the wood and the figurine of a squirrel?” My male does so and the entire thing freezes, showing a broken opening where there was none, and I catch sight of yellow. Bright yellow. “Do it again? Maybe with something bigger this?—”

I’m stopped by Grandfather’s hand lifting, a calmness about him that exudes out, and what looks like a hundred pebbles concentrate on the spot Leo weakened. Simultaneously, they ping and prod and force open a hole big enough to walk through as the illusion splinters around the bottom edge, but it doesn’t shatter.

The rest stays in place; its magic is strong, and I’m thankful for it as we draw near and catch two voices. Both female.

Both have been on the run long enough.

13

ANAYA

“This is getting out of hand, Lady Chiara. We’re going to get caught.”

“Quit worrying. Mother secured these grounds herself after that idiot Larue got himself killed.” There’s so much glee in Chiara’s voice, and the little squeal that follows makes me sick to my stomach, something that causes me to rub the area. Leo catches sight of it and watches me for a moment, but there’s no heartbeat yet. Even if my first bleed after mating hasn’t arrived, a normal occurrence for any newly mated female, it doesn’t mean I am with child.

Right now, I’m just a bag of nerves and nothing more. So close to seeing my mother again.

Did he hear or scent something I haven’t, though?

“If Silla continues to bleed Amelia and those poor rejected women at the rate she’s going, it will all crash.” That stops my train of thought, and I concentrate on the two women speaking freely on the other side of the door. They don’t sense us. “This kind of magic can only hold for so long without feeding; you know it’s becoming more demanding each day. We’re losing three donors every week.”

“Brice is working on a solution, Lena. Have you lost all faith in the cause?”

“Is Silla okay with him stepping in and?—”

“What Mother doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” Chiara’s tone cuts off any further discussion, not that it matters becauseIlose what’s left of my control.

All my life, I’ve been a healer. A woman who loves and gives and can’t stand the thought of someone being in pain when I can step in and take it as my own, helping their bodies mend faster than any medicine our hospitals can provide.

I healed Roberto numerous times when Silla’s play left him half-dead, much to her shock.

I took care of Maman even when she demanded I stop. That I protect myself.

Maids and new guards and anyone that the elders hurt, I gave them a little of me to alleviate the aches and pains that came from serving the fake king and his pathetic court.

But this time—this time, I deliver the pain.

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