Page 102 of Inception

“There wasn’t. Well, not a feasible one anyway, and that was exactly the problem,” explained Tessa. “She knew her family would disown her if she willingly accepted Revenant blood into her body, and since family meant everything to her, there was no way she could go down that road. She needed another way and she vowed not to stop until she found it. She was incredibly stubborn that way.”

“Did she ever find anything?” I wondered, overcome by my own disturbing curiosity.

“Depends on who you ask.” Tessa’s disparaged expression made it clear where she stood on the matter. “She became fixated on the idea of recreating the necromancy spell, the one that created the First Revenants, and using a variation of it on herself.”

“But isn’t that the spell that turned them all into evil, blood-thirsty killers to begin with?”

“She was convinced that if she made some key changes to the original spell, substituted the demon blood with the blood of a higher being, she could come back proper.”

“Is that even possible?” I asked, turning to Gabriel as though he were the expert on all things resurrection.

“I suppose everything’s possible, but...” He shook his head.

“It’s unlikely,” said Tessa. “Before she could even consider testing her theory, she needed to get her hands on the spell’s incantation which can only be found within the codex of the OriginalScribes, and of course, the Immortal Amulet used in the First Rising Spell. The Scribes were scattered all over the world, guarded and nearly impossible to come by, and there were even fewer pieces of the Amulet. It was mission impossible, but odds like that never stopped Linley.”

She sounded kind of kick ass.

“Anyhow, after some digging around, she found out that our Order had been in possession of a copy of the Scribes, and that the Huntington Sentinels had been charged with their safekeeping. Unfortunately, she also discovered that they perished in a fire two years prior—a fatal fire that destroyed the Scribes andkilledboth the Huntington brothers…Gabriel and Dominic.”

My mouth fell open. “What?” I turned to Gabriel, slack-jawed. “You and Dominic died in a fire?”

His dark hair grazed over his eyes as he dipped his head. “That’s what I’ve been told, though I have no recollection of that particular expanse in time.”

“Because we changed it,” explained Tessa, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “We went back and changed what happened. We warned Gabriel, we stopped the fire, we stopped all of it. But it wasn’t supposed to be that way. We weren’t supposed to change anything. When we got back, the other reality had already been erased—gone to everyone but Linley and me. It was as though it never even happened andfixingit was a lot easier said than done. Gabriel was alive because of what we—”

“But he was meant to die.” My voice was abnormally pitchy. “He didn’t want this, he didn’t want to be a Revenant!” How could she not go back and fix her mistake? How could she allow Dominic to impose this eternal life-sentence on Gabriel?

Tessa steeled her gaze. “We don’t always get what we want, Jemma. That’s life, whether you like it or not.” Her iciness reverberated in the room.

“So you didn’t even try?” I asked, tremulous. I didn’t want to believe that. I didn’t want to believe that my sister would just leave Gabriel to live out his life as the thing he hated most in the world. All because of her own bad decisions.

“Of course we tried.” She seemed annoyed by my questions. “We went back as soon as we realized what was going on—that Dominic had Turned—but by then it was already too late. He had his own plans and he made sure we couldn’t get in his way.”

“I don’t understand.”

“There was nothing she could do,” offered Gabriel in her defense. “Dominic was using aBinding Spriteto ensure no one could travel back to that point in time and alter any of the events that had transpired. Tessa and Linley tried, but they couldn’t get through the protective barrier. No one could.”

It was clear he wasn’t harboring any blame or resentment towards them. So why wasIgetting so worked up about it? And what the heck was a Binding Sprite?

“We couldn’t go to anyone for help,” continued Tessa. “Our Laws are clear and we violated nearly every one of them in the worst possible way. We were between a rock and a hard place. What Linley and I did...” She rattled her head. “Linley would have been Bound—maybe worse, and God only knows what the Council would have done to me for leading the charge.”

My thoughts briefly flashed back to Trace and his distress over the possibility of being Bound by the Council. Whatever that meant for them, it clearly wasn’t something they could live with.

“So what ended up happening with the Scribes?” I asked after a short reprise. “Did Linley ever get them or was it all for nothing?” I couldn’t fathom the desperation needed to pull off something like this in the first place let alone what it would feel like to come up empty handed.

“They weren’t there,” she answered dryly. “Linley found the vault empty. They must have been moved before we got there, but we had no way of knowing for sure. Besides, I had more pressing matters to contend with at that point.”

I furrowed my brows, wondering what could have been more important than the Scribes they went back in time to get.

“As in the coven of Revenants in the living room,” she clarified, reading the confusion in my expression.

“Right. Dominic’s girlfriend.” I’d almost forgotten.

“Hisgirlfriend?” scoffed Tessa. “She was a Revenant, just like the others. Nothing more.”

“So you’re the one who vanquished her,” I said, having just realized it myself. “You vanquished Dominic’s girlfriend and Gabriel backed you up, right? That’s why Dominic hates you. That’s why he said all those things about you.”

She nodded unceremoniously. “And I’d do it again without question.”

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