Page 92 of Bound in Blood

Osiris nods his agreement. “I’ll go to Jerome and then speak with the other heads of houses if Axl can deal with Lapis and Opal.”

“And Onyx?” my father asks.

I shake my head. “Onyx has sided with Giorgios already, though I have no idea what lies he has told them or what promises he has made.”

He snorts with disdain. “I am sure Vincent will have something to say about his nephew’s defiance. He has been a thorn in our sides for far too long.”

Vincent Beretti is the head of House Chó_ma, and he and my father are not exactly allies, but they do have a long-standing mutual respect. “You can ask Vincent to pull Nicholas into line, and perhaps he will, but I still would not trust him.”

“And you would have good reason not to after he was already discovered to be an ally of the Skotádi once. But you must recall how he saved his head.” I do recall. He swore he would serve Vincent for eternity. “If he breaks that oath, there is only one fate which will await him.”

Osiris shakes his head. “I don’t trust Ashe either. However, our biggest hurdle will be getting Jerome to agree to send all the human students home. He will want to avoid any kind of confrontation with the board or with parents, but if anyone gets caught in the crossfire, we will have a scandal to cover up.”

My father puffs out his chest. “Then I will deal with Jerome Ollenshaw. It should only take a small reminder that he is president of this institution at the grace of House Drakos.”

I offer Osiris a nod of appreciation, grateful my father has something to focus on. That will give me some much-needed space to think and plan.

Chapter

Forty-Three

MALACHI

Despair. Desolation. Black and shadowy and all-consuming, it creeps into every cell of my body, solidifying inside until I am no longer made of flesh and bone, but of only darkness and anguish. There is nothing worth living for. Not even her.

I screw my eyes closed and try to curl myself into a ball, but I realize I’m hog-tied with my ankles and wrists bound together. Even being here, in the cellar in our basement where we brought Ophelia all those months ago, is not enough to bolster any strength of feeling other than abject misery.

I know the creature that took me. I’ve read enough of wraiths to know this darkness swallowing me whole is its doing. It should have taken my soul but for some reason has not. But I didn’t know they existed until today, and I have no idea why I’ve never come across one before. Surely a being with such powerful dark magic would not have to hide itself.

“Happy to be home, Malachi?” Giorgios asks, his tone mocking.

I don’t care where I am. I want to be nowhere, to sink into the ground and disappear. That is the only fate that seemsappealing. But there is something still in me, perhaps it’s her blood running through my veins, that flickers with the tiniest spark of something.

It takes me a moment to recognize it as hope, the true enemy of a wraith. But it gives me some fighting spirit. “What do you want with me?” I growl.

Giorgios runs a pointed fingernail over my jaw, and I snap at him, rage and hatred bubbling up from my core. It’s only now I realize I am bound with chains of silver. They burn the flesh from my bones, but that pain is nothing compared to the crushing despair.

“You are very important to my plan, Malachi.” He cups my jaw almost tenderly. “Of the utmost importance.”

I wrench my head from his grip. “What plan?”

He smiles, and his beady eyes light up with glee. “All will be revealed. But you shall be reunited with your precious Ophelia, if only for a short time.”

His cruel laugh echoes off the bare brick walls. The air turns ice cold, and the wraith drifts through the room. Giorgios stops laughing and dips his head in deference.

The wraith’s screams fill my ears, so sharp and piercing I am sure they burst my eardrums, and Giorgios talks to him like he understands what those screams mean. Yet I cannot hear his words for the incessant cries of anguish ringing in my head. Unable to cover my ears, I simply close my eyes and wait for Death to take me.

Chapter

Forty-Four

ALEXANDROS

Cadence accompanied Axl to visit the heads of the Dragon houses, and Sienna went with her father to alert the heads of the Crescent Houses, thus leaving Ophelia, Xavier, Enora, and me alone to discuss how and when we will take back our house and rescue Malachi.

“Why did he take your sired when he could have easily taken Ophelia?” Enora asks.

Does she think me so incompetent that I would have allowed the wraith to take her? The most precious thing in the entire universe? “Because he would not have taken her so easily despite what you think, Enora.”

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