Page 103 of Nearly Dead

So many failed plans for my life.None of them mine.

“But there was something else,” Conrad continues.“Something he kept hidden even from our father.A ritual he developed, specifically designed to extract and transfer magical potential.”

My blood runs cold.“Transfer to whom?”

“To himself, of course.”Conrad looks positively gleeful.“Our uncle has been plotting to steal your power for decades, waiting for the right moment.And now that you’ve manifested abilities beyond what anyone expected, he’s more determined than ever.”

“That’s why he allied with Elizabeth,” I realize.“She’s helping him get to me.”

“Bingo.”Conrad taps the tip of my nose, and I jerk my head back.“And here’s the best part.None of them know.Leviathan thought he was making you his queen.Elizabeth thinks she’s going to be some super villain.”

“Huh.It’s not a bad plan,” I say, admiring the cunning it’s taken to get Mortimer this far.“Why are you telling me this?”

“He’s vulnerable during the ritual.Completely exposed.If you were to interrupt it at precisely the right moment...”

“He’d be defenseless,” I finish.The tactical implications are immediately clear, even through the emotional distance that’s become my new normal.

“One last thing before I go,” Conrad says, almost fondly.

“You’re leaving?”

“This is it, Tam-tam.My final curtain call.”He spreads his arms.“I’m only here to deliver this message, one last ’fuck you’ to dear Uncle Mortimer and the family.Consider it my parting gift.You can kill them all, Tamara.You have that power now.Our neglectful father who would rather fuck his way through Europe than protect his family.Our bitch mother who only cares about you now that you’re special.Anthony is, well, Anthony.Spoiled little rich boy.I couldn’t care less what you do to him.”

“Why help me at all?”I ask, genuinely curious.“You tried to kill me.Multiple times.”

Conrad’s expression turns serious for perhaps the first time since his death.“I owe you.You freed me when you could have left me to rot.And because in the end, I’d rather see you win than them.”He smirks.“If anyone’s going to bring down the Devines, it should be another Devine.”

He begins to fade, and his form becomes translucent.“Goodbye, Tam-tam.Try not to suck at being supernatural, will you?Some of us never got the chance.”

With those words, he’s gone, leaving me alone in the endless gray.But as the dreamscape begins to dissolve around me, I feel something stirring in my chest that wasn’t there before.Not love or forgiveness for Conrad, but something simpler, more human.

Understanding.

I wake with a gasp, sitting upright in bed.Costin is instantly alert beside me, his hand on my arm.

“Tamara?What is it?”

I turn to look at him, and for the first time in days, I feel tears prickling at my eyes.Real, human tears.

“I know what Mortimer is planning,” I say, my voice thick with the emotion that I’d thought lost.“And I know how to stop him.”

For the first time since the church collapsed around me, I feel like myself again.

Not a hybrid.Not a vampire or werewolf or magic vessel.

Tamara.Flawed, complicated, determined.

Ready.

He pulls me down on the bed beside him.“Tell me everything.”

ChapterTwenty-Three

The full moon hangs low and bloated in the night sky, its silver light washing over the city.I feel it pulling at my blood, demanding transformation, but I hold it at bay through sheer force of will.There will be time for that later… if we survive.

Costin and I stand on the rooftop of what looks like the lovechild of an abandoned castle and an industrial building.It’s one of the oldest buildings in the city.The location was my idea.It’s near sacred ground which carries power that can be channeled.The high vantage point gives us clear sight lines in all directions.Most importantly, it’s far from innocent bystanders.

“Are you certain about this?”Costin asks, his eyes scanning the horizon for any sign of our enemies.

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