Page 71 of Shadows of the Soul

Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty Five

My mind is a palace for you to smash.

There’s something horrifying about prying apart someone’s mind. It’s a violation like no other, and it’s the reason my grandmother holds her seat of leadership with an iron fist. No one would dare challengeThe Cracker.Nobody was immune, not even me, and after observing a few sessions with her power in all its glory, I can safely say I never want to be on the wrong side of this woman I share genetics with.

“Is there a need for cuffs?” Hudson asked as Dayna laid down on my examination bed. Rebecca strapped the leather cuffs to her wrists while the other end was attached to the bars under the bed. Dayna stared at the ceiling, a slight tremble making her body vibrate.

I let out a long sigh. Hudson’s shoulder brushed mine as he moved forward slightly, like he was ready to rescue Dayna.

“The process is painful, she will try to fight. No matter how willing she is, her instincts will kick in and she will defend herself,” I muttered.

My grandmother produced a crystal from her bag, laid it on Dayna’s chest and tied the cord around her neck.

“What’s that?” Hudson asked. Curious cat.

“Bloodstone, used in reverse, it can suppress someone’s power. We don’t want Dayna burning down the house.” I ghosted a hand over my chest where the same stone had once been placed against my flesh to keep my power contained.

“Her element is fire?”

I nodded and moved to the bottom of the bed. I tugged off her boots and dropped them to the floor. There was something I could do for her. It wouldn’t be much. Dayna’s eyes widened when she saw what I was doing.

“What are you doing?” Hudson asked, tracking my movements.

“Don’t interfere,” my grandmother snapped.

“I’ll guard the door,” Rebecca said, extricating herself from the situation. The door clicked closed behind her.

“Eloise, remember who you are speaking to. I am not one of your underlings who cower in your presence,” Hudson growled.

Dayna’s eyebrows hit her hairline. Nothing like a little supernatural political scuffle to take your mind off the encroaching pain. I cocked a brow and my lips twitched.

My grandmother sighed. “This is elemental business. I don’t have to explain myself to you. But if you must know, Cora is going to share the pain to enable Dayna to cope with it better. Depending on how deep the suggestion goes will determine how hard I have to push. I suspect with Lucifer’s involvement that this is going to be agonizing.”

“Absolutely not, Cora, step away,” he growled.

I tightened my grip on Dayna’s ankles and swallowed. “You’ve lost the right to have any opinion on my decisions.”

“Cora–”

I turned my head to stare at him, channeling the matriarch in the room. “Principal, if you are going to be a problem, then wait upstairs and let the women deal with this.”

He shook his head, widened his stance and folded his arms.

My grandmother darted her gaze between the two of us. That’s right, I lost him. I’m sure I’d hear all about how it was because I’d had sex with him too early. Apparently, I wasn’t an elusive enough prostitute.

“Ground yourself in the present,” my grandmother commanded as she stood by Dayna’s head and placed her fingertips on her temples. I turned my attention to my aunt and met her eyes. “You are Dayna Ellen Roberts, daughter of Eloise Roberts,” my grandmother continued. “You are in Summer Grove House, with your niece and your mother. Think back to being in your own house before Lucifer commandeered your home and demanded your niece.”

Tendrils of my grandmother’s power seeped into Dayna’s mind. I winced. The mind was a clever thing. It knew how to protect itself and had many tricks to avoid facing unbearable pain. A psyche smasher relied on the mind resorting to these tricks, it dug under these layers to find the truth. A shudder ran down Dayna’s body. I took the pain into myself and sucked in a breath.

“Good girl,” my grandmother murmured as she slammed through a barrier, shredding it to pieces as she pushed further and deeper.

I gritted my teeth and tried to take the brunt of the pain so Dayna could hang on to the memory my grandmother was examining. My knees shook with the force of the power, but I stayed upright. I’d brought this on our family. The least I could do was take as much pain into myself as possible.

Dayna screamed, an earth-shattering, soul-clenching, torture-filled sound that drew tears to my eyes. I clung on tighter and yanked the residual pain from her body into mine. My mind urged me to let go, to avoid the agony. My fingers loosened as a sob broke free from my lips. Warmth engulfed my back and huge hands rested on my wrists. “You’ve got this,” Hudson whispered in my ear. His woodsy scent enveloped me and gave me strength. I tightened my fingers with renewed determination.

“That’s it,” my grandmother said. “Show me what you are hiding.” A wave of pain that brought bile up my throat rippled from Dayna to me. She was almost there, uncovering Dayna’s deeply embedded unconscious suggestions that the devil himself had laid.

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