Page List

Font Size:

Trying to drown out theslurping, crunchingsounds of death, I scurry further away.Then I’m standing upright. Then running. A direction picked randomly in the dark.

I stumble and fall multiple times, but I just keep getting back up again. The clicking of crab-like feet chases me. The thumps of hooves in a two-step beat. The soft thuds of clawed feet. The hisses and frustrated sounds of predators that can’t bite the prey, but that doesn’t stop them from trying to get close. From saliva dripping on me. From the air beside me being sliced apart by talon and claw and pincer.

I run for what seems like hours before I see a light up ahead. A pinprick at first that makes me flinch, thinking it is the reflection off a pair of golden eyes.

But then it grows bigger, and I heave with relief as I stumble ever closer. Only to realize it’s coming towards me.

I throw my arms up as the world of light envelopes me, certain it is some ungodsly beast that has finally figured out a way to eat me on this nightmarish plane.

“Sau!”

My arms fall at the sound of Uncle David’s voice, and I crack open my eyes to see I’m back in the nursery, the signs of destruction, of wayward, uncontrollable magic in every splintered piece of wood. The crib, the walls, the floor, even the ceiling. None of it was spared in myfear.

“Where is she?” I cry as I look around, trying to spot the blood beneath the wreckage.

“She’s safe,” he says as he crouches down in front of me.

I flinch away from him. “What did youdo?”

“I had to stop your magic.”His lips tighten even as his eyes soften. “You’re a very strong witch, Sau. It was the only way I could save Olivia. Probably this whole fucking house. Your father would have been proud.”

I tremble, a manifestation of me not knowing what to think. “But you were hurting her,” I say slowly. “I heard – saw her screaming.”

“She’s a baby, Sau,” he says, chastising me for being stupid. “They cry when they need their nappy changed.”

I shake my head slowly, trying to remember what I saw. He had his hands below her waist… But I can’t see what he was doing, my mind too fractured by the eventsonthe Plane of Monsters. Every time I try to think too hard, I’m back there, terrified and alone.I just want to curl in on myself, stop thinking about anything at all, but my daughter needs me.

Right?

She needed me?

I look around at the destruction of her home. Her crib is gone. The mobile above it too. The entire room is just a shrine to chaos and pain. Trembling, I wrap my arms around myself. I could have hurt her. I could have killed her because I am too broken to understand not everyoneis to be feared.

“I’m sorry,” I say, my eyes burning as I look back at my uncle. “I thought you were…” I don’t say it, but the change in his eyes tells me I don’t need to.

He rears back, disgust curling his lips. “Let’s just get you back to bed. I’ll come up with a story that caused thiswreckage, and you keep your fucking mouth shut about what youthinkyou saw.I’m not going to have youtalk shit about me to Caden.I have cared for every single one of your childrenwhile you slept like a fucking baby.Fuck, Sau, I waschanging her nappy.Just like I’ve done every fucking night she needs it. I’dneverhurt her.”

“But you did it to me,” I say as he hauls me to my feet, his fingers digging into my arm.

“Itrainedyoubecause I love you, Sau. Though lot of fucking good that did, didn’t it? I bet you haven’t even once sucked Caden’s cock. Wasted all my fucking time, didn’t you?”

I flinch, my words beat back down my throat by his. He drags me to the door.I stumble behind him, trying to keep up, to stop being the burden I am. I tried to save Dad and only made matters worse, making Antonio slaughter nearly my entire family. I tried to save my baby girl, only to nearly kill her. If it wasn’t for Uncle David, I would’ve. And if it wasn’t for him advising Caden and giving him his support as his Underboss all these years…would the Shadow Family even still be here?

“You knownothing.”The memory of Antonio’s words slaps me hard.

Ididn’t believe him then, so sure in my purpose that I was doing the right thing. That I was being agoodsoldier despite being a girl. Doing what my father wanted. What every witch wanted.

I struggle to remember Antonio’s mate’s name, my first kill… Or rather, my fourth kill, her three pups having died first.

My heart breaks at the thought of Olivia being dead, at the thought of the pain that mother went through because ofme.

Thatmother…

Not a werewolf.

Not a fucking mutt or an enemy.

Not even just a woman.