Was he really? I didn’t think so. Sudden anger woke inside me, the same instant power hit my shields. The Enforcers were coming, an alarm claxon sounding overhead as a bright, red light burst into life on the ceiling.
Danilo looked suddenly confused, Charlotte lunging gracefully forward to grasp his arm and jerk him to his feet. So, she did know why we’d come. As she turned with her brother in her grasp, gaze flat and unemotional, I thanked her silently for trusting me.
“I don’t think you’re ready for this,” I said, opening the veil as the magic of four Enforcers hit the door behind us.
“What are you doing?” Panic washed over his face. “I thought you were here to kill me.”
Charlotte snorted and shoved him ahead of her through the gap in the veil. “You’re an idiot,” she winked at me. “This is a jail break.”
Five seconds later we stood on the peak in Nepal, the empty and looming castle of the Empress of vampires watching over us. It was the most remote place I could think of and without any power or observers we could at least have a moment to talk. I locked us down under a shield of white sorcery and crossed my arms over my chest while Danilo shivered, hugging himself under his thin, cream jumpsuit.
He’d lost weight, his usually buff physique now lean and long, making him seem less lumbering juggernaut and sharper blade. Pale skin made him appear wasted, though a terrible hope burned in his dark eyes.
“I don’t deserve my freedom.” And yet, he wasn’t really arguing with me. Charlotte punched him hard in the shoulder, irritation showing.
“Shut up and listen,” she snarled.
He nodded, swallowed. “What do you need?”
So willing and eager. I’d take it. And filled him in on what happened up to now. He listened as he shivered in the cold air and I finally took pity on him, warming the bubble we stood inside to a more comfortable temperature while he absorbed what I said.
“You could have asked Mother,” he said at last. “She was as much a part of this as I was.”
“We know that,” I said. “But I figured you had more incentive to help us than her.” And considering she was long gone, escaped through sorcerous assistance to who knew where, I couldn’t ask Olena such pressing questions.
Not until I tracked her down and forced the truth from her. Another time. When I had time.
“I don’t have proof,” he said at last, “but I always suspected the Black Souls infiltrated further into the mafia than just a power connection.”
“You mean some of them are in the leadership?” Charlotte chewed her bottom lip a moment. “That actually makes a lot of sense.”
It did to me, too. And gave me hope I shouldn’t have allowed a place in my heart again. “Can you find out details?” I could go tracking them, of course I could. I’d sworn Femke was a priority. But the disappearance of sorcerers and witches wasn’t lost on me and I worried the other massive things on my plate were running off to play without supervision.
I really needed to clone myself.
“I assure you,” Danilo said, suddenly intense and a fraction of his old self. “I intend to return to the prison cell or accept my death when this is over.” His dark eyes burned. “I am guilty, Sydlynn Hayle. But if helping you and Femke can in some way make a difference, if I can do this to appease the memory of my loving wife,” he choked a moment before going on, “I am at your disposal until the end.”
Werewolf devotion. Seriously.
“I’m coming with you.” Charlotte’s grim determination was so like her brother I just sighed.
“The two of you be careful.” I could have sent Danilo alone, I knew that to the bottom of my toes. His word was enough, his aching need to prove himself and his faithfulness written all over him. But knowing Charlotte would be with him made me feel this might actually work out. Never mind she was the werequeen. I knew better than to tell her to stay home and be a good wolf girl. Instead, I reached out, took her hand and shared the power I’d been handing out lately. Her eyes widened but she accepted without comment, the white sorcery bonding visibly to the lychos she’d become like they were made for each other.
Charlotte shivered, delight on her face a moment before she settled again and shrugged at me, hand on her brother’s arm. “We’ll be in touch.”
I opened the shielding and let them go. She had more than enough power to protect them and the white sorcery I’d just given her meant an added level up.
They’d be fine. And would get the information I needed. Now, back to my regularly scheduled Universe saving.
And how was that going for me? Don’t ask.
SYD! Why did someone shouting my name in my head always make me leap and act? Probably because the people in my life who did so only called for help when they were desperate.
Awesome.
Sass. I was in the veil already, felt a twinge of something that made me pause, even as the cat’s mental voice slammed hard against me again, his magic showing me a vision that made my heart stop beating.
My son. On the floor of his bedroom. Empty eyes staring at the ceiling.
GABRIEL! I screamed his name into the veil. Because, of course, I knew exactly what my child had done.
You don’t have to yell, Mom, he sent, quite calm and composed as he spoke through the veil to me like abandoning his body to join with the Universe was no big deal.
Fury warred with fear did a cha-cha with pride as I pulled myself together in mid-leap for Wilding Springs. I hugged his soul to me, but he slipped free this time, not allowing me to jerk him out of the veil. Instead, his spirit danced away, almost joyful while I panted pure terror into the dimness.
Come home this instant. Yeah, like ordering one of the Universe’s most powerful beings to go to his room was going to get me anywhere. I had to have kids, didn’t I?
This is the only way, Mom, and you know it. I’ll be back soon. And then, Gabriel was gone.
Fuming, I stepped through into his room, finding Sass in cat form huddled in a miserable ball in Jiao’s arms, his ears hanging sideways, whiskers drooping low. It wasn’t his fault, or hers. But saying so wouldn’t help.
I knew that from experience myself. Self-blame was a family curse.
The only activity in the room came from the colored ribbons that bobbed and weaved over the still form of my son. I tried not to stare into his empty eyes, swallowed past the terror he was dead, that he’d not be able to return to his physical form while the agitated drach souls wheeled overhead and squealed their protest of his departure. I knew exactly how they felt.
“How long.” I gritted my aching jaw against the question.
“I don’t know,” Sass whispered. “We just found him like this. Syd, it’s my fault for not watching him more closely. I’m so sorry—”
“Save it,” I snapped. “For a chewing out when he gets back here.” My fists settled on my hips, one foot tapping against the hardwood floor in impatience. “We both know you wouldn’t have been able to stop him even if you’d caught him in the act.” If he didn’t return in five, four, three, two…
Gabriel suddenly gasped and sat up, color pinking his pale cheeks, leaning over to cough as the whirling ribbons shrieked their delight and wrapped around him in ecstatic hugs. I let them have their moment as my son gathered himself, looking up at last to meet my eyes with his own full of the veil still.
“We’ll fight about it later,” he said. Oh, would we ever. “It worked, Mom. I know where the next piece is.” His grimace wasn’t helping the tearing urge I had to leap on him and embrace him, to cover him in kisses and protect him from what he was doing, becoming. And what was that exactly? I had no idea. But I was afraid we were going to find out.
“Let me guess,” I said with as much of my Mom in me as I could muster. “I’m not going to like it.”
My son choked on a laugh, nodded. “I’m afraid not,” he said. Sighed. “The heart Trill took,” he said, rising to his feet to face me. “Don’t ask me how she did it, but somehow she figured out how to cross the barrier.” That truth settled around me as I gaped in shocked silence. Meanwhile, my son finished telling me the impossible. “I’m sorry, Mom. It’s in the other Universe.”
***