I came to with a gasp and bright light blinded me. When my gaze focused, it rested on Dorian and Sasha sitting on a bed next to me. Dorian’s eyes grew huge.
“Mimi,” he called as he bounced on the bed. “Mimi, she’s awake! Mom’s awake!”
I tried to sit up, to get my bearings, but I didn’t have a chance.
“Oh, thank God,” Mom breathed, gathering me in her arms and holding me tightly. “I was so worried.”
As she held me, my eyes drank in the familiar surroundings. We sat on the bed in my suite. But not in Tristan’s and my bedroom on Sanibel Island. This bed had stone pillars at the corners and a gossamer canopy. Somehow, I’d been brought to our suite in the matriarch’s mansion.
Mom pulled away, and her eyes scanned my face from forehead to chin. “Are you okay?”
I blinked in confusion, then remembered the explosive pain before I blacked out. I felt no discomfort now, though.
“Yeah. Fine. But why am I here? How’d I even get here?”
“You were really sick,” Dorian said before Mom could answer. “You’ve been sleeping for three whole days!”
“Three days?” I echoed with disbelief. Then I looked around the room again and felt out with my mind for Tristan, but didn’t find his signature. Why wasn’t he here? Of course I hadn’t actually been sick, but whatever was wrong, if I’d been out of it for three days, he should have been here, waiting for me to wake up. Healing me, if anything.
But he wasn’t, and we were on Amadis Island. Which meant only one thing.
“Where’s Tristan?” I asked, my voice lilting with panic.
Mom frowned. So did Dorian. His eyes filled with tears. Oh, no. They really took him!
“He’s even sicker, Mom,” Dorian said, his lip trembling. “He’s in the hospital, and they won’t let me see him. Uncle Owen, too.”
My stomach knotted with the lies they’d told Dorian. “Mom? What’s going on?”
Mom looked at Dorian and back at me. She couldn’t talk with him around. I pulled him into my arms.
“Little man, I need to talk to Mimi for a minute, and then I need to take a bath. You and Sasha go to your room and play, okay?”
He sighed, and his shoulders sank, making it obvious he didn’t want to leave my side. I couldn’t blame him, not when Tristan, Owen, and I, the three people closest to him besides Mom, had been out of commission for several days.
“Actually, Dorian,” Mom said, “Ophelia probably has lunch ready for you, and then she’s taking you out to the beach.”
“Okay,” Dorian said with no enthusiasm at all. He skulked out of the room with Sasha at his side. My heart squeezed painfully, and I wanted to tell him to stay with me. Because that’s what I wanted more than anything—for him to stay with me forever. But something was really wrong.
“What’s going on?” I asked Mom again when I sensed Dorian had moved out of earshot.
Mom closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. She exhaled a sigh. “Everything. So many things, I don’t know where to start, and I don’t know it all. I’ve kept myself sequestered in here with you to keep out of the influence of the council again. I didn’t want to forget anything so I could tell you.”
“Okay,” I said, the knot in my stomach pulling tighter. “Let’s start with Tristan. Where the hell is he? They have him, don’t they?”
Mom dropped her hands into her lap and opened her eyes. They filled with a deep sadness. “Honey, he’s . . . yes . . . they’re holding him prisoner.”
I sprang to my feet, looking around wildly for . . . something. Answers, I supposed. Or Tristan himself. “Why? Because we don’t have a daughter yet? Don’t they—”
An image of Lilith in Julia’s arms and Tristan holding them under his power flashed across my vision. The vampire’s words echoed in my mind: “You threaten a council member?” But after that . . . my mind drew a big blank.
“What happened out there? Do you know? All I remem—”
Mom jumped up and grabbed my hands. “What? What do you remember, Alexis? There are so many different versions about it. My sense is still blocked, so I can’t feel the truth at all.”
I stared past her, at the wall, as the memories flooded my mind. “I remember . . . chaos. The girl attacked us, but . . . I thought there was hope for her and tried to help her. Then Julia flew at us, nearly knocking me unconscious, and Tristan stopped her, but she already had Lilith in her arms, ready to kill her. Then there was the traitor—the one I’d heard here on the island. Only her mind, though. I never saw her. I did see someone hiding in the woods, but couldn’t see their face. And . . . that’s it. That’s all I remember.” I returned my gaze to Mom, and an array of emotions played across her face. “Why? What’s everyone else saying?”
“Julia’s accusing Tristan of attacking her, a council member, and attempting to kill the next Amadis daughter. If the girl doesn’t make it . . .”
My breath caught. “What do you mean? What happened to her?”
“She’s been unconscious this whole time, like you, but she’s much weaker. It doesn’t look good.”
“My daughter . . .” I breathed, my eyes stinging and my throat tightening. I hadn’t known her as a daughter, and now I might not ever have that chance.
Mom squeezed my hands. “Honey, we’re not sure she’s your daughter. It’s practically impossible. Rina and I were at the birth.”
“But Rina does know! She had a secret, and this is it. She kept her from us because of her powerful Daemoni blood.”
Mom frowned. “I understand that makes sense. But there are so many things that don’t make sense. They’re testing the girl’s physical and magical qualities right now, to determine lineage.”
A hundred-thousand thoughts and emotions swirled through me. The grief, however, didn’t consume me. Not like it would if Dorian had been unconscious for this long. The worry encompassed the feeling of sadness when a young child, any young child, was in grave danger combined with the loss of hope—hope for the Amadis. Regardless of the test results, Lilith would never be able to lead the Amadis. Tristan and I had failed them again. He’d been—
“Tristan didn’t do it, Mom! He protected her. Julia was the one . . . Wait. If they don’t know yet that she’s ours, how can Julia accuse Tristan of doing anything to the next daughter?”
“She argues that it seemed a strong enough possibility so whether or not it’s true, he intended to kill the next daughter. She’s claiming he’s the traitor.”
“This is absolutely ridiculous! It’s Julia. Julia and her creepy sidekick who’s too afraid to show her face. Let me guess. No one has a clue about this other person, right?”
Mom shook her head. “No. There’s no proof Julia is working with anyone and no proof Julia did anything wrong.”
“But she attacked me. And her argument about the next daughter can be turned around against her. She had the girl trapped in her arms! And explain who the hell knocked me out.”
Mom blew out a heavy breath. “Here’s the story as I’ve pieced it together. Julia had called Martin the night before and told him about your plans. He agreed with Rina that Julia should accompany you and told her he would try to get out there in time, if he could. It took him a while to find you, and when he finally did, he said Daemoni were encroaching. You—” Her breath hitched, and she swallowed before continuing, sounding as though tears filled her voice. “You were hit by dark magic—that’s why you were out for so long. A Daemoni warlock’s spell. I . . . I was so worried.”
“Mom.” I tightened my grip on her hands. “I’m okay now. It’s okay.”
She sniffed and then nodded, but still not behaving like herself, she threw her arms around me and cried. “What would I do if I lost you, Alexis? Nothing else—”
“I love you, too.” I patted her back, feeling at a loss of what to do. Even at her worst moments of distress, Mom had never acted like this. “But can you please tell me the rest?”
She sat up, wiped her eyes, and cleared her throat. “Right. Well, Martin fought the Daemoni off until they disappeared. By the time he got to the clearing, you—” She sniffled again and took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly as if releasing the concern once and for all. “You, Owen, the were-croc, and the little girl were on the ground, and Julia and Tristan were in a stand-off. Martin diffused the situation, and then Owen came to. They were able to get you all to the airport, where Char and I met them with Dorian, and we took the Amadis jet here.” She flipped her hand in the air. “By then, Julia had enough of the council convinced about Tristan, and they took him into custody as soon as we landed on the island. I’ve been in here with you ever since, and Char’s been bringing me updates.”
I exhaled a sharp breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and sat hard on the edge of the bed. “What about the old woman?”
“She tells the same story as Tristan—and now you—but no one will listen to her. Nobody feels she’s Amadis. It’s strange, actually, as if she’s a witch with no allegiance to either side.”
“I don’t know that she’s a witch,” I muttered. “She doesn’t have a mage’s mind signature. Not exactly, anyway.”
“Then you see what I mean. She’s not quite right . . . so no one trusts her. She’s being held, too.”
“Did she say anything about Lilith? Explain her?”
“Like I said, no one trusts her to listen to her, but she won’t talk right now anyway. I think she’s just an old, confused woman who doesn’t really understand what’s going on, what she’s been put into the middle of. She’s grieving, too. They won’t let her near the girl.”
“And Jax? The were-croc?”
“I think Martin let him go. He didn’t witness anything useful, and Rina didn’t find anything suspicious in his thoughts. They had no reason to believe he was a part of any conspiracy. He only wanted to help you.”
Whew. I liked Jax and would have hated hearing he’d been part of setting us up, which, obviously, we had been. He didn’t deserve to be dragged into this farce.
Convinced I had enough grasp of the situation, I stood up and pulled on my leather gear, which lay clean and folded neatly at the foot of my bed, the only clothes in sight.
“What are you doing?” Mom asked.
“Going to see Tristan, of course, and getting him out of there. He doesn’t belong in jail. If anything, Julia does.”
Mom’s eyes flew to the door and back to me. “You’ll see him soon. His trial’s this afternoon.”
“What? Already? Then I definitely need to see him first.” I moved for the front room of the suite.
Mom shook her head and looked again at the door. Her eyes tightened, and I could tell she tried to communicate with me. I opened my mind to her. “They’re guarding us.”
Then I’ll flash. Where is he?
A vision of the corridor under the Council Hall popped into her mind. “Third on the right. But wait.”
“You need to rest, honey, before the trial,” she said aloud as she leaned over and appeared to pick something up off the floor. Her thumb moved and my dagger appeared in her hand. I tucked it into my belt and made it invisible again, thought thank you, and flashed.
Someone apparently had shielded the Council Hall because I didn’t appear inside the dark cellar as expected. Instead, I showed up right outside the door at the top of the stairs in the rear of the building. A guard—a Were in human form—blocked the doorway. He didn’t bow.
“No visitors,” he said curtly as I stepped toward the door.
“Do you forget my authority?” I demanded as haughtily as I could muster.
“Until I have further orders, you have no authority. Sorry, Ms. Alexis, but I can’t let you in.”
I flexed my left hand, preparing to show him I did have authority, but then Mom popped by my side, and we both looked at her with surprise.
She shrugged. “Thought I could help out.”
The guard and I both smiled, each of us under a different impression of whom she planned to help. Mom placed her hand on the guard’s arm while talking to him in hushed tones. She nodded her head slowly a few times, and he started nodding his, too.
“Yes, Ms. Sophia, a nap’s a good idea,” he said. “I didn’t get any sleep last night.”
He slid down the wall until he landed on his rump. His eyes began to droop close. Mom jerked her head at the door.
“More will be here soon for the trial,” she thought. “Make it quick.”
I rushed through the door and hurdled the entire flight of steps, landing at the bottom with a jolt. I ran to the third cell on the right, surprised to see the heavy wooden door wide open. But metal bars still kept me out. Tristan stood on the other side, his hands pressing at the space between the bars, but unable to go through it. Something blocked him from reaching out. I leaned against the bars and pushed my own arms through the openings—nothing stopped me from going in.
“Tristan,” I half-breathed, half-cried as I caressed his beautiful, but tired looking face.
“Ma lykita,” he said, his voice full of relief. “You’re okay.”
“We have to get you out of here.”
He shook his head. “Magic blocks me from even passing my hands through, so I can’t use my powers. But it’s fine. We’ll deal with this their way.”
“But their way is wrong. They’re all screwed up. You know what will happen.”
“I do.” His jaw tightened, making the muscle jump. “But there’s a reason for it all, my love. Whatever happens, it’s meant to be.”
“Not if they’re doing it on their own or . . . with the wrong influence.”
“There’s nothing we can do, Lex. We have to trust them. In the end, they’ll do what’s right.”
Trust them? Ha! “You mean trust them to split us up? Because you know that’s what they’ll do. They want to get rid of you. This is all the traitor’s doing, Tristan. There’s nothing right about it.”
“Lexi,” he said, his voice lower yet still firm. He took my hands in his and pulled them to his soft lips. “Lexi, my love, none of it matters. We have to remain loyal. We have to do what’s best for the Amadis. This is the best—”
“What? Separating us is not what’s best. It’s the absolute worst! I can’t do that again, Tristan.”
He pursed his lips together. “If it comes to that, you have to, Lex. It’s your responsibility and if you do it—and you are strong enough—you can bring the Amadis back together. You have to live your duty and your purpose. Even if it means without me.” He paused for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice came out bleaker than I’d ever heard it before. “What we have . . .” He stopped again and swallowed hard. “What we have, Alexis . . . it’s not real.”
My eyes bugged with incredulity. Had the crazies overtaken him, too? “What the hell are you talking about? How can you say that?”
“Listen to me,” he said. His eyes looked deeply into mine, his dark with no gold flecks, the green a murky swirl of pain and turmoil. “I need to tell you something. As soon as Lisa mentioned the stone, I remembered it all. I said I didn’t because I didn’t want to believe what it meant, and your knowing would only make things worse. I thought . . .” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what I thought. What I wanted. It’s obviously true.”
“What?” His defeated tone frightened me. How bad could it be?
“The stone, Lex, in the pendant. You and me—it only happened because of it. It’s always been the stone. It had been given to me as a young child.” His vision of a beautiful, golden-haired and golden-eyed woman showed in my mind, standing before us. From the perspective, I guessed Tristan to be very small. The golden woman held the triangular stone in her hand and pressed it against his chest until it sank below his skin and disappeared. “She told me I would know when the right one came—my true love—the stone would tell me. I was to remove the stone and give it to this person, my soul mate. Only her, the woman stressed. Anyone else would be dangerous, perhaps fatal. But my soul mate would love me forever. For hundreds of years, the right one never came along. Not until I met you. Only then did the stone warm, whenever I was with you.”
I saw the vision of him taking a scalpel to the skin over his heart, reaching in and removing the stone, then creating the pendant for me.
“Ooo-kaaay,” I said, trying not to be creeped out with where the stone came from. “You gave it to me. I am your soul mate. I do love you forever.”
He shook his head. “Only because of the stone.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. After all, he had to have been kidding. This had to be a joke. But what awful timing for such a joke, and looking at his face, I knew he was completely serious. My jaw dropped, and I sobered. “Have you lost your mind? My love has nothing to do with a stupid stone.”
He pressed his lips against my knuckles. “I wish I could believe that. I really do. But ever since we lost the pendant . . . we argue all the time.”
“We’ve been under a lot of pressure.”
“We’ve always been under a lot of pressure, and we never argued before. We always stood together. The stone united us.”
“Bullshit,” I spat. “Why are you doing this? You don’t even sound like yourself. What’s wrong with you?”
“Alexis, please don’t make this more difficult for me. I do love you, regardless of your real feelings. And I love the Amadis. You need to do what’s right for them, and I’m not right for them. I can’t give you a daughter. I can’t give you—or them—what they need.”
“Tristan—”
“Listen to me. The ones who thought we were meant for each other were wrong. Rina must have interpreted the Angels’ message incorrectly. I’m obviously not meant for you. I’m not the right one. We only believed it because of the stone.”
“Stop talking about the fucking stone!” I yelled. “My love for you has nothing to do with it. And I will not let them separate us!”
“Don’t you get it?” he growled. His eyes flashed as he lost all patience. “She only gave the stone to me so I could trick you into loving me.”
“You didn’t trick me. You can’t do that to someone’s feelings. You can’t do that to my heart. I know what I feel!”
“And it can’t be love, Alexis. Not true love. I. Can’t. Be. Loved.”
“Oh, no! No, no, no. You’re not doing this. You’re not destroying us because of your guilt.” I jabbed my finger into his chest. “Stop it now, Tristan. Because I love you whether you like it or not. I love you. No matter what you or some stupid woman says! Besides, there’s a prophecy. I’ve read it myself.”
“Prophecies aren’t specific enough. You can’t be certain it means you and me.”
“Then so what? Screw the prophecy. Screw the stone. There’s still you and me, and I feel what I feel. I won’t deny it. But are you? Are you denying our love? Do you love me?”
He growled again. “Of course. More than anything and everything combined. Which is why I’ve been so selfish. It’s wrong. I have to let you go, to do what’s best for everyone.” He pulled my arms to his chest and stepped forward so we both pressed against the bars. But our faces—our lips—couldn’t touch. “Do what’s right, Lex. In the end, it will be good. It’s what’s supposed to happen.”
Two hands grabbed my waist from behind and tugged. “No! Tristan, no! I don’t believe this! I’m not giving up on us!”
“Go, my love. Just go.” He lifted my hands to his lips again, but the guard jerked me out of Tristan’s grasp. “I love you, ma lykita.”
I love you, too, my sweet Tristan, I called back. Whether you believe it or not. I love you. Forever!
I didn’t know if he heard my last words. The guard had me outside by then, beyond the shield, which might have severed our mental connection. Without a word, Mom took my hand and pulled me around the side of the building. She stopped and wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I shook my head and more tears flowed. “He’s giving up, Mom. He thinks it’s best for the Amadis.”
Mom sighed and wrapped her arms around me. I cried into her shoulder for several minutes. Then she gently pushed me back and looked into my eyes. “The trial will start soon. I assume you want to be there?”
I nodded.
“Then you need to straighten up. You can’t be a mess, especially if they call on you as a witness. You need to look and act confident, not like a blubbering idiot.”
I nodded again and inhaled a deep, jagged breath. Mom cleaned my face off once more and ran her hands over my hair to straighten it. Once I could breathe without hitches, she led me to the front of the Council Hall and inside. The low thrum of many muted conversations carried out from the meeting room, but Mom turned the opposite way. We entered the smaller holding room where we’d come six months ago when I attended my first council meeting.
The atmosphere then had been tense, but had also held a bit of a homecoming buzz, making the room feel bright and inviting. Now, with only Rina there and no light flooding the room or conversation filling it, the room felt dark and cold, and I almost expected to see Rina shivering in her sleeveless silk gown. She leaned against the wall, peering out the same window I had looked out that day, seeing the same village that had awed me at the time—her village, her people. I could only see her profile silhouetted against the window, but the slump of her bare shoulders was expression enough. Her sadness felt almost palpable, hanging in the air as if a dark cloud had settled in the room.
She finally turned to us, and I’d never seen anyone look so haggard. Dark half-moons shaded the skin under her tired eyes, and her bottom lip looked swollen, as if she’d been chewing on it nonstop. Considering we regenerated every night while we slept, returning to near perfection each morning, her appearance was a result of only this morning’s stress. Either that or she hadn’t slept. Seeing us, though, her mouth pulled into a small smile, and her eyes brightened a tad.
I should have felt sorry for her, but when she said, “Alexis, darling,” and spread her arms out to welcome me with an embrace, something in me snapped. I took a step backward, pulling away from her.
“Don’t ‘Alexis, darling’ me,” I sneered. “I want nothing to do with you right now.”
Her arms fell to her sides, and her eyes opened wide. “Alexis . . .”
“You knew about this little girl—my daughter—all along. You knew! And you called me absurd for even thinking it possible.”
Rina shook her head. “No. I did not know at all.”
I guffawed with incredulity. “I can’t believe you. You’re still lying to me, after all this. I get it, Rina. She’s evil. Her Daemoni blood’s too strong. I understand that you—or someone—decided she needed to be taken away. I get it. But why do you stand here and lie to me now? Why did you lie to me before, when I first heard about her? Why would you make me feel like . . . like such a failure?”
“Alexis, darling, no. That is not how it is.”
“Stop lying to me! You had a secret about my daughter. Tell me the truth for once. Please, Rina, just tell me the damn truth.”
She looked at her hands clasped in front of her, then up at me. Her answer came in my head, keeping her confession from powerful ears. “I do have a secret. A secret about your daughter. But it has nothing to do with this girl you found.” Rina paused, and I almost went off on her again. “My secret is actually very simple compared. Alexis . . . I never received a message from the Angels that you would have a daughter. That is my secret.”
My mouth fell open. That’s all? If that’s it, why wouldn’t you tell me sooner? All this time . . . I thought . . .
“I wanted to give you hope. So you would keep trying. I wanted to give the council hope so they would not give up on you and Tristan. I tried to make them believe for as long as I could.” Rina shook her head as she stared at the floor, then she spoke aloud, in barely more than a whisper. “But it only—how do you say—backfired? I have failed. I have failed you and Tristan. I have failed the Amadis. And now—”
“And now you’re still a liar.”
The door opened before she could respond, and Solomon stepped inside.
“The meeting hall is standing room only,” he said. “The council would like to meet here, in private, before the trial.”
“It matters little what I would like, no?” Rina asked with a sigh. Then she nodded, and Solomon opened the door wider. The council, all dressed in black robes, filed in.
Everyone stood in silence for a long moment, tension heavier and colder than a three-foot blanket of snow. The village clock tolled a single note, muffled through the window and stone walls. Rina looked at them all expectantly, but they remained silent.
“Armand, I believe you have something to say,” Solomon finally said, his baritone voice sounding tired, as if he, too, had been beaten down by the council.
“Yes, I do,” the short and stocky vampire said, taking two steps forward and turning to face the council who stood in a half-circle. As the chief of the Amadis police force, Armand had probably been the one who’d taken Tristan into custody. My mouth soured with hatred as he straightened his spine and cleared his throat before making his announcement. “I believe we need to temporarily remove Katerina Camilla Ames from the role of matriarch.”