Cora jumped when her phone rang. She hadn’t considered anyone calling her, though she should have expected it. She stared at the screen.
Kindra.
“Answer it,” Mark suggested.
She already found it easier to think of him as Mark. He was far more intense than before. He still looked as beautiful as he did before the doppelgangers had shown up. There really hadn’t been another word for him. Back then he’d been more ethereal somehow. Now, he radiated primal power and had grown into manhood. His body was sculpted in a way she would have never imagined.
There was a time when her thoughtless remarks wouldn’t have bothered him as much as they did now. Not that she blamed him. She’d had the closed-minded bullshit drilled into her all her life.
Witches weren’t supposed to mingle with anyone else, and yet, Druciela seemed to respect the mages, the werewolves, and the Fae. Probably whatever else resided in Edenton.
Shaking herself out of the thoughts, she looked back at her phone.
Now she sat in a room full of Others, working out how to save her coven. After she answered all of their questions, they continued to plan without her. She sat there, listening, her head spinning.
“Cora, answer it. They must know you’re gone,” Mark insisted.
“Can they trace it?” she asked.
Robert lifted a shoulder. “Doubtful. And if they come for you, we’re ready for them.”
She pressed talk. “Didn’t expect to hear from you.”
Kindra sighed. “Look, I know you’re upset with me, and you have every right to be. But I’m worried. Where are you?”
“Never mind that. I’m not coming back.”
A strange sound escaped Kindra, one full of regret. “I don’t blame you. And it’s not safe right now. Things are changing. I’m not…right. I feel like my thoughts aren’t all my own. Maybe they never were.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know how you used to complain about Anthony trying to brainwash you?”
Cora nodded, then answered, “Yeah. I told you that’s what Gerard was doing to you.”
“You were right all along.” She blew out a breath. “I don’t know what to do. I think…damn it…he says I’m becoming one of them. And I know Valen is. I don’t know what to do.”
“Do you want to be one of them?” Cora whispered.
“No. I just want my son to be okay. I want to do what’s right for him, if nothing else.”
“Is Gerard with you now?” she asked.
Kindra let out a small cry. “No. I’m at the empty house. They want to know where you are. I think they plan to kill you, Cora. Don’t come back.”
“Not going to.” She looked at Mark, then Robert, and back.
“I need to go. I’ll figure out something to tell them to buy you a little time. I’m sorry, Cora. I wish I had listened to you and Anders all those years ago.”
“Me too,” she whispered.
Tears filled Cora’s eyes. Kindra was never all bad. She made mistakes, she was pushed too hard by her parents. And finally, she seemed to realize how many mistakes she’d made.
“I’m with people who may be able to stop the change, in you and Valen. I’ll find a way to reach you soon. Okay? Stay safe, please. Keep Valen safe.”
Kindra sobbed. “Don’t come home. Don’t come for me. I don’t think they’ll let you live.” Kindra hung up.
Cora dropped the phone and stared at the floor.
* * * *
Mark moved in front of Cora and lifted her gaze. “What did she say?”
“She wants to do right by her son. She wants to stop the change. She’s scared.”
“And what if she’s being manipulated now?” Mark asked, a hardness in his voice. “How can we even trust her if we don’t know her thoughts are her own?”
“And what if she means it?” Cora demanded.
“You realize she was fucking Gerard from the very beginning?”
“How do you know?” Cora countered.
Mark’s expression was full of disgust. “I saw it. I thought it was a dream at first. I mean, let’s think about this for a second. I woke up to find her moaning and groaning while a small, ugly, ancient looking person fucked my wife beside me in my bed. I thought it was a nightmare. And later, as I grew weaker, he looked more and more like me, while I looked more like it did.”
“That was the first time you saw him?”
“Yeah, and everything went black shortly after. I woke up. I thought it was a nightmare.”
Cora rubbed at her face. “Sometimes I wonder if she knew who she was with half the time. And then for a long time after she thought you’d died, she wanted to believe Gerard was you.”
“Cora, she stabbed me. Did she tell you that part? She told me the baby was his and stabbed me.”
She shook her head, tears running down her face. “I told you I don’t trust her. I think at least part of her regrets what happened, but some of that wasn’t her.”
“How did you know the difference when she didn’t?” Mark fired back.
“She did love you. But everyone got in her head and twisted things around.”
“That’s not love, Cora. I don’t know what she felt for me, but I feel nothing for her now. Hell, I can’t even be angry because if she hadn’t brought Gerard in, I wouldn’t be here, with Gina.”
“If there were a way to save her, would you help her?” Cora asked.
“I was in her head,” Gina snapped. “I was there in her damned head. She only wanted Mark because he was supposed to become the high priest. She wanted him and the power her parents assumed he would have.”
Mark couldn’t stop the laugh from escaping. “Me? High priest? What the fuck?”
“It’s true,” Gina said.
Cora nodded slowly, blinking. “Your parents were preparing you to become our next high priest. Everyone knew it.”
“I didn’t. They never once mentioned that.” Mark held up his hands. “Never, Cora. No one told me that.” He hadn’t been all that powerful. He could manipulate energy, but not nearly as well as most of the other kids his age.
She rubbed at her face. “It’s Kindra’s fault. Well, her parents’. Everyone assumed her family would push you into making bad choices. But they pushed her to you so they could influence where the coven went.”
“That follows what I found in her head,” Robert answered. The part that wasn’t tampered with by the doppelganger.”
Cora nodded. “The little people can change your memories. There are ways to block them, but it requires a strength of will Kindra never possessed. From the time she was little, her parents pushed her at you. She did love you, but that wasn’t allowed to grow naturally.”
Mark walked out of the room. He didn’t want to think about her. He didn’t want to consider if she was a victim. She made her choices.
Morrigan stepped in front of him. “She’s right. The doppelgangers can change your memories, your thoughts. There is no telling what’s real where she’s concerned.”
“Wouldn’t Robert know the difference?” Mark asked.
Morrigan lifted a shoulder. “Not necessarily. Gerard and his people have been doing this for thousands of years. They’ve perfected their mind games.”
He held up his hands. “What do you want me to say? Even if someone fucked with her head, she wanted another man to take my place. She wanted Gerard. She chose him.”
Morrigan moved toward Mark. “And if someone forced her decision? If there were a way to reverse what they did to her, would you want her to die?”
“That’s not fair. She ripped out my heart, cheated on me, and stabbed me. She wanted me dead. Cora managed to resist her husband’s doppelganger, why didn’t Kindra?”
“She wasn’t strong enough to resist. Very few are. I’m surprised you’re alive after he took your form. But that means she may have a chance to come back to what she was before all that.”
“And maybe I don’t give a fuck.” He marched back to Robert. “Look, whatever you need to do, do it. But if you bring her back here, keep her away from me and Gina if you want Kindra to survive.”
“Don’t blame you,” Preston offered.
Robert simply nodded.
“The man I knew would still love her,” Cora argued.
Mark spun around and pinned her with a glare. “I’m not that man, Cora. Haven’t you figured that out? I’m a completely different person than the boy you knew.”
“She finally realizes how wrong she’s been,” Cora whispered.
“How the hell can you know for sure? You said it yourself, she’s been manipulated.”
“He’s right,” Morrigan said. “I’m sure Robert is quite good at what he does, but he hasn’t been doing it for eons. There’s no telling what’s real or not in her head, or what she’s been compelled to do. Gerard is quite capable. It’s why the core three of their people are still alive.”
“But there are five,” Cora corrected.
“Sure, but the other two are like Kindra. They wound up bound to them and became what they are.”
“Then how do you know I’m not one of them?” Cora demanded. “How do I know?”
“Have you ever loved the new version of your husband?” Morrigan asked.
She shook her head. “No, but how can you be sure I’m telling the truth, or if it’s been manufactured?”
“I have no damned clue,” Mark muttered.
“But I can be sure.” Morrigan stepped in front of Cora. “It will be painful, but it’s something like a reboot for your brain.”
“How does that work?” she asked.
“If magic altered your memory, it will wipe out any of that magic and restore your memories. And if Anthony’s bound to you, it will dissolve that tie. You’ll be yourself.”
“You could give me my memories?” Gina asked.
Morrigan turned to her. “How did you lose them?”
Robert shook his head. “Her skull was shattered. Pieces of her skull made a mess of that part of her brain. My sister healed the damage, but I couldn’t recover any memory after the incident.”
“Then sadly, no. Physical damage is different than magic.”
Mark pulled Gina close. “I’m sure that’s for the best. Gina endured years of torture at the hands of a truly evil Alpha.” He dragged Gina’s gaze to his. “You know I love you no matter what, right?”
“I do. Doesn’t change the fact people still think I’m broken.”
“Not me. I just don’t want you to suffer for anything.”
She leaned up and kissed him, helping him forget every last person in the room. Easy to do when all his hopes and dreams were wrapped up with one woman.
“Do it,” Cora said. “I need to be sure I’m not brainwashed like Kindra.”
“Very well,” Morrigan replied.
* * * *
Gina didn’t like the witch. She claimed she wanted to be there, that she could trust them all, but she didn’t seem to accept the fact her world was bigger than a bunch of witches.
One moment she missed Mark, the next, she didn’t trust him. And Gina wasn’t sure it was worth saving the coven at that point.
Their prejudice is learned from generations of witches who believed everyone was against them. It happens in every exclusive group of Others. It doesn’t matter what they are, or where they come from. When they are isolated, they feel like no one else will help. I’ve been there. Even humans do it. You cannot blame her so easily, Badb explained.
She wanted to blame the witches. Maybe it wasn’t fair. Maybe taking Mark away from all of them would be the best choice. They could talk, figure out what they could do.
“Should we leave for a bit?” Gina asked.
Mark shook his head. “No. This is my past. It may come back to haunt us. We need to deal with it head-on. That is, if you’re all right.” He touched her belly and smiled sadly. Then leaned in. “I wish this were ours, not someone else.”
“Soon,” Gina answered, knowing Badb was right. The person growing inside her wasn’t truly theirs. But her body felt different than before. Like it was now a very real possibility. One she had never expected.
“At least come outside with me for a moment.” The magic in the room seemed to call to Badb. She wanted peace and quiet while Morrigan did what she needed to for Cora.
And after the things the witch had said, she wanted the woman to suffer.
Mark took her hand and stepped outside. Druciela followed with a skeptical glance at the door. “I thought you said she’d be more on your side?”
He sighed. “More so than the rest of the coven would be. And I’m not that kid anymore.”
Druciela leaned against the wall beside the door. “I shouldn’t have brought her here. I’m sorry.”
Shaking his head, he moved to the rail. “It was the right thing to do. And if we can help my old coven, that’s for the best. And once they are safe, I can go back to ignoring their existence.”
“Your parents said you’d be their savior,” Gina insisted, taking his hands. “When I was in Kindra’s head, that’s what they said. Her parents wanted her with you. Your mother thought you would become the high priest, but your father said you would definitely save them. Maybe that’s all it was, you were to save them, but they were worried about Kindra corrupting you.”
Staring out over the yard, Mark shook his head. “And how do we know any of that was right?”
“You were in your head. You heard that early in your memories.”
Mark sighed. “And how do we know for sure that’s real? Gerard was sapping my strength, my essence. Who says he didn’t brainwash me?” He rubbed at his face. “Maybe I should ask Morrigan to make sure it’s all real.”
Druciela shook her head. “Why would they bother changing anything if you were just the new face?”
“Can’t hurt?” he asked.
Cora screamed. The sound should have shattered glass.
Druciela winced. “It can.”
“Been through worse.” Mark lifted a shoulder. “I can handle that, and Cora was always a wimp when it came to pain.”
A laugh escaped Druciela. “I shouldn’t laugh. That sounded painful.”
He glanced back at the door. “We need answers.” He strode past them, back to the house.
Gina moved to follow.
Druciela caught her arm. “Let him. He wants to be sure. This may be the only way. And I need to ask you something anyway.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Can you handle Mark helping his wife?”
She fought back the grimace. “He’s a good man. Pissed or not, I can’t imagine him not helping her. And I’ll manage to keep my claws to myself. But you can’t blame me for hating a woman who helped to destroy the man I love.”
Druciela gripped her shoulders and stared into her eyes. “She didn’t destroy him, she helped create him. And in doing so, she ruined any chance to have him back. He will always choose his mate. That’s you, Gina.”
“I know.”
Cora screamed again, then sobbed.
Gina stepped inside and watched as Mark laid Cora on the couch. She felt his sadness from across the room.
* * * *
Okay, that spell was going to hurt, but Mark didn’t give a shit. He would rather be sure than question everything. He turned to Morrigan. “My turn.”
Her eyes widened. “I can guarantee you’re clean. She was. Her magic and will was strong enough to resist Anthony’s attempts to brainwash her. And I can still feel your magic pulsing beneath the surface.”
“Doesn’t matter. I need to be sure.”
Morrigan shook her head. “You heard her, it’s painful.”
“Don’t care. We need to be completely sure.”
Gina took his hand. “Badb says you’re fine.”
“Cora did it to prove a point. I need to do the same. Besides, without trying, how can I be sure of anything?”
Morrigan touched his face. Memories blurred through his head. Magic flowed in. Pain rippled down from his brain, all the way though his body, but he held back the scream.
His muscles constricted, jumped, and spasmed. Then he went down.
Gina’s voice pulled him back to himself. He lay on the floor, his head in her lap, her fingers combing through his hair. “Mark, you okay?”
He nodded. The pain was gone, but he was sure the memories were his own, and that thing hadn’t managed to corrupt him or his memories.
Morrigan crouched beside him. “I told you. But I understand the need to make sure. But they rarely expend the energy to change the memories of someone they are taking over. They want you to look crazy to those you’re surrounded by. And letting the hysteria take over works in their favor.”
“You can do that to Kindra?” he asked.
She nodded. “If you think that hurt, what’s going to happen to her will be ten times worse, maybe a thousand times. But if she’s willing, I can set her memories back to what they should be and remove the taint. Same with your son. It’s the only thing that may save them. But they have to want to be saved, because if they let one of the doppelganger sway them back, all is lost for them.”
He rubbed at his face, unsure what he should do.
“Doesn’t matter just now. We need a plan to lure them out. With Cora gone and untainted, they may hide however they hid before.”
Cora’s voice was quiet. “They pulled us through a portal, and we stayed in a ruined town for weeks before coming back.”
“Where was the portal?” Mark asked.
“They pulled it open from thin air. Several, all going to the same place,” Cora said.
He nodded.
“They may go elsewhere,” Morrigan stated. “But from there we could find the portal.”
“Whatever we need to do,” Mark said.
Gina took his hand. “I’m not leaving your side,” she promised.
He touched her face. “Thank you.”
Robert took a seat. “I think for now, we should take Cora where no one from the coven can find her. It will give us a night to figure out the best way to find the doppelgangers and separate them from the coven.”
“You do realize you will need to find a new home for the coven?” Morrigan answered. “The land is dying. It might be early enough to save the land and most of the witches, if not all. If we kill the doppelgangers away from there, the land can bounce back in a matter of years.”
“I hope we can all be saved,” Cora said.
“If there’s nothing more to discuss now, I’m going home. Maybe I’ll remember something useful,” Mark offered.
“Keep your phone close,” Preston suggested.
“Sure.” Mark needed to make some calls, warn Clint he wouldn’t be available for a few days at least. Maybe contact Slater. Yeah, he definitely needed to contact his Alpha.
He couldn’t help hoping they wouldn’t try to invite the coven into Edenton. But even if they did, he could ignore them, right?
“Go home. Do what you need to. I think we’re at a standstill until we have someone scout out what’s going on in Brightwater,” Preston said.