Page 201

Liam puts a hand on my back. "Are you sick?"

I look up at him, my eyes filled with tears. "I am so sorry for what we did to you back then."

He frowns. "That wasn't you. Not really." He looks over to Matilda. "But itwasyou.Youare still the same person you were. You didn't stop the Mother Fate when she cursed us. You didn't stop the Maiden when she made us punish our own brother. You knew us. And you didn't protect us."

The other three brothers are silent, letting Liam speak their rage for them.

Tears fill the old woman's eyes. "I should have done more. I did what I could behind the scenes. It wasn't enough, but I tried. I was one voice amongst three and towards the end we didn't agree on a lot. Landal—the Mother—she wanted to kill Cole for what he did. And she wanted to kill all of you when you rebelled. When you stopped doing what you were told."

"Death would have been a kindness compared to what was done to us," he says, the fire leaving him as sadness takes its place. "We destroyed so many lives because of that curse."

"I know, my boy," Matilda says. "I know. And I cannot be more sorry for my role in all of it. But I couldn’t let any of you die. I loved you all too much."

I glance at Racul and his face is impassive. Hard. I wonder what he knew about Landal's role in all of this. Or if he even cares about any of this.

I take Liam's hand in mine, holding it tight, letting him know he's not alone. Not anymore. Not ever again.

As reluctant as I am to change the focus of this conversation, I know I must. We haven't a lot of time. "Matilda, I had a vision when I was at the library. The three Fates were together after a confrontation with the Mother of Dragons. It seemed we all regretted something we'd done. What did we do?"

Matilda gasps and puts her hand to her mouth. "We can never speak of that. It doesn't matter. It was destroyed."

"What was?" I ask.

"The abomination we helped create."

A sinking feeling fills my gut and I pull the Memory Catcher out of my pocket and play the memory for Matilda. When it comes to the creature that killed Lyx, I pause it. "Was that what we made?"

Matilda's eyes widen. "It's not possible. It was destroyed. The Mother of Dragons knew what she'd done was wrong. She…"

"This is what killed Lyx," I say. "You must tell me the truth. What is this creature?"

Gods, if only I could remember myself.

"It's time you knew everything," she says. "The Mother of Dragons was in love with the Queen of the Unicorns. They wanted a child together, but their races could not mate, nor could two females. So, they petitioned the Fates to help them merge their magic into a child."

I can see my own emotions reflected on the faces of the others. None of them knew about this, though Racul certainly suspected his mother had been up to shady shit. But this? Gods be damned, how stupid could they all be? That was clearly a recipe for poison cookies right there. And I was a part of this? I was a moron.

"So that clearly didn't go well," I say.

"No, it didn't." She rubs her eyes. "What we made…well, you've seen. It was…monstrous."

"And my mother killed it?" Racul asks.

"Yes," Matilda says. "Or so we thought."

Pain lances through my brain and I grip Liam's hand tighter as a flash rushes through me. "Something is coming," I whisper through gritted teeth, but before anyone can do anything about it, the door to our room explodes in shards of splintered wood and the most hideous creature I've ever seen bursts in, sharp teeth dripping with saliva, yellow eyes crazed.

It's so much worse in person than in the memory, I realize.

Matilda stands and pulls out a wand from her robes, channeling her magic through it to blast the monster with an electric bolt.

It absorbs the impact of the attack and seems to grow stronger from it. The horn on the side of its head spins like a drill, and its wings extend, propelling it through the room. I'm still too sick to be of much help, my brain feeling as if it will explode.

Liam hits it with a blaze of fire, but once again, the attack has no impact other than seeming to make it stronger and faster. It now crackles with lightning and burns with the fire of the Druid.

Derek tries to drive it away with wind, but it uses its wings to push through.

Lovely.