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10

EVANGELINE

I ’m …standing in an ancient stone alleyway choked with dust.

A shallow stream of brown water flowed to my left, reeking of piss and shit, and the air wasn’t any better, ripe with rot. One glance down had me dodging away from the cloaked figures hunched in the shadows, scabbed arms reaching toward me, hands and wrists covered in seeping sores.

What the fuck is this?

Memories of the past. Nothing here can harm you. Now be quiet and watch . Malachi’s voice echoed inside my head, but when I scanned the narrow space again, me—and the beggars—were the only ones here.

Until an enormous male dematerialized out of thin air, filling up the narrow space, sending the beggars skittering deeper into the shadows.

He was tall, with a brutal, muscular body made for violence, and even though his arms were covered in scars, he moved like a male who had no challengers, faced no real threats, because he was the biggest predator around. My lungs hollowed out as he drew close enough for me to glimpse his face, harshly brutal and cruel, set with glittering black eyes that didn’t hold a shred of mercy.

No, they danced with savagery and madness in equal parts, and…

A tiny figure appeared out of thin air, some invisible wind whipping the edges of her cape around her legs before it settled. Her mouth thinned out, “Caine. I do not appreciate being summoned like this.”

The female was classically pretty, and a haze of power filtered the air around her, keeping the dust—and maybe the stench—at bay. Pale blonde hair, almost the color of Angel’s, framed her heart shaped face, her blue eyes brimming with hate.

She had to tip her head back to peer up at Caine. “I have already given you your answer, it is not my problem you cannot comprehend the word no.”

Well, I liked her already.

“You still assume you have a choice in this, Aoife.” He pronounced her name like EE-fa . “You do not. You and your coven will either obey, or cease to exist.”

Her smile turned dry. “Better we cease to exist than serve at the beck and call of a monster such as you.”

“Hmm. We will see.”

There was a muffled shout, some scraping, then two equally large, brutish males dragged a struggling girl between them up the alleyway, the hood of her cloak covering her face as she fought, small, pale hands pummeling mountains of muscle and brawn as the two forced her to her knees.

This didn’t feel like a dream, more like an illusion—but my mouth dropped open when the female’s hood slipped off, the hairs on the back of my neck lifting. Holy fucking…

Yes. She looks remarkably like you, Vicious. Is it any wonder that you took my breath away, the first time I saw you?

Shut up. What the fuck is this?

I already told you. This is the beginning of your story. Now listen and watch and remember. I shivered in fear, and something warm pressed against me, a touch reassuring enough to send a wave of calm through me.

Aoife flicked her cold gaze over the girl, then turned back to Caine. “I have six other daughters.” The witch’s voice was dispassionate, but her hands curled into fists until her knuckles whitened. “Do your worst.”

The girl on her knees— me —didn’t so much as flinch at her mother’s callous dismissal and when Caine moved, letting a band of watery light illuminate her face…her eyes were the exact shade as mine.

My heart pounded in my throat. This was like staring into a mirror.

“Oh, trust me, I will,” Caine murmured as he whipped out the biggest fucking knife I’d ever seen. Bright silver, the blade was strangely made, both edges curved. He grinned as he pressed the keen edge against the girl’s throat.

“Last chance, Aoife, and we both know you cannot lose this particular daughter, so make the right choice. For her sake, if not yours.” The blade pressed harder, a trickle of blood tracking down her pale throat and all around her, shadows painted the air with darkness, the alleyway thrumming with power.

“Fine,” Aoife’s nostrils flared, “I will obey, but you cannot have Rhiannon. I will choose three witches—and only three—from my coven to serve you and your beasts. That is my final offer.”

Caine, focused on the welling blood where his knife met pale skin, didn’t see the glance mother and daughter exchanged, but I did. One final agreement, a mother’s desperate sacrifice, giving her daughter a chance at a life.

The same look my mother gave me before she rushed out of the house and met my father in the street, trading her life for mine and Angel’s. Fury gripped me like claws, and I started to shake at the look of satisfaction on Caine’s face as he pulled the bloodied knife away, knowing he’d won.

Then the dusty alleyway blurred into green.

* * *

I was in a circle of trees in a dense, overgrown forest, where moss dripped from tree limbs and everything smelled…alive, like the primeval world was still finding its feet.

Caine waited on one side of the clearing, Aoife behind him, her pale hair streaked liberally with threads of silver. Her face was lined, her eyes fogged from age, though Caine didn’t look a day older, and I had no idea how much time had passed.

How fast did witches even age?

“Why are we stopping here?” Caine asked, bored. “There is an entire village beyond these trees and my males are hungry.”

“I am old and tired and cannot walk as far as I used to. Give me a moment to catch my breath, Master,” Aoife murmured, her face expressionless, though her murky eyes burned with emotion. Behind them, more figures emerged from the dense woods.

The two Elders I recognized from the first vision, and five others…all of them brutal and ruthless, dark haired, with not a shred of decency in their devouring gazes. Holy shit, power poured off them, clogging my lungs.

Then, behind them, ducking beneath a low hanging branch, Ravok came into view.

He was bigger than the others, almost a giant, wide shoulders and arms packed with layers of muscle. His thick neck was covered by a dense beard, his dark hair was gathered behind his head. But his face made my racing heart slam to a stop, filled with such cold savagery I shrank back into the trees.

The moment I moved, his dark gaze settled on me, as if he saw me, hidden in Malachi’s memories.

I stepped back, my foot slipping on something wet, and when I glanced down, found the leaves and grass coated with something dark and shiny. Blood .

Holy God, this entire clearing was a blood circle, though I couldn’t smell anything except the rich, fecund scent of growth from the forest. The amount required for creating such an enormous circle was…horrifically staggering.

And Caine and Aoife were well inside the boundaries.

My breath caught in my throat. This was a trap .

An old man hobbled into the clearing, his ancient body bent over a crooked wood cane, his beard yellowed around his mouth with not a tooth in sight, a vague trail of shadows dragging behind him. “Greetings, strangers, welcome to Aachen.”

“I have no time for this, kill him and continue to the city,” Caine muttered, turning away, only to freeze in place, his expression shifting from boredom into confusion and finally fury. “What have you done, witch?” His hand whipped out and closed around Aoife’s arm, dragging her closer.

“Something that was long overdue,” she hissed, even though he was yanking her around like a rag doll. “This ends today. Everything ends today,” she snarled, as the rest of Caine’s Elders pounded on an invisible wall, separating them from their master.

The old man shifted, the cloak falling away to reveal a beautiful female with flowing black hair and green eyes who looked remarkedly like Lady Morvessa of House Ebonshade. The moment she raised her hands, the entire clearing filled with greenish light, and the leaves overhead began to whisper.

Aoife spoke a few words in a language I didn’t understand and the air shuddered. Trees groaned, and birds burst from the branches above me, filling the sky. Caine slapped his hand over her mouth, engulfing her entire face before she wrenched away with a raging grin.

“Too late, it’s done,” Aoife hissed. “When the last of my line has all died out, you’ll have nothing left. There is no magic more powerful than to curse your own blood. There will be no more Bloodmoon females for you to use. To break . No dark female magic to give you power. This curse won’t end for over a thousand years and by then, you will be in the ground. Our seers have foreseen your fate.”

Caine backhanded her, sending her flying. Aoife landed in the grass, her head bent at an unnatural angle. Dead. That easily, he’d killed her.

The black-haired witch hissed, the grass around her swaying, as if she controlled its movements. “Your kind is an abomination, nothing in this world is meant to live forever.”

“Your seer,” he sneered, “is wrong.” His gaze drifted to Ravok. “I will live forever, as will my legacy.”

“I will add my own prophecy to the mix, monster of monsters.” The black-haired witch’s red lips curved up in a wicked grin. “When silver wood rises and ravens take flight, a dark son returns, under cloak of midnight. Blood will combine to give birth to a king, a High Lord of Night, a future to bring. Crowned shadows awake, with his queen by his side, both claimed by darkness, illusion’s dark bride.”

“Speaking in riddles will earn you the same reward as her.” His dark eyes tracked over Aoife’s crumpled form. “Speak plainly, and I will allow you to live.”

She shrugged her thin shoulders. “Your future is nothing but an illusion. The destiny you cling to…a lie.”

“And I will counter your prophecy with one of my own. Your entire bloodline dies tonight, with you.”

Even contained by the circle, Caine became a blur and when he reappeared, he’d bent the witch backwards, his fangs sinking deep in her throat as she struggled, whips of grass and vines magically tangling around them, trying to rip him away.

But he was too strong, and she went limp, the light dying out of her eyes.

He dropped her body next to Aoife, who he nudged with his toe before his head snapped to Ravok. “Find the eldest daughter. I want Rhiannon, now that her mother’s magic no longer conceals her. Bring her to me and I will reward you with whatever you desire.”

Ravok took a long look at the carnage in the circle, cunning glimmering in his eyes before he dipped his head and vanished.

Even though none of this was real, my body went limp with relief, until I was yanked away again.