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EVANGELINE

L ight from the ancient chandeliers washed over the deep crimson walls, turning them the color of blood as I strode toward the stairs.

Fiona knew who Rhiannon was.

Recognized my— her magic. Which meant she knew .

Excitement warred with dread as I took the stairs slower than usual, damaged thighs straining on every step, my lungs fighting to expand against my bound ribs. But I’d literally fallen out of the sky and survived.

And so far, Riordan and Blake hadn’t kicked me out, though honestly, I was waiting for them to come to their senses.

I paused outside my sister’s door, hand flattened to the wood, eyes closed. I shivered, despite the warmth of this place, because Bex and Angel were talking. Laughing, with not a trace of unease or fear and here I was, barging in, dragging my problems along with me.

As usual, I was a walking disaster.

Maybe I should just…

“ Evie ,” Angel squealed, whipping the door open as I stumbled straight into her arms. “You’re finally up. Blake told me you were back last night, but you were sleeping when I tried to visit you. Then Riordan told me this morning I had to wait. So protective , your two males.” Her nose wrinkled. “Lucky girl, to have both of them all for yourself.”

“Yeah, if you only knew,” I muttered, closing my eyes and wrapping my arms around her. Her little baby bump was getting bigger, and here we were, under attack from a monster who wouldn’t hesitate to use her as leverage.

“Oh, don’t give me that.” Angel gave me one last squeeze, then stepped away, frowning at my still-hurting face. “They were frantic when you were gone. Neither of them even slept. Blake stormed around here like a rabid bear, and Riordan just brooded , growling at everyone who dared speak to him.”

“Or look at him,” Bex added. “Glad you’re back, Miss Evangeline. It’s been pretty grim around here since you left.” She peered at me, taking on the same worried expression as my sister. “You must have been dreadfully injured to still be so…bruised.”

“Well, I fell out of the sky. About fifty feet, I’d say. Thankfully, I missed the walkway and hit the bushes, instead.” Angel’s eyes got wider with every word, and I shook my head. “Just a joke. What did I miss? I heard you’re both on research duty. Find anything…interesting?” I asked casually.

“You mean like other than the fact Ravok is the freaking worst ?” Angel sniffed. “Seriously, I could kill Father for releasing him from that box, what the fuck was he even thinking?”

“He was thinking about all the power he was going to end up with and instead, he ended up with nothing,” I muttered. “Uhm…Angel, Silas is gone. So are Dante and Alistair.”

“Well, good. I hated them all for being so cruel to you.”

Bex crossed the room and pretended to straighten up the books piled all over the dresser, but she was listening to every word. Fine. My family’s dirty laundry was the least of my concerns right now.

“Not gone, gone…they’re all Ravok’s thralls. Like his slaves.”

Angel just looked thoughtful. “I know what a thrall is, Evie. I’ve been a vampire for over a year.”

“Well, do thralls smell like rotting corpses? Because Silas and our uncles do.”

“No. I’ve only ever seen one…two, maybe, and they were like us, I suppose.” She looked to Bex, who nodded. “No rotting smell, just that annoying boot licking behavior, not that deference was all that unusual, especially around Laurent. Everyone kissed his ass.”

Her hand cradled her swollen belly and fear shivered through me again. Angel shouldn’t be here. She should be somewhere safe, far out of the reach of Ravok, especially with what Malachi told me. There was no fucking way I’d let my sister become another pawn in another war.

He said to find someone…someone named Brendan, from Ireland. But I didn’t know any other vampires besides this clan, had no idea how to get ahold of anyone else, and my phone was back at Malachi’s.

“Did you find out if it’s true Ravok can see the future?” Now that got their attention, Angel’s blue eyes widening to comical proportions, and Bex dropping an entire stack of books.

“Wait, he can really do that?” Bex asked, her gaze darting between us. Not surprising, given I was dropping one truth bomb after another.

Well, buckle up, buttercup, because it gets worse.

“According to Malachi, yes. Ravok’s spent the past two millennium collecting small, seemingly insignificant clues…for some personal reason. He became so unreliable, Caine threw him out of his little elite group of blood sucking ghouls and whatever he’s after…well, that’s why he’s free now. He’s close to obtaining it.”

I frowned at their blank expressions. “Isn’t that what Fiona had you researching?”

Angel shook her head. “No, Evie.” She waved to the books scattered across the floor. “Fiona and Eldric have us researching ancient covens, before the vampire clans hunted them down and exterminated them.” Bex picked up one of the books and handed it to me. I flipped it over to get a better look at the cover.

Dark Magic of Extinct Covens , by Henrietta Whistler.

First page— Necromancy, The Forbidden Art of Death .

“They have you researching me, don’t they?” I laughed softly. “Well, I can tell you this. You’re definitely on the right track.”

* * *

Ten minutes later, Angel and Bex sat side by side on the bed, matching stunned expressions on their faces.

Except Angel had that same hint of judgement in her expression that Mom always had after I’d done something I shouldn’t. And she wasn’t pissed because of my awful, terrible magic.

I swallowed, my throat tight. “I didn’t plan for this to happen,” I said finally, voice barely above a whisper. “And it was definitely a one-time thing. No repeats.”

Angel leaned forward, golden curls cascading over her shoulder, “Malachi Draven’s an Ancient. So powerful even Tyrell was afraid of him. But…he offered you a chance to come home, Evie, and you didn’t take it.”

“ I know .” I chewed my lip. “I just felt like I had a chance to finally finish Ravok off for good. One less threat against us. And I know this will sound crazy,” I continued. “But every time I was around him, my emotions felt like the moon was pulling me or the stars were aligning. From the moment we met, there’s been something between us. I thought I despised him for his arrogance and his lies and his constant manipulation, but then…hate got all twisted up into something else.”

“The stars aligning. That sounds so romantic. Like in the books.” Bex’s slightly dreamy expression had me rolling my eyes.

“More like being sucked down into a giant whirlpool meant to drown me.”

Angel’s lips parted, but she stayed silent. I saw the questions in her eyes, the ones she was waiting for me to answer.

“I guess it started when he let me see his memories.” My voice shook, and I hated how raw I sounded. “Not just glimpses. He wanted me to see my past.” I nodded to the books. “Our bloodline goes back to one of those covens, and he was there. He knew our ancestors. Somehow, Malachi’s part of our history, but I don’t know how. I need you to…”

I really needed to talk to Fiona. Make her tell me everything she knew.

Malachi repeating the mistakes of the past …Ravok had been hunting for Rhiannon, and Malachi…had he protected her? Clearly, they’d been friends…even lovers.

My gut tightened at the idea and I told myself to calm the fuck down.

But the truth was so obvious now that I’d taken a step back. I’d seen his memories and the only way he could have possibly shown me those three particular events was if he’d been present at each one.

“Tell me everything you’ve discovered about necromancy and the covens. I need to know how the magic works, how it’s passed down from witch to witch, anything you’ve found, no matter how insignificant.”

“Do you care about him?” Angel asked, instead. “Malachi? Do you want to escape the whirlpool, Evie? Or do you want to get sucked in?”

“I…” He’d been so gentle, so caring, so… focused on me. There hadn’t been a single thing he’d hidden from me, and yes, if I was honest, I wanted more.

I wanted to watch the arrogant, cold vampire come undone in my hands. I wanted to reach behind the mask and uncover the male hiding there. The one with a heart that beat only for me, whose very soul seemed to call out for me .

“I thought—” I inhaled sharply, forcing myself to say it. “I thought that night meant something.”

Bex murmured softly, “But now you’re not so sure.”

I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms. “What if it was all a charade? What if he seduced me, and this was another one of his lies?” The thought burned like acid, especially after I’d trusted him. Because against all logic, against all reason, I had trusted Malachi. I had let myself believe what we had was real.

“And yet, you still want to save him,” Angel murmured, every word full of judgment. “Enough to convince Riordan and Blake to help you.” Her blue eyes narrowed down to slits. “After you cheated on them.”

“I know.” I stared down at my hands. “I know I’m asking too much after I betrayed them, and I’m not expecting anyone to understand or even forgive me for what I did. I could give you a hundred reasons why I feel a connection to Malachi, but in the end…in the end, I’m owning my decision.” I swallowed, then lifted my gaze to hers. “For good or bad, I care for him, Angel, and I’m not leaving him there to die.”

The room was quiet for a moment, save for the crackling of the fire. Then Bex sighed, reaching for a book. “The only coven with a documented incidence of necromancy was the Bloodmoon Coven, though there was no name attached to the records.”

Angel and I traded a glance.

“But Bloodmoon witches could channel any kind of darkness, including residual lifeforces of the dead, gather strength from the shadows, or even harness the remnants of a civilization's sins, which are usually tied to bloody events, like battlefields, or places where great evils took place.”

I tensed, remnants of sins…where great evils took place.

Or those who committed great evil.

“The coven excelled in curses, though, especially anything to do with black magic, and their powers tended to be darker. At their strongest, some could open doors to realms that should never be walked by mortals, but all of this came at the cost of losing one’s soul.”

Yes, Malachi had issued a similar, gruesome warning.

“What else do you know about harnessing sins, specifically?” I asked. “How can sin be attached to the ground?”

“Oh. I just read about this.” Bex scrambled off the bed and sorted through the books. “Here,” she leafed through until her finger stopped on a page. “Thus do the lands hold memory, Sin, once anchored in the living, does not remain idle. The maligned essence of grave misdeeds seeps into the material realm, and those who pass through such tainted lands often feel an unseen, inexplicable weight upon their souls. To tread upon sin-anchored ground is to walk upon the very history of suffering, and those who understand this may wield great power—for destruction or for redemption.” She risked a quick glance at me.

“Let this be both warning and wisdom: the sins of the past do not fade with time. They remain bound to the bones of the earth, waiting to be reckoned with by those who dare raise them from their sleep.”

Was that what I was doing? Raising sins from their sleep? Malachi said I was bringing Ravok’s sins to life, but what if my abilities went even deeper? What if my magic somehow activated the essence of sin, and gave it form?

The Silverwood Compound was certainly steeped in centuries of sin and blood, and Malachi’s castle… I shuddered at the thought. His hands were rarely clean of wrongdoing.

But was this something I could harness? A weapon I could wield against Ravok?

“Well, that sounds perfectly ominous,” I said airily, as if my mind wasn’t churning out end of the world scenarios, one after another.

“You’re sure there were no other covens that had a similar magic? Like there had to be some really bad dark magic back then.”

“Mostly elemental and green covens, a few red covens, and then there are the white witches, who excel in healing and protective magic.”

“So the opposite of the Bloodmoon witches?” Why couldn’t I be one of those ?

“Exactly,” Bex said. “But necromancy has it’s uses, too. You could raise someone from the dead to get information—usually a ghost,” she added, seeing my expression. “Or guide a lost soul to their final resting place. Or even raising someone from the dead, though from what I’ve read, the result would be…unnatural.”

“Could they speak to Death itself?” I asked, though out loud, the question sounded even more preposterous. “Like negotiate, maybe, to bring someone back?” I looked between them. “The question isn’t totally ridiculous,” I argued. “Vampires are constantly negotiating bargains and deals to benefit themselves, who’s to say there isn’t some bigger entity out there doing the same?”

“Really, Evie? Death?” Angel grinned. “Only you would suggest forging some sort of bargain with Death himself?—”

“Or herself.”

“Or herself, because that’s a distinct possibility.” Bex sat back down on the bed and smiled a dreamy, wistful smile that had no place in the gravity of this conversation. “It’s kind of romantic, though, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“You and Malachi.”

Angel shot her a look. “Seriously? You’re back to that?”

Bex nodded, completely unbothered. “Two souls drawn together, against all odds. You, willing to forge a bargain with Death herself to save his life. That sounds like destiny, Evie. Like fate chose you and Malachi Draven to be together.”

I was so amazed she actually called me by my name I chuckled. “You’re making my life sound like one of your books.”

Bex’s smile only widened. “There was this story I read once,” she continued, undeterred. “Two lovers, bound by fate, reincarnated over and over so they could find each other again in every lifetime. They kept making the same mistakes but finally, in the end, it all worked out.”

Angel rolled her eyes. “And I suppose Evie and Malachi are just history repeating itself?”

Bex shrugged. “Who’s to say they aren’t? Anyways, it’s a romantic story and I, for one, am going to believe it’s true.”

“As long as there are no werewolves in this story, I suppose I’m good with it.” But I stared down at my entwined fingers, my chest tight. I wanted so badly to believe what Malachi and I shared was more than circumstance.

That even though his track record with the truth sucked, everything between us was real.

But right now, I didn’t have the luxury of believing in fate. I had a mission. Malachi was still out there, in the hands of Ravok.

And I wasn’t leaving him there.