Page 13 of Kiss the Dawn (Order of Helsing #4)

J ules let out a shocked cry and stared at Clara. “What is he saying? Clara? Oh God, you knew?”

Clara pressed her lips together. “Everyone knows except you and Adaline. The babies of the family.”

“I’m a married woman with a child. I am not a baby.” She slammed her fist on the table, rattling her cutlery.

Clara rolled her eyes. “I rest my case.”

“You can’t do this!” Jules cried. “We have to stop it.”

She was right. “Death seems too harsh a sentence for her crime. In fact, I’m not sure you can call it a crime. I’m alive and well, and maybe that was what she’d intended for me. Did you even ask her why she did it?”

Frederick replied. “She claims it was to protect you from the weight of a duty that you’d have no choice in. She claims she was giving you a better life.”

“Sounds like a damn good reason to me. You should be commending her, not sentencing her to death.”

Clara made a sound of agreement, eyes bright with fervor and support.

“You’re not considering the larger picture,” Frederick said. “In sending you away, she was knowingly dooming us all. That crime against the Isle, against its peoples, is unforgivable. The sentence is irrefutable. I’m sorry.”

“So you lied and told me she was sick? You were going to let me leave here without giving me a chance to meet her?”

“You can’t meet her,” Frederick said. “She’s on the other side of the Isle in a holding cell, in coven dominion.”

“You gave her to them?” Jules shook her head in dismay.

They’d interrogated her. Probably hurt her to get the information they needed, and now they planned to kill her?

A ball of heat formed in my chest. “I don’t care where the fuck she is. I want to see her! I deserve to see her.” Darkness clouded my vision, rage vibrating in my chest and surging through my veins, and when I spoke, my voice came out deep and menacing. “Find a fucking way or I swear to all that’s holy you will pay in blood.” Pin-drop silence and stunned faces greeted my threat. My wrath winked out, leaving me shaken and cold.

I let out a slow exhale. “I…I’m sorry.” What the fuck was wrong with me? “Look, there must be a way for me to see her. Something I can do to overturn her sentence. Maybe she was coerced by the Order member? Maybe he forced her hand, put stuff in her head…Why not find him and punish him?”

“He is not the one who was bound by our laws, and therefore, he is not the one who broke them.”

“She was grieving, though,” Jules said. “She’d just lost her husband, and she was grieving. You have to bear that in mind, surely?”

Her words threw me for a moment because if my father died before I was born, then how… “Wait, you have a different father?”

Jules nodded.

But it was Clara who spoke. “Jules was born less than two years after you. They pushed Mother into remarrying, barely giving her time to mourn the loss of her husband or her child.” Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. “What she did was wrong, but I can understand it. I can forgive her. But the covens will not. The laws are clear.”

Jules looked to Clara. “We can petition. We can?—”

“Done already. We’ve done it all, Jules.” Her tone softened. “There is no reprieve. Nothing we can do. ”

Jules’s shoulders slumped, her face crumpled, and she began to sob quietly.

This wasn’t my world. These people were my kin but not my family, and yet I felt for them. For the woman who’d sent me away to save me from a life of duty and phantom chains and was about to pay the price with her life.

I might not be able to save her, but I needed to see her, to show her that her sacrifice wasn’t in vain. “Please…Frederick…Please help me to see her.”

Frederick sighed. “I’ll speak to Daphne and see what can be done.”

“If she gets to see Mama, then I want to too,” Jules said, eyes bright with tears. “I can’t believe you told us she was sick this past month. I need to see her. I need to say goodbye.”

Clara nodded. “I want to see her too.”

Frederick sighed and pushed to his feet. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Frederick left, and my sisters stayed.

Jules was red-eyed and subdued, and Clara sat by the window, looking out at the mist.

The silence was getting to me. “Won’t the others want to see her?”

“They think she deserves it,” Clara said .

My heart sank, and Jules let out a soft sob.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake, pull yourself together,” Clara snapped. “Do you think the last thing Mama wants to see is you sniveling?”

“I don’t believe this is happening,” Jules said. “It’s Mama. Sweet, kind Mama.”

My gut twisted. “There has to be something we can do.” I realized it was a dumb thing to say as soon as the words were out because Clara’s spine stiffened, and she glared at me.

“Were you not listening earlier?” she said.

“I’m sorry. This is all just so…archaic.”

“I suppose it would seem that way to an outsider. But as much as I hate what’s happening, I can’t deny that our laws have kept us safe for too long. We survive because of them. The Isle is safe because of them.”

“Maybe. But this sentence is too harsh. Your mother isn’t a threat to the Isle. She made a choice for her offspring’s welfare, something every mother should have the right to do.”

“If they let us see her to say goodbye, I promise no tears,” Jules said. “And no false hopes. We won’t make it any harder for her.”

Clara looked at her in surprise, and then her expression softened. “Maybe you aren’t such a baby after all.” She sighed and gathered her coat. “Come on. Let’s retire to our chambers and allow Orina a little time to decompress.”

But in that moment, I realized that I didn’t want to be alone in this strange place. “I don’t mind if you stay.”

Clara locked gazes with me, and an understanding passed between us. She nodded. “Very well.” She set her coat down and joined Jules and me on the sofas. “Tell us about the mainland.”

“Fine, as long as you tell me more about the Isle.”

“Deal.”

Both my sisters were married, Clara with three children and Jules with one. In fact, all my sisters were married with families of their own. I learned about the estate where they’d grown up and the dominion where they all lived—a sector or territory ruled over by the Bloodmeres.

My family was royalty on this Isle, but so were the covens. The intricate politics of this place made my head hurt. I told them about the Order, my status as a watcher, and a little about the Ministry where I’d lived for most of my younger years.

“The dome sounds amazing,” Jules said.

There was a knock on the door, and we all sat up straighter. “Come in.”

I expected to see Frederick, but instead a guard pushed open the door to admit a beautiful golden-haired angel .

Clara tensed, but Jules leapt up and ran toward the woman. “Eliza, you made it!”

They embraced briefly before Eliza turned her attention to me. “You must be Miss Lighthart.”

Eliza? The same Eliza that I was blocking from having offspring? The panicked look on Clara’s face confirmed it.

I stood to greet her. “Please call me Orina.”

She inclined her head, her gaze wary. “Is there any news on the contract?”

Straight to business. I liked it. “Nothing yet. But if there’s something to find, Lorenzo will find it.”

The guard retreated, and she walked over to the window to stare at the mist.

Jules and Clara shared a look I couldn’t decipher.

“Eliza?” Jules said finally. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Yes,” Eliza said. “I do.” She turned to face me, cheeks wet with silent tears. “I want you to share them with me.”

“What?”

“My mates. When the Circle annuls our mating and gives them to you. I want you to allow me to share them with you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your mageri won’t find any loophole,” she said. “There is no weakness in the contract. We’ve looked. Trust me. We’ve looked. The Circle allowed the mageri to come view it to satisfy the consortium and to bring you to us. Once they find no weakness, you’ll be asked to pledge yourself to the mating. I’ll be unbonded, and my mates will be given to you.”

“Whoa, wait a minute. I’m not mating with anyone. I have to get back to Dracul. I have a duty to the Order.” To Ezekiel.

“I know you do. And you’ll be allowed to leave after the ceremony. It’s insurance that you’ll come back. I just…I need you to promise me that you won’t cut me out.” More tears spilled down her cheeks, and her voice thickened. “I can’t live without them. I love them so much, I—” She broke down, hands over her face, and my skin went cold.

This was insane. This place was insane.

Frederick entered the room and froze at the sight of Eliza, who quickly reined in her emotions and swiped at her tears.

“I should go.” She threw me a pleading glance before sweeping from the room, but Frederick grabbed her arm, stalling her, his gaze hot and angry as it swept across her face.

She lifted her chin in defiance, then yanked her arm free and continued from the room.

Frederick’s chest expanded on a breath. “I suppose we should talk.”

“You’re damn right we should.”