Page 104 of Visions of You

Still, it would probably be best to avoid too many confrontations.

Keegan pushed them onward, his steps quick and purposeful.

They could hear more mages ahead of them, and Jaron braced himself for a fight, but Keegan veered sharply to the left, leading them down a narrow side corridor.

"This way," he said, his voice tight. "We're getting close."

Jaron's heart pounded painfully as they descended another flight of stairs. He could feel it, the sense that they were nearing their goal. Somewhere in this building, Malkira was preparing her ritual, and Jaron would stop her.

CHAPTER 25

Jaron burst into the ritual room, Keegan and Mordyn at his heels. The scene that greeted them was one of chaos and terror. The kidnapped victims, including Jaron's siblings Casca and Fei, and Mordyn's mate Apollo, were unconscious and shackled to the walls. Glowing bonds encircled their wrists, the eerie light pulsing and flowing towards the center of the room.

There, at a large lab table, stood Malkira. A complex array of alchemical equipment was arranged around a floating sphere. The sphere pulsed with the same eerie light as the shackles.

Clearly, Malkira was already drawing power from the victims for her dark ritual.

Mordyn tried to run for Apollo, but several mages intercepted him—and while he got them to stop, it seemed to be costing him all the energy he had just to keep them from attacking.

Jaron swallowed hard, his attention drawn back to the witch at the lab table. The woman he'd thought he knew.

She gazed at him with a sad look on her face. "I'm truly sorry it had to come to this."

Jaron stared at her, a mix of betrayal and confusion churning in his gut. "Why?" he demanded. "Why are you doing this?"

Malkira sighed. "You don't understand the forces at play here, Jaron. The sacrifices that must be made for the greater good."

"Greater good?" Jaron spat. "You've kidnapped my little brothers!" Jaron glanced over to them, and noticed, for the first time, that the shackles they wore didn't glow red like the shackles on the other victims did. Theirs were glowing blue.

He didn't know what that meant, but it probably wasn't good.

"I don't want to hurt children," Malkira said, "but these children weren't conceived in the natural way."

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Jaron demanded, his voice shaking. He felt Keegan's hand rest on his shoulder, a silent gesture of support.

Malkira gave Jaron a long, searching look before she spoke again. "Your mother was desperate for another child when she came to me. At the time, I sold all thoughts of spells for cheap, having been let go from my job."

Jaron shook his head, trying to make sense of her words. "I don't understand what you're talking about."

His mother had sought help from Malkira? Because she'd needed another child? Because Jaron failed to live up to expectation?

"At first, I didn't know how to help her, but then I had an idea," Malkira continued, shaking her head. "I was younger then, and stupid. Too brilliant for my own good."

"What did you do?" Jaron demanded. His voice rose against his will.

Malkira met his gaze, her eyes filled with regret. "The virus we'd been working on," she said, "I changed it and infected your parents."

Jaron felt like the ground had been ripped out from under him. His parents, infected with a virus? His brothers, conceivedthrough some unnatural means? He couldn't wrap his mind around it.

"What virus?"

"The one that used to be the scarlet curse," Malkira said. "Normally it eats a person's magic, but I managed to make it act in a different way. I infected both of your parents and the virus established a magical link between them, almost like a bonding."

That was possible? "But why?"

"All that magic helped your mother have more children, didn't it? Very powerful children." She looked down at a pot that sat on the table before her.

Idly, Jaron wondered if it contained the mind-control potion.