“Darius tracked her here. Come on.” I led them up a set of stone steps and into the cathedral proper. The scent faded under the heavy smell of incense and candle wax, but I picked it up again quickly, following it down the aisle between rows of pews, to a small set of stairs at the back. Ronan and I had taken a historical tour here once, and now I remembered that the stairs led down to a long, underground chamber that was once used by the town’s founders to hide alcohol during prohibition.
Silently, we crept down the stairs into the cold, dank tunnel below. It was deep underground, with high vaulted ceilings and pillars that stretched up to the darkness above.
Of the three of us, I was the only one who could see clearly. But there was nothing but empty darkness, a sense of gloom weighing heavier with each step.
Suddenly, I caught a fresh whiff of Darius’s scent, and I darted ahead, turning down another corridor that branched off the end, my sisters close behind.
The moment I reached the end, torchlight illuminated the space, throwing eerie shadows on the wall.
No, not shadows, I realized. A vampire.Myvampire.
“Darius!” I gasped, taking in the sight of him. He was chained to the wall, blood dripping from his mouth. Four hawthorn stakes protruded from his body. In his eyes I could read a thousand thoughts—I’m sorry, I love you, run…
“Gray, we need to get help,” Addie said, but I knew it was already too late.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” a cruel voice cooed, and I spun on my heel, coming face to face with Trinity.
“Is he yours?” she asked, stepping into the light. “You really should housebreak him, Morgan. Vampires can be rather dangerous.”
Fear threatened to overwhelm me, but just as I’d had to do with Ronan, I shoved that fear into a box and locked it away inside. Darius would survive this. All of us would survive this, but only if I kept my wits.
“What do you want, Trinity?” I asked, keeping my sisters close behind me. Of the three of us, I had the most active power, so if Trinity was going to blow, I wanted her to make me the primary target.
“There’s no need for hostilities, Morgan. We’re all family here. Isn’t that right, Georgina?” Her eyes shifted behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder just as Georgie stumbled into the light.
Her face was pale, her eyes bloodshot. One of them was bruised. Blood crusted over a gash in her forehead, a matching wound slicing across her chin.
“What have you done to her?” I demanded.
“Oh, that? Just a little fall.” She waved off my concerns. Then, to Georgie, “Georgie! Don’t be rude. Come say hello to your sisters.”
Inside, my magic roiled, but I kept it in check, not wanting to show my hand just yet. I needed to know Trinity’s endgame.
“Trinity,” I said, softer now, hoping to catch her off guard. “Really. What is it that you want? We’re all here now. Just tell us.”
She looked at me as if I were the dumbest person on the planet.
“Thatis what I want. For us all to be here. Together. A real family again.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. It was just like the shit we’d overheard in the meeting during the blood spell. She was completely delusional.
“If you wanted a family so bad,” Addie piped up, “why did you try to kill us?”
Trinity pressed her lips together, hands on her hips, her eyes blazing with new fire.
Behind me, Georgie trembled.
“Why?” Addie pressed.
Why. For so long, I thought I’d wanted the answer to that question, too. I thought I’d wanted to hear her excuses. Hear her tell me why she’d tried to murder her own babies. Why she thought magic and power were more important than her children. More important than the so-called “real family” she kept espousing.
But staring into her eyes now, I saw only emptiness. Madness. Whatever my birthmother had endured in her life, it had broken her beyond redemption.
There was nothing she could say to me to convince me otherwise. No answer would eradicate the pain of what she’d done.
Raising my staff, I pointed it at her and ordered her to step back against the wall.
“What is the meaning of this aggression?” she asked, still feigning innocence, even now. When I continued to glare at her, staff raised, she rolled her eyes and said, “Oh, for the love of all that is wicked.”
