A shiver wracked my body as images of the Sanctuary flashed through my mind. The chokeweed. Jax’s warm hands cradling my face, his touch calming me, like he alone had the power to save me.
Then, the water rushing over my head. The darkness. The cold.
I blinked away the memories. The old as well as the more recent. I was alive. That’s what mattered. And so was my demon.
I wondered if a man like Keradoc evenhadfears. Jax believed the root of all fear was love, and he’d made a pretty compelling case for it. But if that were true, then he was out of luck tonight.
Keradoc was fucking fearless. Had to be. No love had ever touched that cold, dead heart. Not even his so-called daughter’s. Of that, I was certain.
Unbidden, his earlier words came back to haunt me.
Kiss me like that again, Daughter of Darkwinter, and I’ll be whoever you need me to be…
I sucked in a breath as the memory of that kiss, that passion swept over me, flushing my cheeks.
As if he could read my thoughts, Keradoc lifted that brow again, curious rather than authoritarian this time, his eyes glittering with something I couldn’t quite pinpoint.
Intrigue?
I lowered my gaze back to his boots. The ones he’d probably used to stomp on heads. Because that’s who Keradoc was—a cruel, murderous man-child who snapped his fingers and swung a sword whenever something didn’t go his way. I refused to give that kiss—or him—another thought.
What mattered now was that the guys and I were together. Stronger because of it. We just had to figure out how to stay that way long enough to formulate a solid escape plan. Preferably one that didn’t involve killer weeds or gargoyle archers or magickal nets or infuriating captors with deep, penetrating, violet eyes…
“As I’ve already explained to Miss Barnes,” Keradoc continued, “I need her to craft and perform a ritual to summon her Darkwinter ancestors. The details are not important, but their resurrection will ensure our victory. The—”
“Darkwinter?” Elian gaped at me, some of the fuzziness clearing from his eyes. “Since when do you have Darkwinter ancestors? You’re a witch, not a fae.”
Shit. I’d nearly forgotten how far behind Elian was on the life and times of Haley Barnes.
“It’s a long story,” I said, “but let me give you the highlights reel of everything you’ve missed in Blackmoon Bay. Let’s see… I’ve got three sisters. When we were little, our evil bitch of a mother murdered our father and tried to drown us because she thought we were trying to steal her magickal legacy, which all stemmed from this crazy prophecy about the Silversbane witches—four witches who would one day rise up to unite our kind against hunters and other oppressors and bring the sisterhood of witchcraft back into the light.”
“Silversbane?” Elian asked, astonished. “You’re talking about the Silversbane prophecy? You… you’re one of the four?”
I spread my hands and flashed a cheesy grin. “In the flesh. Descendent of one of the very first witches and—oh, you’re going to love this part—her Darkwinter fae loverboys. Of course, this was before Darkwinter turned into the vile scum they are today, so I can’t exactly blame a girl for going out and getting herself some of that hot, hot Darkwinter D, if you know what I’m saying.”
I was pretty sure no one in that room knew what I was saying, but I smiled anyway. I had the Silversbane family tree to thank for my own insatiable appetites—a thing for which I’d always be grateful.
“Haley, that’s… You’ve got sisters?” Elian asked softly.
Suddenly, he was looking at me as if I were the only other person in the room, his eyes shining with something I didnotwant to see there. Something Irefusedto see, because seeing it brought me too close to the past. To close to that old love, that connection, that closeness that had always come after we’d shared our most intimate hopes. Our stories.
He’d always known how important family was to me. And if he’d still been with me in the Bay, he would’ve been the first person I’d told after I’d discovered I had sisters. Real sisters.
“Sisters,” I repeated, speaking over the tightness in my throat. “We were all born in Blackmoon Bay too. But after the attempted murder of four innocent girls, my granny—blood relative granny, not the Nona I’ve mentioned in the past—got with her coven and did some dark memory mojo to convince my mother we were all dead, then temporarily bound our powers, messed with our memories too, separated us, and shipped us off to be raised by new families, totally unaware of one another’s existence. Granny happens to be the King of Hell’s side piece, so obviously I didn’t trust her story at first, but it turns out it was all true—it all came out during an epic battle in the Bay against the very Darkwinter fae dicks that are attacking Midnight. Seems they’ve got quite a hard-on for invading territories that don’t belong to them. Anyway… yeah, you’re looking at a super-special Darkwinter-fae-Silversbane-witch hybrid that our man K-Doc here believes can help him win his war against my own people. Aren’t you sorry you ghosted me?” I laughed, then turned back to Keradoc, leaving Elian in shocked silence. Blinking up at the warlord with a faux-innocent gaze, I said, “Anyway, what were you saying? About why you needed the guys? As far as I know, none ofthemhave Darkwinter ancestors.”
Keradoc stared at me for a long beat, as if he was trying to figure out whether to laugh, run for cover, or just grab his trusty old sword and take my head off, nipping all that crazy in the bud.
In the end, he only sighed. Again.
It was a thing with him, I was quickly learning. The epic sighs.
“No, Miss Barnes. They donothave Darkwinter ancestors.” Keradoc retrieved a small glass bottle from his breast pocket and set it on the table in front of Elian. Dozens of tiny black pills glittered inside. “Theywill be putting their talents to use on a weapon of a different sort.”
16
HALEY
Devil’s Dream?” I grabbed the bottle for a closer look. Elian’s eyelid twitched.
