‘So, cause a distraction. It’s the perfect opportunity to scope out the labs that wedoknow about.’
‘You think they’re doing experiments in the normal medical facilities?’
‘They’ve governed the supernatural world for nearly two thousand years, unchallenged. I think they’re cocky enough to do it, yes.’
He didn’t like it. It added more discomfort to what already sloshed in his stomach like acid.
‘It’s a dangerous risk, but I can’t put it off any longer or they’ll get suspicious.’
A pause, then one of Callum’s famous smiles. ‘Then I suppose it’s time you learned the art of distraction.’
CHAPTER SIX
Bells
EVER SINCE BELLS HAD ATTEMPTED A SMALL,RISKY RITUALin Estwood to try to glimpse her family’s future, her visions had gotten … worse.
They didn’t just come when she was supposed to be dreaming in the deepest hours of the night, but their dark strangeness was beginning to encroach when she was trying to help Dylan remember the night their mother died.
She couldn’t help but be reminded that the goddess she’d called to, Badb, was one of the three Morrígan sisters. But she was not just a Death Goddess like her sisters, but the Goddess of Prophecy.
And Madness.
Bells tried to shake off the reminder by glancing up at the sprawling ceiling of Burghley House’s Heaven Room. The gods of Mount Olympus gazed down, the walls painted with columns like an ancient temple. Rainbows and lost seas could be glimpsed between and behind the many theatrical figures. It was like a paradisical dream. Well, what Bells suspectedotherpeople dreamed of.
All her dreams were visions of death.
‘Are you sure you want to try again?’ their father asked Dylan.
Her brother sat on the floor before her, his back to her knees where she sat perched on the couch, her fingers hovering at his temples. It was the most comfortable way they’d found to do this, considering the process usually took an hour or more.
‘Let’s just get it over with,’ Dylan said tightly.
They’d gone about this memory mining process carefully so far, hesitant to harm Dylan in any way, but he was an unusual mix of reckless and wary about it each time.
Their father moved throughout the space, shutting the blinds against the bright day and the miles of sprawling emerald grounds outside, strewn with blossoms and grazed by deer.
They’d left Nicole to research. Bells knew her sister wished she could help, had even tried to do this once, but her heightened Empyrean powers kept distracting her. Nicole could do the transforming; she could even tackle a fair amount of the research. She always seemed to know what she was looking for with those quick, dark eyes. Sometimes, Bells wondered if Nicole and their mother did have some uncanny connection that allowed her sister to seek out the lost details they needed.
But a tiny part of her was also glad. This was Bells’ predominant power and she was a little territorial over this mission Callum had given her.
‘If Dylan saw your mother’s killer but can’t remember,’ he’d told her, ‘it’s buried in his subconscious. You, as his sister and a full Seer, can help him unearth the memory.’
It would stop Kyan and Callum being caught unawares if their mother’s assassin worked among them, and could make sure they knew who they could and couldn’t trust.
Even though Dylan didn’t trust Callum, Bells … liked him. His charm and his friendship with Kyan. His quick belief that there was something else going on in the Wake.
But digging up memories was a nebulous, difficult thing that gave her a roaring headache – to such a degree too much light would burn her eyes and make her dizzy – so they had to take regular breaks.
Now, though, the room was dim and quiet. Verin had long since stopped tours during their stay, which meant nothing would interrupt them.
A sense of calm settled over Bells as she placed her fingers on her brother’s temples.
The warm skin flickered as his teeth ground together and she tried not to let her concern distract her, focusing instead on their father’s relaxed instructions, guiding them as if into a meditation.
Bells closed her eyes.
‘Think of the memory,’ their father said.
