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He slowly stood, then languorously wandered over to my side. Without a word, he circled me, then came to a stop right in front of me. “Cicely, do you know where Leo is?”
I sucked in a deep breath. “Yes, he’s home very sick. He fainted this morning from a fever. I . . . I did his errands for him since I knew I would be seeing you tonight.” I pushed the bags forward with the toe of my shoe.
He glanced down at them. “Domestic, aren’t we? Playing fetch so Leo does not get into trouble? Or for another reason?”
Shivering, I hesitantly reached down and picked up the bag with the picture. I slowly held it out to him. “What’s this?” My voice barely above a whisper, I was shaking so hard I could barely form the words. “Were you and Myst . . .”
“Ah, so you’ve seen it. I did not mean for you to. There are reasons that we hire day-runners. Leo should have called his contact this morning and asked for a stand-in. I shall have to have a chat with him about that.”
“Please, no—he was delirious.”
“Sometimes the magic-born remind me of humans. Weak . . . but necessary. So, you have seen my secret and you now wonder. Were Myst and I in love? No. Were we star-crossed? No. Were we lovers? Yes.” He took the picture and cast the bag aside. “She was so beautiful. She looks a lot like you, you know.” His jet-black eyes fixated on me and his nostrils flared.
I took a step back. “What . . . why . . . you tried to turn her but it wasn’t the way it said in the history books, was it? You were partners . . . she wanted it.”
“We could have become a force that no land could withstand. We planned to rule the world together. If things had gone right, we could have conquered innumerable lands. But the turning changed her. She became . . . what she is. She was no longer willing to share power. She became more dangerous than I ever dreamed she would.” He glanced up, a dark look on his face. “She betrayed me, and I tried to destroy her.”
“And that is why the war . . . the other vampires think it’s about her anger at being turned, but she’s really out for your head. To grind you into the dust.”
“As she is you. We’re in the same boat, my dear. You were her daughter and betrayed her. I was her lover and gave her the keys to the kingdom. And now, she needs no one . . .” He stopped. “Which is where my plans for you come in. Cicely, before I bring your tortured love in for you—and yes, we have him back—I offer you a chance that you will never have with anyone else.”>“After we broke up.” I’d taken off, wanting nothing more than to get out of New Forest, to forget the look of pain on his face when I’d told him I wasn’t ready to come home. Now I’d give anything to go back to that moment in time, to take it back. But then again, would I? Would I give up being who I’d become?
I shook off the thought. “Let me try it on.” I dried off and fastened my underwire bra, then slipped the dress over my head. It clung in all the right places and was just the right color for my skin and hair. As I gazed into the mirror and saw the beaming smile of Rhia behind me, a crack in my mood started to fracture. I tried to repress it, but within minutes, like a glacier calving, the façade fell away and I sank to my knees, in tears.
Rhia was by my side instantly. “Cicely, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
I shook my head, weeping into my hands. “I want to tell you things, I want to so bad, but I’m afraid to because of Leo. Because I don’t know where your loyalties lie. I want to talk to you, but I can’t . . . I can’t trust anybody but myself—and I feel so alone. I’m walking into a vampire’s lair tonight and I don’t trust him. But I have to go, and I have to go alone.”
“I’ll go if you like—I’ll be there with you.”
“No, Geoffrey told me to come alone. Oh, Rhia . . .” I turned to her, grasping her hands. “I know Leo trusts him. I know Leo works for him, but Geoffrey’s not the fair, just leader we think. I know. Trust me, I know. And I’m afraid that he’s using me for something . . . something that could lead to everybody’s destruction.”
“What are you talking about? I promise you—I give you my word to keep it silent, upon our mothers and our grandmothers. On the Veil House itself . . .” She held up her hand to swear.
I quickly grabbed her fingers. “Before you do that, you should know—I saw the Veil House from the astral. This land is almost a living being. Its energy is brilliant, a beacon in the night. We live on top of Grand Central Station—we’re the blue-light special at Kmart. If you swear on the house, the land will hear and hold you to it. Don’t say anything rashly.”
She nodded, serious now, and pulled her hand away. After a moment, she held it up again. “I swear to you on the memory of our mothers, on our legacy with this land and this house, on flame and fire, on the Veil House itself, I will not betray your confidence. You are my cousin and we are in this together. Neither love nor men nor circumstance will sway me from my oath. You have my back, Cicely. And I have yours.”
A pale light, orange and flickering, formed around her hand. I stared at it, feeling a pull I’d never felt before. I held up my hand opposite hers.
“I swear to you on the memory of our mothers, on our legacy with this land and this house, on wind and air, on the Veil House itself, I will not betray your confidence. You are my cousin, and we are in this together. Neither love nor men nor circumstance will sway me from my oath. You have my back, Rhiannon. And I have yours.”
From my hand spun a whirlwind, tiny and gray; it began to increase, as did her flame, and the two met in the air, producing a firestorm of sparks, but none that stung as they landed on our skin. We brought our hands together, clasping them. The energy spiraled around us and as we held tight, we were dancing through a vortex, through a spiraling tunnel that wended with flame and cloud.
And then, we were aloft, spinning in a dance through the stars, while the pounding beat of drums in the night surrounded us.
“We are powerful together,” I whispered. “We can move mountains.”
“We can take down armies. We combine our powers and we are the sun and the moon.”
“The night and the day. The summer and winter.” I let my head drop back and laughed wildly as we began to spin faster, and then I was standing outside myself, watching as we spiraled even higher. I glanced to one side and saw Rhiannon’s spirit there, too, watching, laughing joyfully. And then, before our spirits could journey too far from our bodies, we were back in the room, dancing, laughing, stomping on the floor until we collapsed in a pile in the center of the room.
After a few moments, I looked up, surprised no one had come to find out what the fuck we were doing. Rhiannon looked just as confused.
“I guess . . . we were hearing everything on an internal level?”
“Could be,” I said. After a few minutes I sat back and stared at her. “Okay, you want to know what’s going on? Lainule and the rest of them be damned. I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone at this point.”
“I promise. What the hell happened with Anadey?”
