Page 78 of Malice

How unnatural.

We don’t make it far before we find another body. This one is worse. He’s sprawled on his back, arms twisted at unnatural angles. His face is frozen in an expression of pure terror. And his eyes are gone, looking like they’ve been burned from the inside out, leaving behind only dark, hollow sockets. Bits of melted eyeball stick to his face, look like goopy eggs that haven’t been fully cooked.

“I’m no expert,” Zeke mutters, nudging the body with his foot, “but this isn’t a good sign.”

“Definitely not,” I say absently, pressing my fingers against the small pinprick wound in the center of my right hand.

The carriage house comes into view not long after. It rises out of the trees like something out of a nightmare: dark wood, weathered stone, windows like empty eyes staring back at us. The closer we get, the worse the feeling becomes.

We stop right outside the door so the vampires can listen. We all go still, holding our breath as we wait a moment.

But there’s nothing. No heartbeats, no movement…nothing alive.

Not waiting, I lift my hand and push my magic outward, throwing the front door open with a sharp crack that echoes into the silence beyond. We pause again. Nothing happens. Everything is quiet and still yet again.

Xavier steps inside first, and I follow immediately, unwilling to let him out of my sight.The most eerie feeling of déjà vu washes over me, and it’s like I’m back at Camp Dogwood and the warehouse at the same time. It’s not just that things are set up similarly; there’s a sigil drawn on the floor in blood and this time, there are three black candles, burned down to stumps. But it’s the sense that something just happened, and I walked in right after it.

Someone definitely set up for a ritual…and Vivian is nowhere to be seen.

“We’re too late.”

Xavier moves forward, crossing the room in a blur. He kneels, picking something up from the floor. It’s a vial, one used for collecting blood. He holds it up. It’s empty. My stomach drops, knowing what it is before he says anything.

“This is your blood,” he says.

My lips part, but no words come out. But I don’t have to say it. We all know. Vivian is trying to break the sigil—and free Vaelric herself.

Chapter

Thirty-Three

In the dim light, I can see the question on Leo and Antonio’s face. Right. They don’t know the full truth of everything Vivian and Marco did. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard for them to accept what’s happened.

“How would they have vials of your blood?” Leo asks, pulling out his phone to use as a flashlight.

“For years, Vivian and Marco allowed the Order to drug me and run experiments on me in my sleep,” I answer. The files flash before my eyes when I blink. “They took my blood and I thought they used it, but…but…They were saving it. This was the plan the whole time.”

“Did it work?” Devon asks. “Is the demon free?”

“I don’t know.” I join Leo, inspecting the sigil drawn on the ground.

“It could explain the dead guys outside,” Antonio offers.

“The deal was specific,” Xavier begins. “Wren finds and destroys the sigil. If anyone could use Blackwood blood, the demon wouldn’t have sought her out. And if it was broken by anyone but Wren, the deal would be off and her soul…” He can’t finish his sentence.

“How would we know if your soul was gone?” Theo asks. “Would you drop dead? Are we going with the theory that having a soul means you’re not evil? What if I don’t believe in soul and heaven or hell?”

Mabel tilts her head slightly, eyes flicking over Theo like she’s already five steps ahead of him. “Lucky for you, belief isn’t a prerequisite for reality,” she says coolly. “Gravity works just fine whether you ‘believe’ in it or not. Souls fall into the same category. The indicator isn’t if Wren starts acting evil, if she stops choosing not to be.”

“Makes sense,” I say, feeling the same bit of shock that I think everyone else is. Every once in a while, Mabel can really surprise me.

“What does that say for us, then?” Theo goes on, eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

“It says you still make the same choices you did when you were alive, but know you have far less consequence,” Mabel goes on. “Which is your reality.”

“We can have this moral debate later,” Xavier says. “The demon made it clear enough what owning Wren’s soul will do. This blood hasn’t been dried for long. Vivian was here recently. She can’t have gotten far.”

“Are you sure this is your blood?” Leo asks, close to breaking. He’s questioned things for so long but now that he’s getting irrefutable evidence, he’s having a hard time processing.