Page 42 of Hybrid Heroics

“It spreads by touch,” Palmer added, tucking his hands into his pockets.

“Which is why you didn’t want us to come any further.” York’s mother nodded her understanding. “You should stay here, or somewhere deeper in the jungle, away from the public.”

“We will.” York glanced toward the hall. “You should go talk to Aunt Talia. She’s pretty shaken up.”

Delilah kissed York’s cheek and turned to find her sister. Talia and Latharian had disappeared into their bedroom what felt like hours ago.

Hiram looked at each of us before his gaze fell on Sloane. “She’ll be fine.”

“We know,” York confessed softly as Hiram squeezed his shoulder.

Amelia watched them walk away, then pegged us with a curious look. “How do you know the curse is Alric’s doing?”

“This again?” I grouched at her. “Really?”

“No. No.” She patted the air. “I don’t doubt this is his type of work. I’m just wondering if you know anything about it? Perhaps I can help put a stop to it.”

“That would be helpful,” Palmer commented sarcastically.

I glared at him. “Thank you, Amelia. We could use another powerful dark mage.”

“Murphy and Novak can talk you and Nate through their process of removing the curse,” Vaughn contributed. “When Sloane wakes up, she’ll probably have ideas on how to remove it from the realm in one go. But for now, we’ve figured out how to remove it individually.”

“Do we know when it started?” Amelia inquired.

“The rough guess is less than a week,” Palmer replied, ruffling his hair. “Or right at a week. Sterling knows more than we do about the time frame.”

Amelia furrowed her brows and tapped at the end of her nose. “He’s using them like puppets?”

“Yes,” Stone responded, squinting at her reaction. “We believe he’s looking through their eyes.”

“It started with one orc and spread from there,” York added.

Amelia nodded, still tapping her nose as she processed. “Puppeteering is a trick he’s been trying to master since I was in my twenties. I’m not surprised he finally figured it out. I am shocked about the orc, though. That species doesn’t easily fall to mind manipulation.”

“For the last few decades, Alric has been trying to find allies,” Nater told us. “Trying to see who he can turn and who he can manipulate as individuals. Or who he can promise more to, because everyone falls for greed.”

“And he’s done it,” Rig agreed.

“Or he’s tried to do it,” Sam counted. “He’s been everywhere, but he hasn’t reached everyone.”

“He knew there were some realms where he wouldn’t be able to manipulate the people,” Amelia admitted. “But there were other realms and species where he could manipulate or lie to them with promises of greed in order to sway them to his side.”

Charlie cleared his throat, speaking to the guys and me. “He’s got the magic for it, too. And he’s powerful enough to fight really dirty. He’s not a pushover.”

“Other than you guys and Sloane…” Amelia blew out a frustrated breath. “He hasn’t had much not working out for him. We fought against him for decades, but we didn’t get very far. We were mostly coming in after him and cleaning up the destruction.”

“Lo is the reason why things aren’t working out for him now, you know what I mean?” Charlie asked. “Like the failed experiments and stuff? But he doesn’t think anyone can stop him from still trying to proceed with his crazy ass plan.”

“I know what you mean,” Vaughn grumbled. “It would have been nice to know all of this shit from the jump instead of all of you keeping secrets that could get your daughter killed.”

“Nice isn’t the word I would have used,” Stone commented. “It shouldn’t have been optional. Everyone makes mistakes. Blah, blah, whatever. But you continued to hide this shit from her, making her hunt for the truth while she fought battles blindly.”

Novak raised his hand. “Wait. I have a question. Did you know Kadence and Kelvin were Alric’s kids?”

“Yes,” Nate replied slowly. “That’s why I kept her on the council. I was watching her.”

“Are you fucking serious?” our vampire snapped.