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I’m about to insist I go with them when the room spins.
“No, we’re good here, Sarah. Please extend my gratitude to Count Westoff. Your assistance will not be forgotten.”
She bows low. “Crown, it was our honor to serve you,” she croons before exiting the room.
“Let’s go,” Julian says, turning and holding out his arm for me to take. “You’re going home. I can tell you’re not well.”
I smirk. “Reading my mind?”
“I’m enjoying the perks.”
Once Marcellus and the bastard who bit me are taken care of, I have no doubt we’ll thoroughly enjoy testing each and every one of the perks that come with our bond. For now, I can’t focus on anything but finding out what’s happened to me.
Chapter Thirty-Two
It’s been two weeks since the auction was dismantled and Marcellus was brought down. My days have been spent cuddling with Julian and hanging out with Maggie, Addy, and Katina while he’s interrogating his brother and Byron.
Vzar stuck around to help with the interrogation. Apparently, he has a knack for law and Julian thinks that could help solidify a spot for him on the Council at some point.
Byron has officially been stripped of his title and Addy has been put in his place. Count Dupré’s trial started as soon as we got back and Julian was sure I would survive. It’s likely he’ll be granted clemency, but we’ll see. Julian wavers daily on what punishment fits his crimes.
“Tell me, Marina. What on earth were you and Julian doing last night that had half the east wing’s walls shaking?
Maggie smothers a laugh with her hands and my cheeks heat at the reminder of what we were doing. This new strength has yet to abate and there have been some complications from it. Namely, I’m constantly embarrassed.
“It’s high time we move into his home,” I mutter.
“Good luck with that. Until he knows that every last person who was working with Marcellus and Byron is brought in, you’ll be jailed in this place just like the rest of us.”
I groan. “What should we do today?” I ask, trying to change the subject and enjoy this time with my friends. Today’s Addy’s last day here before she flies off to begin her work on the synthetic blood alternative, and who knows when I’ll see her next.
“Shante is here to read us,” she says, clapping her hands excitedly. Julian informed us that Madame Shante was coming to visit. The goal is to see if she can figure out what’s going on with me. So far, outside of an increase in strength, the typical telepathy, and heightened emotions, not much else has happened. No thirst, no fangs, and I’m sure as hell not running out to prove my immortality. I don’t have a death wish.
“Why are you pale?” Maggie’s face scrunches up.
“Madame Shante has a tendency to deliver unwanted news.”
* * *
An hour later, I’m seated in the parlor that I have come to think of as Julian’s late mother’s. Madame Shante sits across from me, smiling widely.
“Three?” I squawk, unable to adapt to her news. “Three daughters?” I repeat, and her eyes widen in athat’s what I said, what don’t you understand?look that grates on my nerves. “Can you just repeat your vision once more?” I ask, and she sighs in frustration.
“I see three girls surrounding you. Daughters,” she amends.
“So, in your vision, you see me, and I have three daughters surrounding me?” I clarify, because if there is one thing I’ve come to know about Shante, her predictions are vague and nothing is concrete. Her visions are “fluid,” she says. Basically, she’s the weatherman of psychics.
Julian snorts from my side, having heard my internal ramblings. Shante frowns in his direction.
“It’s not that simple,” she warbles. “You are not in the vision. It’s your aura that the three girls surround.”
My gaze meets Julian and I internally ask if she could be seeing the souls of my sisters and me.
“No,” Shante says.
“Are you reading our minds now?” I quip, wondering what else she could be saying no to, other than my unspoken question to Julian.
“Not reading your minds, but faces. Knowing who you are and what you mean to Julian’s family, it only makes sense that you’d question that,” she clarifies. “But no. The three girls I see are all living beings.”
