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“What does being half-blooded have to do with it?” I asked.
Zephyr’s eyes slid over Cole, inspecting him as he answered my question. “Blood traits don’t typically present themselves in half-bloods. In fact, Cole is the first half-blood I’ve heard of developing an ability.”
“Cole’s father was the last of the AÌma.When he died, we thought the house had fallen with him,” Damien explained, glancing back at me.
Hatred burned in Cole’s eyes as he stared at me. It was his secret, and I’d told them. I dreaded to think what he wanted to do to me, what hewoulddo to me if he got free.
“This is as good a time as any to practice,” Damien said, pulling me from Cole’s hateful stare. “Don’t doubt yourself, Cas. Just take it slow, and don’t push yourself too far. Pull out if it becomes too much, just like you did earlier. Focus on that physical connection. It’ll come to you.” Damien’s eyes shined dulled with uncertainty, but he met my eyes, forcing a mask of confidence for my sake. “You can do this, Cas. I know you can.”
I thought back to when Damien told me about Vivienne and Marcus, how I’d seen his memories. It happened without me realizing what I was doing. I was still unsure how exactly the ability worked, but I would never know unless I tried. If I was going to accidentally hurt anyone in the process, I would rather it be Cole.
Damien stood at Cole’s side, watching me as I knelt before him. “Ground yourself to him through touch. Reach out in your thoughts until you feel that pull.”
I took a deep breath, reaching out to touch his head.
“Don’t fucking touch me, witch!”He jerked his head back to headbutt me, but before he could hit me, Damien pulled a dagger from its sheath, pressing it to Cole’s throat.
Cole went rigid.
“Touch her, and I’ll end you.” Damien’s lips curled, fangs bared, and his eyes lowered on Cole, who remained frozen in place. The defiance in Cole’s expression didn’t fade as he stared up at him.
A mask of anger covered Damien’s face, but I knew it hurt him to do this, knew how deeply Cole’s betrayal wounded him. Despite that, there wasn’t a shred of sympathy in Damien’s eyes.
“Don’t think the knowledge you have will protect you. I won’t hesitate to slit your throat where you kneel.” Damien lowered himself, the blade pressing into Cole’s neck until a pearl of blood oozed where metal met skin. “You will regret the day you chose to cross us.”
When Cole didn’t respond, Damien pulled the blade back, but didn’t sheath it.
I reached my hands out, trembles rattling me to the tips of my fingers. I summoned everything in me to be strong, trying to figure out how to use this power I hadn’t known existed until today. I’d done it before. I could do it again.
Damien spoke quickly, last minute instructions, before my hands locked onto Cole’s head. “We need to know where Marcus and his group went, what they’re up to. Don’t linger too long in there. Anything you can get will be good, Cas. If you can’t find anything, we can try again later.”
I took Cole’s head in my hands, closing my eyes as I focused on where we connected. It didn’t take long before I felt it, as if something were pulling me in. I reached out to whatever it was, allowed it to guide me.
My head fell back, muscles spasming and locking up as thoughts and emotions invaded me. Air caught in my throat as my mind was assaulted. Images of Cole’s thoughts flooded me, visions of him and Amara. I watched through Cole’s eyes as Amara brought him to meet Marcus for the first time. She’d been the one who led him astray, had been with Marcus from the very beginning.
You want to get back at the goddess responsible for your parent’s deaths, don’t you? Why continue to serve this goddess? She’s the reason for all your misery.
Amara’s voice was faint and echoed out through my head as she spoke to Cole, luring him to their side like a siren when he was most vulnerable. Cole’s guilt stung me; he’d been young, and so vulnerable in his grief that he had been so easy to manipulate. He had been Marcus’ tool from the beginning.
Then I was witnessing our first meeting, and the sneaking suspicion he’d felt of what I was to Damien coiled around me. Everything he’d done was to get close to me, to get to know me. It was all so he could feed any and all information to Marcus and use me to get to Damien.
A prickling pain, like the stab of a needle, shot behind my eyes. Like my body was warning me of something. However, I ignored it, pressing forward. I didn’t have what I needed, couldn’t stop now. Just a little longer.
I needed to know what Marcus was doing. What his plans were. Where he escaped to. He spoke of the darklings. What was their connection? Did he get sick kicks out of sacrificing humans and his own kind to them? Who was this woman he spoke of that wanted me?
The images blurred together as I searched, until Marcus stood before me. I almost released Cole the moment our eyes met, but I resisted. I couldn’t let my fear stop me. It wasn’t me he was looking at. It was Cole, whose eyes I peered through.
Cole and Marcus were gathering with others of their kind near a building on the outskirts of town. The smell of oil filled my senses, and we were surrounded by rusted metal walls of some sort of salvage shop. Just outside the windows were high chain-link fencing that stretched around a large yard, containing scrap metal and junk. The faint sound of rushing water reached my ears.
Before I could get a better look at it, I was suddenly pulled off track. Gravity shifted around me, and I fell, slamming into Cole’s consciousness elsewhere. Marcus walked beside me, deep into the woods. I didn’t recognize the forest, and they could have been anywhere.
My vision flickered, as if the memory was skipping like a scratched disc. My hold was slipping, and the needle-like pain worsened behind my eyes.
This is nothing. You’ve suffered worse at his hand. He doesn’t deserve your mercy.
Marcus stopped, turning toward me, and I ignored the voice that rippled through my mind. I couldn’t afford to dwell on it, not when I was so close to learning something of Marcus' plans, what his connection to the darklings might be. His lips moved as he spoke to Cole, but his voice was muffled, and I couldn’t understand what he was saying, my hold weakening.
We passed through the mouth of a cave in the mountainside, stepping into the darkness as it enveloped my vision. The inky depths of the cave were dense around us, and the light faded the farther we went, until it was so dark, I couldn’t see inches in front of my face. We walked for a long while until we stopped suddenly.
