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Her side of the story also shed light on another, far more disturbing side of the story. Bryanna had spoken of a vampire, someone of Alberich’s kin, who had the ability to mangle his mind. An ability like that was something not even Sigrid could master. Sky had come to the same conclusion, her set jaw and balled fists betraying her bristling anger.
“Jeremy killed Alberich.” Saying it out loud, I wondered how I had not seen it before. My cousin had wanted the throne all along. It wasn’t hard to imagine him resorting to murder to get what he wanted. I felt sick to my stomach, but it made perfect sense.
Jeremy didn’t go after the witches to avenge my brother. He wanted to silence them, because he knew Bryanna had managed to escape. A secret lover was not a part of his plan.
Ursula’s eyes narrowed, but there was no malice in her tone. She just sounded tired. “Your cousin slaughtered most of our coven. People that I cared for, deeply. I’ve been living in fear of him finding me ever since.”
“Ursula, I’m so sorry.” Sky got up to comfort the young woman, wrapping her arms around her shoulders.
Watching Ursula stiffen, before leaning into Sky’s embrace, it hit me just how young this witch was, and how alone and helpless she must have felt all this time.
Seeing her cry, probably for the first time in a while, my heart softened towards the young witch. I hated to ask any more of her, but I realized then that Sky was right. If we were to truly hold our own against Jeremy, witches and vampires needed to stand together. And we needed Ursula to convince her remaining coven members that we were on the same side.
“Look.” I straightened up, speaking sincerely for the first time since we arrived on her doorstep. “I have no right to ask anything of you, god knows you’ve been through enough. But we need your help. Jeremy is still a threat, and he always will be unless we stand together and take him down once and for all.”
Ursula leaned her head on Sky’s shoulder, watching me from under pale strands of bleached hair. “I know that this vampire guy needs to be stopped. But your word alone won’t be enough to get the witches to join you. They won’t listen to me, either. Jeremy drove a wedge between our kind, it’s a wound too deep to simply ignore.”
“I know it’s a long shot,” I persisted, “but please, you have to try to convince them. For the twins’ sake… I can’t keep them hidden forever, and Jeremy might know of their existence already. He has to be stopped before more blood is shed. Please, Ursula.”
Sky gave me an approving smile, but the witch shook her head, getting to her feet. “I’m sorry. But you have to leave, okay? You got what you came for, please just go.”
“But–”
“Leave!” Ursula’s eyes sparked a neon violet, and I retracted my reaching hand.
“All right.” I dropped my hands to my sides in defeat. “We’ll go. Just promise me you’ll think about it, okay?”
Ursula didn’t respond, already striding past us to open the front door.
Sky and I left without protest. The afternoon had borne multiple stunning revelations, but the meeting with the witch ended on a heavy note. Jeremy was still out there, and we still had no way of defeating him.
We were alone in this battle, facing an enemy far stronger than either of us could handle.
As the day drew to a close, my heart grew heavy. It had taken years to find the one true love of my life. How long would we have before fate ripped us apart once more?
Chapter 18
SKY
“VampireLiqueur?”Irereadthe label on the bottle to make sure I wasn’t crazy. I glanced over my shoulder at Jordan, who lolled on the kitchen bench with another bottle of the dark liquid. “Are you drunk?”
“No.” Jordan hiccupped, rolling right off the bench and reaching for the bottle in my hand. “This is part of the planning process. In about three more bottles I’ll have formulated a cunning plan to defeat my bastard cousin.”
I lifted the bottle out of her reach, tilting it to read the description on the label. “Cherry flavored blood? It smells like battery acid. Jordan, how can you drink this?”
“It’s not so bad if you just swig it back without thinking about it.” Jordan took another swipe at the bottle and I staved her off with a palm to her face.
I slipped past her and sat down on the bench, patting the empty space beside me. “Now is not the time to be getting wasted,high lady, we need a plan.”
Instead of rejoining me on the bench, Jordan poured herself more liquor, drank it, repeated the process, then turned and paced up and down the kitchen with a distinct frown. “Why are you dressed like a cowboy?”
“What!?” I glanced down at my attire. The ankle length denim skirt, frilly shirt and patterned boots suddenly looked less ‘cottage core’ and more ‘rootin tootin rodeo supreme’. “I thought you liked these boots?”
“You wear them well, partner.” The intoxicated woman chugged from the bottle, the unapproachable outlaw to my apparent sheriff.
I looked on silently, sensing that the vampiress needed a moment to ponder whatever it was that troubled her. It wasn’t hard to imagine what.
Jordan had been in a thunderous mood since we left the witch’s residence. No doubt she was beating herself up for having set us down this dark path. She blamed herself for not realizing Jeremy’s schemes sooner.
