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“You will never be alone with those people,” Kristof promised. “And we can lock them down somewhere else if you prefer. I think we should even. Maybe ask Matilda if she will hold them in case we need them after we question them.”
Inez frowned. “Is that why Cerdic’s gone? He went to talk to Matilda? Do we need her?”
“You don’t need to be the one to handle everything on your own,” I said gently. “She has asked you for help with her problems as part of her family, it’s fair you can do the same. You were so scared that we thought of who we could call to protect you as a mother should from those people.”
Inez sighed. “But she has so much already going on that—”
“So do you,” Eddie drawled. “You’re fighting Erebus’s fucking champion who burned some more crops last night always trying to fuck with us. Let a super adult handle this especially if my mom is involved. She will not—she’s fucking terrifying and knows no limit, Inez.”
He sounded more like a traumatized boy, but he knew his mom better than I did. I believed she was soulless if Eddie said so, but she wasn’t as powerful as Eddie felt. That was the part that made him sound like a traumatized kid.
The Pinault coven was only now in the top ten most powerful covens because of how many were taken out. They weren’t even the coven of somewhere big like Paris. Fine, not every major city made the covens powerful—my family coven was a prime example of that—but it did track a lot of times in such old cities.
“What exactly did Aether want you to do to help Inez?” Kristof asked.
I licked my lips and met Inez’s gaze. “The first vision was of me handing you pages, but over time. It was day and night, and there was snow outside of the castle and not. The feeling over months and months of time.”
“So don’t rush and be patient or I could break,” she whispered, nodding when I did. “What does—drawing. She has you drawing something for me.”
“This is why I didn’t even tell your other nobles when Cerdic said I should,” I chuckled, kissing Inez’s hand. “I knew you would immediately figure out what was going on because you’re so smart.” Hope filled my heart when she blushed.
She squeezed my hand and cleared her throat. “So She sent you images to draw me?”
“Yes, but I couldn’t make any rhyme or reason of it. Now seeing those people, I think I’ve been drawing something you saw. It’s a moment in time from your view. I think my sketches are meant to be keys to unlock your memory a bit at a time so you can process what you went through and not… Revert? It felt like Aether was worried about you reverting.”
“Me too,” she whispered. “Or shattering. I feel so fragile again.” She pulled her hands away and covered her face. “I’ve been working so, so hard. I’m tired of feeling this broken and always like I can’t handle my life. I don’t want to keep living like that. Why? Why do I have to bear all of this?”
My heart broke for her before she even started crying. Jaxon had sat up to hug her, but Kristof pulled her off the chaise and held her, whispering that she was not broken, just beautifully weathered like the rest of us. And she would live a happy life soon, he would make sure of it. He loved her and their love made up for the hard parts.
She nodded along and agreed, clutching to him like she didn’t know if she could survive her next breath without him.
And I hated myself for messing up so badly that I knew he was the only one who could help her right then, reach her.
“Does Aether want her to see the first sketch yet?” Kristof asked me when Inez was calm again.
“No,” Jaxon answered before I could. “Something changed. That was Aether’s panic. I think Keres or one of those with her found those people and helped them get here. It seemed like Eddie’s mom sent out messengers to find them and maybe did, but she wanted to talk to them first. I don’t think they met her, only that she found Inez.
“It felt like there was more time, and then I saw those people have a vehicle Inez fixed and a map of where we are. I didn’t see it, but it feels like that was from Keres with a way for them to bypass the Pinault coven and come right here to start trouble. I think they are getting help from Erebus directly as we are from Aether.”
It made sense if one could give visions, the other would as well.
Matilda showed up before lunch and all of us were shocked she arrived. She simply shrugged and said, “I love her and she’s taken too many hits. I wouldn’t have survived my own struggles without her assistance. I won’t be any less to her.”
Inez simply hugged her and thanked Matilda, asking her to protect her from the woman who was apparently her birth mother, but more importantly, her brother.
Fear shot through me, and I shared a look with Jaxon and Cerdic to see if they were thinking the same terrifying thought.
“Inez, did your brother do to you what I told you my older sister did to me?” Kristof asked gently.
“I don’t know,” Inez rasped. “I really don’t know, but even Aether made it clear not to be alone with him because he would touch me. If he hasn’t already, that clearly was part of his plan.” She looked at him in a way that killed me, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I wouldn’t survive that. I would shatter.”
Kristof hugged her tightly. “I won’t allow that monster to ever touch you. I will end him, my love. We get our answers about the Pinault coven and end the threat to you.”
“Don’t let them get me,” she begged, clutching to him and breaking down again.
“Goddess above, if this is her reaction when she doesn’t remember,” Matilda whispered and gave them space. She moved to the other side of the room, shaking her head before focusing on me. “Cerdic says you have been tapped by Aether to manage this?”
That wasn’t exactly how I saw it, but I told her what I knew, what Inez had said, and even what Eddie had filled us in on. She nodded as she took it all in.
