Chapter 25
Cate
Wishing it wouldn’t be a death sentence to light a flame so we could see our surroundings, I lead Dom through the darkened hallways of this castlelike fortress.
“Do you know where you’re going?” she whispers fiercely, the first sound either of us has dared to make since we entered the stone building.
I shake my head, knowing she can’t see me but not wanting to risk making any more noise, continuing to feel my way along the corridors.
I don’t know where I’m going, not really, but I know I’m going to find my sister, and for now, that’s all I need.
I let my intuition guide me through the darkness.
Andra and I have been together since before we were born.
We have never spent this much time apart, and I vow to never let her slip from me again.
If I hadn’t been so focused on Callum, none of this would have ever happened. I should have manipulated him the first time he came for me, gotten the information I needed, and escaped La Puissance before Lady M ever had the chance to take my sister.
And yet I can’t force myself to regret it.
I will save my sister. I will make sure Callum secures his spot as the Scotan candidate.
Only then will I allow myself to think about what comes after.
I’m still not convinced a future with Callum is the right thing for him.
But I pray we both live long enough to make that choice for ourselves.
I drag my fingers along the rough stone edges of the walls, using touch to guide me. The silence holds no sounds of fighting or skirmishes, no one raising any kind of alarm. I let that soothe my fears for Callum.
At this very moment, he might be watching the life drain from the man who, up until recently, showed me nothing but kindness and love.
What a difference a few months makes.
My instincts pull me toward a shadowed alcove, a quiet and hidden space, surely, but certainly not big enough to act as a hiding place for a human being.
Dom reaches up and grasps the sconce above us, an unlit candle tucked inside. The stones behind it creak as a small slit opens, just big enough for us to slip into.
“Good call,” I tell her once we’re on the other side of the wall.
“The Scotan Castle has a couple of hidden passageways. They’re important for royals, so we can escape if there’s an ambush.
Of course, Cal and I mostly used them to sneak into each other’s rooms, usually with the aim of scaring the hell out of the other.
” The smile is audible in her voice, even if I can’t see it on her face.
There is somehow even less light here, and I’m wishing we had thought to grab the candle from the sconce. I reach back for Dom’s hand, and she grasps mine tightly. We make our way along the curved stone wall, keeping it at our backs so we have some semblance of direction.
I don’t know how long we walk; time seems to lose all meaning in the black hole of the passage, my eyes never fully adjusting.
Eventually we come to a shard of light peeking from below the seam of a wooden door.
Dom presses her ear to the wood, but it’s too dark for me to make out any of her signals. Without warning, she rams her shoulder into the door and it springs open, flooding the hallway with light.
I rush into the room, my eyes immediately landing on the crumpled form of my sister. “Andra!” I cry out, fear gripping my heart when she doesn’t stir. I fall to my knees at her side, searching for a pulse, a breath in her chest.
“She’s alive.”
I whirl around to catch the owner of the pained and breathless words. Bianca sits chained to the wall, her face bruised, her dress in tatters. Her thick red curls hang around her face, tangled and matted.
Dom checks Bianca over for injuries. “She seems to be okay, other than the obvious bruises.”
I cradle Andra’s head in my lap. “What happened to my sister?”
Bianca meets my eyes, but whatever she sees there pulls her gaze away. “Lady M…well, it was as you said, Cate.”
“Yes, I know that part already. Tell me what happened, Bianca!”
She sighs, blinking away tears, but I’m too focused on my sister to hold much pity for her in the moment. “Lady M is a Gifted.”
Dom sucks in a sharp breath and she shoots me a weary look. “Did you know about this? What can she do?”
Bianca shakes her head. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Nothing I’ve ever even heard of. She can amplify our Gifts.” She hesitates. “Or she can block them.”
“She was amplifying Andra’s Sight?” Dom forms the questions better than I can. I can barely think straight through all the rage clouding my vision. This woman turned my sister into a shell of her former self. And I let her.
Bianca nods. “She burned her out, I think. Andra collapsed yesterday and she hasn’t regained consciousness since.”
“What happened to you?” Dom asks with more care than I manage to stir up in the present moment.
“I tried to tell the other girls, the La Puissance girls, what was going on.”
This grabs my attention. I look over Bianca’s wounds. “Our friends did this to you?”
She shakes her head, wincing at the movement. “No. Lady M’s other girls. They came to my room late last night.”
Dom and I exchange a weary look. There are other girls, Gifted presumably. This is worse than we anticipated.
“Where is Lady M right now?” Dom takes Bianca’s cuffs in her hands, looking for a way to unlock them.
“I don’t know,” Bianca mutters. “We should have listened to you from the beginning, Cate. I’m sorry it took me so long to believe you.”
“There’s no time for that now.” I set Andra’s head gently back on the ground, pulling a pin from my hair and handing it to Dom. “Here.”
Dom takes it and immediately begins working on the locks. “We need to get to Cal. He could be facing Lady M right now.”
“She won’t be alone,” Bianca warns.
“How many are with her?” Dom asks as the cuffs around Bianca’s wrists clatter to the hard stone floor.
I flinch at the sound, but it’s Bianca’s response that makes my stomach roil.
“All the rest of the girls from the club.” She hesitates, rubbing her wrists.
“And?” I push her.
“I’ve seen many others since we’ve been here, but never all at the same time.”
“How many?” Dom repeats, her voice cold and cutting.
“I don’t know. At least twenty.”
My stomach heaves once again and for a second I think I might throw up at the thought of Callum and Alex facing off against Gifted who are having their powers amplified, Gifted we don’t even know. They could have powers we’ve never even dreamed of. “We need to go.”
Dom twists the pin, freeing Bianca’s ankles, the cuffs dropping with another echoing clatter.
Bianca immediately moves to Andra’s side, her hands hovering over her seemingly lifeless body. She looks at me. “She’s going to be okay. Just exhausted and hungry.”
Dom is already halfway out the door. “We need to go now, Cate.”
I shove my hands under Andra’s body, attempting to hoist her into my arms. I don’t make it very far before the door of the room slams open, the wood splintering with a crack when it hits the stone wall.
I cover Andra’s body with mine. She moans and it’s faint, but at least it’s a small sign of life.
I don’t have time to give thanks.
Lady M storms into the room, three women I’ve never seen before trailing in her wake. She points to Dom without saying a single word. Dom reaches for her sword, but before it’s out of the sheath, she’s clawing at her throat, gasping for breath.
I push Andra into Bianca’s arms, dashing for Dom, catching her as she collapses.
Her weight drags us both down to the cold floor.
“Dom! Dom!” I cry helplessly, no idea how to fight off an attack I can’t see.
Dom continues to scratch at her own throat, her gaze wide and wild.
My eyes rove frantically over the Gifted flanking Lady M, but each of them stares stoically at Dom, giving me no hint as to who is responsible for stealing the air from her lungs.
Ripping the dagger from the sheath at my thigh, I lunge for the nearest Gifted, but before I can move two steps, my limbs become so heavy that crossing the few feet separating me from the person hurting Dom seems like an insurmountable task.
Still, none of them flinch, none of them so much as blink.
“Bianca! Help Dom, please!” I struggle against the weight dragging me back, fighting to gain even an inch.
Bianca is quiet behind me.
I turn, pivoting away from Lady M and her small army. As soon as I do, I regain full range of motion. I stumble, crashing hard on the ground at Dom’s side, my knee connecting painfully with the stone floor.
She’s still, no longer choking and gasping for breath. Her lips are a sickly shade of blue, her eyes closed.
I meet Bianca’s eyes. They are filled with tears I know match mine. “No.” The single word comes out on a whisper, as if the air is being squeezed from my own lungs.
“I’m so sorry, Cate.” Bianca reaches for me, but I shrug away from her embrace.
I blink several times, as if I can clear away the image in front of me. As if I can blink back time.
This is all my fault. If we hadn’t come here, if I hadn’t dragged Callum and Alex and Dom into this, none of this would have happened.
Maybe Callum was right all along. Maybe the Gifted are cursed and evil. Maybe we don’t deserve to live unrestricted lives. Because look what can happen.
I stand on shaky legs, my knee still throbbing, moving toward my sister. I don’t have the strength left in me to lift her, so I shield her from Lady M. Bianca stands at my side, and though I don’t know if I will ever be able to truly forgive her, I’m thankful for her presence in this moment.
For the first time since she told me to make Callum Reid fall in love with me, I look Lady M in the eye. “I will kill you for that.”
She smirks. “You’re welcome to try.”
I lunge for her, but once again, one of the Gifted standing at her back stops me. She doesn’t even need to lay a hand on me, and I’m struggling to move. “Let me go!”