Lucille #3
She pressed her hands to the lattice window, most of her face obscured, only the faint line of her lips and the slope of her nose visible through the gaps.
Nothing distinctive. Nothing I should’ve recognized.
And yet… something about her felt familiar.
Except, I never saw the face of the cloaked female my mother had met.
“Your little adversary has finally found me,” a female taunted inside the cottage.
I whipped my head to the side.
Heavenly Shit.
I ducked behind the freestanding kitchen counter and peered around the corner.
Lilith, wearing a sensual long dress, and a female I’d never seen before gazed out the window where the cloaked female had been.
Was it Melanie?
The straight, inky black hair falling over her chest and the olive hue beneath her sharp cheekbones matched what I remembered from my dream-walk to Oliver.
But that was all I had to go on.
She stood as tall and imposing as Lilith. She even wore the same dress, except red instead of mauve.
In fact, if I’d just glanced at the two of them, I would’ve assumed they were related.
“Soon, your little hideaway won’t be so hidden,” she mused sweetly.
I froze.
Her voice sounded familiar.
But I’d never met Melanie. If this was even her.
I mentally shook myself, remembering Cato’s notes.
Somnivado was the dreaming realm, meaning the subconscious was in control, not necessarily memory. Anything here could be altered or changed. I had to be wary of what I trusted.
“Oh, child.” Lilith tilted her head, pity softening her voice. “Anastasia will be dealt with before she ruins anything with her incessant ploys.”
The female glared.
“Why are you doing this? You know you can’t trust the council. You never should’ve made that runed deal with Etan!”
“You don’t think I know how those sanctimonious bastards scheme? What they’ve done to their own kind? To us?” Lilith curled her painted lips into a menacing grin. “Do you think he played me for a fool, Melanie?”
So it was her.
Lilith glided forward, her mauve dress swaying innocently while every step was a threat.
Melanie backed up, bumping into the wooden coffee table, trapped.
“Hasn’t he once already? Your plans to take over Hell are suicidal. That’s exactly what he wants.”
“Worried about me?” Lilith mocked.
“I’m being useful,” Melanie spat. “As you demand.”
“The infection is made. He won’t know what hit him.” She slid a nail across Melanie’s forehead, pushing her hair behind her ear. “I’m halfway to avenging every witch who’s been ruined by their filth.”
Melanie scoffed and leaned back as far as she could.
“And Anastasia?”
Lilith shrugged. “Necessary evils.”
“What if I’ve seen someone who can make the infection better than yours? Get you to your goals faster? What will that earn me?”
Lilith laughed. “Nothing I’ll ever give you.”
She scanned the cottage, her lip lifting like a mother who’d come into a clean, exquisite home and still found it lacking.
“I think I’ve done enough.”
Then she turned and left.
A soft click sounded on the other side of the door, and a pulse of red flashed through the window.
Melanie picked up a glass jar from the coffee table and chucked it at the door, screaming.
“I’ll show that bitch!”
Right as she was about to turn and find me huddled in her kitchen, pain shot through my head, forcing me from the dream-walk.
And there she was.
The bane of my existence, carving her sharp claws into my mind.
“Oh goodie, I thought that’d do the trick.”
A smirk coated her words, and I imagined one hid beneath her hood.
“What do you want?”
“Come now, Lucy. You’re smarter than that.”
“I haven’t dream-walked to Miriam yet.”
A piece of yellowed paper materialized in her hands, looking a lot like a page from Cato’s book.
“Oh. Well, then you won’t be needing this.”
She crumpled it in her hand and raised it over the ball of my purple-and-white power.
The paper darkened, slowly burning.
I lurched forward. “Wait!”
She dropped it into my flames.
I gaped.
“You think I’m going to do what you say now?”
“Please.” She tapped her head. “It was symbolic. The information is still up here. All yours once you do what I want.”
“What’s so important about me dream-walking to Miriam? What information do you want from her?”
That I wouldn’t be giving her.
The female raised her hand, surveying the red glistening on her nails and splattering her fingers.
Blood.
In fact, she had it smeared across her other hand and her boots too.
“An answer to a very important question.”
I huffed.
“Don’t you need to tell me your question to get your answer?”
“No. That’s the plus side of communicating with the most powerful seer in the world.”
Her hand dropped back into her cloak.
“Time’s ticking, Lucy. I assumed it’d be done by now. Don’t you want to save your mom? Or are you too busy mooning over the two males in your life? Did you forget about her?” she taunted.
I luscelered toward her, swinging my fist.
Like last time, she anticipated it and moved before it landed.
“Tik-tok.” She laughed.
Her cocky voice drove into my ears and followed me into the waking world.