Chapter 38
Changer
CLAIRE
Iswallowed hard, my breath shallow. I needed to know what was waiting out there in the shadows, but the yellow eyes disappeared.
The chanting rose again, a low rope of voices tightening around the fire.
The air hummed with the scrape of feet on shell and the wet, hungry answers of beasts.
Smoke braided with the scent of herbs and iron and pushed into my face, and every sense dragged my attention to the circle where Bastien stood, a pale silhouette lit from below.
Was it truly his duty, as the Duke of Roselyn, to participate in a funeral ritual? I’d never seen the Duke of Nightfall at my family’s estate charging moon crystals. Not that Mama would’ve invited him. But still.
More than a prickle of jealousy raced through me when he clasped hands with Hera.
With her long pointed black nails and blood-red lips, she was everything I feared and longed to be.
Clearly, there were things about the Duke I didn’t know, like who he was before he became a vampire prince of the House Allard.
The vision he showed me made me believe he wasn’t born a vampire, like his niece and nephew, but was made into one through a blood-drinking ritual. What was I missing?
“We invoke the powers granted to us by the God of the Underworld!” shouted Hera.
The ground trembled beneath my feet. “Send our beloved’s magick into the body of the worthiest witch in our presence!
” shouted Hera, raising their clasped hands into the air.
Her eyes glowed a demonic red. His caught fire like sunlight on a frozen pond.
It was like I was seeing him for the first time.
My hands were trembling, but not from the cold.
Bastien had been a witch—a Dark Witch. Duty had brought him here.
Duty to help his people. “Hear our plea, great shadow spirit!” shouted Hera.
“Give us the strength to fight back against the threat that plagues our people!” She meant…
my people. My family. “Infuse Temperance’s gift inside a warrior who will protect us. ”
So it was true. There was a war. A sick feeling sat in my stomach and angry tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. It seemed Bastien had already chosen his side.
Power swirled around the two of them, popping and hissing, while the cold wind blew the sweet smell of dark magick through the bare trees.
I had no weapons. No magick. No coven. No means to defend myself when their warrior appeared.
I had nothing except my desire to keep my sister safe from all of this.
To prevent her from being just another skeleton in our family graveyard.
There was no mistake. These witches and their beasts were coming for her.
A sob lodged itself in my throat. Beautiful, reckless Sera. So full of life and talent. She deserved every good thing in the world. I wished I had been born with magick so I could lead the coven instead of letting all this fall into Seraphina’s lap. If only I had power.
The bloodstone around my neck warmed against my skin, throbbing like a second heartbeat. Bastien might preach acceptance, but I couldn’t accept this was Sera’s fate. To fight and die in this war.
Feeling lost, alone, and so, so stupid, I backed up a pace, and then another, needing space and time to think.
To do something to warn Sera about what was coming.
Running away wasn’t an option. It was too cold, and Bastien would only catch me.
And besides, if I left his service before our contract was up, I’d die.
I had to come up with a plan that wouldn’t blow up in my face like the others.
My attention snapped to the four objects sitting on flat stones around the circle.
A curved horn of a sheep. A piece of snowflake obsidian.
A wilted wild rose. And a feather that looked like it once belonged to a goose.
Demonic relics were once owned by a demon or imbibed with demonic power.
The Dark Witches used them to channel demonic energy to fuel their magick.
So many of my family members died trying to destroy these stupid little trinkets.
I glanced up at the moon for guidance. Please, Diana. Give me the strength to be better. To protect my family. To understand the way forward.
The chanting of the witches was deafening. Louder. Faster. The ritual was coming to an end, and someone was going to receive new powers. I could feel it.
If Diana heard my plea for help, she wasn’t answering.
I glanced around the graveyard, looking for some kind of sign pointing me in the right direction, but… there was nothing. Nothing. Nothing… except a deep, low growl that came from behind the casting circle. I found those same strange yellow eyes peering at me through the darkness.
Something had me in its sights.
Another tide of dark magick swirled around the circle, but I didn’t let it scare me. I was so tired of cowering. So tired of being afraid. So unbelievably sick of watching others and wishing I was different. I was so fed up with being… me.
Step into your power. Tansy’s words.
You are fire. Bastien’s words.
I squeezed my eyes shut, letting them infuse me, strengthening me. If I wanted the world to change to keep Sera safe, then the old version of me, the one who didn’t believe these things, had to die. When I opened my eyes again, the beast was still staring me down, waiting.
“Show yourself.”
The eyes blinked, and then the creature padded forward. Torchlight illuminated it for what it was—a massive gray wolf. Its shaggy fur wet with snow. It’s muzzle slick with blood.
Rumors of echoed in my head. Alec’s story of the werewolf. I should be scared of the beast, but nothing in me told me to run. A calm settled over me. A knowing. The wolf was said to be the Moon Goddess’s sacred companion. Her spy. The one who told her secrets when it howled each night.
Maybe the beast Alec saw wasn’t a werewolf, but one of Diana’s wolves. Maybe the woman he saw wasn’t a woman at all, but our goddess walking amongst her people?
I locked eyes with the wolf. Did Diana send you?
If the wolf could hear my thoughts, it didn’t move.
Wind whipped graveyard dust into my eyes, and I had to shield my face, but I didn’t let it stop me.
I took a tentative step forward, when a brilliant light filled the graveyard, like a star had fallen from the sky.
Warmth flooded my veins, and the last thing I remembered was the sound of my name being shouted as I fell headlong against a gravestone, before everything went black.