Chapter 1 #2
“They were there too, but they didn’t say much.
They just kept staring at me like I was some disease they had to infect themselves with.
Honestly, the feeling was mutual,” I bit out, not bothering to hide the contempt in my voice.
“William did most of the talking though. He gave me this bullshit holier-than-thou speech about how he was guiding me toward my destiny. That it was what needed to be done for the greater good. Or as he put it, ‘Sacrificing the smaller parts for the wellbeing of the whole’.”
Dominic made a humorless noise at the back of his throat. “I take it you were the ‘smaller parts’ he was referring to.”
“The one and only,” I scowled and then rubbed my palms against my knees.
Blowing out a breath, I went on to tell them about everything that happened after the talking and begging part of the meeting was done and then I told them about the hooded men and their chalice of blood and the strange chanting that felt old and evil and wrong.
The way it had felt like they were pushing something foreign into me, ripping me apart at the seams so that it would fit something else inside.
Something that I knew didn’t belong there.
Both of them listened quietly, without interruption, but I could see the tension and anger they were trying so hard to hide breaking through with every passing second.
Trace’s breathing had gone shallow, controlled with obvious effort, while the boyish ease that usually softened Dominic’s face drained away, hardening his features into cold, angular lines.
“It was only when I realized it was the Sang Noir keeping me trapped that I finally dropped it and was able to port myself out of there.” I lifted my gaze to Trace and then to Dominic, the bitter reality hollowing out my stomach. “But it was too late. I was too late.”
“What do you mean you were too late? What are you saying?” asked Trace as something in his expression faltered.
“She’s saying they anointed her as the Fourth Horseman,” answered Dominic without taking his eyes off me.
I wasn’t sure how, but somehow, Dominic always knew what I was saying or feeling even before I voiced it.
I’d always assumed it was because of the bloodbond or the fact that he was a Revenant, but lately I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more to it.
Something much deeper than I’d ever bothered to allow myself to see.
My father’s words from my birthday visit with him in the Spirit Realm stumbled into my mind again.
‘You have loved them in many ways, and in many lifetimes, baby girl. The Timeline may have converged this time, but providence remains.’
I still wasn’t entirely sure what any of that meant, but I knew it was important.
“How do we even know the ritual worked?” asked Trace. “If you were able to port back, maybe they weren’t able to finish it,” he suggested, grasping onto any straw within his reach. Anything to not make this as hopeless and fucked as it really was.
“They finished it,” I said painfully, feeling it inside.
Tears burned behind my lids as I tried to hold his gaze.
“I’m pretty sure that’s what the voices were.
The Horsemen. It was like I could hear them in my head, telling me to go after the baby.
To end him. That it was what needed to be done. I couldn’t shut them off.”
A single tear streaked down my face as the memory of the screaming commands flared and echoed in my head, abrasive enough to make my vision blur. I swiped at my face, angry with myself and knowing that crying about it wasn’t going to change a damn thing.
“And now?” asked Dominic, his dark gaze taking me apart like a secret only he knew.
“Nothing. It’s just…quiet.”
“Somehow I doubt that’s a fucking good thing.” Trace looked over at Dominic as they did that silent-conversation-with-their-eyes thing again.
My stomach instantly soured. Because I wasn’t done.
Not even close.
“There’s something else. Something William said.”
Both of them looked back at me, their attention snapping to a point, like they already knew they weren’t going to like what came next.
As much as I wanted to forget everything the Senior Magister had said, to shove it down and pretend it hadn’t lodged itself somewhere deep inside me, I knew they needed to know the truth too.
Or at least as much of it as I could piece together.
“I don’t remember everything perfectly,” I said, tracing the seam of my jeans with my thumb.
“There’s still parts of it that don’t fully make sense to me, but right before they anointed me, William said something about a spell.
” I looked up at them from under my lashes.
“About how we’d all played right into his hands. ”
A knowing look hardened Dominic’s expression, his jaw locking as though he already knew where I was going with this. “Go on.”
“He mentioned his High Casters working some kind of spell on us,” I continued, choosing each word carefully as unease crawled up my spine. “Something tied to the deadly sins.”
The list followed unbidden, lining up in my mind with uncomfortable clarity.
Pride. Greed. Lust. Envy. Gluttony. Wrath. Sloth.
“I think they’ve been…controlling us somehow,” I said, testing the words out on my own tongue. “Or at the very least, influencing us.”
Somewhere in the back of my mind, where I shoved all the things I didn’t want to examine too closely, I’d known exactly what William had been implying.
I just hadn’t been ready to say it out loud.
To line it up in the light of day and admit how much of it fit.
But I couldn’t hide from the truth anymore either.
“Everything that happened. Everything we—” I couldn’t even finish the sentence.
“Hey, come on. We don’t know anything for sure,” said Trace as he shifted closer, his knee brushing up against mine as he reached out and touched my leg in a comforting gesture.
“It’s probably bullshit. The Order loves getting inside people’s heads.
They’ll use anything they have. Fear tactics.
Psychological warfare. It doesn’t mean—”
“It’s not bullshit,” I said and then pulled away from his touch without thinking. “It’s not.”
The contact breaking felt louder than it should have.
Trace frowned, the crease between his brows deepening as he stared down at my leg as though I had kicked him, while Dominic went very still beside me, watching the interaction the way a hawk surveys its hunting grounds.
“He was too specific,” I went on despite the discomfort, because I needed them to understand the severity of what he’d said.
To understand that we couldn’t just brush this under the rug.
“He wasn’t guessing. He wasn’t throwing random shit at the wall to see what would stick.
He said—” I hesitated, my cheeks burning as I met their eyes.
“‘All that fighting. And fornicating. And slothful laying about.’”
Neither one of them said a single word. I knew they were doing the same thing I was…replaying the last few weeks in their minds. The arguments. The tension. The indecision. The nights we’d tried to forget the world was closing in around us. The mistakes we couldn’t take back.
The more I thought about it, the less it felt like coincidence, and as much as I didn’t want to follow that line of thinking all the way through, it was already there, forcing itself into the forefront of my mind.
Trace was the first to break the silence, though his voice lacked most of the punch it had from earlier.
“How could they have worked a spell on us when the house is warded?” he asked, his voice coming out low and bemused, as though he couldn’t reconcile any of it in his mind. He turned to face Dominic, and I followed his gaze because frankly, I’d been asking myself the same exact question.
“I can’t say with any certainty. They would’ve needed to place a talisman on the premises, and I don’t see how they could have done so with the protections Caleb put in place.” He took a slow sip of his drink before finishing, “Unless, of course, he didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?” asked Trace.
“Put the wards in place.”
“What? No. That’s impossible.” I shook my head, cutting the thought off before it could go any further. “Caleb’s our friend. He wouldn’t do that. If he said the house is warded, then it’s warded.”
“And that conviction is founded on what, precisely?” asked Dominic as he stretched his arm along the back of the sofa, his posture maddeningly casual. “Perhaps the Order got to him first.”
“Then he would have told us,” I fired back, certain of it. “He would have told me his hands were tied—that he couldn’t help us. He wouldn’t have pretended everything was fine and then betrayed me.” I turned to Trace, looking for validation. For backup. “Tell him.”
Trace hesitated, just barely, but it still felt like a gut-punch.
“Look, I don’t think Caleb would do something like that either, at least not by choice,” he said carefully, his voice dropping so low on the last part that it felt like it was vibrating over my skin. “But I don’t think we should take anything off the table. Not until we’re sure.”
“You can’t seriously believe Caleb would sell us out,” I snapped, anger flaring in my chest that we were even having this conversation. “You know him, Trace. He wouldn’t do that to us. To me! Not after everything we’ve been through!”
It wasn’t him. It couldn’t be.
He’d stood beside me too many times. Taught me how to control my magic when I was still flailing. Bled with us. Fought with us. Risked himself without hesitation. Caleb didn’t hedge. He didn’t play both sides. He wouldn’t smile to my face and hand me over to the Order in the same breath.
Dominic watched me for a long moment, his expression completely unreadable.
“People don’t always betray you because they want to, angel.
Sometimes they do it because they’re given no other option.
They’d only need leverage,” he went on evenly, his face the picture of calm.
“Something he wouldn’t be able to walk away from.
Something that would make his compliance feel like the lesser evil. ”
My breath caught on his words because I knew exactly what he was referring to.
Carly.
Caleb’s twin. His weak point. The one person he’d never be able to sacrifice, no matter the cost. My stomach dropped as the pieces shifted, rearranging themselves into a shape I didn’t want to look at.
What if the Order didn’t need Caleb to betray us willingly? What if all they needed was leverage over him?
The thought of Caleb betraying us, of the Order breaking us so easily made my head spin in a way that I wasn’t sure I could recover from.
If they’d threatened her—if they’d promised to spare his sister in exchange for access, or silence, or one small oversight—then none of this would have required an outright lie. Just an omission. Just obedience given under duress.
Trace exhaled slowly, rubbing a hand over his face. “If that’s what happened, then Caleb may not even realize how much damage he actually caused,” he said, though I wasn’t sure if he was answering my thoughts or if he’d just arrived at the same conclusion I had.
“Yeah, well, that doesn’t make it any better,” I answered numbly.
“Or any less inexcusable,” added Dominic, his eyes never leaving mine. “However, it does tell us where the Order is willing to strike and just how small our trust circle really needs to be.”
He said it so evenly, so matter-of-factly, like it was simply the natural conclusion of everything that had happened tonight.
And maybe it was. Maybe that was what finally undid me.
Not the ritual or the Horsemen, not even Caleb’s possible betrayal.
Just the cold, hard reality of how small and exposed we actually were.
“I can’t do this anymore,” I finally said as a deep and unfamiliar exhaustion flooded in, sinking past skin and muscle and bone until it wedged itself somewhere I couldn’t shake no matter how hard I tried.
“I can’t keep pulling at this right now.
My mind is all over the place and it’s making my head hurt. ”
“Should I be worried?” asked Trace, lifting my chin so I had no choice but to meet his eyes.
I shook my head, though I wasn’t entirely sure of the truth myself. “I’m just tired.”
He studied me for a long moment before finally nodding. “Okay. We’ll stop for tonight. Let you get some rest.”
“Agreed,” said Dominic as he finished off the last of his drink and then set his glass down on the table.
“Tomorrow’s a new day. We’ll have ample opportunity to get to the bottom of this then.
” A dark look crossed his face as the corner of his mouth pulled into a faint, knowing curve. “One way or another.”
Right. It was the ‘another’ part I was worried about.
Because Dominic never made promises he didn’t intend on keeping.