Chapter 25
DARCIE
Mistress Lola’s disapproving voice floats over my head. “Are you even trying?”
My fingers dig into the coarse sand. I kneel on the warm beach, gasping for breath after my latest attempt to jump into a vision.
“Of course I am,” I pant.
This is only my second training session with the no-nonsense Nightsbane witch. After spending our entire time together yesterday mediating, I had expected something similar today.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
When Alex, Paige, Lucas, and my mother went to search for Adir, Mistress Lola dragged me to this private beach.
Where, for the last two hours, I have strained my mental capacity to the brink, desperate to throw my mind to Italy to see Dad reading in a dusty library, to Eshe in Greece, or even to Kayla back in Brunswick, likely sitting in a college lecture hall.
But no matter how many different techniques Mistress Lola suggests, I cannot summon a vision at will.
I did it once, back in Maine. I’d thrown myself into the vision where Lome revealed to the others that I was succumbing to the Immortal’s Curse.
But since then?
Nada.
Zilch.
It’s like the moment my other powers awakened, I lost my ability to control my own mind and body.
I can’t even manifest my magic into physical form. The first and last time I experienced success was when I conjured the shield with Henry.
I miss Henry.
He wasn’t friendly, but at least he didn’t make me feel like a complete and total failure.
“Get up and try again,” Lola demands.
I grit my teeth and stand, bending down to brush the sand off my knees. The grains cling to my sweaty skin. With a huff, I give up and straighten, meeting Lola’s stern stare.
And to think, I thought Lucas was intimidating. The pack leader has nothing on this no-nonsense witch.
“She needs a break,” Gregory says. He stands farther inland, arms crossed and scowling.
“What she needs is to stop holding back,” Lola snaps back. “And for the males in her life to stop coddling her.”
He growls. “She just awakened and—”
“And her bloodline is the strongest of the Nightsbane clan,” she interrupts with a sneer. “No masks or concealments remain on her mind or powers. The only thing stopping her from using her gifts is herself.”
Gifts?
I scoff.
Nothing about this is a gift.
“That. Right there.” Lola whirls on me. The purple cloak she always insists on wearing flaps in the breeze. “That is why you are unable to make progress. You are holding back.”
“No, I’m—”
“You are. Do you even want to master your power?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then prove it.” She snaps her fingers, and her cloak disappears. She widens her stance and lifts her hands. Two orbs of purple form in her palms.
“What are you—Ah!”
I drop to my stomach. Sand flies into my face, but the orbs fly over me, missing my head by inches.
I spit out the grit and gape at the witch. “Are you insane?”
“You’ve used your powers before,” she replies, conjuring two more orbs. “If you need motivation to succeed, that’s what I will give you.”
She throws two more orbs.
I squeal and roll to the side.
“That is enough!” Gregory shouts, his voice muffled.
My head snaps in his direction, and I balk at the shimmering surface standing in front of him.
He pounds his fist against the translucent wall, but it holds firm, keeping him back.
“Make a shield!” Lola shouts at me.
I turn just in time to see another fiery orb flying toward my face.
I dodge left and scream. “I CAN’T!”
She fires another orb.
This one brushes my thigh before I can move out of the way. My skin burns, and I yelp. “Stop it!”
“I will stop when you stop holding back,” she shouts back.
I grit my teeth so hard I fear I’ll crack my teeth. “I’m trying.”
“I don’t think you are.” She fires two more attacks without blinking. “I think you are afraid.”
“Of you hitting me?” I snap. “Of course I am.”
“Of your bloodline.” She scowls. “Of your power. You fear the path the Creator has laid in front of you.”
I skid my knee on a jagged seashell when I dodge her next attack.
“I just want to be normal!” I scream.
Her eyes flash violet. “You will never be normal, Darcie Abernathy. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can embrace your fate.”
“I don’t want to embrace my fate,” I seethe.
“Then you will never succeed!”
“That’s enough.” Gregory’s roar echoes over the beach.
Seagulls scatter into the air. The barrier shatters with an ear-splitting crash, and then Gregory is at my side, yanking me to my feet and positioning me behind him.
He snarls at the witch. “You go too far, Lola.”
“She is a ticking time bomb in possession of a well of power that is unprecedented,” Lola counters. “I can feel it. She must master them before they master her.”
My gut drops to the sand.
“Attacking her isn’t how to do it,” he snaps back.
“From the alliance’s reports, that’s the only time she utilized her powers.” She throws her arms up in the air. “Her power protected her from being killed by Adir in that dungeon!”
I flinch.
How does she know about that?
“I don’t care.” Gregory stands his ground. “Figure out a different way to train her, or you won’t be coming near her again.”
Lola’s eyes flick over the vampire’s face. She shakes her head. “You’re doing her a disservice with this interference. As a vampire, you should know the value of honing one’s strength before a challenge comes.”
His back bristles. “Darcie is not a vampire. She is a—”
“Witch,” she snaps. “And she is under my instruction. Now, if you please—”
“That is enough,” a soft voice travels through the salty sea air.
My mind latches onto the sound, and a dozen childhood memories fly through my mind, memories I’d long forgotten, as I turn to meet my mother’s gaze.
She stands on the grassy hill several feet away, but her voice carries easily. “You will try again tomorrow.”
I bristle.
But she’s not speaking to me.
Mistress Lola huffs. “If you say so.”
Her cloak billows as she stomps across the sand and makes her way back to the safehouse.
I continue to hold my mother’s stare from behind Gregory, doing my best not to reveal my frustration.
This is the first time I’ve even seen my mother since we arrived at the safehouse. She’s made herself scarce.
She’s avoiding me: her freaking daughter.
“You’re tired… You should rest.”
Her words might as well be nails on a chalkboard the way they make me flinch.
“Fine.”
My feet sink into the sand as I walk, tugging at my exhausted legs, but I press on, refusing to stay one more moment in this woman’s presence.
I’m about to pass my mother when she shifts to the side to block my path. “I could help you, you know.”
My head snaps up. “Help me?”
Her expression is placid, unaffected. “Yes. Perhaps I could offer additional insight and—”
“Thank you, but no,” I say through clenched teeth. “You’re clearly busy searching for Adir. You should focus on that.”
Before she can respond, I step around her. “Excuse me. I want to take a nap.”
My mother lets me stomp past her without another attempt to block me.
Gregory doesn’t immediately follow, and their hushed conversation reaches my ears as I reach the top of the grassy hill.
I don’t turn around.
I keep going, anger fueling my steps.
How dare my mother come to me and offer to train me.
Who in their right mind would think that is how to approach the daughter they abandoned seventeen years ago?
Maybe she isn’t in her right mind.
That checks out.
A mother in her right mind wouldn’t abandon her husband and child.
But still? After all these years…
No.
I scowl and stomp the rest of the way to the safehouse. I won’t feel sorry for her. I refuse.
The villa sits in front of me.
I reach for the handle right as a gust of wind blows over my head, pushing my hair in my face.
A light touch brushes my elbow. “Are you alright?”
I turn and meet Gregory’s concerned stare. “I’m fine.”
His lips turn down, but he doesn’t press.
I hurry into the house and climb the stairs, ignoring the hushed conversation reaching me from the living space.
The door of my room cracks against the wall when I fling it open. I wince but don’t slow down as I throw myself onto the bed. My face presses into the mattress.
Wood creaks. Gregory leans against the door frame.
His steady gaze holds mine. “Want to talk about?”
I huff and turn back to hide my face in the mattress. “What’s the point? I’m failing at my training.”
“You just need time.”
I twist my neck so my cheek lies against the softness. “Why can’t Henry come here and continue to train me? I was making progress with him.”
The last part isn’t entirely true, but at least Henry is a familiar face…and someone I trust. Someone who didn’t abandon me as a child.
“Because Henry can’t train your clairvoyant abilities, and your cognizant abilities almost killed you.”
I push myself upright. “But—”
“The Nightsbane clan is the only one who can help you,” he interrupts, moving to sit near my feet. “And Mistress Lola is a renowned, powerful witch.”
“That’s another thing.” I throw my arm out at the hall, accusingly. “My mother is a Nightsbane witch. But she isn’t training me.”
He sighs. “She offered—”
“Because she saw how much I suck,” I counter with a shake of my head. “Not because she cares.”
If she cares, she would’ve tried to help before now.
Hell, she would’ve talked to me.
Movement near the door draws my gaze.
Alex steps into the room, his eyes shifting from me to Gregory with sharp calculation. “Your mother isn’t training you because she is needed for scouting missions.”
Gregory jumps to his feet.
I glare at the vampire king. “Let me guess…my mother ran right to you after I turned down her offer? Figures.”
“No.” His voice is so low, it’s almost a growl. “Lola told me about your training. She said you are distracted.”
“I’m not distracted. I’m doing my best, but I can’t get my powers to do what I want.”
His eyes trail over my face. “And your other abilities? Have you had any visions lately?”
“No. I haven’t had any sort of vision since the day I woke up from my healing sleep.”
“Hmm.” Alex taps a finger against his leg. “Interesting.”
“Yes…very.” I flop back onto the mattress, tired of sitting up and being under the vampire’s stare.
No one says anything. I don’t know if the vampires are waiting to see if I will eventually crack and reveal the depths of the emotional turmoil swirling inside me, or if they are simply caught up in their own heads.
Eventually, the silence grates on my nerves.
I sigh and push myself back up and meet Alex’s stare. “Is there another reason you’re here?”
Or can you leave me in peace to mope?
“Yes.”
I wait, then scowl.
“Are you planning to tell me?”
“That depends.” He crosses his arms. “Are you finished acting like a petulant child?”
“That depends,” I mimic. “Are you finished being a bossy know-it-all?”
Alex laughs, and the sound pulls a genuine smile from my lips.
To my left, Gregory chuckles too.
“We are relocating this evening,” Alex reveals.
I straighten. “We’re leaving. Already?”
He nods. “We have searched the surrounding area thoroughly and have found no signs of Adir or rebel activity. We will be moving north to a new safehouse to continue our search.”
“Well, that was fast,” I murmur, looking around at the cozy room, lamenting the fact that I unpacked. I should have kept everything in the duffel bags.
Gregory seems to read my mind. “There is no need to pack. All of your personal belongings will be moved to the new location before you arrive.”
I turn to him, eyes wide. “How?”
“Witches.”
“Ah.” I frown. “Right.”
“While we take care of relocating,” Alex says, pulling my attention back. “I thought you might want to explore the city. Perhaps Paige would want to join you.”
I open my mouth to say no, but snap it shut the next second, and purse my lips.
I’m tired, but maybe time away from the villa, from my mother, will be the break I need.
“Sure.” I swing my legs over the mattress, take a deep breath, and stand. “I’ll go ask her right now.”
Before I step out of the room, I plant my hands on the doorframe and turn back to Gregory. “I assume you’re going to join us?”
“I assume so.” His gaze shifts to his boss.
Alex remains where he stands, but his expression has changed from amused to serious. He observes Gregory carefully. The intensity of his gaze makes my forehead furrow.
Then, without blinking, he clips out, “Yes, you will accompany Darcie and Paige as protection.”
My foot crosses the threshold, but freezes at his next words.
“But take care not to forget your place, Gregory.” The chilling words send a shiver down my spine.
My head whips back around.
A grim line replaces Gregory’s smile as he drops his head into a deferential bow. “Understood.”
The air feels heavier, thick with something unspoken. Something dangerous.
My heart thunders against my ribs, and the unsettling thought that whatever “place” Gregory’s being reminded of has something to do with me.