Chapter 27
DARCIE
It turns out that when Gregory says we will be going on a mission, he actually means the professionals will go on a mission.
At least, that’s what I figure out when the task force sits down to discuss the situation the following evening at our new safehouse in D.C.
To be fair, it isn’t Gregory who insists I stay behind.
It’s my mother.
“Absolutely not,” my mother says the second I ask about joining the group. “It’s out of the question.”
I avert my gaze and glare at the patterned rug beneath my sneakers, forcing myself to control the surge of emotion that wants to spill out of me in one ugly, humiliating wave.
“Perhaps there is some way the girl can attend,” Lucas speaks up on my behalf. His voice is careful, diplomatic. “I’m interested in Paige getting field experience. We can arrange for her and Darcie to stay back in the van while the rest of us go inside the party.”
“Absolutely not,” she repeats. She doesn’t even have the decency to pretend to consider the compromise. “Darcie stays here.”
When no one else dares to challenge the witch, I can’t take it anymore. I shove off the sofa and stomp out of the crowded study.
It’s a bratty move.
I know it.
But it’s either look like a brat by leaving or for getting into an argument with my mother in front of every member of the task force. Either way, I lose.
Crossing the immense Virginian home, I’m momentarily lost as I try to remember which way to go to the room I’m staying in.
Gregory led me to it immediately after arriving, smiling at my astonishment when I saw that all my belongings not only made it to the new location, but were already unpacked and arranged.
My continued awe of magic dwindles when I remember what my mother just pulled.
I stomp down the hall on my right, find my room, then slam the door shut in a petty display I’m not proud of. I throw myself onto the bed and roll over to stare blankly at the ceiling.
I barely have time to exhale before light taps rap against the door.
“What?” I call, not bothering to soften my tone. I don’t have the energy to be cordial. I’m too busy trying to keep myself from storming back into the study and telling a certain witch exactly what I think of her.
“Can I come in?” my mother’s voice travels through the door.
My whole body goes rigid.
“I want to be alone,” I call back.
The door opens anyway.
And that infuriates me.
I bolt upright.
My mother takes a single step inside. Her expression is blank. “I only want a chance to explain myself.”
“Don’t bother.” I scowl. “It doesn’t matter.”
She sighs and shuts the door behind her.
I fist the comforter under my hands and count to ten.
Once I’m sure I’m not going to scream, I grit out, “I don’t want to talk.”
“This won’t take long.”
The audacity…
My pulse pounds in my skull as she dares to cross the room and sit on the very edge of the bed.
I jolt away from her as if she’s on fire, scooting back until my spine hits the headboard, putting as much distance between us as possible.
She doesn’t react.
“The meeting we are looking into could be very dangerous.” She says, voice calm and controlled. “The last thing we need is for Adir or his allies to discover you are not safely tucked away in Greece with the Originals.”
I press my lips together.
“It’s not worth the risk to your safety,” she adds.
“Lucas said I would be safe in the surveillance van.” My voice comes out too sharp, too fast. “Paige would stay with me.”
If Lucas is willing to let his own daughter go, surely it’s safe.
“Paige is not one of Adir’s targets.”
We will never agree, and my control is fraying.
“Like I said,” I bite out. “I don’t want to talk.”
Jennifer doesn’t take the hint. “Try not to be upset. This decision is not a reflection on you. You must know, I’m only doing this for your own good.”
And just like that, my restraint snaps.
Rage rises up, hot and sudden, and spills out of me before I can stop it. “I don’t know anything about you or what your intentions are. Don’t pretend to do things on my behalf.”
Her lips thin. “I only want to protect you.”
“You left me. In Maine. With Dad.” My throat burns. “You left me with no clue about what the hell would happen to me. And why? Because you didn’t want to be part of our family anymore?”
I scoff, ignoring how my heart aches at the stricken look on her face. “You left me in the dark. So forgive me if I don’t trust you or believe anything you say.”
I turn and face the wall, my shoulders rising and falling as I work to steady my breath.
My mother says nothing.
Tension billows, seconds away from popping, when a swift rap hits the doorframe, and the door opens.
“What’s going on in here?” Alex’s voice disrupts our standoff, but it doesn’t lessen the strain.
A beat passes.
“Nothing.” The mattress shifts as my mother stands. “I was just leaving.”
The swoosh of her cloak is loud in my ears as she leaves the room. I wait until the door closes before I slump back against the headboard and close my eyes.
“What happened?” Alex asks.
I crack my eyelids. He stands by the door, arms crossed, expression disapproving.
“Oh, you know. Just your typical abandoned-daughter, neglectful mother bonding.”
“Your mother is hardly neglectful.”
“No?” I snort. “Alright. How about controlling?”
His sigh is heavy. “She’s trying to keep you safe.”
“You know how I felt in Greece.” My voice cracks, betraying the emotion I try to hide. “Thane kept me cooped up, and now she’s doing the same. I thought leaving the mansion would be a break from all that. Instead, it’s just the same thing.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you letting her do it?” I demand. “Aren’t you her friend?”
Even though things are tense between them, they have history. Surely, he could speak to her on my behalf and get her to back off.
“I’m not about to tell Jennifer what to do with her own child.”
“Why not?” I throw my hands up. “Once, she confided in you. Trusted you.”
The visions of them in that Italian restaurant and when I was a child prove as much. My mother relied on Alex for help. She’ll listen to him.
“Jennifer trusted me because I’m one of the few people who has never tried to manipulate her for my benefit.”
My retort dies on my lips. “What do you mean?”
Alex pulls out the chair tucked neatly under the sleek white desk in the corner and takes a seat.
He leans back until the chair creaks, releasing a slow, measured breath. “Your mother is the most powerful witch the Nightsbane clan has ever seen. No one knows why. Her parents were strong, but fundamentally ordinary.”
I try to picture grandparents I barely remember. Faces that blur when I reach for them.
“So what?” I ask, frustration curling back into my thoughts. “She’s powerful. Isn’t that why she’s one of the top three in the clan? What does that have to do with her trying to control every move I make?”
“Your mother is only a member of that power-hungry clan for your sake.” Disdain drips from his words. Then his gaze lowers to the ground. “And for mine, I suppose.”
I frown. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
He rubs a hand down his face. “Your mother left the Nightsbane clan just after her twenty-second birthday. The elite members were running her ragged with extra training. Jennifer would have continued with their schedule…” He trails off and looks at me.
“…if it wasn’t for what they ultimately wanted from her. ”
“Which was?”
“The clan planned to use Jennifer’s clairvoyant abilities to become the most dominant clan to ever exist,” he says, and all levity drains from his features, “and to complete their mission of eradicating the world of vampires.”
I gasp. “What? Why would they want that?”
“Vampires and witches have long been enemies.” His gaze drifts to the window. His eyes grow distant. “There are periods of neutrality, but they never last long.”
The information sinks in, and my distrust for the Nightsbane clan grows with every passing second.
“How could my mother’s clairvoyant abilities make them the most dominant clan?”
How could visions be weaponized to take down powerful vampire covens?
“I don’t know the particulars,” he admits. “But Master Ben’s late father once asked Jennifer to ‘look in’ on a rival clan’s meeting. He framed it as reconnaissance.”
His jaw tightens. “Later, she learned he used what she saw in her vision to mount an offensive attack while the strongest of that clan were preoccupied.”
My skin grows cold.
“Your mother left the following day,” he finishes, “and she never looked back.”
He pauses and lifts his gaze to meet mine. “Until you needed help.”
My throat tightens. “She went back…for me?”
He nods. “She felt your agony during your awakening. She didn’t know how to reach you, but she knew the clan could. When she went to them, they agreed to help on the condition that she rejoined them.”
“How could she do that?” My voice cracks with disbelief. “She agreed to go back? To let herself be used again?”
Alex laces his fingers together and rests them on his stomach. “In Master Ben’s defense, he’s not the leader his father was. He offered Jennifer a leadership position as an act of goodwill. And from what I can see, he’s not driving the clan down the same path his father wanted.”
Suspicion rises.
“Then why would he insist she rejoin?” I ask. “Why not just help her find me? Why ask for something in return?”
“Because not doing so would have been unwise.” Alex shrugs. “No clan has ever had a member as powerful as Jennifer. Ben wanted her back in the fold. I suspect he hopes to regain her trust and convince her to use her power for the good of the clan.”
“And will she?”
“I have no idea.” He stands, stretching his arms overhead. “Like you, your mother has her own mind. It is often hard to know what she is thinking.”
“But,” he adds. “I know she is determined to keep you from ever being used or manipulated the way she was. Perhaps, now, you can give her a break when she seems overbearing.”
With that, he turns and leaves.
I stare at the open doorway, my head spinning with the information about my mother’s past.
The idea of being used by people you trust…of having your gift twisted into a weapon…makes my stomach turn.
And yet—
Does any of that excuse how she treats me now?
Isn’t she being just as stifling and unreasonable as the people who once controlled her?
Sure, her intentions aren’t cruel.
But that doesn’t make them right.
Does it?
“Ugh,” I groan, letting my heavy head fall into my hands.
Nothing in my life can be simple, and things aren’t going to get easier anytime soon.