“Cassandra, we are not done here,” I yelled, trying not to get riled up all over again. “Don’t you walk away from me.”
Raya’s head lifted and she looked around the room, her expression hopeful that her pain would be over soon. She took a deep breath and anchored herself against the table for support before she tried to stand slowly. Her body swayed and she leaned so far right, Jax had to catch her. He delicately placed her limp body on the floor. Grabbing a towel thrown over a nearby chair and lifting her head to form a pillow.
“You should be more worried about your friend here than me,” Cassandra snapped. “Can’t you see she is unwell?” Gathering her skirt, she hurried to Raya’s side. She leaned down and placed her hand on Raya’s forehead, and the seer’s eyes widened. “No ordinary healer can manage this.”
My throat constricted and I froze. Jax, Storm, and I all exchanged a look. William threw his hands up, leaving the room muttering to himself about the constant headaches we’d caused.
“Move, move, out of my way,” Cassandra growled, waving for us to take a few steps back from Raya’s body. She sat by Raya’s head, hovering her hands over our friend’s forehead as she chanted something unrecognizable.
We sat in silence as Cassandra used her magic on Raya. The minutes crept by, stretching into endless time. Still, Cassandra sat entranced over Raya’s body.
Small beams of a green-hued light floated over her.
Raya gasped loudly and tried to sit up. “What did you do?”
“Now, now, dear, lie back down. You’ve not been well,” Cassandra instructed in a soothing tone. “Your mind has been riddled with torture over the years, and what you did in the end to fight Dargan? Well, it will take some time for your body to return to normal.”
Raya shivered and reached for Cassandra’s arm. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“Storm, dear,” Cassandra said, looking at him. “Take her upstairs to rest. I will continue healing her mind and body there soon.”
Storm and Jax helped Raya stand and assisted her up the stairs.
They left me standing with Cassandra, the version of her I recognized. “Thank you for healing her.”
She peered at me. “There is much work still to be done, but she should be feeling better soon. You are not the only one who will need her.”
Just like that, she shifted back into her unwelcome new facade. Her cryptic words made it hard not to go back to being pissed instead of grateful. “Me and you have unfinished business, Cassandra.” I ripped the white dagger from its sheath and slammed it down on the table next to us. “Now, before you go anywhere else, tell me what you know about this dagger. And I mean everything.”
A shuffle of steps echoed behind me and a whisper of a breeze grazed the back of my neck.
“It’s not my sister you need for that,” Vivienne said, a half-smile gracing her lips. “It’s me.”
Chapter 9
Lana
“Vivienne.” My heart pounded in my chest. “Sister?”
She nodded her head. “The better-looking one.”
I looked at the seer I’d been around my entire life, really looked at her, and internally scolded myself for not putting it together myself. Of course they were sisters—the resemblance was uncanny.
I blinked, shaking my head. “What do you mean, it’s you?”
She sighed, pulling out a chair before sitting and patting the empty one next to her. “Come, child. We have much to discuss. Let my sister help your friend while we speak.” Cassandra nodded and disappeared up the stairs, not waiting a moment longer.
Vivienne and I were alone, something I generally avoided for any length of time, but I couldn’t recall her ever being so lucid and clear-minded. There were so many things I wanted to say to her after the revelations of how she’d saved my life when I was a baby. My questions would have to wait though; I neededthisinformation now.
“Illiana, for so long your bloodline has prepared for this. To know it’s finally time brings me excitement and fear.” The pained smile gracing her lips sent my stomach into knots. It didn’t bode well for our conversation to start in such a manner. After everything we’d already discovered, the truths about to be revealed would likely break me yet again. I wasn’t sure how much more my heart could take.
Vivienne reached for me and clasped my hand. I turned to face her in the chair, our knees touching in the cramped space. Patiently, I waited for her to speak.
“Please know, everything I am about to tell you, I did for the good of Brookmere. What I thought was the right choice for our people to protect them from evil.” Her eyes wandered, lost in thought. “The Fates demanded my actions, sending visions until I became lost in myself. I heeded their warnings, even though it doesn’t seem like every choice led me down the right path.”
My heart pounded in my ears, and I pulled my hands from her grasp to wipe the beads of sweat from my palms on my pants. “Go on, Vivienne. I’m listening.”
Taking a deep breath, a shiver ripped through her shoulders, and she began. “That dagger you have in your hand was buried with your parents, your biological parents.”
