Because this isn’t real.
I blink, and the vision shatters.
We’re still in the atrium. Still trapped in the circle. Still facing my father, who looks pleased with himself.
“See how easy it would be?” my father says. “All you have to do is what comes naturally. Live in the beautiful realm I create for you in your minds. Finally normal. You won’t haveto remember the sins you committed to get to this realm. And you, too,” Father turns his gaze my way. “Instead of alone and starving for love, I give you a union of souls with the woman you love. Be each other’s comfort.” He smiles as if he’s just solved our problems and can’t we see what a gift this is? All the happiness and fullness you could ever dream of.”
Phoenix blinks beside me, still coming out of the vision.
Her hand trembles in mine.
“And all these people you’ve killed?” I ask, looking at the mangled body in the center of the circle. “What about Ammit?”
“Collateral damage,” my father says with a shrug. “Every war has casualties.”
“This isn’t a war,” Phoenix says. Her voice has steadied now, and when I look at her, her eyes are clear. Focused. “It’s a power grab by a megalomaniac who can’t let go of the ancient glory days.”
My father’s smile drops. “Careful, girl.”
“Or what?” Phoenix challenges. “You’ll burn us? You already admitted you need us.
“This whole elaborate setup, the sacrifices, the spirit you pulled through to make me... what did you call it? Motivated? You went to a lot of trouble. Which means youcan’tjust force us.”
She’s right. I can see it in my father’s face. He needs us to choose this.
“Are you so sure about that?” Sabra suddenly speaks up. I’d almost forgotten she was here. “Maybe it would be true we needed your consent—ifyou hadn’t already cracked the barrier. You left a rift the size of the Grand Canyon pointing the way thru.”
Then Sabra grabs Ammit who screeches at her rough handling as Sabra drags her and walks over to where we stand infront of my father over the sacrifice in the center of the atrium glass.
“Sabra, stop,” Phoenix pleads. “Vlad is dead. You’re free!”
But Sabra just keeps talking in a dead monotone, as if Vlad’s compulsion lives on even though he’s a pile of smoldering bones.
“A crack so wide you’ve made this world the nexus point, like he said.” She hikes a thumb over her shoulder at my father, who grins expansively as he watches the plans he manipulated play out before him like the puppet master he is.
“Spirits are drawn here.” Sabra says, right in Phoenix’s face, a death grip on Ammit who still struggles to get away. “So thanks for that.”
Phoenix frowns, still clearly upset, but there’s something like confusion as she watches her best friend, brows drawn together.
“You think you know everything about how I got here,” Phoenix whispers, and I’m not sure if she’s talking to Sabra or my father. “You know about the blood bargains and the generations of vampires I used to build my power. But you don’t know what it was like before that. You’ve never been to the place I came from.”
She takes a step forward, an inch away from Sabra’s face, ignoring Ammit who still cries and squirms in Sabra’s relentless hold.
“I existed in a dark, frozen realm where every moment was a misery,” Phoenix says. “For longer than my memory goes back, there’s just cold beyond cold. Darkness beyond darkness. There was no light, or warmth, or hope. Only endless hunger.”
I can hear the truth in her voice and I understand now why we’ve always felt like such kindred spirits. She understood me from the first day she pulled me from that tree.
“I clawed my way out of that hell,” Phoenix continues. “I made bargains I’m not proud of. I used people I shouldn’thave. All because I couldn’t stand another second in that frozen abyss.”
Phoenix’s face snaps toward my father now, and her eyes are blazing.
“You’re right. I did crack the barrier. I found the way through.” Her voice drops to something cold and deadly. “And I can find the way back.”
My father’s expression shifts from amusement to annoyance. “You think you can send me home so the angels will destroy me? You forget who is the pawn here, and who the predator. I am outside the runes, little fool.Youare the animal caught in the trap.”
“Enough stalling,” Sabra says, and then with the hand not holding Ammit, she lurches forward and slices Phoenix’s palm with a ceremonial-looking knife she suddenly produces from her sleeve.
I lunge only a moment after Sabra does. But Sabra clearly anticipated my move, because she spins her knife on me, bringing the razor-sharp blade down to slice across my cheek. I ignore the pain and grab Phoenix, yanking her away from Sabra.
