“I swear,” I said, “we were only discussing possibilities. Nothing more.”
“Having anyone, including you, take the vial is not a possibility,” Maddy said.
I gritted my teeth. “Maddy, we don’t know how bad this will get. I was just thinking of an advantage. That’s all.”
“No, Nico. If you take that vial, your body could reject it. You could die,” Maddy said, her face still stern but softening.
“Or you’ll turn into a mindless beast and murder everyone you love along with your enemies,” Gabriella added.
I looked to Dad for help, but he’d lowered his eyes. He’d apparently decided discretion was the better part of valor.
“The thing none of you are thinking of,” Sinthy said, “is that this vial was created to specifically reincarnate Edemas or his descendants. If you were to take it and not die, there is a good chance Edemas would return. His soul may come back and kick your entire consciousness into oblivion, essentially killing you. You’d be nothing but a meat puppet for an ancient king mad with a vengeance using your body.”
That possibility hadn’t occurred to me. I pointed at Maddy. “Would that happen to Maddy?”
Sinthy shrugged. “No telling. But she’s a direct descendant, plus it seems that Edemas’s daughter has already staked a claim in Maddy’s mind. She was reincarnated as Maddy’s wolf.”
“I don’t think it would happen to Maddy,” Gabriella said. “She’s basically already a reincarnation of sorts. But it’s still a possible risk.”
My shoulders slumped. “Okay. Not a good plan. We won’t talk about it anymore, all right?”
Maddy tapped a finger on her lips, then said, “What if we destroyed it?”
The rest of us froze at her words. We hadn’t really discussed that option. Most of our conversations had been based around using the vial and keeping it away from Viola. Destroying aweapon of such power, on the surface, was crazy. But without the vial as bait, would Viola continue going after us?
“It’s a decent idea,” Gabriella said. “Though I doubt Viola would care.”
Maddy frowned in obvious confusion. “What do you mean? It’s the whole reason she’s been after me, right? If it was no longer a threat to her, then she has no reason to keep trying to attack us.”
Gabriella nodded. “That argument only works if you’re dealing with someone who thinks rationally. Do any of us believe Viola is rational?”
That was not up for debate. The woman was as far from rational as one could get. For centuries, her ancestors had been obsessed with finding this damn thing: a legend and a desire that old wouldn’t be put aside easily.
“She wouldn’t believe it,” I said.
“Wouldn’t believe what?” Maddy asked.
“That it was destroyed,” Gabriella said, picking up where I left off. “We could tell her all day that it was gone, but she’d never believe it.”
“We could record it and show her,” Maddy offered.
I shook my head. “She’ll say we faked it. In her mind, that vial is the most valuable thing on Earth. She thinks it can bring back the werewolf shifters, and she can’t allow that. The only way she would ever believe the vial was destroyed is if she did it herself, and we can’t let her have it because God only knows what she might do with it. Hell, she could try to create an army of werewolves of her own to take over the world or something.”
“So we’re stuck with it,” Maddy said. It was not a question.
“Better to have a weapon and not need it than to need a weapon and not have it,” Gabriella said, turning her gaze to me. “But that doesn’t mean you get to make stupid decisions about using it.”
Maddy frowned at me. She was still pissed that the thought of using the vial myself had even crossed my mind. Thankfully, my phone buzzed before any of the women could chastise me anymore. A text from Donatello lit up the screen. I’d expected to hear from him immediately after Viola’s big pronouncement, but he’d been surprisingly silent. This was the first I’d heard from him in days.
Watchthe announcement on the news.
111
MADDY
Since Viola’s declaration of war on TV, I’d been in a perpetual state of anxiety. It had been bad enough when she and her cronies operated in the shadows—now things were much worse. Viola had shown her cards, and that meant it was open season on is. She didn’t have to cover up our deaths. Her zealots would kill us just to please her. That terrified me.
My wolf raged inside me, ready to attack, but we had no one to focus that anger on. It amped up the anger thrumming in my veins. We’d already been through so much, and it should have been over. Donatello’s reveal had been our ace in the hole—the final stake through her heart that was meant to end the royals and their bitch of a spokeswoman. Yet, here we were, hiding away in Nico’s compound, terrified to go out, terrified of what was coming.
