I gasp. Church lifts his chin and watches the vile display closely.
“What are you doing?!” I shriek in a feeble voice.
“No shortage of mothers here.”
Vrath places one hand on top of the other on her chest and throws his body weight downward. Her breastbone cracks, and he pulls it apart with a panicked grunt. His hands scoop out as much blood as he can carry without too much overflowing, then splashes it to the floor in a substantial puddle.
There’s a sound coming from all around us. It’s like a cold winter’s night when screaming winds whistle against the side panels of a house and the frigid glass windows.
“They will not get me. No, they will not get me.” Vrath mutters numbers and strange, ancient words under his breath, using his finger to make symbols and spiral drawings in the thick pool of blood. “Protect my soul, World’s Dark Twin Tree.”
After twisting off a strand of the mother’s hair, Vrath vanishes in a pit of sparkling black dust and violent stormy winds. Pages fly free from bookshelves and the scones and fireplace flickers.
The sickness leaves my body a little too slowly. I slump into my chair, wheezing, and clutching my chest. I should have jumped into that opening with him and tried to find my way back to Niklaus. I should have commanded the tunnel of moving time to take me to the man I’ve fallen in love with. I cough and tremble in my seat. Useless. Sick. Stupid.
My eyes flash back to Church. I want to warn him about the coma so badly, but he is a new alter. A child. What guarantee would I have that he would remember or be able to pass along the message for an event that will take place in another decade? I need to get closer to that time he is injected by Masten.
“His trigger is fear and superiority over a parental figure—a mother. That’s what gets that asshole to travel.” Church stares right through me, working out an equation in his head. “I’m not sure he even needs the gore and theatrics to do it.”
“What’s mine? I have to get back to him, Church!” I choke on another wet cough.
“Don’t you see it yet? It’s love, Snow. You have to let yourself feel that protective, everlasting love. Think about each time you’ve traveled! Your uncle sacrificed himself, using his own hands to guard you from being struck by the sword. Your sweetheart did the same! It’slove! Use it as a key and the compass to navigate where you’re going. Command the Nightlung when you enter it. Love is a motivating factor in your journey!”
An epiphany tingles in my chest, trickling down to my fingertips.
That tremor deep in my bones comes alive. A song that flips and spins within my veins, soaring to make contact with the Nightlung. I can feel it open its eyes and look into my soul. I think about Uncle Niles’s shredded hands as he blocked the attacks with his body. A powerful comprehension opens inside me, lifting its head and absorbing the love that is produced from that memory.
I think of Dellilian saving us.
I think of Niklaus beating Albatross to a pulp when he had me strapped down to his bed.
I think of my mother burning the asylum to the ground.
It’s so close, I can feel its mystical fingers reach out to me…
“Good. It looks like you have brutalized one without my command. Now, you’d have your fun with Miss….” A slender man with dark gray hair, pinched smoker’s lips, and pale blue eyes flips through a few pages on a clipboard. “Miss Snow Abatora. Bring Dai to the front and eliminate this mock threat.”
I watch Church dissociate again. It’s quicker this time as the new alter is disoriented, looking around to catch himself back up.
“To which alter am I speaking with now?” the brooding man asks. I focus harder on his narrow face with aristocratic bone structure. He wears obsidian velvet and a tailored suit that drips of nobility and old money.
“Kane.”
I look back at my father with bulging eyes. They want him toeliminateme? What’s the significance of the alter Dai again?
“Thought so. It is time for Dai to front now, young man. Do this quickly, and we will put the Mind Phantoms away for a week.”
Dai…
My stomach collapses on itself. Dai. I remember Krimson and I eavesdropped on my mother talking about that alter with Uncle Warrose. Demechnef wanted an alter who would ruthlessly murder like an animal. They forced him to rip people apart with his teeth. That’s when Dai was split!
Holy shit.
I steady my breathing.
Part of his conditioning must be to bond with the women they bring in and then force him to tear them to shreds. It trains obedience no matter the emotional attachment.
Kane’s chocolate eyes dart from me, back to the man making commands.
