Chapter 15
Cosette instantly stilled. “What are you talking about? I was in this cabin the entire time, sleeping—” Abruptly, she broke off, clutching her pile of clothes to her chest. “It was another blackout, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t have time to explain the details, but yes, it was.” His jaw clenched tightly. “I tried to stop you, but I—” He broke off, his throat bobbing. “I wasn’t quick enough. You were too fast.”
“Fast?” Cosette knew she’d done strange things when she was under the influence of the voice, but she had never gone any further than short distances before.
When he didn’t elaborate, she knew that was all she was going to get out of him so she began to dress. Once she’d tied on her panniers and petticoat, shoving her feet into her discarded shoes, she started to throw her gown over her head. Only then did she notice that her overdress wasn’t just soiled—but drenched in blood.
Cosette dropped the garment and stumbled backward, grabbing onto the dusty fireplace mantle for support. “Oh, my God,” she breathed in horror. “Did I —?” She couldn’t even finish the thought; she felt like she was going to be sick. She must have done something truly awful to cause so much . . . carnage.
Davien gave a curse, and then snapped his fingers. Instantly, the dress changed into a dark green traveling gown, free of those terrible, red stains.
She bent down and put it on. “This doesn’t change anything.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“I deserve to know what happened!” She shouted. Her hands shook as she clutched the folds of her dress. “And I’m not leaving here until you tell me.”
She could tell that Davien was fighting an inner battle, those dark eyes swirling as his jaw clenched and relaxed several times. “You attacked a nearby farm.”
Cosette swallowed down the bile threatening to rise up at those five words, but she didn’t reply, merely waited for him to continue.
“I was scouting the area in the form of the crow, looking for danger. I never thought it would come from here.” His eyes held her captive. “I saw you leave the cabin, but instead of walking, you were running, almost gliding across the fields. You came upon a flock of sheep, and claws grew out of your hands. You slit every single one of their throats in a matter of moments.”
Cosette looked down at her hands, but they looked as they always did. There wasn’t a trace of blood on them, and yet somehow she had committed this atrocious deed. “How?” It was all she could manage.
He glanced down at her neck. Instantly, she reached up and touched the chain of her locket. “The one controlling your necklace is growing stronger. Before, when you were under its power, your eyes would turn white, but this time they were eclipsed by red.”
Cosette wanted to shut out Davien’s words, to scream and shout, deny his claims. She didn’t want to believe that something that she had treasured for so long, the one constant thing in her life that had given her such hope had now become her curse.
She yanked on the chain, but it held like a noose around her neck. She heard a distant laugh in the echoes of her mind.
You can never be free of me, Cosette, for we are of one blood.
You should just accept your fate.
The voice had never come to her during her consciousness before. The fact that it did so now only confirmed what Davien said: the power was growing stronger. “Stop it!” She clutched her head. “Leave me alone!”
Cosette ran outside and looked about, almost frantically, until she found what she was looking for. She fell to her knees before a large rock, and picked up a smaller one from the ground. She set the face of the locket on top and brought the rock down. She waited to hear the crunch of broken metal, but instead, the rock flew out of her hands and smashed against a tree, dust raining down on the ground.
Tears flooded her vision as she tried again, and again, and again. But all the results were the same.
The locket refused to break.
It wasn’t until she had the fifth rock, poised and ready above her head, did Davien appear to gently remove it from her grasp. “It’s no use, Cosette.” He brought her against his chest and stroked her unbound hair.
She hit his back with her fist in frustration. “There has to be a way,” she sobbed.
He didn’t reply. He didn’t have to.
They both knew that there might never be a way to break the spell.
She was just as cursed as he was.
After a time, Davien finally rose to his feet. He held a hand out to her. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
Home. Cosette had never thought of any place as home before, but somehow, in the short time she’d known Davien, oddly enough Shadowlawn had become just that.
