Luca looks to Astrid, who silently shakes her head back and forth.
“I-I don’t know. They quickly realized I wasn’t the Daughter when I couldn’t produce hellfire. They were so angry,” she whimpers.
Astrid’s gaze goes wide and distant, locked in a memory she can’t escape, the tears falling without a sound.
I can’t imagine what my poor sister has been through at the hands of the Disciples. However, if I’m going to collect allies, these two are a good place to start.
Luca runs his hand along Astrid’s arm, whispering soft Italian into her hair.
Astrid blinks—once, twice—then her face distorts into pure anguish.
A shadow tenses at my ribs, twitching toward her. Not to attack, but to shield.
I force it back.
She doesn’t need me.
She needs him.
Astrid wraps her arms around Luca and curls up in his lap. Sobs wrack her small body while Luca tangles his hand in herhair and continues softly whispering in her ear. Luca exhales sharply, shaking his head.
“Enough. She’s at her limit.” He looks at me, calm but unyielding. “I won’t let her break herself over this.”
“Luca, I appreciate everything you’ve done. For me and for Astrid. Truly.”
I glance at the vampire cradling my sister like she’s made of glass.
“Just tell me if there’s anything else I need to know before I leave. I need to go home. I need to make sure Aurora’s safe.”
Even though my sister passed out from the exertion of reliving the Purgatory she’s been through, she still whimpers and growls softly in her sleep.
She almost seems sweet like this.
“You’re right. You need to go, Ezra.” Luca’s voice is calm and even.
The petulant voidlings bristle at the command. They take direction about as well as I do. Unless it’s from her.
“She needs her power. Not just for herself. For all of us.”
A slow ripple moves through my shadows. They agree … even if they don’t want to.
Luca leans his forehead on Astrid’s shoulder and takes a deep breath.
“Neither Astrid nor I ever sawlaFauce, but Isa suggested to Astrid that it was small. Something she always keeps on her. You do not want your mate to get caught by the Disciples. They’ll do almost anything to end her bloodline and wipe out every underborne and erevald left on Earth.
“Renato always said there was no need for violence if souls were offered freely. But now I wonder if that was ever true. If peace built on silence is just another form of slavery.”
Luca looks defeated and sad even as he stares lovingly at my very broken little sister.
“Well, Luca, if we can get past the Vermilion Maw, I believe Aurora will unite the humans and underborne.”
The inky tendrils shift with purpose, drawing back like the tide.
One curls around my throat. Not choking, not restricting. Just waiting.
“I make no promises about the erevald. Pretentious pricks, the lot of them. But she will shift our reality into something good, something better. At least that’s what I believe, especially after getting to know her.
“The Disciples aren’t going after the supernatural creatures or the Daughter to protect humanity. They’re doing it as a form of self-preservation. Humans will have to share visible space and Earthly power with the underborne, something the Disciples will not allow.”
