“Ew!” Vanessa cringed. “So not needed.”
Dante and D’s laughter mixed in the air once more.
“Ignore him,Cuore mio.D is just being…”
“An ass?” I asked, unable to help myself from joining the playful banter, even though I should be hating these people right now. Clearly, there was something wrong with me because I was messing that up too.
“He’s just beinghim,” Dante offered with a chuckle. Bringing his hands even closer. “May I heal you now?”
My gaze briefly searched for Vanessa, finding unquestionable trust in her eyes.
When my attention returned to Dante, bands of shadow slowly left him in a seductive dance that enthralled me, stirring something in my core, calling to me, and for some reason that I couldn’t explain, I gave in. The instant my blood-stained palms slid onto his, long fingers wrapped around them. A familiar current of energy burst into my body.
No. Not energy. Magic.
His magic rushed through my fingertips, reaching not only my hands but all hidden corners of my being and restoring every inch of me. My gaze snapped from our joined hands to his eyes after my ripped skin easily mended, and I tried desperately to understand why Dante’s magic was so familiar to me… I had never met him.
It felt a thousand times stronger than it ever had, but I was as certain that I had felt him before, as I was that my heart was pounding within my chest.
“How?” I asked, holding back the conflicting emotions the realization caused. I’d not only felt this before, I’d felt it every time I was forced to shift and was left tattered by the experience.
“I’m a once-in-a-lifetime type of Witch. I wield ancient magic, to be exact,” he calmly explained, not truly understanding my question. “I’m theLord of Twilight. Chosen by Hecate, Goddess of Magic and Witchcraft, the Night, and the Moon. She bestowed these gifts upon me when I was a baby, and?—”
“No!” I protested, pulling my hands from his while my gaze swiftly searched for the potion Vanessa had brought in from the room.
The connection to his magic abruptly ended, leaving a bittersweet emptiness inside me that I couldn’t understand, but I pushed through it, finding the brown bottle on the table next to where Vanessa sat. Everyone’s attention followed me as picked it up, my finger tracing the artfully etched symbol on the glass—an elegant golden torch I had admired so many times in the past.
“It is Hecate’s symbol of light and guidance,” Dante offered, his voice now burdened by the truth.
“This is the potion that has saved me time and time again,” I croaked, my throat constricting from both anger and betrayal as I spun to face him. “You made this, didn’t you? You made every single drop I ever drank. How did this ever get to Isis? How did it get to me?”
The heaviness and guilt of truths withheld spread over Dante’s, D’s, and even Vanessa’s expressions. They exchanged a look that said I wasn’t supposed to figure this out, at least not so soon.
“Do you know who Isis is?” I added. “Was she in on this all along?”
Silence met my questions, and I whirled around, marching into the room.
“Natasha, wait!” Vanessa called after me and the three of them rushed after me.
“How do you know my name?” I demanded, stopping in the middle of the library space, feeling like real fire burned through me. “I havenevertold any of you my name.”
Exchanging another burdened glance with Vanessa and Dante, D stepped forward. “We know who Isis is. We know she was assigned to protect you, and she?—”
“Is this my room?” I interrupted because I couldn’t hear another word from him. I couldn’t accept anything that even insinuated that Isis had lied to me my entire life. She would never mix with Vampires who took advantage of humans. Shewas the only mother I knew; she wouldneverlie to me or betray me this way.
“What?”
“You asked Vanessa to find the potion placed onmynightstand earlier,” I snapped at D, my eyes boring into his fiercely. “Does that mean this is my room while I’m held here against my will?”
A troubled breath left him. “Natasha, we are not holding you against?—”
“Is this my space?” I demanded, noticing Vanessa and Dante lower their heads at my words.
“Yes,” D replied, his voice heavy as the muscles of his jaw jerked.
“Then get out!” All the hurt, confusion, desolation, and anger churning through me reverberated with the demand.
Without a single word, they all crossed the room toward the white double doors, leaving me as alone as I felt.
