Standing, I tried to leave, but the bands of darkness and fog finally snapped, dispersing inside me just as Isis and Queen Luna stood with me.
“I don’t even truly know what happened…” I confessed, my voice breaking.
The scattering fog suddenly revealed Natasha’s repressed memories in my mind’s eye, darkness swirling around the image of us walking along a corridor with Edith.
“Dante asked if you could stay in my room with me until Hannes arrives. Is that okay?”Natasha’s voice echoed in my ears.
“Of course.”
“Thank you for helping me, Edith.”
“My pleasure.”Before opening the door, I noticed Edith push a button on her watch, a light glowing on the screen.
It was a power band.
The chilled breeze from the river instantly swept our body when we stepped out of the castle…
The fog drifted again.
“Get in!”Edith hissed, kicking my back, and sending us scrambling to the floor.
A gasp escaped me, and I looked at Isis, not really seeing her while memories played before me. “I can see it now. I remember…” I breathed, pain unfurling within me slowly. “Edith betrayed us. She took me into the boathouse.”
Isis nodded but words failed me as Ryker’s face appeared.
“Natasha held back my memories too,” I let them both know when my own voice rang in the memory.“Prepare for the fire…”
“Let my daughter go! She has nothing to do with this.”Anastasia’s voice came from the swirling fog that revealed her being held against the wall. Arnoldt’s claws pierced her neck, letting blood drip onto her white outfit.
The first tear fell from my eyes as I remembered the horror we felt. One scene after the other came out of the darkness, what I witnessed increasing the pain in my heart.
“Mark my words, Edith, you will never have a moment of peace again. I can see the future, remember that. No matter where you run to, I will always know where you are.”
The fierceness in my mother’s voice cut through me; she was still trying to defend me even after they took her because of me.
Like an endless caress, the bands of fog slowly continued to drift around every dreadful moment.
“Don’t even bother trying to contact your mates. Edith and Edward here are wearing blockers. Nothing can get through them.”
“Starlight called Dante for help, but they had power bands that blocked the guys from us,” I whispered, my eyes brimming with tears that could no longer be held back.
“Françoys, the Punisher of the Martel Dynasty,” I spoke the name out loud while his voice still echoed in my ears. “He masterminded the attack; they want my hybrid blood to create more hybrids… Now that they know about my fire, they’ll surely want to recreate it too. The same way they have dupped the Vampiri powers with those power bands they wear.”
“You promised to let me have her before you killed her!”Ryker growled through the fading darkness and my hands fisted as I blocked my bat claws from coming out.
He was disgusting.
“I’m going to burn his fucking balls off before I kill him!” I hissed, tears of rage replacing those of pain and falling from my eyes.
Isis’s gentle hand rested on my arm. “Whose?”
“Ryker’s.”
“It will be my pleasure to help you,” she growled, her she-wolf coming to the surface.
A gasp escaped me when the following image flared. “My mom’s neck was ripped open when she fought back.”
“It’s okay,” Isis assured, soothingly rubbing my arm. “Her venom will heal whatever they do to her. She’s a fighter.”
