Desiccation.
“If he drinks my blood… he’ll get my powers too?” I asked them, not really wanting to hear the answer.
André’s jaw fiercely tensed. “Yes, but he would have to?—”
“Drink all of it…” I finished for him, remembering Françoys’s threat about draining me.
“That is a chance we won’t take,” André declared, his irises turning red.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
When my gaze found Dante’s, my entire became rigid. I knew exactly what he was about to say.
“If any of tell me I can’t go get my mother back I swear to the fucking Goddess…” I warned, hands fisting while I tried not to panic and keep myself level-headed after the turn of events. This was far worse.
“Martell’s old followers are the ones driving this. They want to bring him back,” André reasoned. “And the Martell Dynasty was the biggest one before Dariah destroyed them all.”
“Natalia—”
“Nothing has changed,” I cut off Dante’s protest before it began.
Of course, I was lying to myself. Everything had fucking changed, in the worst way possible, but I was still going to rescue Anastasia.
“You can’t go,” Dante insisted. “Now that we know?—”
“Don’t make me add you to my list of men I’ll burn the testicles off of!” I hissed, my attention snapping toward him and I was sure at least one eye was glaring at him bright red.
Horror captured his expression, and he cupped his groin, stepping back.
“Bjørn is with your father now,” Isis reminded me, placing a soothing hand on my arm. “And he is more powerful than they are. I’m sure he can help Dresden get to Anastasia and bring them both back. You won’t have to go at all.”
She might have a point.
“But if the followers of Charles Martell’s cult are doing this, there might be far more of them. André just said he had the biggest Dynasty, and there were only a few of Dariah’s guards left with Dresden.”
“Dresden might be fighting against the odds right now, but I assure you, there isn’t more of them than us,” Hannes growled, now fully shifted into the Beast from rage alone.
Taking André’s phone, he dialed someone too—the cell was lost within his giant grasp as he lifted it to his ear.
“Mom, this is about more than we imagined. They are trying to overthrow Countess Dariah’s kingdom.”
Queen Luna’s alarmed words flared through the phone a thousand miles a minute.
“Don’t you have a family link?”I couldn’t help but ask him.
“Yes, but I barely have control right now…”
His confession sent a sudden thrill through me, and this was sonotthe time for that.
“Prepare the Royal Knight Force and call the Countess to organize. We leave tomorrow.” When Hannes hung up, relief unclenched my chest.
We would go save my mother with his army’s help. That changed the odds in our favor.
“We?” André challenged, glaring at Hannes.
“André, Anastasia already had this vision. I am meant to go save her, and I’ve prepared for it.”
“We believe that’s also the reason we were chosen,” Dante reluctantly agreed, exchanging a grim look with André and Hannes. “But as someone who has lived much longer than many, I can assure you nothing is set in stone. Not even the threads of destiny.”
