“What are you doing to her?” Hannes menacingly growled.
“I thought you would ease her into it.” André growled. “Why?—?”
“Ah, the joy of overprotective men,” Mother sighed sarcastically. “I do not miss that.”
Their voices easily filtered into the fantasy I was immersed in, but I was still at the party. It was the strangest thing.
“Does your husband not protect you?” I asked the Countess while slowly turning in a circle to better access my surroundings within the fantasy.
“He does, but he’s also my partner in crime, yah? He never stops me from whatever crazy idea has popped into my head. Instead, he supports me and helps me make them happen… Though, it actually got us in serious trouble once.”
I smiled at that; it sounded like the kind of partner I’d want.
Hannes’s hand tightened on mine at my thought.
Was he still in my mind? I couldn’t sense Dante’s shadows.
“Now, darling. Let’s ignore the men. Are you alright in there?”
“I am, but…” I faced the grand ballroom again, noticing a set of chairs arranged on a dais at the front of it, almost like thrones. “I’m not watching your memory like you said I would. Not like a movie. It’s more like I’m actually in the party. In the middle of everything. I can hear the music and feel the energy, the happiness in the room, I—Shit! Someone just walked right through me.”
I chuckled at that, touching my stomach and chest as a funny tingling spread over it in the memory, even though I wasn’t moving on the chair. It was the strangest feeling.
“How is that possible?” Hannes gripped my hand tighter.
“Did she astral project?” Dante asked.
“No. If she was projecting her soul there, she’d have to assume a state of deep concentration and know exactly where she was traveling to through the Ether. It takes years to master something like that.” The tone of Bjørn’s voice said he was troubled by this. “She’s interacting with us, answering us, and laughing while still fully immersed in the active memory… I’m not sure how this is possible.”
“Could it be her hybrid magic interacting with the magic of the crystals?” Isis questioned.
“Is it possible her fractured soul is causing this?” Vanessa joined the party.
“Perhaps all of the above,” Mother admitted but she sounded intrigued. “I’d even dare to guess that this might be a trace of Anastasia’s ability. Though Natalia doesn’t see visions, her enhanced mind may experience things completely differently…”
Everyone became quiet.
“Great, Bitch. You are a freak too.”
I was not answering that.
“Wait…” I called when my eyes found Countess Dariah on the dance floor, arms wrapped around a dashing, dark-haired, and blue-eyed man. “I can see you dancing with a sexy-as-hell Vampir.”
“That’s Antoine,” she sounded amused. “Go to where I am. Follow me.”
Glancing around me to make sure no one else would walk through me, I advanced, seeing Anastasia walk out of the ballroom with the lady who seemed to manage the castle. The one who greeted us when we arrived. Edith, was it?
“Is that your husband?”
“He wishes,” Georgette snorted, and everyone chuckled.
“He’s my backup husband.” Mother chuckled. “I’ve called him many things during the last three thousand years of our life, but he’s my dearest, dearest friend. He’s married to Mathew’sbest friend, Zoe. The only woman in the world who can actually put up with him. They are perfect for each other.”
Nodding, I continued my way through the ballroom until I got to where they danced, just as he spun her to the music.
“Shit!” I gasped when she twirled right through me, and then I saw the party from a whole new angle…
Hers.
