“One last thing.” She scans the darkness around us before stepping nearer to whisper into my ear. “Please don’t let my snake-of-a-husband convince you that he’s noble and caring. He’s neither. He might’ve raised Alexander, but he raised him on hate and hubris.”
I’m certain she’s convinced of this. I don’t try to change her mind about them, since it’s best she doesn’t frequent them now that she’s mortal.
Instead, I speak words I never imagined I’d speak. “I forgive you, Ines.”
Her inhale is sharp, her blinking brisk. “Thank you, Elle. You don’t know how much that means to me.”
In an odd twist of fate, forgiving her might mean more tomethan it does to her. “Will you leave tonight?”
“Yes. I’m going to take the chopper to Boston to say goodbye to Callie and Tarian.”
“You don’t have to say goodbye to them.”
“For now, I do. I need to do some soul-searching. Also, I’ve never taken a vacation. I think I’d like one.” She crosses over the travertine terrace toward the grassy shoulder on which Tarian’s mansion is perched.
“You’ll send news?” I call out.
“If you want news…”
“I mean, just a sign of life from time to time. Not like, daily updates.”
She smiles, her teeth blindingly white in the darkness.
“Good luck!” I call out.
“Thank you, Elle. And congratulations on bringing in such high-ranking Hunters!”
I watch her run down to the property’s main road, past the thicket of red cedars that hides the helipad.
I give my head a slow shake as I retrace my steps around the house, wondering if my conversation with her really happened. It seems so…surreal.
I’m so focused on my feet that, when I turn the corner, I ram right into someone.
Chapter 53
Electra
Gael grips my elbows to keep me from face-planting. “Have you seen Ines?”
“She just left,” I say, shrugging off his hands. “Why were you looking for her?”
“To discuss our separation.” A deep exhale flares his nostrils. “I’m finally ready to let her go after what she did to us. I don’t want anythin’ to do with the woman who stole my daughter from me.”
It feels wrong that he calls me his daughter. I’m Yosef and Malika’s daughter.
I’m suddenly itching to call my parents, but remember the time difference. Not that that’s ever stopped them from picking up in the past.
Like when I crashed my first car. My parents were the first people I called, even though they were thousands of miles away. They stayed on the phone, talking me through my panic while I used my magic to heal the driver in the other vehicle before the EMTs arrived.
Or like when I set fire to a chicken dish I was trying to make back when I first moved to Boston. I’d facetimed Dad as I ransacked the kitchen for a fire extinguisher, only to bereminded that I had runes capable of drawing the oxygen out of the air.
I slide my phone out of my jacket pocket and tap my favorites list.
I’m about to graze Mom’s contact card when Gael says, “You sure?”
I look up.
“When?” He barks into his cell phone. “How many? I’ll inform the others… No. Keep your positions. I want eyes on them. Report back if they breach the perimeter.” He pockets his phone, his gaze roaming over the moonlit land. “You checked both Hunters for trackers? Their people are here.”
