I’d forgotten about that actually. An image of my youth swam behind my eyes. Same dark hair, same pale skin, but green eyesthe color of Burmese jade reflected back. Not the same emerald as a full witch, but green enough to peg me as one of their children.
Huh. Now my eyes were the shade of a moonless, starless night, a pool of black infinity.
Ethan tried to take a step back, but Mom tightened her grip. “Where are you going?” she asked softly.
I held my hand out. “Ethan. Beware.”
Mom let out a soft laugh. “You want to stay with me, don’t you, Lord? Just to see what I can give you.”
Magic, soft and seductive, rose through the air. I took a step forward and was about to leap when an iron grip grabbed me from behind.
I twisted my head around to see a blank-eyed Jace staring at my mother.
“Keep holding her,” Mom said, her lips curving in a seductive smile.
She was banking on me not hurting Jace, but whatever spell she was cooking up for Ethan would be awful. I knew it. Shifters could heal just about anything. All I needed to do was break his grip.
She moved in front of Ethan and touched a glowing hand to his chest. Her lips moved as she whispered the words of an unfamiliar spell. Dark, unfathomable power rose through the air, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. This magic felt different than her other spells. Something sinister spun around us, the feeling dark and oily. Ethan’s eyes closed for a long moment. His throat tipped back, the vulnerability shocking me. A Lord never bared their throat to an enemy.
What had she done to him?
I let claws slide from my fingertips and turned to slice Jace’s arms. He barked in pain, dropping my arms as he stumbled away.
I leapt toward my mother, reaching out to get a grip on her hair when she went transparent, her laugh a haunting echo in the woods. My fingers slid through the air as she disappeared.
“I hope you enjoy this new version of your precious Lord,” Mom said in a mocking tone. “When you’re ready to come home, find me, and I will return him to his prior state.” Her lips curved in a savage smile. “I hope you both enjoy the gift I’ve left behind.”
Dread froze my veins as her voice faded.
Ethan dropped like a stone.
Chapter
Eleven
Jace snapped out of it as soon as Mom disappeared. He hissed in pain and took the shirt from the bag wrapped around his neck, tore it into strips and wrapped his arms.
I crouched over Ethan and slapped his cheeks. “Ethan?”
The Lord was out cold. I pressed my ear against his chest and let out a sigh of relief when the steady thump of his heartbeat greeted me. “He’s alive,” I said to Jace as he crouched beside me.
“Thank the gods,” he muttered.
I slapped his cheeks once more. “Ethan. Wake up.”
“We can carry him back to his house if we need to.”
I looked around the clearing. “Where are the other two shifters?”
Jace blinked and frowned. “Stay here.”
The young shifter took off at a run, his eyes glowing a strange silver.
Hopefully they were alive. Mom hadn’t harmed Jace, but three shifters and a vampire were too much of a challenge for her. Holding us all wouldn’t have allowed her to concentrate the spell, whatever it was, on Ethan.
I uncurled myself and lay beside him, tucking my head under his arm to lay on his chest. This odd magic I had wasn’t anythingI understood yet, but I was working hard to try to figure things out. I focused on the remnants Fee had left behind when she’d sacrificed herself to save the Lords on Evie’s land all those months ago, but she remained watchful and silent.
While it was annoying I couldn’t control the magic she’d given me, her silence told me Ethan wasn’t dying. He was merely unresponsive.
