The cloaked female laughed, her same cocky tone grating on my ears. Not Miriam’s, though. She felt… sad. More than sad. Anguished. The moment the cloaked female walked through the door, it was like a switch had flipped. All the happiness and love seeped out of her, replaced by a cold, horrifying realization. But of what?
“You know the answer to that, Miriam. You know the answer to… a lot. Things you could say that?—”
“Careful,” Miriam warned. “I know what you’re doing. Don’t shake the foundation yet.”
The female sighed, holding out her wrist. “I will forever hate how convoluted and touchy time is. Let’s hurry this along—there are things I need to change.”
Azazahl stepped toward her and dragged a claw across her wrist, slicing her skin. Fisting her hand, she let her blood pool, then offered it to Miriam. Miriam dipped her feather into it.
The smallest seed of regret made her hand hesitate. But it was nothing compared to her determination and fierce motherly protectiveness. She placed the feather behind Aspen’s ear and carved.
Aspen wailed, big tears rolling down his plump cheeks. Yet she didn’t stop. Her blood-tipped feather scraped across his skin,connecting scrolling lines. After the final line, she drew back, and the rune mocked me with its familiar shape.
It was the Severance Rune the Doors of Moirai depicted. Half of Aspen’s power was hidden—blocked.
A blue light flared from the bloody rune, then vanished, taking the Severance Rune with it. She carved the second rune, and time seemed to stop. She waited in silence as an answer I never expected stared back at me from Aspen’s skin. Azazahl, Hana, and the cloaked female watched Aspen’s back, expecting something to happen.
Aspen’s cries quieted. Time wound my nerves tighter.
Then the rune moved. It gathered, eliminating its defining edges until it became nothing more than a splotch of ink on his skin. The ink slid down his neck, and the moment it reached his spine, it bled into a familiar design.
Navy wings spread across baby Aspen’s back, visible for one second before fading like they had never been there at all.
Miriam put the guardian bond on Aspen using that female’s blood? Why? Who the hell was she?
“He will be bound until it’s time. We will never speak of this.” Miriam gave a severe look to Azazahl and Hana. Then she leveled an even harsher one at the female. “Remember why you’re doing this. Because if you let your impatience win, it’ll all be for nothing, and you’ll live with what you’ve got. Understood?”
“Understood,” the female breathed. Bone-weary exhaustion weighed heavily in that single word. An emotion I’d never heard from her before.
“Will it work?” Azazahl asked.
“Unfortunately.”
You can tell her, yes, Lucille.
I startled. It was just like when I dream-walked into Oliver’s body and Miriam spoke into his mind. My brain hurt trying to understand the mechanics of it.
You have your answers.
Then, somehow, I was pushed from her head and into the darkness of mine—where she stood in all her cloaked, smug glory next to a flickering ball of purple and white flame.
Chapter
Forty-Six
Lucille
“Busy?” she asked.
What a pitiful word to describe not only the last day, but my entire state of mind. Had it really only been one day?
“Did you get the answer to my question as I’d asked?” Her lips curled beneath the shadow of her hood. Something about it made me suspicious.
“Why do I get a feeling you already know that answer?”
She shrugged. “You’re smarter than you look, I suppose.”
I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth, wondering how I could reveal who she was. “I don’t trust you.”
