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Admittedly, it would have happened sooner or later, since she visited often. But if I wasn’t careful, Mother would find out too.

“I'm doing fine,” I snorted, trying not to sound too surprised. “Don't tell Alice about this.”

That was far more important.

“So she can continue to have this pristine image of you?”

Manda's expression was blank.

My gaze fixed on the wooden floorboards, and my hands clenched into fists.

“Damn it, Alaister, that's not the way you should go about trying to gain control.” What did she know? “You should accept that your powers are different and that our mother will never be able to control them.” I looked up at my sister's face, a face that had only ever watched, not the one that had taken all the blows. “You should finally stand up to her.”

I didn't argue with her any further because I avoid raising my voice at my sister. I don't want to be like our mother, or even draw her attention to us.

Amanda will never see it the way I do. She doesn't know how much our mother is driven by her desire for more, using her own children to climb the ladder.

Amanda shouldn't feel what I've been feeling for years now. It's enough for one Westcode descendant to carry the gnawing pain of the family in their heart.

Cry Wolf

Angus MacRae

Friday, November 21, 1997

Entry 15

“This magic is dangerous,” he said, leaning against the windowsill of the tower clock.

Of course, the bloodsucker had his own opinion.

“Obviously, you have to know how to handle Umbra,” I muttered irritably, focusing my attention on the flames in the fireplace. One day, I would be able to control them too.

“Your mother obviously couldn’t.”

I spun around and looked into the conceited snob's overly attractive face.

“Bastien...” Alice sighed softly, as always far too gracious.

“No, Alice, he should know,” he replied, and something rare flitted through her eyes. Something that didn't belong there. Fear.

Impatience mingled with mistrust in my chest.

“What should I know, DeLoughrey?”

I watched as Alice placed her hands on his forearm to stop him, and I wanted to pull her away from him. But he had already done that to us. She slipped further and further away from me...

“That the Councils were involved in the elimination of Umbra practitioners.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you talking about?”

Bastien pushed himself away from the windowsill and shot supernaturally fast to the table where all the books and files lay that he and Alarik had been burying their heads in for days.

The two seemed to be becoming friends...

“There are contracts here, however they got here. They say something about the elimination of all Quatura who are involved with Umbra.”

He held out a document to me and I snatched it from him.