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Elio got to his feet. “I’m ready.”
A surprise, but a good one. We had to get this over with.
At the same time, a tug of something familiar caught me in another surprise. A sibling-related tug, one entwined with sympathy.
No, no, no. Not this. I couldn’t be having this. I had a sibling, and she was gone.
The tugging twanged a few more times, a fishing line signaling a catch.
“One minute until I can open a portal again,” Medusa informed us.
I puffed on the cig, ignoring the tug.
Please leave me alone…
My brother folded his arms, waiting in silence.
Sixty long seconds I waited for another Aidan attack. Part of me hoped he would, delaying the return to the house with those elves who didn’t raise me.
Shit. I can’t do this.
The countdown ended without incident, Medusa opening a portal.
Here we go. This smidgeon of a peaceful interlude over. Time for the weight of the world to drop its bricks on me again.
Dammit.
Just dammit.
Finishing the cig, I drew luck down my chest and stepped through the shimmering doorway.
Chapter Nine
Paris
It all happened so fast.
The return, the greeting between my parents and the vampire king, being ushered into the living room of brown and cream, sat beside Elio on a two-seater cream sofa, my head stuffed to the brim, my heart wrung out like a used dishcloth.
My parents sat on brown armchairs facing us, while the others stood in the corner of the room, having refused chairs from the kitchen. An awkward silence hung over everything, but I’d learned their names before this moment.
Alistair and Lia Oaklily.
Not Raine, like me.
Lia stared at me with glistening blue eyes, dabbing at them with a tissue, guilt casting its shadows across her face.
I knew that look. Had seen it in my own reflection many times over the years.
A few intakes of breath told me she wanted to say something, but she held back each time.
Maybe we wouldn’t have a conversation. Maybe we’d part ways in a moment and that would be that and I wouldn’t have to deal with any of this crap.
Alistair stared at me, unmoving. A total statue.
Okay, we were wasting time here. A minute had already passed. Caer wanted me to sing at Alistair to show him his ancestors, for him to understand why he’d been looking after the rune disk to gain access to the Carving Glade.
Also, the song would help clear away Aidan’s lies. It worked on the vamps because of Silvanus being touched by the magic, which fed into the Heart of All, and also worked on the thralls. No other race had that, hence the need for the global spell.
