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Elio comforted his distraught parents while I put my arm around Paris’s waist, knowing full well it should not be there for both our sakes and the safety of my vampires.

Get him to the Carving Glade and cut ties. Fighting Aidan from different angles is the smart choice.

Love never made me smart.

I kept my arm around him, and he let me. He was stroking my skin, sinking into the depths of foolishness with me.

But I pulled away, broke the enchanting closeness.

It’s for the best, I told myself, the notion sickening. It’s for the best.

Chapter Eleven

Paris

Silvanus moved to the other side of the room, leaving me in a cold vacuum of emptiness.

Good. At least one of us had a clear head on his shoulders.

Stay away, keep him safe.

My constant…

Things settled down quickly in the name of getting shit done.

Alistair fetched the wooden disk from a safe in the spare bedroom. The longer we stayed here, the higher the risk of being caught by the city’s guardians or a bunch of Aidan Acolytes—they’d attacked us on my last visit here.

Those damn sirens squealed louder, time was not our best friend. We had to just go.

Lia lingered close to me, clinging to Elio, a continuous stream of silent tears running down her face. I tried not to look, focusing on the task at hand. That didn’t stop me from feeling bad for her and her husband. This was a lot to take in. Faith undone, seeing the son they’d abandoned, all of it.

“Here.” Alistair handed me the wooden disk. Elvish runes were scrawled across it with ink made from the blackberries of the Carving Glade.

While Alistair had the power to cast the spell, Caer wanted me to do it so she could channel it through me and all that jazz.

Puppet…

All eyes fell on me.

It started with vibrations in my head, the sound of windchimes, and the ink melting into my palm with sizzling heat. I gritted my teeth, bearing every sensation until the disk crumbled into sawdust and my mind spoke the word, “Open Glade.”

I swayed but kept vertical. My fingertips itched while wispy dark-purple smoke coiled around them. Elvish magic, waiting for me to set it free.

“Your serpent friend must now take us to Summer Forest,” Caer instructed, giving me some coordinates to hand over to Medusa.

“She’s already on it,” I answered internally.

The elf deity sighed, the sound of windchimes tinkling again in my skull. “Aidan might be weak, but that makes him more dangerous than ever.”

“Yeah.” What else was there to say?

“You must be careful, precious one. This curse between you and the vampire king could destroy everything.”

“Don’t suppose you know how to break it?” I tried.

“No. Although Aidan killing the source did seem like a viable plan at first.”

“Ugh. Let’s not give him any praise.”