He was ready to walk away and take her daughter.
And one day, Lena would Claim herself. John would be sure she turned her back on Sarafine.
Something clicked within her, two chambers locking into place. The rage wasn’t cresting anymore. It was crashing down on her, drowning her beneath it. And she could hear the voice.
Burn.
The drapes ignited, sending fire racing up the walls behind John. Smoke started to fill the room, black and dark, a living, breathing shadow. The sound was so loud as the flames ate away at the wall and spread to the floor. The fire created a perfect circle around John, following an invisible path only she could see.
“Izabel! Stop!” John screamed, his voice twisted by the roaring of the fire.
What had she done?
“How could you do this to me? I stood by you, even after you Turned!”
After you Turned.
He believed she was Dark.
He always had.
She looked at him through the cloud of smoke quickly filling the room. Sarafine watched the flames with remove. She wasn’t standing in her house, about to watch her husband burn to death. He didn’t look like the man she loved. Or even a man she could love.
He’s a traitor. The voice was perfectly clear now, and there was only one. Sarafine recognized it right away.
Because it was her own.
Before she walked away from the house and the smoke, her life and memories that were already fading, she remembered something John used to say to her. She looked into his green eyes with her gold ones.
“I’ll love you until the day after forever.”
Lena fell to her knees on the step beneath me, sobbing.
I wrapped my arms around her, but I didn’t say a word. She had just watched her mother kill her father and leave her for dead.
There was nothing left to say.
12.13
The Verdict
A few hours later, Lena was shaking me.
Wake up. You have to wake up, Ethan—
I sat up with a start. “I’m awake!” Only I looked around, confused, because it wasn’t Lena shaking me, it was Liv. Even though I could still hear the echo of Lena’s voice lingering in my head.
“Ethan. It’s me. Please—you’ve got to wake up.”
I looked at her through half-open eyes. “Am I dreaming?”
Liv frowned. “I’m afraid not. This is real.”
I rubbed my hand through my hair, confused. It was still pitch-dark outside, and I couldn’t even remember dreaming. I only remembered Lena’s voice and the urgent feeling something was wrong. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Marian. She’s gone. Come on.”
Things were starting to fall into place. I was in my room. Liv was in my room. I wasn’t dreaming. Which meant—
“Wait. How did you get in here?”
Liv looked embarrassed. “I hitched a ride.” She pointed to the scorpion belt around her waist and glanced behind her.
An Incubus was sitting in the corner of my bedroom.
Great.
John picked up my jeans from the floor and tossed them at me. “Hurry up, Boy Scout.” For a guy who didn’t have to sleep, he was as grouchy in the middle of the night as I was.
Liv blushed, turning around, and a few seconds later I heard the familiar ripping sound. Only for the first time, it was for me.
“Where are we?”
Nobody answered. Then I heard John’s voice in the darkness. “No clue.”
“Don’t you have to know where you’re going to rip? Isn’t that the way it works?” I asked.
“Is that some kind of Mortal word for Traveling? Real clever.” He sounded annoyed, which I was used to by now. “Sort of. Usually.”
The shadows were shifting, and I rubbed my eyes, trying to see in the dark. I stretched out my hands, but I couldn’t feel anything.
“Usually?”
“I was following the signal.”
“What signal?”
My eyes adjusted from the darkness of Traveling to the darkness of wherever we had Traveled to. As the blurry shadows lightened from black to gray, I realized we were crammed into a tiny space.
Liv looked at John. “An Ad Auxilium Concitatio. It’s an ancient Homing Cast, like a Caster SOS. But only a Cypher can detect one.”
John shrugged. “I hung out with one at Exile with Rid and—” He didn’t finish, but we all knew who he was talking about. “I picked up some Cypher skills.”
I shook my head. Cyphers? There was so much about Lena’s world I would never understand, no matter how hard I tried.
“You’re a handy guy,” I said, annoyed.
“Who sent it?” Liv asked.
“I did.” Lena was standing behind us in the darkness. I could barely see her face, but her green and gold eyes were shining. She looked over at John. “I was hoping you would pick it up.”
“Glad I’m good for something.”
“The Far Keep is trying Marian for treason. It’s going on right now.” Lena sounded grim. “Uncle Macon went after Marian, but he wouldn’t let me come. He said it was too dangerous.”