My mind felt sluggish with panic, but I pushed it to work. Violette hated Georgia. And it seemed clear that she hated humans. What did she care about? The answer was obvious: herself. “You don’t want to be one of them, Violette. No matter how unworthy humans are of saving, vengeance against one human is not worth becoming a monster.”
Violette swallowed, and then her voice came back as smooth as liquid ice. “Vengeance has nothing to do with it. I never wanted to be what I am. I had my immortal future decided for me at an age when I hadn’t even lived life. I’m so tired of being at the mercy of humans to keep me alive. I don’t want to save you. My only desire is to possess the power over my own destiny. And once my numa and I have conquered the revenants, Paris will be mine and I’ll have all the power I want. My own kingdom to do with what I wish.”
“You’ll still be dependent on humans to survive as a numa, Violette,” said Vincent. “No matter what, you’re stuck in a never-ending cycle. You’re just trading rescue for betrayal.”
“At this point, the latter sounds much more bearable,” Violette said.
“And what is this scheme to overthrow us? How do you plan on doing that?” asked Vincent incredulously.
“With the power of the Champion,” she said, her eyes narrowing as she stared unflinchingly at Vincent. “Of course, if you had agreed to have me by your side, I wouldn’t have had to resort to seizing control. I could have shared your power over all the revenants once you took your rightful place as their leader. But when you made it obvious that you wouldn’t come to me by choice, I decided that conquering them with the help of the numa might not be such a bad alternative.”
“That’s why you propositioned me thirty-five years ago?” Vincent said, staring incredulously at the girl. “Because you thought I was the Champion?”
“Well, it wasn’t because of your beautiful blue eyes,” she said wickedly.
“You don’t know he’s the Champion, Violette,” I challenged, my eyes darting to my sister. Don’t. Drop. Her. “That guérisseur you tracked down didn’t even turn out to be the VictorSeer.”
“No, but she had all the information that I needed.” Violette’s smile slashed like a knife.
“What?” I gasped. “But . . . she escaped you. Her son told me!”
“Ah, but she came back home,” stated Violette. “Or so my men here were informing me when your sister interrupted our meeting.”
My eyes opened wide in shock. “Gwenha?l. What did you do to her?”
“I, personally, did nothing. But my numa . . . well, it seems they had to go a bit far to get her to talk, and after that there was a little accident.”
“You killed her!” I choked, the air leaving my lungs like a balloon stuck with an iron spike.
“As I said, it wasn’t me. My men just got carried away. And, although I hadn’t planned things to happen quite like this, because of what she told us I am even happier to see you here, Vincent.”
“What did she tell you?” Vincent asked, his eyes narrowed to slits.
“Why, that you are the Champion.”
“She can’t know that. She never laid eyes on me.”
Violette shrugged as if that wasn’t important. “The information she gave us as good as verified it.” She shifted the balance of Georgia’s body on the guardrail to lighten her load. Don’t. Drop. Her. My body thrummed with alarm every time Violette so much as breathed.
“After Kate’s visit, the guérisseur woman did her research. As I suspected, the timing is right. The place is right.” She smirked at me. “I know, Kate, I told you the contrary. But you’re so gullible, it was just too tempting.”
“And . . . ,” prompted Vincent.
“And when she told my men this morning that the Champion was the revenant who killed the last numa leader—that would be you killing Lucien, my dear Vincent—well, that clinched it for me. Congratulations. You are the chosen one.”
Vincent raised his hand to his heart. “It just doesn’t make sense.” The dark blotches under his eyes stood out against his unnaturally pale skin, and he stumbled a little as he took a step backward. He would be dormant in a couple of days and was looking even worse for being at the end of this month’s grueling experiment.
“Look at you,” Violette stated, wrinkling her nose. “Even though your impressive display with the marble sword back there seems to have tired you out a bit, you should in actual fact be dead. Only someone with the strength of the Champion could follow the Dark Way for more than a few weeks. Absorbing all that numa energy should have killed you by now. You’ve had two forces battling within you: good and evil waging war inside your reanimated body.
“Gaspard was stupid to believe me when I told him it would make you stronger. Now you’re weak enough for me to take you on myself. You know the prophecy. If I destroy the Champion, his power will be mine.”
“You’re crazy,” I whispered.
Vincent put a slight pressure on my arm and pulled me slowly backward, behind him. “If anyone knows their dark prophecy, it’s you, Violette. But even I know that if the Champion offers himself freely to his captor, his full powers will be transferred. I’ll trade myself for the life of the girl, Violette.”