“Whoever you are,” my father roars back, “you’ll never take me alive.”
“I don’t want to kill you,” the invader goes on. “And if you only hear me out...”
“No!” my father screams, and another burst follows. The house itself shakes, and I hear the creak of fire. I press my hands to the walls, feeling the rough texture of the carved runes against my palms. Was this my mother’s work? Is this supposed to keep me safe?
But what about them?
“Shadow Mage!” the familiar voice calls out. “Stop that or you’ll kill yourself and your wife!”
“These powers are a curse,” my father says, and his voice is not a rough roar anymore, but raspy and stretchy. “A curse no one will have access to, but me. And it will go to the grave with me!”
“Shadow Mage, I mean no harm to you, or to yours!” And then it clicks. The voice. The invader. The person who identified my father’s powers out of the barrier, a person fast enough, desperate enough, to arrive here so fast.
It’s Kayn. Kayn is here.
Fear washes down my spine as the sound of fighting goes on above my head. Another scream, a female one, and then my father’s, and the chaos that ensues is so loud, and the crackling of fire so copious, I hear nothing else.
“No!” Kayn screams, and his voice disappears amid the sounds of death, and I hear nothing else as the house comes undone above me, and the fire destroys every sign of the happiness I once had.
I’m sobbing when darkness consumes me again. This time, I hope for it to not let me go.
CHAPTER13
CASSANDRA
My eyes flutter open, and I stare at an intricately decorated ceiling, all swirls and drawings of small creatures. I see a wolf, and a bear, and a unicorn. Do unicorns exist? I slam my eyes shut. I can’t take another crazy new fact about reality. No. Unicorns are not real.
“What was that?” Giulia’s soft voice asks from my side. “Are you mumbling about unicorns?”
I open my eyes to look at her. She’s sitting next to me. I’m apparently lying in a bench in the menagerie if all the plants are any sign. “Please, Giulia. Tell me unicorns aren’t real.”
She arches a well-drawn brow. Her creamy eyes narrow. “What do you have against unicorns? I was pretty sure they were beloved creatures in this timeline.” She lifts a hand and taps her chin with a forefinger. “Or am I in the wrong one? Is this the one of the Great Horned War?”
Oh, gods. “No. Please, don’t tell me about the Great Horned War. It sounds awful.”
She nods. “It was.” And then she opens a grin. “Unicorns are real, dear. They’re also unlike what you imagine them to be.”
Frustration washes over me. I slap both my hands over my eyes. A bit too hard. “Giulia! I asked you to tell me they werenotreal.”
“But then I’d be lying.” She bends on the waist, away from me, and picks up a dainty cup from a side-table. “Here. Drink this. It will perk you up.”
She offers me the cup and I sit up, accepting it. The dark liquid inside releases swirls of hot air, and I sniff it before touching my lips to the rim. Coffee? It smells like regular coffee. I take a gulp, and the hot drink burns down my throat, but its sweetness spreads over my tongue, making me hum.
“What’s that?” I ask after drinking half the cup. “A potion?”
Giulia chuckles. “Almost. It’s called Irish Coffee in this timeline. Strong coffee, brown sugar, whiskey. Amazing for a perk up, don’t you think?”
Laughter bubbles up my throat. “Yeah, definitely.” And I take a long look at her. She watches me drinking with those blank eyes of her, but her focus isn’t away. It’s quite easy to tell now. Even as the two of us sit in silence in her dead menagerie, swaddled in ferns and circled by golden cages, Giulia is still here, with me. “Do you know what I saw?” I ask in a low voice, putting the cup away.
Giulia shakes her head once. “No. And you don’t need to tell me. Every current generation of Shadow Mages, no matter the timeline, had a broken childhood. It’s the approaching times. The God of Chaos grows unquiet, and things like these tend to happen.”
God of Chaos? I’m not sure I should ask. There’s just so much happening, and so much I don’t know about this world. What I truly need is to learn how to defend myself and my men. That’s the only thing that matters right now. They’re in danger just for being in my company, as are Giulia and her mates.
I can’t bear letting another person die because of me.
“Giulia,” I start with a sigh, but then I stay in silence for several heartbeats, working the words in my head. She doesn’t push me, doesn’t press. Her eyes just stare at my face, waiting. “What should I do?”
Her brows shoot up. “Why would you ask me?”