The Steele Wolf (Iron Butterfly #2)(66)

This time it was Nero that spoke up. “Why? Why her?” Nero was in shock and clasped the hands of his wife. I wasn’t sure whether he was talking about his daughter or his wife.

“Nero, what happened to Gloria?”

“When we started fighting amongst ourselves, there were only a few not affected. They tried to stop us. Kael knew something we didn’t and went straight for Mona. She tried to defend herself against him. If what you say is true and she can control others, I think she lost her hold on them and everyone just fell to the ground. Kael subdued her, as you can see.” He motioned to the tied-up Mona, who at the mention of Kael’s name screamed in rage against her gag.

Darren nudged the raging Mona with his foot and she tried to kick him. When she had stopped fighting, Nero looked at me again with a look of utter helplessness. “It wasn’t until after Mona was tied up that Gloria started to have a seizure. She hasn’t spoken or moved since. She’s fading away fast and is resisting our efforts to heal her.”

I let Nero’s words sink in and I tried to think of something to do, anything. Should I run and find Fanny? Would that even help? It wasn’t until my eyes rested on the cup that was on a table next to Gloria’s bed. She had been drinking the concoction made by Mona a couple of times a day for months or even years. By now Gloria was nothing more than a drug addicted puppet.

Closing my eyes and opening them again, I looked deep into Gloria and sought after the glow: her life energy. It was strong and blazing bright; but shadows surrounded it, squeezing, trapping, trying to subdue the light. I picked at a thread of shadow and followed it with my consciousness and it didn’t surprise me one bit when the thread of shadow led to Mona.

“It’s Mona. She’s still controlling her. She’s been doing it for months, making Gloria believe that she’s ill when in fact she’s not. She’s trying to trick Gloria’s body into thinking it is dying.” It all made sense. If Mona was under attack by Kael than she knew she was in a fight for her life, and she would do everything she could to keep the upper hand. And in the palm of her hand was Gloria’s life. She couldn’t control everyone, so she released them to take hold of her weakest-willed puppet, a puppet she’d controlling for months. It was her only bargaining tool and that was why she hadn’t killed Gloria yet.

I relayed my thoughts to Joss and Nero and both of them turned angrily on Mona. Her eyes lit up in triumph when they realized that she was the one holding the power. Nero stormed over to her and shook her shoulders, demanding for her to release his wife. When Nero shook her I saw her torn dress move an inch to reveal something dark underneath.

“Stop!” I touched Nero’s shoulder and he stepped away from, her, turning his back on her in anger.

“How could you do this to us? We took you in, you were like family!” Nero’s shoulders quivered in anger. Mona’s eyes flicked between Nero and Joss and then to the floor.

Kneeling before Mona, I reached towards her shoulder and torn dress. She hissed and tried to kick at my hand. I jumped back because she startled me. “Darren, hold her please.” Darren did as I asked, holding her from behind, but looked as if he would rather do anything else than touch her.

Stepping close to Darren, I looked sadly upon Mona’s torn dress. It was beautiful at one time but would be headed for the trash bin. What had caught my eye wasn’t the dress but rather the large tear that started by her collarbone and ended by her shoulder blade. Pulling Mona’s long braid aside I lifted up the flap of silk to reveal a familiar brand on the back of her neck. Two slash marks surrounded by a circle, the hidden mark of the Septori. I dropped Mona’s braid back down onto her back as if it had burned me and I stepped away.

Here was all the proof we needed against her; she was a member of the Septori. “Joss, she’s one of them.”

“Make her stop,” he yelled angrily at her. “Make her release my mother.”

His heated words made me pause in wonder. Only a few hours before, I had seen the two of them in a warm embrace, kissing. The betrayal and turmoil of emotions had sent me running. Was I mistaken in what I saw; had I judged Joss too soon? Here he was acting completely different.

“I don’t know how.” I whispered back.

The look Joss gave me was one of complete helplessness. How could we get her to release control of Gloria without harming her? I was at my limit; my skin was still burning to the touch and I was emotionally and physically exhausted. The run-in with Talbot had drained me and stirred up a plethora of mixed emotions, ones that felt like chains were being slowing drawn around me.

“Please, Thalia,” Joss begged. “If anyone can, it’s you.” The words spoken in complete honesty were meant to encourage me but instead felt like a weight had been added to the chains around me and was now dragging me into an abyss of hopelessness.

I nodded to Darren and he pulled off her gag so that we could speak to her.

“Mona, please release Gloria,” I pleaded softly. “I know you must secretly care about her. Otherwise you would have let her die weeks ago.” It was a gamble. I had seen Mona hovering protectively over Gloria. So I was gambling on the fact that, since Mona lost her mother, she may have secretly seen Gloria as a substitute mother figure.

Mona’s eyes started to tear up, and I should have stopped speaking then but I didn’t. “If your father forced you in any way to do his bidding, we understand. You don’t have to be part of the Septori; you can leave them and help us. We’ll help you.”