Gypsy Moon (All The Pretty Monsters #4)(43)

“It’s a horrible image, but the dirt is disturbed, and when scanned,” Shera says, pressing a button that immediately flips the screen into x-ray mode, revealing…nothing, “there’s no longer a body part there. Avery has been trying to contact you and finally contacted me. I think there’s confusion about whose beta I am,” Shera informs me very seriously.

“What the bloody hell is so special about this?” Arion asks, gesturing to the fuzzy x-ray on the fuzzy image on the fuzzy split screen…next to another fuzzy image.

I really do need to find someone to maintenance those things.

Damien sucks in a sharp breath, eyes widening, as his hands curl into fists, like he sees something we don’t, just as Shera answers, her eyes deliberately on Arion.

“Idun’s grave looks intact, but her head isn’t there anymore,” Shera says, clearing her throat as she moves onto another screen.

My stomach twists, and Arion lowers himself to a chair, his expressions shutting down as he trains all his attention to the screen.

“She’s the only one whose dismembered pieces are buried in several very distant places. The drone quality just gets worse in the spot the torso was buried, but you can still see the x-rays coming back negative for it as well,” Shera rattles on, her words coming in quicker and quicker, the panic and fear shining more evidently.

“Any chance your drones just suck too much to get a proper reading?” Damien asks me, eyes lifting to meet mine.

“No,” Shera answers in my place, back still turned. “Avery is currently awaiting Van Helsing’s call. I’m sure the Morrigan alpha and Violet need to be abridged as well.”

“There’s no way she rose,” Arion argues very quietly.

Shera nods first, and then shakes her head, almost frazzled. “According to Avery, who has been working on this all day, this image was captured just outside of Castle de Blanc.”

None of us have anything to say when a blurry, pixelated image comes on the screen of a dry, mummified body walking upright, stringy hair down to the waist, and white eyes staring directly into the camera with a hint of confusion. No arms are attached, and the legs look newly acquired.

“The most disturbing part of this is the timestamp that dates this image,” Shera goes on, clearing her throat again. “It wasn’t too long after Violet came to town.”

I drop to a seat this time, scrubbing a hand over my jaw. Damien exhales the breath it sounds like he’s been holding in, and Arion’s brow creases.

“Violet’s not part of Idun’s House. Even if this town has charged her, she shouldn’t be feeding Idun power,” Arion is quick to say, hands steepled in front of his face.

“So Idun surfaced months ago and none of us knew it?” Damien asks, casting a pointed look in my direction.

“Maybe if I wasn’t having to do things, such as hunt down a turner that Dorian never handled before he went home, then I could monitor things like stale, stagnant, inaccessible graveyards that haven’t needed watching until rather recently,” I snap.

“Idun rose months ago?” Arion cuts in, staring very deliberately at Shera.

She gives a firm nod. “Please don’t kill me for asking, but can Idun fake Portocale blood?”

“No,” I say incredulously, at the same time Arion answers, “Yes.”

Damien and I both swing our gazes to him.

“Impossible,” I argue.

“I wouldn’t say anything is impossible for Idun,” Damien states tightly. “But to answer your real question, Shera, Violet is not Idun.”

She gives a small nod, but I see the unconvinced expression on her face.

“It’s just that…she fooled you all once…” Shera lets that sentence trail off as she looks around, rocking back on her heels.

“Violet isn’t Idun,” Arion tells her very sternly, and Shera seems to relax. “You’d be cowering in fear just from Idun’s presence, most likely. Unless she’s lost that air about her with the time underground,” he adds, seeming lost in thought.

“How could she fake Portocale blood? It’s part of our curse,” I state in argument to him.

“He was with Idun every step of the way. I’ll trust him on this,” Damien states, rubbing his jaw.

“She won’t be able to fake the taste, though,” Arion says like he’ll be sampling Violet when suspicion mounts.

“She won’t be able to fake a lot of things about Violet,” Damien adds almost absently, as if he’s musing aloud. “Violet seems obvious and predictable, but in truth, she internalizes too much, making her unpredictable and not so easily studied.”

“Perhaps that’s why she isn’t on the scene, despite having risen,” Shera suggests. “She’s learning to be Violet? Speaking from a very worried beta’s perspective, I’ve studied up on Idun. She’s diabolical and patient enough to plan something as obvious as a grab-and-switch.”

“She’s not wrong,” Damien says on a long groan.

“I’ll not give you all her secrets, but I will warn you of something,” Arion says, sounding a little less confident in his ability to leash Idun now that he knows she’s already awake. His eyes move between Damien and me. “Idun’s family were all brought back to life. As you’re well aware, it made the collective House power stronger.”