A Dawn of Strength (A Shade of Vampire #14)(14)

“It will be a bloodbath,” Julisse said, apprehension in her voice.

“And long awaited,” Isolde said. “But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. If the rite fails, we will be back to square one—and this time without Lilith. We’ve got only one shot at this. Failing is not an option.”

As the conversation trailed off, my stomach was in knots. Although much of what they were saying was a mystery to me, I understood enough for their words to terrify me.

Chapter 8: Sofia

Sitting with Derek in the mountain cabin Kiev and Mona were staying in temporarily, I found my jaw was on the floor as they recounted all that had happened since leaving the island. But almost more than the witches’ deceit, I was shocked at what Kiev had been willing to sacrifice to reclaim Mona. I knew Kiev loved her, but I hadn’t understood the extent of that love until today.

As our conversation came to a close, we watched as Mona applied a strong-smelling ointment around his closed wound.

“Will you be able to replace Kiev’s arm?” I asked.

“Even my magic has limitations,” Mona replied, grimacing. “Kiev’s arm is still trapped somewhere at the base of the Adriuses’ palace in The Sanctuary—that’s if Hagatha hasn’t devoured it already. The most we can do is fix Kiev up with a prosthetic arm.”

Once Mona was finished with him, Kiev stood up from his armchair and walked over to the window, stretching out his remaining arm and rolling his neck. I was surprised by how nonchalant his attitude was to the whole affair of his missing arm. He seemed almost disinterested.

Mona shot a worried glance his way. “How are you feeling, Kiev?” she asked.

He turned around and walked over to her. Lifting her chin upward, he planted a kiss on her lips.

“I’m fine,” he said.

I almost jumped as a banging sounded at the door. Since I was closest to it, I stood up to answer it. My voice caught in my throat at the sight on the doorstep.

Standing next to my daughter and Caleb were Vivienne and Xavier. I stared at them, blinking. They looked so different with their sun-kissed skin and glowing complexions.

“What are you doing here?” I gasped.

Derek shot to his feet and pulled the door open wider behind me. His breath hitched as he stared at his sister and brother-in-law.

“Vivienne!”

She rushed forward and flung herself into her brother’s arms. They entered the cabin with us along with Rose and Caleb.

“I had a vision, Derek,” Vivienne said, her forehead creased with worry.

“But why are you here? I told you to stay away. Why couldn’t you call me? You left with one of the charmed phones.”

Vivienne’s cheeks flushed as she exchanged glances with her husband. I wondered why they looked so embarrassed all of a sudden, though I wasn’t left wondering long as Xavier replied, “That’s what we were going to do, but… uh… something happened to the phone.”

“Huh?” Derek turned on Xavier. “What?”

“We thought we’d lost it at first,” he said, “but after searching the apartment, we realized we’d… uh, been a little too hasty the night before out on the veranda. Long story short, we found the phone at the bottom of our pool.”

Derek breathed out sharply in frustration, running a hand through his hair. “You should have taken a backup with you.”

“Well, we didn’t. And we’re here now,” Vivienne said, sitting down on the couch and pulling her brother down with her. “I need to talk to you.”

Everyone took seats around Vivienne and listened with bated breath as she began to tell us about her vision. She looked traumatized as she recounted it, as though she was reliving it all over again.

“What do you think it means?” Derek asked.

“I think it means we need to be prepared for an assault by the black witches,” she said, her breathing uneven. “We’ve suspected all along that this was what they were planning, but with their failure to keep hold of Rose… I think they’re just going to cut to the chase now.”

My eyes travelled to Mona. The blood had drained from her face as she stared at Vivienne.

“Prepare,” the witch murmured. “If they’re going to attack, I’m not sure there’s much we can do to prepare. The protection that’s around the island right now is the strongest that I’m capable of. If they…” Her voice trailed off as she swallowed hard. “Put it this way: if they bring all of their most powerful witches, there’s only so much pressure I’ll be able to stand before I break.”

Derek stood up and began pacing up and down the room. “So we need to assume that they’ll break through within a few minutes, perhaps a few hours, of them launching an attack. Is that accurate?”

“It’s impossible to say,” Mona said.

“We need to call a meeting in the Great Dome with all the council members,” Derek said.

“I’ll go gather them,” Kiev said. “I could do with the exercise.”

Mona didn’t look happy about Kiev leaving, but he left the cabin before she could protest.

“Our first priority is to protect our most vulnerable,” Derek continued. “Our humans. We’ll inform all of them of this threat we suspect is looming, and all those who wish to leave us will be shipped away. Those who wish to stand by us and weather the storm should be evacuated into the innermost chambers of the Black Heights. Then we’ll have to figure out how the rest of us can best prepare for their arrival.”