Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(76)
“How unfortunate for us,” Mage’s lips twisted, lifting my mood marginally.
“Mortimer’s going with him?”
She nodded.
I sighed. “That’s good.” I can’t believe I’m beginning to trust Mortimer. “I hope that lends enough common sense. At least it’ll keep the two of them away from Evangeline. Maybe they’ll deal with this Jonah problem before it gets out of control.”
“And do you think they’ll listen to you and stay away from the house?”
I paused to give that a moment’s thought. “Well, with Viggo … you always have to be worried about what that psychopath will do, how he can get around a pledge and still hold his head high. But they pledged their allegiance and I have to believe in that. We have enough to deal with here. Did Lilly and her group agree to leave as well?”
Mage nodded again, confirming. A nervous tickle stirred inside me, the same one that had irked me since the day we decided to reach out to Viggo’s arch nemesis for help.
“Do you trust them, Mage? Lilly, I mean. We all know she tipped off the witches about Evangeline in the city, right? Gave her a chance to isolate Evangeline. It was a stupid move but … I don’t doubt it for a second.”
There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation before Mage nodded. “Yes, she likely did. I’m sure she also had the entire situation under control. They are our best hope. Lilly has connections you do not. She has advantages that you do not.”
Mage was correct in that. Though I had a multitude of resources at my disposal, Lilly had the added advantage of appearing a small, harmless child. She didn’t even require compulsion and threats. Most people barely noticed her quiet, unassuming presence as she stealthily gathered intel. I’m not sure the Sentinel was even aware of her, to be honest.
I couldn’t help but notice the vagueness in Mage’s words. “Our best hope,” I mimicked. What if our best hope was no hope at all? “We are … what … thirteen? We’re to stop a secret society of witches and Sentinel, numbering in the tens of thousands, their grubby little fingers on ten thousand buttons, any of them able to start a chain reaction that will obliterate the human world.” It sounded so insane, so far-fetched, so impossible, and yet it had already happened. I had sent Evangeline into a world seven hundred years after that exact situation.
Running my fingers through my hair, I peered back at the dim lights of the chateau where Wraith was no doubt quickly becoming a nuisance—a lethal one. “What’s Evangeline doing?”
“Trying to drink herself into a coma, from the looks of it.”
I shook my head with dismay. “She’s an absolute wreck …” Emotionally, mentally, physically …
“How long before the transition is final?” Mage asked as softly as possible, and yet it impaled me like a pitchfork through the gut.
“I don’t know … hours? Days? Weeks?” And then she would be lost to me. “I can’t even heal her damn face!” I screamed suddenly, clenching my teeth with rage, my fingers digging into the frozen ground to grip the edges of Nathan’s tombstone. I ripped it out and launched it across the courtyard. It shattered into a dozen pieces. Like my life with Nathan.
I slumped to the cold ground as Mage sped over and began collecting chunks of concrete. “Yes, this issue with her magic is becoming a real problem.” She stacked the pieces on top of each other, fitting them together until they resembled a tombstone again. “She’s so fragile when we need her not to be so … human,” she finished with a sigh. “What can we do?”
I shrugged noncommittally, staring up at the dark sky looming over us, letting the cold flakes land on my irises without flinching. It had to be after midnight by now. “It’s Christmas,” I announced, my words hollow.
“Well, then, Merry Christmas, my friend” Mage patted my shoulder.
I snorted, reaching into my jeans pocket to pull out a small red velvet pouch. “Evangeline’s Christmas present … I don’t know why I bothered …” I let the bag slip from my fingertips. It tumbled and landed in the cold snow. “Evangeline can’t go on like this anymore. This will kill her. And I can’t go on like this anymore. I need to end this somehow … I need to fix this.” I gritted my teeth as a hundred and twenty years of disastrous mistakes cycled through my mind. How many times had I tried to fix something, only to make it worse? There was no fixing! I was a pawn, a useless twit.
“These damn Fates! They sit up there in their ivory tower, twisting and perverting everything until it’s more horrific than it was to start with. I need a fair shot!” My voice was rising, echoing in the cold night air. “Oh, what I would do if I ever met them face to face …” I threatened in a low growl.
Abruptly, the ground fell out from under me. I was falling, tumbling in darkness. I grappled with the air around me and quickly learned there was nothing to grab a hold of, nothing to slow me down. Deeper and deeper I went, picking up speed as I fell farther into the black hole.
Then, for the first time in one hundred and twenty odd-years, I lost consciousness.
12. Full Disclosure—Evangeline
Thump, thump, thump … A man with a drum had taken up residence inside my head and he was pounding on his instrument as if it kept his heart beating. I groaned into my pillow. What’s that … ugh! My mouth tasted terrible. Something may have died inside there last night.