Chapter 1
“Forgive me,” I whispered, knowing my words never reached her ears. She was already gone. Safe. Safely away from this deadly atrium. Safe from Mortimer and Viggo. Safe from me.
Now for damage control …
I scanned the crowd of a hundred–odd depraved vampires, their eyes wild with varying degrees of bewilderment and crazed bloodlust after the briefest scent of a human. There! Four familiar faces; the four who needed to survive. Relief washed over me. Thank God for those pictures.
I closed my eyes, searching for the one last thread of energy I needed to cast another spell. Ah … I grasped a miniscule, glowing purple helix coil, much like a DNA strand, floating beside my heart, and yanked with my mental hand. It immediately shot up to my fingertips. Armed with magic, I raised my hand toward Veronique’s tomb within the brightly burning pyre. With a thought, embers leaped out to soar toward my fingertips as if magnetized.
And then I struck.
The sparks shot from my fingers and erupted into six foot–high circles of flame, forming a formidable barrier of protection around Evangeline’s friends—large enough not to ignite them but tight enough to keep them from leaping out and making a run for it.
“Sofie?” Mortimer hollered uncertainly.
I turned toward him. His face a mask of shock, he stood next to Viggo, both frozen like ice sculptures, both struggling to grasp the events of the past ten seconds. I knew that confusion would quickly give way to understanding, and retaliation would follow.
I’ll deal with them later. For my sister’s sake, they needed to survive. And for my sake, in an indirect fashion. With another flick of my hand, three flaming circles formed—one around each of them and the last around myself. There. That should hold them until I’m finished.
Now, elimination.
From the corner of my eye, I caught the telltale silvery white hair and hideous features of a mutant. I shuddered, finding their very existence repulsive but worse, knowing the Merth–laced building couldn’t confine them. The last thing we needed were those monsters running loose in New York, especially with the People’s Sentinel watching us.
Flames shot out from my fingertips and struck the hideous creature, igniting his body as if it were made from tissue paper. His one short scream—the shrill sound of death—echoed through the atrium, sending a chill down my spine. I didn’t let it distract me from my focus, though. Spotting two more mutants, I quickly dispatched them as well.
Heads started to turn as the screams attracted the attention of the other vampires. Soon enough, they’d figure out the fate I had in store for them. Then I’d have mass hysteria and vampires hiding in every nook and cranny in this place. I didn’t have time to hunt them all down individually.
Fiery sparks flew freely from my fingertips, landing on any vampire in sight. Within seconds, dozens of flaming bodies were thrashing on the ground, scorching the leaves and petals of the atrium’s plants and engulfing any vampires caught too near. But I knew there were more vampires out there in Viggo’s urban jungle, out of my view.
There was only one thing left to do. I had to torch the entire atrium, then hope I could control the fire enough that the entire building didn’t go up in flames. Inhaling deeply, reconciled to the plan, I raised both hands.
A body lying on the ground, bound by Merth, distracted me. A vampire with jet black hair and yellow eyes—Rachel. My jaw clenched as I imagined slowly tearing the flesh off her body as she screamed, only to allow it to grow back so I could do it again … But there was no time for that. Sighing with disappointment, I raised a finger toward her, preparing to rid everyone of the viper once and for all.
“Caden. No!”
The desperate scream stilled the spark poised in my hand. My eyes swept over in time to see Caden, a lost, vacant expression on his face, taking a step toward the flames. I gasped. He was going to kill himself.
With the last bit of magic I possessed after executing Evangeline’s complicated transportation spell, I instantly extinguished every flame in the atrium before he could succeed.
Caden stared back at me, unharmed, resentment marring his stunning face. That’s okay. You can hate me. You’re safe.
A powerful hand grabbed me by the neck and hoisted me into the air. “Where is she?” Viggo growled, rage blazing in his eyes.
Despite everything, I laughed.
###
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons.
She is a voracious reader and currently resides in a quaint town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.
OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR:
Causal Enchantment Series:
Asylum
Allegiance
From Atria Books (A division of Simon & Schuster):
Ten Tiny Breaths
One Tiny Lie
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends