Chapter One
The smell of antiseptic assaults my nose the instant we step into the hospital. The nurse spots us before we get to the desk. There is no wait and Sam and I are ushered quickly through a swinging door and down a long hallway. A police officer stands in the hallway. I feel the tightening squeeze of Sam’s hand against mine as the officer steps aside, opening the door.
“Thank you,” I say, looking up at the officer’s face. He stares straight ahead, making no eye contact.
As we step through the door, Sam whispers in my ear, “You’ve got this.”
The room is small, with a glass window separating a larger, secured room with a patient lying in a hospital bed. Xavier.
Anita, my academic partner and Xavier’s sister, stands at the window, eyes focused on her brother. I’m not sure she’s even aware we came in until she breaks the silence without warning. “They say they don’t know what it is.” She turns and glares at me. “What’s killing him. It’s some weird virus they’ve never seen.”
“They told me,” I say. I’d been tested, prodded and poked for six hours the day before. My blood came back clean. I had none of the mysterious illness that was ravaging Xavier’s body.
Neither did Anita.
Anita told the doctors that I’d been with her brother just before he fell ill. That we’d kissed and it was likely I had either passed the infection on to him or he gave it to me.
I adamantly explained that this was untrue. We never kissed. We’d merely spoken in the alley. I’d gone home early. If Xavier ever said differently, then he was confused. Hallucinating. I mean, it’s not as though he could literally become sick in minutes, could he?
The lies came easily. I’d like to blame the Morrigan for how quickly I adjusted to covering up her carnage, but I know better. The lies belong to me and me alone.
Once cleared, I decided to go visit Xavier. It seemed the right thing to do. Sam came with me for support and I suspect a little bit of protection. Protecting me from someone or protecting someone from me, that’s the real question I have. Are the Guardians afraid of me? Clinton surely wasn’t when we were in bed together. Sam’s gentle touches don’t express fear.
Anita looks back at the window, through the glass at her brother. Xavier doesn’t look good and it’s difficult to see him like this. The last time I saw him, when we did kiss, he was very handsome. Animated and full of life—lust even. The infection ravages his body from the inside out. He’s pale but feverish, a slick sweat clinging to his face. Splotchy gray marks blemish his arms and neck. He looks one step away from being a corpse and I realize with sudden clarity that it’s not the only time I’ve seen someone looking like this.
The gray sky parts and Maverick runs from the forest back into the safety of her yard. The cat is gone. The prince is dead. Her ravens flew to the sky, never to be seen again. The cold crept through the gateway and she ran. She’d never run so hard—so fast. Until she saw the grassy yard, the little swing, the blanket stretched over the grass with a book on top.
The sun beat down here—but the chill lingered and quickly the warm light vanished, like a front had pushed through. Maverick grabbed her book and blanket and raced into the house like a mouse with a cat on his tail. She bursts through the back door, the knob crashing into the wall behind it. The girl freezes, waiting for the sound of her mother’s reprimand. For her father’s annoyance. But nothing came.
Dread fills her heart.
She drops her book and her blanket. She walks up the small flight of stairs.
“Mom?”
Silence.
“Dad?”
The air feels frozen as she walks down the hall. The door is open. She spots her father’s shoes first. Then her mother’s hair—wild like her own—twisted beneath her cheek.
They look—
“Morgan?” Sam’s voice brings me back to the hospital room. Anita glares at me with a heavy dose of bitterness.
“Sorry.” It’s the only thing I can say and even then my voice is shaky and quiet. “I’m sorry, Anita. I truly hope he gets better. Call me if you need something.” I turn quickly, unable to look at his body, unable to look at Xavier one second longer. It’s weak. I’m weak. But we know that. It’s why we’re here. The Morrigan overpowered me. She took a life to feed her desperate, awful soul.
Sam follows me back past the officer, down the hall, through the waiting room and into the street. It’s hot and muggy out here but it’s preferable to the cold resting in my heart. I haven’t gone two feet away from the entrance before Sam grabs my arm and stops me.
“What’s going on? Are you okay?”
I look at this man. So handsome. So kind. Fierce just like the others. He’d do anything for me. I see it in the depths of his blue eyes.
“No, I’m not okay.”
“Tell me what’s going on then. What happened back there?”
“I’ve made a decision.” He raises his eyebrows, encouraging me to continue. “The Morrigan doesn’t own me. She doesn’t get to take away the good and torment the living. I’m not willing to be her puppet anymore.”
A crease mars Sam’s perfect forehead and he says, “We just have to keep working to control her. Help you get stronger. You’ll have to pick your mate.”
“I’ll do that too but I found something, Sam. A book in the library. I think if we use the information correctly we can stop her for good.”
He looks at me like I’m crazy. “How are we going to do that?”
“We’re going to kill the Morrigan.”