Anastasia opened her eyes and saw Carmen sitting by the fireplace.
“Am I dreaming?” she asked. The scene reminded her of when Carmen had visited her shortly after she had given herself over to her magic.
“No, not this time.” Carmen smiled and stood to walk towards her. “It is nice to finally meet you in person, Anastasia.”
“You told me not to give up. If it weren’t for you, I don’t think I would have been able to come back.”
“All I did was let you know that you weren’t alone. You brought yourself back. You and that boy Dakota, that is.” She winked at her and noticed the flash of pain that crossed Anastasia’s face. “I noticed you didn’t want to talk to him tonight. Why?” she asked, pushing a chair over closer to the bed.
Anastasia closed her eyes on a tear, and the little girl she had been given in the illusion flashed into her head.
“I don’t deserve him.”
“Because you went dark?” Carmen raised an eyebrow. “No,” she continued, “I sense it’s because of something else.”
“I murdered the man who I believed was my father until I met Gregory.”
“You protected yourself against a man who spent your entire childhood making you a victim. He would have killed you eventually, Anastasia, don’t doubt that for a second.”
“I liked the way it felt.” Tears began streaming down her face.
“You enjoyed not being a victim. It was the power, Anastasia, not you. The power has a way of changing people, it’s why most fear it. But you know all of this, so what is really bothering you?”
“In the stasis he put me in, Vincent created a whole new life. In it I was a writer, married to Dakota, and none of this had ever happened.” She sighed heavily and blinked the tears away again. “We had a daughter, her name was Annabelle.”
“After your mother.” Carmen nodded appreciatively. “Go on.”
“I gave her up, gave up my life with Dakota, and for what? To return here to this?”
“What you saw was fake, Anastasia. You had to come back. If you hadn’t, you would be dead and we would all be doomed.”
“I saw images while I was in the illusion, images of reality. The first was of the real me, the second of Gregory, and the last one was of the real Dakota. I heard him tell me to come back to him.”
“You love him.”
“I don’t deserve him.”
“Stop saying that, Anastasia. It’s not true, and the longer you believe that, the weaker you will be. You two need each other, it’s how you both keep moving forward even though the world is falling apart around you.” Carmen gently rearranged the pillow under Anastasia’s head and continued, “If you need time to move past this, that’s completely understandable, but explain to Dakota why you need it, because I imagine he thinks it’s his fault.”
“Why would he think that?”
“He is the reason you were captured.”
“He was dying.”
“He doesn’t see it that way. Without hesitation he would lay his life down for you, and the fact that you had to send him away and gave yourself up in the process has eaten at him every single day you were missing. Don’t make him wait for an explanation when he deserves better.” Carmen leaned forward and kissed Anastasia lightly on the forehead. “Get some rest now, you will need it.”
Carmen waved her hand in front of Anastasia’s face and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. She stood watching her for a moment and smiled. She looked so much like Annabelle, it was helping to ease some of the grief that weighed in her heart.
She was so grateful that Anastasia had such a wonderful man who she would share her life with. Dakota was a hell of a Fighter, and there was no higher honor she could bestow on him then her blessing, and he most certainly had that. She only hoped Anastasia would realize she was more than enough before it was too late for them both.
***
Anastasia slept for three days. Dakota checked on her every chance he got, and he hoped that once she woke up she would give him a chance to apologize for what had happened to her. Although he was so happy they had found her, he couldn’t shake the bad mood that was following him around.
“Dakota,” Brady said as he passed by. Ever since they had brought the Brutes into their village, Brady was getting more and more irritable. He had lost the boyish grin that he had once worn, and now looked to be in even more of a bad mood than Dakota himself was in.
“Brady, how are you doing? How are your mom and your sister?”
“They are fine.” He continued walking and didn’t spare a single glance back.
“I think we need to keep an eye on Brady,” Dakota said to Tony later that evening.
“I agree. He is becoming more and more volatile, although I’m not sure why.”
“I get why he is untrusting of the Brute race, but Argento has given him no reason not to trust him and his followers.”
As they were speaking, Brady passed by a group of villagers who were laughing with some of the Brutes. They watched as he gave them a disgusted look and headed towards the fence by himself.
“What is he up to?” Tony asked as they watched him leave. “No one is supposed to be leaving unaccompanied. It’s not safe.”
“Shall we find out?” Dakota asked, and stood from the bench he had been sitting on.
They exited the gate after him and walked towards the woods. When they heard the scream, they broke into a run. They came up on a clearing where they saw Brady standing over one of Argento’s men. The Brute was on the ground breathing heavily, and they saw a wound in his side.
“Brady!” Tony disarmed him and had him on the ground before Dakota had even registered the scene.
Noelle, one of the women who had been held captive by Vincent’s Brutes, was kneeling next to the large beast.
“He attacked Griffith!”
“Because he was attacking you!” Brady screamed, and lunged towards the Brute again.
“He was not!” Noelle yelled back. “We were out here together. It was consensual!” Her cheeks were flushed, and Dakota realized he had been so caught off guard by the attack that he failed to notice the other signs. Her dress was wrinkled, one of the shoulders down on her arm.
“I confided in you, Brady!” she yelled at him.
“You’re an abomination,” he whispered. “He is a monster!”
“Brady, you had better shut your mouth or I will shut it for you,” Tony warned him.
“So you’re sticking up for them too? What’s next? Half-beast babies running around? Disgusting!” Before anyone could react, Brady pulled out a small dagger and thrust it into Tony’s side.
“Tony!” Dakota yelled, lunging for him, but Brady disappeared into the woods.
“Son of a bitch!” Tony yelled.
“What is going on?” Argento, two Brutes, and a handful of Fighters burst into the clearing.
“Brady,” Tony said through gritted teeth. “You need to get Griffith to your healer. He has been stabbed with a platinum-coated blade.”
Argento nodded to the two Brutes at his side and they lifted Griffith, carrying him off towards the village. Noelle followed closely, holding his hand.
“You need your healer as well,” Argento said to Tony.
“You’re probably right.” He lifted his hand, and Dakota saw the amount of blood that had collected. Tony’s knees buckled, and Argento caught him before he hit the ground.
“Tony!” Elizabeth screamed when she saw Argento carrying him in.
“He has lost a lot of blood,” Dakota said as Argento set him down.
“Who did this?” Selena asked worriedly.
Dakota looked at her sadly, and he saw the worry in her eyes.
“Brady,” he said softly.
Selena gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh no. I'm so sorry, Dakota. I should have told someone. I should have said something.” Tears began rolling down her face. “And poor Griffith. Argento, I'm so sorry he got hurt.”
“It is not your doing, Selena, you have been nothing but kind to my men and me since we arrived in your village.”
“What do you mean, you should have said something?” Dakota asked, the detective he couldn’t leave behind emerging.
“Brady has been acting so strange lately. I’ve been hearing him talking to someone at night, but when I go in his room, no one is there. He has been distant, and a few times I have asked him to watch Sarah, I have come home and she is there alone.”
“Did he say anything about Griffith or Noelle?”
“Not about Griffith. He and Noelle became friends since she came here, and I think he had a bit of a crush on her.”
Dakota looked at Noelle, who still stood by Griffith’s side. “Did you tell Brady about Griffith?”
“Yes, I told him that I was in love with him. He was the one who rescued me, and ever since then I began to develop feelings for him. I know it’s unusual, but I can’t help it.” She smiled down at the Brute, tears in her eyes. “I confided in Brady as my friend; I didn’t know he felt anything else for me.” She looked pleadingly at Selena.
“It is not your fault, Noelle,” she said sadly. “Where is Brady now?”
“He ran into the woods. Some of the Fighters went after him.”
“Please don’t hurt him,” she pleaded to Dakota and Argento. “Something is wrong. He is not acting like himself.”
“My men and I will not harm your son, Selena, but I do believe it is important he is found and held so we can determine what is going on.”
“It’s Vincent.” Anastasia’s voice was so small, Dakota barely heard it. He turned quickly and saw her standing in the doorway to the room she had been sleeping in. She was leaning against it, the bruises on her face yellowing. “Somehow he is getting to Brady. He projected himself to me when we were in Seattle, in your house,” she said to Dakota, looking away quickly. “It’s how I knew where to find you.” Her legs got shaky, and Dakota saw the exhaustion in her face. He went to her and wrapped his arm around her waist to take some of the pressure.
“We will find him,” he said to Anastasia and Selena. “Argento, I think you and your men had better stay within the walls for now. I don’t want to risk your lives if Brady decides to attack.”
Argento nodded, and Dakota turned to help Anastasia back to her bed.
He shut the door gently behind them and went to stare in the fireplace once he had set her down on the bed. “I was bait, then?”
“Yes,” she responded cautiously, noting how his jaw was clenched.
“And you knew it before you came for me.” It wasn’t a question; he knew the answer.
“Yes.”
“Why did you come for me?” When he turned, it wasn’t anger she saw in his eyes. Instead they were filled with guilt.
“Because I had to. I couldn’t just leave you there. It was me he wanted.”
“And look at what happened to you. Just because I was too weak to protect myself when they came for me.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Anastasia sighed and leaned back against the wall.
“It matters to me. I'm so sorry.”
“This isn’t your fault, Dakota.”
“How can you say that? Especially when you don’t even believe it yourself.” He turned back to the fire.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, irritation beginning to show in her voice.
“You haven’t even been able to look at me since you’ve been back. When we found you, it was Tony you wanted, not me.”
“You think I blame you?”
At how small her voice sounded, he turned to face her. The unshed tears in her eyes had him kneeling in front of her.
“How could you not?”
“Dakota, I don’t blame you for anything. I would trade myself for you again in a heartbeat. I love you.”
“Then why have you been so distant?”
Anastasia took a deep breath to steady herself. She knew she was going to have to tell him sooner or later, she had just hoped it would have been later. “I killed Mitch.”
“He shot me,” Dakota said simply. “Spent your childhood nearly killing you. He deserved it.”
“I enjoyed it. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that for a moment I embraced all the power in my veins and I went dark. I wanted to learn more from Vincent, wanted all the power I could get my hands on.”
“But you came back.”
Anastasia nodded and continued, “I came back because of you, and when I did, Vincent was angry. He chained me in a room where I couldn’t use my magic—not that I would have, I was so afraid of losing myself again—and he killed you over and over again in front of my face.”
“What?”
“I knew it wasn’t really you, the illusion had mistakes in it, but it looked like you and the voice sounded just like yours.”
Dakota wiped a tear away from her cheek. She continued to relive each and every death as if it were happening all over again. “The first time, he ran a sword through you—my sword, actually. Then a Brute snapped your neck. Another beat you until you died. Vincent even slit your throat once or twice. I can’t really remember because eventually it all turned into a blur.” She took a deep breath and then continued, “When that didn’t work, he brought in Brutes to beat me until I used my magic, believing that if I did so again I would go dark and he wouldn’t have to worry about me anymore. I fought Brutes with no weapon for nearly two weeks, I believe. At some point I lost count of the days.”
“Ana, I—,” Dakota started, but stopped when Ana put her hand up.
“That’s not even the worst part.” She took another deep breath and closed her eyes. “I woke up in a house in Seattle. We were married and we had a beautiful little girl together. She was so perfect, and we were all so happy. I was a writer, you were a doctor just as you had always wanted, and none of this had ever happened.” She opened her eyes and looked at him, afraid to stop talking.
“The book I had been working on was about all of this, a work of fiction.” She laughed lightly, but it was empty. “You told me that I had episodes where I would forget my real life and believe that my story was my life. In fact, I was nearly convinced of this. So much so that you talked me into seeing a psychiatrist who just so happened to be Vincent,” she said angrily. “He told me that in order to have the life I always wanted, I had to delete the book I was working on and admit that I had no magic. To erase everything I believed was reality. I almost did it, even though on some level I knew all along that it was an illusion. I wanted that life so badly that I nearly gave everything up to have it, until I saw you.”
“Me?”
“You appeared in a mirror in his office and you asked me to come back to you.” She shut her eyes and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“Our daughter was screaming at me, crying and begging me to stay with her, and I left, forced myself out of the illusion, and when I woke up in that cellar again a part of me was so angry at myself.” She clenched her jaw and shook her head. “So angry for leaving all of that behind.”
“It wasn’t real, Ana.” He touched her face gently and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“It could have been for you. Had you never met me, you could have gone on to be a doctor and have a beautiful daughter. You could have had a normal, happy life, Dakota.”
Everything began to make sense to him. She hadn’t blamed him for what happened to her, but was blaming herself for the things she believed his life lacked.
“Ana, I wouldn’t have wanted any of that unless it was with you.” He felt the weight in his own chest when he lifted her face to look into her eyes. “You hear me? You are it for me. I don’t want anyone else, and I never would have wanted my life to turn out any other way. Everything has happened the way it was meant to. We will have that life one day and you will hold a daughter in your arms, I swear it. But I don’t want any of that unless it is with you.” He wrapped his arms around her and held on.
“It hurts so bad, Dakota,” she cried into his chest. “It all felt so real, and I wanted it so badly.”
“I know, baby.” He stroked his hand down her hair and leaned back on the bed with her. “I know, baby,” he repeated, feeling his own tears burning in his eyes.