Evie

“She’s not ready.” Hilda directed a hard glare toward Elise. “And at this rate, she never will be.” Lines creased her otherwise smooth, dark skin when tension spread across her forehead.

Elise’s posture stiffened at the sound of her oldest friend shooting down yet another attempt to speed up the process. A long breath puffed from her mouth as she stepped over me. I’d given up trying to speak for myself twenty-minutes ago. Tired of being outtalked and ignored, I sprawled out on the carpet where I now lay among the wrappers of the three candy bars I polished off while they went at it.

For all the excitement Elise expressed about Hilda—my father’s sister and a powerful witch in her own right—joining us here at The Damascus Facility, it seemed all they did was bicker.

Mostly about me, about the role Elise hoped I’d fill in bringing her sons back.

I felt like a kid caught in the middle of a nasty divorce. Only, these two weren’t separating, which meant I’d just have to deal with it.

“I don’t understand what’s taking so long. We need them here,” Elise reasoned, raking through her long, brunette hair as she paced. “To protect Evangeline, to protect this facility … The greater our numbers, the better our chances.”

It was no secret tensions were running high this past month, especially for Elise. It started with Nick’s disappearance and the hell-storm of bureaucratic red tape that followed. There was not only one, but two families breathing down the Council’s neck—the Stokes’s on Nick’s behalf, and Officer Chadwick on Roz’s. She was his accomplice, the reason Nick was able to escape, and now they were in the wind.

The whole situation had turned into quite the mess, actually.

After the incident with Scarlet and her sisters, Nick’s fate hung in the balance, according to Elise. Within hours, she’d been contacted by the Elders of Seaton Falls and several other members of the Council, and they all wanted answers. For starters, Baz demanded an explanation for what happened to his witches. When Elise shared that I was the one who’d taken their lives out of self-defense, he dismissed it.

Although, the ‘self-defense’ argument wasn’t entirely true.

I hadn’t acted to defend myself. I killed them in a blind rage after what they’d done to Liam—crippled him with their magic, nearly ending him.

It came as no surprise that Baz didn’t reprimand my behavior. In his eyes, I was the rightful heir to the lycan throne, and to some degree, above reproach. However, what was less easily swept under the rug was how the incident resulted in Nick going rogue.

A question that forced Elise to admit security wasn’t as airtight here as she promised, thus delivering another crushing blow to her peers. It did nothing for her credibility. Already, as a dragon inducted into an organization of lycans, her standing with them was conditional. Her contribution to the cause made her an asset, but now … none of us were sure how long it’d be until her welcome had worn out.

Nick was on a streak ruining lives.

Starting with mine.

He was the reason my parents’ temporary memory loss was now permanent. The witches he called on, the ones he had been willing to let kill Liam … they were the key to fixing all this.

And now they were dead.

I took a deep breath and shifted an arm behind my head, feeling soft carpet beneath it. I thought of them often, my parents. Living apart hadn’t gotten any easier and I guessed it never would. The only comfort I had stemmed from knowing this horror was one-sided. They’d been given a gift, the luxury of thinking ours had only ever been a family of two. They no longer even knew I existed. I was the only one who lived with the shattered memories and the echo of our last goodbye.

Thanks to Nick, there was no going back.

Liam reminded me often that I still, technically, had a mother. Not that I’d forgotten, but … it wasn’t the same. Yes, I’d grown to love Elise—her kind spirit, her fierce devotion to a cause bigger than any one being or supernatural race, but something still lacked; the bond between mother and daughter. In this lifetime, I only ever had that with Rebecka Callahan.

“She’s not a witch, Elise. Plain and simple,” Hilda said on the tail end of a frustrated sigh.

The words echoed in my head, hearing them clear as day, spoken in her now familiar accent. Unlike many of the supernatural beings I met, she wasn’t a drifter. As she put it, her home had always been, and always would be, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia—the birthplace of my father and, technically, I’d been born there once, too.

Elise, a French native, hadn’t been back to Ars-en-Ré in decades—the town where her side of our family originated. Painful memories, I guessed, but she never spoke enough about it for me to know for sure. In short, everyone seemed to either stay or leave home for their own reasons. And I guessed Hilda, like everyone else, had hers.

We’d gotten to know each other well in the month since our first meeting. Since I now understood her tough exterior was merely camouflage, I didn’t take offense to her frustration. It wasn’t with me, personally. The issue lie with Elise tasking her with a job she wholeheartedly believed was a lost cause.

As Hilda explained it, I came from a long line of powerful witches. All the women on my father’s side, including herself, were born with gifts. She believed there was a trace of witch within me. However, it was only residue—enough for me to be born female despite a curse placed on my mother long ago to only bare sterile sons. Enough to make me immune to magic still, but … likely not enough for me to assist with this spell.

She believed the gift missed me because I’m not human. As a rare hybrid born to one of two original lycans and the only original dragon, it was her understanding that these aspects of who I am made it impossible to be a witch, too.

So, here we were, back at square one.

“Why can’t we just … bring in someone we know can actually get the job done?” I suggested, trying anything to get them to stop fussing.

Elise sighed heavily before answering. “We’ve been over this a thousand times, Evangeline. This spell, bringing your brothers back … no one can know what we’re doing. No one can know who you are,” she explained before her eyes fell on me and she added, “It has to be you.”

No pressure.

“The spell we did to bring Evangeline back was different,” Hilda pointed out. “Taking her soul from the talisman and placing it back in your womb where it started was sort of a … a reset,” she explained. “But it’s an entirely different task to bring back, not one, but six full-grown, fully developed, and functioning hybrid shifters.”

Silence.

Defeat.

I wasn’t sure which was loudest.

I sat up and pushed the candy wrappers aside, scooting closer to the table. There, in a beautifully-crafted, wooden box, sat six large rings, telling of the size of the men who once wore them. I traced the dark stone of one with my fingertip, trying to imagine them—my brothers. Would we look alike? Would we get along? Would they remember me? Would they think it’s strange that I’m so unlike the old Evangeline? Would they be the same as before?

Not that I’d know the difference …

I had a ton of time to come up with these questions. Mostly as my eyes glazed over whenever Hilda made me study her huge, ancient books on my own.

Listening to Elise breathe a sigh of frustration somewhere behind me, I glanced toward one ring in particular. It stood out to me since the first time I saw the collection. While all the rest were intact, this one was broken, a part of its stone missing. I asked Elise once if she thought the damage might make it impossible to bring back whomever it belonged to. The question, which I later realized was incredibly insensitive on my part, brought tears to her eyes as she tried to answer. But I realized something that day. To me, these were just rings. I had no attachment to my brothers because I didn’t remember them. But to Elise, these rings were all she had left of her family.

Besides me, anyway.

Although, I often wondered if my lack of attachment hurt her as much as not having me around at all. Or, maybe it was worse.

“Put those down, child.” Hilda’s gruff voice caught me by surprise when the ring I held was all but smacked out of my hand before she closed the box, tucking it beneath her arm as she shuffled away. “They’re not toys.”

“And she’s no child,” Elise reminded her.

I stared at the back of Hilda’s head, the colorful, decorative scarf of purple, turquoise and gold she wore around her graying hair.

Did she really think I didn’t know they weren’t toys? Did she think I’d forgotten that this entire month had been all about how important those rings were?

I fell back again, staring at the ceiling as the two went back to discussing my life and, in so many words, how inadequate I was.

I didn’t want to be here anymore—in Elise’s quarters while they argued. My heart, my thoughts, were several floors down where a very anxious dragon had me on his mind, too.

How did I know?

Because he’d just made his way inside my head, invading my thoughts as if he weren’t already in them.

“Still with Hilda?” he asked.

“Of course. You know we’re practically joined at the hip now. World’s worst BFF.”

Morning, noon, and night, if I wasn’t in class or asleep, I was with Hilda. She’d done her best to teach me to wield whatever magic might be inside me, but the bottom line was, there wasn’t much to speak of. Once, I managed to make a lightbulb glow, but I’m still not sure that didn’t have more to do with faulty wiring. In short, I was no closer to being who or what Elise wanted me to be than I was four weeks ago.

“Tell them you have to leave,” Liam suggested. “You were supposed to be mine the last half of the day.”

My cheeks warmed at the sound of his words floating around inside my head. It was strange and amazing all at the same time, freely owning my feelings for him and being able to freely accept his for me.

Before answering, I lifted my wrist into the air, cutting my line of site off from the ceiling fan that whirred above on its lowest setting. My eyes landed on the leather band I hadn’t taken off in weeks. The one symbolic of a union that existed between us centuries ago, a piece we exchanged when we vowed our love was forever.

“Just … go to the dining hall without me. I’ll come find you whenever they take the leash off.” It was impossible not to roll my eyes. I’d come to feel like somewhat of a prisoner. A useless one at that.

“I’m starving, but I’ll wait.”

To most, his response would’ve seemed like little more than a polite gesture, but I knew better. His nightly routine of escorting me down to dinner had more to do with the fact that Nick was still on the loose. Liam, like the Council, didn’t have much faith in this place’s security anymore. Not that he ever really did.

But I wasn’t worried.

My confidence no longer had anything to do with my belief that Nick’s friendship would stop him from taking my life. After he called on the witches, I, too, thought he might be capable of much more than I originally imagined. My lack of worry was based on nothing other than the fact that I wasn’t afraid.

I don’t know … maybe it came from taking on Scarlet and her sisters. My dragon was stronger than she’d ever been that night, and even now, I felt her. No, I hadn’t suddenly become a prize fighter overnight; I still struggled in combat training, but deep down I was confident that, if it came down to it, she wouldn’t let me fail.

While Nick wasn’t my favorite person in the world, I still hoped it never came down to that—a physical confrontation between us.

I once believed that my being a descendant and Nick being the Liberator didn’t define us. Much like I didn’t believe my past with Liam meant we were destined to be together.

Now, my thoughts were quite different.

As I laid on Elise’s floor feeling electricity scatter across my skin at the mere thought of being near Liam … I also believed Nick and I were doomed from the start. It was simply a matter of time before we accepted it.

“I’ll be fine going down by myself later,” I assured him, drowning out the heightened volume of Hilda and Elise’s conversation. “Besides, I think Beth’s going late, too. I’ll eat with her.”

He hated the idea. I knew it before he even responded. It had nothing to do with being possessive or wanting to consume all my time; he wasn’t that guy. His concern was that I’d be cornered by Lucas and Chris, like they’d done a few weeks ago, asking questions I couldn’t answer. They weren’t hostile, just concerned about their friend.

“It’s fine,” I reiterated.

He hesitated to respond and I knew that meant he was wrestling with himself—wanting to protest, but remembering my request to be treated like an adult.

“Fine,” he sighed. “But this means you’re mine tonight. No exceptions. No interruptions.”

I smiled. “Done.”

To most, his request would’ve seemed suggestive, but I knew better. The night Liam stopped me from throwing myself at him amidst an emotional haze, I realized something—we had forever. That was the very thing he wanted me to accept when I realized we were mated. We didn’t suddenly start behaving like some old, married couple. Instead, we enjoyed the slow burn of watching what we’d become evolve and change with each passing day. We’d get to the other stuff, eventually, but there was no rush. So, I was still me. Liam was still Liam. We were just us, but … together.

I severed our connection and cleared my throat, gaining both Elise’s and Hilda’s attention.

“What do I need to do to get this right?” I wanted out of there so bad.

Both sets of eyes were on me when I asked the question.

“Study harder? Push myself harder?” I suggested.

Guilt washed over Elise as soon as our eyes locked. Her fingers flitted through her hair again.

“No … Evangeline.” Her tone was sympathetic, like she only just realized I was in the room and heard everything. “And none of this is your fault or a sign that you’ve done something wrong,” she explained.

To that, Hilda nodded in agreement before adding her two cents. “She’s right, which is why I’ve been hoping your mother would come to see things my way. You cannot demand a square peg to become a marble and expect it to be so. That’s simply not the way things work.”

So, now I was a square peg. Mmm… got it.

“You are what you are and it’s time we all just learn to accept that.” With those words, her gaze hardened and slipped toward Elise.

The room was thick with tension, and for a moment, I forgot these two regarded one another as friends, family. The moment only grew more uncomfortable when Elise responded.

“You’re asking me to give up on my family?” The question was clear, pointed, and somehow void of emotion despite her expression saying the opposite. It said she was a woman desperate for her heart and her family to be made whole again.

Lowering my head, I couldn’t help but to sympathize.

“Your family is mine, too,” Hilda reminded Elise. “And nothing would please me more than doing what you’ve asked, bringing them back. But … what sense is there in getting our hopes up if we’re hoping for the impossible?”

The question lingered in the air a moment, but then, Hilda took slow steps toward Elise, taking her hand once she was close enough.

“I won’t be responsible for breaking your heart,” were Hilda’s final words on the subject.

For the first time in hours, I understood why they were so close. It wasn’t because they always got along or agreed with everything the other said, did, or desired. It was because they loved one another. Even if that love meant the true words spoken between them weren’t always easy to hear.

Elise glanced up and I didn’t miss the remorse behind her eyes when she addressed me. “We’ll stop,” she said. “I hadn’t taken time to think how this must all be affecting you and that wasn’t fair. You’re just as important to me as my boys are.”

And I believed her.

She sat on the couch, blinking before her blank stare settled on the carpet. “I’ve got a lot on my plate,” she admitted. “Listen to me … ranting at my friend, my daughter … like a crazy person.” Her dark hair shifted when she shook her head. “I’m expecting a call from the Council by nightfall and … I suppose that has me more on edge than usual.”

As I laid there, seeing her coming undone at the thought of giving up, I suddenly saw past myself, saw her pain.

Losing family was something I could relate to, and if there was anything someone could do to fix it, I’d like to think they would. So, because I had a chance of helping Elise put ours back together, I wouldn’t steal that hope from her.

Even if I was agreeing to take part in an endeavor that might, in the end, prove fruitless.

“I’m not giving up.”

Her eyes—suddenly full of life, unlike before—landed on me. “No, I can’t let you do that. You’ve been at this for a month already and you’ve got your own life to live.”

Shaking my head, I interrupted her thought. “This isn’t too much,” I assured her. Everyone handled me with kid gloves, so I knew that’s what she was thinking. “And time is relative, right?” I added with a smile. “What’s a few more months of trying when you’ve got forever?”

Warmth filled her expression again and, finally, she smiled back. “Evangeline, you have no idea how … thank you,” were the words she settled on when she got choked up.

I gave a casual shrug and felt content with the decision to continue our course. And, to sum it all up, there were four words that seemed to fit.

“That’s what family’s for.”