Matteo still looked at me doubtfully, but appeared to be somewhat comforted by my promise.
“All right. A few minutes. They don’t set foot inside here. Saira and I will come out to meet them on the beach.” He paused. “I’m only doing this because I trust you, Kiev.”
His last words echoed around my head as I stepped back out of the gate. Erik and Helina stood on the beach in front of the crowd of vampires. I beckoned them to approach.
Then I stood aside, now delirious from the pain, and watched them approach Matteo and Saira. Matteo’s jaw was clenched, and he looked more tense than I’d ever seen him. I looked to my siblings. Their expressions were unreadable—completely blank as they eyed the two leaders of the island.
Let’s get this over and done with. Then Celice can cast the spell over the island and I can retreat there to get rid of this cursed headache.
Erik was the first to hold out his hand. Matteo paused, then took it in a shake. Helina did the same, holding it out for Saira. She shook it the best she could with her large brown paw.
Then Brett’s shout filled the air.
I had been so focussed on the leaders in front of me, I had failed to notice several vampires sneak behind my back and race toward the open gate. I whirled around. Brett attempted to shut it, his grunts filling the night air. He must have kept the door open to watch the events unfold. Somehow, they had crept into a blind spot and come round the side of the wall. Tristan leading the way, they forced their way in.
Matteo and I locked eyes. I saw shock. Then accusation. Then fury. Panic coursing through me, I whirled round to face my siblings. But they had made a run for the gate too. By this time all the vampires had already forced their way inside.
I was stunned by their speed. They had flitted into the island, conjuring up strength that I had never seen before in any vampire.
As those witches weren’t ordinary witches, clearly, these vampires were no ordinary vampires.
“No!” I screamed, racing after them. Matteo and Saira were hot on my heels.
I was seeing everything in double. I turned around, scanning the clearing to catch a glimpse of my siblings. All around me, The Shade’s vampires were attacking Matteo’s people. My people. Vampire against werewolf. Vampire against vampire. Ripping at each other’s necks. Tearing at each other with their claws.
My breath hitched when I saw a few had fallen already.
“Helina! Erik!” I screamed through the woods. I stumbled forward, even as the battle around me grew more brutal, more bodies being felled by the minute. But they didn’t answer. There was no sight of them.
Mad with fury, I swore.
Why would they do this to me?
I stumbled into a small clearing where I caught sight of Lorena struggling against Tristan. Although I’d never developed much of an attachment to Lorena, the sight of Tristan attacking her made me lose it. I flew at him, gripping the back of his neck and digging in my claws. He let go and stumbled back.
He looked like he was about to fight back, but then something flickered in his eyes when he realized who I was. A Novalic. He staggered back and ran away into the woods.
“What’s going on, Kiev?” Lorena asked, terror marring her beautiful features.
“I don’t know,” I gasped. Gripping my burning temples with my fingers, I darted away from her.
I retraced my steps back into the heart of the chaos. Then Matteo’s voice boomed from across the clearing.
“Retreat! Retreat to the ship! Now!”
Matteo. No. Wait.
“Kiev!” a familiar voice called out to me. I turned around. Saira bolted toward me. She didn’t stop when she reached me. She ran right into me, knocking me to the ground with her massive frame. She lowered her head over my face, her eyes alight with fury and hurt. “Why would you do this to us? We trusted you.”
Speechless, I was knocked breathless by her accusation. I didn’t have a chance to respond before she stepped off me and bounded away toward Matteo.
I staggered out onto the beach to see all the surviving vampires and werewolves fleeing toward the main ship. I caught up with Matteo just before he boarded.
“No! Matteo! Wait! I’m sorry! You don’t understand,” I yelled, my head feeling like it was splitting in two from the exertion.
He turned to face me, his chest heaving. His hair and face were wet with sweat, his shirt ripped and soaked with blood.
“There’s only one person who should be sorry,” he hissed through the night air as he gripped the ropes hanging from the side of the ship. “Me. For being fool enough to believe my sister’s killer could ever be redeemed.”
He climbed up the side of the ship and swung himself over the railing.
I watched helplessly as the ship sailed away, its shrinking silhouette gliding over the dark ocean.
Chapter 16: Mona
“I don’t want you seeing Rhys any more. Do you understand?”
I stared at my mother, my eyes wide with outrage.
“But he’s my best friend!” I spluttered.
“Mona, listen to your mother.” My father entered the room and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Rhys has been spending too much time with his aunt lately.”
“So what?”
“The council issued her a warning yesterday. She’s suspected of cursing her cousin to drown in the river.”
I stared at my mother.
“Do you understand what that means?” She gripped my shoulders and shook me. “She’s being suspected of breaking the most important law of The Sanctuary: harming another witch. Rumors are spreading that she is practicing forbidden magic! If they find her guilty, she’ll be exiled.”
“Well, all the better,” I argued. “If she’s gone, there’s no reason that I can’t continue seeing Rhys.”
“No. You’re not going to see that boy any more,” my father said sternly.
“How many times do I have to tell you? Rhys is nothing like his aunt.” I stamped my foot in frustration.
My parents glanced at each other.
“We’re not convinced of that.”
The next day, despite my attempts to persuade my parents otherwise, I didn’t go out to see Rhys at the usual time. From my window, I watched him calling up to me and kicking around stones while he waited. But I wasn’t allowed to even call out to him. I was to have no contact with him at all from then on.
When his aunt was convicted a few days later, my parents became even stricter. I was to stay in with my siblings. And I wasn’t allowed to even sit in the same classes as him.