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Riker pressed a kiss to the side of her neck, his lips brushing her skin. “Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out. You and your sisters aren’t alone any longer.”
Catalina turned in his arms, her eyes meeting his, and in that moment, the uncertainty faded away. For now, all that mattered was the here and now—the connection they couldn’t deny and the fight they would face side by side.
And as they stood there, wrapped in each other’s embrace, Riker knew that whatever the future held, they were stronger together.
Chapter
Nine
CATALINA
The morning light spilled over the sprawling Duvall mansion, casting long shadows across the lush gardens. Catalina had expected to come home to peace, to find her sisters and maybe even her Aunt Maeve waiting. She hoped Maeve could offer some kind of explanation, something that could explain what she had done and allow her nieces to forgive her. But the instant she stepped onto the grounds; her heart sank. Something was wrong—terribly wrong. The air was thick with magic, but it wasn’t the protective, comforting kind that had always surrounded the estate. No, this was twisted, dark, and malevolent.
She slipped into the back courtyard and hurried up the stone steps, her senses on high alert, and as soon as she reached the French doors that led into the house from the patio, they burst open. Savannah rushed out, her face pale and her eyes wide with alarm.
"We’re under attack!" Savannah yelled; her voice laced with fear.
Catalina’s heart leaped into her throat. Without hesitation, she pushed past her sister and ran inside. The mansion, their sanctuary, was a battlefield. Magical entities, their formsshifting and warping, filled the air, attacking with relentless fury. The very walls of the house seemed to tremble under the strain of their power.
Geneva and Phoenix were already fighting, their combined magic surging through the room like a storm. Their green and gold magic intertwined with her and Savannah’s violet and blue magic as the sisters summoned everything they had to hold the creatures at bay.
"What the hell are these things?" Catalina shouted as she joined the fray, her hands crackling with lightning. She unleashed a bolt of energy at one of the entities, watching as it twisted and screamed, its body dissipating into smoke.
"I don’t know!" Phoenix yelled back, sweat glistening on her forehead as she focused her magic on a particularly vicious creature. "They just appeared out of nowhere. The wards—they’re completely down!"
The wards? Catalina’s stomach clenched as realization dawned on her. Their home had always been protected by powerful magical wards, a fortress against any threat. Those wards could only have been lowered by someone inside the family.
"Maeve," Catalina whispered, her voice thick with betrayal. "She’s the only one who could have done this."
Geneva cast a glance at her, dodging a blast of magic as she threw up a shield. "Are you sure? Aunt Maeve would never?—"
But Catalina didn’t need to hear the rest. She was sure. Maeve had always been the only one with access to the wards besides their mother. The only one who knew their intricacies and how to manipulate them. It had to be her.
The battle raged on, and as the sisters fought, Catalina’s anger boiled over. She threw herself into the fight, her magic surging through her with a ferocity she’d never felt before. Shewasn’t just fighting the creatures. She was fighting the betrayal that twisted like a knife in her chest.
Together, the Duvall sisters unleashed a final, devastating wave of magic that obliterated the last of the attackers, leaving the mansion eerily silent. The air hummed with residual power, and the sisters stood in the wreckage, their breaths coming in heavy gasps.
Catalina’s gaze swept over the destruction, her heart aching. Their home—the place where they had grown up, where they had been safe—was in ruins. And it was Maeve’s doing.
"We need to find her," Catalina said, her voice hard and cold. "She’s behind this. She lowered the wards and made us vulnerable."
Savannah looked at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. "You can’t be serious. Maeve’s our aunt. She would never?—"
"She already has," Catalina snapped, her voice sharper than she intended. "She’s already sat in judgment of me on the Fae Council and ambushed me.” The look on her sisters’ faces went from shock to anger to grief in the space of a heartbeat. Catalina wished she could have spared them that pain. “She’s working with Cipher. It’s the only thing that makes sense. I don’t know what he’s promised her, but she’s been feeding him information. She’s the reason we were attacked."
Geneva’s face paled, and Phoenix clenched her fists, her magic still crackling at her fingertips. "Then we have to stop her."
Before they could even begin to formulate a plan, a familiar presence filled the room. Catalina turned, her heart pounding as Maeve stepped through the wreckage, her face serene, as if the chaos around her meant nothing.
"You’ve grown so strong, my girls," Maeve said softly, her voice dripping with a mixture of pride and something far darker."But you don’t understand what’s happening. Cipher is going to change everything."
Catalina stepped forward, her anger boiling over. "You lowered the wards, Maeve! You made us vulnerable. What the hell are you doing?"
Maeve’s eyes flickered with something—regret, maybe, but it was quickly masked by resolve. "I’m doing what needs to be done. You’re too young to understand. The fae realm is fracturing. The old ways are breaking down. Cipher is offering us a new path."
"A path to what?" Catalina demanded, her magic sparking dangerously at her fingertips. "Destruction? Chaos? You’re destroying everything we’ve built—all for what, a promise of power?"
Maeve’s lips pressed into a thin line. "You think you can stop it? You think you can hold onto the old ways forever? The realms are converging, Catalina. This world, the fae world—they’re merging. There’s nothing you can do to stop it."
