Page 53 of Cold Sacrifice

Finally, I typed a reply to Bastien. You commanded them to stand down. If they’d fought me, maybe it wouldn’t have been so easy. Why didn’t you tell them to fight?

Because I would rather they die than you. And that grim knowledge is fucking me up. Hunt the necromancer, Kait. Find a way to kill her. Don’t help her kill us.

“Fuck,” I whispered. That was what I’d done. I was no different than the necromancer. It was like the butterfly was the necromancer. The butterfly had gained her freedom, slipped my control, and she had become sheer horror.

Then I sucked in a quick breath and pressed my hand against my chest, because for a second, my fluttering heart felt like the beating of captive wings against my ribs. The butterfly was the necromancer’s weakness. And that was what would kill her. I didn’t know why or how I knew it, but I had absolutely no doubt.

I sent one last message to the master. The butterfly can kill her. It can follow her into the ground, and it can kill her. I feel it, Bastien. I will fix this.

And then I’d put the butterfly away and never speak of her again.

That was the plan.

I leaned up to speak to Aaron. “Aaron, if everyone is right and I’m part demon, where’s my power? Where’s my magic?”

I saw him lift an eyebrow in the rearview mirror. “The demons you kill, Kait. Have you ever seen them shoot magic at you?”

“Yes,” I said immediately. “The demon boss I took this blade from. The demon elder in the council.” Then I pursed my lips and thought about it. “I guess that’s about it.”

“Ordinary demons don’t have magic. Ordinary demons aren’t ‘bosses’ or elders.”

I sat back in my seat, frowning. “If I’m going to be part demon,” I said, “I’m going to be a boss. I’m not going to be ordinary.”

He laughed. “Only yesterday, you wouldn’t have considered the fact that you might have demon blood inside you. What changed?”

He was right. What the hell was wrong with me? “The butterfly,” I murmured. “She is what changed.”

We spent the rest of the trip in silence. I finished my meal, then leaned my head back against the seat and went immediately to sleep. A wolf slept when she could. Slept, ate, fought. And loved, despite whatever bad shit lurked inside her.

I was completely exhausted, and I dreamed quickly after falling asleep. I dreamed about my alpha. And when Aaron stopped the car, the second I got out, I called Jared.

“Kait,” he answered. “Are you okay?”

“I’ve been summoned by the council,” I told him. “I’m going in now. I just…” I hesitated. “I needed to hear your voice.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

I swallowed tears that I was honestly glad to feel. “I was feeling a little evil,” I told him. “The night is only half over, and it’s been a hard one.”

“When you’re finished with council business,” he said, “come to Shadowfield. You’re not the evil, Kait.”

“I’ll see you after,” I murmured. “I love you, Alpha.”

I ended the call feeling somewhat better, and I walked into the building to see what the elders could possibly do to help me with the necromancer. Though now, with my butterfly, I wasn’t sure how much help I’d actually need.

For a second, it was like the building had become a huge, dark mouth, and after I walked in, it swallowed me whole.

The doors closed behind me with a soft swish.

Deep inside, I knew that tonight was going to change me.

Chapter Nineteen

“We’re going to give you something you need,” Ti told me, when I stood on the floor looking up at them. “Something you may not want, but…”

“We’re giving you nothing,” Ael said. “We agreed amongst ourselves that we would show you how to use what’s already there.”

“If you weren’t such a stupid girl,” Kronor said, curling his lip, “you would not need the council to pull out your powers. Yet, time after time, you prove to us that you are little more than a brainless idiot we must manipulate like a puppet before you will work.”