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Lucas chokes, his hands trembling as he claws Dimitar’s arm. The black flame tattoo drips away to reveal the tiger crawling up his arm and the Amur Guild’s crest etched onto his shoulder. Tears pour down his face, the room flashing. Another apartment flickers. A woman cold on the ground, and Lucas sobbing.
Smoke wafts from Dimitar’s lips. “It’s all your fault.”
My hand wraps around Dimitar’s wrist and I rip his hand back. The room freezes like it’s coated in ice as my power pulses. Lucas can’t move, his face twisted in soul-deep agony, tears staining his face.
A familiar laugh echoes through the room, building to rattle against the ice that freezes the dream. Dimitar is a shadow form of himself that I grip with my power, unable to let go without risking dropping my spell.
The shadows along the walls twist and pool together until a man steps forth, darkness dripping from him like black oil to reveal an unstained cream suit. I stare into the glowing green eyes sitting within pits of blackness. I keep my voice calm, like I’m not about to tear this creature apart piece by piece for hurting the people I love. “Alasdair.”
He is as I remember, but more. More handsome. Healthier. Stronger. His teeth are pure white as he beams at me. “I’ve been wondering when you’d show up, Valentin.”
My hand on his shadow creature aches as a pressure builds under it, but I refuse to let it break free. My magic floods my veins, my tendons straining.
Alasdair clicks his tongue as he circles the couch leisurely. “I will admit, I’m a touch disappointed. You expertly crafted this feast, and now you are denying me a bite. What a cruel, selfish man you turned out to be.”
I don’t respond, focusing on holding this dreamscape in my control by pouring all the power I inherited from my father into keeping it unchanging.
Alasdair strokes the face of his shadow Dimitar. “He sparked with so much delicious agony earlier because of you. Like a beacon in the night, it allowed me to discover these little secrets he kept so well hidden. If you decide to team up with me, I could be fed so well for so long.”
I laugh to cover the trembling that begins in my arm from the effort of holding shadow Dimitar back. “And why in the darkest recesses of the Weave would I ever help you?”
Alasdair’s green eyes land on me. “Oh, Valentin. Don’t tell me they kept it from you?”
I don’t react. I cannot give him the satisfaction.
Alasdair tuts. “My dear sister hasn’t changed at all, but even I didn’t believe she’d be so heartless as to keep your father’s death from you.”
My heart seizes, and shadow Dimitar’s arm slips towards Lucas before I regain my control. “Your tricks will not work on me.”
Alasdair’s smile twists. The room darkens, the red walls shifting to the dark rust of blood. “She was able to identify the body I left her as a gift.”
“Leave, Alasdair. Get out of my estate.”
Alasdair laughs, black mist swirling around him. “Nice try, but you cannot wish me away. You don’t have the power as long as you haven’t claimed your inheritance. Besides, don’t you want to know the truth? I’ll tell it to you.”
The mist seeps from him, tendrils of it twisting around the couch and brushing my ankles. “I believe nothing you say.”
“Oh, but you should. I cannot lie. I am a curse at heart.”
“But you’ll twist it to infect me. Be gone.” My power pulses, ice thickening on the walls to still some of the dripping ooze. It costs me another centimeter on my hold on shadow Dimitar. My muscles strain and teeth grit.
Alasdair mists away, but the relief quickly evaporates when his lips brush my ear. “I left Vincentius’ ring on him, and Astoria saw.”
“You lie,” I snarl, arm shaking visibly now.
“I watched as she stayed silent, Valentin. She convinced Lucas not to tell you. You’ve suspected that she doesn’t truly love you, and now here’s the evidence of those dark thoughts. You know she doesn’t have the capacity to love after all the damage done to her. You feel it in your heart that you were of no more use to her after she got her shop back and magician safe. She didn’t tell you your father was dead. She didn’t come here when she had the opportunity. She didn’t care enough to ensure you were alive.”
My throat tightens, my muscles straining. The ice cracks along the walls, the ooze slipping free when Alasdair laughs. “I tortured your father so slowly to regenerate my withered body. His agony was deliciously filling. And if it wasn’t for Astoria, I would’ve chosen someone else. Someone she cared about more, but then you would never see how little she thinks about you, just like when she left you to die under her curse all those years ago.”
My arm is giving out, and Dimitar slips closer and closer to Lucas. Panic lances through me and I gasp when I surge with magic again. A pulse rips from my form, blasting the mist away from me and regaining the precious centimeters I lost during my distractions. It doesn’t last long. Mist slithers back up my legs, my flesh crawling with the prickling unease of such dark magic so close.
Alasdair rests his chin on my shoulder, and I hiss, but cannot do anything more. There are too many fronts to battle, and it splinters my focus. Alasdair murmurs against me, “You could banish me if you let my creature go, and yet, you still hold him back from the magician. Why?”
My chest pumps, the mist swirling over my middle, and Alasdair wraps his arms around me. I flinch, but it gives Dimitar a moment of weakness to surge towards Lucas. I choke on air, knees buckling when I grip him in my control again. He’s nearly touching Lucas’ frozen form.
Shivers crawl up my spine when Alasdair laughs. “Oh, Valentin. Has the ice in your heart thawed for another?”
My hand spasms and it’s too late. The shadow Dimitar breaks from my hold, and I lunge forward, but it’s a mistake. The creature doesn’t go for Lucas. It surges for me.
