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“Then, I’ll ask the marshal to wait in the hall a few moments while I ease you into a relaxed state—for his safety in case your Fury side rebels. When you’re secure in the knowledge that this is a safe place to explore those memories, I’ll invite him to return, and we will see if you remember anything more. There is no guarantee of unlocking memories that your mind may have repressed to protect you.”
Sadie bites at her bottom lip, the red lipstick stark against her white teeth. I want to kiss those lips, hold her against me and tell her she’s safe, take her out of here and away from her past, but I can’t. Not if we want to catch the killer before they figure out she’s my best way to find them. Before they come after her. So I stay put and force my wolf to watch her push past fear that only she can face.
“One more question,” she says.
“Ask as many as you need.” The doctor’s calm voice suggests she’ll take as long as necessary to answer.
“What if I’m stuck with not remembering?” Sadie asks. “Like Kiva?”
“Not that I’m discussing my other patients, but your Fury sister had amnesia caused by a curse. As far as we know, that’s not the case with you.”
“All right.” Sadie rubs her hands against her thighs. “Let’s get started.”
Listening to the details of the screams Sadie heard, the terror she felt, the panic she overcame to push herself up those stairs to find a protective spell to save her family? It makes my chest squeeze tight, my mouth go dry, and my stomach knot as if I’ve swallowed rocks.
Worse—hearing how she blames herself for murders that she couldn’t have stopped? It fucking tears me up inside. I should’ve listened to Lowell’s concerns that someone had followed him to her family home. I should’ve done more to protect him…and her. I should be the one carrying whatever guilt she feels, heaped atop my own.
When Dr. Bomani asks me to step into the hall, I jump at the chance to take a moment and a deep breath, to get my shit together. Separating my emotions from this case has never been possible, but now, I’m so tied up with worry and regret about my mate that logic takes a backseat to our incomplete bond.
“You can come in now,” Dr. Bomani says. “I don’t care what information we do or don’t obtain for your investigation. Sadie’s wellbeing is my concern. She’s under a mild tranquility spell but remains in full control. If she pushes anywhere near her limits, I’m stopping. We clear?”
I’ve done this to my mate. “I understand.”
She studies me as if she can peer inside my head. “I think maybe you do.” Taking her seat, she curls like a freakin’ cat in the rocking chair near my woman, and what the hell is wrong with Sadie? She’s staring as if she’s…happy. Like she’s blissed out on her mom’s calming cookies. I can’t see the colors coming off our mating bond.
“What’d you do to her?” I bark. “I thought you said no hypnosis.”
“Sit,” Dr. Bomani snaps at me as though I’m a dog. She gives me a mischievous grin with no malice. I do what she says without thinking. Maybe she slipped me some of her magical calming mojo too because I’m suddenly not as worried anymore. “Now Sadie, you said you wanted to start at the staircase to the attic when you went to get the grimoire. Do you still wish to use that focal point?”
Sadie nods. “That’s right.”
“This is a safe place,” the doctor tells her. “Whatever you saw or heard on the staircase, it’s in the past, and it will remain in the past. Nothing can harm you here. You’ll feel no actual pain, and you will stop before your first life ended. If you decide at any time to return to the present, you’ll do so immediately. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Sadie stares into the distance. “I’m on the stairs, and I keep sliding. Mud and blood make my feet slippery. My fingers can’t twist the door knob. Something sharp stuck me in the back, and my hand doesn’t work anymore.”
I curl my hands into fists, wanting to beat whoever hurt her and wishing like hell that I hadn’t brought this fight back to her doorstep.
“You’re safe,” the doctor reminds her. “No pain can reach you here.”
Sadie shakes her head. “I must reach the grimoire. A protective spell’s my family’s last chance. They’ve already broken through our wards.”
“Who?” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
The doctor blasts me with a pulse of power that has me squirming in my seat. What is she?
“They have wings.” Sadie’s voice pitches high, and her whole body lights with ribbons of grey, red, and black spooling from her. “I can’t, I won’t—I’m failing them. I fall and the shadows chase me.”
“That’s enough.” The doctor waves her hand, and Sadie slumps back against the couch cushions. “You’ll remember only the visions. Not the pain, not the fear, not the ugliness beyond that of the past which already plagues you. This I promise.”
Rubbing at her forehead, my mate sits up, the colors around her fading as if she wrapped a shielding blanket around herself. “I’m all right,” she says.
“Do you want to talk about what you’ve remembered?” the doctor asks.
“I can keep going.” Sadie’s words slow with exhaustion, her shoulders slumping no matter how stiffly she holds her spine.
I don’t care if the doctor blasts me again. “No, you’re done.”
“For once I have to agree with him,” Dr. Bomani says. “We can discuss what you remembered and the emotions it stirred up, and you can hold anything else for later.”
