Anomaly (Causal Enchantment) (20 page)

“Take care, all of you,” Viggo purred, so proud of himself. “
If you haven’t figured this out, you’re better off staying as far away from Sofie as possible. She can’t be trusted with anything. Be smart and break whatever allegiances you made with her. Save yourselves before she gets you killed.” His face suddenly morphed from the façade of a jovial man to show the true demon beneath, full of raw loathing.

“
And
Evangeline
…” A chill ran down my back at the sound of her name on his lips. “I had hoped to see you here. Where, oh where did Sofie hide you?” Viggo winked at the camera. “Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten how instrumental you were in helping Veronique make her choice. Or how you betrayed me. Don’t think I’ll forget that. Soon, I’ll make sure you pay. Until later … Caden.” With that, Viggo gave Veronique a light tug and walked leisurely down the tunnel as if out for a night’s stroll on a sidewalk, until they disappeared from sight.

Mortimer launched the
tablet at the rock wall. Plastic and metal exploded in every direction. “So, Veronique is just … gone!” He screamed. “After everything we’ve been through, we led him right to her!” A pause and then, “What do you have up your sleeve that we aren’t aware of? Another wraith? More tribal men?”

For once, I wished I had a secret to share. But I didn’t. “Nothing. I have nothing.”

“Then find something,” he growled. “Fix this, Sofie! Find her! Cast a spell, ask the Fates, I don’t care!”

I
laughed bitterly. Ask the Fates. That was funny. “I will not be casting any more causal enchantments. Ever. It does nothing but feed their entertainment.”

“Then there is no reason to remain with you any longer.” The words rattled in my chest, the depth of them somehow cutting.

Mortimer vanished.

“At least she’s not dead.
” The hollowness in Julian’s words was as opposite as one could get to Mortimer. I didn’t have to look at him to see agony written across his face, an everlasting, raw pain that he would carry for decades. Centuries, even. I knew firsthand what it felt like.

I’m sure Julian
had memorized that address. I’m sure he would be running back into the city as soon as the flames died down, a shred of hope keeping him going as he searched for her.

He wouldn’t find her
, though, I was certain.

Because
I had killed her.

Chapter Fifteen
– Evangeline

I didn’t know what to do, where to turn. Did I drop to the ground to hug my friend, crumpled in a heap after learning that the girl who he would’ve spent eternity with—literally—was dead? Did I wrap my arms around Caden, who had just lost his sister, so distraught that he accused me of scheming against him? Did I go to Fiona, whose legs wobbled as she leaned against an equally somber Bishop, trying to come to terms with the loss of their best friend of over seven hundred years?

Or d
id I curl up into a little ball and nurse my own suffering? Though so much had happened, the night that I dove into the icy waters to pull Amelie from certain death remained fresh in my mind. I may not have been a long-standing fixture in Amelie’s life, but she had become an indispensable part of mine.

A part that
Viggo had torn away. A man who despised me.

It didn’t end there, though. I
f what we’d gone through with Bishop earlier was any indication, I’d just lost Julian as well. Still, I couldn’t decide if those losses were more upsetting than Sofie decimating my trust in her judgment. How much of this could’ve been avoided if Sofie had kept her promise? If she’d been honest from the start, we could’ve been more cautious of our surroundings.

Instead
, Sofie unwittingly led us right into Viggo’s trap.

The
decision of what to focus on was made for me when Julian suddenly bolted, disappearing down the tunnel. I knew exactly where he was going. Everyone knew. None of us would ever forget the Manhattan brokerage firm’s address.

But the city would be in a
crippling toxic state. Though I was not intimately familiar with the effects of a nuclear bomb, I could guess that what was left was sure to challenge Julian’s healing capabilities for at least a few days.

He’d never make it all the way.

I ran down the tunnel after him, but he was fast. Faster than me. I’d never catch him.

I could feel Caden’
s presence at my back as I tailed Julian a mile through the mine, over rickety cart tracks, through a half-submerged spot, all the way until a faint light appeared at the tunnel’s exit.

“Julian
! Stop!” I shrieked, wanting him to stay with us, sure that once he escaped the mine, he was as good as gone.

To my surprise, he
stopped.

I almost stumbled to slow down before I plowed into his back. He didn’t turn, he didn’t acknowledge me
. He simply stopped.

“Julian
…”

“She might have gotten out.”

I wanted to agree with him. But the sooner we faced reality, the better for all of us. “I’m so sorry, Julian.”

His head dipped. “I wish I
’d never met her.”

“You don’t mean that.”

After a pause. “I know. I don’t. It’s just …” His voice cracked. “It hurts so much. I didn’t know it could hurt this much.”

Of all of us, Julian had lost the most. First his parents—two shameless criminals who deserved it
, but nonetheless—and then his sister, Valentina, whose only mistake was stepping foot into the atrium, giving the witch Ursula a chance to possess her body.

And now, Amelie.

Caden stood silently behind me as I reached out to wrap my arms around Julian’s sides, folding my hands together at his chest. Whatever I was feeling myself was no doubt nothing compared to the sickness churning inside my friend right now. So acute, my body hummed with his devastation. Like a dark rot coursing through my limbs, I wanted to stem the flow to keep it from poisoning any more. Reroute it until it folded into itself and vanished.

I wanted to heal Julian.

That same energy deep within my core since my transformation bubbled and roiled with anticipation, the same quiet energy that came to life with Dixon and with that little boy, now sparked again.

I let it consume me,
intrinsically knowing that it was the right thing to do.

I visualized
that agony in Julian shrinking, shying away from me like a cockroach skitters with a beam of light to hide within the recesses. To remain out of sight. Out of mind.

I stood in silence, my arms still around him, my head resting against his
shoulder blade, feeling the tension slide from his body.

“What
…” Julian’s voice drifted off as he turned to me. “What did you do to me?”

“I
think I just … healed you?” Even saying the words felt impossible.

B
ehind me, Caden muttered faintly. “What?” I was so in tune with my own thoughts, I pushed his voice out. I had just healed Julian. It wasn’t enough that I could heal physical wounds. I could rescue people from the crippling emotional heartache too! Even Sofie wasn’t capable of doing that! I knew because she’d tried for Bishop and ended up having to rely on the Fates. That had proven disastrous.

H
ow was
I
doing this!

“I think you did. I mean,” Julian paused, his eyes squinting, “I still know she’s gone. I still miss her but
…,” he inhaled deeply and then exhaled, “that agonizing
pain
just disappeared.” Pausing again, his face twisted with displeasure. “I’m supposed to suffer. This is like I don’t—”

“But we all know you do, Julian,” I interrupt
ed him. “Remember Bishop and how distraught he was after? It was dangerous for him to be in that state. Just as it’s dangerous for you to be in that state right now. We need you to keep it together, and if that means using magic—” I gasped at my own words.

Magic. That’s
what this had to be. Of course it was! But how? And why would the Fates give
me
magic? What were they up to?

A strong
hand around my bicep tugged me back until I was facing a stern-looking Caden. “The compelling is one thing but this … What the hell is going on, Evie?”

“Magic.”
How else did I explain it? With the facts. I described the events of the night. When I was finished, Caden stared blankly at me.

And then he swore under his breath.

“What?”

He shook his head. “Why? Why would the
Fates give you this kind of magic?”

I shrugged.
“I don’t know.”

“What does this mean?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it going to hurt you somehow?
”

“I don’t know!”
I yelled. I was sure they were all rhetorical because I would have no better idea what the fates were up to than Caden would. Still, knowing there was something
off
was one thing. Having someone else fuss about it was entirely different.

Caden
slid down the wall to the floor, his hands pushed through his hair. “I’m sorry. It’s just … Amelie’s gone. I can’t lose you too.”

She was. And if Viggo had reached his first target—Caden—then I would be the one who wanted to die. I would never admit it to anyone, but a part of me felt such relief
—and then near-crippling guilt.

But
Caden needed my attention now. Turning to Julian, I took his hand and said very clearly, “You can’t go running off. You need to stay here.”

“I won’t
,” he promised. “For now anyway.” I couldn’t tell if I’d just compelled him to say that or if it was of his own volition, but I believed him. He was calmer. Stable. Enough to be left alone anyway. He looked down the tunnel. “I’m going to find Max and the others. But, Evangeline …” His brow furrowed. “I can’t be around her anymore. Not after this. Not after how she lied to us.”

I didn’t ne
ed to ask whom he was talking about.

I
dipped my head because in truth, I didn’t know what else to do. I hadn’t wrapped my mind around our new reality. How could
I
be around her if this was true? How could I ever trust her again?

“Sorry for earlier.”
Julian gave Caden’s shoulder a gentle slap as he passed and then, he slowly wandered back toward the haulage tunnel.

Even without focusing on Caden, I could feel the raw pain swirling around him,
like a windstorm, and my instincts urged me to fix it. Because I could. Dropping to my knees, I reached forward to place my hand over his chest. I closed my eyes as I focused on the turmoil, letting the heat build inside me.

A cool hand clasped my fingers.
“No.” The single word pulled my eyes open. “I need to feel this right now.” He pulled me into him, his forehead pressed against my temple. “Please, just … stay here with me.” His voice turned hoarse as he pleaded, “Just stay with me for a minute.”

“I’ll stay as long as you want.”

I did. Forehead to forehead, we sat in the silent darkness. The minutes turned into hours. And I had to fight hard not to save him from his pain.

*

“There’s only one person who can figure out what’s going on with you.”

“Sofie,” I
said, letting Caden pull me to my feet. Even her name pricked at my heart. I felt like I’d lost her. In a sense, I had. I’d certainly lost the version that I’d come to love like a mother.

“Sofie,” Caden echoed.
Then he cursed. His jade eyes, cold and severe, stared down the tunnel. “I’m done with her, Evie. I know she’s a big part of your life but after what she just pulled, I can’t be near her. Not now. I don’t know if ever. I’ll end up snapping her neck at least once a day.”

That was two important people—people I couldn’t see myself living without—ready to ostracize Sofie. I imagined there were at least two more sitting in the haulage tunnel. Maybe even a werebeast.

“No, you’re right,” I said. “I don’t know if it’s Mage who’s made her so heartless or just the impossible situation that we’re in, but it’ll be a long time before I can ever forgive her for doing that. Maybe distancing ourselves is the right move.” Since the night I stumbled into her café in Portland, I’d been under her spell. Literally, but also figuratively. She’d always had my best interests at heart, even when I didn’t know it.

But had we reached the point where it was
time to say goodbye?

Caden
sighed heavily. “We need to know what’s going on with you, and Sofie seems to be the only one who can ever figure these things out.”

I shrugged.
“Maybe we don’t need to know. Maybe we just take what I can do as a blessing and move on.”

“Unless it’s something that can kill you.”

It wouldn’t be the first time the Fates had turned me into a ticking time bomb. In fact, every time their magic touched me, it seemed to come with an expiration date. First with the pendant, and then with the Death Tribe’s magic.