Premonition of Peace (Her Immortal Monsters #3)

Chapter 2

two

NATHALIE

The silence hung over us like a guillotine. Everyone stared at me for one beat…two…and then the blade fell.

“What do you mean it’s not Sasha?” Piper demanded, sounding upset. Knowing her, it was probably at least partially due to irritation that she hadn’t noticed as well.

“I’m telling you something else slipped through and has taken up residence in her body,” I stressed, making the situation bare. “The real Sasha—our Sasha—is still in the veil.”

“I noticed something was weird,” Anders admitted slowly. “I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but the energy around her was not what it used to be.”

“She did seem kind of off, sure,” Piper agreed, crossing her arms, “but I guess I just chalked it up to the effects of the veil. Who wouldn’t feel off after something like that?”

“The magic surrounding her wasn’t death magic,” Ronan confirmed as his brow furrowed in deep thought. “It was chaos.”

“Who the hell would come back with chaos magic?” Piper asked, brushing her thumb over her bottom lip in contemplation.

“Well, to answer that, we should ask ourselves who in the veil has chaos magic. Then go from there,” Lucifer interjected as he crossed the room. I avoided his unsettling, gold gaze as he seated himself in the center of my sofa and spread both arms across the back—like the king of the apartment. As if.

“That’s a rare magic, and there aren’t many supernaturals that have it,” Anders said, rubbing at his jaw thoughtfully. “Even in the veil.”

“It has to be someone that also knows us,” I added.

“Why would you say that?” he asked.

I looked between each of them as if it were obvious.

“That entity knew about us, well enough to blend in. While she seemed off, no one would have thought that wasn’t Sasha, if not for the change in magic. We would have assumed she was just different after coming out of the veil. That goes beyond watching us for a short time and implies they’ve been at it a while.” I glanced over at Lucifer before moving my eyes back to the group. “She was also very excited to see him .”

“Little witch, are you jealous?” Lucifer asked, his tone dripping with satisfaction. I didn’t answer. I didn’t even look at him, choosing instead to roll my eyes to the ceiling and then train them back on the group as a whole.

“So, we’re sifting through people who know us, know Lucifer, and have chaos magic.” I ached to disappear in my memory loci and pull some files. There must be something in there that could narrow it down.

“That does give us a better starting point to work from.” Piper sighed as she shifted her stance, crossing one ankle over the other.

“It does,” I paused, thinking carefully how to phrase my next thought. “But I also feel like that makes things worse. Any of the people we know that would have had chaos magic . . . it could be a disaster if they were back.”

Lucifer’s eyes narrowed, his eyes scanning my face. “Do you have a suspect in mind?”

I ignored him and pushed forward.

“Whoever this is,” I continued, my mind still racing through the possibilities, none of them reassuring, “they know enough to mimic Sasha well. They definitely know more than we’d like and that makes them infinitely more dangerous.”

“We need to act,” Ronan growled, his face crumpling with anger.

Anders shared his agreement. “While we still have the upper hand and the element of surprise.”

“What about the real Sasha?” Piper hissed. “If we attack and things go wrong, we could damage or even kill her physical body. Then how would we get her back?”

“Which is why we’re not going to act or do something rash,” I said, trying to be the voice of reason. “We should act normal. Don’t give them any cause to suspect that we’re onto them. Buy time.”

“What exactly is buying time going to do for us?” Ronan asked. “If that’s not Sasha, then the real Sasha is lost to us. She has been in the veil for so long?—”

“That doesn’t mean she’s gone,” I said, hardening my tone. Ronan was a realist by most people’s definition, and usually, so was I. “Sasha is strong. She’d never abandon Sienna willingly.”

“Nat . . .” Piper interjected kindly; her voice soft.

“If we jump too quickly here, we end up with nothing. We’d have no idea what her impersonator is here for, or why they’re choosing her body,” I countered. “If they managed to get past the Se?ora’s lure, then whoever this is, they’re powerful. We need to know who and what we’re dealing with. If we send them back to the veil immediately, what's to stop them from doing this again?”

No one spoke. I had a point, and they knew it.

The group nodded in agreement, the plan falling into place like the pieces of a puzzle. It was risky, but we had to play our cards right. Lives were on the line, including Sasha’s, trapped as she was in the veil. I tried not to dwell on what might happen if we failed. Or the fact that Real-Sasha was still wandering alone out there. There was a very real possibility that Ronan was right, and Sasha was lost to us forever.

The odds were stacked against us in every way. But I just couldn’t let myself believe this was it. Until I had no other choice, I refused to accept failure.

I wasn’t going to stop trying and I wouldn’t give up on Sasha.

“So we just let this body snatcher continue walking around the city? Let it near the kids?” Ronan questioned. “I’m not okay by that.”

“We do need to act,” I agreed, but followed it with a pointed look. “Just not right now. They didn’t attack right out of the gate, and they could have. They chose to pretend instead and go along with us which makes me think that they may have a bigger plan, and things are going to be relatively safe while we play along.”

“We need to move quickly, though,” Anders countered. “If you really think Sasha is out there and trying to come back, every second matters.”

Piper’s jaw clenched. “Whoever it is was around the twins. Around Hallie. If you hadn’t stepped in, we’d have sent her home with something . . .”

“No.” I shook my head firmly. “Ronan knew something was wrong too, and I’d never send Hallie home knowing a spirit was impersonating Sasha.”

“I’m going to go check on the kids,” Ronan interrupted, even more broody and overprotective than usual. He walked toward Mist’s room, Anders on his heels, and knocked gently on the door before pushing it open.

Turning back to Piper and Lucifer, I gave the latter a look of irritation before I moved closer to Piper. Angling my back to him, I tried to have a semblance of a private conversation. I still didn’t know what to do with him.

“We need to tell Sienna.” Piper nodded her head in agreement, strands of her blonde hair moving around her face.

“I know, but it’s going to suck,” she replied with a long sigh. “She was so excited. This has all been so hard on her. How do we tell her that her sister is actually not back and is instead still floating in the void with no way out, and also, hey! –there’s something wicked using her body?”

“Yeah. . .” I let out a long breath and ran a hand through my hair. “Her emotions are already fragile. Someone needs to break this to her discreetly.”

“I can handle that. When I go to pick up Hallie’s stuff, I can find a way to tell her. That’s the easy part. The aftermath? Not so much.”

“We’ll also have to come up with an excuse for Hallie to stay with you until we figure out who this is and what their motives are. I don’t think they’ll attack, but I’m not risking any of the kids’ safety on a maybe.”

She glanced down the hallway before returning her gaze to me. “Mist will need to stay with us too while you sort out your situation ,” Piper said, thrusting her chin toward Lucifer. “I’ll tell Sasha—or Not-Sasha—that Mist just really wanted to spend extra time with Hallie.”

“That’ll work, and as far as everything else, we’ll figure it out,” I said, more to convince myself than anyone else. I wondered internally if we’d be okay.

Ann, The Warden, and Bad Nat were suspiciously quiet in my loci, and that wasn’t comforting.