The Blood Witch (Broken Blade #2)

Chapter 59

Chapter 59

VEE

D eath comes in many forms.

But Vee never thought it could come from the shadows.

She stumbled through the hallway, nearly tripping over the body of an unconscious guard as she rushed to get away. Sleep , she’d told him when she’d come across him earlier in the dark. His body didn’t move as she stumbled over it.

She’d fucked up. She’d broken their first rule, the most important rule.

Don’t get caught.

It had never occurred to her that the council would suspect Fey. How could they? She could have killed them all in an instant, with all that power she had inside her. Why would she have needed to take them out one by one like Vee had?

Listening at the door, Vee had been furious at them. And terrified that they wanted to punish Fey for something she’d never done. Punish Alastair for something he’d never done. She just wanted to scare them, just wanted to show them it couldn’t be Fey, that they could let her go, leave her and Alastair alone.

The Demon hadn’t showed any powers, and she hadn’t felt like the others, so Vee had thought …

Controlling the Fallen King had been like trying to hold water in her hands, his power seeping away from her no matter how hard she tried to hold it. But the Demon?

The moment she’d reached to control her, Vee knew something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. Her blood felt like ichor, thick and terrible, and when she’d reached into her mind, there was only darkness.

Deep, cold emptiness.

Now Vee ran, but that darkness was all around her. Following her.

There were shadows, on the wall, reaching for her, stretching toward her.

Hissing, she leapt away as a tendril of shadow snaked out from the wall and reached for her ankle. The bright torches around the palace seemed to be keeping the shadows away, for now. She didn’t want to think what would happen if they touched her, if they got her…

She needed to escape. She needed to go somewhere safe, where she had the advantage. She needed…

Leverage.

Something in her chest tightened as a plan formed, some part of her screaming out in pain, demanding another answer, another solution. But Vee pushed it down, swallowing it whole.

She was a survivor. And she would survive this.

Whatever it took.

“Hey, Vee,” Jayce called out, smiling as he watched her storm into the clubhouse. She slammed her hand over the light switch on the wall the second she arrived, turning on the bulb that hung from the ceiling. “Check out the score we got tonight. Paul found a mansion near the border that hasn’t been occupied in months, and we?—”

He stopped and stared at her. Vee was panicked.

And Vee never, ever panicked.

“Vee?” he asked, scrambling to stand up. “Vee, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”

“I messed up,” Vee muttered. She looked around frantically, her breaths quick and panicked. She rushed from the light switch to the lamp they kept in the corner, turning it on. Scowling, she tore the lamp shade from it, flooding the room with even more light. “I got caught.”

“Vee—” Jayce started.

“No time,” she interrupted. “Do we still have those massive lights on the poles? The ones we took from that factory by the docks?”

Jayce blinked. “Flood lights,” he told her. “And yeah. We have three of them, down in the basement.”

“I need them. And I need you to set them up. All of them, up on the roof.” She was manic, her head twisting as she looked around the warehouse. She positioned herself in the center of the room, directly under the overhead light. “And they need to overlap, do you understand? All of them pointed at the center of the roof, no … no shadows between them, okay? And then I need you to get everyone out of here. Take them to my Nan’s, take them to Jasper’s place. Take them anywhere, I don’t care, but they all need to be gone.”

“Vee,” Jayce said, voice soft. “I can help. We can help. Whatever it is you did. Just talk to me.”

Vee growled so furiously Jayce took an involuntary step back.

“It’s too late, Jayce,” she snapped. “I told you, I got caught. There’s no fixing this anymore. I need you to get everyone out. I can’t let anyone else go down for my mistake. I can’t let anyone else get hurt.”

“What happened?” Jayce pressed.

Her power hit him so quickly he had no time to react. One moment he was taking a step toward her, and the next he was on his knees, kneeling.

“ No more questions ,” Vee ordered. “Get the lights up and get everyone out, Jayce. As soon as you can. Do you understand me?”

As quickly as she had taken him, she let go, and that power that held him in her grasp was gone. Jayce blinked, heart pounding.

“I understand,” he said. “I’ll do it. But, Vee, you’re not alone anymore. And we’re not little kids. We can help, we can…”

He looked up, but the room was empty.

She was already gone.