Chapter 34 CHAPTER 34
I didn't answer Kane's call.
I stared at his name until the screen went dark and then I blocked his number with fingers that wouldn't stop trembling.
Sabrina approved with a grunt, one that told me she still wanted to tear into his neck.
It's so annoying how he's still allowed to walk around after what he did.
And now that I know what he is, what I am, I can't report it to the police.
I turned off my phone and went to sleep.
The next day was the day the entire school would lose their memories of the entire incident.
Already, social media had been wiped of anything wolf related.
Squeaky clean
You can't even see anything about Nashville except some weird videos on YouTube that would make you not think about every coming here except you're a criminal.
And when I got ready to go and spend the day with Naomi, I found the door locked.
Aunt Kelly's orders.
“We're spending the day in!” Edgar yelled from his room. “To avoid the scent of the wiping agent messing with our head.”
Um.. good idea I guess.
So I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling and texting Naomi because she was the only thing keeping me from spiraling into the kind of dark place I couldn't afford to visit.
At her suggestion, I went downstairs, made three sandwiches, ate all of them standing at the kitchen counter and went back upstairs.
The house was quiet. TwatchedEdgar and Tori were in their rooms. Uncle John had left early — pack business, Aunt Kelly said, which Iwhich understood meant something very different from what I used to think.
Hours crawled by. I napped and then woke up to find out it's still three in the afternoon.
I buried my face in the pillow and screamed into it.
By late afternoon, the quality of the silence changed.
I heard Aunt Kelly moving downstairs. Heard her set glasses on the table. Heard Uncle John come back, the front door closing, his boots on the floor.
Heard them murmuring to each other — words too low for me to catch even with these ears, which meant they were deliberately keeping their voices below wolf range.
Then footsteps on the stairs.
A knock.
"Sera? Come downstairs please."
It wasn't a request.
I texted Naomi.
{My aunt wants me downstairs. Sounds serious.}
{good luck. text me everything after.}
I walked down the stairs with the energy of someone heading to an execution and based on Aunt Kelly's face when I got to the living room, I wasn't far off.
She was sitting in the armchair and Uncle John was standing by the window, arms crossed. No Edgar. No Tori.
Just the three of us.
I tensed at the meaning of this.
"Sit down Sera."
I did as I was told while looking at them, expecting very bad news.
“You wanted to know everything right?”
I nodded.
"What I'm about to tell you is going to be a lot. Although I can't answer every question you have about our species, I however have to tell you this because it's important and it's about your life so pay very close attention. I need you to listen to everything before you react. Can you do that for me?"
“O..okay…” I trailed off, looking at them and wondering if I'd killed someone or something.
She took a breath and I watchof ed her exhale slowly before speaking.
"Your father wasn't just a werewolf. He was the Beta of this Pack, that means Second in command. He was the strongest wolf in Nashville besides the Alpha. When he met your mother, he knew she was his mate immediately but she was human. That complicated things."
"Because she couldn't know?"
"And the council didn't approve. A Beta mating with a human was seen as weakening the bloodline. Your father fought for her, won, married her and then you came along."
She paused and I watched her hands. They were shaking.
"Before you were born, there was a prophecy. Ancient. Older than this Pack, older than most of the supernatural world. It spoke of a being called the Dawnbringer. Someone born from a special union who would have the power to unmake vampire immortality."
The room was very quiet.
"Your father knew before you took your first breath that you were the Dawnbringer. I didn't realize it until the Council came, they've been searching for you for centuries. That's why Oren left the Pack and left his responsibilities to me. That's why he suppressed your wolf. That's why he hid you in Ridgeway and told me never to interfere. He wasn't just protecting you from the world Sera. He was protecting the world from finding you."
My mouth was dry.
"And he failed. Because someone found him anyway. Someone killed him and we still don't know who."
"So my father died because of me."
"Your father died protecting you. There's a difference."
"Not to me."
Silence.
Uncle John shifted by the window but didn't speak so Aunt Kelly pressed on.
"When your mother passed and I brought you here, the council was already watching. They knew Oren's daughter would eventually manifest. If I'd known earlier… I would have continued hiding this world from you because the pain you might go through because of their obsession with revenge… I don't even want to think about it,” she sniffled.
“Pain?”
“It might not come to that,” Uncle John finally said something.
"Am I in danger?"
"No honey, you're not. We'll make sure you are safe and once you are strong enough, you'll fulfill the prophecy and then live your life as you choose.”
I let out a laugh that sounded nothing like laughter.
"I'm an eighteen year old girl who can't shift without having a panic attack and I'm supposed to be a threat to an entire species?"
"That's the prophecy. And people have believed in it long enough to act on it."
She leaned forward. This was the part she'd been building toward. I could smell the dread on her.
"And so about your teacher, Mr Valkori."
My heart did something complicated.
"He's not a werewolf, Sera. He's a vampire."
The word landed in my chest like a stone dropped in water. Ripples going everywhere.
"Not just any vampire. His name is Cael Valkori. He's the royal assassin of the Valkori court. They call him The Blade. He's over four hundred years old and he was sent to Nashveil with one mission."
She looked at me and I already knew what she was going to say because some part of me, some deep, buried instinct had been circling this truth for weeks.
"He was sent to kill you."
The room tilted.
"What?"
"Yes."
"And you knew? This whole time, you knew there was an assassin teaching me math and you said nothing?"
"I didn't know it was him until the night we came to get you. When I saw his face — his real face — I recognized the description. The Council told me about him as well but no one could have imagined he'd be so close, right there in the school all our children go to.”
Sabrina was howling. Not with rage — with anguish. A sound so raw it made my eyes water even though it was only in my head.
"He's our mate," she cried. "He's ours and he wants to kill us."
"Shut up," I whispered.
"What?" Aunt Kelly frowned.
"Not you. Her. The wolf. She's... she's saying things I can't deal with right now."
Kelly and John exchanged a look. I caught it.
"What? What was that look?"
"What is your wolf saying, Sera?"
"Something stupid. Something that doesn't matter."
"It matters. Tell me."
I clenched my jaw so hard I felt my teeth shift shape and had to breathe through it.
"She says he's our mate. I don't even know what the hell that means,” I grunted, already overwhelmed.
Uncle John's arms uncrossed and then Aunt Kelly's face went through about seven expressions in two seconds before settling on something I could only describe as controlled devastation.
"That's... not impossible," Kelly finally said. "I mean it sort of makes sense considering your power. But the prophecy says whoever among the Valkori falls for the Dawnbringer destroys himself for her. The bond doesn't care about species Sera. It just connects."
“What bond?”
“A mate bond is what binds two soulmates together. Each of us gets just one and you are supposed to live happily ever after with them.”
“Like you and Uncle John?”
“Exactly.”
As the meaning of their words sunk into my soul, another realization rocked me.
“Is that why my Mum went… bonkers?”
They exchanged another one of their looks.
“It can be. When one loses their soul mate, something in them snaps and they won't rest or be normal again until they go and join their mate in the other world.”
“Oh my goodness. All these while I thought she didn't love me but it turns out my father didn't love her enough because if he had, he would have told her! She would have been prepared! She spent the last years of her life torturing herself and torturing me too!”
“Calm down Sera, all that is in the past?”
“But is it? You're literally telling me I'm going to kill my own soulmate! I've been so scared of becoming lost like my mother, I have been so angry at her but look, it's the freaking circle of life because that's my destiny!”
“I understand how you feel my dear but we need to finish preparing you for the days ahead. It's either he kills you or you kill him. Which would you prefer?”
“Him,” I grumbled, wiping my tears furiously.
She stood up and walked to the side table. Opened a small wooden box I hadn't noticed before.
"He'll come back, we know that. A vampire like him doesn't just walk away from a failed mission. He'll return to the school because it's the easiest way to get close to you."
She pulled out something small. A case. She opened it and inside were two contact lenses, clear with the faintest blue tint.
"These are warded. Old magic, from the elder vaults. When you wear them, no vampire can compel you. No memory wipes. No mind tricks. Your thoughts stay your own."
She handed them to me.
"Put them in."
I did. They felt cool against my eyes, a barely-there tingling that faded after a few seconds.
"Now listen carefully because these are the rules and they are not negotiable."
She counted them on her fingers.
"One. You will pretend you remember nothing. Nothing about his apartment. Nothing about who he is. As far as he knows, the wipe worked completely.”
"Two. Every interaction you have with him — every word, every look, every time he's near you — you report to the council."
“I must?”
"Yes. Now rule Three. You will have guards. You won't see them but they'll be there. Wolves assigned to watch you every second you're on school grounds."
“Why?’
"It's for your safety and the council insists, you're their greatest asset right now. Four. You are never to be alone with him. Not his classroom. Not a hallway. Not a parking lot. Nowhere private. Ever."
I looked at the lenses case in my hand. Then at my aunt. Then at John who hadn't moved from the window but whose eyes hadn't left me.
"You want me to lie to him."
"Yes.”
"And if Sabrina is right? If he's really—"
"Then he's a mate who was sent to kill you. That doesn't make him safe Sera. It makes him the most dangerous thing in your life. A stranger trying to kill you, you can run from. A mate trying to kill you? You'll walk right into his arms and let him."
I wanted to argue, I wanted to tell her she was wrong.
But I thought about the forest. About waking up on the ground with no memory of how I got there but an ache in my chest that pointed east like a compass. About Sabrina pressing against my bones trying to drag me toward him even as we ran.
"Okay," I said.
"Okay?"
"I'll do it. All of it. The pretending, the reporting, the guards. I'll do it."
She looked at me like she was searching for the lie. She didn't find one because there wasn't one.
I'd do it.
Not like I had a choice anyway. I'd just learned that my life was not my own.
I went back upstairs.