Adela’s eyes softened at his words. “Good. Now, if your tether dies before you, someone will be able to siphon you again if they get their hands on you. You can have more than one tether, Wilder, but Byron can only be a tether for you.” Her eyes saddened for a moment and she picked at a frayed yarn on her cardigan. “Lawler only managed to find me because my tether, James, had just died.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, tightening my grip on Byron. He hugged me closer, knowing that I needed the comfort.
“It was a long time ago, but I was vulnerable and full of grief. I stupidly wandered off on my own into a bar and into Lawler’s lap. He reminded me of James; he’d been charming and warm and a little awkward. Of course, now I know it was all an act, but at the time, he gave me warmth when I had none in my life.” Adela’s words trailed off as she lost herself in her memories.
I knew that my father could be all of those things, but he was a master manipulator. He’d probably weaved himself into her memories just to find the best way to play her. She never stood a chance against him.
“How do I defeat him? What power can I use?” I asked. Yes, it was great I could cross over to the other side, but how the hell did that help me take down a fucking maniac?
“I don’t have the answer to that, but what I can tell you, is that you are powerful. I can feel it from here. And I’m dead,” she chuckled dryly. “Just remember your power is about life and death and the ability to control life force. Maybe you could tap into Lawler’s?”
Well, it was food for thought. I wasn’t even sure what I was capable of yet. Especially if something had suppressed my true power until my twenty-fifth birthday. Fuck knows what was going to happen then.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go,” Adela said softly.
I still had some many questions, still needed to know so many things about her, about the magic. “Do you have to?”
She nodded gently. “Yes. Lingering on this plane isn’t good for either of us, but this is my sigil.” She pulled up the sleeve of her cardigan and showed me a black mark of intricate curls and knots that I took a minute to memorise. “If you need to talk, just summon me and we can chat. It was lovely to meet you, Wilder. You should reach out to the Hawthornes when you get the chance. They’d welcome you with open arms. And you, Byron, take care of my boy.”
She started to fade, her essence disappearing back beyond the veil.
“I will,” I promised. “And thank you. For everything.”
Her violet eyes were the last thing to go and somehow, the room felt emptier without her in it. Which was mad. Hell, this whole thing was madness. I scrubbed my hands down my face and Byron turned me around in his lap, forcing me to straddle his thighs and caging me in against the island.
“Baby, talk to me. Don’t get lost inside that pretty head of yours,” he said, his voice a quiet rasp.
“I just met my mother.” The words came out of me like a shocked confession. Full of disbelief and amazement. “And I know more about Shadow Witches but I’m none the wiser about to deal with my father and now I’m worried my sister is involved and—”
Byron placed his hand over my mouth, halting my tirade of words. “I don’t think your sister was involved. She seemed genuinely distressed when we were going through the packet on Lawler and when she spoke to me that time we visited her apartment she was worried about you. I think your father made her a victim in this, baby.”
Okay, that made me feel a little better and subsided some of the panic, but I still felt like the world was unsteady beneath my feet. I pulled his hand away from my mouth and laced his fingers with mine. “So what do we do next?”
His smile turned wicked. “We find someone for you to practice on.”
“The fuck does that mean, Byron?”
“Exactly what I said. You need to practise tinkering with life force and I’m pretty sure we still have a wendigo to feed.”
He looked so serious when he said it that I burst out laughing. “You can’t be serious?”
“As serious as a heart attack is.”
My laughter died a little. “You want me to practise magic that I’m not sure I can even tap into yet and tinker with someone’s life force. You do know that might kill someone.”
“Obviously. That’s why I mentioned the wendigo. I’m sure Vee would appreciate the snack. Now come on, let’s go and find someone to play with.”
It was in a state of disbelief that I let Byron drag me out of his apartment and onto his crazy escapade. When had this become my life?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Byron
“Dang, boy, what the hell happened to you?” Vee called out to Wilder as he joined us in one of the white rooms in the basement. “You look like you were mauled by a bear.”
Damyr had a few tiled rooms in the basement of the Morozov Mansion for the ‘wet work’ and Wilder and I were definitely making use of one of those today. Hopefully the guy wouldn’t die, and Wilder could just get in tune with his magic andwhatever this life force manipulation was. He was worried about it and I didn’t like that. I wanted him to feel confident in his abilities when he faced his father and this was the best solution I could come up with.
“Not a bear, just Byron,” Wilder replied, a flush creeping up his neck.