Before I’d taken four steps, the smoke vanished. I halted, stumbling to a shocked halt. For Talorgan had gone, but he’d left Nora—all alone.
On trembling limbs, fighting burnout and exhaustion, I stumbled toward the form that lay prone on the grass. The lights from the castle allowed me to see that Nora was on her back, limbs askew. There was so much blood. It was all over her body. Even her graying head had a nasty slash across the right temple, a river of red tracking down the side of her face. I put my hands lightly on her chest, relieved to feel a small tremble. She was still breathing, but the skin of her face was gray.
I opened my senses, dredging up the last scrap of my power to search her body for the extent of her injuries before that ember completely died. The wounds were numerous, and they were fatal.
I snarled, desperation closing in.
My voice roused her, Nora’s eyelids fluttering open. “Gage,” she rasped weakly. “The pendant…did he get it?”
“No,” I had already checked that it was still around her neck. “You still have it. Save your energy—don’t speak!”
Relief shone in her gaze, but then she coughed, blood flecking from the side of her mouth. “How bad…?”
“Bad.” There was no point in lying. She likely felt the damage, and I owed her the truth. Clenching my teeth, I met her eyes and said, “I used everything I had to excise the hound and send him away. I have nothing left.”
She knew what that meant. My small gift of healing was useless at present, not until I’d replenished my reserves. Nora’s lips set in a firm line. “Take it,” she ordered, and even though her breath was labored, there was still a hint of steel in her voice.
I flicked my eyes to the pendant she held toward me, her hand trembling with the effort.
I shook my head. “No. There’s still a chance. We just need to wait until my power is replenished. We can drive you into town, visit the doctor. McKenzie will coerce him to stitch you up, but we need to move now!”
My blood was pounding in my head. There was no way she was fucking dying on my watch! Nora couldn’t die. I needed her. We all needed her. She was the key to our future, a hope for a better world—the last Daughter of Winter.
Nora weakly shook her head in denial. “No Gage, it’s too late for that. Talorgan made certain of it. I can feel his magic inside me. Besides, driving into town is a fool’s move, especially tonight. It’s not safe outside the Estate.”
I saw red at the reminder. “Then why did you leave the Estate in the first place?” I demanded, forgetting her wounds were fatal, forgetting that she lay at death’s door.
Nora grimaced, and it wasn’t just physical pain that crossed her features. “I...I’ve been blindsided.”
I froze. “What was in Andrew’s letter?”
She averted her gaze, looking past me, unseeing. “A confession.”
“About what?”
She closed her eyelids, took a labored breath, then opened them and looked me in the eye. “I have...granddaughter…twenty-one years old.”
The breath whooshed out of my lungs. It felt as though she’d gutted me. My voice was low, the words blunt. “Are you telling me there’s another Daughter of Winter?”
Nora’s voice was a wisp of air. “Yes.”
Her eyes contained an apology I couldn’t accept. I exploded, my fist smashing into the earth beside her. “Why, Nora?” I roared. “Why the fuck am I hearing this now? Did you know?”
“Yes,” she admitted in a small voice. “...found out three years ago... Andrew died.”
When she went to bury her son and his wife. When my grandfather accompanied her. The old bastard had to have known. Had to have kept her secret.
I shoved my anger down. There would be time to consider that betrayal later.
“Why didn’t you tell me there was another Daughter? It’s obvious that I would protect her with Reuben gone. You owed me the truth!”
“I thought...Dormant,” Nora whispered, voice thin as a reed. “...didn’t show...signs. Andrew hid...from me.” She paused, her breath wheezing in and out now as she added, “...reinforced that I break the curse...prophecy ends with me.”
She coughed again. Her breath whistled urgently now. Her face twisted into a grimace as a spasm racked her chest. “I’m sorry, Gage,” she rasped out, eyes fixed on mine. “I made Reuben keep...secret. He wanted...tell you. I forbade him.”
In that instant, I hated her. Hated him. Blood boiled in my ears; my fists clenched tightly on either side of Nora. I could feel my control beginning to shatter. I fought the emotion, pushing it down. No—not now! It’s not what I should be focusing on. Nora is dying, and there is another Daughter of Winter!
Another Daughter of Winter. The words repeated over and over, an urgent mantra in my head. There was a need to find her. To mark her. To protect her. All thoughts of getting Nora to the doctor had fled.
I bit out, “Where is she?”
Her features twisted, remorse and agony twin parallels. “New Zealand,” she gasped out.
I stilled. At the other end of the fucking world.
“And the letter—what did it confirm?”
She gasped, her hand reaching to grab at her chest as her breathing gargled. “Andrew confirmed…wasn’t…Dormant.”
Mother fucker! My chest squeezed painfully at her confession. She’d known there was another Daughter of Winter for the last three years! She’d fucking lied to me about her existence! My protégé—my charge!
Her voice rattled again. “Find her Gage…before he does.”
I froze, my anger honed to a fine edge as I digested what she’d just said. “He knows?” I asked softly. “Is that what he took from you? The letter?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Talorgan made...connection...knows where she is.”
Christ! Could this be any worse? My mind raced with the implication. Time was of the essence. Nora didn’t have long. Not with the outcome that now loomed ahead. “Does she know anything about the legacy?”
She jerked her head in denial. “...nothing. Wrote a letter...in library. Find it, Gage!”
Nora reached a seeking hand up to the bronze gemstone that lay around her neck. It hummed softly in the still air. The pendant. Her family’s legacy. I stared at the stone, hating the sight of it. It was a shackle, another tool in the game.
“Take it,” she rasped. “For her.”
I didn’t want to touch it, but the outcome was inevitable. I reached out and pried it from her fingers. It lifted over her head without any resistance; another sign that Nora was dying, that it was too late. The pendant flared with a bright amber light as I raised it over her head. That light was instantly swallowed as I slipped it into the inside pocket of my leather jacket. As it settled against my chest, I felt its seeking tendrils weave into my consciousness as it searched my mind for the truth. When it touched the empty well of my magic inside me, its pulsating turned into a muted hum—a hum that signified it recognized my touch and accepted me within its ring of protection.
Nora’s body suddenly jerked, and a scream of agony erupted from her lips. Forgetting the pendant, I gripped her shoulders, holding her steady as she thrashed about on the grass. Her wounds bled anew, the blood a bright, vivid crimson in the glow from the lights. “It’s taking hold,” she panted. “You...now, Gage!”
Coldness gripped my chest. I’d spent the last three years protecting her, keeping her safe. I knew what she was asking. To do it went against everything I’d lived for. But death waited for no one, and it already had a firm grip on Nora. There was no other option but the one that lay ahead. And if I didn’t move quickly, the consequences would be worse than what I now faced.