Chapter 16

IVAN

“Блядь,” I say out loud in Russian. ~Fuck~.

I almost lost myself back there. If I hadn’t stepped in, Leo would have marked Clementine—he was so eager to bite her tasty flesh and make her ours.

I so badly want to make her mine, but I can’t. I can’t invest in another mate. I can’t trust another mate. I am better off without one.

It’s good that Clementine’s not a werewolf; otherwise, she would sense that she’s my mate. I just hope that when she fully transforms into a phoenix, she doesn’t realize it…though I highly doubt that will be the case.

I don’t know what I’ll do then.

***

The next day passes in a frenzy, and I’m all too eager to get back to sleep. But at 1 a.m., I suddenly wake up with a bad feeling that will not go away.

I just hope it has nothing to do with Clementine.

Instead of going back to sleep, I decide to see her. I need to make sure she is safe. I still don’t know where she was the other night, and I don’t like it. I just hope she’s not involuntarily involved in bad stuff.

I know Clementine wouldn’t do something bad on purpose because as her mate, I can sense her intentions. Not only that, but I can read her thoughts sometimes—especially when they’re dirty ones about me.

Leo smirks. He gets excited with every step I take toward her bedroom.

I’m excited too.

Since Clementine is probably asleep, I enter her room without knocking, but as soon as I close the door, I see that her bed is empty. A sudden feeling of discomfort passes through me. ~Where the hell is she?~

I sniff the room and realize that she hasn’t been here for hours. Disconcerted, I leave the room and make my way to the infirmary, hoping she just decided to stay there overnight.

In the infirmary, I see my mate’s friend, Erika, working on someone. “Where is Clementine?” I ask, taking her aback.

Erika gives me a look that says, “Say hello, you rude ass,” but she responds, “She hasn’t been here since eleven-thirty. I think she’s in her room.”

“I checked her room. She hasn’t been there for a while.”

“Did you speak with Alex? She might be with him.”

I nod and leave the infirmary to look for Clementine’s brother, but I have the feeling that she’s not with him either. My discomfort turns to dread.

She is not safe; she is scared. I can feel it.

CLEMENTINE

“Where are we going?” I ask Sofia. We’ve been walking for a while, and I don’t understand why she wants to talk somewhere so far from the pack.

~“I don’t like this, Clem,”~ Helia says, but I assure her that Sofia won’t hurt us.

I know Sofia was—and still is—very bad to me, but she was a good mother…at least to her son and daughter. For some reason, I believe what she said about needing to talk to me.

“Few more minutes,” she replies, and keeps on walking.

I start to feel anxious, but I keep walking with her, and after a bit, we reach a small cottage in the middle of the forest. Birds roam freely here, apparently not afraid that a werewolf and a phoenix are in their territory.

Sofia enters the cottage and motions for me to follow her.

The inside of the cottage looks old and suspicious. Bones litter the far corner, as if an animal used to live here. As if people haven’t been here for a while.

I turn around, ready to leave, but Sofia says, “Where do you think you’re going?”

With that, something hits my head, and the last thing I see is the door.

***

When I come to, I hear a teapot whine.

~What’s happening, Helia?~ I ask.

~“Your crazy mother tricked us,”~ she replies happily.

~What is she happy about?~

I open my eyes gradually, trying to adjust to my surroundings. I am still in the cottage, but Sofia is nowhere to be seen. I look down and see that my hands are cuffed, but I can’t break them free.

After a few minutes, the cottage door opens. Sofia enters, holding huge bottles filled with something dark.

~What’s in those, Helia?~ I ask.

~“Gas,”~ she replies.

Seeing me, Sofia spits, “You’re finally awake. I knew you were weak, but not this weak.”

“Why are you doing this?” I ask.

“You are the reason my daughter was killed, so you are dying too!”

“I wasn’t!” I argue. “She did this to herself.”

Sofia shakes her head and screams, “You are the reason!”

“How can you do this?” I yell, feeling betrayed. “I am your daughter!”

I hate Sofia, but I never thought she’d kill me. I believed she could change, so even though Helia warned me, I remained hopeful that she was taking me here to make amends. To talk everything out once and for all.

For some reason, I always hoped that Sofia would like me one day… That is, before I discovered that Kalisto is my real mother. Still, until a few hours ago, I hoped things could be okay between us.

I was wrong.

I want to use my magic to try to escape, but I don’t yet know how to perform spells with my mind. And these cuffs aren’t helping my cause; it’s as if they were made for witches.

“I am not your mother! I never was!” Sofia yells. Her eyes widen like she wasn’t supposed to reveal that, but it doesn’t matter since I’ll probably die before someone comes that I could tell.

Alex and Ivan come to my mind then, and I feel so much pain knowing my brother will be destroyed when he hears that I’m dead. ~And what about Ivan? Will he feel anything?~

~“Of course, he will,” Helia says.

~What makes you think that?~

She doesn’t answer.

“You are not my biological daughter,” Sofia continues.

“I know.”

“How?” she asks, her eyes narrowed.

“You don’t have to know how,” I reply.

“Well then, do you want to know who your mother was?” She smirks as if she’s going to drop the biggest bomb on my head. “She was a hybrid! A witch! A disgrace!” She spits, then laughs like a madwoman. “I still can’t believe that she’s dead.”

Little does she know that Kalisto is not dead.

“After your father and I imprisoned her here, in this very cottage, we killed her. It was the best day of our lives.”

Her revelation shocks me. My father stooped low enough to kill my mother? His mate?

I am utterly disappointed in him.

“You are just like her, a disgrace. A very weak human,” Sofia continues, breaking my heart.

I hate this woman, but I thought for my whole life that she was my mother. Even after I learned that she wasn’t, I never thought she and my father would try to kill my real mother…or me.

“You know what, Sofia?” I begin, adding a smirk to intimidate her. “As much as it used to pain me to think this, I’m glad your daughter is dead. She deserved it.”

“You bitch!” she yells, and smacks my head against the floor.

I see stars and feel blood trickle down my face, but I try to stay conscious.

“You are the one who deserves to die!” Sofia says as she walks toward the big bottles of gasoline. She pours them into every corner of the cottage.

For some reason, Helia is still happy, which in turn makes me happy. I’m not scared; I feel more powerful than ever. I’m ready for Sofia to finish what she started.

I want to feel the fire. I want to feel it build within me, making me more alive than I’ve ever been.

Flashes of old memories start to appear in front of me. Alex and I playing in our courtyard… Becoming a doctor… Hearing Helia for the first time, not knowing who she was… Meeting Ivan… Officially meeting Helia… Learning that I am a witch… Discovering my sister died… And now, waiting to get burned alive by my so-called mother…

~Why do I feel so happy about it?~

“You will burn, Clementine! You will burn!”

With that, Sofia lights a match and throws it on the floor, then runs out of the cottage.

As fire spreads everywhere, I wait patiently. When it finally reaches me, I feel myself melting, but I never drop my smile.

The last thing I see is the cottage door opening, revealing Ivan’s horrified face.

IVAN

Clementine is nowhere to be found. Alex said he last saw her yesterday. Her father said he didn’t know where she might be. Luna Helen said she hasn’t seen her in two days.

Wondering if my sister Katina did something, I find her and Dimitri in their room, but he confirms that she’s been with him all day. So, I conclude, Clementine must have been abducted by the only person who is not present: her mother, Sofia.

“Are you sure?” asks Alex, who has been searching with me. “I know that my mother hates Clem, but I don’t think she’d do something bad to her.”

“See? Even you are not convinced.” Before Alex can protest, I say, “I’m sure Sofia would do anything to get back at Clementine after I killed her daughter. So, let’s go find her.”

I start to leave Katina’s room but stop to tell everyone, “Bring anyone you know. I want more people so we can cover more spaces.”

~If it turns out Sofia did abduct Clementine, I will not hesitate to kill her. Hell, I will kill anyone else who tries to harm her, even my sister. I will not tolerate such behavior.~

A little while later, Alex and I leave the pack house with Andrei and two additional searchers. My siblings and their mates did not agree to come, so I asked random members of Jake’s pack.

“Where should we look for her?” one man asks.

“You go to the far east”—I motion at the other man—”and you go to the west.”

Alex, Andrei, and I will go north because that’s where Leo is telling me to go. I don’t want the other men to come with us just in case there’s something they shouldn’t see. Plus, if Leo is wrong about her being north, the other two might have a chance of finding her and telling me.

As we begin walking between the trees, a few raindrops start to fall. The woods are so quiet, and this has me concerned.

“Alex, I’m warning you now: If your mother is behind this, I will kill her.”

I don’t need to give Alex a heads-up because I can do whatever the hell I want, but I feel that I owe it to him since he’s my mate’s brother.

Alex is silent for a moment. Then he says, “Leave her for me, please.”

“You know, I can’t,” I reply, and continue to walk.

As we walk further north, I catch Clementine’s scent, but it’s mixed with something else.

~Gas.~

I start to sprint, the guys following close behind. Every step I take, my heart beats faster, knowing something bad has happened.

I stop when I see a cottage on fire.

Alex’s mother stands outside the cottage, holding a pack of matches. She wears a huge smile as she stares at the inferno.

I slowly walk toward her, but she senses me and takes off. I order Andrei to capture her and run to the cottage.

When I open the door, I see the most painful scene: Clementine burning, melting. She gives me her best smile, breaking my heart to pieces.

“Clementine!” I yell.

I want to run to her, but it’s too late. She takes one last breath, and then her body slumps forward.

~Clementine is dead.~

~My mate is dead.~

~I am dead.~