Page 93 of When Storms Collide

“Don’t.” My voice was hollow in my own ears as I backed away even more, hitting the table behind us. “Don’t say it.”

Annelise’s gaze held mine as she finished her sentence. “Would be to kill me, too.”

“And why do you doubt that she succeeded in achieving immortality?” Zion asked, his voice gruff as he ran a hand down his face.

Annelise paused before answering. “Because we already know where she left the piece of her soul. And there’s an easy way to ensure it can’t be passed on… ”

My gaze cut towards her, but Zion spoke before I could.

“How do you know this? How do you know it was you that she left the piece of her soul with?”

Annelise swallowed hard. “A spell of this size wouldn’t go undetected. It’s similar to the binding spell. You wouldn’t be able to ignore the feeling that you were connected to someone else. I have felt that way ever since that day in Siraleth, when Donika spared my life. She connected herself to me in some way, but I had no idea what it meant before now. That it wasthisspell. But now it all makes sense.”

Annelise turned back towards the grimoires on the table.

“Whose grimoireisthat?” Nik asked almost to himself, speaking for the first time and moving towards the table.

Annelise shook her head. “I have no idea. Your guess is as good as mine. It isn’t spelled like the Kotova grimoire. But then again, most aren’t… ” she mused.

“Can you only link yourself to one person at a time? Leave one piece of your soul with another?” Tess asked, shaking her head.

“Yes,” Alastir replied, “you cannot split the soul multiple times.”

“Oh my God… it’s a horcrux.” Tess’s hand flew to her throat as her eyes went wide.

“Kind of… ” Annelise replied, her eyes still on the text before her.

“Mother above, she created a Goddamn horcrux… ” Tess muttered, her gaze traveling to mine.

“And you think she chose you… why?” Nik asked, peering down at the grimoire.

As if the Kotova grimoire sensed his gaze, it snapped closed, almost catching Annelise’s hand within its pages. She cast him a halfhearted glare as she closed the other book, stacking them atop one another.

“Some kind of sick punishment, I suppose. That to truly kill Donika, I would need to die, too. Donika has always been one for the dramatics, and it is quite poetic if you think about it. She never bore the sigil on her wolf form until after that battle. Until after she marked me.”

“You saw her after that battle?” Tess asked.

Annelise cast her eyes down to her hands in her lap. “I did a lot of… spying in the years afterwards. I hid Diana in the human realm, but I… lingered in Istmere.”

That was one way of putting it. She had kept a close eye on all of us, that was certain.

“Is there a way to be positive that it was Annelise who was marked? What if she marked another during that battle?” Nik asked.

Alastir nodded. “There is a way to confirm. A spell, written here in the grimoire. Without removing this piece of Donika from Annelise… we cannot kill her. Not completely, anyway.”

“God dammit… ” Tess muttered under her breath, flinging her arms up into the air in exasperation.

“And if it is Annelise that she marked?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. “I refuse to lose another person I care about. Another person I love.”

Annelise’s gaze flew to mine, surprise glistening in her eyes.

“We will cross that bridge when we come to it,” Alastir said. “This… I’m afraid… the Mother did not show me. Now that it has been uncovered, perhaps there are other things she may deign to show me. A way out of this mess.”

That was an understatement. This was a shit show.

It was less than one week until we marched against Donika and her forces, and she may have created a ‘horcrux’ as Tess had put it. This was the worst possible moment for us to figure something like this out. But at least we figured it outbeforewe marched on Akra.

I prayed Alastir could find a way out of this. Zion was already deep in his war planning with his resistance committee and there was no turning back now. We needed to kill Donika, and we needed to save my mother. I wouldn’t allow her to sacrifice herself so that we could break Donika’s immortality.

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