Wrath

working. Sheree kept saying I was doing so well, that it always takes time, so I really thought I was overcoming the stone, and once I did, then I planned to tell you.”

“Whoa,” I said, my brows pushed together. “You’re not making any sense. What does it have to do with your conversion?”

“Start from the beginning,” Tristan suggested. “Where did you get it?”

“Right. Back to when I was still with the Daemoni.” Sonya grimaced on the word and then nodded. “So one night, right before you guys and Heather came to Fort Myers Beach to see me, my nest leader said Lucas had an important mission for me, and he took me to Kali. She told me to go to you and say I wanted to convert, but she said I would only be pretending. She had a plan so the conversion wouldn’t work, but they wanted me to gather valuable information for them. That’s what she said anyway, but apparently they were scamming me, too. Anyway, I really did want to convert, which was why I was okay with the whole thing. I’d hoped her stupid plan would fail. When I agreed to do it, she pressed some kind of rock into my chest, over my heart. It sunk down, beneath the skin.”

“The faerie stone,” Tristan said.

“Yeah, I guess,” Sonya said. “They called it a loyalty stone, but obviously it was more than that. I . . . I didn’t know how bad it would be. If I had any idea this could have happened, I would have never done it. I swear to you. I had no control that night. I couldn’t help it.”

I studied her face as I searched her mind, but I couldn’t find anything to contradict her words. I didn’t know if I could ever fully trust her again, but I, too, could only feel Amadis in her. She had to have been telling the truth about this.

“So tell us everything that happened the other night,” I said. “The whole story.”

Sonya’s eyes came up to my face again, then her gaze traveled behind me to the doorway. I sensed the whole gang waiting there—everyone who would probably be on my team. We all moved farther into the room.

The vamp swallowed, then began. “Kali stopped me from sharing my memories, so now you’ll know if she’s really gone. She didn’t want you to believe me.”

“Believe what?” Charlotte asked.

“What really happened here.”

Sonya’s memories of the night of the attack—only three nights ago, though it already felt like years—played in her mind, and I watched and shared them with the others while Sonya told the story aloud.

“Lucas took control of me first. He made me kill the mages, but that’s all he wanted from me. After the shield fell, I was compelled to go out to the beach. But that was Kali controlling me, just like she’d done yesterday. She’d taken over control from Lucas, and she stood out there, waiting.” Sonya’s eyes flitted over to the curtained window, as though she could see through it and out to the beach. Her voice came out quieter. “Then Owen showed up, too. He was kind of bloody, and he had Dorian in his arms. Kali let out a funny noise—almost like a squeal of happiness. Then those two disappeared with Dorian, leaving me alone on the beach. I was so scared. Scared of Kali. Scared of you guys. I got as far away as I could before I did anything worse.”

“But you kidnapped your sister,” Blossom said. “Your mom was freaking out!”

Sonya nodded. “I had to. Kali became so engrossed with Owen and Dorian, she forgot about me. Lucas seemed to, as well, but I didn’t take anything for granted. I was scared of what they’d do to Heather, so I had to get her away to keep her protected.”

“Yet there you were with several Daemoni vamps,” Tristan said.

“Vamps who wanted to turn her,” Blossom pointed out.

Sonya shook her head. “They’re not like most Daemoni. Lesley’s a little more evil than the others, but none are really bad. They wanted to turn Heather for her own good. Her own safety, so she’d be strong like the rest of us. That’s all. In fact, I’m pretty sure Alys wants to convert, but she was probably too scared to say so.”

“Who the hell cares,” I muttered under my breath, but everyone must have heard me because the room fell silent and all eyes turned toward me.

My mind remained focused on what she’d said about Owen and Kali—what she’d shown to us—and hurt and anger had bloomed. Again. Biting my tongue before I unleashed on anyone what was truly meant for Owen, I flashed to my office.

“Alexis?” Tristan had appeared right next to me. “That was—”

“Rude?” I snapped. “Yeah, I know. I don’t freaking care, though. Heather is here and safe. We need to find Dorian, but to do so, we need to figure out who we’re really looking for, not talking about a bunch of Daemoni vamps we don’t even know!”

He stepped in front of me, placed a hand on each side of my face, and tilted my head upward to look at him. His touch finally had a somewhat calming effect on me, and his eyes held mine until I relaxed.

“You don’t believe Sonya?” he finally asked as his hands slid to my shoulders.

“I don’t know what to believe,” I admitted. “She seemed sincere. Her memories seem real. Do you believe her?”

“It is hard to swallow.”

“It doesn’t make any sense. Lucas had my dagger last, and then here it was, where Dorian should have been. Where Sasha was left to bleed out.”

“Lucas could have given it to Kali to test it for magical powers.”

“And Owen would have brought it back to you,” Vanessa said, her voice small as she stood in the doorway with Blossom, Sheree, and Charlotte behind her.

I turned on her. “You’re still taking his side?”

Whether Sonya spoke the truth or not, Owen had definitely betrayed us. She shouldn’t have been defending him, as far as I was concerned. Vanessa came into the office, leaned her butt against the wall, lifted one foot against it to brace herself, and scowled at the floor. Sheree, and Blossom filed in, too, followed by Char, who waved her hands to muffle the room so we could have some privacy.

“Even if Owen had some good reason to take Dorian, I can’t imagine him doing that to Sasha,” Sheree said quietly. I couldn’t imagine it either, but then I couldn’t help it, and the vision sickened me.

“Maybe he didn’t,” Vanessa said, and before I could fly at her, she held her hand up. “Victor pretty much admitted to being there, too, remember?”

“And you believe him?” I asked with disbelief.

“He had the fresh scars.”

“They could have been fake.” I knew how far-fetched the idea sounded. Victor was a vampire, after all. There weren’t too many things—or creatures—who could leave scars on him. Although, Weres could, so my theory wasn’t entirely impossible. “And Sonya said Owen’s arms were bleeding, too.”

“Maybe they weren’t bleeding, but someone else’s blood was on him,” Blossom suggested.

“And Lucas could have given Victor the dagger at the same time he took control of Sonya,” Tristan said.

I peered up at him. “You just said Lucas could have given Kali the dagger. So which one is it?”

His gaze slid out of focus for a moment and then came back on me. “They’re both strong possibilities. I don’t have enough information to determine a best answer.”

“You sound like a freaking robot,” I muttered as my hand rubbed over the back of my head. “So what are we going to do? Was it Victor or Owen? Kali or Lucas?”

“Could have been both,” Charlotte said, and she grimaced. “They could have been working together, all of them sent by Lucas.”

That answer seemed to make the most sense based on what both Victor and Sonya had told us, but something about the whole thing bothered me. More than the fact that neither of our sources was very trustworthy. Even if we could trust them, there were too many unanswered questions. Like, why make Sonya create such a bloodbath when Kali and Owen together were powerful enough to break our weaker mages’ shield? Were they trying to make some kind of statement? Possibly. But I couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to it. If we were missing something important.

“Do you think Kali could have put one of those faerie stones in Owen?” Sheree asked, her words floating on hope that seemed to suddenly fill the room. All of us wanted to believe in Owen. Including me.