An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,67
ashes.
Astra was on all fours, taking deep breaths, heaving whenever she had to exhale. “Soph, help her, please!” I said, then shifted my focus back to Voss’s clone. I heard Jericho and Dafne as they got closer to Astra, as well. She wasn’t on her own, and that gave me some comfort.
The veins on Voss’s clone’s throat throbbed angrily, but he couldn’t do anything against my firm hold on him. Soul had been so on the money with this ability. It was getting easier with each turn, to the point where I could feel the clone’s fears rumbling through me like a bad stomachache. He was terrified. He’d never expected to be in this position.
“Tell me why you’re here,” I demanded, one ear twitching as I listened for movement and words between Soph and Astra. Most of the humans of the Vale had run away already, but I could still hear the occasional rush of footsteps nearby. They’d been scared off, yet there were the curious ones who just couldn’t resist, especially considering the sudden silence that had followed after Richard’s clone’s bloodcurdling screams.
Voss’s copy sneered, defiant despite my influence. “Screw you.”
“Tell me why you’re here!” I amplified my ability, imagining thousands of daggers that I could use to pierce his skin and break him into little bits and pieces. It worked. Voss’s clone grunted, sweat dripping down his face as my glamoring cut through him.
He crouched from the pain, but he was resisting. I could feel the walls around him struggling to stay up, though I was pretty close to breaking them all down. Jericho scoffed. “Push him, Thayen. You can do it.”
“Tell me why you’re here!” I snapped.
“Ah!” Voss’s clone whimpered. Finally, the sound of defeat emerged. He was a resilient bastard, but I was motivated to succeed. “Isabelle. We’re… we’re all here for Isabelle.”
“Why?” I asked, briefly stealing a glance at a troubled Soph. Astra was looking better, one arm draped around the daemon’s shoulders. At least she was upright, though the purple bruising on her hands was difficult to ignore. She’d worn herself out. I doubted she could still help us in the clone verification process, but I was thankful she was okay. “Why?” I repeated the question, eyeing Voss’s copy carefully.
He muttered a curse under his breath. “She has something we need. Something she’s… something she’s been working hard to get for the past couple of months.”
“Wait… what do you mean months?” I croaked, my blood running cold.
I’d opened up a can of worms, and I wasn’t sure any of us could face what was coming. I was already beginning to regret asking. Simply knowing that Isabelle’s clone had been around for two months presented a series of nightmarish scenarios along with a plethora of difficult questions. The most important one was raised by Astra.
“If she’s been around for two months, why did she wait so long to try and kill me?”
“Answer her question,” I commanded Voss’s clone.
He was on his knees and panting, my glamoring influencing him physically and ripping through his resistance. Admittedly, I’d allowed myself a streak of meanness, focusing my ability on him like a concentrated laser beam. I wanted to tear him apart from the inside, but not before we got as much intel out of him as possible.
“Damn you…” Voss’s clone blurted. “I don’t know what it is. We only know it as the Object. We have orders…”
“What orders?”
Jericho came to my side. “What if he’s lying about this… Object?” he whispered.
“I’m not lying!” Voss’s double cried out. “Only Isabelle knows what it is. That was the whole point, so no one who got caught would snitch!”
The more the doppelganger spoke, the more questions I had. “What are your orders? Speak!”
“Argh! Sow the seeds of chaos! We were ordered to either go after our originals or attack key military points across The Shade,” he replied. “The orders keep changing… we’re told to go to one place, then another. We’re all waiting for a green light to go after Isabelle.”
“Don’t call her Isabelle. She’s not Isabelle, just as you’re not Voss!” Astra retorted, strength returning to her wavering voice.
“Well, I am Voss. And she is Isabelle. Just not your Voss. Not your Isabelle,” the clone shot back, baring his teeth in an aggressive grin.
I tightened my hold on him, ripping a groan from his throat. “What’s your next move? What were you doing in the Vale? How many of you are there? Who’s leading you?”