A Shade of Vampire 84 A Memory of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,91

a more detailed description of the sleeper spell the high priestess had activated inside her own son and the scythe he’d carried his whole life without even knowing it.

The more he spoke, the more my nausea intensified. I swallowed back bile as I looked up at the tower. “When we came to, Esme was already running up towards the north tower to catch her, but it was too late,” Sofia continued. “Petra blocked access to Kalon’s room.”

“We should’ve seen this coming,” Hunter muttered. “We should’ve checked her more carefully for hidden weapons.”

“You wouldn’t have found anything,” Soul said. “Judging by what Derek just told us, Petra mastered the art of Concealment, which is how we hide our scythes from sight by manipulating the laws of space and matter. She used it to hide a weapon on her youngest son, an inconspicuous carrier. So, when Time checked her, he didn’t see anything.”

My heart beat erratically, and I couldn’t sit still for another moment. I couldn’t let Esme stay up there alone. “Where’s Amal?” I asked, hoping my sister wasn’t involved in any of this.

“She’s safe in the eastern tower, working on the day-walking cure,” Mira said. “I was visiting her when Arya called us all out.”

“And the Visentis boys?” Ridan replied.

“With Kalla. They’re also safe,” Sofia said.

“I have to see this for myself.” I dashed around her, heading for the tower.

“Amane, wait!” Sofia shouted, but it was too late. I was already running up the stone stairs, spiraling upward until Esme and Lumi came into view. They stood in front of an open doorway. Time sat on the floor next to it with his back against the wall.

“She’s been playing us,” I said. “Petra’s been playing us.”

Esme whirled around, exhaling deeply when she saw me. “You’re okay. And the others?”

“Trev took a hit, but he’ll live,” I replied with a nod. “You?”

She frowned, a muscle ticking in her jaw. “She’s trying to get to him.”

“And she will succeed,” Time said quietly, his gaze lowered. “Petra has the power to reach into Soul’s interdimensional pockets.”

I moved closer, standing next to Esme and Lumi. I could see Petra from here, the air glimmering in the doorway. She’d put some kind of shield up to hold us all back. She gave us a sideways glance and smiled.

“Oh good. An audience,” she said.

Her scythe lit up a strange blue color unlike anything I’d seen before. It had a faint violet glow, and it felt… ominous. She moved the scythe slowly, the blade’s tip leaving a dark trace in the air as her lips moved. Petra was whispering a spell.

“She’s opening the pocket,” I croaked.

Esme

As soon as I’d come to, I’d run up here, knowing Petra would find Kalon. Indeed, she had. Not only that, but she’d somehow managed to outsmart the Time Master. She’d kicked him out of the room and placed a powerful shield against the door and the walls, effectively prohibiting anyone from entering.

And now she was cutting through Soul’s interdimensional pocket while we watched. Terror froze the blood in my veins while rage lit fires in the pit of my stomach. I was a miserable mess of hot and cold, shattered by the speed with which everything had gone awry. We couldn’t have spotted that second scythe. We’d been fooled. It wasn’t the first time, but it was definitely the last. I’d make sure of it.

One way or another, Petra was not walking out of here alive. The only problem was that she was moments away from reaching Kalon, and that would further put him in harm’s way.

“Why would you do this?” I asked. When she didn’t answer, I slammed my fist against the defensive spell. It pushed me back like a surge of electricity, making my skin buzz. I shook it off. “Petra, he’s your son!”

Amane put a hand on my shoulder in a bid to comfort me, but nothing could help. Nothing, except Kalon’s safety. Lumi continued analyzing the shield, using one glowing index finger to slowly touch the glimmering membrane as she tried to understand what it did and how it could be broken.

Time was disillusioned and self-deprecating because Petra had thrown him out of his own space. “How did she do that?” I asked, trying to wrap my head around this fuzzy concept.

“It was in the Spirit Bender’s chronicles. Instructions on how to outfox each of his First Tenner brothers,” Time said. “She knows who I am because I told her.” That had to hurt. I certainly sympathized