Chapter 578: Mia
It brought me at least a little satisfaction to ignore Mom's direct order. Rather than leave immediately, I pushed my boundaries and went looking for Mia.
She had my demon cat, after all. And I was more than a little attached to his fuzzy butt.
Charlotte padded softly behind me, footfalls louder than usual. As though she wanted me to know she was there.
I stopped to face her, meeting her blue eyes, flickering with the wolf inside her. She hovered closer than usual, body loose and liquid.
While I went tense when I prepped for battle, Charlotte was the opposite. As though knowing she headed for trouble triggered extra fluidity.
Charlotte was ready for a fight. As long as it wasn't with me, we were fine. When her wolf surged to the surface and took over for a moment, I knew it wasn't me she wanted to thrash. But she threw in a little nod anyway.
Just so I'd know it.
It couldn't have been easy for her, being in this house. The Dumonts held her and her pack captive here for who knew how long. Thralled and forced to protect Odette and her hideous bloodline, Charlotte must have memories she wanted to erase. And since I knew the lengths this family used to be willing to go to when they wanted something, I could imagine Charlotte's life hadn't been easy.
Not even a little bit.
The guilt I felt because she traded ownership by the Dumonts for servitude to me didn't help much. And even though I would have loved to talk to her about it, previous attempts to find out more about her past failed. And she gave me no indication such questions would meet with anything more than silence and stubbornness.
Instead of continuing to beat my head against that particular brick wall, I focused on finding my demon cat. We found Sassafras curled up next to Mia in a large, four poster bed carved from black stone laced with purple crystals. Her room was huge, reminding me of my old bestie, Alison, and the massive mansion she grew up in. Guilt twanged at the thought of the dead cheergirl, but I didn't have time for her or her memory now. Besides, this place was much more ostentatious, as bad as the rest of the mansion/castle, with furniture clearly imported from France and heavy black curtains better off on a horror movie set than a bedroom. The whole space gave me the creeps, the fact Mia felt so weak and lost not helping matters any.
The sound of Sassy's purring finally lulled me, and I wondered if he'd been eavesdropping on my conversation with Mom. I knew Gram probably had and wouldn't put it past my demon Persian to do the same.
No privacy for Syd. Not ever.
Mia opened her eyes as I entered, two Enforcers flanking the bed coming to attention. I waved them off and approached as if I was supposed to be there, hadn't been ordered to leave, sitting next to my friend. Not looking at Quaid who stood with his back to me, staring out the slit in the curtains.
Mia reached for my hand, huge blue eyes achingly wide, full of so much agony I felt my throat tighten all over again.
"Syd," she cried. "What am I going to do?"
I leaned over her and hugged her, feeling her desperation through her embrace. "We'll figure this out," I said, that same fierceness I'd experienced with Quaid rechanneling into rage and determination. "I promise."
She nodded against my shoulder before falling back. "I had to call you," she whispered. "You were the only one I could trust."
Wow. Sob. And here I thought she hated me, had cut me out of her life for all these long months. I always considered Mia my friend, even when she'd broken down after I tried to support her, had advised her to prune the bad apples from her coven when I didn't know if she had the strength to do it. She came looking for my help then, too, and I'd given her what assistance I could without being arrested. She cut me off after that, hadn't followed through, left me with the impression I wasn't welcome in her life anymore. But knowing how much she thought of me made things ten times worse. Could I have prevented this, helped her more, supported her if I'd just pushed a little harder, been a better friend?
Don't be an idiot, Gram sent in a tight burst of connection.
Right. No coven interference. Still.
"I wouldn't have let him in." Mia sagged, a doll missing her stuffing. "If I'd know, Syd, I never would have."
"Rupe?" My forehead pinched before I forced myself to calm. She didn't need me freaking on her. She was enough of a mess herself.
Be supportive for once, Syd. Sheesh.
"He just showed up at the door." She smiled and cried all at once before her face crumpled and she coughed out a series of barking sobs before falling still again. "He told me he loved me." Could the whole situation be more horrible? More terrible than this? "I let him in. And then..."
"And then?" I didn't want to know. But I had to. Needed to protect my family.
Selfish, selfish.
Damned right.
"Will he kill her for me?" Mia's body trembled violently as she clutched at my hand. "Quaid. Will he kill Ameline, do you think?"
I glanced sideways at his tall, broad back, the way his shoulders twitched. How she spoke of him as if he wasn't even here. More sympathy, more pain. "If she's guilty," I said, absolutely believing it. "I'll kill her myself."
Mia wailed softly before letting my hand go. "This is worse," she whispered. "So much worse than before. You remember?"
I knew exactly what she meant. When she was powerless. I'd been there, too. Back when things were simpler, when she was the Goth girl Pain, her boyfriend Blood at her side, high school and bullies and a séance waking some of her buried magic. Magic that only returned to her when the Sidhe soul she carried forced her way to the surface the night the Wild Hunt attacked.
The night she turned eighteen and her mother's protections shattered.
I knew how she felt. But I didn't, not really, did I? I'd been cut off from my personal magic, from my demon when Demetrius Strong took her from me. The power Gram left inside me as a baby smothering my magic to keep itself safe. But I wasn't coven leader then. Didn't have access to all that power. The memory of stepping inside the mansion of the Brotherhood rose instead. All power gone, cut off.
Blind, deaf, dumb, silent.
Okay, yeah. I did know.
Shudder.
"Now I understand what it's supposed to feel like, it's so much worse." Mia's face shone slick with tears while I nodded and wished I could just run away and let someone else comfort her before I broke down and sobbed with her.
She rolled her head to the side, looking away from me, mouth gaping open as she wept into her black velvet pillow and I knew, deep down, my damaged and weak-minded friend finally reached her limit.
Mia Dumont was broken and there was nothing I could do about it.
Time to go. Sassafras set one paw in my lap.
So he had heard Mom's order. How can I just leave her like this? No, I wasn't responsible.
Was I?
Let your mother handle it, Sassafras sent. We have our own coven to protect.
Fear rippled through me before I pushed him gently aside and bent over Mia. Yes, my family had to take priority. But I also refused to just leave my friend after she asked for my help again.
Maybe for the last time.
"Mom's asking me to leave," I said. She turned her head back, blue eyes dead, drained of emotion at last. "But if you tell her it's okay, I can stay. Support you."
A flicker of something shone in her gaze a moment. Hope? I doubted it. Maybe a long-lost distant cousin. Mia seemed far removed from finding a shred of hope. And then, it died, leaving her shell to shake her head a little.
"Thank you for being here," she said, in the voice of an automaton.
I hugged her, felt her collapse under my embrace, hollow and lost, before turning away, leaving her there though my guilt drove me near to the breaking point, and abandoned my friend to her fate.
***
