6. Threats—Sofie
No sooner had Evangeline left with Ivan than Caden appeared by my side, his hands digging into my biceps.
“Fix her!” He hissed through bared teeth.
I flung his hands off my arms. “I’m trying! Don’t you think I’m trying?” I was in no mood for another verbal assault. Evangeline’s had shredded me to rags.
“You’re not trying hard enough!” His roar reverberated off the vaulted ceiling. I noted Mage’s weight shift in my peripheral. I stayed her with a wave of my finger. There was no need for her intervention. Caden’s rage had already collapsed, his shoulders hunched inward, grief laying siege to his fiery spirit. “I almost killed her, Sofie …” Beautiful greenish-blue eyes begged me, shattering my heart.
I tentatively reached up to lay one hand on his broad shoulder, the other cupping his jaw. “I’ll fix this. I have to fix this.” I realized I was trying to convince myself more than anyone else.
“Forget the human!” Viggo cried out, his arms spread wide. “What are you going to do about Lilly? What’s your brilliant new plan?”
“She’ll come to her senses. Give her a day or two,” Mortimer answered for me, offering the briefest smile and head nod. Who would ever have thought that I would come to appreciate his company?
Viggo wouldn’t let up, though. “She’s a child nurturing a century-long grudge. She has no sense.”
“A grudge?” Mage’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “You murdered her mother.”
“She wasn’t her real mother,” he retorted, but the fire in his voice was gone. He wasn’t an idiot. Whether he felt the tiniest bit of remorse, he knew this was all on him. I had only learned the reason of Lilly’s hatred for Viggo upon leaving the Tribe’s island, after I gave him the ultimatum of pledging allegiance to me or dying. Even then, I thought I’d have to tear off his toenails to get the truth out of him.
That’s when he finally admitted to killing Lilly’s mother, who was also the original vampire. Apparently she betrayed him, though my instincts told me there was another, more plausible side to that story. As if that weren’t enough to earn Lilly’s wrath, he stole the body, burned it, and hid the ashes away where Lilly could never find them. For what? Only the Fates knew …
“We will give Lilly a day or two to come to her senses, and then I will hunt her down if I must,” Mage answered calmly.
I sighed, as glad as ever to have Mage in my corner. “And while that’s happening, I’ll be busy trying to fix Evangeline and Julian. And Bishop.” Or I’ll die, trying …