“I knew it,” one of the Brat Twins crowed. I couldn’t tell if it was Vanessa or Hope. “I knew she had freaky eyes.” Their mother shushed her into silence.
“Savannah, stop it,” I growled, clenching my hands at my sides so I wouldn’t give in to the urge to shake some sense back into her. “You know the gaze daze doesn’t affect me.”
“Apparently it does.” She kept her voice loud so everyone could hear what should have been a private argument between us. “Why else would you suddenly decide to break the Clann’s rule this year and date me, if not for being gaze dazed?”
Half vamp or not, she had the worst poker face I had ever seen. She knew she was outright lying to everyone. But why? It didn’t make sense to throw herself off a cliff now, when the truth was finally out. We were almost home free. All we had to do was stick together and refuse to back down, and the Clann would be forced to see reason.
“You know why,” I murmured, taking a step closer to her. But she quickly stepped back, maintaining the distance between us. “Sav, don’t do this. Just tell them the truth.”
She shook her head, her eyes melting back to a dark slate-gray in sadness. “You’re gaze dazed. You’d say anything right now in order to be with me.”
“See?” Mom hissed to no one in particular as she glared at Savannah. “I told you Tristan would never willingly break the rules. She was making him do it.”
Savannah nodded. “Yes, I was. And I’m very sorry. I didn’t understand what my vamp side could do. But now that I know what I am and what I’m capable of, I can promise you…” Her throat worked as she gulped.
“Sav, don’t,” I said through gritted teeth.
She straightened her back and lifted her chin. “I promise you I will no longer be involved with your son in any way. As long as you agree not to punish Nanna or Tristan. Nanna didn’t even know about us, and Tristan—”
“No,” I shouted, her words clawing at my insides. “I knew what I was doing. Don’t listen to her. She’s lying to try and—”
“How do we know you’ll keep this promise?” Dad asked, ignoring me.
“Because…” Savannah’s voice wobbled. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Because I already made the vampire council the same promise. And they’ll be checking on me to make sure I keep it. Just like I’m sure you will be.”
She was lying. She had to be.
I searched her face. But this time, she was telling the truth. It was all right there for me to see in the trembling of her chin, the tears gathering in her eyes, the sudden slouch of her shoulders.
She’d promised a bunch of strangers that she would break up with me. Hours ago. Long before we ever got on that plane together in Paris. Before she sat curled up against me, letting me hold her, watching me smile and even fall asleep, letting me believe everything was finally working out for us.
All that time, she had been planning this—to break up with me. To dump me. And I hadn’t guessed a thing.
The wind returned, whipping Savannah’s long red curls into a frenzy that hid her face from me. The gusts tried to rock me off balance, but I couldn’t feel them.
“We agree to your request,” Dad said.
With a nod of his head, Sav’s grandmother began to lower to the ground.
Savannah turned to watch her ease ever closer. I should be reaching out to help her catch Mrs. Evans, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen, a statue ready to be pushed over and smashed into pieces.
This wasn’t happening. Sav and I were meant to be together forever. She knew that. She loved me. I knew she loved me. She was just taking the easy way out, caving under the pressure because she couldn’t see how close we were to freedom.
I had to stop this somehow, find the words to undo what she’d done.
I forced one foot forward, then the other, finally closing the distance between us. “Savannah, don’t do this. You know we’re meant for each other.” I reached out and touched her upper arm, silently begging her to face me. “Don’t give up on us.”
She still wouldn’t look at me.
“Savannah,” Mrs. Evans gasped as the last of the elders’ magical hold on her fell away. She collapsed forward, and both Savannah and I managed to catch her dead weight.
Then two pairs of hands grabbed my arms, dragging me backward and forcing Savannah to take her grandmother’s entire weight on her own. They went down to the ground together.
As soon as my captors set me back on my feet, I turned to snarl at them.
Dylan Williams and another descendant two years younger than us. I should have known.
“I warned you, man,” Dylan murmured, sneering from underneath his too-long blond hair.
Cursing, I tried to break free, but the elders must have been lending their power because I couldn’t shake my new jailers’ grip. Their hands were like metal cuffs.
The wind tore through the clearing again, carrying with it a chorus of shrieks from the descendants. Savannah’s father had darted out from the surrounding pine trees to kneel on the soggy ground with his daughter and former mother-in-law.
Hands rose all around us in silent threat. I tried to think of a spell to block them, but Savannah was faster.
She threw out her arms. “No! Wait, he’s my dad, he’s just here to help.”
She and her father crouched together on either side of Mrs. Evans, their matching silver eyes warily scanning the tense line of descendants.
“Let him be,” Dad said, and everyone slowly lowered their hands.
Savannah looked down at her grandmother. “Nanna, are you okay?”
Mrs. Evans reached up with a gnarled, shaky hand, which Savannah took. And that’s when the clouds finally let it rip, dumping sheets of rain on the Circle and everyone within it.
SAVANNAH
Nanna’s pulse skipped all over the place beneath the crepelike skin at her wrist. She’d always been the strongest member of my family despite her age. When had Nanna become so fragile?
I leaned over her, trying to use my upper body to shield her as the clouds rained down their own stinging punishment on our heads. Despite my best efforts, within seconds we were both soaked.
Dad laid his cheek against her chest for a few seconds, then straightened up and leaned toward me.
“Her heart is damaged,” he murmured near my ear. The wind did its best to tear his words away before I could catch them.
“I fought too hard,” Nanna whispered, and even with my vampire hearing, I had to lean close to her mouth to hear her. “I was a foolish old woman. I shouldn’t have tried to fight them.”
“It’s going to be okay now. Dad and I will take you home.” I wiped the water from her cheeks.
But Nanna shook her head. “Too…tired.” Her grip loosened on my hand.
“Someone help her,” I shouted at the shocked faces around us. Were they so cold and uncaring that they would let an innocent old woman die right in front of them? She used to be one of their own!
But as the wind grew stronger and tried to steal their umbrellas, the descendants stumbled back beneath the shelter of the trees.
They weren’t going to help.
Then a single man stepped forward into the sheets of rain. As he strode over to us, I recognized him as Dr. Faulkner, the Brat Twins’ father and a