Alarm ripples through me. Three days? No wonder I’m ravenous. I bring a hand to my forehead. All sorts of foreign aches and pains envelop my body.
“What… happened?” I manage to ask. My thoughts are slow and murky. My memories aren’t much better. “I remember you… and Phillip… and that book.”
I break off with a shudder. The moment I thought of the book my mind nearly shut down.
Raul takes my hand. “Do you remember anything else?”
I shake my head. “No. Why do I feel so… weak?”
“Three days is a long time to be unconscious for a vampire. It’s unheard of for one as recently transformed as you—for one who needs so much blood.”
“What happened?” I ask again.
“You were… possessed.”
I gasp. “What?”
“When Phillip poured human blood into the pages of the book, and added a drop of yours to it—somebody took control of your mind.”
“Victoria!” I exclaim. Panic sears through me and a confession tumbles out of me in a rush of words. “I haven’t told you this, but she and I have a link, she can speak to me telepathically. She did it on the plane here. I kept it to myself, but I should have told you, I’m sorry, but it—”
“No.” He cuts me off. “It wasn’t Victoria. Mother and I confronted her. It was somebody—or perhaps something—else.”
He picks up my hand when he sees my fright. “Do you truly remember nothing of what happened?”
I strain my brain and try to think. But all my memories are distant and blurred. It shames me, so I look away and softly whisper, “No.”
“You’re a witch,” he says patiently. “And also a vampire. Because you have the Spark, because you can do magic, you are exposed in ways I don’t understand.” He hesitates. “I shouldn’t be the one telling you this.”
“Then who should?”
“Me.”
Raul and I both look up to see Morgan enter the room.
“I heard you conversing,” she continues. “It’s about time you woke up.” She comes to the bed and frowns down at me. “You look weak.”
I feel weak, I think.
Raul scowls at his Mother. “She’s been without blood for three days! What do you expect, after you hit her with that blast of magic?”
Morgan hisses. “You say that as if it’s my fault. The fool girl leapt in the way. If she hadn’t, the Narwhark would have been killed. Instead, we have to worry about it ravaging The Haven.” She shakes her head in disgust. “At least that hasn’t started yet.”
“Wait, what?” I manage. “I was struck by magic? Why? And what’s a… Narwhark?”
I butcher the unfamiliar word.
Morgan brushes her son aside and settles on the side of the bed. “A Narwhark is a type of demon,” she tells me calmly, “that you called forth from The Book of the Dead.”
“No!” I protest. But then a glimmer of a memory shows itself in my mind:
Magic flowing through me, magic being channeled to open a portal and loose one of the damned into this world…
“Ah,” Morgan’s eyes light up. “You remember.”
I shake my head to dispel the frightening imagery. “No,” I say. “Not in full.”
“That’s understandable,” Morgan sympathizes. “When you go through a traumatic event like that, your mind can curl up into itself and blank out the painful memories. It’s a method of self-preservation for your psyche. You do not want to be responsible for what you did. So you pretend not to know.”
“Mother…” Raul growls a warning. “This is not the time to scare Eleira more.”
“Eleira is not some delicate flower in constant need of your protection!” Morgan snaps. “She is both a powerful witch and a powerful vampire.”
“I’m not denying that,” Raul says stiffly. “I just think we should give her time to come to grips with the situation.”
“We don’t have time,” his Mother counters. “We need to find out who took control of her mind, and how they did it. Eleira is the only one who can help us discover that.”
“Let her feed in full, at least,” he says. “Give her a few minutes to collect herself.”
My heart warms at how Raul is standing up for me. But I need to show my strength—to prove I can handle this on my own.
I place a hand on his arm and whisper, “It’s okay.”
He doesn’t look entirely satisfied, but he relents.
I face the Queen. “Tell me what happened,” I say.
“You know parts of it. Here’s what I gathered. When your blood activated the book, you become like a beacon. Every witch within a hundred leagues would have sensed your presence. It’s how I found you in time. It is your affinity for magic that made the possession possible.”