Page 42 of I Am the Night

He sucks in a breath. "Take me with you," he says. "Just try not to kill us both."

I grin. "I'll do my best, but no promises."

I take his hand and close my eyes, this time avoiding the gardens and instead imagining the open area in front of the house. In a flash, we arrive, and Racul staggers as we land. I steady him and smile at the fact that I didn't send us anywhere too terrible.

"That was… awful," he says. "

"It was rough my first time too," I say. "You get used to it."

"I will not be doing this again to get used to it," he says in a clipped bass voice.

We walk into the castle and find Liam first. The dragon and the Druid stare each other down, heat building in the room and their bodies sizzling with fire.

"Settle down boys. Bigger fish to fry right now." I turn to Liam. "Where's Matilda? And where's everyone else?"

Liam doesn't stop staring Racul down as he answers me. "My brothers are around here somewhere. Lily and Kaya are at the grove. The babies are napping, and Matilda is upstairs with Ana. Why? What's wrong?"

I don't answer, I just head straight to Matilda's room, my heart and head at war for how to approach the woman I have come to love like a grandmother.

Along the way, we seem to collect the remaining brothers, who are all wondering what's going on and why we have one of the dragon's in our house.

Matilda sits in her rocking chair in front of the fire, a cup of tea at her side. Green beads woven into her gray hair. Her eyes heavy and dark. Ana is napping with a new doll Lily made her in the corner on a mat. As soon as Matilda sees my face, she knows.

She stands and gestures for us to leave so we don't disturb Ana's nap.

"The girl hasn't been sleeping well," Matilda says. "She has night terrors every evening. She can only seem to get any rest during the day."

We walk down the hall into a sitting room that's seldom used. It has a large glass door that leads to a spacious balcony overlooking one of the gardens with overstuffed chairs and couches that are arranged for conversation in the center of the room, and a fireplace in the corner to ward off the chill that all castles inherently have. Thick rugs cover the stone floor and tapestries of gardens hang on the walls. Matilda and I sit across from each other. Liam and Sebastian sit on either side of me, Elijah takes a chair by the fire, and Derek and Racul flank Matilda on the other couch. It's an incongruous group, and we are awkward with each other.

"Why?" I ask. "Why didn't you tell me?"

The Night brothers look to each other in silent question, then to me to find out what I'm talking about. My relationship with their grandmother has always been affectionate, loving, close. They've never seen me upset with her.

Matilda sighs sadly. "I wanted to. Many times. I tried. But I have spent thousands of years keeping my identity a secret. And when I saw you, when you responded to the ad, I just couldn't believe it. At first, I thought it must be an unlikely coincidence. What were the odds that the Maiden Fate would return in the human world, so unprepared for her own life and powers? Then your magic began to manifest, and I couldn't deny the truth, but I convinced myself it would be better for you not to know."

"I'm confused," Liam says, looking between the two of us.

"That seems a common state for you," Racul says snidely.

I glare at the dragon and then look to Liam, waiting to see if Matilda will fill him in.

"My boys, there is something I have been keeping from you four for many years." She pauses, the truth clearly so hard to say, even now. "I am the Crone Fate."

Her words land like a live bomb in the room, and no one speaks, so she continues.

"When my sisters died, I went into hiding and gave up my role as Fate, instead, committing to my life as Matilda alone."

Liam sits stone faced, his emotions burning deep within him. I can feel the flare of his fire, his anger, pain, confusion. The tether between us lights up with it, and I send along a soothing stream of water and air magic to calm him.

Sebastian is stoic, as always, pushing his feelings down deep. Elijah is curious but I feel the strain of hurt underneath, and Derek is awash in deep and roiling emotion that he's barely holding onto.

But I understand their feelings. I haven't known Matilda nearly as long as they have, their betrayal must feel much greater. Especially given all the shit that went down with the Fates. I know my past self-role in their lives wasn't stellar. I made Cole's brothers torture and punish him. Or she did. It's so hard to see that person as myself, when she did things I couldn't imagine ever doing.

And why didn't Matilda stop that from happening? What role did she have in all that?

I feel even worse as I recall their story of being banished from the Order and destroyed with the Unforgivable Curse. They never said who cast the curse, but it must have been the Fates. That would make the most sense. Does that mean Matilda and I were responsible for their descent into madness? For their destruction of villages, animals, and lives?

A wave of nausea overtakes me and I sit forward, my head pulsing with heat and pain. A flash hits me but I can't quite grasp it. I'm too overwhelmed by grief for the karmic pain I've wrought.