Page 31 of Tanglewood Legacy (The Three Sisters 3)
“Asmodeus allowed me to pass through his dimension because he…” Isis swallowed, heat flooding her cheeks. “He fancied me.”
Blinking steadily, Medea took her sister’s hands. “How do you know this?”
“He propositioned me in my dreams. He promised me power in exchange for becoming one of his brides. I turned him down, and he told me he would never allow me to pass through his dimension again. What I did for you, I will never be able to do for anyone else.” Her eyes burned with unshed tears.
“And now he’s here, feeding on a human man to torment you?”
Isis’s brows shot up. “Oh no. It was Delphine Devereaux, but she told me that she’d dreamed about Asmodeus as well, after I’d rejected him. We met on the ship from Haiti, waking from very similar dreams. Where I said no to Asmodeus, Delphine admitted tonight that she said yes.”
Medea scowled. “But she was not even a witch, was she? How was she able to dream walk into his domain?”
“I’m not sure, but my fear is it was because of me.”
“You take too much on yourself. No one is responsible for another’s dreams.”
“The shadows were restless that night on the ship, Medea. What if, somehow, her soul was pulled under with mine? What if I brought her with me into his realm? I know it’s not my fault, but I can think of no other explanation.”
Medea contemplated this for a moment as she used her wand to magically stitch Isis’s wounds. The spell was working, and Isis noticed an immediate reduction in pain. “It’s possible, but it will do no good to dwell on what’s done. However it happened, there is no doubt that Delphine is now a vampiric creature drunk on demon magic. She is his bride and responsible for two murders.”
“Yes. And she’s brought in Lucienne, her sister. There is another sister…Antoinette. I saw them all together. I am certain they plan to turn her as well.”
“Why do you think they targeted Pierre?”
Isis released a heavy sigh. “Delphine said he spoke ill of her to someone. I don’t know the details.”
Medea finished with her wounds and handed her a small glass of healing elixir. “Why was he out at that hour and so soon after the storm?”
Throwing back the elixir, she returned the glass to her sister. “I have no idea.”
Just then, Rhys’s voice cut through the room. “Circe! Goddess!”
They ran into his office to find the walls crawling with twining ivy. It spiraled around and reached across every surface of the room, crossing Pierre’s legs where he lay unconscious on Rhys’s examination table.
Circe and Rhys stood near his desk, water gushing from between Circe’s legs. Their sister looked them straight in the eyes and simply said, “It’s time.”
“She’s in labor,” Rhys said dumbly, as if it wasn’t obvious. The poor man was clearly stunned.
“Fuck!” Medea raced to Circe’s side, supporting her as another contraction hit and a paperweight on Rhys’s desk transformed into a sparrow and flew across the room.
Torn between helping her sister and helping Pierre, who was swiftly becoming grown over with ivy, Isis froze. Thankfully, Rhys snapped out of his stupor and into his role as a healer.
“Get him out of here, Isis. Put him in one of the bedrooms. He’s stable. He just needs time to rest. We need the office to deliver the baby.”
Isis nodded, then sent a bright silver spell barreling into the ivy wrapped around Pierre. The vines snapped, and she rushed in, pulling him into her arms. She called the shadows to her, grateful they didn’t have far to go this time because she had very little power left.
Everything went dark, and then she was in her room, laying him on her bed and tucking him in. He was still pale, but his lashes fluttered as she adjusted his head on the pillow.
“Isis,” he said weakly.
She squeezed his shoulder. “You’re safe now.”
“I’m sorry. I… I…”
She kissed his forehead. “Shh. I have to go. There’s something I have to do. Rest now.”
ChapterFifteen
Without the energy to travel by shadow again, Isis ran back to the office the old-fashioned way to find the ivy had bloomed, and Rhys and Medea were sneezing and coughing against the thick pollen filling the air.
