I rested a hand on his. “Thanks for trying.” What was left to me now, if even this hope had been taken from me? Was it possible my Gemma truly didn’t exist any more? No. No. No! I would never accept it. I would never allow it.

  For such a long time, Gemma had been my light. Now she was lost in the darkness, unable to return. But somewhere inside her, her soul still shone. I didn’t care what Simon thought. It was a lie, another attempt by evil to take her from me. She still existed. I would find her and bring her home. By my side. It was the only place for her.

  THE EYE OF DESTINY

  I went up to one of the tallest windows in the Castle and crouched down, breathing in the cool air. It almost seemed like I could see the entire kingdom from up there. The thick expanse of trees, the twisted trunks in the Marsh of Stillness, the waterfalls with their comforting rumble . . . the huge volcano that watched over us like a surly giant.

  I felt like queen of the world . . . yet something disturbed me, though I couldn’t put my finger on what. I stood up and spread my arms, contemplating the void beneath me, then closed my eyes and leaned forward, entrusting myself to the darkness. “Argas,” I whispered in his mind.

  I felt his heartbeat. When I opened my eyes, he was beneath me. He spread his mighty wings and I landed on his rock-hard back. I smiled and he whinnied, carrying me up to where the scent of freedom could banish the doubt that tormented me.

  Argas and I were deeply connected. I spent all the time I could with him and together we explored Hell, following the rivers upstream or flying over mountains and waterfalls. It felt like he’d always been a part of me, not only since I’d bonded with my Sisters. With him I felt invincible and complete.

  We quickly left the Castle behind us, soaring over hidden dwellings and underground villages. I could sense the fear of the Damned who sought shelter there. It was useless: no one could hide from me. But that day they didn’t interest me.

  A group of Souls fled at the sight of Argas descending. While he was still galloping, I leapt off his back and walked to the river’s edge, observing my reflection in the swiftly flowing water. All I could see was a blurred outline. Maybe that really was what I was. Maybe it was all an illusion.

  They had to kill you to have you with them. The Subterranean’s voice filled my head like a ghost determined to haunt me. What did he want from me? Why did he hunt me down so insistently? Devina had wanted him for centuries, but he had chosen me. Just me. Why?

  Sophìa saved me!

  I begged her to!

  His frustrated shout exploded in my head. Nothing seemed to matter to him except convincing me of his sincerity, but it was absurd. A trick. I shook my head, banishing my doubts. Devina had warned me. She knew him well. She’d told me he would try to get into my head. I had to be careful.

  Lost in the image of his gaze, both proud and desperate, I bent down and picked up a clod of earth. A flower blossomed at my command. It was black, like my tormented soul. I shouldn’t listen to his lies. I knew where my place was—nothing else mattered. I stroked the stem and the Stramonium lengthened, obeying my order. At my touch, the flower spread into a lush fan. I stroked its velvety petals, but my eyes were drawn to the tattoo on my hand.

  Another image filled my head: my palm against the Subterranean’s, the lines on our juxtaposed thumbs forming a single design.

  Stay together. Fight together.

  A shiver crept up my back. I had always imagined it was a promise connected to my Sisters. Why did he have the same tattoo? And why had he been so intent on making me notice? Was it another of his tricks?

  They tore you away from us. What did he mean by that? For months he’d been trying to subdue me, and now I was letting him penetrate my barriers? Why was I allowing him to plant doubts in my mind? I couldn’t let him fool me. Witches had only one enemy—Subterraneans—and he was one of them. My Dakor stirred inside me, plucking the cords of my reason. Drawn by the scent of the flower, he crept out onto my palm and did a slow dance around it, then opened his fangs and gulped it down, staring at me intently. Our eyes were identical at that moment. I felt them burn, reminding me where my place was. He and I were two entities but a single being. I belonged to this place. What importance could the past possibly have?

  An arrow hissed through the air and a small creature squealed. I was instantly on my feet, waiting for the hunter who’d shot it to emerge from the forest in search of her prey. Her thoughts were near. Maybe I would take home some fine plunder, a fierce new maidservant who could take my mind off my dark doubts. When she appeared in the bushes, my eyes locked onto hers.

  “Gemma,” she murmured, caught between surprise and happiness. I frowned, confused. How did this Soul know my name? Something moved in the trees, distracting me from her.

  “Don’t get mad if you didn’t catch one bigger than mine. You can try again next time!” a man said cheerfully, approaching her.

  “Drake, look,” the woman said softly.

  He saw me and froze. It was a Subterranean. His grey eyes pierced me as I studied them carefully. I probed his mind, losing myself in his memories—a confused tunnel of images in which I too was there, smiling with the other Subterranean, Evan. The power of his emotions was so astonishing I couldn’t move a muscle.

  “Let’s get out of here, quick,” the man urged her, and they disappeared into the forest together, leaving me with a new doubt to paralyze me: who were those two? And most importantly, how did they know me? What possible reason could a Soul and a Subterranean banished to Hell have for knowing me, a Witch? On Earth, Subterraneans might be untruthful, showing me lies in order to confuse me and prevail over Souls. But what reason would that Drake have to do so here? Besides, our encounter had been accidental, unexpected for both of us. It made no sense.

  I looked once again at the tattoo on my hand. Stay together. Who was I, really? Would learning about my past help me find out?

  There was something I was missing. I couldn’t go on lying to myself and ignoring the need stirring inside me. I craved answers. Things needed to be clarified and there was only one person I trusted, more than anyone else in the world.

  I leapt onto my Saurus’s back, suddenly burning with the desire to unlock the doors of my mind. And Sophìa had the key.

  It was easy to find her. The Bond united us like parts of the same body. She was the heart and her heartbeat gave us energy. When I appeared in the large arched entrance, she welcomed me with a big smile. She had known I would come.

  “My respects, Empress,” I said, bowing to her.

  Sophìa raised my chin. “Please, do not bow to me, my pet.” She took my hand and kissed it, looking me in the eye intensely as I lost myself in her dark allure.

  “You know why I’m here.”

  “For some time I have known this moment would arrive,” she said. “Tell me, do you have any doubts about where your rightful place is?” she asked, though she already knew the answer.

  “No. Nothing could make me doubt that my place is here at your side.”

  She smiled, pleased, and led me into the room that she called the Eye of Destiny. The ceiling sparkled, dotted with thousands of stars that reproduced the galaxies. In the center of the room ruled a giant black globe where millions of tiny lights twinkled, some blinking on, others blinking off. They were the pride and the torment of Sophìa, who spent hours studying them, the souls of the Subterraneans we claimed and those who rebelled against us, unleashing her fury.

  “Knowing one’s past is a whim that every Sister longs to satisfy sooner or later, though all that matters to us is our life here at the Castle.”

  “It is, my lady. I can’t stand it that the others know things I don’t, but the past won’t change what I am.”

  “That is certain.” Sophìa smiled, confident. “The transformation cancels all memories. For some the effect lasts longer than for others. No one can make them return, yet with time they often resurface on their own. Nevertheless, that does not change what we are.”

  “Do all my Sisters remember who they were before the Bond?” I asked.

  “All of them except Devina, because I transformed her myself and my venom is the most powerful weapon. Devina was the first of the Sisters.”

  “You mean after all these centuries she’s never remembered anything?”

  “Nothing has ever mattered to her except her place beside me.”

  “I understand. Nothing means more to me either,” I confessed. “I was just curious.”

  Sophìa studied me carefully. “Devina has her moments, but she is a loyal and trusted Sister. It is for this reason that for centuries she has been my Specter.”

  I nodded, agreeing with her description of Devina. The Empress turned the globe slowly, reflecting on what she’d told me. Her mind was closed to me, a dark, unfathomable well. The globe stopped and her eyes locked onto mine with a mischievous smile. “I know you would like to take her place. The time has come for you to be honored with that privilege.”

  My eyes went wide and my heart pounded. “I’ve never wanted anything else,” I declared, deeply proud at her words. The Bond among all the Sisters was strong, but I knew I loved Sophìa more than anyone else, and she too had always shown a special affection to me. All I had ever wanted was to please her and become her Specter—her second-in-command—and at last I had succeeded. I would be in charge of the Castle when Sophìa willed it, and everyone would take orders from me. The idea of all that power was already going to my head and I couldn’t wait to put myself to the test. “How will Devina take the news?”

  “Devina must accept it. Moreover, she has always suspected you would replace her,” she conceded. She approached me and kissed me on the lips. “I have never hidden my preference for you, and now that you are finally ready, it is your right to be by my side.”

  “I swear I won’t disappoint you.”

  “I am certain of it. Now, come. I have a special task to entrust to you. It will satisfy your curiosity.”

  I smiled at her. “I am yours, my lady.”

  “Not even I can give back to you what has been lost forever, such as your memories. However, I can give to you a gift you will deem precious. Nothing can satisfy your thirst to know your past more than the person who lived it with you. Someone who shared everything with the old Gemma. Today you may claim his soul and he will not resist you because he already loves you.” Sophìa turned the black globe and with her elegant black fingernail touched a tiny village on Earth nestled among the Adirondack mountains. “His time has come. He is already yours. You need only to go and take him.”

  Send me to him. A white speck lit up on the globe, revealing the young man to me. I smiled. Peter was his name. And his soul would be mine.

  POINT OF NO RETURN

  “Are you sure you didn’t find anything?” I asked Simon. We’d just returned from our encounter with Gemma.

  “I’m sorry, not a trace. Gemma is—”

  “Don’t say it!” I shouted in exasperation. “Don’t think it.”

  He tried to bring me to my senses. “Evan! You need to calm down, please.”

  Tears started to my eyes. I grabbed my hair and pressed my lips together to prevent the words from escaping. I’d been so convinced Simon’s power could change things! I couldn’t accept that it wasn’t so. I couldn’t accept that he’d searched inside her and hadn’t found a single trace, a single memory that might bring her back. I couldn’t accept that all hope was lost. “I thought I saw something in her eyes.”

  “That’s what you say every time, Evan. With every desperate attempt you make, you think you’ve found her again, but it’s only a lie you tell yourself and it’s putting you more and more at risk. She’s going to end up capturing you unless you can control yourself.”

  “I . . . can’t,” I said. A tear slid down my face. “I want her back, Simon. Every time I think I’ve lost her, I can’t breathe.”

  Simon was right: I was gradually losing control. I could feel I would soon go mad with rage, frustration—and nostalgia. Most of all nostalgia. I missed Gemma terribly. Every day was worse than the one before, because she was farther away, more elusive. “I have to see her again. Now.”

  “It won’t help anything!” Simon shouted.

  “What are you saying, that I should give up? That one day I should look Liam in the eye and tell him his mother’s gone because I gave up on her?” How could I? “I’m sorry, I can’t do that.”

  “What can you possibly do that we haven’t already tried? Seeing her again won’t have any effect on her, but you’ll keep getting worse.”

  “The worst thing of all is being away from her.” Despite the fact that Gemma had changed, seeing her lit up my heart. I couldn’t stay away—my desire for her was too painful. How could Simon ask me to give up all hope? “I need her. I’m going to go look for her. I’ll even summon her if I need to.”

  “You don’t,” Ginevra said, entering the room with Liam in her arms. “She’s back. And she’s very close.” I looked at her questioningly. “She’s at Peter’s. You’ll have to hurry, because she wants his soul.”

  “You mean she remembers him?” I asked, full of hope.

  “No. Sophìa sent her to him on a whim. I can hear Gemma’s thoughts. She’s seducing him and he isn’t stopping her. It won’t take her long to claim him. He loves her—he’s not going to put up a fight.”

  I clenched my fists, shaking off the thought of Gemma and Peter together. “Just what I needed: an excuse to get rid of the kid once and for all.”

  “Don’t talk nonsense, Evan,” Simon admonished me. Given how things were turning out, he knew there was a risk I might actually do it.

  “Now go,” Ginevra urged us. I went over to her and kissed Liam on the forehead. “Good luck, Evan.” My eyes met hers and I nodded before vanishing.

  When Simon and I materialized in Peter’s smithy Gemma instantly sensed our presence, though she didn’t move. All she did was raise her malicious gaze to us over his shoulder. I had to summon all my self-control to keep from rushing over and killing him when I saw his hands on her. Gemma smiled, grasping my thoughts as I tried to calm down. “Good. The game is more exciting.”

  “Don’t,” I ordered her. Waking from her spell, Peter turned to look at us.

  “What are you doing here? Go away.”

  “Stay out of this, kid,” Simon warned, knowing my nerves were on the brink of snapping.

  “You’re the ones who should stay out of it. She wants me now.”

  “She’s not who you think she is any more,” I told him. “She’s dangerous.”

  Gemma smiled and slid her hand down Peter’s chest. “What do you imagine I might do to him? Kill him? I can give him everything he desires.” Peter looked at her, captivated by her bewitching power yet confused by her behavior.

  “Your offer has a steep price tag,” I shot back coldly.

  “What price isn’t worth paying to satisfy our desires?”

  “The soul,” I replied, intransigent. “Gemma, listen to me. You can’t take his. You don’t realize it now, but you would regret it forever.”

  “What the fuck is going on? Is this some kind of joke? Gemma, would you tell me what’s happening? And why are you dressed like that?” Peter exclaimed, now completely free of her spell.

  She caressed his face, wafting her pheromones over him. The guy was tough for a mortal. Gemma’s power dazed him but couldn’t pull him in completely. “Peter,” she whispered, “you and I are connected, you know we are. Who do you trust more: me or them?” He gazed at her, at the mercy of the passion she’d aroused in him. “Show me,” Gemma whispered against his lips. “Kiss me.”

  Black rage rose inside me, compelling me to act. I couldn’t stand around watching. I rushed at Gemma and she pushed Peter away in order to defend herself from my attack. Simon joined the fray, but she was fast, agile, and managed to hold her ground against us both. I tried to grab her, but she eluded my every attempt. She whipped out her daggers as I grabbed a long iron pole from a table and bent it to my will. “Step aside, Simon. This is between her and me.” The pole glinted, turning into a sharp sword.

  Gemma was more and more excited by the game. She honestly had no idea what I’d just prevented her from doing. If she’d taken Peter’s soul, she would never have forgiven herself. Just like I would never forgive myself if I let her go.

  “You’re the one who never gives up,” she said, lunging at me with her dagger.

  I blocked her blow with the sword. “Never, when it comes to you.” We moved swiftly around the smithy among the equipment and sharp metal objects.

  “It’s a shame there’s still something you haven’t realized about me.” She did a backflip and I followed her, launching another attack.

  “I know everything about you,” I said.

  “Then you know I don’t like to lose.” She stretched a hand out toward Peter and it took me a moment to understand.

  “Peter, no!” I shouted. A pointed pole flew from behind him and ran him through.

  Peter looked at us, his expression desperate, his hands gripping the bloody pole that protruded from his abdomen. “Gemma . . .” he murmured, dropping to his knees. Simon rushed to heal him, but Peter’s mouth filled with blood and he crumpled to the ground, his eyes still wide.

  “He’s dead,” Simon announced, unable to help him.

  “What a great loss,” Gemma said, a grin on her lips. With a scream of rage I attacked her again. The Gemma in front of me had nothing to do with my Jamie. She was ruthless, and the only voice she heard was the voice of evil. Maybe it was time for me to listen to it too. I’d tried in every way possible to bring her back, to rekindle her memories of us, but nothing had worked. Maybe it was time to try more extreme measures.

  Gemma eyed me with a little grin as she dodged my blows, which for the first time were brutal. “Reaper Angel versus Reaper Witch. Round one.”