***
Amelia
I felt my heart start again and looked for the safety of my bedroom. But I was still there, in that tiny room, still seeing blood all over the floor. Except I was looking right at Kali’s body and at Andriy holding her in his arms, weeping silently.
“It all went so wrong,” said Kali, an apparition before me. Though taller than me, she had dark eyes and long, wavy hair that closely resembled mine. Her doe-eyes and overly large features made her more interesting looking than pretty.
“What is this?” I asked.
“This is a glimpse at my life. The memories belong to your blood. You interpreted them in your own way, but ultimately, this is my life.” She laughed. “The highlights.”
“Am I dreaming still?”
“Do you see what I did?” she asked dreamily, completely ignoring me. “I should never have used the darkness to help me. To hurt him. My soul has been bound between worlds ever since. I’ve been waiting for so long.”
She gazed at her baby, a mixture of love and sadness in her eyes.
“What happened to them?” I couldn’t help asking. I knew it made no sense, but I had to know what happened next.
“Andriy took our son to his wife,” she spat. “He gave her my son. He told her everything, even the warnings I had given him. Then he walked into the lake and drowned himself. He moved on to the next life without me.”
Wow, she sounded bitter. “So Marusya raised him?”
“Yes. She emigrated with him and made up a fairy tale about the curse. Pretended Andriy had become a werewolf and killed me himself. She claimed my clan cursed Andriy’s bloodline to become werewolves—as if becoming a werewolf was a curse. It was a gift, a great honour. But she made my son feel as if he was a monster. Anything to avoid telling him the truth which was that I mothered the first, that I protected him, and that I loved him. She stole everything from me, to punish me.”
“Why am I seeing all of this? How am I seeing it?”
“You’re my blood. My kin.” She sounded surprised. “You’re the key to ending my father’s words. I wish now that I hadn’t spoken in anger. I made many people suffer with my mistakes. I spoke in a mindless rage. I swear I didn’t intend what was to follow. A wave of hysteria hit Europe, and my people were blamed. They suffered so needlessly, and all because of careless words spoken in anger.”
“Blamed for what?”
She smiled. “The dead walked. At least in the eyes of the gaje. They saw vampires and monsters in the dark, and all eyes turned to blame the gypsies. They were hated and persecuted, probably because of me. Every time I used my power it had consequences I could never have dreamed of. This time was no different. I tried to counteract my father’s curse, but I still didn’t manage to protect my son and his sons. Every single one of them fell to the madness that came with losing their soul mate. And I fear I made it worse by ensuring they couldn’t escape from finding their soul mate. My father and I disrupted the balance, and we all suffered. But you can change it. You can end this for good.”
“End the whole werewolf thing? Or the soul mate thing?”
“The wolf is in your blood. That can’t be undone. But the curse. His words. Mine. That can end. That can be resolved.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Take my responsibilities. A chovihani must pass on her essence. Mine remained on this plane, unable to move on. You can free me. Take it, so I can leave. Free me, daughter. Set me free.”
“What do I do with it? I mean, I haven’t got a clue about magic.”
“You’ll know,” she shouted. “Your wolf will know. Accept it, so I can find my son again. I want my baby. I…”
I jerked back into my own body, my own bed, still screaming about Kali’s baby. Perdita stood in front of my bed, horrified, but I knew what I had to do next.