The Blessed And The Beast
Chapter 165

Chapter 165

Fifty-Eight: Joselin

Joselin’s P.O.V.

Cyrus threw up for a long while. The healers pushed me aside when it went from stomach acid toblood. As much as I detested vomit, even though I was able to hold back some of my own, I stayed. Heneeded people, and I needed answers.

A line of sweat appeared across his forehead, and every time his eyes instinctively closed as he losthis stomach, he would jerk them right back open. He hadn’t been kidding about the darkness he sawwhen he closed his eyes.

He looked haunted and terrified. The man, who typically looked like a teenager, was nothing more thana scared little boy right now, and it broke my heart.

Tobias had his chest to my back with his hands on my hips. While half of my mind was on Cyrus in bed,there was nothing I could do until this wave of nausea passed.

The other half of my mind was zeroed in on how Tobias had his thumbs sliding along my waist to showthat he supported me.

It was so comforting, but I was still waiting for him to tell me that I smelled different or that he couldhear or feel a little heartbeat inside me. I wondered if he would know before I did since I was stalling.

Once again, I pushed aside those thoughts. I didn’t have the courage to take a test right now, nor did Ihave the time to run to a store, get one and then take it without anyone seeing me.

Deal with Cora first.

I had to keep reminding myself to stay on task. Cora was the threat here; the potential of a baby insideme was not. It was a distraction, one that I could push aside until I received confirmation that it waseven true. Until then, I could continue to pretend it wasn’t real and focus on the actual issue.

When the healers stepped back, they looked uncertain and uneasy. Flora’s hands were up like she wasbacking away from a rabid animal and looked exhausted.

She had healed him several times, but it hadn’t held. Trauma and magic were powerful things.

Cyrus was handed a glass of water. He took a large sip, gargled it, and spat it into the bucket.

My stomach rolled, and my mouth watered as I fought back the bile pushing its way up my throat.

“Tell me what you know.” My demand made Tobias tighten his hands on my hips slightly, and while hewas worried, I also sensed his amusement at my statement. I needed to get answers and get the hellout of this room before I was sick too.

If I did that, I would look weak, and it would only raise suspicion. Neither of which I wanted.

“Always so pleasant,” Cyrus muttered with a grimace of disgust as he moved his tongue around hismouth, more than likely still tasting his vomit. His lips pursed, and his eyelids lowered as his stomachjerked as if he were going to gag again, but instead, Cyrus took a deep breath and laid back.

“Now.” I couldn’t wait any longer. We didn’t have time for more delays. We needed to be ready to takeaction as soon as we located Cora.

“It was like there was a flimsy wall between me and Rona. I could feel and see her, but she wastrapped. I had been able to talk to her, to Rona. I don’t know how it worked, and it was only for a shortperiod.” He looked off into the distance, his eyes staying open abnormally long between each blink as iftrying to avoid returning to the darkness.

“Cora was controlling her.” My statement was met with a nod. We already knew that, but hearing theconfirmation from someone who had actually been in Rona’s head almost made me feel relieved. Iknew she was a terror as a kid, and I assumed that Cora controlling her had been recent. So, I stillwasn’t a huge fan of Rona, but knowing that the motive behind her most recent actions wasn’t her own,that she had been under someone else’s control, made me hate her a little less.

“Yeah, but Rona had been resisting, fighting against her. She had been using Cora’s leg to track her.Rona was trying to replace out what Cora was up to, but she didn’t figure it out until I showed up here.”

This was it.

Cyrus took another sip of his water, shuttering as he swallowed it. “Rona suspected that Cora was afterme after you brought me back here. That’s why she was so determined to replace out what I was. Ronadidn’t want my power for herself; she just wanted to replace Cora’s weakness. She wanted to figure outwhat my connection to Cora was.”

I moved forward, placing my hands on the foot rail of his bed to stay out of the way of any vomit or thehealers in case they needed to rush to him again.

I had few choice words about Rona, but I didn’t want to upset Cyrus even more by speaking so ill ofsomeone he had bonded with before they died. They may not have been friends or anything more thanthat, but they went through something awful together. He had been there, in her mind, when she died,and that would be enough to make anyone protective of the other person.

“Cora had been trying to learn how Rona had taken her mother’s powers without performing the ritualon her. Once she figured that out, she spliced the two spells and found a way to get to me withoutfacing me.” A tear leaked from his eye, and he wiped it away quickly. “The first attack hadn’t beenstrong enough because she only had an item of mine that she found in my last hideout. She neededsomething stronger.”

His blood. The blood I had all but handed over to Cora by leaving it in my unattended tower. I knew Iwas already going to hell from my past actions, but those were all intentional, and I owned those. Thisone was unintentional, and that made it hit harder. If there was any question about my afterlife, it waslong gone.

I had fucked up, and his life would never be the same because of my mistake.

“Then Rona woke up in her body, and it was like the wall between us had solidified. I could still feel her,but this time I could see through her eyes and feel her pain. We were trapped in her body, but I couldn’ttalk or move. Cora was ranting about how the love of her life had been taken from her, how she hadtried to get them to stay, but they chose to side with someone else.”

I turned to look at Killian, the only other person in the room who had been around Cora for most of hislife, but he looked just as lost as I felt. Had Cora been with someone?

She hadn’t ever shown any interest in anyone I could remember, and I had to wonder what else I hadbeen blind to.

“She was so angry at Rona, saying that she should have done what she was told when she had thechance.”

I interrupted him. “What had Rona been told to do?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. That was when Cora started cutting and chanting. I couldn’tunderstand anything she was saying at that point. I didn’t even know if it was Rona pulling at the chainsor if I was, but neither of us were strong enough to break free. I couldn’t use my magic while I wasinside her body. I tried. Believe me, I tried.”

“I know,” I whispered as I remembered the force that had sent me flying across the dining hall when Iwas trying to save him. He had used his magic; he just used them through his body and hit me instead

of through Rona’s to get to Cora. I wasn’t even sure if that was possible, but by his lack of attacks after,I had assumed Cora had gone far enough in the ritual to suppress his magic or weaken him too muchto use it.

“I could feel Cora searching for it, my magic. Every inch of my body burned, and it felt like she waskilling every cell she touched. I still don’t know what she did to me versus what I felt from what she didto Rona. Then Rona

died, and I was stuck in there.” He shook his head, closing his eyes with a wince at the memories.

His eyes were brighter than ever before when he looked at me again. The pale yellow stood out sharplyagainst the bright red of his bloodshot eyes.” Do you know what it’s like to be trapped in a corpse? I felther soul leave her body. I felt the darkness close in, wanting to suck the life from her empty vessel, butI was still in there. No matter how much I screamed or fought, I couldn’t get out.”

I swallowed hard. Any thought of apologizing and begging for forgiveness for his blood being taken waslong gone. I couldn’t bring it up now, not after that.

“Did she say anything else? Anything that might lead us to her, anything about her plans?” I pushed,wanting to get him out of the spiral the memories of the torture would drag him down into.

“She didn’t say anything about a plan.” His response made Natalie’s shoulders visibly drop withdisappointment. “She just kept speaking in Latin over our yelling. Then there was a lot of growling, andit went silent. I was brought back to my body after that.”

“That’s what I had been afraid of. Cora had been so careful up until now. I think her plan had been touse or absorb Rona’s magic so she would be strong enough to take yours without having your bodypresent. But since the bears interrupted her and Rona died, she could be up to anything. She isprobably feeling frazzled and will be unpredictable while trying to devise a new plan.’

I bit the inside of my cheek as I thought about what I would do if I were in her shoes. But until I knewwhat her end goal was, I couldn’t. Was it really just to kill Cyrus or to take his powers? What did shewant to do with them once she had them?

“She’s probably looking for another power source now that she lost Rona.” A voice from the doorwaystated, and I looked over my shoulder, seeming to be the only one unaware of the three unannouncedpeople who had joined the room.

Aurora stood in front of Charlie and Damien, and I tried not to look at the light coating of dust on theirhair. It hadn’t been there before, and there had been no wind when I was back at Rona’s house.

A lump formed in my throat as she nodded at me in acknowledgment, covered in ashes. She musthave cremated the body.

“You wouldn’t happen to know who she was involved with, would you? Someone who had turned onher?” Natalie asked with hope in her voice.

“I haven’t been around the castle in almost two decades. That last person I had seen her with wasTalia.” Aurora moved to sit down at the table, looking tired and distressed from today’s events.

I choked on my spit. “I’m sorry, what? Did you just say that Cora and Talia had been together?”