Free Wrath by Kristie Cook Page B

thought I was overcoming the stone, and once I did, then I planned to tell you.”
    “Whoa,” I said, my brows pushed together. “You’re not making any sense. What does it have to do with your conversion?”
    “Start from the beginning,” Tristan suggested. “Where did you get it?”
    “Right. Back to when I was still with the Daemoni.” Sonya grimaced on the word and then nodded. “So one night, right before you guys and Heather came to Fort Myers Beach to see me, my nest leader said Lucas had an important mission for me, and he took me to Kali. She told me to go to you and say I wanted to convert, but she said I would only be pretending. She had a plan so the conversion wouldn’t work, but they wanted me to gather valuable information for them. That’s what she said anyway, but apparently they were scamming me, too. Anyway, I really did want to convert, which was why I was okay with the whole thing. I’d hoped her stupid plan would fail. When I agreed to do it, she pressed some kind of rock into my chest, over my heart. It sunk down, beneath the skin.”
    “The faerie stone,” Tristan said.
    “Yeah, I guess,” Sonya said. “They called it a loyalty stone, but obviously it was more than that. I . . . I didn’t know how bad it would be. If I had any idea this could have happened, I would have never done it. I swear to you. I had no control that night. I couldn’t help it.”
    I studied her face as I searched her mind, but I couldn’t find anything to contradict her words. I didn’t know if I could ever fully trust her again, but I, too, could only feel Amadis in her. She had to have been telling the truth about this.
    “So tell us everything that happened the other night,” I said. “The whole story.”
    Sonya’s eyes came up to my face again, then her gaze traveled behind me to the doorway. I sensed the whole gang waiting there—everyone who would probably be on my team. We all moved farther into the room.
    The vamp swallowed, then began. “Kali stopped me from sharing my memories, so now you’ll know if she’s really gone. She didn’t want you to believe me.”
    “Believe what?” Charlotte asked.
    “What really happened here.”
    Sonya’s memories of the night of the attack—only three nights ago, though it already felt like years—played in her mind, and I watched and shared them with the others while Sonya told the story aloud.
    “Lucas took control of me first. He made me kill the mages, but that’s all he wanted from me. After the shield fell, I was compelled to go out to the beach. But that was Kali controlling me, just like she’d done yesterday. She’d taken over control from Lucas, and she stood out there, waiting.” Sonya’s eyes flitted over to the curtained window, as though she could see through it and out to the beach. Her voice came out quieter. “Then Owen showed up, too. He was kind of bloody, and he had Dorian in his arms. Kali let out a funny noise—almost like a squeal of happiness. Then those two disappeared with Dorian, leaving me alone on the beach. I was so scared. Scared of Kali. Scared of you guys. I got as far away as I could before I did anything worse.”
    “But you kidnapped your sister,” Blossom said. “Your mom was freaking out!”
    Sonya nodded. “I had to. Kali became so engrossed with Owen and Dorian, she forgot about me. Lucas seemed to, as well, but I didn’t take anything for granted. I was scared of what they’d do to Heather, so I had to get her away to keep her protected.”
    “Yet there you were with several Daemoni vamps,” Tristan said.
    “Vamps who wanted to turn her,” Blossom pointed out.
    Sonya shook her head. “They’re not like most Daemoni. Lesley’s a little more evil than the others, but none are really bad. They wanted to turn Heather for her own good. Her own safety, so she’d be strong like the rest of us. That’s all. In fact, I’m pretty sure Alys wants to convert, but she was probably too scared to say