The young girl was disoriented at first, looking at Katarina as if unable to even remember who she was.
This girl was everything that stood in her way, but at that moment, she forgot all about it. At that moment, Zari Baltimore was a patient, and it was Katarina’s duty as her doctor to make sure she was all right.
“Lady Zari.” She kept her voice soft and soothing, seeing how the young girl was still trembling with shock. “It’s all right. You’re safe now.”
Consciousness started to return, the cloud of confusion gradually clearing from the girl’s gray eyes.
“Relax. Don’t speak just yet. You’re still in shock.” Katarina checked the girl’s pulse and placed a stethoscope on the girl’s chest, listening. What she heard confirmed her thoughts, and she said quietly, “Lady Zari, it’s really all right now. You’re fine. You’re safe. You’re no longer trapped in your vision.”
The girl’s eyes widened.
“Yes. I know what you are.” The question in the human’s gaze was easy to read, and Katarina said, “Your Master told me.” She knew, the moment she had said the words, it was the wrong thing to do. It was petty, the way she had this uncontrollable urge to prove to the girl that she was still in contact with Alexandru even after all these years. Even if Alexandru was her Master and Zari his pet.
But just looking at Zari made the urge stronger, more irresistible, and Katarina heard herself saying, “He talks to me every time he finishes a hunt. It’s to let me know he’s safe.”
The girl turned her face away.
“Please don’t think I will tell anyone about you. Your secret is safe with me.” She said the words even though she knew it wasn’t why Zari was desperately trying to hide her crying face, and she had the same reason for not telling the girl that in the past few weeks, all Alexandru had been able to talk about was her. His human pet.
Her Master had been talking to Katarina all this time. It felt like betrayal even though Zari knew she had no right to feel that way. She may be Alexandru’s most cherished pet, but at the end of the day, she was still just his pet.
Did they talk about her, too, Zari wondered painfully. And if they did, what did her Master say about her? Perhaps everything – including the fact that she was so clearly crazy in love with him, the same way he was crazy in love with this woman?
It was so tempting to cry, to lose herself in her pain, but Zari knew she couldn’t afford it. Lives were at stake – and not just hers.
She forced herself up, taking silly satisfaction in the way her actions had so obviously surprised the doctor.
Katarina frowned. “Lady Zari, I don’t think—-”
“Thank you for taking care of me, Doctor,” Zari said, taking childish pleasure in cutting the doctor off. “But I have someplace to go.” She didn’t bother saying goodbye, yet another thing she took foolish pleasure from.
When Zari reached the school’s gates, she hesitated. As the doctor was the one to trigger the vision, it was very likely she had been to a place that the demon frequented. The question was – where?
If Katarina had only just arrived, then there could only be one possible place she had been to before this. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that she had the right place. But…would she really go there alone? Wasn’t it be better to tell her Master—-
A shudder of distaste ran through Zari. The thought of telling her Master anything felt repulsive. She imagined her Master telling everything she said to Katarina, and it made her want to gag.
Zari squared her shoulders. She could do this herself. It was time she stopped acting like her only role in life was being her Master’s pet. It was time for her to learn how to be a soul seer. Soon, it may be all she had left.
KEY SANGUIS WAS ONE of the largest keys in Florida, a place that otherworlders had turned into a nest of haunted legends to discourage humans from visiting. Every place in the island was foggy, but none more so than Key Sanguis’ port. Since this was the first thing humans would see, it had been deliberately built to dissuade and repel. The boardwalk was old and creaking, the alleys surrounding it dark, twisting, and narrow. The water was empty of boats, for everyone who lived in the island knew that Key Sanguis had another port at the back, a beautiful secret that only locals were privy to.
Here, Key Sanguis appeared to be dying, and the only sounds one could hear was the whistle of winds that blew nonstop and turbulent waves that were just as relentless as they rose and crashed.