Sulla tapped a card at the top of the spread, with a pair of golden gates inked across the face. “This one here’s a wild card.”
The man hesitated. “What does it mean?”
“Means sometimes we make our own fate. Things the cards can’t see. Depends on which side a the gate you choose.”
Angelus picked up the card, crumpling it in his hand. “I’ve stood outside the gates long enough.”
The door slammed, and Amarie stepped out from her hiding place. “Who was that, Grandmamma?”
The older woman picked up the crumpled card, smoothing it with her hands. “He’s a Keeper from up north. A man who wants more than any man should have.”
“What does he want?”
Sulla’s eyes met Amarie’s, and for a second she was not sure if she would answer the girl. “To tamper with fate. Change the cards.”
“But you can’t change the cards.”
Sulla looked away, remembering what she’d seen in the cards the day Amarie was born. “Sometimes you can. But there’s always a price.”
When I opened my eyes, Xavier was standing above me, his features twisted in concern. “What did you see, dead man?”
The black stone was warm in my hand. I squeezed it tighter, as if it could somehow bring me closer to Amma. To the memories locked within its shiny black surface. “How many times has Angelus changed The Caster Chronicles, Xavier?”
The Gatekeeper looked away, wringing his long fingers nervously.
“Xavier, answer me.”
Our eyes met, and I saw the pain in his. “Too many times.”
“Why is he doing it?” What did Angelus have to gain?
“Some men want to be more than Mortal. Angelus is one of those men.”
“Are you saying he wanted to be a Caster?”
Xavier nodded slowly. “He wanted to change fate. To find a way to defy supernatural law and mix Mortal and Caster blood.”
Genetic engineering. “So he wanted Mortals to have powers like Casters?”
Xavier ran his abnormally long hand over his bald head. “There is no reason to have power if you are left with no one to torment and control.”
It didn’t make sense. It was too late for Angelus. Was he, like Abraham Ravenwood, trying to create some kind of hybrid child? “Was he experimenting on children?”
Xavier turned away, and for a long moment he was silent. “He experimented on himself using Dark Casters.”
A chill ran up my spine, and I couldn’t swallow. I couldn’t imagine what the Keeper must have done to them. I was trying to find the right words to ask, but Xavier told me before I had a chance.
“Angelus tested their blood, tissue—I don’t know what else. And he injected a serum made from their blood into his own. It didn’t give him the power he wanted. But he kept trying. Each injection made him paler and more desperate.”
“That sounds horrible.”
He turned his deformed face back toward mine. “That was not the horrible part, dead man. That would come later.”
I didn’t want to ask, but I couldn’t stop myself. “What happened?”
“Eventually, he found a Caster whose blood gave him a mutated version of his own power. She was Light and beautiful and kind. And I…” He hesitated.
“Did you love her?”