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“I did what was necessary,” she replied. “You’ve been awfully busy lately, it seems. I needed to speak to you away from your company.”
“You don’t have the right to do this,” I argued. My voice shook. The glass in my hand seemed like a weak, brittle weapon compared to my mother.
She had a talent for making me feel helpless.
Mother scoffed, “You’re my daughter. Of course I have the right.”
The last time I saw Theia, Marcus had stabbed her, leaving her bleeding out in his basement.
She bled out right before me as I used my blood—the one thing she tried so desperately to hide from the world—to open the veil.
She should have killed me for what I did. She should have killed Marcus, Alek, Wrath, Narcissa.
Everyone should be dead.
Yet here we were, staring at each other with hidden rage behind our gazes, almost as if nothing had happened at all.
“Are you here for revenge?” I asked. “Are you going to keep me chained here forever now, just like the past few weeks haven’t happened at all? Or are you going to kill me? Because if I’m being honest, I’d prefer the latter over a life spent chained to you.”
The whisper of a snarl teased her features.
Strange.
She was usually better at hiding her emotions when she was under duress. Something very bad must be going on for her to react this way to my insults.
“I’m not here to hurt you, Lyra. Put the broken glass down so we can talk.” She cocked her head sideways, eyes dragging down to the glass in my hand as if she was bored at the sight.
Gritting my teeth, I rolled my eyes and tossed it aside, flinching at the sound of it shattering against the floor.
Theia took a step forward, eyes dragging up and down my body. When she got close enough, her eyes settled on my cheek, right where the demon had hit me before. I hadn’t seen it, but the stinging settled into a low throb, enough to let me know it left a mark.
“Did they touch you?” Theia asked. She reached her hand out almost as if she was going caress my face, but I flinched away. She lowered her hand like nothing happened.
“The demons you hired to drag me from my home? Yes, they did. Were you expecting them to be nice to me?” I sneered.
“Your home is not with them.”
“It certainly wasn’t with you.”
We stood there staring at each other for the next few seconds. She peered into my eyes like she could see right through me, like she wasn’t affected at all by my words, but I knew her.
I wanted those words to hurt her.
“I’m going to say some things to you, Lyra, and if you want to survive, you’ll listen.”
I bit my cheek, fighting the urge to scream in her face.
Satisfied with my silence, she continued, “There is still too much you don’t know. The demons don’t know, either. You may think that there were no repercussions from lowering the veil, from pulling Alek and his brother back from the other side, but there were. World-altering repercussions, Lyra.”
The set to my jaw began to ache. “I’m aware.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re aware?” she repeated. “Tell me, then. What exactly do you perceive is happening in the world right now since your demon friends tore apart everything I’ve been building?”
I crossed my arms around my body, feeling the cool drift of winter air. “The veil is still open. Wrath and Alek were not the only ones who got through.”
Theia tensed. Her entire face pursed as she tore her gaze away from me and shook her head. She laughed to herself quietly, wringing her hands in front of her. “You’re talking about your father.”
“He comes to mind, yes.”
