She must have seen so in my face because she said, “Coming into this, it sounds as though the Propheros has been the one to lead you out of the darkness again and again despite you fighting her every step of the way.”
“Shhh, Mika,” Odina said, holding her arm. “You do not understand.”
Mika shook off her mother’s hold. “I don’t? Well then help me understand why we are here. Have we met yet again to agree to do nothing?” Her voice rose. “My brother is dead, and perhaps if anyone else here had the guts to do something he wouldn’t be—” she didn’t finish the sentence.
I had explained how Emma had taken his soul. Of all possibilities, this had been the worst. She had likely destroyed the very essence of him, and I could see in the rigid way Mika held her body it was almost more than she could bear.
Ylang took control of the room again. “We are here to resolve a way to destroy Emma.”
“What?” I straightened.
“She is too powerful,” Violetta said, looking down at her hands.
“I agree,” Astrid said.
“This is the decision to sentence Emma to death. We must not take this lightly,” Phillip said, propping his elbows on the table and resting his chin on his folding hands.
“You can’t be serious. We have to save her,” I said, panic climbing up my throat.
“What if you can’t?” My mother’s voice was soft but there was steely tone underneath. She was half my size but resembled a soldier in more ways than one.
“What if I can’t what?”
“What if you can’t save her?” she asked. “She is not simply possessed by a demon like your perverse bird. The Reckoning calls upon ancient evil, and if they are the ones behind this, there may be no chance for her.”
I slammed my fists against the table, the boom and crack of wood silencing her. A fissure now ran through the oversized table. “And whose fault is that? You are the ones who wanted her to go through the Reckoning. In fact, that was how you found me. You weren’t looking for your son. You were searching for the Propheros so you could put her through the Reckoning and pit her against the Stygian with no conscience as to who you were doing it too.”
“Son, that’s not fair,” Phillip started, raising a hand.
I cut him off. “No, you don’t care if Emma lives or if she dies.”
“We thoughtyouwere dead,” said Phillip. For once my mother was the calm one while my father’s voice rose, his face reddening. “We couldn’t have known you would be the one protecting her. We did not write the prophecies. We serve the light and that servitude brought you back to us.”
“And you’ll do anything that book of prophecies tells you to do won’t you?”
I didn’t know what angered me more, that they were a slave to their damn Order, or if I was angry because I had been too. I had done anything the Luxis told me to, and I’d felt safe with the certainty I was led. Part of me still wanted to go back to being led like a horse with blinders on. But there were no rules in this world except for what we made up, and I didn’t like ones the Luxis had decided on.
“Son,” my mother said in a quiet, controlled voice. “Do you understand what you are asking? You are asking for us to save Emma,” she shot me a steely gaze, but her lip trembled as she reached out and touched my hand. “Or the world.”
Pulling my hand away, I said, “I know perfectly well what I’m asking. I’m asking for assistance. She is gripped by a terrible evil she can’t break free from.”
“Are you sure?” Astrid said. “That she is still in there? Do you knowfor surethat she is still in there?”
I leaned in on a forearm, all my muscles tensing. The way Astrid broke eye contact and moved back ever so slightly told me I had scared her. Good. She had better pick her words carefully.
Astrid pressed on anyway, first seeming to gather herself. “Is it possible Emma is no more? You yourself claimed that her mother saw she returned from the Stygian as something different.”
“Emma didn’t know she was being controlled,” I argued.
Astrid’s English accent became crisp, her eyes icing over, “Or is it possible Emma didn’t come back with you at all?”
“So that’s it? You are here to discuss how to kill her?” Disgust welled in me. When I turned to the people who had celebrated our union, I saw my answer. Even my parents had fallen silent and somber. Unable to bear it any longer, I stood up so fast my chair flew back and away from the table slamming into the floor behind me with a deafening crash. Leonidas started but then held his position as if he’d been ready to fight me. After everything I was still an outsider, a potential threat. No matter how many times I had saved the lives of the people in this room. No matter how many times I had helped keep the Stygian at bay, I was an enemy to the Orders. The reality made my blood boil. “That’s always been your solution. Kill the Propheros.” My words boomed, echoing through the dome. “You think killing Emma will solve all your problems and every single time she has shown you a different way, yet you still persist in sticking to a story that has no validity beyond outdated scripts.”
Ylang’s voice rose to talk over me. “It is those outdated scripts, young man, that your beloved seeks because she recognizes the power in them.”
Then in a softer voice, pity plain in his eye as if I were nothing but a wretched dog. “Don’t you see. You never really changed. You simply traded your Order for Emma. You’ve followed her lead without question and bearing little responsibility. You think you are ready for this. You aren’t. You think we can defeat her without you, you are also wrong. We have to destroy the Propheros before she extinguishes all of humanity.”
“I won’t do it,” I said.
