So maybe I was stubborn. Because fuck this Virtuous Fae bitch.
If I had my hands free, I’d try to punch her again.
Her gaze narrowed like she could read the desire from my features. “I created you, child. You will do what I tell you to do.”
“If you think that’s true, then you don’t know me very well,” I bit back.
“Camillia,” my mother hissed. “I taught you better than this.”
“No, you taught me to be independent through a series of trials,” I informed her flatly. “You taught me to fear and embrace abandonment at the same time. And you taught me to never trust anyone. Especially not you or Dad.”
She bristled.
But I didn’t care.
My parents had raised me in an environment of torment. Being strapped to this building didn’t frighten me or make me want to submit. It made me want tofight.
Which was exactly what I did when Vivaxia tried yet another spell.
Instead of her voice whispering the incantation, I heard Ajax. I felt him. His magic. His power. Our bond. I just couldn’thearhim.
Az was there, too, his power humming through my veins, his Phoenixfire a very real presence inside my heart.
Why can’t I hear either of you?I wondered, examining the blocks in my mind. They were unfamiliar and sticky, the weblike substance not one I’d put there.
Ignoring Vivaxia and her foreign words, I started focusing on untangling the web. On finding my mates. On getting the fuck out of whatever mess I’d landed in.
All while piecing together my mother’s cryptic statements.
I’d thought I was lost in a dream before, not fully understanding each word she’d said until now. Until I’d realized this wasreal, that I wasn’t dreaming at all, and that my mother…isn’t human.
A shiver traversed my spine with that thought, my mind struggling to accept what was right before me.
Two Virtuous Fae.
That meantIwas part Virtuous Fae.Is that why I can read Vita?I wondered.Why Melek was drawn to me? Did Melek know?
Thinking about him had me wondering if I could somehow reach him. The blocks I’d built between us were still there, the structure Az had helped me construct holding remarkably well. Apparently, it was something he’d learned through his mating with Lucifer.
I’d consider that more later.
But for now, I focused on those blocks, trying to take them down piece by piece. That sticky substance didn’t exist here, just the barrier I’d created with Az’s guidance.
A snap of sound yanked my attention to Vivaxia, her wings having burst out of her back in a flurry of agitation.
Only, the white plumes from earlier were a sooty black now.
Kind of like Lucifer’s damaged appendages,I realized, thinking of his powerful form from that day in the Marsh Lands—when he’d been trying to close the portal. Only this female still had some feathers, the fiery remains flapping angrily behind her like a swarm of furious fireflies.My grandmother.
That fact hadn’t really sunk in yet, my mind rebelling against our familial relation. Along with the understanding that she’dcreatedme.
To be a siphon, I thought, trembling.
Fae, it meant I really had been a danger to Lucifer. To hisSource. I wasn’t quite sure what exactly that entailed with being a siphon, but it seemed pretty clear to me that I’d been designed to steal Lucifer’s light. To shatter his Source.
“You’re a siphon, darling,” my mother had said. “Created with my blood and that of one of his Hell Fae creations. You were designed to absorb the light and restore Virtuous Fae kind.”
I wasn’t sure how that worked exactly, and I didn’t want to find out.
