“No,” the demon stated, though his voice changed. His body shrank several inches, and the horns and claws disappeared as he took on the image of a man. He was tall in his human form, at least six feet, with a muscular build and dark hair. He wore a long black cloak and knelt at the woman’s side again. “I will not take your soul, for you have already given enough to your master. You do not deserve an eternity in an endless abyss.”
“Neither do you,” she whispered. “What you did was merciful. You deserve a place among the gods.”
“The gods do not want me,” the demon replied. “I am not desired there.”
“Then stay with me,” the woman pleaded. “Be my lord here in this realm, and don’t return to your hellish underworld.”
He hesitated, like he never thought there was another option for him. “I will stay here on Earth for a while… to protect you. We will go far away, and you will never have to return to this place.”
“How far?” she asked.
“As far as you wish.”
“Take me out of this country,” she begged. “My own people sold me to this man and claimed I deserved it, because I was born a dark magic user. My gods did not answer my prayers. I do not belong here.”
“Then we will start a new life somewhere else.”
He went to pick her up again, but she quickly said, “I think I can carry myself now.”
To my surprise, black wings appeared out of her back. They were shaped like butterfly wings, with pointed edges, but they were sheer rather than velvety. In the light, the black wings shimmered purple and blue. She fluttered her wings, and they carried her several inches off the ground.
“Though my wings and my fae magic will always be a part of me, I do not wish to be Arcanean any longer,” she told him. “My own people cast me out, and Malovia has become a foreign land to me. They have made it clear that as an Unseelie fae, I am not welcome there. I am no longer a fae sorceress, but something other.”
“You will become something new,” the demon promised. “I am called Santos.”
“It is nice to meet you, Santos, my lord above lords,” she replied. “I am Miriam.”
She took the demon’s hand, and together, they left the manor.
The images washed away,and I gasped as I was yanked from the vision. I felt the hard ground beneath my knees once again. Oberi nudged his wet nose into my arm, and Rishi meowed while he pawed at us. I was still holding Marcus, and he was growing heavy in my arms.
“Holy shit! Marcus!” I shook him.
He groaned as he came to. “Dear Goddess. I just had the most intense vision.”
“I know!” I cried. “Somehow, you sucked me into it. I saw everything. How did youdothat? When you sucked me into your visions before, I didn’t see images.”
Marcus sat up. “I guess my powers are getting stronger. I never felt sopresent. It was so clear, like I was there myself.”
“Same,” I remarked. “That was your god and goddess, wasn’t it? The demon fell in love with her, and they gave birth to the first witches. Miriam and Santos are the mother and father of all Miriamic people.”
“Yeah, but it can’t be real. Mother Miriam was a witch; she got her powers from Santos. She wasn’t an Arcanean fae sorceress—oh, shit!”
Marcus smacked the palm of his hand to his head. “How could I have never seen this before? Ofcourse! It makes perfect sense.”
He grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. “Don’t you see? It all adds up. In the vision, Miriam says she was born a dark magic user. She was Unseelie fae! Santos was a demonic god. Witches always knew we had demon blood running through our veins, but that’s not all we are. We were always half Unseelie fae, half demon.That’swhy our magic is so similar to theArcanea. Our Mentalists can do telekinesis like the fae’s wolven faction. Our Seers feel emotions like the griffins. Our Mortana are warriors like the dragons, and our Alchemists brew potions like the fae. Our Curse Breakers can even break fae magic, because it’s so similar to our own!”
He got to his feet and started pacing. “It’s all coming together. The fae and the witches lived in Europe at the same time, before the witches came to America to escape the witch trials. Witches use wands and crystals, just like the Unseelie fae! A tattooed mark appears on a fae sorceress when she’s ready to bond, the same way a tattoo appears on a witch when their powers awaken.”
Marcus paused for a beat as he realized something. “Even some of our last names are the same. My dad told me about a reaper he encountered when he was my age— Edgar Nowak was his name. That’s Kallie’s last name, too. I didn’t think much of it, but now it’s obvious that much of the witches’ and the fae’s lineage can be traced back to the same families. Santos and Miriam’s kids had children of their own. I bet some of them married other Unseelie fae who were being persecuted at that time.”
Marcus blew a breath of disbelief. “We have all these stories of Mother Miriam trying to hide her magic from the fae. She even wrote her grimoires in Latin, so the fae couldn’t read them. It’s because she was Unseelie, and if they discovered she was using dark magic— hell, used it to summon ademonand then mate with him— she’d be put to death!”
He stopped pacing. “Somewhere along the way, the coven lost this knowledge. Then again, knowledge wasn’t the only thing we lost. If this is true, and my people are half fae, half demon, then our magic changed through the generations. Women lost their wings, and the men lost their ability to shift into magical creatures. We lost our fated mate bond. But wegained other powers through our demon ancestry, like the power of necromancy. Mother Miriam must’ve hidden this information to protect us, because the fae persecuted witches and put them on trial. She said she didn’t want to be an Arcanea anymore… so she became a witch.”
I stood up. “What does all this mean? You must’ve had this vision for a reason.”
“It must be a lesson about what it means to be good and bad,” Marcus said thoughtfully. “Miriam’s people claimed she was bad, because she wielded dark magic. And Santos was labeled a demon because he was outcast by the other gods. They’re telling me that just because peoplethinkyou’re bad doesn’t mean that you are. They loved each other and created a whole new supernatural race out of their love. Santos made Mother Miriam into a goddess because he loved her that much. He killed Miriam’s master, but that didn’t make him a bad guy. He wasprotectingher.”
