Page 130 of Hybrid Heroics

I gazed into the mirror on my wall, dancing my fingers along its surface. Alric de la Mor was dead, his soul captured by my favorite antagonist. But I still couldn’t stop watching the creatures my sisters had created.

Unus, Duo, and Tres had transformed this story into a masterpiece that was just now beginning to unfold. I couldn’t wait to watch the rest of it. The build-up had drawn me in until I understood the humans who had no self-control. It wasn’t something I thought I was capable of, but here I was…

Waiting for the end of this drama. Soaking in the tension and comedy. Becoming invested in the characters.

I couldn’t predict what would happen, and that drove my interest to new heights.

The only thing I knew was the ending.

Some people would say that spoiled the story, but I didn’t believe them. Knowing the ending made me want to know how we got there.

And the end of this story was simple.

They were coming for me.

“Raguel’s daughter has prevailed,” I called to my unannounced visitor. “You said she wouldn’t, but she has. She’s proven that she is good hiding on the side of evil.”

Ansiel laughed. “No child of Raguel is good, Godric. Especially one with Lucifer’s blood, too.”

The angel known as ‘The Constrainer’ took his title seriously. I had not been beyond this heavenly abode in several millennia. Eventually, I had lost count, though I knew we were pushing five or six.

“That way of thinking is what gets you killed,” I reminded him.

He walked away, just as I knew he would.

When the door closed behind Ansiel, I drew the crumpled papers from under the cushion of my chair.

Back when they pretended to let me lead the angels, I had come across four tomes of warped angelic spells. They were created from the darkest creatures festering in this realm. I couldn’t let them stay, and I had said as much to Lucifer when I gave them to him.

I had also given him the gift of gifting, cleverly named by me.

With those two things, Lucifer was the most powerful creature in all the realms, but the angels were catching on.

I pitted Raguel against Lucifer, because I needed them both out of this realm to bring the Fates’ prophecy to life.

We were four pieces of one, each seeing the other’s premonitions. As the fourth, I saw the end. And when that vision changed, my sisters knew they needed to intervene.

They truly had done a remarkable job of getting us back on course.

After Satan stole the tomes for Alric de la Mor, I feared all would be lost. The visions changed to show it would.

But one murder brought us back to the ending where I get rescued from this heavenly prison.

The papers in my hand disappeared with the faintest hint of my magic. Sloane King would find them lying beside the trapped vampire in her attic.

When Purah brought those pages to me, he only asked that I translate them into English. I had agreed, but I’d failed to mention that the spells couldn’t be performed without the ancient phrases from a language no one remembered.

They simply did not translate.

And the only living creatures who had enough magic to perform them were my sisters and me. We were the oldest beings in all the realms, witnessing the rise and fall of cultures, the extinction of dinosaurs… We were just old.

I had indeed translated those pages, leaving out words here or there and lines within the runes. Purah returned three days later to collect the originals and the new copies…

But I had forged the originals as well.

Purah was forgetful. He wouldn’t recall where each aged mark was or see that the paper was just slightly more brown than before.

In my mirror, Sloane King leaned against a countertop with her adopted brother, Jack King. They laughed together as his mate approached. Blaire Malin would be a powerful soucouyant, but she didn’t know it yet.