AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Venefica.”
I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around what he’d just said. “Vaszhago called her a black witch. You gave the key to a witch?”
“The key remained in her possession for a number of centuries before it was stolen. She never once tried to open the portal.” His jaw hardened, his gaze intense. “Make no mistake, Farryn, I would’ve handed the fate of all five realms to Lucifer himself, if it meant saving you.” The tone of his voice was resolute and unapologetic.
My heart hammered in my chest as I took it in. “So … am I still alive? Oh, God, I’m not a ghost, am I?”
His features softened only a little. “No. You are not a ghost. And yes, you are very much alive, to my great relief.”
On a shaky exhale, I nodded. “Okay, so we escaped the labyrinth. You brought me back from death. And the portal closed. And what of the boy?”
“He’s here. Safe.” Jericho let out a groan. “Playing with the dogs as if they were puppies.” His lips twitched as if he might smile. “My son.Ourson.”
I had to wrap my head around it. To embrace the fact that I was his mother reborn. Even if it was a different body which had borne the travail of his birth, he was mine. “Can I see him?”
“Soon, yes. I want you to have some time to adjust.” He reached for my hand, raising it to his lips for a kiss to my knuckles. “This is a lot to take in.”
An impulsive laugh escaped me, one that turned tearful, and he reached out for my hand, his brows knitted with concern.
“What is it?”
Shaking my head, I wiped away a fallen tear. “It’s too much. I don’t know what to do with all of this.” I looked away from him, and more tears slipped down my cheek. “I had to …” The words refused to come out of my mouth, and I swallowed back a harsh gulp. Shaken, I stared down at my hands–the same hands which had pushed a knife into Vespyr. I killed her. I was her murderer. “Vespyr …”
He squeezed my hand, his gaze an ageless tide of blue that sent a calm through me. “It’s going to take some time, Farryn.”
Dragging my arm over my cheek, I wiped the tears away. “I wish … I could’ve … that she could’ve gotten out.” The image of her eyes, tormented by the fear and sadness, echoed inside my head, and an unbearable weight pressed down on me, as all the events I hadn’t yet processed came crashing in. And I broke. I fucking broke.
My body slid across the bed with Jericho pulling me into his lap, his impossibly strong arms wrapping tightly around me. While I felt safe there, the guilt expanded inside my chest, banishing the air from my lungs. Another flash of memories, ones which felt sketchier, more undefined, slipped behind my eyes.Lying next to Elyon on the hard concrete, in the dark. Feeling my body slip away. Holding Elyon as tightly as I could, until the blackness settled.
Lustina’s memories. The night she slipped into the fade and was forced to leave Elyon behind.
In that moment, I let go, and just as when the dark plume of smoke had exited my body, I released all of the dark emotions bottled inside, ones I’d had to bury deep and compartmentalize just to keep going while trapped inside that place.
I wept for my lost baby and the dignity that had been stolen from me with Claudius’s assault. For Vespyr. My father. Everything I’d lost. All of it.
I thought of Lustina, how helpless and hopeless she must’ve felt trapped in that place with her child. For what seemed like an eternity, I cried on Jericho’s shoulder, as he held me against him, his arms never seeming to tire.
Until I’d finally cried myself to sleep.
* * *
“There is no escaping Infernium,” the detached masculine voice whispered.
I woke with a start beside Jericho, his body wrapped around mine, muscles caging me against him. As I pushed against his arm to release me, he tightened his grip. Black snaking tentacles wormed through my head, and my insides screamed in a silent panic, but I forced a smile, turning toward him. “I just need to use the bathroom,” I whispered, and his grip loosened.
When I slid out of bed, he turned over onto his stomach, his arms tucked beneath the pillow, and he watched me, as I made my way toward the bathroom.
I feared what I’d find staring at myself in the mirror, and my heart kicked up when I entered the small room and turned up the chandelier over the tub to brighten the room. Eyes closed, I stood before the mirror, breathing. In my mind’s eye, something moved in my periphery.
In the imagined reflection, I caught sight of a monstrous figure standing behind me. Sunken red eyes and scaly, black skin.
On a gasp, I spun around, knocking over the soap dish on the counter.
Nothing there.
No one.
He’s not here. He’s gone.
