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Stellara glares up at her, but she does as she is told. “Now, grab a coat, it's cold out,” Celeste tells her before turning on her heel and walking out. “You have two minutes, or I burn this place to the ground, and make you listen to him burn alive.”
Stellara then gets to her feet, grabbing a cloak off the hook by the window before moving toward the drawers. She opens the drawer a crack, and I gasp at what I see. A baby girl, wrapped in a blanket. So that man isn't a runaway Lycan but her mate.
“I already lost your twin, I won't lose you too,” she whispers, brushing the cheek of the baby who has managed to sleep through all the drama. Stellara looks out the window at the forest, and I can tell by the look on her face that she knows she won't live to see her daughter again. But she swallows that down and smiles fondly at her baby and closes the drawer. She then walks back out, holding back the tears when she notices the old woman dead. Her husband clutches at her dress.
“Now Stellara, time is nearing, Moon phases come and go, you don't want to witness what I'll do to him if I miss this one,” Celeste warns. Stellara looks down at the man who clutches her dress. Celeste walks out the door when I see Stellara cup the man's face, her eyes glaze over and only then do I notice she can get in his head. The man clutches her arm, but Stellara rips his hand away.
Stellara then walks out, following Celeste, and she opens a portal back home while I am forced to watch the Lycan man drag himself to the bedroom where he retrieves his daughter. In the next vision, I watch the man enter a church, which I find a little odd, but would also be a perfect place to hide her. Celeste would not be combing through human churches or orphanages looking for a werewolf, that would be the place she would least suspect she’d be. He leaves his daughter in a basket, fearing Celeste coming for her. I watch as he kisses her little head. “I have to find your mommy, but you'll be safe here so I can find you later on,” he tells the bundled up baby that stares up at him with wide eyes.
One pink, one blue.
He places a note in the basket and I read the writing.'Novalie Violet Stellara'at the bottom of the note says he'd be back for her. Only he doesn’t. He is killed by Celeste when he returns to the coven for Stellara, only to learn she was sacrificed to create the daggers.
As I watch the vision of the daggers being created, the last piece of the puzzle falls into place for me. Temperance is a descendant.
“Of Hades,” Kaif finishes for me as we watch the vision of the daggers being created.
“But what is–” I try to ask when I feel the water surrounding me ripple violently.
“Kaif?” I call out when suddenly, pain explodes through my skull, making me scream and turning the placid water violent. I can hear Dominic's voice as the vision flickers when suddenly water fills my lungs and I gasp, choking as I am forced out of the Mnemosyne when Kaif screams. The sound is blood-curdling. Dazed, I blink the water out of my eyes to find I am in the shallows, Dominic, clutching us. The place seems to shake like an earthquake. “What is going on?” I sputter.
“No, idea,” Dominic murmurs, and I get to my feet only to collapse to my knees, pain coursing through me from Temperance, but that isn't all. It takes me a second to recognize the pain and my head turns to look at Kyan who is as pale as a ghost.
“Marabella?” Kyan murmurs, almost as if stunned.
“No!” I gasp. “What's going on?” Dominic panics when Kyan gets to his feet, and Kaif bursts from beneath his skin and takes off running.
Dominic pulls me to my feet and I stagger forward. I shake my head, forcing the pain away. I take off running after Kaif, Dominic hot on my heels demanding to know what is going on when we eventually come to the cage Kaif lived in between lives. Kaif is touching the walls, feeling around. “Where is the portal?” I ask Kaif.
Kaif frantically tries to conjure magic to open the portal. “Why can't you open it?” I ask him, desperation rising in my tone.
“I don't know, I… I… I've only ever closed it,” Kaif murmurs, my brows furrow.
“No, I've seen you open it.”
Kaif shakes his head. “It wasn't me, I thought it was me, I can close it once in here. But I can't open it. I've never been able to open it, or I would have come back to kill Hades, it was one of Hades’s failsafes, how didn’t I see this before?” Kaif says, looking around frantically. Dominic steps forward, raising his hands.
“If you didn't open it, then how the heck are we here?” I ask when it suddenly hits me.
“Lucas,” I murmur, remembering Kyan questioning him about it being open before we came down here. Lucas can open a portal here, but how?
“We can open it. The Octavian manor is sacred, the resting place for thousands of dead witches. We can open it, we just need to access their magic,” Dominic says. Pain explodes in my chest, I clutch it yet as I pull my hand away, it comes back with shadows. Dominic stares at me bewildered.
“You’re bleeding shadows,” Dominic states as I stare down at the reddish shadows, my lungs rattling with each breath, as pain explodes throughout my body.
“Marabella,” Dominic murmurs when Kaif speaks, his voice full of anguish.
“Marabella. Baby, where are you?” I hear Kaif ask, and cold dread slivers over me when Kyan screams. My vision darkens while Kaif loses it and the entire place begins to shake violently.
ChapterEighty-Six
Kaif
Marabella's pain vibrates through the bond, and I feel my link to her breaking. Kyan's anguish hits me like a tidal wave, nearly stopping my heart, as it sinks somewhere cold. My hands hit the stone walls, my power surging and fizzling out as I try to open the portal back home.
“No! Please,” I beg, needing the portal to open.
“Kaif, get it open!” Kyan screams within me.
