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“He wanted to recreate what we are, something about our blood being blessed and the only thing that can kill an Octavian, but he needed pure blood,” she answers, looking away.
“Pure-blood Gemini?” I ask her, and she nods. “Like your mother, I guess?”
“I don’t understand, you’re a pure-blood Gemini,” I remind her.
“Yes, but we, Satish didn’t know about Nova, she never tried to heal anyone, not until that day, I had no choice. I had to make sure he didn’t realize what we are,” Shadow says, confusing me further.
“He thought you were Temperance?” I ask and she nods.
“He didn’t realize we had the ability to heal, that I have the ability to use both,” she tells me.
I tilt my head, trying to understand what she meant. “Both what, your venom and healing ability?”
“No, only Nova can heal, that is why she hates me.”
I try to make sense of what she is telling me, having never heard anything like this before.
“So he thinks your bite can kill only?” she nods. “Yes, he believed we were an anomaly, that he traced our heritage back, that we should be able to heal and kill, Nova never healed us, I refused to let her once I figured out what he wanted from us. He never realized there were two us inside her,” she answers, wandering closer.
“I still don’t understand,” I admit.
“I killed them,” she says robotically. I blink at her, even more confused.
“Killed who?”
“I don’t want to kill anymore,” she whispers, her voice barely catching on the wind.
“The pack members?” I ask, trying to work it out when it hits me.
“The babies,” I murmur, and she swallows.
“Nova almost got us caught when the babies came. Satish took them. Nova would scream and beg. He told us he was taking them to an orphanage, the second one we found out what he was truly doing, he was drinking their blood, experimenting. Nova was being dragged back to the cage when she heard the cry, she escaped, catching him, by then it was too late. I felt her magic, I felt it surge and knew she was going to try to heal the baby, he would have known, figured out that we were pure,” Shadow tells me, and my stomach sinks at her words.
“So after that, when Satish would force the heat, I took over. Pretended to be Nova, and Temperance. He didn't know she could heal. Couldn’t know we are pure.”
“How many of your children did he kill?” I ask her. “Only the two, I made sure we never got pregnant after that,” she says. She looks at the forest.
“I won’t let you mate her, I won’t kill any more babies,” she whispers.
“You didn’t kill them, Satish did, Shadow,” I try to reason and she smiles sadly.
“He killed the first two, subsequently, the moment I realized Temperance was pregnant, no matter how much Nova would beg, I made sure to end it,” she tells me.
“I… Don’t,” I try to find words to understand when she flashes her teeth at me.
“You bit yourself. You killed off the pregnancies. That’s why Nova hates you?”
“That's why I hate myself. Instinct says to protect our young, yet I was killing ours off,” Shadow whispers. I suddenly understand why Shadow is the way she is, why she trusts no one, why she fights the way she does. She’s not only been fighting Satish, she has been fighting Nova and Temperance to keep them alive.
ChapterFifty-Three
Eziah
I watch her for a moment. It is clear that Shadow is just as if not more comfortable in Temperance's body than Temperance is. She doesn't trust anyone, and I don't blame her. Those she should have been able to trust hurt her the most.
Her eyes dart to the thick woods again, her nose crinkles slightly. “You can smell them?”
“The power of hundreds of dead, scorned witches? It's a bit hard to miss it.” She shrugs.
