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She watches me, unsure of my intentions, but I can tell that part of her wants to trust me. Perhaps it’s the mate bond. Or maybe she is finally realizing I could have hurt her already, yet haven't. “So, Temperance, she can't hear you when you have control?” I ask her, and she tilts her head to the side.
“She can, but only if I allow her to,” she admits.
“What about now?” I ask her, and she swiftly shakes her head.
She looks down at her hands. “I don't like putting her in the dark, but sometimes the dark is better, it's safer.”
“Do you think Temperance would agree?” I ask her, and she seems to ponder my words for a second before finally she answers.
“No, but that's because she hasn't had to see the things we have. If I could remain oblivious to it, I would rather sit in the dark than stare at these hands. People crave power, but that's because they haven't seen the damage it does first hand yet,” she admits.
“That is what Satish wants from you? Power?”
She sighs heavily. “I don't know, I wish I did. But whatever he wants her for, I know it's nothing good, our body is proof of that, nothing good will ever come from that monster, only death.”
“So you never heard anything, never saw anything? I hate asking these questions, but any information will help us, help with Temperance. I would rather not traumatize her further by having Dominic force her memories. Well, yours and Nova's.”
“No,” says a choked sob, a guttural cry of anguish that chills the bone. Her eyes are a window to a tormented soul. She fixes on mind, her next words dripping with the weight of a thousand unspeakable horrors.
“I've stood at that edge, let it chew at my essence, so she'd never see how bloody our hands are,” she laughs, the sound so sinister she sounds as crazy as she looks. Right then her canines slip out, her eyes flickering and her aura darkens, cloaking her. Black shadows like spilled ink ripple through her aura, threateningly.
“The things she bore witness to are enough to destroy the soul, destroy the mind. Used and abused, violated again and again. Begging, crying, screaming, nothing worked, yet still, she didn't break. So I broke for us. I let them defile me, so she'd remain untouched. I turned into the monster she feared, the monster Nova feared.” Venom drips from her teeth, turning a silver color.
She continues. “I took that on, she was our hope. We would endure for her. She is my sanity. Temperance is the fraying thread holding us together. Break Temperance, and you unleash a cataclysm from which there's no return.”
“Satish tried to break us, to unleash the Gemini within us. But I couldn't let him have it. Nova understood it, that kind of power doesn't belong in anyone's hands. Not mine, not his, but you break Temperance, we are our names. Nova, Temperance, Shadow.” My brows furrow in confusion, yet fear tugs at my gut, and I fear nothing, yet looking at this side of my crazed mate, I fear her.
I can see the truth in her eyes, she means every word she speaks, but I still can't fathom what she is trying to tell me.
“What do you mean?” I ask, trying to understand.
“To seize a soul, yours becomes the sacrificial fee.” My brows furrow. She laughs like a maniac, her fingertips turning to sharp blades as they rake down her face.
That is when I see the spark of something, Malachi senses her before I recognize the change in her. Nova. Nova is shoving forward, fighting Shadow, whose hands grip stronger, like she is using me to anchor her.
Shadow suddenly gasps and lets me go, she staggers back. Her eyes flicker oddly as all sides of Temperance, all alter versions of herself, go to war with each other. Yet nothing is as scary as watching her argue with herself. Nova just as fired up when provoked as two voices split the air.
“Stop this, Shadow!”
“He'll break her, break us!” Shadow snarls angrily at thin air, hands clawing at her hair, body shaking.
“Eziah, do something, they're tearing her apart, tearing themselves apart,” Malachi urges as my skin ripples. “Eziah!” Malachi snarls in my head when she suddenly goes stiff as if blank. Frozen in place, I hold my breath, waiting for her to take one and to see who now has control.
“Temperance?” I murmur, getting to my feet. My heart thuds erratically in my chest.
Temperance giggles, and my hands shake as I clutch her face.
“Temperance?” I whisper, trying to draw her back to the present when her eyes roll into her head. Her lips move quickly, as the wind through the forest picks up strength, echoing the voices of hundreds of witches. The sound rings out, sending goosebumps across my entire body.
“Steal a soul, and yours descends into the void's embrace. Yet, gift it forth, another soul you'll erase. Bound by the spell, a covenant of endless night. Beware it's dark allure, for it hungers for the universe's light.”
Her eyes flicker and blood streams from her nose, eyes, and ears.
“Eziah?” she chokes before collapsing, my hands moving to catch her limp body as the witches' echos taunt me, growing fainter.
“What do you want with her!” I scream out to the dark, looming forest.
“I think it's time we find that out,” comes my mother's voice behind me. I spin around to see everyone watching, yet my mother is the only one that approaches.
