A Lumen’s Surrender (Daemons & Lumens)

Prologue

Aurora

The visions were causing pain unlike anything I had ever felt.

It was my own fault for ignoring them for as long as I did.

Lately, my dreams foretold something terrible was coming.

I could taste my own death. The stars whispered of fates unfolding and new powers emerging, and not all of them were good.

Lailah’s soft giggle pulled me back to reality, only for the visions to shift once more, burrowing into my mind like an avalanche and forcing me to witness her death. A sob escaped before I could stop it, and my little toddler turned her bright eyes to me.

"Momma!” she cried out, her arms raised and face full of concern.

My knees hit the marble floor of the palace as the visions grew in intensity. Belfegor swooped into the room moments later, sensing my distress through our bond.

“What is it?” He spoke softly, scooping Lailah into his muscular arms and rushing to my side in one swift motion. His knees brushed against my own where he knelt. “What can I do?”

Death and destruction filled my head. I brought my hands up, pulling my golden hair and squeezing my brain to ease the pain. “The end. It’s coming for them. My babies.”

Belfegor’s hand snapped out, a possessive growl escaping his lips as he gently brushed over the baby growing within my belly. “No one will harm my girls. I will burn the world to ash if they try.”

Tears stung my eyes as I looked up at this brave daemon of mine. “I know you would, my love. But you won’t be here to do so. Neither of us will.”

Belfegor’s eyes clouded in anguish, his face a mirror of my own heartbreak.

He squeezed Lailah tightly in his arms and kissed her forehead.

“Then we will do everything in our power to set them on the path to victory. Our daughters will be as brave and strong as their mother. And when they defeat the great evil you’ve seen, we will watch them proudly from the stars. Together.”

I nodded. There was more truth to his words now than he knew. Belfegor’s power gave him insight to the future, even when he didn’t realize it. Seraphina, his fierce daughter, would be so like him. It broke my heart that they wouldn’t know each other.

“Yes.” I stood slowly, and my protective mate wrapped his free arm around my waist. “There is much to do, and not enough time to do it. It is not only our world that will be affected by the coming war.”

Belfegor leaned down and kissed my forehead, his bright-green eyes shining with a love so brazen it took my breath away. “I am yours to command, queen of my heart.”

Power pulsed in my veins, and a vision came forth, offering the smallest glimpse of a future where my children were safe.

The vision was fleeting and plagued by countless others with terrible outcomes.

I leaned into my mate and the unending strength he offered within the circle of his arms. Before our deaths, we would secure that future of happiness for our girls.

Upon my life and the stars above, I willed it to be so.