Curse Broken (Cursed Descent (MistHallow Academy) #3)
1. Matilda
1
MATILDA
The air shimmers with displaced energy as Blackthorn and Morrigan materialise in a blast of ancient power that makes the shadow creatures recoil. Blackthorn’s usually calm attitude has been replaced by something darker, more primal. His eyes blaze with that vampire-mage power that makes him such a badass as he takes in the scene.
“Matilda, stay back,” he commands, his voice carrying an edge I’ve never heard before. “That’s not your sister.”
“Yeah, I’m way ahead of you.”
Ellie’s innocent blue eyes fix on Blackthorn, and her lips curve into a smile that no child should be capable of. The shadows twist around her feet like eager pets, undoing the binds that Janice had around her.
“Luke Blackthorn,” Ellie says, getting to her feet, her voice a discord of multiple tones layered together. “Still trying to prevent the inevitable? ”
“You say that like you know me, filth,” he spits out.
“But I do,” she replies and then shifts her sharp gaze to Morrigan. “I know all of you.”
Morrigan’s former goddess power snaps around her, not exactly looking very former right now. “Maybe so, but we know what you are, as well,” she says grimly. “What you herald.”
“Do you?” Ellie’s head tilts at an impossible angle. “I doubt that very much.”
Janice, her face still ravaged from Chaos’s attack, laughs with a wet, gurgling sound before her face heals. “You’re too late. The preparations are complete.”
“The only thing complete,” Blackthorn says coldly, “is your delusion that you could contain what you’ve awakened.”
The shadow creatures drift lazily around their mistress as Ellie takes a step forward. The forest darkens around us, the trees groaning as they bend away from her presence.
“I’ve waited so long,” she says, her voice becoming more inhuman with each word. “Watching. Preparing. Playing the sweet little sister while everything fell into place.”
“Matilda,” Blackthorn says again, never taking his eyes off Ellie. “Whatever you see, whatever she says, remember that thing wearing your sister’s face serves something that makes Hell look like a summer retreat.”
“Okay, fuck this,” Luc snaps. “Hell is a shitty-assed place. Why does everyone think it’s so tame? ”
Blackthorn hisses softly, trying to get him to shut up, but he is incensed that we are dissing his homeland.
I ignore him, as does everyone else, and I focus on Ellie. “You were watching me for her.”
Ellie’s unnatural smile widens. “Watching. Waiting. Tormenting. But not for her...”
“Then what? Why?” But even as I ask, the penny drops. I turn to Janice, shaking my head with a bitter laugh. The glamour flickers as our eyes meet, and I see my face, or rather, what I would look like if I were ancient, terrible and a goddess.
“Well, that explains where she’s been this entire time,” Laurent mutters, loud enough for me to hear. I’d forgotten the Angel was even here, she’s been that quiet.
Anu laughs as her glamour falls away completely. “My beautiful daughter,” she says, her voice carrying millennia of power. “Did you really think I’d let others raise you? That I’d trust your preparation to anyone else?”
“Preparation?” I snarl, the hurt stabbing me in the heart. She was there all along, pretending to care, pretending to be my sister, but instead, she hid in plain sight all along. “You mean torture? Abuse? Making me feel worthless?”
“I needed you desperate,” she says simply. “Desperate enough to run when the time was right, desperate enough to accept power when it came. Desperate enough to break any curse, cross any line.” Her smile turns cruel. “Desperate enough to let Hell’s essence merge with your divine power.”
Blackthorn steps forward. “You’re trying to create a universal key,” he accuses. “Something that can unlock every realm, every dimension.”
“Not just unlock,” Anu corrects. “Consume. My daughter’s power, combined with Hell’s armies, will let me absorb every pantheon, every realm of power. Heaven, Hell, all the ancient places between… they’ll all feed my ascension.”
“You’re insane,” Morrigan breathes. “You’ll unmake reality.”
“I’ll re make it,” Anu counters. “With power absolute. No more divisions, no more realms. Just pure, undiluted force, with me as its goddess.” She reaches for me. “And my daughter fuelling the power.”
“Like hell,” Luc growls, his Demon form manifesting into the one I think of as more Devil than Incubus.
Ellie giggles, the sound like breaking glass. “It’s already begun. The gateway grows. The armies gather. Soon, nothing will be able to stop what comes.”
“I am not your daughter,” I say steadily, power sparking around me. “A mother protects. Loves. You’re just another monster trying to use me. Been there and done that, and I’m over it. I’m over all of you arseholes. Better yet, I am beyond you. I have the Praxian. Not you, not her…” I glare at Ellie. “… me. So if you want me, you will have to go through the Praxian, and it’s not in a very good mood right now. It wants to feed, and if you still have your goddess powers lurking under the surface, I’d be extremely careful how you handle your next actions.”
“Go, Tilly,” Vex mutters, moving closer as the air lightens further. Since Blackthorn and Morrigan’s arrival, whatever was dampening the magick is lifting. Slowly, but that evens the playing field.
Anu’s beauty twists into something monstrous. “I created you for this purpose. Everything you are, everything you can become, is because of me.”
“No,” I counter, feeling the guys’ power merging with mine. “Everything I am is despite you.”
“Such defiance,” Anu purrs, but there’s rage burning in her eyes. “So much like your father.”
That pulls me up short. “My father?”
“He served his purpose,” Anu says dismissively.
“Tell me who he is,” I demand.
Anu’s smile is cruel. “Why? So you can go searching for him? He’s irrelevant now. You’re what matters, you and what you will do. You think the Praxian makes you strong? I gave you that power.”
“I will never become what you want me to be,” I say bitterly.
“An army means nothing without the right kind of power behind it.”
“The gateway is still cursed,” Blackthorn cuts in. “Even with her power, you can’t break it.”
“I can finish what they started,” she says, and reaches for Ellie, gripping her upper arm tightly. “The sacrifice is the last piece. ”
“Fuck that,” I growl and coil my magick.
The forest erupts into sheer carnage as I unleash all the pent-up rage and frustration. My power explodes outward. Trees splinter and shatter, debris flying in all directions as raw energy detonates from my core. The shadow creatures screech, disintegrating under the onslaught.
Anu staggers back, her eyes wide with shock. “Impossible,” she hisses. “Your power isn’t strong enough yet.”
“Wanna bet?” I snarl, feeding her words back to her. “You wanted me desperate? Well, congratu-fucking-lations. Here I fucking am.”
Ellie, or whoever the fuck she is, lets out an inhuman shriek as tendrils of my power lash out, tearing into her form.
The guys’ power combines with mine. I draw it in, Hell and warlock powers clashing with the Praxian which consumes it, devours it, mutates from it.
“Tilly, careful!” Vex shouts, his runes blazing as he throws up a shield to protect the others from the backlash of my unleashed power.
But I’m beyond careful. Beyond control. The Praxian feeds on my rage, on my pain, on every moment of abuse and manipulation I’ve endured. It wants to consume, to destroy, and right now, I’m more than happy to let it.
Anu’s eyes widen in shock as my power tears through her defences. The Praxian force coils around me. It wants more. It craves the chaos, the destruction .
“You foolish child,” Anu snarls. “You have no idea what you’re unleashing!”
“Oh, I think I do,” I growl, feeling the guys’ power merging with mine, amplifying it. “You wanted a weapon? You’ve got it.”
The forest groans around us, trees bending and twisting unnaturally. The air snaps with displaced energy.
Fire rages all around us as Anu and I clash, but then everything freezes. Including me.