Chapter Eleven
Lailah
Iwoke up in a cold sweat, fear gripping my heart so tightly I was afraid it would shatter into pieces.
My breaths came in quick gasps as my panic rose.
The Obscuritas were coming. They were almost here.
Dozens of visions plagued my mind. If Nuri and I tried to run, they would find us and kill her.
I screamed as her throat was slit right in front of me.
Another vision of Joseph trying to run for it with Michaela flashed in my mind.
He was gunned down, and Michaela became their captive.
Every path we tried led to the deaths of everyone we loved.
Only in our capture would we survive. Or at least, some of us would.
My mother swept silently into the room. She knelt gracefully beside my bed and brushed her fingers through my hair. Her power pulsed gently, and a cool breeze caressed my damp skin.
“My darling first born,” Aurora whispered, her eyes shining with love. “I’m so sorry this is the fate you were given. I wanted so much more for you. For all of you. I would give my own life to change it.”
“It wouldn’t matter,” I sighed, wiping a tear from my cheek. “If you died now, we’d all die, too. I’ve seen it.”
Aurora nodded, continuing to run her slender fingers through my hair. “I’ve seen it, too.”
Her presence soothed my soul, and I felt a new sort of awe for my mother and her ability to remain strong in the face of all this. “How did you live with the visions of our deaths for so long? It feels like my heart is breaking with each one.”
Her eyes shuttered. “It took many years to compartmentalize. And I wish I had more time to teach you.”
Guilt bubbled out of me. “I wish my power emerged sooner. Maybe if I hadn’t been so afraid of it, the power would’ve awoken within me and I could save them and—”
“Hush, my love.” My mother shook her head. “Your power arrived precisely when it was meant to.” Her head suddenly snapped to the door, and I knew it was time.
“They’re coming,” I whispered. She nodded, holding my face in her hands, and I willed myself to be as brave as she looked in that moment. “This will work, won’t it, mother? I can save them all?”
Tears filled her bright aqua eyes, so like Seraphina’s, and she smiled down at me. “Yes, my beauty. You have the power to set the course for your sisters.”
I nodded, strength growing within me as well as my faith in my abilities to make this happen. “Hopefully Seraphina doesn’t get in her own way. She is so ridiculous, sometimes.”
Aurora chuckled softly, and it warmed my heart that I could make her smile. “She is so like her father.”
The mention of Belfegor made us both frown.
“I wish you didn’t have to be in so much pain, mother.”
Her soft smile returned. Aurora pulled me from my bed, and I stood before her. She was tall, and even now, her shoulders were squared and proud. “Only in death is there room for rebirth.”
Power pulsed around us at her words, and the vision of Seraphina’s triumph flashed brightly in my mind. I grinned. “And what a resurrection it will be.”
Aurora grinned back at me, my brave and powerful mother. “I love you, Lailah, my beautiful girl. My soul. Let’s give them a little hell before we surrender, shall we?”
My mother held out her hand, and I took it, feeling the wind thrashing in my veins, begging to be unleashed. We might be the ones taken captive this night, but there was no vision saying we couldn’t take a few creepy cult soldiers down with us before the end.