Chapter Twenty-One
Michaela
Amini tornado spun furiously in my outstretched palm.
My command over air was significantly better than the other elements.
My connection to water was almost as strong.
The other two elements were more difficult.
Lumens tended to lean into the former and daemons the latter.
Luckily for me, I had a daemon mate, and through our bond, more access to those elements.
It was a challenge, but in those moments when our souls connected and our thoughts merged as one, the power was insane.
The rush of it through my body was almost as delicious as Mor’s mouth on my—
“Your aura is wild right now,” Nuri snarked, sneaking up on me.
The mini tornado spun away, tearing a path through the grass before dissipating. My cheeks flushed at the dirty thoughts I was leaning into when she showed up. Flashes of memories that weren’t my own appeared in my mind.
“Lailah was jealous of your natural ability to read auras. She was always trying to gauge yours.” The words slipped from my lips without thought.
Nuri’s silence was heavy with emotion before she spoke. “I miss her.” Clouds appeared overhead, and a flash of lightning charged the air around us. “We will be together again, someday. I know it.”
Another vision chased the stolen memories, this one of the future.
I sucked in a sharp breath, and Nuri eyed me curiously.
But I couldn’t tell her what I saw. Delphine warned that visions of the future were not set in stone.
They changed just as the actions of those around us changed.
If I told everyone what would happen, it wouldn’t come to be.
There was something I could say, though, a hint to follow the right path.
“The Kings and Belial hold a piece of her. There will be a moment, and I can’t say when or how, but you’ll find it.” I slumped forward, exhausted. The visions took so much from me still.
Nuri wrapped an arm around my waist to keep me sitting upright. “I will find it and kill everyone who stands in my way.”
I sighed. She would, but what it would cost her a price I didn’t know if she would be willing to pay. The earth shook when my mate dropped from the sky in front of us. He knelt before me, brushing his rough hand on my cheek.
“Are you unwell, little lumen?” His voice was laden with concern. “I felt your power wane.”
Nuri released me into my mate’s care, and I nuzzled into him. “Just the visions tiring me out. I don’t know how I’m going to be useful when this Seer power wears me out so quickly.”
“Your mother told Lailah she had to fully embrace it. When she fought against the power, it fought back.” Nuri spoke quietly, her eyes gazing into the stormy skies.
An irritated huff escaped my lips. “I’m not trying to fight it. It’s just…a lot.”
Morax threaded his fingers with mine, dwarfing my hand in his. “You are strong enough to master this new magic, Michaela. What is it that stops you from doing so?”
Having a mate who could literally read every emotion flowing through you was sometimes a nuisance. But he was right. I needed to face this.
“I’m afraid of it. Whenever the visions of the future come, I force them back. I don’t know if I can survive visions of the people I love dying.”
Morax tugged my body close to his, sitting along the stone wall near the cemetery of the ones we’d already lost. He turned my chin up and forced me to look into his eyes. “My love. You are stronger because of your love for others. Use that strength, that love, to guide you through the visions.”
“He’s not wrong,” Nuri added, her face a mask. “Once Lailah accepted it fully, it was like pure power buzzing in her veins. She looked like a goddess, unleashing her true power on those assholes.”
I closed my eyes, memories appearing at her words of their night under the stars, and then Lailah’s final moments during the ritual. The power Lailah and our mother harnessed in that moment was astounding. And it saved us all.
“If she hadn’t done what she did”—I reached for Nuri—“none of us would be here now, and the Kings would be ruling at Belial’s side.”
Nuri nodded. “I know.”
Morax squeezed my hand gently in his. “And we will honor her sacrifice now, doing what we can to bring an end to that ridiculous cult. And my brother.”
“And your father?” Nuri arched a brow at him. “He’s just as terrible.”
I watched his face, seeing the uncertainty in his eyes. “You don’t agree?”
Mor sighed, his golden eyes glimmering in the light of the setting sun.
“Sometimes I have these memories of him being caring and fatherly. But they seem more like fever dreams. And in the days before you summoned me, he disappeared. Belial claimed father was in seclusion, gathering power. But something about it didn’t sit well with me. ”
Nuri stood suddenly. “Well, we’ll find out soon enough. And if he sucks, I’ll kill him for his part in my mate’s death.”
Morax nodded curtly but said nothing more about it. It was a difficult thing to comprehend, that someone as good as Mor or even Phen could come from someone so cruel. I tried to see King Corson with my new power, but the visions were blurred and confusing. Something was definitely off about it.
Several sets of footsteps approached, and we stood beside Nuri as Delphine, Grem, and Tibby walked toward us.
The Princes mated to my sister were not far behind.
Well, they were her mates, but the bonds were all mangled.
I hoped to see a way around the broken bonds, but so far, this Seer power only gifted me with visions of random scenes.
The ability to force a theme hadn’t worked for me just yet.
Delphine stopped, hands on her hips and an air of authority about her. “It’s time. The masses are gathering. When the moon is at its highest point, we will all return to Stella Terra.”
The energy buzzing through our group was palpable. I’d always dreamed of returning to my mother’s home. Seeing where Lailah played in the ocean, where Morax grew into the man I fell in love with. There was so much of this new world in me, and I was ready to experience it firsthand.