Epilogue
Iwas no longer the frightened child my mother could control with mere words, so she’d resorted to magical chains and a barrier preventing me from escaping.
The cage I was in hummed with magic, and I stayed far away from the barriers just in case.
Mom liked seeing me hurt. I had no doubt she’d juiced up that barrier to zap me if I touched it.
Knowing her, the damned thing was designed to drain me a little bit at a time.
She always wanted more power, and I was the source of immortal power—one she could take from forever and never drain.
I’d always been her ultimate goal, and the only failure she’d ever had was losing me.
She and Liaza sat together at the dining table, enjoying a sumptuous meal with a bottle of wine that cost more than my apartment.
She looked uninjured, but a faint flicker of magic surrounded her.
I couldn’t get close enough to see if it was a glamour, but there was no way in hell she should have escaped me taking that spell from her unscathed.
Cliona was positive the witch was injured, and I trusted the goddess far more than I trusted the woman sitting before me.
Every once in a while, my mother would look over at me and smile. “I can see that spell burning you up inside,” she chided. “If you don’t release it, the magic will eat you alive, daughter. You and I might be related, but our magic is dissimilar. Your capabilities are far less than mine.”
I smiled at her, through bloody teeth. Liaza liked to use his fists on uncooperative females. Something I’d pay him back for as soon as I broke free. “Probably because I don’t eat little kids to boost my power, you faithless bitch.”
Her face turned to stone. “It seems you’ve forgotten how to speak to your mother with respect.
We will rectify such very soon.” She turned to smile at Liaza, who stared at her with sickening fascination.
Now that he was closer, and I wasn’t fighting for my life, I could see a faint ring of green surrounding him.
Mom had him under some kind of enchantment.
Was he truly her creature or had she bound him to her service through magic?
If I could break that enchantment, would he help me or kill me?
I had far too many questions and not nearly enough answers.
The cage I was in pulsed with her dark power. I hadn’t taken the time to try to explore a way out. They hadn’t left me alone yet, both having too much fun with their taunts and mental torture.
But I wasn’t the same broken child they’d abused before. I was a grown woman, one with her own magic that my mother didn’t understand, and some she didn’t realize I had.
Once they left, I’d find a way out of this place if it killed me.
And from the way they were watching me, glimmers of avarice in their eyes, it very well might.