Page 19

“Then enlighten me.”

“I intend to do a great deal more than that. I was sent here to act as your Guide.”

“What does that mean exactly?”

“Before we can focus on what needs to be done in the present, we need to attend to the past.” He gestured at the ruins. “Can you at least sense the presence of a battle that took place here? Your family’s magical essence?”

“Yes.”

“That’s something, I suppose,” he responded in a condescending tone that was beyond aggravating. “These ruins mark the Covenant’s last stand against Draco. It is where he fell. And it is also where your mother fell while imbued with Celestial power—what the uninitiated and uniformed often termangel magic.”

“Where she fell?”

“She perished here.”

“That’s not… no. She didn’t die to defeat that monster.”

“She certainly did. It was her duty to do so, her fate. The bargain that was struck by Cornelius Martel with the Celestial Plane that allowed her to live, despite the grievous sin he committed by producing a child with a non-Celestial in the first place. Her existence was an affront to the Celestial Plane.”

Before I could even begin to process that, he stepped up to me again and pressed a hand to either side of my head. “See foryourself. Through the eyes of your mother. She was connected to us at that point it time, so we were able to see through her.”

His palms flamed with that white power, and in the next second, I was pulled from current reality and thrown into my mom’s stream of consciousness, taken back to twenty-odd years ago.

Hope rolledthrough me and my gold magic flamed, the telltale blinding white of the angel magic roaring with a powerful ferocity.

Draco bellowed as one of his streams sputtered out at my onslaught, overwhelming him.

He collapsed to one knee. “My kin,” he choked out desperately to Jaxon, his fear obvious.

I was close, so close.

And then I watched him flick his fingers that were slapped to the ground holding him up. He eyed Jaxon and whatever he’d just done had him stilling, his snarling escalating.

He was charging toward us in the next second.

Ryker stepped into the fray, summoning a shield.

Draco flicked his magic again and Jaxon ripped right through it, slashing Ryker across the torso.

He went down hard, slapping his hand to the deeply bleeding wound.

Jaxon went to swipe him again with his claws, but Lucian was there in the blink of an eye, snatching Ryker away just in time.

I threw out my left palm and erected a shield just as Jaxon hit, holding him at bay, while I continued to stream and force Draco down with my other.

“Jaxon, it’s me. Mia. Your mate. Your love.”

His eyes flickered.

“You hear me, yes? He’s using you, warping your mind. You’re stronger than that.”

He stopped struggling. “Mia?”

“Yes, baby. He triggered you by hurting me, but, look, I’m fine. I’m absolutely fine. Please stand down, I need all my power to end him.” I inadvertently caught Gabriel’s eye, before telling Jaxon, “Then we can all move into my home and start our lives together. So much love and happiness to share, to experience.” I saw Gabriel smiling that I’d accepted the merits of his argument earlier, that I finally believed I could actually be free.

Jaxon stepped back and shook his head wildly, tugging at his hair. “I’m sorry, princess. I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t mean—” He looked out at Ryker who was being held by Lucian and watched over covertly by Gabriel, as he healed himself. “Ry, I’m—”

His words were interrupted by a scream from Draco.