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23

Terrible Futures

Itried to work through what Gaius had shown me. “My first foster mother, Aradia, was one of Sonja’s soldiers.”

“Yes,” Gaius replied. “Until Aradia betrayed Sonja.”

“And Sonja sent the soldiers who killed Aradia.”

He nodded. “Dark Force soldiers.”

“Aradia betrayed Sonja because of what Sonja did to her friend Thea. Thea, Bella’s mother. What happened to Bella and what happened to me—this is all connected.”

“Naturally.”

“Who named me?” I asked him.

“Grace.”

“So Grace knew what she was truly creating.”

He folded his hands together and smiled at me. Apparently, I’d diverted from the path of what he wanted to tell me.

“Did Aradia know about all of this?” I waved my hand to indicate the four quadrants of magic.

“Aradia knew only what she needed to know.”

“She only knew what you showed her, you mean. You manipulated her.” I frowned. “And you’re manipulating me.”

“No, not manipulating. I am…doing you a favor, child. I’m guiding you to your destiny. I’m protecting you from those who would deter you from it.”

“Call it what you will. You are being perfectly obtuse,” I said. “You’re showing me only what you want to show me in order to push me down the path that you have set out for me.”

“I have not set this path for you, Leda. It is nothing short of what you were always meant to do.”

He was trying to use big, dramatic words to mask the reality of his machinations.

“You’ve overlooked one thing,” I told him. “I’m a rebel. Showing me what you want me to do only makes me want to not do it.”

“I believe that,” he chuckled. “But you really want to stop the Guardians’ plans. For your daughter’s sake.”

A cold chill took hold of me. “What will happen to my daughter? What are the Guardians planning to do to her?”

“The Guardians have a Prophecy.”

“A Prophecy about a divine savior who will be born human, with equal light and dark magic,” I quoted what Zane had once told me. “She will grow her magic one ability at a time, and someday she will upset the balance of power. The Guardians believe she will change the balance of magic back to the middle, back to mixed magic of light and dark origins. They believe the savior is a god killer and demon slayer.”

“The Guardians didn’t tell Zane everything,” Gaius said. “They didn’t tell Zane the part where you have a child. Or that your having that child will be how you balance magic.”

I set my hands protectively over my belly.

“But there’s a risk, Leda. One path leads to the Guardians gaining power and supremacy, to getting everything they’ve ever wanted. Everything they’ve been dreaming of and planning for. The other path, however, leads to their total destruction.”

“Well, I guess it’s a fine line between power and death,” I commented.

That was the line every Legion soldier walked, every time they tried to level up their magic.

“The future is not set, and so the Prophecy allows for several different paths,” Gaius said. “The Guardians decided long ago to allow you to grow your magic until you became an angel and had a child. Then they plan to destroy you.”