Page 187 of Terror at the Gates

What did it mean that she hadn’t?

“No,” she said. “I only came here tonight, when it was time.”

When it was time?It took me a second to process what she was saying, but everything was slower now that the blades had made an appearance. My eyes dropped to the box she held, clasped between perfectly manicured hands, rising to meet her gaze again. My throat felt tight as I spoke. “You were part of this…trap?”

“You could say that,” she said, continuing down the steps. She waited to speak until she was at the bottom. “I suppose in some ways, we were motivated by the same thing, Lisk and I, though we each wanted a different outcome.”

I stared, not understanding. “What are you talking about?”

Her delicate brows drew together. “You already know,” she said. “Saira has told you.”

“Saira?” I whispered. “You know Saira?”

“Yes,” she replied. Her voice was so unhurried, so casual as she walked past.

I turned, watching.

“She was a faithful member of the Order of the Serpent. She will be pleased to know her sacrifice has led to this moment. Tonight, we forge the Deliverer and release the gods from behind the Seventh Gate.”

Was she trying to tell me thatshewas part of the Order of the Serpent?

“There’s no fucking way,” I said.

Analisia turned to face me fully, eyes narrowing in a way that finally felt familiar. Maybe she didn’t expect my reply to be so fierce, but I could think a little clearer now. My body was acclimating to the magic.

“You are Analisia Leviathan. YourodeAlarich Lisk’s dick for a living. You hate women and quote theBook of Splendorto prove it. You terrorized me my entire fucking life on behalf of a religion you’re trying to tell me you don’t follow?”

“I was trying to protect you,” she said, taking a step closer. My stomach flipped, but I maintained my anger despite the sick feeling, fingers fisting as I seethed.

“Don’t fucking go there.”

“You were rebellious, always attracting the wrong attention. You constantly threatened my mission. That we are here now is a triumph given how many timesIhad to intervene to save your life.”

“You? Savemylife?” I asked, disbelieving. My voice rose. “You would not have mourned a day of my death.”

“You’re wrong,” she said. “I would have mourned that I carried you for nothing.”

I flinched at her words. My mother was cruel, but thiswas another level. She was inches from me, and I wanted to move, but I couldn’t bring my body to comply. I think I’d made a mistake, letting her words shock me. The magic had taken root again. I didn’t know what part of me it was battling, but it felt like being shredded from the inside out.

“I never set out to be a mother,” she said. “But I was chosen by the Order of the Serpent to carry the sacrifice. They warned you would be a nightmare, a fault of your bloodline, but I confess, I wasn’t prepared for you.”

“Are you insulting my father? Mydeadfather?” I made sure to ask in case she had forgotten that her husband was, in fact, deceased.

She gave a breathless laugh. “Lucius had no role in your conception. You were made from my blood and the blood of the Invader. You were made…to fulfill a prophecy.”

She paused, and then she spoke familiar words. It took me a moment to recall where I’d heard them, but I soon realized I’d read them in the journal I’d taken from Lisk’s study.

She will ascend from the womb of her enemy,

A temptress cloaked in night, a nightmare bound in chains.

Her cries will rattle the earth.

Her blood will break the gates.

She held my gaze, unwavering.

“You see, Alarich thought he could forge the Deliverer and open the other six gates before the prophecy came to pass,” she said. “But I never told him the truth, that I was responsible for fulfilling the prophecy he wanted to avoid.” Her eyes darted to Lisk, floating in the pool.