Page 50 of Illusory (The Marked Saga #8)

The crisp, night air slapped against my cheeks as we left the burger joint and made our way back around the building, my heart pattering unevenly as I tried to put together his words in a way that would force them to make sense to me.

It wasn’t working.

“Did you say we’re going to the Veil? ” I asked as uncomfortable memories resurfaced of my last trip to the Veil to get the Sang Noir. “As in the no-man’s-land between our world and the Spirit Realm?”

“Not exactly,” he said, glancing back at me briefly. “We’re not going to the Veil. We’re kind of going through it.”

I blinked at his back, not following or understanding the difference in the least. “Am I missing something, or did I just get dumber since we got here?” I asked as he snorted, rounding the corner back to the spot we’d appeared from. “Why do we need to go to or through the Veil at all? Aren’t we supposed to be traveling to the past, or did I misunderstand you when you said you were taking me to see my dad?”

“We’re going to port to the Spirit Realm,” he said, stopping in front of me. The moon was perched high in the sky and shining brightly behind him, illuminating his jet-black hair.

“Port to the Spirit Realm,” I whispered, my voice distant. “Is that where he is?”

He nodded.

“But how will we get there? Can we…I mean, is it even possible to port there?”

I knew Seers could communicate with the Spirit Realm, but I’d never heard of anyone actually traveling there. You know, without being dead first. And while I very well may have been a dead girl walking on more than one occasion, I was fairly certain that still didn’t qualify me as one of the recently deceased.

“Technically, no. You can’t port to the Spirit Realm.”

I was more confused with every word.

“Unless you have this.” He slipped his hand into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a strange-looking black rock, balancing it in the palm of his hand. The moonlight hit it just right, making it shimmer eerily in the darkness. “ A Veilbreaker Stone ,” he announced, as though that explained everything.

I reached for it instinctively, but he snatched it back before I could touch it. With a teasing smile, he leaned in close, his breath brushing against my ear. “Trust me, you don’t want to do that.”

I pulled back just enough to meet his eyes. “Why not?”

“Because it’ll send you on a one-way ticket to the Spirit Realm.”

I looked from his hand to his face, then back to the stone. “But you’re touching it.”

“Yeah, but I’m a Revenant,” he explained, his dimples pressing in as if he was going to frown—but the expression never came. “I’m not exactly alive. At least, not the way you are.”

He paused for a moment before continuing, his voice more serious. “Veilbreaker Stones have been used for centuries to help tortured souls cross over. People cursed with long, drawn-out deaths. Souls trapped in rotting corpses by demons. But it’s a one-way ticket for mortals.”

“But not for you.”

He shook his head.

“Because you’re a Rev,” I said, still trying to wrap my head around it.

He nodded. “It doesn’t have the same effect on me, but it’s more than that. As a Reaper, I can use it as a conduit to allow me to bridge the Veil just enough to get us into the Spirit Realm without trapping us in.”

“Wow,” I murmured as everything slowly started to click into place. “So…I’m going to see my dad in the Spirit Realm…and…” I narrowed my eyes. “He’s going to know who I am?”

Trace nodded, his gaze steady.

“Will he know everything that’s happened since he died?”

He hesitated, reading my emotions before answering, “He will.”

I bit my lip, my thoughts racing. What would he think about everything that had happened since his death? About the choices I’d made and the things I had done?

I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times I had wished for just one more moment with him—just one more hug, one more chance to ask for his advice, to hear him tell me I was doing the right thing. And now I could. I would know exactly how he felt about all of it, and suddenly, I was petrified.

What if he was disappointed in me? What if he didn’t recognize the person I’d become?

What if…he didn’t like me anymore?

“Hey,” Trace’s voice broke through my thoughts as he gently lifted my chin, his eyes searching mine. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I lied, but then shook my head, deciding to just be honest with him. “It’s just...I’m not sure how he’s going to feel about me.”

Trace smiled softly, his thumb brushing over my cheek as he spoke. “He’s your dad, Jemma. He loves you.”

“I know but…I’m not the same girl I was back then. What if he doesn’t like who I am anymore?”

“That’s not possible.”

“Trace,” I reproached, shoving him gently. “I’m being serious.”

“So am I,” he answered, his voice firm. “Look at you, Jemma.” His eyes softened with that familiar fairytale version of me, the one he always saw when he looked at me. “Look at how far you’ve come—at how many people you have in your life that love and care about you. Even after all the awful things that happened to you, all the prophecies and people calling for your death, you’re still here—fighting with more love and light than I’ve ever seen one person carry. He’ll be proud of you, Jemma. I know he will.”

I tried to let his words sink in, to find some comfort in them, but they wouldn’t settle. Sure, I had done some good things in my life, even saved a few people’s lives, but I’d done a lot of bad things too. Maybe even the kind of bad things that some people would find unforgivable.

What if my dad was one of those people?

* * *

The artic chill that took us seemed to go on forever. Even after we finally materialized in some unfamiliar, otherworldly landscape, the cold never left. Fog rolled thickly around us, blanketing the ground and rising halfway up to my knees, making it feel as though we were floating in the void.

I stepped back from Trace and glanced around, an eerie chill slithering down my spine.

There was something oddly familiar about this place. While it seemed similar to the Veil, it also distinctly wasn’t. The air was heavier here, thick with the sound of distant, empty echoes—as though whispers were lingering just beyond reach.

Were we in the Spirit Realm? Outside of it? I couldn’t tell up from down.

“We’re in a sort of alcove between the Veil and the Spirit Realm,” Trace answered, still holding my hand.

I looked up at the swirling mass of dark clouds above. Every so often, they sparked with an iridescent glow—something I’d never seen on Earth.

We definitely weren’t home anymore.

“What now?” I asked, turning back to him.

“Now, you go meet your father again,” he said, gesturing over my shoulder.

Holding my breath until my lungs screamed, I slowly turned around and immediately spotted the dark silhouette of a man standing in the distance. Though I couldn’t make out any of his features, I knew it was my dad.

Letting go of Trace’s hand, I kicked off the ground and ran, my feet cutting through the heavy fog that never cleared until I was close enough to make out his face, and then I stopped, staring at him through blurred eyes.

I wasn’t even sure when I’d started crying, but by the time I realized it, my face was already hot and soaked with tears that seemed to have no beginning, middle, or end.

“ Dad ,” I choked out, barely able to form the word.

The corners of his mouth lifted into a smile, his eyes crinkling as he stared back at me before opening his arms wide.

I flew across the space so quickly that for a moment, I wondered if I’d teleported into his embrace.

“Jems.” His strong arms circled me, and he dropped a kiss on top of my head, holding me tightly against his chest—against a body as real and tangible as my own.

Grief-stricken sobs racked my body as I buried my face in his shirt, squeezing him with all my might, terrified that if I let go for even a second, he would disappear.

“I’ve missed you, baby girl.”

“I missed you more,” I sobbed, the words tumbling out faster and harder than I could keep up with. All my grief, fears, and regrets crashed down on me at once, spilling from my mouth as though I had no control over it. “I’m so sorry about everything that happened, Dad. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know anything!”

“Shhh,” he murmured, kissing the top of my head again before pulling back to look at me. His charcoal eyes glistened with emotion, but he didn’t falter. “You were never meant to save me, sweetheart. That was never in the cards for either of us. Everything happened just the way it was supposed to.”

“No.” I shook my head. “How can you say that? You’re not with me anymore. You’re not alive because I couldn’t do anything but stand there and watch you die.”

“I wasn’t meant to survive that night, Jems. That wasn’t going to change, no matter what we did—or didn’t do. I wasn’t meant to guide you through this phase of your life. I chose my exit long before I became your father,” he said, and I shook my head, still not understanding his words or the meaning behind them.

“I…I don’t understand. I don’t understand any of it.”

He smiled gently, but it was a sad thing that made my heart tremble and fold inside my chest. “It just means you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be, with the people who were meant to be there with you.”

I blinked through my watery gaze. “How do you know that?”

“Well…let’s just say the view’s different when you’re on the other side.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I swallowed thickly, my sorrow choking me. “Why didn’t you tell me what I was—whose daughter I really was?”

“I did,” he said, and I frowned because I was sure I would have remembered hearing something like that. “You’re my daughter, Jemma. You may be born of His blood, but you have always been and will always be my daughter. Everything I did was to protect you—to give you the life and childhood you deserved.”

More tears welled in my eyes as he pulled me into another embrace. We stayed like that for a long time, neither of us pulling away, as though we had all the time in the world. As though we could freeze this moment and stay in it forever. It was always like that with my dad.

“Are you disappointed in me?” I asked him after my sobs slowed enough to speak. I’d made so many mistakes since moving to Hollow Hills, failed and fallen so many times. I needed to know how he felt about me, after all the sacrifices he made. I needed to know if he was still as proud of me as he was when we lived back in the Cape.

“I could never be disappointed in you, Jems. Never. You’ve been my greatest joy in life. No mistake, no misstep could ever make me love you any less than completely,” he said, tapping my chin. “I’ll always be in your corner, no matter what you do, or how many times you fall.”

I squeezed him tighter, holding onto his words with all my might, burying them deep inside my heart where no one could take them away. “I don’t want to go back,” I admitted softly. “I want to stay here with you.”

He chuckled. “It’s not your time yet, baby girl. There’s nothing here for you.”

“You’re here,” I said, feeling like that was more than enough after so much time spent without him. “I’m scared I won’t see you again.”

“You will,” he said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder as he walked us along the barren path, the fog rising up to meet us as if to keep us company as we walked. “All roads eventually lead here, but only when the time is right. You still have a lot more road to travel before that time comes. Your story isn’t finished yet.”

My brows pulled together as I looked up at him. “Do you know how it’s going to end?”

He shook his head. “I know pieces of your journey the way a river knows the mountain it flows from. But rivers carve out their own paths and so will you. The end isn’t fixed, it’s shaped by your will.”

I frowned. “But I thought everything was fated.”

He glanced over his shoulder as though he were afraid that we were being listened to. “Fate may guide your steps, but it doesn’t bind your feet. Every breath, every moment, every choice you make shifts the story. You have more power in your hands than you realize.”

Chills broke out against my skin as I let that sink in for a moment. I’d always suspected as much seeing as we had changed the outcome of everything from Timelines to visions of the future. But hearing it from my dad made it feel more real. More powerful. Maybe we weren’t all just pawns in some game we didn’t understand.

“Am I doing the right thing by not going after the Son of Perdition? The Horsemen can’t do anything without the Power of Four, so we’re just laying low, waiting for this baby to be born. But I don’t know if I’m making the right decision,” I said, hating how unsure I felt about everything. “The Order says the baby’s evil. That he’ll be the end of us all if he’s allowed to live, and that I need to kill him before he takes his first breath, but…”

“But you don’t believe them.”

Swallowing, I shook my head. “All they’ve ever done is lie to me. Why should this be any different?”

“Unfortunately, I cannot see the future any more than you can, nor would I be permitted to intervene if I could. Only you can walk this path,” he reminded me. “What is your heart telling you?”

“It’s telling me not to trust them. That I can’t trust a single word they say. But it’s more than that. I feel this strange connection to the baby, like I’m supposed to…I don’t know. Protect him.”

“It seems you’ve already made your choice then.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But I don’t know if it’s the right one. I don’t know if the connection I feel is just me projecting my own feelings onto him…or if there’s something deeper.” I glanced down at the fog, watching it swallow my feet, making us look as though we were floating in nothingness. “What if I’m letting my feelings cloud my judgment? What if I’m making a huge mistake by doing nothing, and it costs us everything?”

“Every choice carries a consequence. There is no path without risk, Jems,” he said, stopping and turning to face me. “Find a way to listen to your heart, no matter how loud the noise becomes, and remember you’re not alone in this. Trust in the ones who stand beside you. Trust in the ones who carry you in their heart.”

“You mean Trace and Dominic?”

“You have loved them in many ways, and in many lifetimes, baby girl. The Timeline may have converged this time, but providence remains.”

My heart raced as I tried to grasp his words, struggling to make sense of them, yet knowing they were sacred. “I don’t understand what that means.”

He gave a small smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling with affection. “You will,” he said softly. “In time.”

Tears welled in my eyes again because I knew that he was leaving me again. I knew that our moment was coming to an end. I could feel it in my soul.

“Can’t you stay a little while longer?” I pleaded, my voice trembling .

“If I could, I would stay forever,” he said, pulling me back into his arms. My tears broke free once more, flowing down my cheeks like a river with no end. “I love you to the moon and back, baby girl.”

“And I love you more than all the stars in the sky.”

He placed one last gentle kiss on the top of my head before pulling back to look at me. “This life is your story, Jems,” he said softly. “Write it in bold letters, with courage and conviction, and never let anyone else hold the pen for you.” He gave my chin another light, loving tap. “Happy birthday, baby girl,” he whispered, before fading away like vapor, disappearing right before my tear-filled eyes.

I stared at the spot where he had been, willing myself to walk away from it.

As heartbroken as I was to see him go, a quiet gratitude settled in my chest at the realization that I had gotten to see him at all. At what I had just experienced. It was a rare and precious gift—one that most people in the world would never have the chance to experience. My life may have been cursed in more ways than I could count, but in that moment, I was the luckiest girl alive