Page 59 of Illusory (The Marked Saga #8)

My heart pounded violently in my chest, each beat a drum of impending doom as I locked eyes with William and the Horsemen—my body completely frozen in place. A hundred different nightmares flashed through my mind, each more terrifying than the last, and I couldn’t summon a single word to break the suffocating silence.

Biting back the wave of panic rising in my chest, I tried to port out of the room, tried to make a literal run for it. But with my feet fastened to the floor by powerful magic, and the Horsemen blocking the only exit, my escape options amounted to a grand total of none.

“I must say, I wasn’t sure if you’d come, knowing the risks and all,” said the Senior Magister as he stepped forward and began circling me, his eyes on his feet as he walked around the glowing sigil. “But then again, you’ve always been rather impulsive, haven’t you?” He paused to look at me.

I swallowed hard, scrambling for some kind of explanation, a way to talk myself out of this mess. But the words stuck to the back of my throat as if choked by the weight of William’s cold, piercing gaze.

“Truthfully, we weren’t sure you’d be able to port in at all, given the Macarthur boy’s recent… transformation . But here you are, cunning as ever.” His eyes dropped to the book clutched against my chest. “And I see you’ve found what you came for.”

I didn’t have time to process how the hell he knew about Trace. “I-It’s not what you think. I was just—”

He lifted a hand, silencing me. “Please, my dear. Let’s not insult each other’s intelligence.”

My panicked gaze shot to the Horsemen looming behind William. They stood stoically in full body armor, their faces indifferent and expressionless as their stony eyes assessed me. I clutched the book tighter to my chest, as if it could somehow shield me from what was coming.

“It’s a shame it’s come to this,” William continued, clasping his hands behind his back as he circled me again. “That you were too insular and defiant to see what needed to be done, even when it was right in front of you. But you’ve stalled us for long enough.”

I bit back the venom I wanted to unleash on him, fighting the urge to voice every hateful thought I had about him and the destruction he’d wrought on my family. But I already knew it wouldn’t change anything.

Not here. Not now.

I needed a different approach. “We can still talk about this, William. Nothing’s been decided,” I lied. “Remove the sigils and talk to me like a human being.”

He stopped and faced me. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“You’re the Senior Magister. You can do anything you want.”

“Yes, I suppose I can. Then again, we all have to answer to someone, don’t we?”

“William, please. Let’s be rational about this,” I urged, trying everything I could think of to get him to release me. “You don’t want to do this. Not like this. It’s not going to end well for you.”

“How many times must I tell you, Jemma? It’s not about what I want. It’s about what needs to be done for the greater good. It’s about sacrificing the smaller parts for the wellbeing of the whole.”

“Easy to say when you’re never the smaller part being sacrificed!” Anger ignited in my chest, because we both knew who would be making the sacrifice in this equation. “So, what exactly am I expected to give up this time? My freedom? My future? My life? The baby’s life? All of the above?”

“Baby?” War repeated, his voice dripping with disdain, as though the word were as foul as a rotting corpse under the summer sun.

“Yes. Baby ,” I repeated, my tone firming as I narrowed my eyes at him. “I know you’re still new to this whole Earth thing, but that’s what we call mini human beings around here.”

“Foolish girl.” War’s eyes sparked with dangerous fury. “That abomination is nothing more than the spawn of evil, a blight upon your world that must be destroyed, lest it bring about the end of everything!”

“How the hell can you say that? You don’t even know if he’s evil!” I shot back, my voice steady despite the terror clawing at my chest. “You can’t possibly know that. He hasn’t even been born yet.”

“It has been prophesied!” he boomed, as though that was all the proof anyone could need.

William raised a hand to intervene, his gaze softening as he studied me, though his words remained firm. “We understand your… attachment to the child, Jemma. But you must see reason. The prophecy is indisputable—this child will usher in the end of days. His power alone will tip the scales between good and evil, distorting the balance in a way that cannot be undone. It is as clear as the prophecy about you had been and look at what happened when you chose to disregard that one.”

I shook my head, feeling sick to my stomach. “That’s not fair. It’s not the same. I never wanted to release Lucifer. They used me. They tricked me into making it happen.”

“And yet, it mattered not one bit,” replied William, his voice dripping with scorn. “The prophecy unfolded exactly as foretold.” His gaze sharpened. “But you still have a chance, Jemma. A chance to redeem yourself by becoming something far greater than you ever imagined.”

“By becoming one of them?” I jerked my chin towards the Horsemen, bile creeping up the back of my throat.

“You have the power to put a stop to all of it.”

“And if I refuse? Are you going to force me? Is that what this is about?” I asked, pointing to the sigil keeping me locked in place. Deep down I already knew the answer. My Alt had already told me about their plan, but I needed to hear it from him. I needed him to look me in the eyes and admit what he was going to do to me.

“Force is such an ugly word,” he said, shaking his head with that infuriating calm. “We’re merely guiding you towards your destiny.”

“You’re robbing me of my life!”

William chuckled, a sound so cold it made my skin crawl. “That’s where you’re wrong, my dear. We’re saving you.”

“ Saving me? Saving me from what?”

“From yourself,” he replied, his voice dark and unsettling, sending a chill down my spine. “The power inside you—the very blood coursing through your veins—no one soul is meant to carry that amount of power, not in this world. Not unless you’re meant to use it for something more. Something far greater than anything you could ever achieve on your own. Don’t you see?” His eyes burned with an intensity that felt like they could scorch me. “It’s all leading to this one defining moment.”

“Oh, how lucky for me.” Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, but I glared back at him, fury rising. “And where’s your ‘redeeming moment,’ William? Who’s going to be your judge, jury, and executioner?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“All the people you lied to, manipulated, used, sacrificed . All the families you destroyed and people you killed—people like my father. Who are you going to answer to for your sins?”

William’s eyes flashed with anger, his composure cracking for just a moment before he regained control. “Everything I’ve done has been for the greater good. To protect humanity from threats they cannot even begin to comprehend.”

“Must be nice to be the one who gets to decide what the ‘greater good’ is,” I sneered, the contempt heavy in my voice. “To play God with people’s lives while giving yourself a free pass.”

“You have no idea of the burdens I carry or the price I’ve paid to make the hard decisions.” His expression turned to ice. “I pay the ultimate cost every day of my life.”

“And that’s where you’re wrong.” I spoke low, the weight of my vengeance burning through my chest. “You haven’t even begun to pay for what you did to my family—to my father. But you will.” I met his gaze, venom in my words. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make sure you pay for it with your life, just like my father did.”

William recoiled as though I had struck him, a fleeting cloud of fear crossing his eyes. He ran a hand over his cassock, glanced at the Horsemen, then straightened, locking eyes with me. Any trace of warmth or sympathy had vanished, replaced by something colder and far more dangerous.

“If only you hadn’t wasted your time spinning in futile circles in that house of follies.” He let the words hang in the air, his lips curling into a cruel smile. “I suppose I’ll have to thank our High Casters for that.”

A cold chill slammed into me. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re usually more perceptive than this, Jemma.” He shook his head, disappointment heavy in his voice. “It’s a pity you didn’t see it sooner. Then again, with all those deadly sins gnawing at your mind, day in and day out, it’s a miracle you managed to accomplish anything at all.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded again, my voice cracking with panic.

“I’m referring to the spell , my dear,” he replied, his voice smooth and dripping with arrogance. “A masterpiece, if I may say so myself. It was subtle at first, yes. But I must admit, you and your friends have proven especially…susceptible to it.”

A spell? What spell?!

“What the fuck did you do?!” I snapped, my voice teetering on the edge of hysteria. The truth hovered just out of reach, an uncomfortable weight on the edge of my mind, threatening to crush me.

“You didn’t think that every choice you’ve made over the last couple of weeks was entirely your own, did you? All that fighting and fornicating and slothful laying about?” He scoffed in disgust. “We’ve been with you every step of the way, Jemma. Watching and waiting for you to fall into your own wickedness. Of course, we didn’t have to do much. A small push here, a nudge there.” He shrugged noncommittally as the walls dipped and trembled around me, as though they were going to fold in on me entirely. “The sins of your heart did most of the heavy lifting.”

Panic surged beneath my skin as his words ricocheted through my mind, slamming into every thought, every memory, making them explode with doubt and confusion. What had they done to us? Had they somehow been influencing us? For how long? And how?! How could they have accessed us when the house was completely warded?

“It’s unfortunate that it had to come to that,” William said, his voice dripping with false sympathy when his expression showed none. “But you forced our hand.”

“I’m going to kill you,” I vowed, my words a dark hiss of vengeance. “You won’t get away with this, and I swear to everything, I’m not hurting that baby! Not for you, and not for anyone. Your days of spilling blood with other people’s hands are over.”

He gazed at me disappointedly. “I had truly hoped you would listen to reason, Jemma. That you would come to understand what needs to be done and make the right choice for yourself. But I see now that was never going to happen. Your emotions will always blind you to the truth. Very well then.” He nodded to the hooded man in a black cloak, who stepped forward holding an ornate silver chalice. “We’ll do it the hard way.”

My stomach lurched as two more men entered the room, their faces shadowed behind the same dark hood as the first man, neither one of them looking human.

“Stay the fuck away from me,” I warned, though I had nothing to back my threat up with. My panicked gaze flew back to William. “Call them off, William! You can’t do this to me. You don’t have the right! I don’t agree to this!”

“Unfortunately, you no longer have a choice in the matter,” he said, refusing to meet my eyes as he took a few steps back, clearing the way for the cloaked figures of doom.

“William!”

The three hooded figures approached me, their movements synchronized and eerily graceful. My heart raced, already knowing what was coming—that this was the anointing ritual my Alt had warned me about. The one that would force me to become the Fourth Horseman, whether I wanted to or not.

Terror rocketed through my body as I struggled against the magical bonds holding me in place, my body swinging back and forth in vain as I tried to break free, but it was hopeless. I couldn’t move an inch.

“Wait! William, please,” I begged, my voice trembling with desperation as the men closed in, surrounding me in a tight circle. “Don’t do this. You’re making a mistake. It doesn’t have to be like this.”

William ignored my pleas, his face set with grim determination as the hooded figures began to chant in a low, guttural language. The air instantly turned heavy, crackling with dark energy that made my skin feel like there was something crawling beneath it. The man with the chalice stepped forward, his hood falling back to reveal a face covered in pale scars and strange ritualistic tattoos, his eyes completely black and devoid of any color.

He lifted the chalice between us, the dark liquid inside sloshing ominously as I reared against the binds.

My heart pounded frantically as he dipped his fingers inside and then reached towards me, his fingers glistening with thick red liquid that I instantly knew was blood—probably the Horsemen’s. My stomach lurched into my throat as I tried to jerk away, but the magical bonds refused to let me save myself.

“Don’t touch me!” I screamed as his fingers pressed against my forehead, the chanting growing louder as he marked my forehead with bloody runes and symbols I couldn’t make out.

The blood felt like ice against my skin, sending a violent shudder through my entire body. It seeped into my pores, an unnatural coldness spreading from the point of contact, creeping through my veins and settling like frost in my chest and limbs.

The chanting intensified, the guttural words pounding in my ears, relentless and suffocating. The other two hooded figures dropped their hoods, revealing their equally disfigured faces—twisted, scarred, and far from human—as their voices rose in a fevered crescendo.

The air around us pulsed with dark energy, oppressive and thick, pressing down on me like a weight I couldn’t escape. It felt as though I were choking on my own breath, the very atmosphere tightening around my chest, making it harder to think, harder to move.

The chanting grew impossibly loud, a deafening roar crashing against my mind. I squeezed my eyes shut, gripping onto whatever shred of control I could find, desperate to block it all out, to stop whatever they were doing to me. But deep within, I could already feel it—a terrible, inevitable shift. Something foreign, something malevolent, tearing its way inside, clawing through every corner of me, and claiming all the parts that were never meant to be touched.

A searing pain erupted in my head, spreading like wildfire through my body and making my limbs lock up. I gasped, my eyes flying open as it pulsed through me, streaking through my veins and muscles and bones as if destroying everything it touched. It felt like my insides were being ripped apart and rearranged, like something alien and malevolent was forcing its way into my very soul and reconstructing it.

“Stop!” I cried out fruitlessly, tears streaming down my face as pain and dark magic swirled around my insides like a suffocating vortex. “Please, make it stop!”

But the chanting and pain only grew stronger, the energy tearing its way through me, into all the places it didn’t belong. Places that were mine. I could feel my own power rising up to meet it, clashing violently inside me as the two forces battled for dominance, hissing noises whipping out at me from every corner in my mind. The harder my magic fought it, the more the pain intensified until all I could feel was searing hot pain slashing through my body as though my flesh were melting off my bones. As though my brain was liquefying inside my head.

I should never have come here. I should have never moved an inch to take that damn book. The second my fingers touched it, I was trapped, never to be— wait . The book.

It’s the fucking book!

The realization slammed into me, and in a panic, I threw the Sang Noir to the floor. My hands shot up, pressing hard against my ears in a desperate, instinctive attempt to block out the pain that was now tearing through my skull. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to summon my magic, to fight back, but the agony ripped through my mind like a thousand screaming voices, overwhelming and scrambling everything in me. My body shook uncontrollably, every muscle rebelling as the dark energy continued its merciless assault. I couldn’t fight it. I couldn’t do anything.

I couldn’t even collapse to my knees and beg for mercy.

They had won. I knew it just as sure as I knew my name.

“ Please …” I rasped, my voice a hollow whisper that barely escaped my throat as a familiar tightening between my shoulder blades suddenly spread across my back, making my eyes snap open in horror.

My wings. Oh god, my wings!

They couldn’t know about them. It was the one card I was still holding. The only card I had left to play. But I knew, even before the first tremor of movement, that it was already too late to stop them.

With a deafening crack, my wings erupted from my back, unfurling in a violent explosion of black feathers that sent a shockwave of gasps through the room. William’s eyes widened in disbelief, his mouth falling open as he stood paralyzed, unable to look away. My wings, dark as night and brimming with energy I couldn’t control, had ripped through every restraint I had, leaving me powerless to pull them back in.

Not that it would have mattered one bit. They’d already seen them.

“Unbelievable,” breathed William, his tone almost awestruck as he staggered backwards.

Before I could react or say anything, the room suddenly began dissolving around me in a blur of motion and color. A sharp pull tugged at my chest before I was yanked back through the portal of time and space, the cold enveloping me like a soaking wet blanket and seeping deep into my bones as I was torn away from Temple and the nightmare that had ensnared me.

For a heartbeat, there was only darkness and the sensation of falling through an endless void. Then, with a sudden, jarring pull, I crashed back into reality, gasping for air as strong, familiar arms cradled me from behind.

I was home . It was over.

But I knew I was far from being okay.

“Jemma! Fuck . She’s back!” growled Trace, his grip tightening around me as Dominic and Gabriel stormed into the room and rushed to my side, the three of them surrounding me like a protective wall.

“What the fuck happened? Where did you go?” Trace’s voice cracked, sharp with panic as he turned my face toward him, his hands trembling as he inspected me, desperate for any sign I was alright. “Jemma? Are you okay? Talk to me!”

I blinked, trying to reorient myself as the room tilted and swayed around me, making me feel nauseous. My mind was still reeling, buzzing with the sound of distant whispers and hisses slashing through my brain.

Too many sounds.

Too much pain.

Unable to cope with any of it, my head collapsed back against Trace’s shoulder, my body trembling uncontrollably as the aftershocks of bone-splitting magic rippled through me.

“Fuck! What happened to her? What’s wrong with her?” Trace shouted, terror burning through his voice and sending a cold knot twisting into my stomach.

“Angel, can you hear me?”

I nodded, or at least I thought I did.

“Why isn’t she answering us?” hissed Trace. “And what the fuck is on her forehead?”

“I think she’s in shock,” I heard Gabriel say, his voice sounding so far away from me then that I wasn’t sure if we were even in the same room still. “We need to get her lying down.”

I felt myself being shifted on Trace’s lap and then lifted in the air abruptly, my limp body pressed against a firm chest before being gently laid back onto the couch. My lids fluttered weakly as I struggled to open my eyes.

“Jemma? Can you hear us?” Gabriel’s worried face swam into view as he knelt beside me, his hand cool against my forehead, brushing my hair back as his eyes quickly scanned my features, taking in the bloody runes that marred my skin.

I didn’t mean to make them worry. It was the last thing I wanted to do. I tried to focus my eyes, tried to show them I was okay, but the room spun sickeningly fast around me, colors and shapes blurring as the hissing whispers grew louder, overlapping each other until they were all I could hear.

…hear us...

…must kill…

…come forth…

…yield…

…your resistance…futile.

…the time is now….

…must destroy…

“Please… make them… stop.” My voice came out weak and trembling, barely more than a whisper.

Gabriel’s brows furrowed as he glanced at Trace and Dominic. “Make who stop?”

“What’s she talking about?” asked Trace, his voice a nervous hiss.

“It’s…too loud.”

“What’s too loud, Jemma?” Gabriel’s voice felt distant, muffled, like I was hearing it underwater. It was as though we were being pulled apart, tugging in opposite directions, his words slipping further away with each beat.

“The… voices,” I mumbled choppily as I felt my consciousness begin to flicker and waver.

“Our voices are too loud?” asked Gabriel, misunderstanding what I meant.

“Back up and quit hovering!” barked Trace.

“The…Horse…men…”

“The Horsemen’s voices?” verified Gabriel, his confusion slowing his words.

I tried to nod my head, but the movement sent jagged waves of pain crashing through my skull, leaving me gasping for air. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak—could barely even breathe. I needed to sleep. To close my eyes and sink into the darkness. But I had to tell them. I had to warn them first.

“They’re…in…side…my head,” I finally rasped and then felt the switch go out as I sank away into the dark abyss, where the pain and screaming could no longer reach me.

The world around me went black, the pain and the maddening whispers slipping away as I was consumed by an overwhelming void—a place where nothing, no one, could reach me anymore. No more pain. No more voices clawing at my mind. No more bone-splitting agony.

But even in the crushing dark, a dreadful, undeniable certainty crept into my soul—a chilling knowledge that made every fiber of me tremble in terror.

Because I knew what was coming.

I knew what I would become.

A force of destruction, forged in darkness and born of torment. I would rise as one of The Four Horsemen, unstoppable and relentless in the pursuit of my one and only purpose.

And when I did, the Son of Perdition would burn.

Along with anyone who stood in my way.

To be continued…one last time .