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I nodded somberly. “The baby exists in this protected state, but she can’t for much longer. She needs her mother in order to exist beyond the state of an energy field.”

“Something the True Celestials don’t want to allow, so, as per our theory, they’re holding Mia with them to prevent her from rejoining with her child.”

“Yes. The only way to know for certain is for me to extract some of your child’s essence to try to connect with Mia.

I haven’t attempted that yet, because it poses a danger to the child and it will also trigger an active state wherein the countdown to return her to her mother’s body will be moved up significantly.

It is why I used other methods to try to connect. ”

He scrubbed his hand over his face as he looked at his baby. “We need to do it. But we need to ensure we can pull Mia out the moment the connection is made and our theory is confirmed.”

“I can’t enter the Celestial Plane due to my Fallen status. There is nobody alive who can.”

“All we need is to open the door, even a crack.” He gestured at the energy field that was his child.

“She is the key. And once the door is open, we don’t reach out as friend, begging them to release Mia, pleading our case.

” His gaze shot to mine. “We go in offensively and force her release. As you connect and get a lock on Mia, I’ll guide the Orb of Furatus through the door and neutralize all True Celestial magic, wherein, you’ll then pull her out and fuse her and our baby. ”

“The Orb is powered by angel magic, what you’re referencing would involve reverse engineering it, to act as somewhat of a magnet and draw all True Celestial magic to it temporarily, preventing them from being able to stop us. Nothing can truly snuff out their power permanently.”

“Correct.”

I smiled. “Ingenuous.”

“It’s something you can do?”

“Yes. However, this will obviously anger them. As such, to prevent ramifications, a bargain may need to be struck.” I took a moment, then revealed, “That was the only way I was able to spare Mia. The price was the Covenant, making her their champion should Draco ever rise.”

“Fuck.”

“It was either that or they would have extinguished her lifeforce.”

“So, our child would bear a similar burden?”

“Yes. However, it will be different for her. She will have the strength and power of you and Mia to support her, and mine as well. Not to mention, Ryker, Lucian, Warlow, and Gabriel. A true family who will guide her and protect her.”

“Mia would hate for the same thing that haunted her to haunt her child.”

“Without it, she won’t have her child. As I’ve expressed, this field will not hold steadily for much longer without nourishment from her mother.”

Jaxon and I had struck a bargain much too similar to the one I had for Mia’s life centuries ago.

One that had caused her so much pain.

One that had led to her death.

It had taken us months to resurrect her, months of not knowing whether we would actually prevail.

Even, all these years later, I knew she was still haunted by it.

I could see it in the way she was with Ariana, especially where her connection to the Celestial Plane was concerned.

“I have a lock,” Jaxon spoke, pulling me from my pained thoughts.

He spun from staring out into the distance on the edge of the mountaintop, and walked back to where I was standing over the site of the spell Ariana had completed to reunite with her full power.

It bothered me immensely that she’d felt the need to separate it in the first place, that she’d been so afraid to be whole—to be her true self.

My granddaughter was miraculous, and it really deserved to be something that was celebrated.

Alas, there was far too much fear attached to her existence. From outsiders, from so many throughout the supernatural world, from the True Celestials as well, and even from our family.

Particularly from Mia.

Due to her own trauma brought about from the duty that had been forced upon her by the True Celestials, she was so afraid that Ariana would suffer the same fate, that her approach was to have Ariana tamper herself down, for us to shield the explosion of power from her whenever she’d lost her temper as a child.

The party had been strategic and Mia’s idea also, to demonstrate Ariana’s stability in a bid to calm the supernatural world down.

Making Ariana attend Maven Academy had also been Mia’s idea, the goal being that it would keep her contained, while she learned absolute control no matter what came her way, so that nothing could destabilize her.

To make her inconsequential was the key to protecting her, Mia believed.

Unfortunately, it had ended up hurting Ariana in the process.

It had undercut her confidence.

It had led to some intense repression from her.

“You all right?” Jaxon asked me, as he came to a stop in front of me.

I shoved a hand through my hair. “Let’s just focus on finding Ariana and Cassius.” I drew in a centering breath, “You said you managed to get a lock on Ariana?”

“The beginning of the trail, yeah. It’s slight and distanced, so it will take some time. We need to set out now, once we call Ry here. He’ll be needed to help us extract Ari from a True Celestial. Even combined, our power won’t be enough.”

“You are discounting Ariana’s, Jaxon. Much like Mia so often does.”

“You know why she does that.”

“I do. Very much so. But I’m bringing it up, because I need you all to recognize that we’re beyond that now.

We can no longer approach things that way.

It’s too late to focus on solely protecting Ariana.

The Celestial Plane has sent its emissary.

Empowering Ariana needs to be our goal now that things have shifted so substantially. ”

I saw the struggle all over him. Acknowledging that it was too late was difficult enough to do—I felt it deeply as well. Then, having to recognize that he couldn’t protect his own daughter was beyond even that, and something I knew the awful feeling of all too well.

“I know,” he uttered. “I know.”

I was glad he was acknowledging it now.

Before I could speak to it further, an eruption of green lightning tore through the area, and in the very next second, Ryker materialized in his go-to deep crouch, one hand slapped to the snow with his lightning radiating out, just seconds away from leapfrogging all over the place and decimating everything in his path.

“Stay your hand!” I called out.

He jolted and called his lightning back just in time, then rose to his feet, frowning between Jaxon and me. “He’s not here,” he breathed.

“No. He was gone before we arrived,” I informed him.

“With Ari,” Jaxon told him.

“What?” Ryker choked. “No. No.”

“Jaxon was able to lock onto her trail with his wolf instincts. We’re about to follow said trail and extract her.”

“You’ll need my defensive power to incapacitate this True Celestial long enough for the two of you to free her.”

“Yes. I was about to mind-link you, but you arrived without me needing to do so.”

“I erected the additional ward around the Guardian Compound quickly. I have my dad there in my stead until I return. Warlow, too.”

“That’s a good combination,” Jaxon said.

“As is Lucian and Mia with Ariana’s boyfriends,” I spoke.

Jaxon flinched. “You mind-linked them while I was tracking?”

“I did. The moment the boys were teleported back to Maven Academy via my magic, they left—for Meforian Forest. So I sent Mia and Lucian along to reason with them. We can’t risk interference with what we’re about to do. One of them was already severely wounded. Mortally wounded, actually.”

I saw Ryker react to the boyfriends aspect, but he didn’t speak to it, keeping his focus on the immediate situation.

“Can you keep control of the wolf, Jax? Or do you need to hang back once you lead us to Ari’s location?”

“I’m not hanging back. This is our daughter we’re talking about.” He clenched his fists. “I can keep control. For her, I will.”

Ryker nodded, then laid his hand on his shoulder. “All right. Let’s begin, then. Let’s bring her back to us.”

Jaxon tensed.

“What is it?” Ryker asked him.

“She knows, Ry. She knows what we’ve been keeping from her. She also took back her full power without assistance from any of us in a bid to push us away.”

Ryker swallowed. “We’ll see to it. We’ll fix it. We’ll explain everything.”

“Yeah,” Jaxon murmured, nodding, and wanting to believe it so badly.

To believe that it could actually be fixed.

But in my heart of hearts, I honestly wasn’t sure it could be.

Damage had been done. Profound damage.

And, sometimes, no matter how hard we tried, the scars of that would remain.