Page 8

THIRTEEN YEARS OLD

I had vowed that night when I cursed Malec that I would never again be vulnerable. I would become the strongest witch this realm had ever seen, and I would sit on the throne of Istmere.

No matter the cost.

I told Zion and Annelise that I wanted to move to Akra to train in the academy full time, and to my surprise, they had agreed. I knew it was because they wanted me as far away from the baby as possible, but it served my own ends.

That fucking baby.

I heard them arguing one night. Anger simmered deep in my core when they spoke as if I weren’t even there. They knew I was one room over, able to hear every word they spoke. But that didn’t stop them.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Annelise said, her arms crossed over her chest.

She was leaning against the kitchen counter in the cottage, the Stormshade infant strapped to her chest with some sort of swaddle. Annelise dug her hands into the counter, her knuckles white.

Zion shook his head, running a worried hand through his hair. He had recently cut it all off, and it was shorn against his head. I thought it made him look younger.

“If you think that’s what’s best.” His voice was strained.

Annelise shot him a look that said she knew he was placating her.

“You think that Diana is safe here, with Donika under the same roof?”

Zion shook his head. “I don’t think she would hurt her own sister.”

“I don’t know what she would do anymore.

What she is capable of. Zion, her eyes are black .

She has been consumed by dark magic. It runs in her veins .

I wouldn’t be surprised if the blood she spilled was black, too.

Her humanity is waning. I’m not sure if there is any left at all.

You know as well as I do that there is no reversal of darkness .

There is no known spell to cure what has already been lost, and no way to reverse the side effects of this magic. ”

Zion released a heavy sigh. “This is my fault.”

“You can’t blame yourself, Zion. I had no idea what Cirilla was. What she had planned to do. I thought our child would be safe with her, too.”

Zion tilted his head back, examining the ceiling. “I should have kept a closer eye on her. Spent more time with her. I was so busy working, trying to make ends meet to afford the roof over our head, the food in our bellies, I let her slip through my fingers.”

Annelise’s gaze fell to the floor. “If I hadn’t left, it never would have happened.”

Zion scoffed. “It was hardly your choice. If you had been given the luxury of making the decision, you would have stayed here.”

But would she have?

Annelise had always had a wild heart, and never stayed in one place for long.

She and Zion had already been reduced to friends.

It was only a matter of time before she left us, one way or another.

She never would have stayed here to raise me and help Zion with the expenses, even if she wasn’t summoned to The Stone City.

In the end, she was always destined to leave us.

A long moment of silence fell between them as if those words hung unspoken in the air around them.

“I think I need to move Diana to the mortal realm.” Annelise stroked the full head of auburn hair on the baby strapped to her chest.

“You truly think that is what is best? That things have become that dire?”

Annelise’s gaze returned to Zion’s.

All they ever worried about was that baby.

They never worried about me, only about how they had failed me.

But had they? I was more powerful than either of them in my mere thirteen years.

I would be the most powerful Shade in the realm one day.

Maybe they hadn’t failed me at all, and their absence had allowed me to become who I was truly meant to be.

“I do.” Annelise nodded. “She hates Stormshades, me included. Even when she moves to Akra to train with Osiris and Alastir, I fear her hatred for our kind is festering. Growing into an ugly, unstoppable thing. I’m not sure Diana would be safe here, even with her so far away.”

Zion sucked his bottom lip into his mouth, deep in thought.

“You plan to leave me here?”

Annelise’s brow drew together with hurt. “Never.”

“What, then?”

“I…I plan to leave her there,” she replied.

“ Leave her there?” Zion asked, incredulous.

Annelise nodded. “It’s the only way to keep her truly safe.

As long as she remains in this realm, Diana will be hunted.

Osiris’ pursuit of Stormshades has only worsened in recent months.

A war is brewing, and I cannot in good conscience allow a child to be stuck in the middle of it.

She will never be safe here as long as storm blood runs through her veins. ”

“What do you plan to do with her?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Leave her with a mortal friend. One I met in college. We were close, once. I trust her with Diana. She will be raised mortal. Live a mortal life. She might have a chance at happiness that way.”

Zion’s gaze was downcast. Thoughtful.

“And when she summons magic in the mortal realm? When her storms rage and her power ignites everything around her?” he finally asked.

Annelise shook her head. “I will bind her. She will never know.”

“ Bind her? You think that is what’s best?” he replied.

“Yes. She is already bound here in Istmere to prevent the king from tracking her. I will bind her magic to ensure she will never know it, never know she is a Shade. She won’t be traced. The Kotova grimoire has a powerful binding spell. It will last quite some time.”

“And when the binding wears off?” he asked.

“I will travel to the mortal realm to bind her again. Wipe her memories of it. She will never know what she is. Who I am. She will be spared of this heartache.”

“You’re forgetting one crucial piece of information,” Zion’s voice was low when he spoke.

A warning.

“And what’s that?” Annelise asked, stroking the baby’s hair back from her face, her voice feigning innocence.

“The prophecy.”

Annelise’s gaze turned cold as it bore into Zion’s. “Fuck the prophecy.”

A humorless laugh escaped Zion. “Has Alastir ever been wrong?”

Annelise’s face curled up with an expression I couldn’t quite read.

“Has he?” Zion pressed, pushing off the opposite countertop and moving toward her.

He grasped her arms in his, squeezing them.

“You cannot hope to interfere in a prophecy from the mother herself. This child is destined for things far greater than anything you or I could have planned for her. She will bring peace to Istmere after a decade of strife and war. That is what Alastir saw. That is what the mother showed him.”

Her voice was barely above a whisper when she spoke. “Maybe he was wrong. There is still time for the visions to change. She is only but a babe now, and that will not come to fruition for over a decade. A lot can happen between now and then.”

“I know,” Zion replied, running a hand down his face. “But you and I cannot hope to stop fate. The mother has bigger plans for this child.”

“But a war is brewing,” Annelise protested.

“I know,” Zion replied again.

He was exasperated with her. Once Annelise made up her mind, it was made up. There was no changing it. Come hell or high water, she would bring that child to the mortal realm and bind her magic.

I closed the bedroom door with a snap, knowing they would hear the sound of the door against the wooden frame. Serves them right for speaking as if I weren’t even there. I fucking hated how they did that.

They were right about one thing, though…

War was brewing.

The Stormshades would be brought to justice, and finally have to answer for their crimes.

Osiris was right about that.

War was brewing…and I planned to be at the heart of it.