Page 42 of The Syndicate’s Shadow Heiress (Branche de Lune Syndicate #1)

THE MOTHER WOUND

Kali’s Emotional State: Trapped in the astral. The pleasure opens the gate, but so does the pain. And what awaits her inside is the ghost she swore she’d buried.

T

he astral wavered, quiet, dense, and watching. The world felt like the breath before a scream. One of them, a large, sleek black raven, stared at her with glowing red eyes. A flicker of a message passed through her mind.

“War is coming, Kali. The message has been received. They know.”

Her heart skipped a beat, and as the raven took off into the night, it felt like the weight of the world pressed into her chest. But there was no time to dwell on it. She knew what she had to face next.

Kali’s hands flexed. She didn’t know what came next, but her magic bristled. Something old stirred, and it didn’t want to kneel again.

She opened her eyes, but the world around her had shifted. The walls of her house were gone, replaced by an endless expanse of swirling shadows and a sky painted with the darkest hues of purple and black. The air felt heavy here, thick with the weight of memories long buried.

Her mother .

Kali’s heart raced. She had battled with her mother’s spirit before, but this-this was war.

Her mother’s voice rang out, cruel and sharp. "You're weak, Kali. You’ll never escape me. I am a part of you."

Kali clenched her fists. “You’ll never control me again. Not in this life, not in the next.”

But the darkness pressed in. Her strength faltered.

Icy fingers gripped her throat. "You are nothing. You will always be nothing."

Kali dropped to her knees. Her vision blurred. And then—A memory slammed into her.

Her mother’s fury erupted, and Kali’s heart sank.

She had seen it coming, felt the weight of it, but it never made it any easier.

Her mother grabbed the wire hanger from the door, the metallic clink of it searing the air.

The first hit lashed across her back, then her arms, then her legs.

Kali gritted her teeth, refusing to make a sound.

Her mother, exhausted from the exertion, threw the wire hanger down with a final thud. She turned, her breathing ragged, and stalked out of the room.

From the hallway, Kali could hear her mother’s voice, muffled but full of venom:

"And she... and she... told me to get out of her room!"

Kali could feel the echo of her mother’s fury, but she didn’t move. Not yet .

Minutes later, the unmistakable sound of heavy boots came pounding up the stairs, her father. Rage trailed behind him like a storm ready to burst.

The door flung open. His eyes locked on her, seething. "You told your mother to get out of your room? How dare you!"

The pool stick cracked down against her body, hitting wherever it could land, her arms, her legs, her back. The blows were relentless. Kali could barely breathe through the pain, but she didn’t scream. Not this time.

Her vision blurred as the strikes kept coming, but this time, something in her snapped.

When he raised the pool stick again, ready to strike, Kali’s blood ran cold. She forced her aching body to lift her head, her voice barely more than a rasp, but with enough strength to carry the weight of a promise.

"If you ever raise another hand to me... I will kill you."

Her father stopped, the pool stick still in his grip, his blue-gray eyes stormy. He understood.

The pool stick still in his hands, his gaze wide with something…fear? Shock? For a long moment, he didn’t move. Then, slowly, he let go of her arm, the one he had used to hold her in place, and walked out of the room. Her mother was standing in the hallway, watching him.

He didn’t speak. He broke the pool stick in half, the sound sharp in the quiet air, and threw it at her mother’s feet before turning and leaving the house .

The front door slammed behind him with a force that shook the entire house.

Kali stayed where she was, battered and bruised, but standing. Something had shifted in that moment; she had stopped being a victim and become something else. Something that couldn’t be ignored.

Back in the astral.

Kali gasped. Her mother’s grip loosened.

“You’re wrong,” Kali growled, shadows flaring. “I’m not nothing. I am everything.”

Her mother laughed, but it faltered.

Kali’s shadows wrapped her like armor. One coiled around her wrist, tight, grounding, like her own past holding her upright. Rage became clarity. Pain became power.

And then, Silas. His voice cut through the fog like a blade.

“Kali. Don’t you remember who you are?”

She turned. Silas stood within the shadows, proud and powerful. "You fought to be born. You fought to live. Don’t let her win now."

Her chest cracked open. Her heart shattered and rebuilt.

"You are the Keeper of the Underworld," he said. "The Gate answers to you. His aura burned warm and steady, like a hearth fire that never forgot her name. Stay alive. Reach your peak. The realms need you."

Her mother lunged, but Kali was already rising to her feet.

"You think you can defeat me?" her mother hissed. "Respect me and my authority!"

"I’ve already defeated you once. I’ll do it again."

Kali’s power ignited. Her shadows lashed out.

Her mother’s scream echoed as the darkness consumed her, sending her to the working mines of the underworld.

Kali stood in the silence, shaking. This time, she didn’t win with rage. She won with the truth, and truth had teeth.

Kali collapsed, but she had won.

"You are my legacy," Silas whispered. "Remember that."

And then she woke.