Page 60 of Wings of Lies (Daughter of the Seven Circles #1)

Chapter

Thirty-Five

R evenge pounded in my blood, wanting an outlet.

My power shoved the gut-twisting horror of killing someone in a corner, barricading it behind a wall of black fire.

I savored the wariness in the witch’s face and how the seductive melody brushed away my doubts and fears.

I should be concerned. I didn’t know how to fight.

Maybe at one point, but not now. But as I listened to the song of my soul, I didn’t care.

I channeled my desires into the melody, shaping a sharp icicle in my palm. As I hurled it towards her chest, she lunged aside. Her golden hair whipped past me, leaving a stinging trail of blood on my hip. The icicle didn’t sink into her chest as intended; instead, it struck her shoulder.

“That must be painful,” I remarked.

She screamed, sending strands of golden hair flying towards me, Aspen, and Oliver. I dove out of the way of mine and threw myself on top of Aspen and Oliver to shield them from theirs. The strands grazed my legs, leaving burning slices up my calves.

Furious at the witch’s cowardice in attacking Aspen and Oliver while they lay defenseless on her pristine floors, I immersed myself in the seductive melody and summoned my black flames.

Sitting up, I conjured a flickering ball into one hand and hurled it at her, simultaneously launching an icicle with the other.

She deflected the icicle with her hair but couldn’t evade my fireball, which seared into her leg.

The flames ate away her skin, leaving a patchwork of muscle and bone.

Steeling myself against the pain in my calves, I approached her and her terrible shrieking.

“Oh, I’m sorry. That must’ve really hurt.

But I think I need to give you a matching pair like you did me.

” I threw another fireball at her other leg, but her hair intercepted it, thwarting my attack and reducing her strands to cinders.

She choked on a chuckle. I hated the sound. By the gleam in her eyes and the twisted smile on her face, she still thought she had the upper hand.

That enraged me more. I formed two black balls of flame, and my feet became heavy. Shit.

Her glowing whips of hair hovered around her as her shoulders shook. I didn’t understand why she didn’t attack or why she continued to cackle after what I did to her leg.

I threw my two balls of flame, needing to let go of them before I passed out. They flew toward her chest as she let out an ear-piercing scream, but right before they hit her, a ball of red smoke intercepted my power, and a knife sliced into my ribs.

I gasped, clutching my side, and turning to find a pink pair of lips peeking from a cowboy hat .

Marcus smirked and took a pouch out of his pocket, scooping up a handful of black dust. “Your father’s waiting for you, Lucille. He’s been waiting for a long, long time.” Then he blew a small amount of Nerium powder into my face, sending me into a dark oblivion.

I stood in the same shadowed space with the glowing purple-white ball hovering in the middle. It taunted me, wanting me to reach out and take hold of my power.

“Are you ready?”

She was back—the cloaked figure.

“Ready for what?”

She thrust out her hand to the ball of flashing light. “To see the bigger picture.”

I swallowed. “But the last time I touched it, it showed me…”

“A memory of your mom poisoning you.”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“The truth is better known than not known.”

I stared at the ball of images and emotions, nervous about what I’d find.

“We didn’t rescue you from The Void, so you could chicken out now. You gave your memories away, you stopped fighting, and you didn’t even know the whole truth. Now you need to dream-walk to find everything you’re missing.”

I knelt next to the purple-white light. “How do you know all this? And why’d you send me to Magda’s? Did you want Marcus to find me?”

The cloaked figure crouched next to me, tilting her face to the ground to hide from the light.

“It was supposed to happen this way for the best outcome. Touch your Infernus.” She stood back up.

“Touch it, and when you wake up, if you ever want to save Aspen, steal the bastard’s knife.

Put it in your waistband and survive.” Her footsteps retreated, leaving me in this shadowed cavern with my power.

Eighty percent of me wanted to turn away and bury it all.

I always wondered why some memories about myself were clear while others remained elusive.

I never understood why it wasn’t a clean swipe, why only my dream-walk memories had returned and nothing else.

But the part of me that yearned to escape and live freely to master my flames, the part of me that listened to Oliver’s advice and sought out Magda’s dangerous answers all stemmed from the core of my Infernus.

The untamed power within my soul insisted I take charge and remember.

I touched the core of my dream-walking power. Vertigo and purple light enveloped me.

“I want friends, Mom. All I have is you. Don’t get me wrong,” I held up my hand before she could be insulted. “I love you. I’m grateful for all you’ve done for us. But you can’t keep me hidden away forever. I’m suffocating,” I pleaded.

She walked over to me with a tender expression in her jade eyes and her soft smile.

I stepped back. “Stop. Don’t.”

My lungs spasmed, trying to find air as I backed into our living room wall, knocking down a painting of a colorful chicken.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. Let me calm you down.”

I put out a hand to stop her. “No,” I heaved. “Wait.” My hand flew to my throat. “Why can’t I breathe?”

“Lucille, sweetheart. I’m serious. Let me help you before you pass out.”

I gave in.

She took my shoulder, easing the strain on my lungs and heart, pushing away the dizziness. “Why didn’t you tell me you depleted your amulet?” she scolded me.

“Because of this.” I gestured, skirting around her before she took hold of my amulet.

“That happens every time the amulet depletes, and I don’t know how to stop it alone.

You never let me struggle with it long enough to figure it out.

How am I supposed to manage myself if you’re constantly there?

How will I ever learn?” I said, flopping down into my favorite armchair.

“Mom, I can’t even feel scared out of my mind at the thought of leaving you now.

Isn’t that wrong?” I glanced at her, seeing fear in her watery eyes.

I didn’t mean to make her feel bad, yet I couldn’t even feel bad about it.

“Love, for a year straight, you woke up in cold sweats. You want to go back to that?” she whispered.

My head fell back against the cushion. “No, but we can’t keep living like this. It’s been eight years, Mom. He hasn’t found us. I want to live.”

She opened her mouth to protest.

“Mom, I’m nineteen and haven’t even kissed a guy. I have no friends. I’m stuck here day after day, reading books and sparring with you. Can’t you see what this is doing to me?”

I hated the wobble in her lip as she sank into the couch, head bowing into her hands.

She would always sit in the same spot when her thoughts ate at her.

She’d never tell me what upset her, but I had my assumptions.

Like all the previous times, I approached her, sat on the carpet, and took her hands .

“Mom, I’m sorry. I know you’re scared. But two, three, five more years of this, and I might literally go insane.

We’ll practice my powers. I’ll learn the scope of my emotions with your help.

If things go badly, we’ll have the amulet or you, and we can always move.

After that, I want to live near people.”

“It’s not safe,” she mumbled into her hands.

“Mom, come on. Please,” I begged.

She snapped her head up, face puffy. “You don’t understand. It’s not just Michael that’s after us.”

My brows furrowed. “Who else?” This was news to me.

“The Tenebrous Kingdom, The Elorian Military, The Council of Righteousness,” she admitted.

I dropped her hands. Stunned. “So, all of Elora. Your entire world?” I’d read all about Elora in the four books I unlocked and stole from my mom’s hiding spot. Although, she didn’t know that until now. But she didn’t even whip her head up at how I learned things about Elora. That scared me. “Why?”

“Because I was never supposed to have you.”

I rocked back. “Why would you say that? You’re sounding just like Michael.” Father was too nice of a term to call him.

She reached toward me, dark hair sticking to her sweaty forehead. I scooted back. “What aren’t you telling me?”

The pain and regret I saw in her frown set the calm she had given me teetering on a cliff.

“Angels don’t have children, Lucille,” she whispered.

I nodded. “I know. You said I was your miracle baby.” And that was it. She’d never tell me anything else.

Tears filled her eyes. The calm she gave me was hanging on by a frayed thread .

“Angels are only created. We don’t conceive because it goes against creation and the balance of our world. But I wanted a child so bad. I didn’t want the life I was created for. And when I heard my friend Miriam found a way. I asked her about it. She told me Lilith helped her.”

“That’s the Queen of…” My mouth dropped open.

“You shouldn’t even know who that is,” she sighed, shaking her head. “I didn’t care. I’d pay any price. Lilith said I needed to use the other side to conceive. And I did.”

“The other side?” I asked. It couldn’t be true. “Are you saying I’m part demon?”

She shook her head, black hair sliding back and forth over her shoulders.

“Then what?”

“Miriam used the blood of a high-level demon to conceive her child, but since she was a Serephim, the demon essence burned away. As an Archangel, I couldn’t take that risk with you, so I found another way. A loophole.”

Based on the pain and regret wrinkling her forehead and creasing her eyes, the loophole cost as much as using demon blood would’ve.

“Tell me.”

My mom looked up to the ceiling as if asking for guidance and then looked back at me, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Michael isn’t your father. And I think he’s figured that out.”

“Then who is?” I said, standing. The calm vanished, replaced by a building pressure. And my mom, so overcome by her own emotions and thoughts, didn’t know.

“Do you remember the poem and story I used to tell you? ”

“The Daughter of the Seven Circles? The one who destroyed Elora and lives in an ice palace with her father the…” I trailed off at her nod. Her face contorted in pain, tears flowing freely.

“It wasn’t a story.” She wrung her hands together. “The Daughter of the Seven Circles was a prophecy given to me at the time of Miriam’s death. A warning to me about my future daughter as she died protecting her son.”

No. No way. “You’re saying I destroy Elora? That I’m Lu—” I couldn’t say his name. “His daughter?”

I stumbled back, tripping over my slippers and falling into my chair.

“Does he know?” I asked. My heart sped up.

“Maybe,” she answered, resigned. “He can most likely sense your power when you use it since you’re his daughter.”

Oh, my heavenly hell. “That’s why you always suppress me, why we move the moment I so much as flame up. Not just so the entirety of Elora doesn’t find me. But so he doesn’t either.”

“Lucy,” her voice cracked, and so did my heart.

“How could you keep me so in the dark?” I cried. “I’m her. I’m, I’m—” The pressure intensified, needles stabbed at my skin. I sprinted for our front door, wrenching it open. She called out to me.

“Give me a Minute !” I yelled back before sprinting into the pouring rain.

That wasn’t the only dream memory I walked to. I walked further into the past, witnessing:

My father’s torture.

My mom’s pain .

Public school, then home school.

Lying on my father’s cuts and crying myself to sleep.

Begging my mom to soothe the fear and pain.

So many verbal fights with my mom.

Meeting Aspen.

Then Marcus came—him and his small army.

They were the ones to surround my mom that day. But she forced me out of the house before I could listen and understand why she had chosen to poison me.

When my dream-walks released me, I found myself lying flat, staring into shadows, absorbing the radiance of my power.

All my energy drained away. Probably from all the tears that spilled on the ground. Or from reliving the worst and best parts of my past.