“Turn towards the Academy,” he orders on a firm tone.
My body obeys.
“Repeat after me, ‘Ego convocabo, Regina Infernumae, infernum. Voco daemonium, voco dimensio mihi, voco domus meus. Regina Infernumae filia diabolus et angelus, nunc aperi mundi.’”
My Prod rises from her slumber, as if summoned by those words. I feel the power in them as he speaks and every single hair on my body rises. My mouth opens and moves, repeating it. Word for word. Even as the words taste foreign on my tongue, I say them with confidence. I trust Shade. I trust him to fix every broken bit of me, to make this better. To makemebetter.
So I say the words and the stench of sulfur and burnt cinnamon permeate the air, overpowers it, until I’m dizzy and drunk on the odor. But the words slip from my tongue like they’re meant to go there. Like they belong.
Above our heads, the bright sky darkens and the clouds roll across one another in dangerous grays and blacks. Thunder roars and lightning flashes, like my calls are being answered and met with heavenly force.
“Louder,” Shade echoes in my ear.
So I throw my hands out and just the taste of the words has my Prod awakening. Finally,finally,I can feel her, the same way I felt her in hell. She’s here, rising to embrace me as one. No longer will I be the Academy’s pawn, no longer will I have the threat of death and incarceration over my head. No longer will I have the constant worry twisting my gut that I’ll murder the people I love.
The well of power inside me is there. I feel it lurking, waiting for me.
So the words stop and my magic settles over me once again. My skin glows, my wings flare. I finally feel complete.
“Do you feel the power?” Shade circles around me before stopping in front of me. He’s glowing with a never ending well of pride that I soak up. “Do you feel how strong you are?”
“Yes.” It comes out an ethereal gasp.
“You could have more. You could have more and never fear the Academy again. Never fear hurting your friends and family.”
My body jolts, but all Shade does is smile. It’s gleeful.
“I don’t—”
“Have you ever wondered about your mother, Izara?” The abrupt subject change is enough to put me on the tips of my toes. “I knew her, you know. Rather intimately.”
“What—what do you mean?”
“She would have killed you in the womb if I hadn’t prevented it.”
“What are you talking about?” I feel suddenly like I can’t breathe. Like there’s something here, something vital that I can’t quite grasp and I don’t know why. I’m blind to it.
He steps close to me and takes my face in his hands. “I wanted to be sure it was you. I wasn’t completely honest before. I came to the Academy to help the Prodless, but also to find you. I knew you’d come back to me one day, even when I had to hide you from those who wanted you dead. Among them, your mother.Etheria.”
I want to stagger back from his words, from the shock rippling through my body at the confession, but he holds me firmly in his grip.
“Don’t run away from the truth, Izara. No one else would have been able to do what you just did.No one but you.Because you have angel blood in your body. Angel blood that...” He swallows and I can see the torment on his face. “...that sits next to my own.”
I have no words to give him. The shock of this information invades every inch of me, numbing my senses, my body. I don’t know what to say, don’t know if I should say anything at all.
So instead, my Prod leaps in to save the day in the worst possible way. Just as she always does.
And I faint.
* * *
My eyes blink open and I swear years have passed instead of mere seconds. I’m sprawled on the ground, cradled in Professor Shade’s arms. He’s looking at me with such tenderness and such fatherly love that it builds an ache somewhere inside.
“My father is the Messenger of Chaos,” I say defensively. He’d called me daughter. He’d taken me from my dimension to his home. He’d placed me on the throne.
In a room that held three of them.
“I don’t understand…”
