Adriana chewed her lip as she stirred over Striga’s words. As much as she tried to refrain her mind from wandering to Xander, she knew that whatever she felt for him pushed her to become stronger. His ability to rile her up when her mind wanted to shut down, the way he could set her body aflame with anger and desire all at once…
He made her feel out of control but he also made her feel powerful within it. And she had noticed the only times she had been able to bring that faint glow to her fingers, was when she thought of him.
It was dangerous to want someone who could spiral her out of control. But she couldn’t help it.
“It was Xander,” she softly said, her voice quiet as if she was afraid he’d be able to hear her from wherever he had vanished to. “He helped me at the ball, with Lord Abbot. And he helped me when I started to lose control afterwards. I cannot explain how. He is the reason I lose my control and I still despise him, I really do. But he made me feel so strong, so sure of what I could do.”
Striga smiled, her eyes crinkling in the corners. She said nothing as Adriana continued to admit it all, finally removing the heavy weight from her chest that she hadn’t even been aware of until now.
“It is ridiculous!” Adriana rose from the bench and began to pace in front of it. “He is arrogant, rude, and has no manners at all. I truly do not know how you have tolerated him all this time, or why you would want to befriend him in the first place.”
“I did not want to,” Striga replied. “It had never been a question of wanting his friendship, he gave that willingly. Thomas and I needed his help. We sought him out because we knew of his power, and we knew of his dedication to protect Daemons and mortals alike. As much as he hated being a soldier, no one can deny he is a natural fighter and a true leader. We needed him.”
“I do not understand. Why would you go looking for him?”
“I suppose I never did really explain how the Courts were formed.”
Adriana shook her head. It had been a while since Striga had told her stories of her past, of all of their pasts. As she sat back down, she felt reminded of all the times she would sit in the sun with her beloved great-grandparents and listen to their tales of Daemonium.
“Shortly after Thomas and I married, we had our daughter, your grandmother who you were named after, gods rest her soul. We thought that because we had both forsaken Lilith, after I had sacrificed my immortality and Thomas had broken free of the power of the full moon, we would be safe. But Malefica, the cunning Aspici that she was, had been watching us, and she had seen we’d had a daughter. Lilith was furious, of course, and so she created Caligo in the Intermundum.
“She captured one of the darkest souls ever to cross over from the Living; a ruthless man from an entirely different realm who had finally received justice for the pain he had inflicted to others, including his own family. Lilith took his soul and breathed her power into it. She did not need to warp his mind or control him, he willingly obliged her orders. As a reward, she gave him the ability to be able to visit our Land of the Living, just as she had granted us, and ordered him to kill my family.”
Adriana’s eyes widened in shock. She had heard stories of Caligo from Thomas and the townsfolk, stories about the shadowman who stole babes from their cots at night to feed the Daemons of the Intermundum, to feed Lilith. He was the fueler of nightmares, the grim purveyor of chaos and death.
Thomas had once told her that Caligo served Lilith in a way that no other Daemon could. He was her dark conduit into the world, one that spread her destruction and decay from the Intermundum into the Land of the Living. He didn’t just stealchildren in the night, didn’t just kill those who stood against him—he slaughtered them to feed the insatiable hunger within him, a hunger that could not be explained by a Lamia’s bloodlust or Lupus’ fury. He was a poison, a deadly alchemy that rotted the pureness of the innocent.
“We were lucky though,” Striga continued. “Divina had been able to predict that Caligo would find us, and so Thomas made us go into hiding. We spent months moving from town to town, never staying too long in one place in case Malefica could find us. Until we heard about the man who led the Lamiae, the man who had turned his entire kind against Lilith.
“Divina helped us find him. He was reluctant to talk at first, given that we had been raised in the Intermundum and had only recently escaped Lilith’s clutches, but Thomas was able to persuade him. We told him everything, that Caligo had the powers of a Dolor and a Succuba, and had now been given the power to capture souls that passed through the Intermundum to raise them as his shadow soldiers.”
“The Umbranimae,” Adriana said, quietly.
She knew there had been a growing number of sightings of Umbranimae nearby before Xander had arrived, and that they were a ruthless army who could not be stopped. The stories told that if the Umbranimae came one night to your village, by morning every single soul that lived there would belong to Caligo. Their increasingly frequent attacks were making it harder and harder for Daemons to remain hidden and, more importantly, to be accepted.
“Yes. We had hoped Xander would help us,” Striga resumed. “We knew that Caligo was drawn to Daemonium chaos, and he could fuel Lilith’s power. If he took enough from us, stole enough from everyone, he could give her the ability to walk this world freely whenever she wanted. Within a week Xander had gathered all the Pureblood Lamiae and the first Lupi together,and in 1820, the first Courts were made. Eight Lamiae, five Lupi, and two Incantrices: the Courts of Daemonium. We all agreed to Xander’s peace treaty which ordered us to protect one another, to live amongst mortals, to unanimously fight against Lilith, and to avoid getting involved in mortal conflict to avoid the chaos Caligo needed.”
Adriana sat, stunned at Striga’s story. She had heard tales of the leader of the Courts as a child, the first Lamia, and of course she knew they were all about Xander, but hearing how he had protected all of them without even knowing them, she couldn’t believe it was the same man she knew. The man who was rude and ill mannered and set her blood boiling on a daily basis. And yet, it all seemed to make sense to her.
Xander was a protector, that much was clear. From the way he so obviously worried over Striga, his strict shouting when the three children living with him played too close to the lake, to how he had come to her rescue at the ball. He was someone who truly looked out for others and that, Adriana realised, was a trait that had become rare to find. Though he was not the most tolerable of people, there was no denying that beneath the sharp tone and passive stare, was a good man.
“We had agreed we would hand our leadership down through our families or a chosen descendent,” Striga said. “Although, of course, we do not have a Lupus in our family, and no one in Robert’s family wanted to take over, and Xander did not trust any of William’s descendents. So I suppose there are only three Lupus seats and seven Lamia seats now.”
“You suppose?”
“We have not held a meeting since that night. All three of the remaining Lupus seats are still unfilled, they have not chosen their replacements yet. And Divina’s family, they all moved away and have not been heard from since she passed.”
Adriana saw the concern on Striga’s face. She knew how important it was for the Courts to meet and to support one another. Without them, the world was at risk of Caligo’s army destroying everything, of Lilith walking freely to rule the Land of the Living. If there was no one sitting on the Courts to maintain the peace, they would all be doomed.
“I am to take your place soon, aren’t I?” Adriana asked. She had known the day would come, but she’d hoped she’d have more time.
“Yes,” Striga nodded. “You will take my seat as the Luciferus Incantrix when the time is right. And you must be strong enough in your powers, because only you can destroy Caligo’s army.”
“Me?” Adriana stood from the bench once more, the pressure of reaching her full potential weighing familiarly upon her shoulders once again.
Striga watched her with a wary expression. “This power that I have passed down, your Luciferus ability, it is not as simple as summoning light. You cannot summon the sun or control the moonlight or conjure the stars. The light you control is from the soul. Only you can free the lost souls that are trapped in Caligo’s Umbranimae.”
Adriana stopped breathing, she couldn’t move, couldn’t even think. The realisation of the reality of her role in this war came crashing down around her. She was not only destined to take Striga’s place in the Courts, but she would be summoned as their greatest weapon for the rest of her life.
