“Don’t you even fucking think about it,” Kadeem growled out. “If you try to step through, I will cut you down before your foot even touches the ground on the other side.”
Norman froze. Not one of them said a word in his defence. He had not been welcome in the Courts for a long time, and he certainly wasn’t welcome in their family now.
He shuffled over to where Xander knelt with Adriana. “Xander, I—”
“Run,” Xander cut him off, refusing to look at him as he tightened his hold on Adriana. “Run now. Before I kill you.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Norman ran out of the room. Xander knew it would likely be the last time he’d ever see him again.
As Kadeem stepped through with Katie’s body, Deion and Edward grabbed Cassandra to pull her towards the portal. “No!” she cried out, struggling in their firm grips. “No, I can’t leave her! Please don’t leave her!”
Xander wanted to tell her not to worry, that he wouldn’t leave Adriana, not again, but he was too focused on entering her mind. He had never struggled to search her thoughts before, but he couldn’t find her, he could only find Lilith. Whilst Adriana’s eyes stared up at him, she couldn’t see Xander or anyone else, she couldn’t see anything at all. All she could feel were the cold scales of a serpent wrapping itself around her as she fought against its hold.
I never thought I would see you again, little lightbringer, her velvety voice spoke in her mind.You were not meant to live, you were not meant to be turned into one of my children of blood. He did not want to turn you, he did not want you to live, Adriana.
“Don’t listen to her!” Xander shouted, his hands holding Adriana’s face, desperately trying to get her to hear him. “Don’t listen to a word she says! Come back, Adriana, come back to me.”
“What’s happening?” Cassandra cried. “Duran, what’s happening to her?”
He never wanted you, why would he? How could he want someone so weak, so pathetic?
Xander noticed a tear escape Adriana’s eye, feeling her mind agree with every awful lie Lilith fed her. His shoulders shook as he cried with her, hating that she even possessed those thoughts. He knew that Manipuli magic had to have something to hold onto, that Lilith needed something to hook her claws into. Whatever Adriana was feeling, while distorted or amplified by Lilith’s magic, stemmed from her own thoughts and beliefs.
“Stop!” he cried out, not recognising his own voice. “Leave her alone, you fucking bitch, leave her alone! Don’t take her from me! Please, don’t take her from me again. Take anything from me, anything else, just not her.”
He destroyed you, Adriana. Are you going to let him do that again? Are you going to be weak and let him hurt you again, lightbringer?
Xander sensed Adriana had stopped fighting and felt the snake wrap tighter around her body, letting it crush her and giving in to Lilith’s wishes. Xander grunted in pain as her body glowed with Luciferus light, so bright she began to burn them both. Just like she’d done without meaning to in the cottage.
“Adriana! No, please no!”
“Duran, do something!” Cass yelled at him as she reluctantly backed away, unable to withstand Adriana’s light.
Xander felt his skin blister as he held Adriana’s body closer to him, but he ignored the pain and Nicolai’s shouts for him to get through the portal. As he screamed out, the sound something between the cry of a wounded animal and the roar of a beast, he forced himself to completely enter her mind, leaving his own consciousness and stepping entirely into her own.
He pushed through Lilith’s misty haze and found Adriana sobbing in the distance as a black serpent coiled itself around her, its fangs inches away from her face as it pinned her to the ground. Rushing forward, he grabbed the snake’s head, tearing it away from Adriana and throwing it into the mist.
Adriana curled up on her side and continued to cry on the floor, her eyes squeezed shut as she muttered the same thing over and over. “No more.”
Xander laid down behind her, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in the crook of her neck. “I’ve got you,” he said softly. “I’ve got you and I’m not going anywhere. If you want to burn then I will burn with you, my Lux.”
Adriana kept muttering and crying, her body shaking in her despair, in every horrible dark thought she’d ever had. But Xander held on, he held on through her pain and his, and hekept trying to bring her back. He would never stop trying to bring her back.
“I won’t let you go, I’m not going anywhere. Your darkness is my darkness, your light is my light. You are not alone. I love you, Adriana. I never stopped, I never will.”
A moment passed, and Adriana’s body stopped shaking as her muttering drifted off. “Xander?” she whispered.
“I’m here. I’ve got you.”
Xander felt the moment she realised his arms were around her, both in her mind and in her real body. She could feel the truth in every word he said, could feel his love for her in the way he burned with her, and he could feel the strength she took from it.
A distant hissing drifted over from the corner of her mind as Lilith’s serpent body slowly slithered its way back to them, trying to open every door to her worst memories and allow the darkness to consume her. But Adriana would not be weak, she would not give in, she would not fall. Xander would not let her.
“I’ve got you,” he said again, as they stood together, hands clasped. “And you’ve got this.”
Adriana’s eyes drifted shut, her grip on Xander’s hands tightening as her mind filled with a light, her real light, and tore through Lilith’s misty haze. As she thought of all of the happiness and love she had experienced in the world, of all the sadness and loss that came with humanity, Xander watched in awe as memory after memory played out. She showed him days spent in the sun with Striga outside Amara House, bedtime stories with Thomas in her childhood room, dancing around a messy living room with Cass, drinking and laughing in a bar, kisses and nights spent tangled up with Xander.
Those dark thoughts were still there, but they weren’t threatening to overshadow the happiness she had. It only made those happier memories glow brighter in comparison. Heremotions, her feelings, everything she thought made her weak, had become her strength. She had finally found true balance.
