This time, though, I was not afraid. Without Jessiah, there was nobody here that I loved. Nobody here that I feared for.
So when Cornelius’s eyes met mine, I let that death power loose.
And I didn’t give a fuck who it killed in the process.
“Imissed you, my child.”
I blinked my eyes open at the velvety, feminine voice that cascaded through my mind.
I was no longer in the gardens with Cornelius. Was no longer in Pericius at all. I was at home—my childhood home. The place I lived before I killed my mother, before I turned into a monster.
“Where am I? What’s going on?”
A dim light filled the space and grew brighter as I looked around. My old bed sat in the corner of the room with the same violet blankets. I remembered the doll that sat next to my pillow—her name was Scarlet. I kept scanning the room until I saw where that smooth voice came from.
My eyes landed on a tall, slim woman with dirty blonde hair and tanned skin. She had plump pink lips, with just enough lines on her face to show me she laughed plenty in her life.
My mother.
“Mother?” I asked. “What are you doing here?”
She smiled and my heart burst with an uncomfortable throb. “I’m here to see you,” she said. “Although I’m afraid you cannot stay.”
I sucked in a breath. “I’m dead, aren’t I?”
Her grin softened. “No, you’re not dead. Not yet, anyway. You have the power to choose death, my child, and you cannot choose death just yet. There is more to be done.”
The power to choose death? My mind flashed through the last few moments in my memory. Jessiah dying. Chaos—my death power—flooding my veins.
“I’m doing this,” I breathed. “I killed us all. My power did this.”
My mother reached out and ran a hand down my cheek. Her hands were soft. Warm. My heart throbbed again, though I tried to push the feeling aside.
“You must forgive yourself for the past, dear Rummy. You are not your power, and your power is many things.”
“My power is nothing but evil. How can I live after what I’ve done? After what I did to you?” How could she sit there and look at me like I wasn’t a monster? Like I deserved her kindness?
That familiar panic grew and grew. Jessiah. He was dead.
He was dead because of me.
My steady breaths turned to harsh pants.
“You see your power as darkness, my love, but you are missing the light. Where chaos reigns and hearts beat, through the veil of love and deceit.”
My attention snapped back to my mother. “What did you just say?” Those familiar words cut through the looming hysteria.
My mother’s face flashed before me, then suddenly I was not staring at my mother at all. I was staring at Astraea, Goddess of the East. She looked at me with those same warm eyes as she said,“Darkness becomes the chain that binds, love discovers the thread that unwinds.”
Iknew I would see death and destruction when my eyes opened, but I never could have prepared for the extent of what my power had done.
I was laying in the grass when I opened my eyes. I pushed myself up slowly—waiting for an attack. Waiting for Cornelius to strike.
But nothing came.
“Jessiah?” I breathed.Say something. Don’t be dead. You can’t leave me here.
I scanned the scene around me and my heart stopped beating. Jessiah still lay crumpled in the grass a few feet away.
