“Liam, please,” I whispered, my hands trembling as I reached toward him. “I’m your mom. Whatever’s happening, we’ll fix it. I swear.”
But he shook his head again, backing farther away. “Stay back,” he said, his voice barely holding together. “I don’t… I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t even know what’s real.”
His words hit like a punch to the gut, and I froze, my hands hovering uselessly in the air. My son, the boy I’d spent my entire life trying to protect, was looking at me like I was a monster. And I didn’t know how to make it stop.
Liam pushed himself up from the ground, his legs unsteady beneath him as he stood, still clutching his head like it might split apart. He retrieved his gun and had it aimed loosely at me. His movements were jerky, his breath coming in shallow, uneven bursts. He stumbled back, his boots crunching on the frozen moss, putting more space between us. His wide, disbelieving eyes stayed locked on me, and I could see the storm raging behind them—confusion, fear, and something darker.
“Liam,” I said, rising to my feet but keeping my hands out in front of me, palms open. “It’s me. Please, just stop for a second and let me explain.”
He didn’t stop. He kept backing away, shaking his head, his face twisted with a mix of pain and betrayal. “No,” he said, his voice cracking. “No, you don’t get to explain. Not this. Not… not that.”
My chest tightened, and a cold knot formed in my stomach. “What are you talking about? Liam, what did Krampus do to you? What’s going on?”
And then it happened. The words I’d always dreaded, the ones I’d prayed I’d never have to hear.
“You killed Dad.” His voice trembled, raw and broken, but the accusation hit me like a blade to the heart. “You killed him.”
I froze, the breath leaving my lungs as if I’d been punched. My heart felt like it stopped in my chest, and the world around me seemed to tilt. For a moment. “What?” Iwhispered, barely able to get the word out. “Liam… no. That’s not?—”
“Don’t lie to me!” he yelled, his voice hoarse and cutting through the stillness of the forest. He took another step back, his hands falling to his sides, trembling. “It’s in my head now. I saw it, Mom. I saw what you did.”
Tears stung my eyes, but I forced myself to stay calm. To stay focused. “Liam, listen to me,” I said, my voice shaking. “Whatever you think you saw, it’s not the whole story. Krampus did something to you. He put something in your head.”
“You’re lying,” he said, his voice cracking. “You always lie. You never tell me anything. And now I know why.”
The pain in his voice was unbearable, and I could feel my heart breaking with every word. But I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My son—my everything—was looking at me like I was a monster. I was no longer sure if he was wrong.
CHAPTER 10
Ifroze, staring at Liam, my heart breaking into a thousand pieces. The words hung in the air, suffocating me, twisting in my chest like a knife I couldn’t pull out.You killed Dad.I gaped at him, unable to speak or move, my mind racing to make sense of how this was happening. My son, Liam, looked at me like I was a stranger, a monster.
And then Krampus darted from the shadows.
His claws raked across my shoulder, the pain severe and searing, jolting me out of my shock. I stumbled, biting back a scream as the warmth of blood trickled down my arm. The world snapped back into focus, and instinct took over. I spun, grabbing my saber and gripping it tight, before I drove it into Krampus’ side with all the force I could muster. Then I twisted it severely before I pulled it out.
He roared, his voice an unholy mix of rage and pain, the sound echoing through the trees. His fiery eyes locked onto mine for a brief moment, and then he stumbled back, snarling before turning and vanishing into the woods.
I stood there, panting, the blade still gripped in mybloodied hand, my body shaking from the pain and adrenaline. But it wasn’t the wound or the fight that left me reeling—it was Liam.
He hadn’t moved. He hadn’t done a damn thing.
He just stood there, watching. His face was pale, his gun lowered at his side, but his eyes… his eyes weren’t full of concern or fear. They were full of rage. A cold, hard fury that cut through me more deeply than Krampus’ claws ever could.
“Liam,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper, trembling with equal parts pain and disbelief. “He almost killed me.”
He didn’t respond, didn’t so much as flinch. He just stood there, his jaw tight, his eyes burning with anger. The son I had spent my whole life protecting looked at me like I was the enemy.
I stood there, frozen, torn between two impossible choices. My instincts screamed at me to chase Krampus, to finish what we started before he hurt someone else, or worse, came back for us. But I couldn’t move. My son stood just feet away, his body stiff, his face twisted in rage and confusion, and I knew I had to deal with him first.
My hands trembled as I gripped my blade, my shoulder throbbing from Krampus’ claws. My mind raced, panicking, trying to make sense of it all. Why was he remembering any of this? The potion from Eve was supposed to wipe his memories clean, to take away everything he’d seen tonight. That was how this was supposed to work. That was how it had to work. But here he was, still remembering, accusing me, looking at me like I was the villain in his story.
And then there was what Krampus said—purified. The word echoed in my head, chilling and cryptic. How? Demons didn’t have magic, not in the traditional sense. They couldn’t manipulate minds or memories. So how the hell had he done this to Liam?
My eyes darted to Liam as he stood there, breathing hard, his fists clenched at his sides. He didn’t look like himself. He looked haunted, twisted by something I couldn’t see or understand. The memory potion should’ve erased everything by now. It should’ve worked.
But it didn’t.
I swallowed hard; the panic rising in my chest as a dozen questions collided in my head. Did Krampus do something to him? Twist the potion somehow? Or was this something else entirely? My breath came faster, my pulse pounding in my ears as I tried to piece it all together.
