“Oh.” I shook my head, sitting down next to him. “She gave me her memories, so I could fill in most of the blanks.” A wave of resentment filled me, and I glared at him. “Did you know that taking away my memories would fuck with my head? That I get weird seizures because of them now?”
My father stiffened. “No. I’ve never heard of such a thing.” He twisted around so he could cup my face in his hands, and the guilt in his eyes made me feel bad for my accusatory tone. “I’m sorry for any pain I’ve caused you, sweetheart. My intention was never to hurt you.”
Tears swelled in my throat. “Then why did you do it?” I asked, my voice a hoarse whisper. “Why did you take my life from me?”
My father dropped his hands, looking away. “It wasn’t me who took it,” he said, his voice hardening. “It was Lucas, your fiancée. I assume, judging by the story Mr. McTaggart told me, that you know who he is to you.”
“Yes.” The word was brittle. “He kidnapped me a few days ago.” I gave him a quick rundown of events, and my father nodded along, unsurprised by anything I said… until I got to the part about Lucas’s minions not really being Demonkin.
“He’s summoning the demons into their bodies without their consent?” My father’s eyes flashed with stunned anger. “Such magic is forbidden to our kind, for obvious reasons. Even the Demonkin don’t typically do it, because the demons are hard to control in that state. But then again, Lucas is strong enough to do it. Having two angels at his disposal makes him a force to be reckoned with.”
“Two angels?” My mind spun as I tried to comprehend that. “How could someone like Lucas have two angels?”
“Because,” my father said, his voice so heavy that my toes curled with dread. “He stole yours from you, the day he tried to get you to hand over the Infinity Key.”
Stunned silence filled the room. “How… how is that even possible?” I finally asked.
My father shook his head. “Above all else, Lucas was a scholar. He was well-versed in rune lore, and in charge of the Watchtower’s magical defenses. He would often travel to far cities in order to study ancient manuscripts, glutting himself on forgotten knowledge, and I permitted it because I didn’t see how it could do any harm. But he stepped far beyond the boundaries of a mere scholar when he began teaching himself the forbidden arts in those books, and then using them on Sentinels. On you.” His voice shook with anger on the last word.
My mouth dropped open. “On me? How?”
“I didn’t know, not at first.” My father scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m telling this to you out of order, aren’t I? Let me start from the beginning.”
“All right.” I had a feeling this was going to be a long tale, so I settled my back against the hard wall and folded my arms.
My father was silent for a long moment before he began. “When you and Lucas first got together, your relationship was normal enough. You had already been wing mates with Jax for four years, and Lucas was a new transfer from the East Coast. The Moranius family is powerful, with a noble history, so I didn’t see any problem with allowing him to date you. He was an ambitious young man, but respectful, and he seemed to treat you well.”
“I’m sensing there’s a ‘but’ here.”
“Indeed,” my father agreed. “A year into your relationship, you came home one day after a fierce battle, glowing from the inside out with celestial fire. Your mother and I instantly knew what had happened—you and your angel had formed the ultimate bond of trust and had joined together in battle.” He gripped my hand, and my heart leapt at the fierce joy gleaming in his eyes. “You had become Angel Kissed.”
I gasped as the memory that had been tickling the edges of my mind earlier burst forth. It was of the night Jax and I fought a gang of Possessed in Lincoln Heights—humans who had unwittingly let demons into their hearts. They’d been using their powers to take over the local gangs in the area to the point that they were attracting the local authorities, and Jax and I had been sent in to take care of them. But there had been more than we’d originally thought, and, on top of it, the gang had been run by a Demonkin. Outnumbered and outgunned, we’d fought to what we thought would be our death. But, out of nowhere, I’d begun to glow with golden flames that had raced over my entire body, turning me into a beacon of flaming light. And I’d used the celestial flames to wipe out every single demon that night.
“Lucas was jealous, wasn’t he?” I murmured, dazed at the revelation. “That’s why he took my angel.”
“I would surmise as much,” my father agreed darkly. “After you became Angel Kissed, your relationship changed. It took me a long time to catch on, because I’m always so busy running the Watchtower,” he said, guilt in his voice now. “But you started spending a lot more time with Lucas, and less time with the family. Jax came to me and said that your relationship was becoming unhealthy—that you were disappearing during your shifts to spend time with him, and that you were hopping at his command like a dog. I started to suspect something strange was going on, because you’re headstrong and fierce, and I couldn’t imagine you acting the way Jax said you were.”
A bad feeling began to swirl in my gut, and I braced my hands against the hard cot. “So what did you find?” I asked, my voice strained. “Was Lucas blackmailing me somehow?”
“Worse. He was using an ancient spell to control you. I think it must have taken him some time before he felt secure enough in his power over you to command you to steal the Infinity Key from our home and bring it to him.” My father swallowed, hard. “I’d been monitoring you both closely by that point, and I followed you the night you stole it. I needed visual confirmation of Lucas’s treachery in order to apprehend him, and also proof that he was controlling you and that you weren’t a willing accomplice.” His voice trembled a little now. “Unfortunately, Lucas had powerful magic shielding his home that wouldn’t allow me to pass, and it took time to break through it. By the time I made it down to the basement where he had you, he’d already ripped your angel away and was about to kill you. I would have smote him myself, then and there, but he used his magic to get away, leaving you crumpled and shaking on the floor like a broken doll.”
Silence fell between us again, and I wrapped my arms around myself, cold now. My father must have noticed, because he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and drew me against his chest. I closed my eyes as he stroked a hand over my hair, soothing me with his gentle touch.
“How… how did you know Lucas was using magic to control me?”
“I called in a favor from a friend,” he said grimly. “A witch named Sarina, who specializes in dark magic. She did a sort of magical evaluation on you, and that’s when she found the taint Lucas had left on your soul.”
I shuddered. “Is that taint still there?” I asked, remembering the simultaneous love and hate that always raged inside me whenever I came face to face with him. “Will it ever be gone?”
“With time,” my father said, his voice soft. “In fact, it has likely faded significantly by now. Sarina used her magic to probe your shattered mind, and found out that you’d resisted Lucas at the last moment, refusing to hand over the Infinity Key. It can only be given willingly, so when you wouldn’t hand it over, he lashed out in a rage, stealing your angel from you out of spite.” He let out a long-suffering sigh. “Unfortunately, the woman was unable to figure out what you did with the Infinity Key. It seems to have vanished completely.”
“Lucas seems to know how to retrieve it,” I said hollowly. “He said that all I needed to do was come willingly.”
“He will stop at nothing to get it, and to get you,” my father said, his voice deadly serious now. He twisted to look at me, and then lifted my chin so he could meet my gaze. “You must not let him get his hands on you, Arabella. The power he can wield with that key is unimaginable, and he is a very clever man. If he thinks he can use you to get the key back, then he probably can.”
“I know.” My insides went cold at the very thought of it. Lucas could already control the demons using his doubled angelic power. He would be able to raise an army with the key, one that could easily outnumber the Sentinel population. Even if I had to slit my own throat, I couldn’t let Lucas get his hands on me.
I took a deep breath, then asked the question I was dreading the most. “How did my mother deal with all this?”
