Stilling my bare hand over the page, I held my breath as I touched the words:two women, and then my soul was sucked from my body.
Everything moved so fast, and the room spun so much that it was as if someone had taken a fishing hook, pierced my soul, and then yanked it upward. I felt like I was going to vomit. Then just as quickly it all came back into focus. Except that I was no longer in the library. I was in a house, a beautiful apartment with travertine floors and granite countertops. There was a million-dollar view of the New York City skyline, but when I looked down at my hands and legs, I yelped.
I was like Skye when she was on Earth, no longer in physical form but see-through. I was a ghost!
The sound of voices pulled my attention up and then I froze, going rigid when I saw Apollyon and my mother.
My mom was in the kitchen with her long blonde hair braided over one shoulder as she stirred something in a pot. She looked so healthy, so young.
“Hello, my love,” he cooed at her from the entryway. His blond hair was brushed back and he didn’t have his black wings out. He wore a suit rather than the armor, and seeing him like this, almost regular looking, was jarring.
She smiled when he walked in. Seeing them normal and happy like this made me sick. Little did anyone know he was acting and my mother was spelled. He bent and kissed her cheek, placing a hand on her belly.
Oh.Was she newly pregnant with me? Her stomach was flat but she could have just found out.
“I secretly hope it’s a girl, but I’ll be happy with whatever,” my mom said to him.
He nodded. “The sex of the child makes no difference to me either.” His grin was sadistic. I wanted to grab the kitchen knife and stab him right through the heart with it. Yeah, the sex of the baby didn’t matter because he just needed someone with his DNA and my mom’s Lumen lineage to make a Shadowling.
Bastard.
“My love, I have to go out of town on a business trip for a few days, so I’m going to go pack,” he told her.
My mom stopped stirring the pot, looking up at him with a frown. “You’re barely here as it is.”
The way he glared at her made my blood run cold. “I provide a wonderful life for you. Is that not enough?”
My mom chewed her bottom lip and nodded as Apollyon disappeared into the bedroom. Just by thinking about it, I was able to fast forward the scene.
Apollyon stepped out of the bedroom holding a duffle bag. “My love,” he said as he passed in front of me, and now that I was closer to him I could feel some type of energy come off of him when he uttered those two words.
Was that how he kept the love spell on her? By constantly calling her that? Maybe it was a trigger for the spell. Anger I didn’t know what to do with rolled in my gut.
“I’m off to catch my plane,” he said.
My mom frowned. “You can’t even stay for dinner?”
Apollyon kissed her cheek, ignoring her question. “See you in a few days.”
When he stepped out of the kitchen and made his way to the door, there was a tug on my navel like we were connected. I jerked forward, scrambling over my feet as I was pulled after him. I guess since this memory was tied to Apollyon I had to be close to where he was. Running to catch up, I phased through the front door he’d closed and then was with him out in the hallway. With a mere flick of his wrist he opened a portal and I started to slightly panic. If I followed him in could I get back out? Where did the portal lead? To the Netherworld?
He stepped through and I fumbled after him, not knowing where it would lead.
CHAPTERTWO
Following Apollyon into the portal inside of his memories, we came out into another apartment hallway.
Interesting. Not what I expected.
Apollyon stood in front of apartment 413. I watched in curiosity as he knocked, and then my jaw dropped open when a heavily pregnant woman answered the door with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth.
Apollyon reached out and yanked the cigarette from her mouth. “I told you not to smoke while pregnant.”
The woman had black hair tied up into a ratty bun at the nape of her neck and she was covered in tattoos. Even so, I could tell she was beautiful. “I already gave up drinkin’ and drugs,” she snapped back, waddling away from the door. “The kid only needs to live to eighteen to be able to get you out of the Netherworld, not be healthy her whole life.”
I gasped, my hand going to my mouth at the casual way the woman spoke about her baby, and also how clear it was that she knew she was having a baby with Apollyon and that it would free him from the Netherworld. Apollyon stepped into the grungy apartment and sighed. “If not for your Lumen lineage I wouldn’t bother with you.”
She flipped him off and then held out her hand. “Yeah, yeah, monthly paymentplease.”
