Holy tiara from Avalon!
A supernatural blue glow swirled and arced around a tiara made of solid gold. It was otherworldly, with circles and rings that resembled planets, and filigree so delicate it looked like spun sugar. Small stones were sprinkled throughout the design like stardust. The piece was so beautiful it took my breath away.
“The Diadem of Avalon has been entrusted to the Lumens for millennia. It allows the wearer to merge minds with anyone in the universe,” Aurelia explained.
Mind merging? How about mind blown?
Theo looked at his wife with pride. “Aurelia has been practicing with it for a decade.”
“It takes a lifetime.” Aurelia blushed and reached in to grasp the edges of the tiara, handling the precious item with care.
My heart hammered in my chest as I remembered what Drea had said about her mom getting injured the last time she did this. Drea must have been thinking the same thing.
“Mom, be careful,” she whispered next to me.
Aurelia smiled at her daughter. “Last time was an emergency, I was rushing and not in the right headspace. This is different. I have all the time I need.” Her voice was smooth, hypnotic, like she’d been doing yoga for an hour before this.
“Yes, take your time. No rush,” I urged her, nerves creeping in on me again. I half hoped Skye would pop back in and tell us to stop if she really felt something awful was going to happen. But Skye never came, and before I knew it Aurelia was lifting the diadem to her head.
“I’ll tell her how much you miss and love her, and that we’re coming for her,” Aurelia said to me.
I bit the inside of my cheek and nodded. I wasn’t even allowing myself to think of the possibility that my mom might not be alive, that Apollyon killed her for interfering in my Ascension Ceremony. Nope. Not going there.
Aurelia sat cross-legged in the middle of the room as Theo, Drea, and I backed up. She took a deep breath and then placed the relic on her head.
Nothing happened.
I was expecting maybe a flash of color, or for her to gasp, or scrunch her face, butnothinghappened. She sat with her hands folded in her lap, head slightly cocked, and mouth set into the slightest of smiles.
“Emery,” she whispered faintly, and the hairs on my arms stood. The air charged around us then, and that’s when somethingdidhappen.
Aurelia levitated off the ground, only a few inches, but her entire body lifted as the blue glow of the Diadem of Avalon trickled down her neck and shoulders, covering her entire body.
Aurelia gasped, then laughed as tears collected in her eyes.
What the what?
“She’s talking to your mom,” Theo said. “The conversation is just playing out in her mind.”
Drea stiffened beside me. “That’s how she got hurt last time. Instead of reaching Cael in Avalon, she mind merged with a demon who intercepted. It caused her a lot of pain.”
I winced. That was possible? Mind melding with a demon? That sounded like my worst nightmare.
I looked down at Aurelia for any sign that a demon was mentally torturing her, but she was just grinning ear to ear with silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
Mom.
Aurelia once said that she and my mom were close, so I was glad my mom would hear from a familiar person and know that I hadn’t abandoned her. It gave me a deep peace in my soul.
“I’m getting some demonic activity readings!” one of the master Lumens shouted from the corner, shattering the peace that had fallen over me.
Theo moved then like a lightning bolt. Rushing forward, he grabbed my shoulders and hauled me up and threw me over his shoulder in a fireman hold and then sprinted toward the door on the far side of the room.
“Hey, what the heck?” I yelled as Drea ran after us.
“Sorry, Tatum. This was Aurelia’s plan if demons decided to crash the party,” Theo said.
My gaze flicked up to see one of the masters shaking Aurelia from her trance just as four portals opened inside the room.
