Gran and I both gasped at the same time. Like anactuallove spell? She’d mentioned she’d felt like he’d cast a love spell on her in her letter, but I assumed she was joking.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
My mom chewed the inside of her cheek, looking lost in a distant memory. “That first day I went to Shade Academy for my tour I hadzerointentions of becoming a Shade. He was waiting for me. He projected himself as a Shade in his early twenties with a rich family. Told me his name was Aaron. He took me to lunch, and the more he spoke and the more I fell in love, the more what he said made sense. He could have told me that my foot was on fire, and I would have laughed and smiled.”
He spelled her!That bastard!
I balled the sheet in my fists as she went on.
“I chose to become a Shade to be with him, unaware of the consequences of that action. I fought alongside them, protecting portals, killing—” Her voice cracked. “Lumen hunters.”
Gran reached forward and massaged my mom’s leg.
A single tear slid down my mother’s face and she swatted it away. “I didn’t recognize myself, but at the same time I was happy. Aaron came and went at odd hours, and I didn’t question it. He was a powerful Shade with business all over the world.”
So that’s how he explained his absence. He was really in the Netherworld. Lying douche.
“Then…” My mom looked at me with a small smile. “I got pregnant with you, and all at once the love spell started to wear off. I started to question why I was doing things. Aaron became less funny, less charming, and I began to notice the workings of a spell.”
A sob escaped Gran’s throat. “I should have known. I should have helped you.”
My mom reached out and grasped Gran’s hand, “How could you have known? I didn’t. And by then I’d completely cut off contact with you and everyone from my old life. It took my pregnancy with Tatum to dilute the spell. Tatum’s life force merged with mine and his spell didn’t account for that. It was weakened and I was able to see through it. I saw the ugly monster I’d married,” she growled. “I still had to act the part of brainwashed wife when he was around, but when he left I started to follow him. I learned where he went and who he really was, and that’s when I realized what I was up against.”
“Oh, Mom.” My heart broke for her. I couldn’t imagine finding out the man I was married to and pregnant with his child was the freaking ruler of the Netherworld.
My mom picked at her fingernails. “I was so close to my due date when I figured it all out. I knew I’d only have one chance to escape, but it would have to wait until after I gave birth. I wouldn’t be physically strong enough to leave him before then. I also wasn’t willing to risk a potential confrontation with Apollyon and jeopardize your life, Tatum. So I had to wait. He wasn’t physically abusive back then. It was a safe environment.”
Back then.I ground my teeth together hard enough that my jaw ached.
Gran patted her hand. “It makes so much sense now, why you came to me that day with baby Tatum… the things you said.”
My mom looked at her mother and it really hit me in the feels how much Gran must have agonized over all of this too.
My mom nodded. “Once I learned why Apollyon even wanted a child, you were the only one I trusted to keep her safe if I wasn’t around to.”
“And you tried to kill him?” I asked.
My mom laughed, “Like an idiot, yes. I was a powerful Shade, but notthatpowerful. I’d studied some dark magic at Shade Academy in the hopes to use it against him, but it backfired. It created the spell that linked us together, which actually ended up saving my life. It made it so I was able to siphon some of Apollyon’s power, and if he tried to kill me, which he did try, it hurt him.”
I realized then that I’d judged her. I’d assumed she just chose Shade to rebel and fell for Apollyon because he was good looking and charismatic.
“I’m sorry,” I said, even though she wouldn’t know what I was even apologizing for. She just shook her head as if rejecting my apology, and it was in that moment that I remembered the shock of Apollyon telling me I might have a sister up in the black tower on Devil’s Meadow.
My concussion must have been worse than I thought, because that entire conversation came back to me now, as well as Aurum saving me, and I sat up straight.
“Mom…” My voice shook.
Gran seemed to catch on that something was wrong, because her hand came to rub small circles on my back. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
I looked at my mother, my heart pounding in my throat. “Why did Apollyon say he had to go and get my sister so he could kill us both?”
Both my mom and Gran wrapped their hands around their mouths at the same time and I could tell by the shock that it was news to them.
My mom sat up fully and winced as if it caused her pain. “What do you mean? What exactly did he say?”
“He said his backup plan had backfired. It was almost as if he was trying to kill me but couldn’t. Then he mentioned a sister.”
Her chest heaved as she stared at me quietly for a full minute. “He said backup plan?”
