Killian clenches his fists at his sides, shadows pouring out of him in response. “She’s not fooling around with Blaise, nor anyone else for that matter. She is mine!”
His claim on me feels like a punch in the gut. He just fucked everything up beyond repair! My palms are sweaty, my breath coming out in shallow puffs.
A horrid cackle pierces the tense silence. My twin is finally shedding her personable facade, more silver tendrils of smoke gushing out of her hands.
“Oh, Akaori, you’ve always been a sentimental fool. I held hope that this time around you’ll see reason, but it does not matter. You can make the same choices until the end of time, and it still won’t matter. It’s in my power now to sway you, to make you eternally grovel at my feet in complete submission and adoration. You are mine!” Aurora spits as she rises from the table, shaking in unkept rage, her silver shadows thrashing around her.
What the hell is she on about? She actually wants Killian? Why does she talk as if they had met before? And since when does she pray to Akaori?
“And you! You despicable filth! How idiotic can you be not to learn your place? Do I have to compel countless vampires to rape your crummy ass, just like I did with Jonathan and the rest?! Get it through your stupid brain, slut! You’re nothing but a worthless whore, unworthy of love, unworthy of HIM!”
CHAPTER 30
Killian
Myshadowsexplodefromthe confines of my skin, crawling towards Aimee and dragging her towards me, protectively. She’s shaking uncontrollably, sobbing and in what seems to be a state of shock.
Aurora’s eyes burn through us with endless rage and yearning, her silver shadows poised to attack. Her words churn horribly through my mind: “…compel countless vampires to rape your crummy ass, just like I did with Jonathan and the rest…”
A loud roar escapes my lips as I unsheathe Kadirah and Alnashar from my belt. “You are behind her rapes?” I ask, disgusted by the poor excuse of a female in front of me. Prophecy be damned, I will slaughter her for all the pain she inflicted on my little umbra. I don’t even care anymore if I damn the entire realm to its final ruination. This wench will pay for every tear, every fear, and every panic attack she caused Aimee. She’s adead bitch walking. “Behind all her pain and trauma? What the fuck is wrong with you, you demented psychopath? How could you do that to your own sister?”
She lets out a sinister chuckle. “What a poor twist of fate to be shackled down in this flesh to my worst enemy,” Aurora says in a high-pitched voice like a lunatic, making no sense whatsoever. “She’s no fucking sister of mine. She’s the bane of my existence. The reason I don’t have you, over and over again. I will fucking kill her once and for all, just as I have done before. This time you will belong to me, vampire.” Her silver shadows, crackling with electricity, throw themselves towards Aimee, but my crimson ones blast them away, creating a protective shield around us.
“You’re out of your Akaoridamn mind, Aurora! I’ve never met you before. What the fuck do you mean, kill her again? Are you high on faerie wine?” My shadows erupt her way, but she pushes them back easily, not even breaking a sweat. No matter how much power I pour into my shadows, she won’t budge. She won’t even wipe away her crazed smile from her despicable face. We are evenly matched.
“You might not remember, either of you, but I do! I remember everything, vampire. And this time around, I will get what is mine! The Fates can’t deny me now, and you won’t either.” She cocks her head to the side, her forbidding grin widening.
“You’re insane!” I say in dismay. Aimee is shaking behind me, tears streaming down her face, as she clings to my back.
Aurora’s shadows regroup behind her, forming a silver halo, like a wicked crown of liquid destruction.
“I’m bored, puppet. It’s time to end this!” She starts to shake and twist at impossible angles, as if she’s shedding her own skin.
A loud boom resounds in the dining hall as the doors shatter into flying splinters everywhere, and several onpyrs pour into the room, hissing maniacally. I can count the onpyr prisoners from the dungeons, the unknown onpyr that escapedin Drovillan and that Blaise never caught, and Leilah, her eye sockets crimson and bleeding.
“It’s time for your reckoning, Killian,” Leilah bellows just as Aimee stutters behind me, looking at the other creatures. “Jonathan..” she whispers in terror. “Rami…Corbyn.” I frown, my gaze honing in on her abusers. I’ve had two of them in my dungeons all along? Fuck this shit.
Footsteps and shouts come from the hallways, just as Blaise, Marhus and several warriors come running. A cacophony of chaos ensues as onpyrs and vampires lock into battle, while Aurora starts floating from the ground, shrieking menacingly.
Her limbs elongate, lengthening and bending in a completely unnatural way. Her once-tan skin is losing all color, becoming a sickening papery white, while her chocolate brown hair turns flaming red, floating in the air like blazing snakes. She’s becoming my worst nightmare right in front of my eyes, the very evil we are fighting against.
I feel the blood draining from my stony face as I stare into the soulless white eyes of my arch-enemy. Aurora Vaureghain, the Foretold One that was supposed to be my kingdom’s salvation, the sister I’ve put all my hopes in—the one meant to help me defeat Morweena, has just transformed into the very creature that plagues my lands like a spreading cancer. She is no salvation; she is destruction personified!
I don’t even have time to wrap my head around this fuckery. In our desperate attempts to secure the Foretold One’s help and fulfill the prophecy, we’ve basically allowed entrance to our nemesis in the heart of my kingdom. Received her with open arms right in our midst. I might as well have given her the entire realm on a silver platter. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
She rips her headpiece, throwing it to the ground, her rotten black lips curled in a sinister sneer, and her washed-out eyesfocused on me. “No need for this iron trinket anymore. It’s time to kiss goodbye your free will, Killian darling.”
I push Aimee backwards with all my might, throwing her out of the thick of the battle, and delve straight back into it, unleashing my hungry shadows on Morweena.
Aimee
Everything happens in slow motion and at a dizzying speed all at once. One moment my sister is showing her true colors, and the next she is morphing into Morweena, the very sorceress Killian hoped to destroy with Aurora’s help. And oh Gods, Jonathan, Rami and Corbyn are still her minions—her onpyr underlings. Leilah is now one of them too.
My head is spinning uncontrollably, and I’m suffocating under the weight of what is happening. There is no salvation! The prophecy is an utter sham.
I watch in horror as Killian throws himself into battle, spinning his shadows like merciless weapons, but Aurora—no,Morweena—placates every one of his attacks, cackling like the nightmare she is.
“Fight me as much as you want, darling vampire. You are no match for me; you never were. I’m the one who created you after all.” She growls, hurling her zapping shadows at him, but Killian jumps out of the way and rolls on the ground just in time to avoid getting fried, before sending another crimson blast her way.
