Chapter Twenty-Four
Aleena held the blaster one-handed. The barrel was still smoking when she dumped it on the ground and stumbled forward. She fell to her knees. Her other hand hung uselessly at her side, looking like a rubber glove. Ulric had obviously broken every bone.
Her face was focused on him. Not with love, but with a look of hate marring her usually flawless face. “I never thought I’d see you again, but when I watched you jump out of her ship, I felt it deep within me. A mother never loses her bond with her child…no matter how much I wished I could.”
“Aleena, why did you drag all of us into this?”Damon’s voice was harsh, frustrated.
She sighed, avoiding all eyes. “All I ever wanted was to protect us from the dangers outside.”
“By culling the older population? What exactly did you do to them?”
“Damon, they served the same purpose as Elroy. The same purpose you will all serve, as well.”
Ulric looked up at Aleena with red-rimmed eyes. He’d been crying, and none of them had noticed. Alex felt a twinge of sympathy toward her former lover, but her anger surpassed any pity. It was his fault that she’d ended up on a planet run by a selfish freak.
“What about the prophecy?” Damon continued his interrogation, never letting go of Alex’s hand.
“I made it up.”
“It came true!”
“Yes, Damon. It did. You can imagine my shock when the monitors showed me our atmosphere had been breached by a ship, and I watched it crash into the jungle.” She sighed, looking down at her lap. “When I sent you out there, I didn’t think you’d find anything but a carcass or two. I was wrong on many counts. It wasn’t until I saw Ulric that I realized we were all in a lot of trouble, and that my hidden secret had finally caught up with me. That’s okay. I can clean this up the same way I’ve always cleaned up every other mess.”
“What other mess?” Damon’s anxiety echoed through his fingers and into Alex.
Aleena looked at him, tears cascading down her pale face. “Do you really think we live in the kind of community I try so hard to keep together? Of course we don’t. People disobey me all the time. They constantly break the rules, and I’m forced to deal with them.”
No one said anything.
She released a breath. “It’s hard to rule with an iron fist and make the rest of the people believe we’re living in utopia. I have to do whatever it takes to make things work.”
“That’s despicable!” Damon shouted. “How dare you keep us in the dark about everything? ”
“Don’t you dare judge me! Do you have any idea who your parents were? Those bloody gypsies were so easily lured by the promise of credits…” her voice trailed off. “They never cared about you. All they wanted was the riches I lied to them about.”
“What are you saying?”
“Didn’t you think it strange that you’re the only one who can practice any sort of magic within our walls? The only one who can freely wander in and out whenever he pleases?” The calculating look in her eyes made Alex shiver.
“It’s because of my connection to the arcane,” he answered with a shrug.
“No.” Aleena shook her head, making her hair sway like a wave. “Damon, you’re the only one who can connect to the magic holding our fortress together, because the sorcerers who made it were your parents. They gave their lives so I could save ours.”
“So, you killed them?”
“I took you in and raised you as my own. You replaced the son I lost in Ulric. Don’t you think thatwas payment enough?”
What the hell was this lunatic saying?
“Are you really my mother?” Ulric winced. Aleena had been a much better shot than Elroy-she’d burned a hole right through Ulric’s chest.
“Yes, I am. I promise your sacrifice won’t be in vain.”
“What sacrifice?” A vein in Damon’s rigid jaw pulsed as he glared at Aleena.
Alex couldn’t believe she’d fallen into a planet with an outward appearance of peace and serenity, paid for with vicious lies and cover-ups. Maybe her mother wasn’t the only bitch in the galaxy willing to do whateverit took to secure her own position of power. No matter what the cost.
What Aleena had called Damon’s parents kept echoing inside her head: sorcerers. Sorcery was a completely different thing than magic. Her father had told her about it only once, claiming all sorcerers came from a long line of gypsies who travelled the stars and lived all over the place. They were nomads who spent most of their lives moving from one place to another, selling their wares or smuggling what wasn’t theirs. They also had use of something he called the Arcanae-the force of energy they believed flowed through all of creation and could be accessed via ritual.
The only reason he’d confided this in her was because they’d once crossed paths with a female sorcerer who cut him up pretty bad, without laying a hand on him.
Her heart sank. I can’t believe I didn’t put this together before. Damon had referred to his use of magic as arcane…
She turned to look at Damon, with his gorgeous, caramel skin and glowing, green eyes. If he carried the blood of sorcerers, did it mean her father did, too? Her mother had often referred to him as a ‘gypsy’, but Alex never thought anything of it. She couldn’t believe her life was clicking together at the same time as Ulric and Damon’s.
“Aleena, what are you planning?”
“Hush, Damon. It will all work out. You’ll see. My son can’t stay on Eden, and now that he knows the truth, he can’t go back to his space station, either.” Aleena looked at Ulric with a sad smile curving her lips. “Do you understand why you’re here? You were never supposed to leave your home. I thought your parents made sure of that.”
“They did, but I sneaked out. Besides, they’ve been dead for years.” He paused, licked his lips, and trembled. “I just wanted to surprise her.” He closed his eyes. “It burns so much. Why did you shoot me?”
“Because I knew you would never accept this fate willingly.”
“Accept what fate?”
“Your life is worthless. You have to forfeit it for others,” Aleena answered. “There might not be a prophecy, but the ritual that’ll permanently seal us off from the dangers of the planet is very real.”
“I won’t help you,” Ulric whispered.
“You’re going to stand up, now.” Aleena continued, as if he’d never spoken.
Ulric didn’t resist when his mother dragged him up with her. “I don’t want to die. I can return to Anteris with Alex and forget any of this happened-”
“No, you can’t. I warned them about this.”
“Who did you warn?”