No. This—this thing in front of me wasn’t my mother. My mother would never have turned her back on me. She would’ve held me, comforted me. I snapped out of it, blinking slowly.
“Who did this to her face?” Her voice was so cold, so deadly and so unlike Mom, but at the same time I heard the edge in her words. Recognizing her tone from the many times she’d yel ed at me for getting in trouble—it was the tone that happened right before she launched into a major bitch-fest. Eric and Daniel didn’t know. They didn’t know my mother like I did.
“Who do you think?” Eric sneered.
She pressed cool lips against my forehead, and I squeezed my eyes shut. She wasn’t my Mom. “I gave you both explicit orders.” She straightened, her eyes fal ing to Daniel.
Reality settled around me once more, and I came to my knees. I couldn’t think about her anymore, couldn’t see her as my mom. I made my decision. Screw fate. My eyes met Caleb’s, and I nodded at Mom’s back and mouthed the words, “Get ready.” I could only hope he understood.
“That is simply unacceptable.” That was the only warning she gave. She launched herself at Daniel, knocking him over Caleb. The two daimons crashed to the floor, swinging and tearing at one another.
I seized the opportunity. Scrambling to my feet, I grabbed for Caleb.
Thankful y, he got the message. He slid off the bed as Eric went after Daniel, too. I staggered to my feet just as Mom pul ed Daniel to his feet. He was a good foot tal er than her, but she threw him around the room like he was nothing. There was a moment when I couldn’t move. Her strength was shocking, unnatural.
Dizzy and nauseous, I stumbled away from the room with Caleb in tow. We raced through the cabin and out the front door. Rain pounded on the roof of the deck, almost but not quite silencing the wet, sloppy crunch from inside the house. The sound propel ed both of us over the railing.
Forgetting how high the decks were, I hit the ground hard, fal ing to my knees.
“Lexie!”
My mother’s voice pushed me to my feet. Glancing beside me, I saw Caleb do the same. We ran, half sliding and half fal ing down the muddy hil . Branches slapped me in the face, pul ed on my clothing and hair, but I kept running. Al that gym time paid off. My muscles pushed past the pain and the lack of blood.
“Alexandria!”
We weren’t fast enough. Caleb’s startled yelp spun me around. My mom plucked him up from behind, tossing him sideways. Shock flickered over his face right before he slammed into a thick maple tree. I screamed, backtracking to where he’d fal en.
A barrier of flames went up, pushing me back. The fire destroyed everything in its path as it spread. Caleb rol ed to his side, barely escaping it. I stumbled backward as the world burned in red and violet colored flames. The rain did nothing to beat down the unnatural fire.
And there she stood—tal and straight, like a terrible goddess of death. Twice now, I’d failed to see that. In the al ey in Bald Head and moments earlier in the cabin, right after I’d realized I had a Covenant dagger in my pocket.
“Lexie, you promised me you wouldn’t run.” She sounded surprisingly calm.
Did I? My hand slipped into the side pocket. “I lied.”
“I took care of Daniel. You won’t have to worry about him.” She edged closer. “Everything is going to be okay now. Lexie, you should sit down. You’re bleeding al over the place.”
I glanced down at myself. Running had gotten my blood pulsing. I could feel it trickling down my arms and neck. I was kind of surprised I had any left in me. Out of the corner of my eye, a shot of dark blue darted between the flames.
“Just do it, Rachel e. She’s weak.” Fury and impatience colored Eric’s words. “Take care of it and let’s get the hel out of here!”
That was so true. Light-headed and off-balance, a bunny rabbit could get the best of me right now. “Don’t come any closer.”
My mother laughed. “Lexie, this wil be over soon. I know you’re scared, but you have nothing to worry about. I’m going to take care of everything. Don’t you trust me? I’m your mother.”
I backed up, stopping when I felt the heat from the flames.
“You’re not my mother.”
She moved forward. Somewhere in the distance, I thought I heard my name being cal ed. His voice— Aiden’s.
It had to be a hal ucination, because neither Eric nor my mom reacted to the sound, but even if it was just a sad manifestation of my subconscious, it gave me strength to keep standing. My fingers slid over the slender dagger.
How had they missed this? “You’re not my mother,” I said again, my voice sounding hoarse.
“Baby, you’re confused. I’m your mother.”
My thumb brushed over the release button. “You died in Miami.”
Her eyes held a dangerous glint. “Alexandria… there is no other option.”
Wait, a voice whispered in my head, wait until her defenses are down. If she saw the blade, it would be over. I needed her to believe she’d won. I needed her vulnerable.
Though, the strange thing was, I was almost a hundred percent certain the voice didn’t belong to me. But that real y didn’t matter right now.
“There’s another option. You could just kil me.”
“No. You wil join me.” Her voice sounded like it had in the room, right before she’d kil ed Daniel for touching me. How messed up was that? “And since you broke your promise, I wil have to kil your little boyfriend over there. That is, if he hasn’t been burned alive yet.”
Everything came down to this moment. Die or kil her. Be turned into a monster or kil her. The breath I drew in wasn’t enough. “You’re already dead,” I whispered, “and I’d rather be dead than become what you are.”
“You wil thank me later.” Moving inhumanly fast, she wrapped her hand through my hair and jerked my head back.
The handle of the dagger felt awkward, wrong even.
Sucking in air, I pushed the little button. There wasn’t a lot of space between us, but I stil got my arm in between us. It wouldn’t be a precise hit, not at this angle, but it would kil .
You will kill the ones you love.
Fate had been right about that.
My mother jerked back, her mouth gaping open in surprise. She looked down. So did I. My hand was flush with her chest, and the blade had sunk through her skin like titanium did when it met the flesh of a daimon.
She stumbled backward as I withdrew the dagger. Her face contorted and blurred. Bright, beautiful eyes met mine, and then they disappeared. Like a switch had been thrown, the fire circling us ceased to exist.
Her scream fil ed the forest, and my screams overcame hers. She slumped just as my legs refused to cooperate.
We both folded into ourselves at the same time, except I col apsed into a messy heap and she buckled into herself.
There was a moment—it was quick—but I saw the glimmer of relief cross her face. In that instant, she was Mom. She real y was. And then she started to flake apart, fading until there was nothing left but a fine layer of blue dust.
I sagged forward, resting my head against the damp ground, vaguely aware of Eric running and the rain hammering me. Months of grief and loss swirled inside me, invading every cel , every pore. Nothing existed but the raw pain of a different kind of hurting. The tags and the bruises faded in comparison to it. Anguish consumed me. I wanted to die—to just cave in like Mom had. I’d kil ed her—my mother. Daimon or not, I’d kil ed her.