“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.
Time stopped. It could’ve been minutes or hours, but eventual y there were voices. People cal ed my name, cal ed Caleb’s, but I couldn’t answer. Everything sounded far away and unreal.
Then strong hands surrounded me, lifting me up. My head fel back and cool rain splattered off my cheeks. “Alex, look at me. Please.”
Recognizing the voice, I opened my eyes. Aiden stared down at me, face pale and drawn. He looked stricken as his gaze roamed over the many bite marks. “Hey,” I murmured.
“It’s going to be okay.” His voice held a panicked, desperate edge. He ran wet fingers over my cheeks, catching my chin. “I need you to keep your eyes open and talk to me. Everything’s going to be okay.”
I felt funny, so I doubted that. There were so many voices, some I recognized and some I didn’t. Somewhere I heard Seth. “Where’s… Caleb?”
“He’s okay. We have him—Alex, stay with me. Talk to me.”
“You were… right.” I swal owed, needing to tel someone
—to tel him. “She was relieved. I saw it… ”
“Alex?” Aiden stood, cradling me to his chest. I felt his
“Alex?” Aiden stood, cradling me to his chest. I felt his heart thundering under my cheek and then I felt nothing at al .
CHAPTER 20
I WOKE UP STARING AT THE SOFT GLOW OF
fluorescent ceiling lights. I wasn’t sure what’d woken me or where I was.
“Alex.”
I turned my head and met his pale gray eyes. Aiden sat on the edge of the bed. Dark waves of hair fel over his forehead. He looked different to me. Shadows bloomed under his eyes.
“Hey,” I croaked.
Aiden smiled that wonderful ful smile that was so rare, so beautiful. He reached over and with just the tips of his fingers, he brushed a few strands of hair off my forehead.
“How are you feeling?”