“Lena, no, please. They are going to kill you!” she screeched as tears flowed relentlessly down her face.
I stepped through it and spun around to stare at her. “I love you,” I said through the tightness in my throat. Strong arms grabbed me and I closed my eyelids.
“That was fucking stupid, girl,” a deep voice growled against my ear. I was turned to face Lucifer and I paused, mentally calculating how the fuck someone else was in the circle. Kendra moved into my line of sight and frowned at me briefly before she concealed it with an aloof look. She smiled coldly as she moved closer and frowned.
“You’re sure the spell will work?” she asked, turning to glare at Lucifer.
“It will work,” he assured her as she moved away from me and started to drop items into the cauldron, which boiled as steam rose from it.
“Have you told her what she is yet?” she laughed mirthlessly. “How she isn’t even real?”
“I figured you wanted to tell her, love,” he mused. “How’s our little one?” he asked, ignoring her as his gaze latched onto my midriff. “Did you tell Lucian he was going to be a father?”
“No, I didn’t. What was the point?” I asked. “You think he cares, but he doesn’t. I keep telling you this, and yet you refuse to listen to me.”
“Because I know he cares.” Lucifer touched my cheek as the arms released me and the man walked to where Kendra stirred the cauldron. “You’ve met Hades before, kind of. He’s the one who lapped at that pretty pussy of yours. He’s also the one who prevented me from getting you pregnant.”
The man turned violet eyes on Lucifer and narrowed them. Power erupted from both men as if they’d fight, but then Kendra reached over and slammed her palm against his chest and the man went to the ground. Violet eyes stared up at Lucifer.
“Oh, don’t be so surprised, Hades. I knew whose side you were on,” he laughed coldly. “I knew Lucian had someone on the inside, someone who reported to him. You tipped your hand when you didn’t fuck Magdalena. I had my minions following you, and when they reported back to me that you’d gone aboveground, I had enough proof. Don’t worry, old friend. The spell will only render you paralyzed until I’ve finished here.”
I was pushed closer to the cauldron, which released a putrid scent that made it almost impossible to breathe. I covered my mouth with the back of my hand as I glared at Kendra. She exhaled and shook her head.
“He only liked you because he thought you were me,” she said in a deadpan tone. “He thought you were pure, but you’re nothing more than a selfish bitch. You left me down there to endure what should have been your torment. But I guess I should thank you for that. It was so much easier to get your sister to agree to allow me to endure the pain for her.” My heart hammered against my chest as tears burned my vision. “You see, I’ve always been a part of her. Just as you were never meant to be born,” she said cryptically. “You didn’t just come to be, you were created from magic. Your father helped me; he planted the seed, and I divided it. Everything that was dark inside of me is now yours. You’re nothing but the parts I didn’t want. You see, after so many centuries of being chased and hunted, I made a deal with Lucifer that he couldn’t pass up. Revenge against Lucian in exchange for my life back,” she cackled, and I narrowed my stare on her coldly.
“You cannot intervene with life,” I growled. “Magic has rules; there are boundaries that no witch can touch.”
“I wasn’t bound by those laws in death. A child isn’t alive until its heart begins to beat anyways. Just as your child’s does now inside your womb. I divided the egg in your mother’s womb, cutting away bits and pieces, and then there you were. It was the same for your brothers, which was how we knew it would work the second time. One twin born of light, and the other of darkness. Drake, of course, figured out that my intent was to kill Benjamin and hid him from me, but then that little problem solved itself, now didn’t it? Joshua was slaughtered in a war, far from home. Not before they were once again tethered, thanks to Lucifer. You see, if one of us dies, the soul returns to the other, becoming a whole. Unfortunately, the spell must be finished first, or both of us perish. Nasty hiccup, so don’t get any ideas or you will die with me, along with your unborn child.”
“You’re insane,” I muttered.
“No, I’ve spent centuries planning this, and you? You played your part beautifully, Magdalena. You were created to lure him to you and keep him occupied as Lucifer laid down the trap to ensnare him. But you, you little slut, you couldn’t stay off of him. I guess it’s not really your fault. You are every part of me that ever loved that monster.”
I trembled as it hit me. Lucifer wasn’t L. Lucian was L, and Kendra had been taken over by the dormant soul of Katarina.
“You won’t keep her,” I seethed. “She’s my sister!”
“She’s already gone,” she laughed as she watched me. “She’s now the dormant soul, fading away as I take full possession of her. Poor thing; she couldn’t handle what was being done to her, but when Lucifer showed her you in his bed and projected the image of you being slaughtered, she had handled everything we’d done to her at that point. You helped us break her. Once she watched you being fucked and murdered by Lucifer, she broke and begged to not feel it anymore. So I made her an offer: I’d feel everything and she wouldn’t ever have to feel it again.”
“You made her think I was dead,” I mumbled as I struggled to imagine what she’d gone through. They’d raped her night after night, until she was pregnant with Lucifer’s child, and then I’d walked into his club in my dream and he’d made her think I’d been murdered before her eyes as she was raped.
“She wouldn’t break,” she growled as she tossed the hair of the dead into the pot. “I whispered to her, promising her escape, and yet she held on. You’re both so fucking stubborn and think little of tradition. Neither of you deserved to live, which makes this easy.”
“And you? What about you, carrying Lucifer’s bastard in your belly?” I asked.
Her hand moved faster than I predicted, slapping me across the face. I slowly brought my gaze back to hers and smiled. For someone with so many years on her, she hit like a bitch. I stepped closer, only for Lucifer to growl in warning.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he hissed as the air around us grew thicker, power erupting as trees cracked from the pressure of the wind. The flames of the fires around us leapt and his scent rushed through my senses. “Stupid bitch! You’ve brought them right to us before we’re ready,” he snapped as Lucian appeared inches from the circle with Spyder beside him. One by one, they appeared around us. The Fae sifted in, bringing those of the coven with them. I winced as Synthia brought my grandmother and then pushed her carefully, using her own body as a shield.
“I warned you last time to stay away from her,” Lucian seethed. “There won’t be another time.”
“She came to me of her own free will, Lucian.”
I flinched from the anger I read in his eyes as they locked with mine. My mother rushed from the house, having watched everything from inside. Alden caught her as she rushed into his waiting arms. I swallowed the pain as her battered face was examined, but Lucian’s gaze moved from my mother, to me, and then to Kendra.
“Let the girls go, now,” he demanded.
“I don’t think so; you see, we’ve been planning this a very long time.”
Katarina glared at me before she swung her matching eyes to Lucian and scowled at him. A hungry look filled them as she slowly let her heated gaze slide down his hard, sinewy body that rippled with strength and power.
“I have them both,” Lucifer laughed. “I have Magdalena and her sister,” he purred as he grabbed our hands and pulled us closer to him. “One carries my child, the other carries yours.”
“Impossible,” Lucian snapped as his stare moved to me accusingly. “I cannot sire children; Katarina saw to that.”
“Actually,” Katarina laughed haughtily. “You can have children; you just have to care about her enough to ignite the curse. Of course, the moon had to shadow the sun and day had to become night with Venus in her closest position to the earth. I made sure the curse couldn’t be broken until I was ready for it to be, Lucian.”
His gaze swung to hers and he swallowed hard. I winced as a look passed over him that I’d never seen before. His eyes filled with pain and something else, something that drove a blade through my heart. He’d loved her. My hand tightened against Lucifer’s as I struggled to get it free. I was in their fucking game, not because Lucian had brought me into it, but because his lover had.
“Lena,” Lucian growled, and I swallowed hard as I brought my tear-filled gaze to his. He flinched as he read the truth of their words on my face. Lucifer dropped my hand and moved behind Katarina, placing his hands over her womb. Lucian’s gaze left mine, burning a hole into where Lucifer touched his lover.
The nightmares, the one the entire coven had endured, were of him. He was the monster who hunted the cursed witch through every lifetime, and also her lover. I’d given him a piece of me, the one piece that hadn’t been hers: My heart. I no longer wondered why he walked out; he’d never stopped loving the original witch, and now she was here, inside my sister.
“Katarina, sweet girl,” Lucian whispered, and as his words soothed and caressed, my heart shattered a little more. “Come to me.”
“Not this time, Lucian. Not anymore. You see, I’ve already won. Everything that loved you inside of me is now in her. Your precious Lena. Even your precious seal,” she purred as she laughed as his eyes widened and slowly moved to my stomach. “You’re getting it. I have ensured that you feel pain like you’ve forced me to endure time and time again. You let me come back long enough to seduce me, and then murder me. I am free of you; Lucifer has made sure that you can never hunt me again, monster. I have won.”
My heart sank and my knees threatened to give out. I had the seal inside of me? I had it? No. I smothered a sob with the back of my hand. I didn’t have it, my child did. Lucian’s child held the purest form of evil in his tiny soul. I stepped back as I shook my head. This wasn’t happening.
“You cursed an innocent child to death?” he demanded.
“No, I cursed you to take your own child’s life. You want it so bad, Lucian, take it.”
“And what happens to Lena?” Spyder asked as he stood inches from the circle, as if he intended to bust through it, which was hopeless. No one could get through.
“She dies, of course,” Lucifer answered. “Katarina will need the rest of her soul back. By the way, Lucian, it’s a boy. The son you always wanted and never could grasp. It’s too bad you’ll never get to see him grow as I will watch mine and Katarina’s child do.”
Chapter 36
I continued moving backwards until I was inches from the cauldron. One kick, one kick and the potion to remove the soul would seep into the earth. I let the darkness slither over my skin, knowing what I was about to do would be suicide, but it was the only chance I had to get everyone out of this without leaving them broken or worse.
Katarina started in on Lucian, and he argued facts with her, which seemed mundane now. They’d pushed innocent lives into their deadly game time after time again. I turned, intending to push the cauldron over, but Lucifer slapped me, appearing in front of me. He sent me sailing to the ground, and I lay there, dazed, as I regained focus. I shot up the moment he dropped his guard, thinking I was subdued. I heard Lucian scream as my grandmother and mother cried out with him.
I pushed my hand through Lucifer’s chest, intending to remove his heart. Light flashed around us and the ground trembled, but the further I dug inside his chest, the less I found. He bellowed and slammed me against the ground; my vision blurred as my head hit against something hard. I gurgled as I fought to get back up, but couldn’t.
“You stupid bitch!” he snarled as he straddled my body and gripped my head, slamming it down on the ground over and over again. I heard it crack as it bashed against the hard ground and darkness threatened to consume me. I struggled to get free, but I couldn’t move. Something moved beside me out of my peripheral vision. Screaming continued, light exploding as the sound of trees hitting the ground filled the area. One minute I’d been expecting certain death, and the next something slammed into Lucifer.
I heard more screaming; Kendra?
Light exploded, and someone shouted for Lucian, and my instincts said to get up. To fight. I rolled onto my stomach as I watched Katarina slapping Hades as he drove his fist into Lucifer repeatedly. They disappeared after Hades shouted something to Lucian, but he wasn’t listening. His midnight eyes watched as I struggled to get up.
Katarina moved her assault on me, kicking me and screaming blurred words that I couldn’t hear through the drums beating in my ears. Everything sounded far away, even my own cries as she kicked me. Sound came back at a deafening roar and I grabbed her foot, pulling her down.
I got to my feet, barely. My body felt wrong, and my hand touched my head, coming back covered in blood. My skull felt soft, broken. I watched as Katarina got to her feet and stumbled towards her. My first attempt to get her was clumsy, as if I’d drunk too much whisky. I lunged again, letting the darkness take a little more control than it ever had before.
Lucian spoke to Katarina, distracting her as I moved closer on clumsy feet, my equilibrium fucked.
“Let me help you, Katarina. We can be together again, but this time free of the seal,” he murmured, and tears swam in my vision. “We can kill her and make you whole again, and we can have a child together. We can be everything you ever wanted.”
“You kill me every time! In every life! Do you know how frustrating it is to discover who I am and who you were to me, only for you to strangle the life out of me the moment I do? I loved you more than life and you, you killed me. That wasn’t enough for you, you couldn’t let me go. Instead, you cursed me to relive this one, this cursed life where I fall in love with you and then you murder me. This time, though,” she seethed. “This time, I get here and you don’t even notice me. You go for her, everything that was wrong in me that I put in her because that is what you love, and it’s why you love her! She’s just a piece of me. You didn’t even look at me when I threw myself at you. I came to you naked last night and you threw me out of your room because I wasn’t your precious Lena. Well, look at her now! Is she still everything you wanted?” She laughed.
I lunged without thought. I grabbed the sides of her face, capturing it as I held on to her with everything I had.
“Kendra,” I mumbled, unable to get words to come out right. I let a little more darkness in. “Kendra, please.”
“She’s gone, you stupid whore!” Katarina screeched as she struggled to get away.
“Kendra!” I screamed, and it echoed through the clearing, bouncing off the mountaintops as I started to fall to the ground, losing my hold. I pushed everything I had into the words, the spell, fighting for Kendra to come back, even if only for a moment.
“Lena,” she whispered as she held me up. Her gaze looked at my face and she turned white. “Oh my God, Lena, what did they do to you?” she whimpered.
“I’m…fine,” I uttered as I held on to her.
“I knew you would know it wasn’t me,” she whispered as tears rolled down her cheeks. “I knew you would be able to tell. I couldn’t fight her. I’m so sorry for the things she said to you, they weren’t true.”
“We don’t have time for that, Kendra. I need you to listen to me. We’re not both making it out of here alive,” I mumbled brokenly. “I love you. I love you so much,” I cried as I leaned against her for strength. “We have to take care of Mom, you understand?”
“You will,” she said softly. “You can’t separate me from her; you will live, Lena. I love you more than life. I understand what you have
to do. Tell them I love them, all of them. You will be okay; I will stay with you, always.”
“Kendra, I’m so sorry,” I sobbed as my hands held on, knowing the moment I stopped holding on, she’d be gone from me.
“I understand; it is okay. I know what you have to do,” she replied through tears. “It’s okay, it will be okay.”
“No!” my mom screamed, and I couldn’t look at her. I didn’t have the strength to do what I had to do and look at her. She was losing a daughter tonight. “Lena, you stop! Get away from her, she’s your sister!” Mom screamed through the pain as she figured out what was happening.
“I have to end the game,” I said softly. I felt blood dripping from my lips. My body was going numb; if I was going to have the strength to end the game once and for all, I had to do it soon.
“You’re going to be a mama,” she said as a giant sob tore through her. “You tell him I loved him, that I would have been the best aunt in the world. You tell him about me, Lena. Promise me?”
“He’ll know,” I said as I started to falter, only for her to help me stand. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner.”
“I don’t blame you, for anything. I know what she said, but you didn’t know. I never blamed you. When you think of me, know I’m with Joshua and that I’m okay. I love you, Lena. You’re not just a piece of that bitch, you’re my other half. You’re my sister.”
“I can’t fight her off any longer,” I sobbed as I tried to hold on. “I love you, I’ll always love you. Death isn’t the end, Kendra. You will be okay,” I whispered as I stepped back, swaying on my feet.
Katarina backed up, screeching as she took control. “You stupid bitch, you can’t kill me!”
* ~*~*
~Lucian
I watched, unable to pass the fucking protection barrier. Lena’s head was bad, so fucking bad that if we couldn’t get to her soon, she’d die. She’d somehow managed to get to her feet, but I could feel her fading, unable to get to her. My heart pounded for the first time since I could remember. My chest ached as I screamed out in frustration.
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