“Kaif!” Luna screams, the sound so petrified, it hurts my ears and breaks my heart and makes it clench as she runs from the man who she calls father. She doesn’t get very far before Hades materializes in front of her and blocks her path of escape. Her feet falter as she stands on the hem of her dress and trips. Luna manages to pivot just in time before she lands on her baby. Her screams for her mother, for Kaif, are pointless as Hades advances. Her cries for him to let her go fall on deaf ears.
“She has brainwashed you against me!” Hades’s roars, gripping her arm, while trying to rip the baby from her arms. “You’re not keeping that mutt!” he snarls at her as his hands yank at the baby’s blanket.
Kaif races toward them, screaming for his mate and son, while Luna struggles to protect her boy from her father. Kaif’s feet creak on the wooden floors of the porch when Luna screams. My heart lurches in my chest when magic surges in Hades’s hands, aiming straight for the baby in her arms.
Luna screams, and Kaif shouts as Hades goes to deliver a lethal blow to their son. In sheer panic, Luna does the only thing she can think of. She throws his bundled up little body. Kaif’s feet falter as his eyes follow his son, wrapped in his white crocheted blanket flying through the air.
“I’ll come back for you both,” Luna yells just as Kaif catches the bundle in his arms only to look up to see Luna slam her hands into her father’s chest, her own magic slams against him. Hades grips her arms and snarls before they vanish into thin air. Kaif wails, shifting back into his human form. His son is tucked in his arms as he unravels him, checking on him.
His shoulders drop with relief as his son lets out a loud scream. Moments later, Celeste appears frantic, looking for her daughter as she runs across the field toward him. She stops on the steps, and her eyes go to Kaif, who is on his knees. “I’m too late,” she sobs, stumbling over to him. Her hands grip his shoulders as she peers over him to look at her grandson. “I didn’t make it,” Celeste wails for her daughter. “I failed her.”
“I’ll fucking kill him. I’LL FUCKING KILL HIM!” Kaif roars with a fury so strong I am surprised he doesn’t break into a million facetted pieces.
“Revenge, it does nobody any good,” Dominic speaks, appearing beside me once again.
The memory speeds along, and suddenly it is night. The magic in the air is electrifying, and the sky is now dark. I gasp when I realize we are at the ruins. This property belongs to Kyan. The thick dense forest surrounding it is dark and eerie. Giant flaming torches send billowing clouds of black smoke into the night sky.
“We call on our ancestors, to kill a God, I must make you one,” Celeste tells him.
“It’s the ruins,” I tell Dominic, who has been wandering with me through the memories, remaining silent but here.
“Yes, our second mistake, thinking we could kill a God and get away with it,” Dominic murmurs.
Celeste produces two identical daggers, along with two huge rubies. The cauldron that sits in the middle bubbles as she tosses them in. Celeste cuts her palm, bleeding into the pot before cutting Kaif’s.
“To give life, we must take it,” Celeste states.
“We are only taking life,” Kaif says to her, looking confused.
Celeste shakes her head. “He will kill her if she disobeys him, Kaif. He would do it out of spite.”
“What are you saying?” Kaif says, tilting his head.
“There are two daggers, one to kill a God, one to give life to one, balance,” she whispers.
“But I only possess dark magic; I can’t use the light,” Kaif tells her.
“No, but I can. I am bestowing a gift on you. I am making you a God. Only a God or Goddess can wield these daggers. Only a God can kill another God, are you understanding me?” Kaif watches as she slices her wrists.
Holding them out wide while turning her face to the dark sky, she murmurs words in a foreign tongue, and storm clouds brew violently. Kaif takes a step back from her as veins of darkness sliver across her milky skin, her eyes turn black as coal, and she cracks her neck. Her voice echoes louder as she chants. Her blood spills onto the ground when a lightning bolt breaks cutting across the sky, hitting the ruins and striking the next rock. I gasp, looking at the pattern above, as the lightning strikes each one, forming a surge of infinite power.
A pentagram of light and electricity hangs overhead before I shriek. Dominic grabs my arms, and I watch the lightning smash into Kaif’s chest. He screams as the lightning spears him to the ground, and he collapses. My heart pounds at what I just witnessed as he lay limp. Kaif’s breathing stops, and Celeste looks toward the trees. Darkness taints her, and black veins streak her skin, moving as she walks into the trees before returning.
Only when she does, she doesn’t come alone. No, she comes with a girl; her hands and feet are chained, a gag in her mouth. Celeste drags her thrashing body toward the cauldron before bending her over it. My heart pounds in my chest as the young girl thrashes.
Celeste murmurs a word, and I watch as the girl’s eyes flickered black. She is a Lycan. Celeste then plunges a knife into the artery in the girl’s neck. Her blood spurts and pours out, and I feel sick watching her sacrifice. She is barely a teenager.
The girl falls limply at Celeste’s feet, and Celeste turns, cutting the girl’s heart out. She stands above the cauldron and squeezes the heart in her hand. Murmuring some spell that makes lightning hit the cauldron and smoke before she drops the heart in.
She then dips a ladle into the cauldron before taking it to Kaif; she pries his lips open and pours it down his throat and leans down and kisses him. Kaif sucks in a breath and lurches upright, breathing heavily. Shadows sliver across his skin, etched into it like tattoos, the same markings that shadow Kyan’s arms and Octavian bloodline.
His eyes go to the girl, and his eyes open in horror. “What did you do?” he gasps.
“What I had to,” Celeste says, walking back to the cauldron. She motions Kaif to follow, and he growls, moving the girl’s body away; before giving his hand to Celeste. She cuts his palm. The flames flare higher as they chant together, and eventually, the smoke clears. Celeste moves, dipping her hand in the cauldron. She hisses, pulling the stones out and dropping them in Kaif’s hand, then she pulls out the daggers.
“One to transfer life and power, one to trap and kill it,” Celeste murmurs. She cleans the daggers on her dress and cleans the stones, popping them into the hilt onto each dagger.
“Why do you need one for life?” Kaif says.
“Because when you kill Hades, he will kill Luna, and when he does, I will trade my life for hers,” Celeste states without hesitation.
“So the other dagger is not meant for Seline, but her daughter?” I ask Dominic. He nods his head.
“Yes, but then Luna was killed, which altered the path we now all live on,” Dominic explained.