by Abbie Lyons
My mother’s eyes sparkled. “A little bit of trickery I suppose, but it was necessary. I knew I couldn’t simply blow things up after I saw what happened in Westrock. I needed to get close to you.” She smiled like a Cheshire cat. “Shouldn’t be surprised you resisted. That’s my girl.”
“You weren’t even in Westrock,” I said. “You just sent your creepy goons after me.”
I hated talking like this, hated yelling at my own mother, even with everything I knew to be true about her. But seeing her again like this only confirmed: she was too far gone.
“I was occupied, Nova.” She smiled widely. “The resurrection ritual takes time. This is high-level necromancy. But I as soon as I sent them, I realized. You would go willingly, but only with me. And the only way I could get into Hades was—”
“If you were me?” I said. “How long have you been doing this?”
“Not long,” she remarked. “Nova, please relax. A transmorph like this is nothing—you know that. And now you’re ready to come with me, now that I’ve caught up. After watching you so long, biding my time. You’re so much like me, my Nova.”
“No!” I said. “I’m not. Not at fucking all.”
My mother looked unfazed, almost more convinced of what she was saying.
“What if somebody saw you?” I went on. The idea was terrifying—my mother with my face, running around Hades. God only knows what shit she’d get up to.
But I didn’t have to wonder for long. The workshop door flew open.
Camilla.
And she looked pissed.
Fuck.
“Listen, you human bitch,” she stormed. “I don’t know where the fuck you get off, but I saw you run out here and I’m not leaving until you—”
She stopped in her tracks, her mouth hanging open in a pink O as she realized that I wasn’t alone and was in fact being cornered by my cultist mother with a decidedly unstable look in her eye.
“Oh my Gods,” Camilla whispered. “I knew it. I knew that you and your crazy mother were ganging up and overthrowing the school—”
“No,” I said. “That’s not it at all. I’m trying to stop her, for fuck’s sake!”
My mother chuckled. “That’s the fire, all right.”
“I don’t buy it for a second,” Camilla snarled. “Why would they lock you up in a tower if you weren’t an imminent threat? I knew I should’ve ratted you out earlier. This is what happens when we let half-human scum into our school.”
“Shut the fuck up, Camilla,” said Raines.
“This isn’t even my human side,” I said. “She’s all demon. She’s just lost it.”
At that, my mother looked wounded. She squared her shoulders, and a faint crackle began to wreath its way around her fingertips.
“I’m getting the kyrioi,” Camilla said, and spun to the door.
But it flung itself shut, and bolted. She grabbed the bolt and tugged, but it was no use. She turned back, infuriated.
“Let me go! What’s wrong with you?”
There was a hint of panic in her voice. With the door shut, the air was sweltering, waving and bending above the hot metal, distorting my mother’s face into something, well, demonic.
“Darling, who is this?” she asked me.
“My mortal enemy,” I said harshly. “She’s been out to get me ever since I started here. And I never did anything to you, need I remind you, Camilla. You started picking on me.”
Camilla folded her arms. “I have every reason to do what I do. Now let me go.”
“I don’t think we’ll be doing that,” my mother said calmly. The crackling around her fingers swelled, and she lifted her arm, shooting it forth towards Camilla and wrapping her in sparking electric loops, binding her in place.
She turned to me. “There you go, darling,” she said. “Do whatever you need to.”
I stared at her. “What, like, fucking kill her? You’re out of your mind.”
“No, Nova. I’m not. I simply know you. I know that you have a thirst for being righteous and taking an eye for an eye. I admit I had you wrong at first—thought perhaps you were more like your father. But it’s become clear to me that you won’t do things just for a thrill. You do it to survive. To get ahead. And so I give you that opportunity. Exact your vengeance, and join me. Once you have killed, Abaddon will see you in your glory and—”
“But what about the woman in Westrock? And the two men in the dorm?” I said, unable to help myself. “I thought they...I...”
My mother frowned. “They didn’t die. You thought you’d killed them? Oh, Nova, you’re not that careless. Or that strong...yet. But give yourself some credit. You exact revenge only on those who truly deserve it.”
She glanced at Camilla, who was cowering inside her electric bonds. It was weird to admit, after this entire semester of plotting to take Camilla down socially and, okay, maybe with a punch or two, to see her like this. Vulnerable, although she’d never admit it. But the look on her face was a dead giveaway. And honestly? I had no fucking desire to do anything with her. I had the upper hand, and I couldn’t be more disinterested.
“Yeah, no,” I said. “I’m good. I’m the bigger person and Camilla knows it.” I couldn’t resist a smirk. “I’m not stooping to anyone’s level and bullying just because I can.”
That seemed to anger my mother. “But she devalues you! And I...I treasure you. And not because you seduce me into doing it.” She threw a glance at Raines.
“I’m not a fucking puppet,” Raines said. He grabbed my elbow. “Nova, let’s go.”
But we were trapped. And then my mother flung out her arm again and wrapped Raines tight in another set of electric chains.
“Don’t speak another word,” she spat at him. “You’re making this very difficult, Nova,” she went on, danger wavering in her voice for the first time. She advanced upon me, step by gradual step. “All I want is for you to join me with the other Children, to take part in the glorious uprising of Abaddon that is imminent. To claim power and avoid destruction before it is too late, before all is cleansed and the true, real, order of things is brought back to this earth.”
“Yeah,” I said, planting my feet. “I think I’ll take my chances without you or Abaddon.”
“But without Abaddon, there is no me,” she said, her voice so soft I could barely hear it above the hissing of the workshop, the spitting of the metals.
“Then...that’s the way it has to be.” I swallowed, unexpected tears welling in my eyes. I’d known on some level that I lost my mother a long time ago, and even after I found her again, she was lost, and almost more lost than if she’d actually been dead. But this was truly goodbye.
“It’s just one of them,” my mother said. “That is all it will take. Abaddon will see and empower you. Death is so fleeting, Nova. And you were born to do this.”
“I wasn’t,” I said, “and nothing you’ll tell me will make that any different. You don’t own me.”
All remaining peacefulness left her face. She snarled, electric bolts vibrating down her arms as her eyes went black.
“Then you leave me no choice.”
The ground-shaking orb-shaped blast of energy rocketed through the hut again, toppling a cauldron in the distance and sending a rushing course of glowing orange metal streaming towards our feet.
“Fuck!” I yelled, but I could barely hear my own voice over the din.
I could, however, see my own face.
She’d transmorphed. Back into me.
“Abaddon will see you take the kill,” said my mother, my doppelgänger. She spoke through my own mouth, in my own face, With almost my own voice—almost, except it was eerily deep and doubled, as if we were both speaking at once. She raised her hand slightly. “Gracious and mighty Abaddon, your servant Nova offers her initiation in anticipation of your resurrection—”
Her arm shot out, palm open, glistening electricity coiled and ready.
But I was faster.
I sprang forward, rip
ping the knife from my waist, thrusting it out just enough to redirect to her arm, not to hurt her, not to hurt her, just to stop—
Her arm jolted at the kiss of the blade. The energy bolt fired upwards instead of towards Camilla or Raines. It cracked into a chain that dangled from one of the rafters, severing the links with an ear splitting crack and sending an iron anvil plunging to the ground.
“No—” she cried. And whether it was a protest or the first part of my own name, I couldn’t say.
The thud was sickening. And as her body, the body that looked now identical to mine, crumpled under the impact, the lava-like metal floated around her.
Then she burst into flames, and was gone.
Instantly, the bonds holding Raines and Camilla in place evaporated. Camilla immediately burst into sobs, wailing like a three-year-old, and Raines ran to me, grabbing me so hard that it knocked me back into the wall, keeping me out of harm’s way as the molten metal slowed, finally cooling as the door banged open, no longer locked, and sent a blast of fresh air within.
“You’re okay,” Raines said. “It’s over. It’s over.”
I clutched at his sleeve, howling, although I couldn’t hear anything.
“I killed her,” I cried. “I killed her. I killed her.”
“You didn’t,” Raines said shortly. He held me tighter. “You didn’t. It was all her. You saved us and she caused her own destruction.”
“You!” The snarl came from across the room. “You are absolute...” Camilla could barely form words, sinking to the floor, and for some reason, seeing her that upset, this bitchy snob who’d made my life a living hell...she was genuinely traumatized. And I wasn’t so much of a bitch that I’d let her suffer right back.
I pushed Raines away and stepped to her side. “Come on,” I said, offering her my hand.
She looked up at me, her face streaked with mascara, her pale blonde hair smudged with smoke from the workshop.
“Why should I fucking trust you, you human?” she said.
“Because I just saved your ass from a pure-blood demon,” I said. “Now get the fuck up.”
She put her hand in mine, and I pulled her to standing, admittedly not particularly gently. Then she steadied herself, brushed off her skirt, and gave me one last look in the eye.
“I...” She faltered. Then her face tightened a little. “I’m surprised you did that.”
“You would be,” I said. “I’m surprised I thought you deserved it. But I guess we’re just different that way.”
Her mouth tightened, her brows furrowed, and then she dashed out the door.
When Camilla disappeared, reality crashed back. I spun around, to the nothingness and burned void that was...that had been my mother. My mother, with my face. My mother who’d almost gotten me conscripted to an evil devil incarnate.
Raines came to my side, wrapped an arm around my waist. “Do you—”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Feelings and bullshit later.” I turned to face him dead on. “She said Abaddon was imminent. What does that mean? How imminent is imminent?”
“Off the top of my head? I have no idea, Nova,” Raines said. “That’s not exactly common knowledge.”
I sucked in a breath, all brimstone and ash in my mouth. Because I remembered. I remembered the favor I needed to ask him, that I needed now more than ever.
“You’re right,” I said. “But I know someone who will know.”
Epilogue
A cold breeze swept over the muck-coated tiles of the dungeon as the door creaked open. The crumpled figure in the corner raised its head, unaccustomed to a visitor this time of day. Food—that came just in the morning. A new body for the cage? Perhaps, but that seemed unlikely. This part of the prison was reserved for the true deviants. The flight risks. The ones who necessitated layers of magic, walls of wards against intruders. The dangerous ones, the ones who needed too much, who overreached.
Perhaps a visitor—
No. There were none.
Sunlight, almost violent in its unexpected presence, knifed through the graying air. Footsteps next.
The cornered figure shuffled. His throat was dry, his face rough with stubble, but his ears and eyes were sharp as ever. Perhaps sharper, now that he had the quiet to train them. He’d made good use of this involuntary sabbatical. Listened, learned.
Waited.
The steps grew louder, closer, and closer still. They stopped.
He looked up.
Black boots and jeans, a black T-shirt, and glaring, glowing red eyes.
The visitor was not happy to be here.
“You,” the prisoner said, his voice raspier than he’d hoped. He got to his feet, and the two men stared eye to eye. The prisoner squared his shoulders, knowing that his body was unwasted despite his seclusion. Knowing he could still intimidate this insolent rebel he’d never ask to have thrown into his life.
“Raines,” he growled.
“Hello, brother,” said the visitor. “It’s been a while.”
END OF BOOK FOUR
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Afterword
Dear reader,
Thank you so much for reading Hades Academy: Fourth Semester. I am so excited to have this out into the world and I cannot WAIT for you to get to books five and six.
Authors rely on reviews from readers like you to keep our books coming, so if you have a minute or two, I’d be super grateful if you shared your thoughts on Amazon, Goodreads, or Bookbub.
I can’t wait for you to discover book five. Thank you for reading!
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xoxo,
Abbie
http://www.authorabbielyons.com
