I pressed my lips together, anger building in my veins as I looked at Camelia’s smug face.
“Do you want to be a part of the Earth Angel’s army or not?” she asked.
“Of course I do.” I didn’t have to think twice about my answer.
“Then you need to learn how to follow commands,” she said. “Starting with the one to go to the satellite island for your final Trial and kill Dr. Foster so you can ignite your Nephilim powers. You can either complete your task, or refuse and return to Earth. What’ll it be?”
I stared at her, dumbstruck. What kind of choice was that? Rosella had told me I had to complete the Angel Trials if I wanted the best chance at saving my mom. So I couldn’t refuse and return to Earth. Well, technically I could, since I had free will and could do whatever I wanted. But I wouldn’t risk my mom’s life. If my mom died because I refused to kill Dr. Foster—who had sent her to her death—I’d never forgive myself.
I didn’t want Dr. Foster to die. But I wanted my mom back more.
Camelia tilted her head, giving me a closed lipped smile. She knew she had me.
“Fine,” I gave in, which made Camelia’s eyes light up with mirth. “I’ll do it. But I’ll be asking Darra to teach me how to kill him as painlessly as possible. If he has to die, I want it to be quick.”
“Good.” The witch leaned back in her chair. “I look forward to seeing you succeed.”
I nodded, since my success wasn’t up for debate. I was going to succeed.
I hadn’t come this far to fail now.
“As the most powerful witch on Avalon, I’ll be accompanying you to the satellite island,” she continued, her hands resting on her pregnant belly as she spoke. “You’ll also be accompanied by your trainer—Darra—and another supernatural of your choosing. The three of us are there to ensure you stay alive on the island, although we cannot interfere with the Trial itself. I suggest you choose the third supernatural wisely. It can be anyone except the Earth Angel and the three mages, since they’re required to remain on Avalon at all times. And you need to make the decision now. So, who will it be?”
“Noah,” I said, his name leaving my lips easily. There was no one else in the world I trusted as much as I trusted him.
“I figured as much,” she said. “A witch, a vampire, and a shifter will be a highly qualified team to protect you.”
I’d chosen Noah because we loved each other and trusted each other—not because a shifter would be a logical addition to the group. But Camelia didn’t strike me as someone who understood making a decision based on love and trust. So explaining that to her seemed pointless.
And, since her hands were still on her stomach, I couldn’t help being reminded about her condition—mainly, about how it would affect my final Trial.
“Should you really be coming to the satellite island with us?” I asked, motioning to her stomach. “I don’t want anything to happen to your baby.”
“My baby will be fine,” she said. “This pregnancy is making my magic stronger, thanks to the baby. Her magic is heightening mine.”
“Her?” I asked. “You know she’s a girl?”
“I do.” Camelia smiled. “Male witches don’t have strong magic. Only a girl could give me a boost like this. And she’s going to be a strong one. I can feel it.” She moved her hands from her stomach and sat straighter, back to business. “Anyway, we’ve talked about what I brought you in here to discuss. Do you have any more questions?”
“No,” I said, since Darra had been preparing me for my Trials in our training sessions. I knew exactly what to expect.
“Good,” she said, looking mighty pleased with herself. “Then I’ll see you at the final Trial tomorrow.”
13
Skylar
I was woken at sunset by a knock on the door. Mara. I smelled her familiar smoky demon scent—along with a hint of earthy shifter—from here.
My wake up calls at the Montgomery compound had been much more pleasant since Mara had taken over the duty of giving me my twice daily blood and complacent potion.
I stretched and got out of bed. “Come in,” I said, walking over to the small table where I’d have my breakfast.
Mara let herself in. As always, she carried a silver platter with her. On it was a glass of blood and a syringe of dark blue complacent potion.
“Your breakfast,” she said, placing the glass of blood down on the table in front of me.
“Thank you.” My mouth watered at the sweet, warm scent of the blood. But I wrapped a hand around it and forced myself to drink it slowly, savoring it.
When I’d first arrived at the compound, fresh from being turned into a vampire, I hadn’t been able to stop myself from downing blood in a few gulps. But in the past few weeks, I’d been practicing control. I could now drink the blood in a civilized manner, instead of like an animal.
I’d made a lot of progress since arriving here.
Mara sat in the seat across from me. “Once you’re finished with your breakfast, Azazel wants to see you,” she said.
“Another tarot reading,” I said, since that was the only reason Azazel ever wanted to see me.
“Most likely.” Her trusting eyes didn’t leave mine. Her demonic red eyes.
It was pretty unbelievable that after all these weeks at the compound, the person I’d gotten closest to was a demon. Even crazier was that Mara had truly grown on me. We’d spent a lot of time together, and she’d become the second daughter I’d never had.
“Very well, then.” I raised the glass to my lips again, downing the rest of the blood. Once finished, I placed it back on the table. “I don’t want to keep His Grace waiting.”
“How considerate of you,” Mara said, reaching for the needle on the tray. “We’ll finish this up, and then head straight to his office.”
I nodded to give her the okay.
And with that, she stood up, prepared the needle filled with complacent potion, and pressed down on the syringe.
Mara led the way out of the guesthouse and toward the main house.
I walked behind her, as always. By walking behind her, I showed the others in the compound that I acknowledged her as the superior species—the species that deserved to be followed and obeyed.
Once inside, she knocked on the doors to Azazel’s office. He told us to come in, and she swung them open, walking in first. I followed behind, keeping my eyes to the floor.
Azazel sat in the chair behind his giant desk, leaning back with his legs sprawled out in front of him. “Skylar,” he said, grinning at me. “Just the prophetess I wanted to see. You look well.”
“She’s been so behaved these past few weeks.” Mara smiled at me, like I was a prized pet. “I think she’s truly coming around to seeing things our way.”
Azazel pressed his lips together and tilted his head, studying me. “Don’t be so easily fooled, daughter,” he finally said. “She might want us to think she’s coming around to our side. But she hasn’t. And she won’t—at least, not until her daughter joins us.”
Every muscle in my body tightened at the mention of Raven.
Azazel was trying to bait me. And I wouldn’t let him.
“You want me to do a tarot reading for you?” I jumped to the heart of the matter, since I had no interest in sitting around chit chatting with Azazel.
“I do.” He reached inside his leather jacket, pulled out my tarot deck, and placed it on the desk. The box for the cards was falling apart so much that he’d resorted to using a beer koozie to hold it together.
So uncivilized. He needed a tarot case. But what else should I have expected from a demon?
I sat down across from him, removed the koozie from the tarot case, and slid out the cards. They felt warm and alive in my hands. I shuffled them, feeling the energy buzzing from them as I moved them around.
“What do you want to know today?” I asked.
He smirked and leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk. “Kara has had her first moon bleed,�
�� he said, his eyes glinting with excitement.
My stomach dropped to my feet, and I stopped shuffling the cards. This was the day I’d been dreading since learning that Azazel could have Kara safely turned into a vampire after she had her first period.
Because Kara’s heightened vampire gift was the tool Azazel needed to locate Avalon.
Azazel studied me, like he expected me to congratulate him.
No way in Hell was that happening.
“I see,” I said, keeping my voice as steady as possible. I refused to let him see how frightened I was. “What would you like to know?”
“I want to know the best tactic to destroy Avalon.” His red eyes gleamed, and he curled his upper lip back, exposing his pointed yellow teeth.
I hated him.
“All right.” I nodded and continued shuffling the cards, since the complacent potion gave me no other option but to follow his commands.
Once the cards hummed in my hands, I placed them down onto the desk and fanned them out. I let my hands linger over them, thinking about what I wanted to know until one of the cards pulled me toward it.
I picked that card out of the fan and placed it face up in front of me.
The Ace of Swords.
The card featured a giant sword with an eagle on the hilt, on a bed of roses, with butterflies fluttering around it. The art on this card was one of my favorites, as was the meaning behind it. Resolving a situation, victory, and new beginnings.
It was what we all needed right now.
As had always started happening since I’d become a vampire and my gift of reading tarot cards had heightened, the image on the card disappeared. It changed into a vision that would answer the question I’d asked the deck.
I watched the vision play out, careful to keep my expression neutral. Once the vision finished, I looked back up to meet Azazel’s eyes.
“Well?” he asked, tapping the pads of his fingers against the desk. “What did you see?”
I stared up at him and pressed my lips together. I hated how he bossed me around like a slave. But of course, I spoke anyway.
The complacent potion wouldn’t give me a choice.
“You need to go to a satellite island off of Avalon,” I said. “Kara will be able to find it. Raven will be on the island for her final Angel Trial. You need to kill her before she becomes a Nephilim, and you need to go there alone to be successful. If you don’t do this, Raven will end up being your demise.”
I clasped my hand over my mouth, looking down in shame.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?” Azazel asked. “Being forced to betray your own daughter?”
“You have no idea,” I said darkly, turning my gaze up to meet his again. “I’ll do anything to save my daughter’s life. Whatever you need me to do… tell me. Just don’t hurt her. Please.”
“Stop your pathetic begging.” He stood up and laughed, hollow and amused. “The cards have spoken. My task is set out for me. There’s nothing you can do to save Raven now.”
14
Raven
The citizens of Avalon gathered on the ocean shore the next morning. I was the first person to reach the final Angel Trial, and the entire island was buzzing in excitement about my send off. Many people were having picnics on the beach as they waited, as if they didn’t have a care in the world. It almost looked normal.
Almost.
Once the sailboat was examined and deemed fit to go, Annika led Noah, Darra, Camelia, and me through the crowd and toward the boat. The three mages followed behind us.
Everyone stood up as we started our way down the beach, clearing a path so we could pass. They lowered their heads in respect as we walked by them. We truly were getting a heroes send off.
We stepped up onto the dock, and Annika continued leading the way toward the boat. Once we reached the end, she stopped to face us, although she focused on me.
“This is where you’ll leave for your final Trial,” she said. “Once you’re finished on the satellite island, Camelia will send a fire message to let us know you’re on your way back. We’ll be waiting here to greet you upon your return. Good luck, and I’ll see you soon.”
“Thank you,” I said, bowing my head slightly. “For everything.”
I started to make my way toward the boat, but Annika spoke again before I could get there.
“Oh, and Raven?” she said, and I turned around, waiting for her to continue. “You’re going to make an amazing Nephilim.”
The crowd cheered in agreement, and one by one, the four of us stepped onto the sailboat. I went first, then Noah, then Darra, and finally, Camelia.
Once we were all onboard, Annika untied the rope holding the boat to the dock. As we floated away, the mages raised their hands to release bursts of colorful magic toward the sails, sending us off toward the satellite island where I’d kill Dr. Foster and ignite my Nephilim powers.
15
Raven
I thought the satellite island was going to be close to Avalon.
I was wrong.
Thirty minutes after we’d set sail, there was still no sight of another island anywhere. Just blue ocean all around. I trusted the mages’ magic not to lead us astray, but I thought we would have been close by now.
We’d all been sitting in the center of the boat, chatting about what felt like absolutely nothing. If Camelia hadn’t been there, then Noah, Darra, and I could have had real conversations. But the snooty witch was throwing off the group dynamic. No one wanted to open up around her with anything except banal chitchat, and the strain in the conversation was painfully obvious to all of us, including her.
I wanted to sit in comfortable silence with Noah and enjoy the beautiful scenery, but that wouldn’t be fair to Darra. My mentor sat as far as possible away from Camelia. The two of them clearly didn’t like each other, and I was the reason they were there at all, which meant it was up to me to keep the peace.
“So,” I said, glancing at Camelia once the conversation reached another awkward lull. “When’s the baby due?”
“Three months,” she said, her hands dropping down to her stomach. She smiled—the only time she seemed truly happy was when she was talking about her baby. Other than that, she had resting bitch face all the time. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
“What about the father?” I asked. She’d never mentioned him, and I was beyond curious about who he was. “Is he excited to meet her, too?”
Her eyes snapped up to meet mine. They were cold and hard. “Her father is no longer in this world,” she said, the sentence clipped and final.
“Oh.” I leaned back, startled by her response. “Sorry.”
I should have realized that the father might have been dead. Camelia was from the Vale, and there had been a big war there around the time she would have gotten pregnant. I’d just been trying to make conversation, and I hadn’t stopped to think. Now I felt rude and insensitive.
I needed to save this conversation, quickly.
“Have you decided what you’re going to name her?” I asked.
Camelia studied me, her beady eyes full of disdain. “You can stop the terrible attempts at chitchat,” she said. “I’m going to protect you on the satellite island because that’s my job, and I need to do my job so I’m allowed to continue living on Avalon. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you’re safe there. But there’s no need for us to pretend we like each other now. So back off, and let’s continue the rest of the ride there in peace. Unless you have any relevant questions, of course.”
“What did I do to you to make you hate me this much?” I doubted she considered the question relevant, but it came out before I could think otherwise.
“It’s not you.” She smiled, although it was clearly fake. “Don’t take it so personally. I just don’t really like anyone.”
“As much as I hate to agree with her, she’s right,” Noah said. “Camelia’s always been like this.” He looked to her, like he was trying to see beneath her icy exterior but faili
ng. “It’s a miracle the Earth Angel lets you stay on Avalon after what you did to her in the Vale. I can’t think of one other person who would be even half as forgiving as she’s been.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Back in the Vale, Camelia sold out the Earth Angel,” he said, apparently not caring that Camelia was sitting there listening to him talk about her. “Pretty much everyone knows the story by now. It was back when the Earth Angel was disguised as Princess Ana… well, disguised as you. It was before she’d ignited her Nephilim powers. Camelia ordered Annika to the throne room and injected her with the antidote to the transformation potion to reveal her true identity in front of Laila—the previous ruler of the Vale—Jacen, and Karina. Annika would have been killed if she hadn’t acted quickly to save herself.”
“He only knows all of this because he was screwing Karina,” Camelia said snidely, zeroed in on Noah. “Karina is the one who told you this. Right?”
The reminder of Noah’s previous relationship with the beautiful vampire princess Karina stung.
But I refused to let Camelia get to me.
“If you’re trying to shock me, it’s not going to work,” I said. “Noah’s told me all about Karina. He introduced us at the Haven. I met Karina’s soul mate Peter there, too. They looked incredibly happy together. Just like I am with Noah.” I took Noah’s hand and gave him a smile, purposefully rubbing our happiness in Camelia’s face.
I should have felt bad, given that the father of Camelia’s unborn child was dead and all. But I didn’t. Camelia was being a total bitch, and from what Noah had just said, she’d betrayed Annika back in the Vale.
Despite the fact that Camelia was helping us now, she was clearly not a nice person. She was only doing all of this for me so she wouldn’t get kicked off Avalon.
But still… one part of what Noah had said wouldn’t stop nagging at me.
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