Finding the threads of my pyrokinesis, I wrapped a mental hand around them and hung on with everything I had left. Tears fell freely from my eyes. Mine. My fire was mine. It was a part of me. I would not let it go.
The air around me shimmered. I blinked rapidly, not believing who was in front of me.
Inarus, dripping sweat staggered forward and crashed into the metal table. He pushed himself up and with a hand outstretched, reached toward the other psyker and pulled.
I’d seen him do this before, but the shock of the still-pumping heart coated in blood within his grasp still shocked me.
I didn’t need to look to know my mother’s lone henchman lay dead in his seat. The sudden relief of my fire settling back inside of me told me everything I needed to know.
Inarus turned to me, pain etched into the lines on his face.
I tried to steady my breaths. “What are you doing here?”
He smiled. His mouth was filled with blood, his teeth a vivid red. Shit. He’d pushed himself too far. He was still recovering. He wasn’t supposed to be here.
“Saving the day.” His knees buckled and he barely caught himself before his head crashed into the edge of the table.
“Inarus, get up.” I angled my body toward him but my bindings gave me little room to work with.
Head bowed, he sucked in a breath but didn’t move.
Get up. Get up. Get up! We weren’t out of the woods yet.
I spotted my mother behind him, a syringe in her hand as she cautiously crept forward.
“You have to get up.” There was urgency in my voice. I didn’t know what was in that syringe but it couldn’t be good.
Inarus’ blue-grey eyes met mine. “Tell me you’ll forgive me.”
“What?” Maybe the expenditure of power was fogging his brain.
“Promise me. One day, swear you’ll forgive me.”
I nodded. “Already forgiven. Now, get up!” I’d promise him the damn sun if it meant he’d get the hell up.
Still on his knees he turned his head and before I could comprehend his actions my mother halted, a wide-eyed expression on her face before her blouse tore open and her heart exploded out of her chest.
I blinked and watched in slow motion as her body crumbled.
Unable to stop myself I cried out. “Mommmmm!”
My vision blurred. The weight of what had just happened slammed into me. Grief I hadn’t thought possible overwhelmed me and I couldn’t breath. I couldn’t get air. I… I…
No. This wasn’t happening. Tears made sight impossible but I didn’t care. She was dead. My mother was dead.
She’d needed to die. Coming here today, I knew I would likely have to kill her, but I hadn’t realized how bad it would hurt.
Fire erupted over my skin, evaporating my tears. I wanted to curl into a ball but I still couldn’t move.
“I’m sorry. Aria. I’m so sorry.”
Sobs wracked my entire body.
“I know you don’t want to hear this. I know you won’t understand. But this was the only way. She needed to die for you to be safe. I needed to know you were safe before I—”
His words were cut off but I didn’t care.
I knew he was speaking to me but the weight of his words couldn’t penetrate the grief pouring out of me.
Another voice. A tug at the mate bond. And then Declan came into my field of vision. He was angry. Snarls and growls erupted from his mouth but I couldn’t make out the words.
My stomach twisted. My chest ripped wide. My mind fractured.
And everything went black.
19
I woke up in my room, in my bed, surrounded by what should be the comforts of home, but the gaping hole in my chest reminded me of last nights events.
Declan lay beside me, his emerald green gaze locked on mine, concern etched into his expression.
“Hey,”
I blinked several times as a fresh wave of grief washed over me and the world came to a crashing stop. I skidded through the memories of a woman I once knew. My throat ached. My heart pounded in my chest so loud I could hear the rhythmic thumping, a reminder her heart had been ripped free from her chest.
She was gone. My mother was truly gone.
“Shhh…” He pulled me into his arms and ran his hand over my hair. “It’s alright. Let it out. I’m right here.”
And I did. I cried harder than I could ever remember doing. I grieved my mother’s death for the second time. I grieved for the woman she used to be. The woman who’d raised me and who not long ago had genuinely loved me. The way a daughter deserved to be loved.
Memories cascaded over me. My mother brushing my hair. Cooking at the stove. Kissing my father before he left for work.
I choked on another sob.
Oh, God. Why did it hurt? I shouldn’t care. Not about her. She didn’t deserve my grief after everything she’d done.
I curled into myself. I had no one left. No father. No mother. I was alone.
“You’re not alone. You have me. You have the Pack. You’ll never be alone.”
I must have voiced my thoughts aloud.
I sniffed and lifted my head from Declan’s chest.
With his thumb he swiped away my tears. “I love you. More than words could ever describe.”
I nodded and squeezed his middle.
He pulled me tighter against him and we stayed like that until my tears ran dry and my sobs softened to steady breaths.
Exhaustion tugged at me and I fell asleep, cradled
