Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(85)
“By Turning,” I finished for her, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Yes, by Turning. But, that was something I could never do and so I refused him…at first anyway.”
“Wait, so the Morningstar bloodline was dominant in you?” I asked, confused because Tessa had said that it wasn’t. That I was the only one—the special little snowflake from the prophecy.
She shook her head. “It was only after I gave birth to you that your father and I got to witness your abilities—the amazing things you could do—and we realized that it hadn’t been my blood all along. It was my unborn child’s.”
Trace tightened his arm around me. I hadn’t even noticing him walking up to me, but I sank into his protective warmth just the same. He was my safe place in a world that only sought to devour my existence time and time again.
“In that moment, we knew what had to be done. I knew. I couldn’t turn myself over to the Council…they would’ve tested and prodded me until they put two and two together, and we couldn’t allow that to happen. I had to keep up the pretense that it was me and not you that was cursed with the bloodline and I had to make sure they couldn’t test my blood anymore to prove otherwise.”
“So you Turned anyway, even though you didn’t want to…to deflect them.”
She nodded solemnly. “I needed to keep their suspicion on me so that they never looked twice at you. And that worked for a while, but your abilities continued growing stronger, and slowly, they’d begun to take an interest in you.” She blinked tiredly as she revisited a part of her life that she had locked away for a very long time. “Thomas and I couldn’t let that happen. Not after everything we sacrificed to keep you safe.”
A clap of thunder pounded against the front door as though the hunters from both sides had arrived to settle the score.
“We spent one last wonderful night together as a family and the next morning, I ripped this town to shreds, taking as many of them down with me as I could.” There was fire in her eyes that hadn’t been there earlier. “I had to make them believe I turned to the dark side; that I was overcome by bloodlust and the urge to kill—so much so that I left your father with no other choice but to pack his bags and take you girls away from here.” A sad smile touched the corner of her lips. “You were Cloaked the very next day, and that day was the first day of the rest of your new life.”
A thickness pressed in at the back of my throat, but I forced it back down.
“Thomas and I still saw each other on rare occasions when fate would allow it, but it was too dangerous to stay close to you girls and so I watched you and Tessa grow up from a distance—away from you, but never too far away. And when the Order got too close, I never hesitated to keep my promise to you, right until the day they finally caught me.”
A quiet sob escaped my throat and I realized I had been crying. I couldn’t believe how much she had given up so that I could live. How much she and my father went through so that I would be safe. And now here I was, being hunted by the Order and revered by the Dark Legion—my veins split wide open for all of my enemies to see. Everything she had done had been in vain, for nothing! I grew up motherless and now I was fatherless too and we were right back where we started.
All because of them.
A deep rooted loathing broiled in my gut, festering its toxins into my bloodstream until the only thing I saw was red. A vase shattered on the console table by the door and my mother quickly covered her face to avoid the shattering glass.
“Breath, Jemma,” he whispered into my ear to calm me.
My mother lowered her arms and looked up at me. “I see your powers are alive and well.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said somberly. “I have no control over any of it.”
Her expression twisted with concern. “That’s something you have to learn to do, Jemma. You need to be able to harness the power inside of you or it will consume you.”
Oh good, just what I wanted to hear.
She tilted her head to the side. “I can stay and help you—I can teach you…if you’d like me to.”
Trace tightened his hold on me, anchoring me to the here and now so I didn’t run off into never-never land. But I wasn’t that na?ve. My childhood fantasies about having a mother to braid my hair and drive me to cheer practice had long since tumbled by the wayside. Even now, as she stood right before me, every bit as real as I was, I didn’t forget my place in the world. I knew what she was…and I knew what I was…and I knew what lay ahead for us both.
My intentions had not shifted and my goal remained steadfast.
“You’ve already given up everything for me,” I said as I let go of Trace and moved closer to her, finally feeling as though I were strong enough to stand up on my own. “And maybe I don’t have the right to ask you to give up anything more, but I need your help,” I pleaded with her. “We have to bring the walls back up or innocent people will continue to die, and your blood is the only way for us to do that.”
“And that’s…all you want from me?”
“Right now, yes,” I said and lowered my head. I already had enough attachments clouding my judgement. I didn’t need another reason to stop me from doing the awful things I was going to have to do—the things that had plagued the dark corners of my subconscious, but that I never fully allowed to come to light.