Page 163 of A Bond with the Dark

“The contact with your mom will be lost.”

Already, my heart breaks at the thought of losing my mom again. I take the knife and cut once more, willing it to stay open as long as possible.

With the knot formed, the three of us join hands in amalgamation.

Hilda starts scrying, chanting in a language I don’t know. I close my eyes, picturing my mom.

Everything goes black, and the room disappears. I’m the only one there. Holding my hand before me, I’m glowing in the dark, shimmering gold. Blindly, I search through the darkness, hoping Mama will show herself at some point.

“Mom?” I call, my voice echoing, shattering the silence.

Two bright lights emerge from the darkness. One golden and one red. Amidst the swirling mist that seeps into the space I’m in, Mama stands before me on a plinth, an angel of bright white wings and a gown that’s a pure sweep of elegant iridescent clouds. Her long blonde hair is wildly curly the way she always wore it, a diadem of pearls over her forehead, and her face is young again, her bright green eyes seeing me for the first time in what feels like ages.

The other one’s red mist of wavy tendrils hangs loosely around her face, and wears crimson dress that’s tight at the hip and gathered in folds beyond the waist. Her soft features are young again as well; my aunt Janet, her wavy red hair catching fiery blazes in whatever light source there is in this room. Her red wings rest gently on her back, and her soft blue eyes give peace and enduring love despite the fiery red colors.

“Mom? Aunt Janet?”

“Sayah,” Mama speaks, her voice precisely how I remembered. “Oh, my sweet, sweet punkin pie. How I miss you so.”

“Mommy,” I say, knowing she’s tangible and run up to her, collapsing in her arms.

Even the smell of her is as I remember. A mixture of summertime linen, rain, and wonderful earthy smells.

“I miss you so much,” I sob, and the tears that fall from my eyes are heavy. I pull the tears away with my hand and see they’re sinewy—thick, golden. “What’s happening to me, Mama?”

“Shh, darling. Don’t cry.” Mama pulls my head up and holds my chin in her soft hands. “Everything is as it should be. You don’t know that now, but you will.” She looks at me levelly, the scintillating glimmer in her eyes surreal.

“Please tell me what all this means, Mama.”

“Long ago, there began a time of darkness,” my mother says, like the wind on a waterfall. “Where evil seeped into this world and made it into the hearts of men. They punished witches for being what they were, lovers of nature and all things pure. Because the witches were so good, the evil that came from heartless men killing them became the root of all evil.

“One of the greatest witches, Artemis, created a curse to undo that evil and created the first vampires to weed out the wicked. At first, it was as it should be, but then the lines blurred a bit, and demons got mixed up with the vampires.

“To restore the balance, the Witches of Artemis’ coven made the different species, all put here to take out a portion of Earth’s evil humans but also to be the other’s undoing, to keep the balance. Vampires, sirens, witches, and formweavers. Vampires were meant to take out men and women with evil hearts, sirens were to lure crude sailors to their deaths, formweavers were to prey on vampires gone rogue, and witches protected them all. In turn, one was the undoing of the other to make sure they would not overrun the world, keeping the balance of good and evil. Formweavers are meant to undo vampires, vampires to undo witches, witches to undo sirens, and sirens the formweavers.

“The lines blurred further with having the crossbreeds of these beings, therefore taking away the ability to be the undoing of one, which was keeping the balance. Sort of like population control. Thus began the Gemini Covenant, the power of two beings, one being the darkness and one being the light, instead of one species being the downfall of the other—except the warlocks and the grimspawns.

“Artemis consulted an angel and a demon to create the incontrovertible Phoenix Blessing, setting forth the savior or the destruction of them all. A being that was equal parts good and evil to restore the balance, part angel and part demon.

“Our family line has been the line of the phoenixes, the bloodline of fire, for as long as time has been around. Yet, in the past four centuries, we’ve been thwarted and stopped from rising, so there is an influx of the grims. The warlocks have latched on to our familial line and stepped in to destroy the next phoenix in any way they can. That is why Janet, myself, and your grandma were killed. It’s why Sadie was convinced she needed to be a vampire. A fae tricked her into thinking that so she would die before she could be turned.”

“What do you mean you were killed? Who killed you?”

“Dominic,” she says grimly, and my heart faints.

“What?” I breathe.

This can’t be true.

“We are not mad at him. We forgive him. It put you on your path to rise from the ashes and become the first phoenix in four hundred years. But because of this, you must be extremely careful on your journey. There will be someone who wants you dead at every turn for what you stand for, what you are, and your power.”

“I don’t understand. If Dom was the reason you died, why was he the reason I rose?”

“He has pure blood, even through his darkness. Sebastian is evil; he has the blood of demons, but his blood is still mixed with that of the witch, so he is still allowed to live. Because he tried to bite you, his demon blood mixed with your fire, and that is why you burned. But Dominic’s blood was the perfect elixir to bring your body and soul back from the dark and into the light again. You see, you needed them both to become what you are. You needed the dark as much as the light. That is why you are equal parts light and dark, phoenix.”

“That makes no sense.” My heart is bleeding; I feel it splintering, severing my thoughts and blood and bones.

Dominic killed my mama?

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