Page 65 of Demons & Damnation

Malcolm cleared his throat. “They both did. They told us how they met and once you were introduced to Tony you became infatuated with him. The reason they moved and hid was to stop your advances on Tony from ruining their relationship.”

Hot water pricked at Kyla’s eyes, her heart pounded against her ribcage like a madman screaming to be let out of a padded cell. How could this be happening?

“But...” Kyla said, tripping over the words in her mind, too many thoughts racing around at once. “They left me to die...surely you knew that?”

“Kyla,” Malcolm said, pulling his lips into a thin line. “Attempting to take your own life was a decision that you made. You shouldn’t lay the blame at your mother’s door for something you decided to do. You pushed them into a corner and then expected them to pull you out of it.”

Ire boiling in her veins, Kyla couldn’t handle this situation anymore. She shot up so fast from her chair it hurtled back against the kitchen wall, breaking apart. “Suicide?” she yelled, not caring for her grandfather’s consequences at her raised voice. “You think I tried to kill myself?” All the odd pieces of the years gone by finally clicked together as to why her grandparents had remained so impartial and outside of the situation. “If you’re supposed to be some super demon and a witch, how the hell could you not know the truth?”

Lily lowered her gaze to Kyla’s left hand and the ring sat on her middle finger—a family heirloom she’d been given for her seventeenth birthday. “Do you ever take that ring off?”

Kyla glanced down at the double banded gold and silver ring. An amethyst and an emerald nestled against each other, two teardrops sat end to end with an intricate line of diamonds between the two. “No. I was told its pretty much indestructible, which in all fairness, I think it is, so it’s always on me. It’s never moved since my seventeenth birthday.”

“Seventeen.” Lily smirked and exchanged a saddened look with Malcolm. “Can you take it off for me please?”

Kyla frowned, confused. “I don’t see what that has to do with this current situation?”

“Just humour me, please.”

Kyla shrugged her shoulders and sighed. “Ok, sure. Whatever.”

Taking the ring off and placing it on the table, the second Kyla’s skin parted from the precious metals, Lily doubled over, screaming in agony. Malcolm scooped his wife up in his arms and cuddled her to his chest as she sobbed and writhed in pain.

Kyla looked at her grandad, her eyes widened, terror streaming through her body. “What’s going on?”

Malcolm held a hand up, urging Kyla to be silent as he comforted his wife. Minutes passed by, feeling like eternity as her piercing screams lessened into sobs, then into quiet.

Eventually, after what seemed like forever but was more likely twenty minutes, Lily picked her head up and looked up at her husband. Her face streaked with tears, her cheeks flushed pink, she said, “We’ve been lied to, Malcolm.” Lily turned to her granddaughter and said, “Tell us what happened.”

Kyla looked down at the ring sat on the kitchen table. How could something so innocent be the cause of whatever had just happened? What would happen if she put the ring back on? “I started a relationship with Tony when I was eighteen. Around a year and a half later the doctors changed my pill and for whatever reason, it failed. I fell pregnant.” Kyla took a breath, trying to dislodge the lump in her throat. “Tony was livid. He tried pushing me down the stairs, his dad tried paying me off to get it aborted, but I refused.” Closing her eyes, Kyla wrung her hands together, willing herself not to cry. “As far as I was concerned, it shouldn’t suffer because of something that was out of our control. I wanted to have it and give it up for adoption, but Tony wouldn’t allow it.”

Lily climbed off Malcolm’s lap and moved her chair next to Kyla’s. Putting her arms around Kyla’s shoulders, she drew her granddaughter in close for a warm, comforting hug.

“He got desperate and one night he drugged my tea. He attempted a home abortion with a coat hanger.”

Malcolm sucked in a sharp breath, muttering curse words under his breath.

“The next thing I remember is Sam and then hospital. If Sam hadn’t found me, I’d have died. Whilst I was in hospital, him and Mum took off. I’m damaged forever—I can’t have kids because of what he did.”

“Marmalade,” Malcolm said, his voice soft and quiet. “I promise you, if we’d known that, things would have been so much different.” He reached out and took one of Kyla’s hands. “I will rip him apart with my own hands, I swear to God.”

Kyla listened to her grandad’s words, fury at the lies her mother and Tony had spun bubbled in her veins, heating her skin from the inside out. Any anger she had towards her grandparents evaporated, replaced only by more disgust at her mother. A dire, burning need for justice licked at the edges of her consciousness.

Her memories from the day before came rushing forwards, black eyes, purple throbbing veins, and needle like teeth. Deep down inside her, something clicked, like an old lock finally opening for the right key.

Azazel knew her pain. Balthazar too. She’d seen them drowning in their own murky depths, desperate for freedom and resolve from their suffering. Would she end up a demon too if she carried on as she was?

In that instant, she knew she needed to sort this mess out. Once and for all.

“I think I need some air,” Kyla said, letting out a long breath. “I’m a bit overwhelmed to say the least.”

“Of course, dear,” Lily said. “Why don’t you head on home, take a bath, relax, and we’ll pick this up again tomorrow?”

Nothing but numb, Kyla nodded, put her ring back on, and headed out, saying her goodbyes. She felt more than relieved that she’d repaired one part of her life at least.

The thought of going back home to an empty house after such an emotional day didn’t particularly appeal to her. Starting the car, she drove down the quiet country roads, heading nowhere, just exploring whatever roads she felt like driving down. For a brief moment, she wished she had Dylan’s car to properly enjoy the twisty bends and the long straights, something to give her a shot of adrenaline and make her feel alive again.

Struggling with her jumbled emotions, she found herself an hour later driving through a town called Minster Arch. Not familiar with it, she took the opportunity to distract herself and explore the peaceful, pretty community.

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