Page 40 of Claimed By Her Monsters

Entering the skies of pitch darkness awakened a world of neon lights and glowing entities. It was intriguing — our bodies shifting in shades until we were as black as night, while our wings all began to glow a gentle pearly white.

I sensed the need to drop down to the ground and explore, which may have been why my wings decided to act upon my mental thought as they suddenly spread to their full length and flapped once to encourage our dive.

“Theia?” Atticus quietly called to me as I tugged Arthur and Sawyer along.

“Where is she going?” Cornelius pondered but didn’t sound mad at the potential detour.

“Maybe she senses Athena?” Sawyer offered. “Nessa?”

I didn’t reply because something caught my attention.

A flame?

It seemed so preposterous to witness when our surroundings were practically dark and illuminating lights of blue, green, purple, and gold.

To see that single flicker of flame in the midst of pitch darkness was enough to pull me right in. It could have been a trap, like a moth literally flying towards a flame, but then again, this was Heaven.

No one can carry ill intentions in Heaven.

We landed on the ground with ease, the mere pressure of our touchdown igniting the grass to begin to light up and spread as if to welcome our arrival.

We watched in amazement before a gentle giggle hummed into the air while another voice sighed in relief.

“You really are a smart one, Athena. You had complete confidence that she’d see my flame,” a soothing voice declared.

“Nessa has always been intuitively gifted. I figured she wouldn’t lose such a trait in the realms of Paradise.” Goosebumps ignited across my arms as the familiar voice ignited tears in my eyes.

The movement of light was continuing to spread, getting closer and closer to the burning fire that grew stronger as if to emit more heat with our arrival.

“I guess she gets it from me after all,” she revealed just as the surroundings around the burning flame were lit with rays of illumination that revealed the two women sitting on white mushroom stools.

Arthur and Sawyer let go of my hands, while my eyes were locked on Athena’s magnificent look as she now looked like the older version of me.

From her now white strands of hair that shifted to blue and then purple ends, to the slightly darker shade of purple eyes that calmly looked back at me. I could now see the resemblance as her complexion was no different from mine while she wore a long gown of sparkling white.

Her pink glossy lips immediately rose at the corners while she raised her arms up in greeting.

“Nerissa. You did what I’m sure no one thought you’d be capable of doing,” she praised as her eyes glimmered with tears. “Come here, my daughter.”

I couldn’t get a word out as my tears ran down my cheeks while my wings flapped once to send me crashing right into the woman I thought I’d never see again.

She managed to take on the full force of my colliding hug before wrapping her arms tightly around my waist. My wings couldn’t help but wrap around her as if I could keep her in my grasp forever.

“Athena,” I quietly sobbed against her chest. One of her hands managed to stroke my head as I cried in her arms before it moved down my back which confirmed my wings had retracted.

As though to assure me that I was right where I was meant to be.

"It’s okay,” she comforted me as I tried to calm down. “I’m sorry I had to leave you with such a huge burden. It wasn’t my intention, but it was the only way I’d be able to strip Danica of her powers before she tried to hurt you indirectly,” she revealed.

“Hurt me indirectly?” I asked as I slowly moved back to see her loving smile. She looked so different with this white theme appearance and yet it suited her so perfectly.

Like this was how she was always supposed to look.

"It’s a bit of a story,” she confessed and very softly stroked my head over Lucifer’s mark. “I guess your Father helped you out.”

“You didn’t tell me,” I voiced the obvious as I blinked away my tears.

“I wanted to,” she didn’t hesitate to hide her sadness. “So much to share with you, my love, but there was only so much I could share as the Goddess of Darkness. At least, the substitute.”

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