Page 120 of Legendary

“So, you’ve been lying to me.” Beetee whipped her head to her mom’s.

“We did it for your own good,” Willa explained. “We had no way to Heaven’s Gate ourselves to put you back and even if we had a way, placing you back with your parents would have been a huge risk. So, we took a different kind of risk and raised you ourselves away from everything and everyone for a while. When you didn’t show any signs of stunted growth, we just hoped no one would notice and with everything that was happening and eventually Dani coming into the picture no one ever did.”

Louise tried to grab her daughter’s hand again, but Beetee pulled away, standing up. “Honey, eventually you grew up and we couldn’t shelter you. We raised you so that you didn’t want to hurt people which if that’s the kind of demon you wanted to be, we would have accepted it, but you only wanted that side of you to appear when necessary. All you ever wanted to do was be happy and take in strays as friends.” Louise nodded over to Elise who scoffed but didn’t argue. “You never wanted to be like how they wrote your kind in history because we gave you other options.”

“But I’m notjusta demon, mom!” Beetee yelled, gaining all of our attention and by the look she gave us back she had stunned herself. I could see her eyes starting to form into those diamond pupils and then they flashed back.

“Beetee if Lilith would have found you, she would have killed you herself. They were just trying to protect you,” I said, thinking about my father and all his secrets. I wasn’t anywhere near ready to just let things go, but this right here, had me seeing things from his side a bit. I wondered if whatever he was hiding was exactly like this, something done with the best intentions but the matters leading up to them weren’t flattering.

She looked at me with sympathetic eyes, like she knew I was right, but I understood her feeling of betrayal and deception. “I know, I just…I can’t deal with this right now. We need to solidify the plan and go find Dani. Dani is what’s important.” After all she’d just learned, Dani was still a priority. Deflection wasn’t justmystrong suit; it was also hers. Beetee’s freckles were more pronounced along her face as her face reddened. “I need to go lie down, please don’t follow me.” She said that last part to Willa and Louise, turning her back towards them and walking towards where I knew the recovery room was.

Louise covered her face with her hands, and I heard a muffled cry coming from her. Willa rubbed her back, holding her close. I felt bad, but I didn’t have any words of comfort. “Why didn’t you just tell her? She seems like one of the most levelheaded, understanding individuals I know.”

Willa gave me a stiff smile. “Because knowing something like that, you might fight harder for one over the other and we raised her to not put herselfin a box. We wanted her to sway to whatever side felt right for her, be her true self.Wewanted to follow Lilith, find souls and watch her work.Wemade those choices. Whether Beatrice became the most feared demon like your Dani, or the owner of a hostel for the lost and broken. It would be her choice.”

“And what if she asked about Lilith? Wanted to work with her?” Elise interrogated, pushing her chair back and standing up. She placed her hands on the table and leaned forward.

“When you two met I thought that would be the case, but no, she still didn’t want that. And we would have told her, I swear. We only…we only wanted the best for her. We won’t apologize for our past and we won’t apologize for wanting only good things for our child’s life.”

I started to continue the conversation, but Garrett put his hand up, silencing pretty much all of us. When it came to the best for his children, Garrett would forever be an advocate for that kind of motivation. He reminded me so much of my father that my heart hurt just a little. “How about we get you both settled in the room Beetee set up for you. We’ll figure this all out in a little bit.” He looked at me over his shoulder. “We’ll get Dani, I promise.”

He ushered the woman upstairs, Leah following close behind. The three of us were left at the table to think. “You had no idea about any of this?” I asked Elise, who gave me an incredulous look.

“Fuck, no. I don’t think there is any way in Hell I could have kept the secret of both these very annoying women being hybrids to myself. I love drama, but this shit is wild.”

“That is way more information than I bargained for,” Reese admitted, leaning back in his chair.

“And to think, Jonah’s father and everyone else started that whole war over a child that has been alive this whole time. All that blood for nothing. Such a fucking waste.” Elise shook her head. “Make sure to tell Natalia about this little fun fact.”

I officially had so many reasons to want to make it out of Purgatory. I wanted to see my father again, I wanted to know what a life with Dani was like without something trying to tear us apart at every turn and now I wanted to go home to tell Daya that she was wrong, that a piece of that family member she lost was still around.

Lilith didn’t always have to win.

I needed to keep that mindset if I had any hope of getting my girl back.

Elise had gone to find Beetee, not saying a word when she’d left us both in the dining area. Reese had opted to stay right downstairs and down a beer or two before we all reconvened again to move along with the plan. I’d taken myself upstairs and back to my room, planning to run all the options through my brain again and again. Beetee’s moms had thrown a giant wrench in the mix and the fact that Dani wasn’t here to learn that she wasn’t alone in her hybrid nature was something I hated. Beetee and Dani were completely different beings and it seemed like they had nothing in common whatsoever, but maybe this could be their common ground that made them even stronger than they actually were.

I bent my legs up so that my knees were parallel to my chest as I shifted back towards the bed’s headboard. I let out a sigh and peered down at my arm where the remnants of Dimitri’s nails remained. The slashes weren’t red and swollen anymore, but the scars were present, and I didn’t know how long they’d be there. The wounds from Elise’s tail had all but disappeared but maybe these were different based on who gave them to me. Elise’s had been an accident, technicalities of a fight, but Dimitri’s had been personal and purposeful. The guy still boiled my blood every single time I thought about the way he spoke to her and every time little images of what they would have been like together infiltrated my mind.

I felt a whisper of magic near me, the sound was like awhooshright near my ear. I looked down to my right and my heart stuttered as a finely crafted dagger sat next to me. Its hooked end glinted, and her name was on perfect display, my eyes flying right to the place the letters were etched into it. I just stared at it for a moment, my body unmoving and my mind ran through so many reasons why it was here and not with her.

Was she hurt? Was she trying to tell me something?

Why was it here with me? That was the question. Why me?

I want every second of every minute, of every hour, of every single day with you too. I’m sorry.

I tentatively reached my hand out and took hold of the hilt. It was smooth and had weight to it. I brought it up to my face and for some reason, assumed something would happen, but nothing did. The room was still silent, and I was still alone, without her. There was a humming in my veins that warmed my blood after a few seconds. That warmth locked itself within me, but I wasn’t scared or thought I should place my guard up for it. It was like the dagger was happy to have found me as much as I was apprehensive to haveit in the first place. Having it just told me that I needed to get it back to her, which amplified my need to get the ball rolling again.

I held it tight in my grip and jumped off the bed. I had made it a few steps from the door when the room started to shake, I didn’t know if it was real or if I was just feeling things like a hallucination. I didn’t feel the raging guilt or sadness I had felt for so long, so what the fuck was trying to mess with me now? I placed my hand on the wall steadying myself and looked down at the ground. Dark smoke was coming from the wood and started to wrap itself around my legs. I tried to pick my feet up, get to the door to alert the others, but my mouth wouldn’t move and when I felt like I was close to the door, it moved further back. My vision was spotting and I started blinking rapidly, seeing only certain colors over and over again.

I backed up into the wall, my breathing starting to become erratic. My hold on the dagger loosened and eventually it clattered against the floor. I watched as it enveloped itself in smoke and retreated away from me. Whatever this was…it was pushing into my head, but it wasn’t like the kind of darkness that I was used to, if darkness could have a texture this one was smooth and silky. It moved like it wanted to comfort me—like it knew me.

I could feel it in every crevice of my body, my ears were ringing, and the tips of my fingers started tingling. I saw my hands start to light up and then stop. Start, stop, start, stop. It was strong, so much stronger than the darkness from before. I tried to pull my strength together, work against whatever this was, but then it pulled at my heart, it wrapped itself around my chest. I already felt connected to it in some way.

Nicholas.

Nicholas.

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