Page 125 of Legendary

Everything came out in rambles. I probably spoke too fast and there was a definite chance that I said some of the same things over again, but throughout the entire story, she listened. Natalia stood there with her eyes on me, and her hands clasped in front of her, as I prattled on. She never interrupted me, and she never seemed to act like something else would be a better use of her time. She almost had me believing that she could have spent all her time just listening to me and not like she wasn’t an actual queen with people to rule over. I hesitated when I got to the information about Beetee, Ididn’t know if it was my place to let her in on that new fact and frankly it was a shocker, but it wasn’t the most important piece of information right now.

Natalia pressed her lips together in thought once I’d finished. “So, Lilith has turned Dani into a voided demon, just like the ones from the ambush, but stronger.” I nodded, catching my breath after finishing.

She hummed. “And Dani is the one who possessed you and not Lilith, almost like a punishment to Dani herself, but also in a way to hurt you.” Yet again, I nodded.

“I just don’t know how putting her completely in the dark will help with whatever plan she’s pursuing,” I said, feeling a slight breeze.

Natalia placed her hands behind her back and started pacing around me. “Well, the first way she tried, getting Dani to take in Jonah’s magic was obviously a logical first attempt.” She stuck her finger up as if halting her own thoughts. “But it’s not the only way. If I were putting it lightly, she did things the “nice” way before, now she’s choosing the route with the most destruction. The most impact.”

“What she did before wasn’t the most destructive?”

Natalia shook her head. “Not quite, Nicholas. There were always going to be casualties and loss, but with what she’s doing now, I don’t know how Heaven’s Gate is going to survive that. Dani is already a feared creature, she’s already strong, Nicholas. You stop her from holding back, give her no limits, take away her conscience, and give her no way to connect with the other half of herself, you will have a mess on your hands. Lilith is now the voice in her head, the source of her increasing strength.” Natalia pressed her index finger to her lips. “There are stories that a dark enough power can break anything, ideally a strong enough light power could do the same. You said she has a Son of Hell on her side, which just increases her wealth of power. She has Dimitri and Dani, along with Isabel who has a large sum of magic that unfortunately will start to challenge my own.

“With enough dark power she won’t need executive type light magic, she probably won’t need any light magic around, but that doesn’t mean she won’t want to keep you as some kind of angelic plaything. Especially if you were under their control, using your magic when they say and never getting a say so.” Her eyes widened as if a thought popped into her head. “You do have that key, which can take you home, who's to say she doesn’t want you alive to use you in that way. She could use your key to get Dani in and then completely demolish everything as she goes. There are so many possibilities, Nicholas, but without Dani at her absolute worst none of it will happen, so she has succeeded in step one. She wanted Dani to have you hurt others, which in return would hurt her even if she didn’t know it. Ifyou would have gone through with it, killed all of them and woken up, you would have had all their blood on your hands and…” She lifted her arm up and threaded her fingers into my hair in a comforting way. “I don’t think you would have survived that.”

I gave her a small smile of understanding. I hadn’t told her everything about what happened between Dani and I after that fight outside the hostel, but I told her enough so that she was aware that I was okay, that what she felt around me before we even left for Purgatory wasn’t wrong. She hadn’t wanted to push me, but she had always known something was off as she usually did. “How do we stop it? I can fight demons and nearly most of the things I’ve seen down there, but how do I fight…her?”

Natalia gave me a sympathetic look. “First off, Dani isn’t your villain, remember that. But what Lilith has turned her into is something that involves the work of Hell magic and soul loss.”

“Dani still has her angelic magic, her angelic soul. That can’t be gone unless she’s dead.” I sounded like I was arguing with her.

Natalia snapped her fingers. “Correct. Hell magic can make it so it’s invisible. That darkness she’s in will take over and suffocate her light, so much so that it wishes it didn’t exist. The only way to cure that is with strong enough light magic to bring it out.”

“I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do that, even with Reese’s help.”

The High Priestess pulled her bottom lip into her mouth, carefully thinking over her next words. “That’s not the only issue. Just because you may cure the light doesn’t mean you’ve dealt with the dark. If she is possessing you with such ease, I think it’s safe to say she is trapped in the dark and it isn’t letting her go, not without a fight. You’ll need to fight for the light and fight against the dark simultaneously.”

“Okay, how do we do that? We’ll do anything. Just tell us how we win.”

Natalia’s face fell a little as if she didn’t want to tell me something that would put me even more on edge. She tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and took a deep breath. “Winning is so subjective, Nicholas. It truly depends on how you look at it.” The glitter on her face shimmered and moved. “You have her dagger, yes?”

I hesitantly nodded at her. “What about it?”

“A weapon made of pure dark magic, forged in darkness. And you said you felt a strange connection with it when you touched it.Youhave pure light. I don’t know how far gone she is, how deep into the void she is with Lilith, that is for you to decide, but you will have to destroy that darkness from the inside, where it only grows stronger and festers.”

“From the inside?”

“You’ll need to mold your magic with the dagger, making it a simultaneous dark and light weapon and then you’ll have to make that choice. You’ll have to make it quick, and you’ll have to use every ounce of your angelic magic to do it because her dagger won’t hold back once you’ve started.”

I rubbed my palm against the back of my neck. “What choice? Natalia, what do you mean from the inside? Her dagger has nothing to….” I trailed off, looking into her eyes as she watched me take in her meanings. A lump formed in my throat when I tried to swallow it down, and I felt like I was choking. “You want me to use her own dagger on her? I don’t have soul seething powers, Natalia.”

“You don’t have to, Nicholas. I’m not telling you to be a soul seether, I’m telling you that the only way for you to release her from the dark is to eradicate it from the inside. Inside of her.”

I held my mouth open and just stared at her. “You’re telling me to kill her.”

Natalia vigorously shook her head. “No. I would never tell you to do that. You can try to find some other way to fix this but I’m only telling you what I know. The dagger will be a catalyst for your magic, threading itself within the darkness it already holds. It will do the seething all by itself, you're essentially turning it on its master…it knows what to do all on its own. I know that if the host is strong enough the impact from the dagger will hurt, but it won’t be the end, but if the darkness is too strong…Nicholas that’s why I said it will be your choice.

“Her angelic light is vulnerable, so it could take a hit, or it could not. It just depends on how hard the dark is willing to hold onto her and fight. That, I just don’t know. I’m only telling you how you can end it, but it just may not be the ending you want.”

I gave her a noncommittal nod and looked off to the side. She huffed out a breath. “These are things I’ve read in books and knowledge I’ve gained over time, and it could be outdated and wrong. You know her better than most, you have a connection with her that I will never understand, so you could surprise all of us in the end, just know that this is the advice that I’m giving you. I don’t want her gone from this world, same as you, but she had to have known sacrificing herself doesn’t always lead to the happiest of outcomes.”

I blinked a few times, letting my own emotions settle before looking back over at her. “I don’t think you would ever give me bad advice. I guess I just didn’t think you’d tell me that.”

“Well, Nicholas, let’s just hope your girl is strong enough to fight to get back to you, to get back to herself.” She gave me an encouraging smileand looked over her shoulder. “Just so you know, Ariel hasn’t made any progress on figuring out where Jonah’s magic went, and I think he might be attempting to just take Jonah’s place, tradition be damned. Your father is by no means happy about it, but they do miss you and you coming to me now at least gives me the opportunity to tell them you’re okay.”

“Thanks, I’ll be sure to make it back home.” I just hoped I wasn’t coming back home without the one person I wanted by my side.

“Hmm, I will highly enjoy seeing Ariel’s face when you come back successful. And Nicholas, please know I would not have told you this if there were another way, another path I could steer you towards.”

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