Page 119 of Legendary

“Yet…it happened.” Elise pointed out, placing her palm facing up as if to sayso what.

Louise licked her lips, hesitating. Willa nodded to her wife. “We need to, Louie. We don’t do it now; you know we’ll never do it.” Louise placed her free hand, that wasn’t currently being held hostage by her daughter, against her chest. “Well, Lilith eventually came back for us, but she didn’t come back alone. She came back with a baby.”

Reese, who had been tapping his foot along the floor, stopped moving. We all could feel the room shift into something much more intriguing, like a dam was about to be broken and everything would be flooding out. “A baby?” I asked.

They both nodded. “She came back with it and damn near tossed it atus. She told us that our last task would be to dispose of it. We could go live whatever lives we wanted but get rid of the child first and foremost. She had that look on her face like she was hatching a plan, but it wasn’t all the way formed yet.” Willa practically shivered.

“How does one rid themselves of a baby?” Reese questioned.

“Oh, come on Blondie. Get creative. You can’t sit there and not think that there are plenty of ways to dispose of something or someone.” Elise taunted, sticking her tongue out at him.

Willa fidgeted with the ends of her jacket sleeves. “We had the baby in tow, and we were all set to get rid of the problem. Start our lives away from Lilith and her grip on us…” She trailed off, placing her hand over her mouth.

“So, you killed that baby…” Reese started to say, but I patted his arm, letting him know to stop talking and let me speak. I rubbed my index finger above one of my eyebrows thoughtfully.

“Your moms never told you any of this?” I looked over to Beetee who seemed a little taken aback by my question.

She shook her head. “No. I mean they didn’t take me in until after all that mess with Heaven’s Gate and Oculus. I guess it’s something they didn’t want to think about anymore, something they didn’t want to bring up.” She placed her other hand over her mom’s, a gesture that said she was with her parents, despite whatever they’d done for Lilith. Louise gave her daughter a half smile, but it was filled with sadness. The wheels in my head were moving as if someone had thrown oil in the cogs and they were starting to move at their normal pace again.

“After? Like as a teenager? An adult?” I understood that these women weren’t her parents, but there was something that didn’t make any fucking sense. I couldn’t have been the only person to see it. I eyed Garrett and Leah who were looking at Louise and Willa with the same stare as my own. Beetee tilted her head to the side, her lilac eyes concerned. “No, Nicholas. I grew up with them. They are parents in every way except biological.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but Reese cut me off. “Grew up?”

Elise looked from side to side, her mouth opened slightly as if she was trying to do math in her head but somehow the answer kept ending up wrong. “Right after the whole dead baby thing, Lilith put that whole anti-aging, anti-procreation decree on Purgatory, all those born here and in Hell along with all those created by her…” I’d never seen Elise lost for her words, but this was something I was too invested in to really capture the moment like I should have.

“It took her years to find Dani and create a hybrid of her own. And you’re knowledgeable about when Dani came around?” I focused on Beetee.She looked a little out of sorts.

“Um, yes. Like I told Dani, I never went to Lilith’s castle, never really got close. But I knew the Soul Seether existed, there was so much talk about her. Especially when I got old enough to check out Leviathan, the one and only time I went. I learned a lot about her from Elise, but most of my childhood and beyond was getting this anchoring tattoo in check.”

Willa let out a small chuckle. “Ah, that tattoo was something I was not prepared for. Those things don’t fully develop until around the pre-teen stage and oof, I didn’t think I would ever have to wrangle a reptile in my lifetime.”

I slammed my hand on the table sensing a headache creeping up on me. “Do you hear yourselves? Pre-teen stage? How the hell did you even get that far? You came to themafterthe war in Oculus and grew up with them as your moms.” I waved my hand in Beetee’s direction, motioning towards her entire body. “This doesn’t make sense. She would still be a baby if that timeline had any merit.”

“She wouldn’t…oh shit, she would.” Reese’s hazel eyes widened taking in my words.

Garrett stepped around his wife and moved closer to the table. He closed his eyes and then opened them, taking in a solid breath and then letting that same breath out. “Louise, Willa, what happened to that baby?” He asked like he already knew the answer, like he knew they had one true thing in common. They were both parents to children they loved deeply.

I could see Louise vibrating with nerves. Her voice was shaky when she spoke. “We couldn’t do it. We had done some terrible things in our time, murder being one of them, but we couldn’t gather the strength to do that. We’d heard and read things about hybrid children, but Willa is also one to read the fine print and everyone should know that those children don’t have to turn into raging dictators, they don’t have to be rulers and destroy worlds. They can live perfectly semi-normal lives, deciding how they want to be without any manipulation.” She sounded like she was trying to sell us on that point, she was trying to defend what they had chosen not to do and ultimately explained why they didn’t come out often.

“What?” Beetee said in a small voice, her breath barely coming out.

Elise made a tiny choking sound as if she had just had an epiphany. “Woah, woah! You keep aging because you were neither born down here nor created by Lilith. Please nod if I’m correct.” Elise looked towards Beetee’s moms. They gave her two short nods, the solemn look they both displayed made me a little sad for them. “Right. So, you guys rekidnapped a baby that Lilith had previously kidnapped and then raised it as your own.” She wasn’t really talking to anyone now; she was just putting the puzzle together.

I helped give her pieces to that puzzle, “you’re that baby. You’re Daya’s niece. She thinks you're dead. They all think you’re dead. That whole catastrophe in Oculus happened because of some underhanded blaming and finger pointing because everyone wanted to believe that everyone else murdered…you.” I couldn’t actually believe the words I was saying. I looked at Beetee, really looked at her. There were pieces of her that reminded me of Daya and how I suppose her cousin would have been. She had this forward way about her, but it was wrapped up in this loving nature that truly seemed like it was written into her personality so that she would remain like that forever.

Beetee shook her head and then shook it again. “Anti-aging? What the hell are you guys talking about?”

It looked like each of us was about to explain, but Elise gave us all a stark look that screamedshut the fuck up.She faced her friend and plastered on that tough love expression she wore so well. “Beetee, Lilith put an entire curse on this realm after that war. She didn’t want anyone producing anything she couldn’t control, and she didn’t want the people she found to stand beside her to go out of commission due to old age until she was ready for them to leave. You said that you’ve been with them from the start and you’ve fucking aged like you’re untouched by any of this.” Elise leaned in. “Because you aren’tfromany of this. That tattoo you have, that’s from your dad and that weird, annoying go-lucky nature you have that’s from your mom. I just thought your parents raised you all funny for you to want to have this place and actually help people, but now I guess it all makes sense.” She shrugged, leaning back into her chair.

I watched as Beetee looked down at the hand she had over her mom’s. She stared at it for so long I swore she zoned out. My stomach dropped when she slowly removed her hand from Louise’s grasp. Her mom let her, but not without flinching a bit at the loss of contact. Beetee wrapped her hand into a fist at the table and her whole body was tense as if she didn’t know what to do with all this information, all these sudden emotions.

Reese sucked in a breath. “So, you—you and Dani—you guys are…”

“They’re the same,” I finished.

Beetee violently shook her head. “No, no! Dani was supposed to be an angel, Lilith created her. She made her a demon. I…I mean, I….”

Leah walked around the table and gingerly placed her hand on Beetee’s shoulder. The pink haired demon peeked up at her from where she sat. “Dani was made, Beetee. You were born, to an angel and demon. You’re both hybrids respectively, but by two different means.”

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