Page 37 of Bound By Darkness

“Yet, she is so much more.”

“Regardless, why bring me back one hundred years ago?” I demand. “Eilish hasn’t even been alive that long!”

“I do not control the passing of time, Revenant,” she responds, her voice harsher this time. “I could not say when the angel would find her way to your world. Thus, I acted as quickly as I could with the hopes that I wasn’t too late. And, it just so happens that I was quite early.”

“One hundred years early,” I mutter.

“Indeed.”

“Tell me more about my purpose,” I demand.

“The angel must survive. She’s the answer to unseating Variant and returning the balance to the realms.”

“Then I’m to be her bodyguard?” I ask gruffly.

“Yes.”

“I thought that position was already taken by Dragan?”

There’s doubt in Morrigan’s voice when she responds. “I thought perhaps such would be the case as well, but the gargoyle has proven himself to be unreliable.”

“Because he turned on her?”

“Because he turned on her.”

“But he’s still enthralled with her and I doubt he’d allow a hair to be harmed on her head.”

“Perhaps, but the angel is too important to place her safety in the hands of a man who may or may not see her worth. You, however, have remained loyal. Once she was revealed to be more than just angel, you did not turn your back on her.”

“If anything, I felt closer to her,” I agree.

“Yes, because you were meant to protect her.” She’s quiet for a few seconds. “Even I am not privy to the reasons behind some of my actions,” she explains. “When I aroused you from your forever sleep, it was with the understanding that it had to be done. I was not certain of the reason at the time and have only stumbled upon the meaning now. We must accept the factthat not all things are meant to make sense to us at the time we experience them. Meaning can and usually does come with time.”

“Then this is my purpose?”

“This is your purpose,” she agrees. “But there is more.”

“More?”

“You are the harbinger of death—you are animated by death shadows. Now that Eilish has revealed the shadows that pump within her veins, she will need your guidance as well as your acceptance. You are not only meant to be her guardian, but you are meant to be her teacher, her guide.”

“What is there to teach her?”

“How to harness her power, how to realize the full potential of the shadows within her. She needs to learn what it means to be Succubus.”

“I don’t have the first idea what it means to be Succubus. I might be death but I’m not demon.”

“The shadows that animate you are the same that animate her. Dig deeply enough and you will find the answers.” She falls quiet for another few long seconds. When she speaks this time, her voice sound distant. “I know this information disappoints you.”

“I thought I was destined for something far more important.”

“As far as the safety, prosperity and balance of the three realms, there is no destiny more important than hers,” she responds in a mere whisper.

“That’s it, then?”

“Help her, protect her,” Morrigan continues. “There are powers that already reach out to her, powers that are stronger even than me.”

“Powers?”

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