Page 93 of Deviant Illusions

This old cunt shouldn’t have a living parent. She must be in her seventies. There haven’t been any other family reunions, but she nods her head like she knows what I’m thinking, then points to the part of the island in my periphery.

“She is housed there.”

“Do I have a grandfather?” I ask dumbly, like anyone who would be with this bitch could be sane.

“You did.” She smiles and looks up at me. “Would you like to meet him?”

“No, it’s fine.” I brush her off due to her use of the past tense.

Yet she’s still talkative. “Isadora was the same as you. She thought the curse was a fallacy, until she struggled to conceive. Do you know that she spent years trying to have children? Your father exhausted every option within his means and yet, no children because she is a Kobalt. Like you.”

Keep watching the fucking water, Kane.

“Oh, Isadora was a lonely heart who knew the price she paid for choosing a lowly life with the likes of your father, but she was stubborn. Too stubborn to admit that she needed her mother and too proud to come home to take her punishment and have the children she so desperately wanted.”

I laugh at her description of my father because I don’t think there was a person who would have looked down at him for his accomplishments. He was wealthy—old money wealth that he inherited in full as the last living member of his family before I was born.

But Helene sighs. “Alas, that’s what our doctors are for.” She turns to me, smiling and lifting her toxic hand to stroke my cheek as she croons, “My sweet boy, do you really believe that your life was out of my control? I created the problems your mother faced, and then I created you. You, like Asher, are part of me. Only, she ruined the gift I gave her. The illusion of motherhood didn’t soothe her desires. Instead she was ungrateful, and she weakened you.”

“You’re not my fucking mother.”

Her nails dig into my cheeks as she grabs my face to pull me down, her voice is harsher than the whip as she says, “You are the purest Kobalt to exist, from both sperm and egg.”

I’ve spent my entire life understanding words, the world around me, but now I’m fucking lost. “What does that mean?”

She lets go of me as she faces the scenery again while I stare at her, waiting for an answer. I’m going to choke the cunt if she doesn’t answer me.

But when she does, it implodes everything I knew.

“The curse,” she says, “extends the death of my father and uncles to include future generations. No child from my bloodline can be conceived anywhere other than this home, and a mother doesn’t wish their child to suffer, so I created you. Just like I created everything else.”

“Created me how?”

A smile plays on her lips as she tilts her chin to look up at me through the corner of her eyes. “As all children are created, never equal, but the science doesn’t change. Rowan was an eager boy to ensure Mother had what she needed.”

My stomach revolts at the thought of what the fuck they were doing. The glass walls of the atrium reflect the sight of my face pinching in disgust back to me as I watch the water like it can wash the information away.

“Do you now understand, Kane?” she asks. “I don’t need you for the agreement. You need me. If you continue to disobey me, you can watch while I task another Kobalt to take your place.”

“No one will touch Delilah,” I grit, curling my hands into fists.

“Of course, but I can keep her in that precarious position between life and death while she grows the link we need. After all, it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, while she was under Rowan’s supervision. Those years allowed us to harvest in preparation for this day. Medically, physically, by force or want, she will carry a child that is half Leroux and half Kobalt. So, the decision is yours to make. Don’t think your loving whispers will stop me.”

Fuck.

I search the air in front of me for an answer while my heart beats erratically. There’s nowhere to turn. The waves get faster, crashing against the side of the rocks in answer.

Death.

Is that the only way we can escape?

No, Delilah was pregnant with Asher’s bastard kid. I close my eyes, ashamed of myself for the thought as I say, “You already have the link. She was pregnant.”

Please forgive me, my pretty girl.

“Not if it was defective.” Helene hums and her heels click against the tile as she turns, walking away. “Therehasto be a shadow.”

I don’t open my eyes as she gets further away. The clicking stops as she says, “Kane.” She stands beside the door, her hand on the edge of the wood. “Mothers know best. You’ll see that my creation extends your measly life.”

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