Page 77 of Hidden Sacrifice
I headed straight for our wing of the palace, determined to find Justice and let him know everything that just happened. Searching for him in his room first, I found it empty. I should have known to go to the record hall first.
“Go find Jasper. I’ll be back later,” I said to Cole.
He whined slightly in response, but I pointed down the hall towards Jasper’s room while giving him a pointed look.
Finally, a moment without my shadow. I took off at vampire speed, twisting and turning through the Hell halls, arriving in mere seconds. Pushing one large door open, the smell of old leather and faded, weathered pages washed over me. Pulling out mentally, I checked that Justice was positioned in front of the fireplace and no one else was around.
I needed a memory room for this.
When I finished, I headed over towards Justice, apprehensive about the multiple ways this conversation could go. “I think I just met your mom, Liberty.”
Justice’s head swung around quickly as if he had just been electrocuted. “Where?” he said, getting to his feet.
“She just sat down with me while I was with the other elites. Then she hit me with a wall of intense emotions. After that, she freaked out and started hitting herself, and a demon with short red hair came and got her.”
I half expected him to bolt for the door to catch up with his mom, but instead, he came up to me. His eyes searched my face and then further down my body. “He didn’t touch you, did he?” Justice asked with concern in his eyes as he met my gaze, demanding answers, not asking for them.
“No, but she did.” Fuck, maybe I shouldn’t have let her touch me after all.
“I’m not worried about her. But that man you saw was Mammon, my father.”
“Oh,” I said. He had seemed so timid and weak. I couldn’t imagine that as a mighty sin. I couldn’t even claim to have noticed him before while in the throne room.
“His form often changes, Fox. You wouldn’t have recognized him,” Justice explained. He must have felt the emotions running off me and guessed my confusion. “He’s the only one allowed to touch her.” Justice shrugged, turning back around to take a seat on the pile of blankets beside the roaring blaze.
I took a seat next to him, taking my shoes off before tucking my feet underneath me. I watched as Justice pulled a green inked spell from his chest. Throwing it around us, creating a nearly invisible blanket of magic that surrounded us like a bubble.
“Barrier spell. No sounds get through,” Justice said with a sigh. “One day, I will be like my mother. Pushing out toxic emotions, hitting myself, and hurting others. I inherited most of my powers from her. Specifically, the power to go into the minds of others. The downside is the more often you are inside the mind of one creature, the more the soul fracture transfers onto your noodle.” He pointed to his head like it was the butt of a joke.
I had noticed Justice seemed off lately, but Justice is always off. It would be more noticeable if he were entirely normal for an extended period.
“It starts with whispers. Voices inside your mind of someone else’s memories. You get tiny little clips out of context without any control. Vague inclinations toward action. You can feel their intent, Fox. You feel it as if it’s your own, and you must fight it. The more you get, the louder they get, and more insistent.”
I put my hands on top of his in his lap. I gave him a slight reassuring squeeze. “Shouldn’t we stop using that power then? Reduce the exposure.”
“And reduce my power? Reduce the power of the pack?” His gaze was stern, the flames of the fire illuminating his back, casting his face in shadows. His eyes seemed to glow and churn a visual warning of his toxicity.
“We are more than powerful enough together now. You don’t need to hurt yourself for us.” I squeezed his hand again softly.
“It comes on very slowly, Fox. I still have many more centuries before I reach her level.” He shrugged as if this wasn’t a big deal.
My mind flashed the haunting vision of Justice dead before my eyes again, and Jax’s confession came floating around next. We may not even have enough time to worry about slow mental decline. Not if our time was limited.
“Yeah, I guess I can see your point. So, what’s up with your dad?” A change of topic was heavily needed.
“My father is the sin of greed. He is a collector of sorts. He collects powerful demons, usually in the form of wives. Then he experiments on them.”
“What kind of experiments?” I couldn’t help but think about Justice’s dungeon and how he liked to experiment on other demons. Maybe he was more like his dad than he wanted to admit.
“He’s trying to create the perfect demon. Spells to alter the souls turn their power into something even more. Something closer to the power the angels wield. He started his experimentations when my mother lost control more and more often. He hoped he could strip her mind of the fragment remains and bring back her clarity.
As you can see, he has yet to succeed.” There was an air of bitterness to his tone. Like he expected his dad to have discovered a cure for his mother despite the difficulty.
“Is that why you experiment on demons in your dungeon? Are you looking for a cure?”
I watched his eyes soften, back to my cuddly Justice I had grown more accustomed to. “I’m just looking to learn, Fox. Here, let me show you what I’ve been working on. Do you remember the collar that Jace put around you in mid-realm?”
My hand moved to my neck reflexively. I would have to start remembering to wear the necklaces the boys have gotten me. Justice turned to an open book beside the pile of blankets, flipping the page to reveal two roughly shaped metal pieces.
