Page 102 of Until the End of Ever
Hopefully, Ronan meant it when he said I could have a job teaching at Night Academy. That might be a good fit. But I wasn't concerned about finding a job; I knew I would. I could walk in the animal sanctuary or the House of Frey and ask if they needed a healer. Maybe I'd give in to Andrea's demand and open a bakery.
My aunt gasped. "You don't mean that!"
"See?" My mother drawled. "It's past time we intervened. She's getting out of hand."
"The only thing wrong here is my boss manipulating me into talking to my mother. In case that wasn't clear, I needed some time alone."
"Time during which you humiliated yourself and me?" she seethed, her voice raising.
Hilda cleared her throat. "I should leave you to it. I'm needed downstairs. The murders." She glanced at me hopefully. "We'll talk later about work."
"No need," I assured her. "I'll mail my formal resignation."
Seeming to understand that there was nothing she could add that would make the situation any less fucked up, she turned on her heels, closing the door behind her.
I tensed the moment Hilda walked out, wanting to scream, and knowing there was no point. Part of me couldn't believe I'd been tricked into this. But at the same time, I wasn't surprised.
Zenya Pendros never showed her true face outside of four private walls. No one knew her, not even Silver or Gideon.
The privacy spell she cast over every corner of the office came as no surprise. How else was she going to bellow obscenities at me? But the resounding slap that followed? I didn't see it coming, too fast for me to even think to stop it.
I held my cheek, lips parted in shock.
It had been years since she'd hit me.Eleven years, to be exact.She stopped the moment I'd retaliated by setting the room on fire.
"How dare you!" she shouted, lifting her hand again.
I raised mine, erecting a shield before she could get a second blow in.
"How dareyou," I countered. "Some mother you are."
I'd never said anything like it before, but I meant it.
I didn't see many examples of good parenting growing up. Hilda was all right, nice to Gideon and I, but she'd left most of the parenting to Leo. Silver's foster parents didn't really bother with her. But after meeting Cassiopea, I knew what a mother was supposed to feel like. Warm, caring, kind, reassuring. I never got any of that from the woman before me. Just anger, disappointment, accusations, orders I was supposed to follow without protest.
Really, I should have expected her to be enraged enough for physical violence. She wasn't used to not getting her way. By the time I'd been old enough to figure out that I didn't have to doevery single thing she demanded, she had her guardianship to dangle over me, like a carrot and stick all wrapped in one.
"Oh, you have no idea what I've done for you, ungrateful little brat! Without me, you'd already bedead."
I chuckled. "What, I'm supposed to be oh so grateful because you decided to bring me to life?"
"Ignorant fool," she sneered. "I tried to play nice. To make this as seamless as possible for you. But as you intend to singlehandedly destroy this city, you give me no choice!"
I was quite honestly confused. Mother was prone to exaggeration, but none as grotesque as the ones she was spewing at me.
But the next moment, she called to her magic, gathering pure white clouds between her palms. This was no longer my mother, but the White Witch, the leader of all priestesses of Highvale, head of the temple of Zeus.
I stared in disbelief.
Up until this very moment, I hadn't even thought it possible. The idea didn't so much as cross my mind.
She was right. I was a fool.
Lucian had known, or suspected, hadn't he?“Would you?”he'd asked.“Murder your mother. If you needed to.”
I'd said yes, and I meant it. But by the time I realized that the person behind my suffering, behind the threat of enslavement, was my own mother, it was too late.
She knew better than to throw a spell directly at me—my innate immunity would have simply deflected it. Instead, she filled the space with thick clouds, blinding me. I could feel her, but not see anything to appropriately defend myself.
