Page 113 of Anathema Codex

Sometimes, two devils are better than one. Especially when I know that this little red monster is desperate to show me what she’s made of.

EIGHT

Freedom from Darkness

AFTYN

The Daughter seems saddened by it, but I’m glad Daphne left. She was nothing but bad memories. The last piece of a rotten history that I don’t have to be tethered to anymore.

Of all the things The Daughter has given methatis the most precious.

Freedom.

Not just in this new way of life, but freedom from everything in my past that I never realized was so heavy. My mother, my mistakes, my douchebag of a sperm donor, and all of that endless rage that used to drive me forward every damn day.

Sun Wolf said it best when he described how the pain in our histories acts like stones weighing us down in the darkness. In the empty black of our internal pain, we can’t even see how those memories, those actions, thosepeoplehave weighed us down.

But The Daughter brings Light to all who seek it out. She shines her Light into us, revealing all of the chains tethering us to our damaged past—and then she sets us free.

She setmefree.

Walking down the central path of the community, I can feel her Light even though she’s in the main hall communing with some of the Children of Light and the higher ranked Light Weavers. I reach over to run my fingers under Willa’s hair tie and a smile spreads across my dry lips. The warmth of the sun on my back, combined with the elastic stretch of the band, brings me a greater peace than I ever thought possible.

If Willa were here, she’d appreciate this.

All Wills ever wanted was to make me happy. Sure, we didn’t always get along, but that was part of who we were. We challenged each other, pushed each other toward greatness.

Most of all, we protected each other.

She helped me kill my whore of a mother so that I could be free—which is just one more way that Willa and The Daughter are similar. Blonde hair and golden hearts. Freeing the wounded people they find along the way.

Hell, that’s what Willa was trying to do with Dexter too, just trying to help him… but he was using her. Abusing her golden heart, and so I’d done what I had to do. It had been my turn to protect her, and that—

Stop it, Aftyn.

Dwelling on the past only drags us further away from the light, and I refuse to ever go back to the person I was before I found this Holy Ground and The Daughter.

Taking a deep breath, I turn my face up to the sky and turn until I can feel the full heat of the sun.

This warmth is Willa.

She’s part of the Light now, as we all will be one day, and I can only hope she sees the peace our insane journey eventually brought me to.

I’d been an idiot to think answers or peace or anything good could lie with Lakyn Meyer, but in some roundabout way when I took that first step toward finding him… Iwason the right path.

I just didn’t know the final destination.

“Aftyn.” Her soft, sweet voice has me opening my eyes, temporarily blinded by the glorious light of the sun before I turn to look at The Daughter. Although, she’s just as blinding. Those golden rays arc around her beautiful blonde hair, catching the fierce shine of the sun and amplifying it. She is Light incarnate, and for the millionth time I find myself wanting to thank her for accepting me—for setting me free.

“Daughter,” I eventually reply, but my voice cracks because my throat is too dry. That’s why I wandered out here in the first place. I was thirsty, but then I got distracted by thoughts of my past, which shouldn’t even happen because they don’t matter anymore.

I’m free now, just like all the Children of the Light.

“You look thoughtful this afternoon.” The Daughter steps closer to me, her warm, soft hand slipping into mine to squeeze gently. “Are you still thinking of Lakyn?”

“No,” I reply a little too sharply and immediately try to soften my tone. “I was thinking about Willa, and how she’s in the Light now.”

That serene smile slides over her face as she turns it toward the sun, eyes closed as her crown makes her glow. “Yes, she’s there. Waiting for the time when we will join her in the Light.”

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