Page 31 of Taming Darkness

My gaze follows her as she straightens her body and opens a portal before nodding at someone. Hands suddenly grab me and I feel my powers completely stifled as something clamps down on both wrists.

More crystals hang from the gold cuffs, entwined with the magic I know is hers. My wings fold in and disappear under my skin. The shadows retreat again, leaving me powerless.

I feel exposed, naked, and vulnerable. The one thing I never wanted to feel just washed over me all at once, thanks to the woman who is supposed to be my mother.

“When I am finished, this world will fall to the true Queen. Our species may be extinct, but not for much longer,” she announces, raising her voice for everyone to hear. “I will restore order to our ancestors.”

“You’re crazy. No one will follow you,” I spit back at her. For how long has she been feeding herself all these delusions?

Is she really that desperate for power to have lost any grip on reality? To have forgotten how to tell the difference between evil and good? Or has she always been like this? Vicious, disgusting, and tainted by her greed for power?

“Oh, they will; they will, when they see who has true power,” growls my mother, her eyes flickering down at me as the portal behind her ripples and shudders.

I am hauled to my feet as someone digs their nails into my upper arms. I almost hiss in pain, but before the sound escapes me, I press my lips together to keep the sound in. She won’t get the pleasure of hearing my pain.

“And you, girlie,” she brings her hand to my cheek and runs her fingers over my skin, making me shudder. “You are the key to it all, the last of your existence, a Harmony. Pure of light and darkness. Our ancestors would be proud that through you, the remnants of us will be brought back to power, and not only that. You yield light but also darkness, the first of your kind. But you won’t be the last.”

I glare at her, wishing I could burn the smug look off her face. “What are you talking about?”

She clicks her tongue. “You still have no idea what you are, do you?”

More of her games. Can’t she speak her mind, share her plans, or just talk like everyone else does? Why does she speak in a riddle? Is it to sound mysterious and important? I shake my head. “Of course, I know who I am. I’m Harmony-Fae.”

“No, sweet girl. Why do you think we survived the plague when no one else did?” asks my mother, cupping my cheek. I jerk my face away from her. “Your father was pure Dark-Fae, but I was a pure Angel. Fae didn't have wings. History is wrong, Aleera. Only the Seraphim do. And you'll help me get mine back! You may be part Fae, but your wings prove you’re so much more, just like I knew you would be.” Her words shocked me. Angels are extinct and have been for centuries.

“The plague was never meant to wipe out the White-Fae. It was created to wipe out the Demonic-Fae. They caused our ruin, and they will pay for it because now his very DNA is morphed with yours, his magic is yours, soon to be mine.” Before I realize what’s going on, I'm shoved forward into the portal. It sucks me in, and I am suddenly looking at a place that no longer exists. Home.

I watched this place burn to the ground, and yet, here it stands, looking the same as I remember.

“Welcome home,” my mother’s voice taunts.

Chapter18

~Aleera~

My eyes sweep over my surroundings, my heart racing a mile a minute. This could not be what it looks like. She must be using my memories against me. I am desperate to find a weak spot or vulnerability in what could only be an illusion, to think one step ahead of her evil grand plan. Though, the harder I look at it, the more I get the sense that it truly is my home that had been destroyed by fire. It almost seems as if it was plucked out of time itself and given back to me. It doesn’t feel like a projection or illusion; it feels real.

There is no way I will give in to my curiosity and trust what my eyes show me. I glance over at her army, who follow her in perfect obedience. There has to be some weakness I can exploit.

“You can look all you want, but you won't find a way back. You'll never escape me again,” she taunts.

I keep my eyes low, avoiding hers, and try to look like I am scared and shaken about where I've ended up.Think, Aleera.

I turn my head and watch my mother stroll forward, taking in my surroundings. She is correct. There is nothing out there. I can’t even see the road leading into this place anymore because it's so overgrown with grass it no longer exists; there is no gap between the trees showing the way out. Instead, it leads into a dead-end street among the trees. The brown, dry grass is overgrown, and a once comforting space now gives way to an unshakable, eerie feeling. Even the sky looks off as if we are in some sort of matrix. It appears to ripple and morph, like looking through a bubble. Everything glitters oddly. Turning my attention back to my mother, I watch as she speaks with some of the power hunters standing guard around this place.

I wonder briefly if the power hunters are aware she is just using them. However, by the devoted looks they give her, it’s as if she is their deity or an altar on which they worship.

My mother smiles and converses in a tone that sets me on edge, one I realize was reserved for me as a child. I haven’t heard that voice in what feels like a lifetime. She speaks to them like some loving mother, and I watch as she caresses the guard's cheek, manipulating him with soft words and gentle touches before he rushes off to do as she asks.

The man goes in the direction of the surrounding forest and suddenly disappears. This makes me notice the dome-like protection surrounding this place as the shield ripples. No wonder my mates couldn't find her.

They’d sifted through so many clues and witnesses, only to hit one dead end after another. They’d even gone as far as hiring snitches and paying them off, those most likely to know exactly where this special corner of hell was, but the results were always the same.

The men I can see here are brainwashed, the power hunters indeed worshiped the ground she stood on as we approached the huge building that was once my family home. All speaking and touching her while sneering at me as I trudged behind her.

Every forward step of progress my mates made over the years, toward finding the real location, only ended in shoving them three steps back. They’d been betrayed countless times, while my mother's hunters had lured them further and further away from the truth.

All of them had been desperate to unearth the place where the root of all evil lay. Where it hid, right under our noses, concealed from everyone outside their little members-only organization.

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