Page 42 of Fated Blood

“Lilith, previously of the Monroes, and her Forever Bound Devion Cadell…” Sebastian says, wrapping his arms around me.

The rest of my family circles around us, fending off the enemy while zombies continue to run into the sun and die. Time seems to stand still, sprays of blood frozen in midair as my brother and his wife ascend to battle.

“Lilith…she will fight her own mother to save mine?” I whisper.

Sebastian’s arms tighten a little more. “From what I’ve heard, Angelica tried to kill her daughter. This is a battle a long time coming…”

I watch, frozen in place, as they dive through the window and knock Angelica away from my mother. I scream as she seems to be failing out the window, but Lilith is there, cradling her in her arms and setting her safely back on her feet inside the tower.

“You will not win!” Angelica roars.

Sebastian’s body covers mine as a rumble and explosion take the roof of the tower off in a hail of fire and stones. I can feel as well as hear the stones bouncing off Sebastian’s silver skin.

“You’re fighting a losing battle!” my father roars up at her as Angelica flexes her wings and hovers above the ruined tower with hatred in her eyes.

“I fight a righteous battle! The only one that’s ever mattered! This is on your shoulders, Zarius, yours! Know, as I kill your Forever Bound for a second time that this is all because of you, Zarius Cadell!”

My father’s face grows darker than I’ve ever seen it, rage and fear contorting him in mind and body until it looks like he might explode with anger. “The day I strayed from the path set for me was the best decision of my life! I will not let your jealousy ruin everything I have built!”

“Do they know, Zarius?” Angelica shrieks down at us, her eyes filled with vindictive fire.

“Do not utter another word, Angelica…” Zarius warns.

She smirks down at him. “What will you do if I tell them? What could you possibly do from all the way down there…” Angelica is almost purring, as if she’s won.

“We’re still here, Mother! Zarius does not need to fly himself to reap a victory!” Lilith shouts, taking to the air to face her mother as Devion brings Arria back to the ground.

I run to my mother, collapsing against her chest with tears streaming down my face. I truly thought she was going to die up there and I’d be helpless to stop it.

“Zarius, maybe it’s time?” my mother asks, her voice wavering as her own tears fall into my hair.

Father looks at her and shakes his head as he walks to us and embraces us both.

“What is she talking about?” Adam demands.

The fight around us stops. Angelica faces Lilith with the might of her sons hovering around her. Adam faces his father, demanding answers to countless millennia of battle and bloodshed.

“Tell him!” Angelica sings. “Tell him why we fight, Zarius!”

“Never!” Father roars. “The past changes nothing!”

“Your past changes everything,cousin!”

Chapter18

Zarius

“It will not be done, I forbid it!” I hiss, holding my father by the neck against the great willow that towers high behind the castle in our homeland, the beautiful Europe.

“What will you do, son? Will you kill your father to take the throne? Are these the things you will do to disobey your sire, to betray your people?” My father grins, not feeling any of the pressure from my hand around his aged throat. His black hair has long since gone gray, his skin like stained parchment. His stately robes fall around his body, hanging lower than his feet as I hold him off the ground.

Baring my fangs, I roar into his face. Naked from the waist up, my warrior's body is covered in a spray of blood and the carnage of battle. “You will not strip me of my freedom, you will not control me anymore!”

“I am not yet dead, my son. And you are not king yet…”

“Yet…” I whisper, lips curling into a sinister smile.

For the first time in all of my long life, fear flashes in my father’s eyes. I have long since become more powerful than him, leading his armies against our human foes. I could take him out now, with a flick of my wrist, and no one would blink an eye. He is a tyrant, a cruel and inhuman creature who lives only to slaughter and control.

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