Chapter 185
CAMILLA’S P.O.V
Reina stilled coming to the realization that she was cornered. If she made one wrong move, Ryker was going to slit her throat and she was going to die. He was going to do it either way and I was sure she knew that too because I saw anger fuel her expression. I couldn’t help but wonder how one person could be so hateful. How could one human possess so much anger? It seemed like a sure way to become bitter and vengeful and I couldn’t help but wonder what got her to that point.
I took slow and deliberate steps towards her and I felt my power thrumming beneath the surface, as if it were pulling me closer to her. Ryker watched every move I made carefully as I stopped in front of her. I could feel the darkness emanating from deep within her bones, I wanted to reach out to touch her but when I tried, she snarled and tried to bite my hands.
“If you push your powers anywhere near me, I promise you, I will fill you up with so much darkness that you will burst,” she warned and I immediately snatched my hand back.
A light glow dropped on us and I made the mistake of momentarily looking away at the moon. That was all the time she needed to place a hand over Ryker’s and he let out a pained groan as she seared off the skin on his hand. The dagger fell and before I could grab it, she kicked it away towards the edge of the cliff. I could have either rushed for her or Ryker but in that moment, my mate was the most important. I had completely forgotten about what lay behind.
I looked at my mate and the ugly dark burn on his hand. She had seared off the entire skin leaving nothing but cartilage and bone behind. It was horrible to look at and it smelled even worse- like burned and rotten flesh.” Ryker tried to wave me off and assure me that he was okay but I wasn’t buying it one bit. He looked like he had just gone through hell. I tore a fraction of my dress and wrapped it around his arm when I heard Reina clear her throat behind me. I planned to ignore her until I heard a cry.
I whipped my head around only to see her smirking as she held my youngest in her arms. Aurora was sobbing, her cheeks wet with tears and a bright red color. Reina looked pleased with herself as she watched the helpless expressions on our faces. I didn’t need to be a witch to know that this was what she wanted all along.
“Let go of my daughter,” I said slowly but she just scoffed. “You don’t want her, you want me. I’m not fighting anymore, just give me my daughter.”
“Why would I do that?” she mused bouncing Aurora on her hip but my daughter wouldn’t stop crying. “The blood moon is high in the sky right now and do you know what that means? It means that I can perform my
ritual. You would have been an excellent candidate but a child, one devoid of any blemish would be even better.”
“No.” I warned but she ignored me.
“I heard something while I was in hiding about your children, that was why I wanted them here. One of them apparently holds powers that could rival mine. I would have liked to have both so that I could test the theory but one will do.”
Before I could ask what she meant, she pulled out a dagger from her side and stabbed it into Aurora’s chest. It felt like time had gone still for me. One second, my child was crying and the next she was still. Reina laughed as a
blood curling scream left my throat. Ryker snapped out of his reverie first but with a snap of her fingers, he was
thrown back against a tree hard.
“Do you want to try next?” she asked as she unceremoniously dropped my daughter on the altar.
I rushed for my child ignoring her. I couldn’t feel a pulse on her skin neither could I feel any form of life coming from her. I refused to believe it. My daughter couldn’t be dead. I had saved people I didn’t know, I saved people unto my own detriment. I was going to save my daughter even if it meant crawling into the depths of the earth and getting her back.
“Come back to me, Aurora,” I whispered digging in for my powers and pushing them into her but it seemed to find its way back into my body. “You are not going to die.”
“She is already gone, Camilla. Unfortunately, even you don’t have the power to bring someone back from the dead. You have the power to heal, you need the power of life to do that and you don’t have it. Even if you did, bringing someone back would tear you apart from the inside, you would die. Do you want that?”
Her words settled in my mind and I couldn’t help but remember a conversation I had with Lyla. She said I had the power of life. Reina didn’t know that. All this time, she had been fighting me for mere healing powers not knowing I had so much more. I picked up my daughter and placed her on the ground while kneeling next to her. I closed my eyes and concentrated. I focused on the lull of the wind and the roaring of the sea behind me. I focused on the shining moon above me and exhaled deeply.
I opened my eyes and I saw her- the goddess- standing in front of me. I knew she wasn’t truly there because she stood beside that very same mirror I had seen so many times. The gaping holes were worse than before and something white leaked from my body- my essence.
“If you do this,” she began in a warning tone. “I might not be able to save you. You cannot tamper with life and death.”
“If you had dealt with her then I wouldn’t have to. She was your responsibility and you let her go free. You did this.”
She exhaled deeply. “Reina was my child just as you are mine. I cannot hate my own. I cannot kill my own. I made an oath and I cannot interfere. I sincerely apologize, Camilla, I know what you have lost.”
“No,” I shook my head vigorously. “I haven’t lost a thing because my daughter is going to live. She has so much ahead of her. I cannot watch her die. Tell me how to heal her.”
“I won’t do that.”
I wanted to scream. I looked at the mirror in front of me, at the girl kneeling in front of a bleeding baby and the tears running down her face. It took me a second to realize those were not tears, they were silver like whatever was leaking from my body. I was crying out my essence and suddenly it all made sense.
“Whenever I healed those people, I gave them a part of my soul,” I said and her face blanched. “Every single one of them carries something of me inside. If I want to heal her, raise her, I have to give it all.”
“Camilla, you can have more kids.”
“So can you,” I shot back before closing my eyes and willing it all into my daughter.
The goddess faded away and so did everything else except my child in front of me. It felt like I was ripping myself from the inside out. I heard a scream and it took me a second to realize that it was coming from me.
I felt a phantom hand on my shoulder and a small voice in my ear whispering. “You are so strong. I couldn’t have picked anyone better.”
The voice disappeared after but not before I felt something hot enter my back. I couldn’t focus much on it because my child was still in front of me. I pulled the damn dagger out and watched as her skin knitted itself up.
“No,” I heard Reina say from behind me. “What the hell is happening? What the hell are you doing?”
I turned to her and raised a hand throwing her back with a wall of water that materialized out of thin air. My limbs shook and I heard Ryker’s voice but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. Everything was blurry and muddled in my ears.
Just as quickly as I started, I felt the power drain out of me and I had never felt so empty in my life. I knew I had barely minutes to finish things. I managed to get to my feet, trying to stand on wobbly legs. I watched my
+5
daughter, willing any sign of life and then I saw it, her chest rising and falling. I let out a sigh of relief.
“She’s alive,” I said more to myself than any. I turned to Reina who was watching with shock on her face and stumbled towards where she stood by the edge of the cliff. I had barely gotten close enough when my legs gave out and I fell on my face.
“You foolish girl, you killed yourself for a baby, a baby that you could have had again. Look at your mate, how will he live with that child knowing it killed you?”
“I didn’t die trying to save my child,” I managed to get to my feet. “I died trying to kill you.”
Without warning, I plunged the dagger into her chest.
Her eyes widened in shock and I saw the red patch form on her skin. Her mouth opened and she tried to speak but no words would come out, only gurgled blood. She tipped backwards and I thought it was over until she grabbed a hold of my dress almost taking me with her. I slipped over the edge managing to grab a hold of the ledge.
“Ryker,” I screamed and within seconds my mate was at the ledge trying to hold me up but his arm was badly burned and it didn’t matter how much he tried, he couldn’t pull me. “Please.”
My vision was blurring and I couldn’t hold on for much longer.
“You are not dying,” it sounded more like an order. “You cannot die right now. We have to go home to our girls. Just hold on a little longer, okay? The guards are coming. Someone is going to pull you up.”
Tears gathered in my eyes. “I love you, so much, you have no idea.”
“Don’t say that, it sounds like a goodbye. Don’t f**king say it.”
“I’m sorry, this isn’t your fault,” I whispered before my hand slipped out and I fell.
