Chapter 19

Chapter 19
Selene's POV

Lyra moved up beside me protectively, but that single movement was enough to make Violetta snap. In the blink of an eye, Violetta lunged across the distance, her sword cutting through the air with terrifying speed, and Lyra barely managed to bring her magic up in time to block the strike, the impact sending a ringing shockwave through the trees.

“Violetta, stop!” I screamed, stepping directly between them.

Violetta spun toward me, her face contorted with wild rage, and she raised her hand as a blinding wave of magic exploded from her palm. The force struck me hard, throwing me backwards onto the ground and knocking the wind completely out of my lungs.

She was going to kill us if she didn’t regain control, and I knew that if we tried to fight her with force, someone was going to end up dead.

So I pushed myself up from the ground, brushed off my scraped palms, and did the only thing left that made sense: I walked straight toward her empty-handed.

“Violetta,” I said, in a gentle voice. Lyra pulled me back but I shrugged her off despite how scared I was.

She froze, her raised hand shaking violently as she watched me close the distance between us. “Don’t come near me, Selene,” she said, her voice sounding distant.

I kept moving, refusing to look away from those glowing red eyes. “Look at me, please.”

Her hands began to tremble so hard that the sword nearly slipped from her fingers, and she took a step backwards. “Selene… please, stay back.”

Beneath this part of her, either her fae side or angel side was trying to resurface and overcome her demonic side.

“You know who I am, and you know who you are,” I told her, stopping only an arm’s length away.

Her breathing became ragged, as if she were actively fighting an invisible war behind her own eyes. “I can’t stop it… I can’t.”

“Yes, you can,” I insisted softly.

Her eyes flickered wildly, shifting between that terrifying red hue and the familiar, warm colour I had loved for years. I noticed that the colour would leave only to return again after a few seconds.

“You are not a monster, Violetta. You can fight this. Don’t give in.”

She shook her head violently, clutching at her temples with blood-stained hands as a harsh groan tore from her throat. “Don’t say that! Don’t look at me like that!” she roared in pain.
“Violetta, breathe.”

Suddenly, she collapsed to the floor.

Lyra and I rushed toward her, placing a hand on her in fear. I heard a sigh of relief when I could feel her moving softly beneath me. At least the instability of her power that had just happened after several years hadn’t killed her.

She opened her eyes slowly, looking at us in confusion, then suddenly recollection washed over her as if some memory had flashed behind her eyes. She looked around her and gasped.

“I killed them,” she gasped, gesturing toward the dead hollowed soldiers around us. “I butchered every single one of them. Didn’t I? How… what did I…”

“It’s okay,” I said gently.

“You’re going to be fine,” Lyra added.

“I couldn’t stop myself, Selene… the rage just took over and I couldn’t stop!” she choked out. “The hex has been broken… Svetlana… she undid what my mother did.”

“You’ve stopped now,” I reminded her, reaching out slowly until my fingers brushed the edge of her sleeve. “You’re here with me.”

She looked down at her hands, staring at the blood coating her skin and nails. “What have I done? Oh Gods, what have I done?”

I reached forward and wrapped my arms around her trembling frame, and instead of pushing me away, she leaned into my chest.

A loud snapping sound echoed from the dark treeline behind us, and Lyra spun around with her blade raised. “More of the hollowed are coming!”

I looked up, seeing half a dozen hollowed soldiers emerging from the shadows with weapons drawn. Svetlana was in their centre.

“We need to go now!” Lyra shouted, reaching down to pull Violetta’s other arm over her shoulder.

Together, we lifted Violetta between us and sprinted through the forest, leaving the ruined camp behind before the reinforcements could cut off our escape route. Thankfully, Lyra had planned for this and had enough men to combat them.

We didn’t speak much on the journey back to the packhouse, and Violetta barely said a single word the entire time, keeping her head down and her eyes fixed on the floor. Once we were safely inside our territory, Lyra gave her a guest room in the family wing, away from the guards and prying eyes, where she could wash the blood from her skin and rest.

Even after changing into clean clothes, Violetta simply sat on the edge of the large bed, staring down at her bare hands with an expression of profound emptiness.

It wasn’t until hours later, when the candles had burned down to stubs and the house fell completely silent, that she finally broke the silence.

“I was so scared, Selene,” she whispered.

I looked up from the armchair near the hearth, surprised she was talking to me. Violetta never talked about her feelings. She would rather die than to do that.

“I mean not of dying,” she continued, swallowing hard. “I couldn’t care if what she wanted to do was kill me. I’ve never been afraid of dying.”

I stood up and crossed the room, sitting down on the edge of the mattress right beside her so our shoulders were touching.
“I could feel it… the darkness inside me… it’s… I’ve always known it was there but this time… I don’t know.”

I wasn’t even sure what to say to her so I just squeezed her thigh gently.

“And sometimes it felt like I was gaining control back… but then when I did I was terrified that one day I would finally snap and become exactly what… like when my father’s demon blood overpowered his angel side… I remember it. My mom had to kill my dad… I… he turned into a…” she swallowed hard.

My chest tightened painfully as I listened to her. “A monster.”

“Yes,” she choked out. “I could feel it happening inside my chest the moment they ambushed me in that cavern. When they pinned me down and took my wings, something inside me broke, and I couldn’t control the power anymore. The demon blood just took over, and I didn’t care about anything except tearing them apart until there was nothing left. I tried to… keep it controlled, but when we got there… to that encampment I just…”

She slowly turned her head to look at me, and fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. “What if it keeps getting worse, Selene? What if the next time it happens, I hurt you or Lyra?”

I reached out and gently took her trembling hand in mine, at a loss for words.

“What if one day I lose myself completely and I don’t come back?” she asked.

I squeezed her fingers gently. “You came back tonight, Violetta.”

“Only because you came looking for me,” she whispered, looking down at our joined hands. “If you hadn’t stepped between us and spoken to me, I would have killed everyone… consumed their souls.”

“What terrifies me is dying after I’ve lost my mind and become a creature that everyone remembers as a monster,” she whispered, her voice breaking completely as she turned back to me with red-rimmed eyes. “I gave up everything to protect my people, and I don’t want that to be the only story left of me. I don’t want to be remembered the way I remember my father.”