Chapter 16: THE MOTHER OF MONSTERS

The silver light blinded me. For a second, I felt like my body was being pulled through a straw. Then, with a hard thud, we hit solid ground.

I gasped, my lungs burning. Kael was right there, his arms still wrapped around my waist. We were in a forest, but the trees were different. They weren't brown and green. They were white, like bone, and the leaves were as black as ink.

"Are we... safe?" Kael asked, coughing. He helped me stand up.

"The judge didn't follow us," I said, checking my shoulder. The wound from Kael’s sword was gone. My skin felt smooth, but it was too pale. It looked like marble.

"You're never safe, Aria," a voice giggled in my head.

I froze. My heart skipped a beat. That voice didn't belong to the Shadow God. It was higher. Sweeter. And much more evil.

"Seraphina?" I whispered.

"Who are you talking to?" Kael asked, his hand going to the hilt of his sword.

"She’s in my head, Kael," I said, grabbing my hair. "When I took her soul to save you... I didn't just take her power. I took her."

That’s right, big sister! Seraphina laughed inside my mind. We’re roommates now. And guess what? We’re finally going to see Mommy.

"Your mother is dead, Aria," Kael said, his face full of worry. "Everyone knows the Queen died when you were five."

"That's what Father told us," I said. A cold feeling spread through my chest. "But Seraphina knows things I don't. She stayed in the palace while I was in the Abyss. She saw the secrets in the basement."

Suddenly, the white trees began to move. They weren't trees at all. They were the legs of giant, wooden spiders. Hundreds of them dropped from the canopy, their many eyes glowing with a soft, pink light.

"Don't move," Kael warned, drawing his sword. The blade hummed with that new, silver light.

A woman walked out from behind the spiders. She looked just like me, but older. Her hair was a waterfall of silver, and her dress was made of living black butterflies. She didn't look like a ghost. She looked like a goddess.

"My little Aria," the woman said. Her voice was like honey poured over a blade. "And the knight who keeps breaking his vows. Welcome home."

"Mother?" I gasped.

The woman smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "The King told everyone I died because he couldn't control me. He was a small man with small dreams. He didn't understand that the Valencrest blood doesn't belong to the sun. It belongs to the Moon-Eater."

"The Moon-Eater?" I asked. "Is that what I have inside me?"

"No," the queen said, walking closer. The spiders parted for her like loyal dogs. "You have the Sun-Eater. Your sister had the Light. But I... I have the hunger that swallows both."

She reached out and touched my cheek. Her hand was freezing.

"I sent the silver mirror shard to you, Aria. I wanted you to kill your father. I wanted you to drain your sister. You did such a good job. You gathered all the power into one body for me."

"You used me?" I asked, my voice shaking. "You let me suffer in the Abyss just so I would get stronger?"

"Suffer?" The Queen laughed. "Aria, a sword is only sharp because it hits the fire. I made you the deadliest weapon in the world. And now, I am going to pick you up and use you."

Kael stepped in front of me. "She’s not a weapon. She’s a person. And you’re going to stay away from her."

The Queen didn't even look at him. She just snapped her fingers.

The silver light in Kael’s sword died instantly. He gasped as his own shadow rose up and wrapped around his legs like iron chains, pinning him to the ground.

"Kael!" I screamed. I tried to call on my shadows, but nothing happened. My body felt empty.

"Don't bother," the queen said. "The power you have is just a loan. And the interest is due."

She looked at my chest. The black veins on my neck began to glow.

"Seraphina!" the Queen called out.

My own mouth opened, but I wasn't the one speaking.

"I'm ready, Mommy!" Seraphina’s voice barked from my throat.

My body began to move on its own. I walked toward my mother, my hands reaching out to grab her. I tried to fight it, but it was like my muscles belonged to someone else.

"Aria, fight it!" Kael shouted, struggling against the shadow chains.

I looked into my mother’s eyes. I saw the truth then. She didn't love me. She didn't even hate me. To her, I was just a battery. A battery full of the Sun-Eater’s fire.

"Once I take your soul," the queen whispered, leaning close to my ear, "I will have the power to turn the whole world into a forest of bone. And you, my dear, will finally be at peace. You’ll be dead."

She raised a black butterfly from her dress. It landed on my forehead, and I felt my soul starting to slip out of my skin.

But then, I felt a new power. It wasn't from the Abyss. It wasn't from the Sun.

It was coming from the ground beneath my feet.

The white trees began to scream.

"Wait," the queen said, her face turning pale. "What is that?"

The ground burst open. A hand made of rotting meat and rusted iron grabbed the Queen's ankle.

"You forgot one person, Mother," a voice boomed from the hole.

A man climbed out of the dirt. He was wearing a crown of thorns, and half of his face was missing.

It was the King. My father. But he wasn't dead. He had stitched himself back together with the bodies of the Northern soldiers.

"I'm not finished with my crown yet," the king growled.

He swung a massive, rusted axe, aiming it right at my mother’s head. But at the last second, my mother pulled me in front of her to use me as a shield.