Chapter 20

“Lady Athena, is this true?” Bishop sounded more like an incredulous little boy instead of a grown-ass man. Like someone had just told him Santa didn’t exist. Funny thing was, I felt just as crushed.

My grandmother’s gaze pinned Bish, a beseeching look on her face. “It is. But you must understand, it had to be done. Leera was becoming a danger to herself and all others. I had to step in for the sake of Endova. For the sake of all magical beings. For the multiverse.”

That sounded suspiciously like something Asha would spout, and the knot of dread in my belly twisted a little more.

“Lies!” my mother ranted as she tried to push herself to her feet, leaning on me as a crutch. She was too weak to stand on her own. Straightening with effort, she stared my grandmother in the eye. “You did this because you were just as power-hungry as Asha. This had nothing to do with saving the multiverse. It had to do with your craving for power and control. You and Asha wanted the same thing.”

No. That couldn’t be right. My grandmother fought against Asha. Stopped her. She helped us all learn our powers so we could defeat Asha.

“Grandmother?” I asked, confusion swirling in my head. I did not understand one frackin’ bit of what was happening here. It didn’t make a lick of sense.

My grandmother turned the pleading gaze on me. “My darling Bridjette, you must believe me. You can see quite clearly your mother is confused. She is sick. You know I am nothing like Asha. Everything I did, every move I made, was for Endova. For you and all the elementals who will follow you. Did I have to stop some people along the way? Yes. People like your mother because they wouldn’t obey the rules of our world. They tried to divide Endova. To mix the bloodlines. To create chaos. They were becoming a blight on our existence. A disease. But I stopped them. And now, we need to run Endova the way it needs to be run, with order and directive.”

“And you think you’re the one to do that, Athena?” Starke questioned, his jaw rigid with anger. “Are you already planning to take over Asha’s role?”

“Well, who better?” Her soft gaze hardened to stone as she snarled at Starke. “I alone stopped the anarchy of our world. I stopped them from ruining centuries of pure bloodlines, don’t you see? It would have weakened Endova. Weakened the prism.”

“That’s exactly what Asha believed,” Starke growled as he stepped forward, his hand on the hilt of his sword. “A superior race of Fae.”

“My priorities are totally different.” Athena’s voice could have frozen a lake as she shot venom at Starke. “Your mother cared nothing for Endova or its people. She was a power-hungry witch, who thought all beings not descended from the Unseelie court were worthless. Pawns in her quest for power. She enjoyed toying with them and causing them suffering and pain. I, on the other hand, appreciate and believe in all magical souls. All I ever wanted was to keep our world safe and all magical bloodlines pure. I did not wish to see anyone suffer.”

“Except for your daughter, whose husband you killed, whose child you stole, and whose life you ruined by locking her away for years.” My mother was starting to lose her strength, even her voice was growing weaker. But the hatred still burned bright in her eyes. “Stop your blathering and tell them the truth, Athena. You forget, my body may have been locked away all this time, but my mind was not. No matter how you tried to block me from seeing, I saw everything. I saw all your plotting and scheming. All your manipulation of Jette and the elementals. You are worse than Asha since she never tried to hide what she was. Tell them how you were in league with Asha and her morquals all along. That the two of you hatched this whole plan together. To pretend to be on opposite sides so you could find the elementals and bring them all back.”

A pregnant silence filled the cavern since no one knew how to respond to that accusation. That was hardcore. Just what the hell was happening here?

“No. No.” Bish broke the silence, shaking his head. “This cannot be true. None of this can be true. I fought alongside Lady Athena for years. She cannot have been in league with the dark queen. I would have suspected.”

I totally understood where Bish was coming from. I couldn’t believe any of this shit either.

“She played you, Bishop. All of you. She knew none of you would look for the elementals or help bring them home if you knew her true directive.” My mother was still struggling to stand, but her words were strong.

“Of course it isn’t true, Bishop.” My grandmother sounded at her wit’s end, like she was losing patience with this whole thing. “If anyone should know that it should be you. Are you seriously doubting me right now? Choosing to believe her over me? After all we have been through? All we have done to protect Endova and its people?”

“Please, Grandmother,” I interrupted her. “If you want us to believe you, help us understand. Why would you lock your daughter away? Why would you lie to me and tell me she was dead?”

Her eyes were shadowed as her gaze locked with mine. “I did it for you, my darling girl. I couldn’t have you raised in that anarchist home. Leera and Shem and their believers, they wanted to change the multiverse’s hierarchy. Make all worlds equal in the prism’s wealth. Share the magic with all worlds, even with the beings that didn’t contain, or merit, an ounce of magic. An atrocity. I had to stop them all. Endova and its people are the firsts. We deserved to keep the majority of magic. I couldn’t have you growing up brainwashed into believing their ideology as well. But I digress. As I said, everything was done in the name of Endova. You must not listen to the lies spouting from my daughter’s mouth. She is trying to divide us… like she always has. I need to take her away until she comes to her senses.”

“Don’t you come near us,” I snarled, surprising myself as much as my grandmother as she took a step in our direction. “Not until you tell me the truth. Has this whole thing been a sham? Have you and Asha been working together all this time? Are you just as responsible for the people we’ve lost? Starke’s village for God’s sake? All those innocent people killed. Did you help with that?” my question tapered off to a wail, but I couldn’t help how hurt I sounded since I freakin’ was hurting beyond anything I could express.

Athena halted in her tracks, her face and eyes softening as she studied me. She cocked her head to the side, regarding me. I suddenly noticed how much younger she looked. I had thought so earlier tonight when she was smiling on stage, but I’d chalked it up to a trick of the light or loss of stress. But she really was younger looking. Was she using magic for glamour?

“I understand your confusion, Bridjette. You’ve missed your mother your whole life. Blamed yourself for her death. And now that you have found her resurrected, I understand your desire to protect her right now. But you must think with your head and not your heart. Leera is… not well. Her accusations cannot be trusted.”

“Not well?” I wailed, fearing I was about to lose all self-control. “You put someone who is ‘not well’ in a hospital. Not freeze them in an ice coffin and hide them in a cave pond for years. And saying that out loud makes it sound even crazier than it really is.”

“Bridjette—” Athena begged.

“Don’t listen to her, Bridjette. She is trying to confuse you,” my mother hissed, tugging on my arm.

“Jette, what the hell is happening here?” Jill wailed, sounding like a cat with its tail caught in a door.

“Bridjette, my darling, please—"

“All of you stop talking to me,” I screamed. “I need to think.”

I didn’t think they would actually listen to me, but everyone went completely quiet, like a cone of silence just fell over me. I closed my eyes and took a huge breath. When I opened them again, my eyes locked with Athena’s. “At the tower, Asha was very surprised to see you there.”

My grandmother shrugged in agreement. “Yes, she was. She didn’t think I had the nerve to accompany you.”

“No.” I shook my head. “It was more than that. And when she got hit by her own magic—when she was disintegrating—she looked right at you and tried to say something. It sounded like ‘this wasn’t the plan’. Is that what she said? And what did she mean by that?”

My grandmother rolled her eyes. “How should I know, child? She wasn’t wrong, was she? I’m sure it wasn’t in her plans that day to be annihilated. Bridjette, you are missing the point here. Asha is gone. The prism restarted. Endova restored. Which is all I’ve ever wanted. Now, we need to make sure it runs nice and smooth. You know that. That issue has been resolved. The issue that needs to be addressed here and now is your very unwell mother. You must let me handle her.”

“Jette, if you let her take me, you will never see me again. Of that I am sure.” The eyes so much like my own, stared into my soul with fear as her fingers gripped my arm like claws. My mother believed every word she was saying. Question was, did I?

“I love you, Bridjette, but I am losing patience here.” My grandmother’s sharp tone implied just as much. “And for the life of me, I cannot understand why you are even debating siding with the woman who tried to kill you.”

I heard a few gasps from the peanut gallery as I froze in shock. “What?” I whispered.

“More lies,” Leera hissed, but my grandmother continued on, totally ignoring the interruption.

“You heard me correctly. Asha was not being deceitful when she told you that on Karam. For once, the dark queen spoke the truth. The night they tried to take you, your loving mother tried to drown you. She thought it the better choice than to let Asha have the water elemental in her possession. Tell me, are those the actions of a sane person?”

“How do you know Asha told me that?” I asked, the dread from my belly worming its way up and twining around my heart.

For the first time since this whole fiasco started, Athena looked like she was losing her composure. Her sneer dropped away, replaced by a sort of confusion. “I… uh… you told me, of course.”

“No.” I shook my head in denial. “I didn’t tell you that. The only way you would have known is if Asha told you that herself. Which means you’ve been in contact with her since Starke and I were rescued from Karam.”

The horror of what I was saying was starting to dawn on me, but I couldn’t stop talking. “Is Leera telling the truth? Were you in league with Asha, Grandmother? All this time? Were you her ally only to betray her at the end for your own means?”

“Sounds like it to me,” Starke growled as he pulled his sword.

“If the shoe fits and all that,” Zoe added, aiming an arrow straight for my grandmother’s head. “Just give me the word, Jette.”

“Jette girl, as dire as this seems, think before you do something you will regret.” Bishop, my voice of reason. But I didn’t have to think or to react or do anything. My grandmother made the decision.

“Enough of this drivel. Hand over my daughter and get back to the damn party being held in your honor. I worked hard to bring this all together, and I’ll be damned if I let my traitorous daughter ruin everything again. Not after all I’ve been through. Step aside, Bridjette. Don’t make me use magic on you. I don’t want to hurt any of you, but don’t think I won’t.”

“I am not going anywhere,” I growled, pulling my sai as Starke and the rest of the elementals flanked around me and my mother. Even as my heart slowly withered inside at the thought of my grandmother’s betrayal, I was determined to protect Leera at all costs.

“Fine,” she snarled, her face twisting beyond recognition with anger. “Just remember, you brought this on yourselves.” Her eyes swirled with a dark sludge as she raised her hands in the air.

“Stop her from using magic,” I yelled as I sent a volley of ice pellets at her, trying to knock her from her feet. My attack was joined by Starke’s magic as well as Zoe’s arrows and Jill’s fire. Sash’s earth tremor rippled under our feet as it headed toward Athena, gathering power as it moved, so by the time it reached her on the other side of the cavern, it was an earthquake force velocity.

It didn’t matter. None of what we did mattered. The black wisps of magic oozing from Athena appeared to meet our magic head on and swallow it whole. Her magic radiated from her like it had a life force of its own. But that wasn’t the worst thing. The unholy light exuding from my grandmother’s arms and torso told its own story. I knew that light all too well. I’d seen it illuminate Asha when she tried to brainwash me. I’d seen it illuminate Starke just before he blew me off that mountain. I’d seen it on myself as the dark runes had burned and scorched my flesh. Athena was using blood magic. And from the way she was lit up like last year’s Christmas tree, she was covered in those damn runes. No wonder she always dressed like she was afraid to show skin. She didn’t want us to see the telltale marks.

Her obsidian eyes were stone cold as she stepped toward us. “You fools. You think you can stop what has been so long in the making? I should have dealt with this years ago, but I was weak. I thought I could change you, Leera. Make you understand reason. I see now that I was wrong.”

“No,” I yelled, knowing she was going for my mother. “Protect my mother.”

We tried to shield her, but Athena was having none of that. Even as she pushed us away, scattering us like leaves in the wind, her black tendrils of magic headed straight toward Leera. They tore through her chest right at her heart. My mother screamed once before arching her back, her arms flopping at her side like a ragdoll. She struggled and gasped, writhing in pain as the magic began sucking her life force away.

“Leave her alone,” I screamed, trying in vain to move, to lift my damn sai and fight back, but Athena’s magic was too strong.

“You cannot win. You cannot beat me.” Her voice was unrecognizable now. Deep and dark with malevolence. I didn’t know this person standing in front of us. This was no longer my grandmother. I knew instinctively, blood magic had consumed every bit of the woman I’d come to care for. She had been totally seduced by it over the years. It had become her master. And unlike Starke, there was no bringing her back.

“I was the one to recite the spell that brought the prism back. I was chosen as its ambassador. Its carrier of power. You cannot stop me, for I was blessed by the protector.”

Her magic swirled about the cavern now, howling in my ears like a freight train coming directly for us. I winced at the pain invading my head. I would have covered my ears if I could have lifted my damn arms.

“You forget, so were we, bitch.” Starke’s bellow echoed across the cavern, penetrating her dark hold.

A jolt of electricity hit me as every nerve ending sizzled at his contact. And with blessed relief, I recognized it immediately. Starke was merging with me. With all of us, combining our powers. Making us stronger. Making us whole. The concept of it only had a slight moment to percolate in my head before my sai came alive. A multicolored explosion of light erupted from it, from all of our weapons, spreading and covering us like a force field. It severed Athena’s magic holding us hostage and rippled outwards, ramming her like a wrecking ball. It bitch-slapped her hard, propelling her backwards through the air, the look of disbelief etched into her face almost comical. She hit one of the giant stalagmites with a resounding crack as she curved around the rock and slid down to splash in the mud puddle underneath. She laid there, not moving. I didn’t care if she was even alive or dead. My focus was on the unmoving body of Leera.

“Mom,” I yelled as I stumbled toward her. I couldn’t lose her again. I just got her back. I fell to my knees, cradling her head in one hand as my other wiped the hair from her face. “Can you hear me. Are you hurt?”

Starke flanked her other side, grabbing her wrist and feeling for a pulse. He didn’t need to. Her eyes fluttered open, and she flashed me a weak smile.

“I’m okay, Jette,” she rasped. “No need to worry.”

The sound that dropped from my lips was part sobbing relief, part ecstatic laughter. I glanced across her to Starke, meeting his brilliant green gaze.

“So were we, bitch? That was… freakin’ epic. You are amazing.”

He dimpled, and I felt that familiar low tug in my belly. “Yeah, I kind of am, aren’t I?”

“And still as modest as ever. Good to know.”

The laughter rumbled in his chest. “Come on, let’s get your mother up.”

“Uh, guys, she’s moving.” Sash’s voice was saturated with fear, so there was no doubt as to the she he was referring to. Starke reacted instantly. Leaping nimbly to his feet, he began striding across the cave, sword in hand and a steely determination on his face as Athena pushed herself to her feet.

“Athena O’Hare, under Fae rule I arrest you for murder, anarchy, and treason against Endova and its people.”

She grinned manically at him, even though she must have been in a tremendous amount of pain. She didn’t even appear to be able to stand straight. “I think not, Prince Starke. Not today. But this is far from over. You have my word.”

A blue ring of flame ignited at her feet, and before Starke could stop her, she jumped through and disappeared, the slightly burning wire smell of ozone all that lingered of her. Stunned silence surrounded us. When had she learned to do that?

“Crap, did she really just get away?” Sash’s question only earned him a scathing glare from Zoe.

“No, she just popped out to the corner store. I’m sure she’ll be right back.”

Zoe’s words, meant to insult, instilled more fear in me than anything.

“Where did she go? And what will we do if she does come back?”

Bishop answered my question, “I don’t believe she will return for quite a while. I know her. She was shocked to realize your powers combined equal hers or even may surpass. She has escaped to lick her wounds to some poor, unsuspecting world. We will see her again someday, but not anytime soon.”

Not exactly the answer I wanted. But better than nothing. I turned my attention back to Leera as Bishop helped me ease her to her feet. She wrapped her arms around both our necks, using us for support.

“Let’s get you out of here, my dear.” Bishop smiled at her fondly, but I could see the worry and sadness etched in his face. I knew him all too well.

“Are you okay, Bish?” I leaned across Leera slightly to look him in the eye. “How you holding up? And don’t lie to me.”

His sigh was heavy with guilt. “I am not okay. I am mortified. Saddened. Humiliated. Your grandmother deceived me, and I fell for it. All this time, I allowed her to carry out atrocities that I was totally oblivious to. So much unnecessary suffering and death, your mother and father included.”

“She hoodwinked us all, Bish, not just you. So, don’t you dare feel this is all on you. A wise man once told me, you do not have to carry the burden of this battle alone. It is a burden we all carry since we are all in this together, and we will see it through with you until the end.”

He let a slight grin slip. “Whoever said that was a wise man indeed.”

“Damn right.” I glanced at my mother. “See, it was Bish who told me that—"

“Yeah, I get that Jette,” she interrupted, shooting me some sideways shade.

A chuckle erupted at our backs. “Well now we know where Jette gets her sarcastic nature from.”

“Hahaha, funny, Zoe,” I threw over my shoulder. “Answer me this since you seem to know all. What do we tell the clans when we get back? It’s gonna take some convincing to get them all to believe the crap that just went down. Hell, I just lived through it all, and I don’t believe it. And if we do manage to convince them, Athena’s betrayal will not go over well. There will be trust issues.”

“Not the only concern. There will be trust issues on both sides,” Starke answered me. “We do not know if any of the other clan members were in league with Athena. If any share her beliefs. It will take us some time to sort this debacle out. Bishop and I will handle that. But right now, we focus on one thing at a time. We need to get Leera back to the village so she can heal and rest, so you can finally spend some time catching up with your mother.”

Spend time with my mother. I’d like that. Best thing I’d heard in a while.