Chapter 17 The Mother’s Vengeance
The black glass blade moved toward my stomach. It was cold, so cold it made the air around it freeze. I didn't have time to move. I didn't have time to think. This creature had Xavier’s face, but it was a monster made of stolen stars. It wanted the life inside me. It wanted my third child.
"No!" I screamed.
I didn't use a knife. I didn't use a gun. I slammed my glowing palms together. A shockwave of silver light exploded from my body. It hit the creature like a physical wall, throwing it back toward the dark pit.
The creature hissed, its white hair whipping in the wind. "You cannot stop me, Silver Queen. I am the end of your bloodline!"
"I am the beginning!" I yelled back.
I grabbed Leo with one hand and Elias with the other. My two sons, twins born of light and shadow, were shaking. I could feel their power humming in my palms. It was like two halves of a heartbeat finally finding each other.
"Leo! Elias! Give me your hands!" I commanded.
They didn't hesitate. They gripped my fingers tight. As our skin touched, the silver light from my body mixed with Leo’s white light and Elias’s violet shadows. It turned into a blinding, pure gray energy. It was the color of the moon before a storm.
"Xavier!" I called out.
He was being dragged into the giant eye in the floor. Half of his body was already gone, swallowed by the black ink of the Shadow Realm. His claws were breaking off as he tried to hold onto the stone.
"Elara... save... the kids!" Xavier choked out. His eyes were dimming. He was giving up his life so I could run.
"I’m not leaving without you!" I roared.
I pointed my joined hands at the giant eye. I didn't just throw the light; I poured my whole soul into it. I thought about the five years I spent in that basement. I thought about the lies my mother told me. I thought about the brother Xavier never knew he had. Most of all, I thought about the revenge I owed the people who tried to break my family.
The gray beam hit the eye.
The creature with Xavier’s face screamed as its skin began to melt. The giant hand holding Xavier’s waist shattered into a thousand pieces of black glass.
"Now!" I yelled.
Xavier lunged. He scrambled out of the pit, his muscles tearing as he forced his way back into our world. I grabbed his hand, pulling with everything I had. My father joined us, his gray hands gripping Xavier’s shoulders. Together, we hauled him onto the solid stone.
Xavier collapsed, gasping for air. He looked at me, then at the two boys. He saw Elias for the first time, the son he never knew existed. Tears filled his golden eyes.
"Two?" he whispered.
"Two," I said, a sob escaping my throat. "And a third on the way."
But we didn't have time for a hug. The temple was falling apart. The dragon was diving toward us, Julian standing on its back with his black staff raised high.
"You think you won?" Julian screamed. "The gate is open! The Shadow King doesn't need a body anymore! He is the mountain! He is the air! You have nowhere to hide!"
The ground beneath us tilted. The entire peak of the mountain was breaking off, sliding toward the forest below.
"The helicopter!" my father yelled, pointing toward the edge.
Miller was gone, but the Resistance helicopter was still there, the rotors spinning. Elena was in the pilot's seat, waving us over.
We ran. We leaped over cracks in the stone that were hundreds of feet deep. Xavier carried Leo, and I carried Elias. My father ran behind us, shielding our backs from the falling rocks.
We jumped into the helicopter just as the temple floor turned into a giant mouth of black fire.
"Go! Go! Go!" I screamed.
The helicopter lifted off, tilting dangerously as the wind from the dragon’s wings hit us. Below us, the mountain peak exploded. A massive wave of black smoke rolled across the forest, killing every tree it touched.
I sat back, my chest heaving. I looked at my family. Xavier was holding Leo. My father was holding Elias. We were all covered in blood and dust, but we were together. For the first time in my life, the weight in my chest felt lighter.
"It’s over," I whispered, closing my eyes.
"Is it?" Xavier asked. He was looking at the device I had used to download the data.
I pulled it out of my pocket. The screen was glowing. But it wasn't showing the data anymore.
A video was playing. It was a live feed from a room I didn't recognize. It looked like a nursery. There were three cribs. In each crib, there was a baby. One had gold eyes. One had violet eyes. And the third... the third had eyes that were pure, solid black.
A voice came over the speaker. It was Director Vance.
"You did well, Elara," the voice said. "You killed the monster. You saved the twins. But did you really think there were only three children in the prophecy?"
I froze. I looked at my stomach. Then I looked at the screen.
"The Silver Line always comes in fours," Vance’s voice whispered. "And while you were fighting for the light, we were busy perfecting the dark."
Suddenly, a loud bang came from the bottom of the helicopter.
The floor buckled. A metal claw, three times the size of a human hand, ripped through the steel. It grabbed my father’s leg and pulled him toward the hole.
"Dad!" I screamed.
But as I reached for him, the door of the helicopter was ripped off its hinges.
Standing on the clouds outside, walking on the air as if it were glass, was a man who looked exactly like my father. But he was wearing a crown made of human teeth.
"Hello, granddaughter," the man said. "I believe you have something of mine."
He pointed his finger at me. I felt a sharp, burning pain in my womb. The baby inside me didn't kick. It hissed.