She needed to clear her name.
Everyone hated her, accused her of a sin that she never committed.
If she died, she’d leave us with the knowledge of her failure.
Another shriek fractured my heart, her light blinking in and out in the soul plane, begging me for help. I couldn’t ignore her. I had to go to her, to help her, after all the years of leaving her to suffer. Never again. Not now that I had the power and knowledge to do something.
Exos’s words were drowned out by the escalated beating of my heart, the sound whooshing in my ears as if I were underwater. His arms fell away. His touch seeming to go right through me as the world dissolved into a shield of clarity and peace.
Only to be wiped away by the sight appearing before me.
My mother on her knees.
Elana’s hand wrapped around her throat.
A yawning vortex of energy swirling around them both as Elana literally absorbed my mother’s soul right before my eyes.
“Enough!” I shouted, blasting her with every bit of power I could muster and sending Elana across the Spirit Dorm into a nearby wall.
I misted, part of me realized.
But I had more important problems to worry about.
Slithering skeletal minions turned on me, furious that I’d dared to touch their mistress. With a wave of water, I sent their remains scattering. Then created a fiery shell around my mother, protecting her unconscious form on the floor from future harm. Earth would have been better, but I didn’t trust that element yet. Not with my mating bond still outstanding.
Air, water, spirit, and fire would have to do.
I used the first to create a tornado, sucking up all the pieces of Elana’s minions and blowing them out into the Spirit Quad. Then I focused on the bitch herself.
Except she was nowhere to be found.
I frowned, whirling around, searching for Elana.
She’d been there just a second ago.
Realization dawned as the scene rippled before my eyes, disclosing the truth for the split second I needed to discover what was happening.
It’s all a mirage…
With that thought, the world calmed and revealed the real Spirit Dorm. The flames died around my mother. She still lay unconscious with sleep—a sleep Cyrus and Exos had subjected her to only hours before.
And the only destruction around us was the one I’d caused.
None of it was real.
But where were the Fire Fae set to guard my mother?
With a sickening feeling, I wandered outside, hoping against hope that it hadn’t been them I destroyed.
And I found them all lying on the lawn.
“Oh God…” I pressed my hand to my mouth, falling to my knees.
Those skeletal things were fae…
And I killed them.
My heart hammered in my chest.