Page 10 of Illusory

“Howis this possible?” she asked, her question obviously directed at Jaqueline since the two of us were clearly all the way in the dark about this. “What does it even mean?”

Jaqueline eyes darkened as she met Tessa’s gaze, and then mine. “It means your Nephilim powers are awakening.”

3. THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

Rolling storm clouds gathered outside the Blackburn Estate, dimming the sky as though the heavens were preparing to weep down its anguish in honor of my latest life sentence. A rush of hot anxiety oozed into my bloodstream as a dozen different questions overwhelmed my mind. Though this hadn’t been the first time I’d heard my mother refer to me asNephilim, it had felt a hell of a lot realer now that actual Angel wings had busted out from my back and been thrown into the equation.

“Jemma is Lucifer’s daughter,” reminded Jaqueline as my sister and I stood frozen in place; my expression twisted with trepidation, Tessa’s fingernail still digging into my shoulder blade. “She’s His immediate descendant and with her eighteenth birthday quickly approaching, it seems only natural that her Nephilim powers would begin to show themselves.”

Only natural?There was literally nothingnaturalabout any of this.

“But why now?” asked Tessa, sounding more intrigued than anything. “What changed?”

My thoughts automatically shifted to Trace again.

“Eighteen is the age of Ascendance—a time when all Descendants are able to reach the full height of their abilities,” explained Jaqueline. “I imagine it’s the same for Nephilim, and if I’m right, this is only the tip of the iceberg.”

I swallowed roughly, not liking the sound of that one bit. “So, how bad is this going to get exactly?”

Her mouth puckered as she released a heavy breath. “There’s no way to know for sure. Typically, Ascensions area gradual process for most Anakim as we’re required to train our children from early on. Doing so allows them to slowly come into their own while gradually honing their abilities over time. But that wasn’t the case for you.”

“Not to mention she was Cloaked for most of her life anyway,” added Tessa.

“Precisely.” Jaqueline paused. “But now with your birthday just around the corner…” She shook her head as her eyes grew distant and forlorn, as though my gruesome future were playing out before her eyes. “It’s the equivalent of a faucet being turned on with nothing but a piece of cloth covering the end.”

I flinched at her assessment of the geyser of doom that was heading my way.

The last thing I needed was a broken valve at the helm of my abilities, especially when my list of enemies was growing by the second. I needed to figure out how to control this thing—this Ascension shit—beforeitcontrolled me. But how? How was I going to get ahead of it when I had no clue about any of it, let alone how to—

“Is everything alright in here?” interrupted Gabriel from the doorway, halting my spiraling thoughts.

His forehead creased as he took in the three of us standing awkwardly around the kitchen table: My mother looking as though I’d just been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Tessa still pillaging my back with her finger. Me hunched over the chair, panicked and half-naked. His gaze immediately nosedived to the floor.

It took a few seconds for that last part to register.

Horrified, I spun around on my heel, throwing my arms up over my chest to cover up. Granted, I wasn’t actuallynakedand still had on my bra, but it still felt wildly inappropriate to be standing onlysemi-clothed in the kitchen in front ofGabriel, of all people. Not that Gabriel was even remotely interested in seeing my lady bits. He’d made that clear to me countless times before. But also,sonot the point.

“Here,” said Tessa distractedly as she shoved my shirt into my stomach and turned her focus on Gabriel. “Did you know about this? About the wings?” she asked as I threw my shirt back on as discreetly as possible.

“I only just found out myself.” Gabriel’s eyes sang with regret as though he should have somehow known it was a possibility. “They emerged whilst Trace was feeding on her after his first wake.”

Tessa let out a string of flavorful curse words at his confirmation that the wings were in fact real and not some figment of my imagination. “This is really bad, Jackie,” she said, turning to our mother. “She haswings,” she announced, as though I hadn’t been saying the same exact thing for the last five minutes.

Now who’s the onenotliving in reality?

“What are we going to do if they come out again?” she asked and then grimaced as another thought occurred to her. “And what if they don’t go back in as easily the next time they do?”

“I guess I’m going to need to buy some bigger sweaters,” I answered jokingly, because what the hell else was I supposed to say? There was really no need for me to get hysterical at this point since Tessa was clearly already panicking enough for the both of us.

“This isn’t a joke, Jemma,” she snapped at me, her eyes wild with fear. “Nephilim are not allowed to exist in this Realm. Do you understand that? Do yougetwhat that means? If you think you have a big target on your back now, just wait until the Order finds out about this.”

“So, they won’t be throwing me acoming outparty. I’llcancel the invites.”

“You really don’t get it, do you?” she hissed, clearly finding zero amusement in my poorly timed wisecrack. “They’ve spent actualcenturieshunting Nephilim, Jemma—hunting them to the point of extinction like it was a damn sport. Just what do you think they’re going to do toyouwhen they find out you’re a full-fledged member of the ‘all-powerful, feared and revered Nephilim’ race?”

Despite my best effort, my stomach sank at the trill of fear seeping out through her words. She was terrified for me, and she wasn’t even trying to hide it this time.

“I’m guessing they’re going to do thesamething they’ve been trying to do to me since the day I moved here,” I answered evenly, refusing to work myself up about it. As far as I could tell, this really didn’t change much for me in regards to my popularity with the higher ups. I had beenpersona non gratasince the day I moved here.

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