Page 15 of Illusory

“What exactly are we planning on doing once we bulldoze our way in there? Are we actually talking about killing ababy?Because you know that’s what he is, right?”

“What in the hell are you talking about?” she hissed,looking wholly repulsed by my summary. “This isn’t a normal,humanbaby, Jemma. This is Lucifer’s spawn.”

“Yeah…” I chewed the inside of my cheek. “But so am I… aren’t I?”

She blinked at me for a beat. “No. That’s different.”

“How so?”

“Because you…you’re not…he’s like…” She couldn’t manage to produce a single complete sentence.

I raised my brows, still waiting.

“Look, it just is, okay? This is The Son of Perdition, Jemma. ‘The Dark One’,” she continued, using air quotes as though that might help differentiate the baby from me. “There’s been prophecies about him since the dawn of time. The bringer of the end of days. The destroyer of mankind. The purveyor of war between heaven and hell.”

“There were prophecies about me, too,” I reminded her gently. “Or have you forgotten that The Order’s been trying to wipe me out of existence from the moment they found out I was alive? And that’s only because they think I’m a distant Descendant of Lucifer. Imagine what they would have done to me if they’d found out just how short my bloodline actually is.”

She crossed her arms, refusing to give me an inch. “What’s your point?”

“My point is that they were wrong about me.”

“Well, youdidopen the Hell Gates,” she answered flatly.

I tried and failed not to cringe at that. “Okay, fine, but not because I’mevilor because I’dwantedto release Lucifer from Hell. That was never my intention. I was tricked into it.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the thing about prophecies, Jemma. They have a habit of coming true regardless of your intentions.”

“But that still doesn’t make me guilty of anything otherthan beingalive. And as far as I’m concerned, neither is this baby. He’s done nothing wrong except toexist, and I don’t see how that automatically warrants him a death sentence,” I said, shaking my head at the injustice of it. “Doesn’t he deserve a chance to be born, to grow up and choose his path like the rest of us? Like me? Or are you saying I should have been killed off before I was born too?”

“Of course not,” she bit out as though I was being ridiculous. “Becauseyourbirth didn’t summon The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. That right there should tell you something.”

“But I’m the one that set it all in motion,” I reminded her. “If I’d never been born, none of this would have ever happened in the first place. Lucifer would never have been released from his tomb, and this baby would be nothing more than a scary story Descendants tell each other around the campfire. Doesn’t that make me just as culpable if not more?”

She didn’t say anything then, and I knew she was thinking about it.

“We both know the Order would have stopped at nothing for the chance to eliminate me if they could have—if they’d known about me—just like they’re doing with him now,” I said, knowing this without the slightest shadow of a doubt. “For all we know,they’rethe ones who summoned the Horsemen here in the first place.”

She scratched her neck as she tried to come up with an answer to that fairly valid possibility. “Even if they did, they must know something we don’t,” she finally decided.

“Or maybe they’re lying about the whole thing. Maybe they’re just afraid of whattheydon’t know. Maybe they’re just fucking terrified of anything that has the potential to be stronger than they are. Just like they were with me.”

She appeared to be considering it, but I could still seethe hesitation in her eyes. “And what if you’re wrong? What if heiscompletely and innately evil? Are you willing to allow that kind of dark, unmatchable power to be released into the world, knowing you could have stopped it before it even started?”

And now it was my turn to be startled into silence.

WasI willing to take that risk?

“I…I don’t know,” I answered truthfully because I truly didn’t know. My gut told me that something was off here; that The Order couldn’t be trusted. That their intentions had always proven to be self-serving and that this time would be no different. But was I willing to stake all of our lives on it?

“Well, you better figure out where you stand, Jemma, and you better do it fast because you won’t be able to unring this bell once he’s born,” she warned, her voice reverberating in my mind like a gong. “The only thing I know for sure is that there’s going to be blood on your hands either way. It’s time you figure out who’s blood you’re willing to live with,” she said and then walked away from me, leaving me standing there with a noose-like knot in my throat and the entire weight of the world resting heavy on my shoulders.

5. ALL THE THINGS THEY DIDN’T SAY

Gabriel was sitting alone at the kitchen, drumming his thumb against the solid oak wood, as though he’d been patiently waiting for me to return when I’d made my way back to the kitchen after my talk with Tessa. The room was eerily quiet and dark, save for the stove light that softly illuminated the side of his face from a distance. A face that appearedperturbed and weighted down in quiet contemplation.

I hesitated at the doorway.

I wasn’t sure I was ready to take on yet another tense conversation, or worse still, more bad news, and judging by his drooping shoulders and the low hanging angle of his head, that was almost certainly what he had in store for me.

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