Page 47 of Illusory

Once upon a time, the Order had spewed the same horror stories about me and had tried to end my life solely on the premise ofwhat ifsandmaybes. And I had no doubt they would’ve tried to eliminate me much sooner had my parents not did everything in their power to keep me hidden from this world.

Didn’t this baby deserve that same protection? That same benefit of the doubt? Didn’t he deserve a chance to growup and decide what and who he wanted to be? Wasn’t heexactlythe same as me, right down to our matching paternal bloodline?

And yeah, maybe one day hewouldturn dark and become all the things they said he would be, and I’d have no choice but to cross that bridge and face him, but right now, he was nothing more than an innocent baby who hadn’t even taken his first breath yet let alone done anything that could constitute as evil.

The more I ruminated on it, the more Iallowedmyself to openly think about all the things I’d been harboring deep down inside, the more everything clicked into place and the lesser the painful pressure in my chest began to feel.

Grasping the steering wheel, I made an abrupt U-turn and then veered onto the street that would take me to Nikki’s neighborhood. I was finally sure of what I was going to do—of what Ineededto do.

I had absolutely no intention of harming a hair on that baby’s head and I knew that now. Screw the Council and the Horsemen and their prophecies of death. Screw their manipulations and puppeteering of every one of our lives. Screw their laws and their rules and their bloodshed. This wasn’t my war, and I refused to be complicit in any of it.

But I couldn’t just walk away from it all either. Not when I had information that could not only save the baby’s life, but maybe even change the entire course of it.

I had to warn Nikki about what Morgan saw in her vision—about what the Roderick sisters planned to do to her unborn child. About what the Order wanted done to him. Surely, she would get out of town and do everything in her power to protect the baby. She may have been a rotten witch to her core, but she was still his mother, and mothers were supposed to protect their children at all costs.

Pulling up to her house, I killed the engine and shot Ben a quick text letting him know I was making a pitstop and that I would be about fifteen minutes late. I figured that would give me plenty of time to say what I needed to say to her and then be done with the whole thing. Providing she didn’t throw me off her property the second I got there; in which case the visit would wind up being even shorter than anticipated.

A cold gust of wind slammed up against me as I stepped out of my car and started toward her walkway, the chill bleeding in through my clothes and snaking up my limbs like a serpent. Zipping up my coat, I buried my hands in the front pockets and shivered. But it wasn’t just the weather that was making me shake all over.

Nikki’s massive one-story glass mansion was hemorrhaging shadows and looked as though it had been abandoned for months even though I knew that it hadn’t. The lawn appeared unkept and overgrown and there were thick, prickly vines twisting over the white bricks that I was certain were not there that last time I’d been there. It all seemed very emblematic, like the house was being consumed by the same darkness that was currently feasting on Nikki.

Despite my apprehension, I forced my feet to keep moving, knowing that I couldn’t just walk away from this without saying my piece and at the very least trying to warn her. I kept that thought at the forefront of my mind until I finally reached the front door and then leaned forward to ring the doorbell.

The wind picked up its torrent, tossing strands of my hair around my face as the seconds ticked by with no sign of life inside. The longer I waited for her to answer, the higher my anxiety climbed.

What if I was too late? What if the sisters had already gotten to her? What if the baby had already been cursed withtheir ancient magic and everything that was prophesized was already set in motion? What if—

My spiraling thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door creaking open.

Finally, I thought as my lips parted to greet her, except there was no Nikki to be found. In fact, there was no one standing there at all.

Terrific. Just what I needed today. Hide-and-seek with my archnemesis.

“Hello?” I called out, still standing on the front porch as I unzipped my coat and reached inside to unsheathe the Sword of Angelus. I had no idea what was going on, but one thing I knew for sure, my nifty little dagger could vanquish just about anything, living or dead. “I’m just here to talk.”

No response. Because that wasn’t suspicious as all heck.

“Alright, I’ll take the bait,” I said as I tightened my grip around the hilt of my blade and then pushed the door open before stepping into the house. The front door slammed shut behind me so abruptly that it nearly took my arm off with it in the process. I stumbled forward a few steps before catching myself.

“Motherfu—” My curse died at the back of my mouth as three Revenants surrounded me in the foyer, including the one that had slammed the door shut behind me, flanked by four red-eyed, snarling beast-like creatures that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

Hellhounds.

Fuckingterrific.

Though I’d never actually seen one in real life, I’d read plenty about them when I first started training with Gabriel at Temple last year and I had no doubt that I was standing in their midst. They could almost pass for dogs—albeit demonic ones—if it weren’t for their coarse rippling fur and thosesinewy hunches protruding from their spines that came up almost as high as their heads. They reeked of rot and malice, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge.

“So, I take it Nikki’s not home?” My gaze flicked between the beastly creatures and the three Revenants, noting the latter’s voracious pitch-black eyes and elongated fangs. They were obviously starving and had probably been left here in this state on purpose. A parting gift from the Roderick sisters, no doubt.

“Did she happen to say when she’d be back?” I asked conversationally as I canvassed all available exits, trying to gauge the quickest way out of this obvious trap.

Unfortunately, I was completely locked in with all possible escape routes blocked by the advancing Revenants and their pack of hellhounds.

There was only one way out of here and I really didn’t like my odds.

“Anyone?” I pressed when neither of the Revenants responded to me other than nodding at each other as they continued their calculated advance. It was obvious then that these weren’t feral Revenants. They had control of themselves, and they had a plan. All of which wasverybad news for me.

Clasping the sword with one hand, I threw my other hand up in front of me to call up my magic in the hopes of stopping them in their tracks. Unfortunately, that plan went straight to hell when I failed to produce even a flicker of energy. I hadn’t recharged my magic, and I could practically hear Caleb telling me ‘I told you so’.

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