Page 61 of Mated to the Kings

When we get done eating, we move to the living room. Grandma hands the translation to Dad first when I sit between him and Callum. He reads what she has written, and emotions well up instantly, and tears trail down his cheeks. He closes his eyes and presses his fist to his mouth as sadness consumes him. Grandma is on his other side rubbing his back as he struggles to keep himself from completely falling apart.

“Fuck,” I say with a sigh when he hands me the sheet. I close my eyes, not willing to look. I’m not ready to know what her last thoughts were. I’m not prepared for the guilt that it will bring. She sacrificed herself to keep me alive, and I’ll never forgive myself for being the reason that she’s dead, and my father will spend the rest of his life grieving. Striker and Volis will never have another memory with her because of me. Sylvie will never meet her, and Grandma will also spend the rest of her life grieving the loss of her oldest child. My aunt has been left with distant memories of her sister because I exist and Mom no longer does. I may be the salvation that the world needs, but my existence was her death sentence.

After a while, I flip the paper over and read Mom’s letter.

Pain stings through my chest as I read her words over and over. The guilt I knew I would feel forces a sob from my throat. Dad takes the letter out of my hand and tosses it on the coffee table before wrapping his arms around me. I don’t know if he can tell how much guilt is coursing through me as the sobs wrack through my body as I fall apart while he holds me tightly.

“She’s gone because of me,” I whimper.

“No, Lilith,” Dad says as he pulls away and cups my face. “She’s dead because someone killed her. They killed her because she was a witch.”

“She wouldn’t have been there at all if I didn’t exist. I am the one that drove her to go there,” I argue through my tears.

“You cannot blame yourself for her actions. She knew the prophecy. She would have done it all over again the same way if it meant you would be able to go on and fulfill your destiny. No matter what we did or how we did it, you would have ended up in that country with all of the evil. Having you at the heart of the problem meant you knew what you would be one day fighting to fix. Your existence broke the curse and saved countless women from dying a very awful death,” Dad says firmly. “You did not kill your mother. A monster did.”

“Morwen,” I say.

“What?” Volis asks.

“Brion Morwen,” I repeat. “He’s the man who raped me. Mom told me when she came to me in that dream that Morwen was the one who caught her.”

“How did she die?” Volis asks.

“I know he raped her before, but… She never said how,” I say. “That’s when she told me he assaulted me too. I didn’t even see it that way until she said that.”

“He strangled her,” Dad says after a beat. “I could feel it… All of it.”

“That’s awful,” I say quietly.

“Yeah… Please don’t blame yourself, Lilith,” Dad says.

“It’s hard not to,” I admit.

“I know, but just understand that your mother knew what she was doing,” he says softly.

“Can we get away from the sad shit for a while? I hate crying,” I sigh.

“Yeah,” he smiles. “Where do you want me to start?”

“What happened with the witches in the beginning? I know everything started there.”

“So, twelve generations ago, a group of witches wanted to change the natural order of things. They worked with a group of shifters in an attempt to assassinate the kings before they could find the next high witch. Because of this, chaos wrecked the land for decades. Most of us, as a truce, agreed to be exiled to stop the fighting. Unfortunately, we could not bring everyone. Those that could shift into foxes found it easy to hide within the fox communities, but because they tried to help, they were deemed untrustworthy to have a social standing,” Dad explains. “I am terribly sorry to hear how they have been treated since. It sounds like you all have already started taking steps to rectify that.”

“Yes,” Daemon says.

“Although, I don’t know how well that’s going right now. They are likely looking for me,” I say. “So, what exactly is this prophecy?”

“When translated, the prophecy reads, ‘When the witch is fated to the Three Kings, the moon risen full and high, the darkness begins to creep, a war between shadows and light is nigh.”

I repeat the words back to myself in my head, trying to make sense of what they mean. Dad is watching me think, letting me connect the dots myself. “Wait,” I say. “The darkness begins to creep… could that be a solar eclipse?”

“It is… We have ten days,” he says simply.

“Ten days?” I ask in shock. “A week ago, I didn’t know the simplest of spells, and now I have ten days to learn how to not get everyone killed?”

“Which leads me to how you being half succubus is what will be the most beneficial, considering what you are up against.”

“So… The guys have explained the very basics of what a succubus is,” I say. “They said the first succubus was named Lilith?”

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