Page 44 of Claim the Twilight
The sphere sprouts two legs, then two eyes open wide. A mouth forms in a small ‘o’ that stretches into a sweet smile as it looks up at me. Two arms push out from its sides, and it reaches for me with stubby fingers just as a shadow falls over us.
My blood turns to ice.
I didn’t hear her.
I should have, but I didn’t.
“And what’s this, my sweet?” Her voice is saccharine, but it’s an act. A lie. She says she loves me, but not enough to set me free, and now she’s seen what I can do…
“You made these?” She reaches for Pip, my favorite moddlin. He has wings and a tail. He stiffens in her grip, paralyzed by fear as she brings him close to her beautiful face.
Her lips are red today. Like drops of blood against snow, and when they part to reveal pearly white teeth my pulse stutters.
“How delightful,” she says. But it doesn’t sound like she means it. In fact, it sounds like she means the opposite, as if she’s biting into the words and hoping to draw blood to match her crimson mouth.
Pip’s gaze flicks my way, a plea to help him, but I can’t. I can’t help him now. I can’t help any of them because I failed to hide them. I failed to hear her enter my prison room.
“I’m…I’m sorry, Mother, I?—”
“Hush.” She gently places Pip back on the ground. “There’s no need for apology, child. You have a gift. Why would you hide it?” She cants her head and stares at me with eyes as dark as her soul.
“I…I was afraid…”
The truth slips out and her eyes flinch. “Of me?”
Is that genuine hurt on her face? Wings of hope flutter in my chest.
“Oh, sweet child, there’s no need to fear. I think it’s wonderful. All these creations…Tell me, how do you do it?” She points to my newest moddlin. One I haven’t named yet. “This one…What does it do?”
Do? “They don’t do anything, Mother, they simply…are.”
She crouches beside me and the moddlins back away into the shadows, where they should have been hiding when she entered.
Her eyes narrow a fraction, and my stomach begins to hurt. “I see you have ones that can fly. Does this one have an ability?”
“Oh…yes, it can take any form it wants.” I stroke the sphere. “Go on, you can show Mother.”
The sphere trembles then morphs into a curvy female form with long dark hair and a pointy oval face. There are not features to the face aside from eyes. This moddlin doesn’t have the ability to change colour, or add clothes, but the form is there.
Mother claps her hands in delight and my nerves melt away. She isn’t mad. She’s smiling and happy and oh, when she’s like this the world lights up and hope fills my heart.
In this moment I would do anything to keep her happy. To keep her present and warm and here with me. “Do you want me to make you something, Mother?”
Her smile lights up the room and my heart fills with joy. “Yes, my sweet. I would love that.”
And so I did. I made her an army…
Chapter 20
ORINA
The library slowly filled with what I was beginning to think of asthe team. Padma and Merry joined us first, both looking fresher for the couple of hours they’d had to decompress. Ordell strolled in next, hair damp, smelling of his signature sweet evergreen scent. I crossed to him, and he put his arm around me, hugging me to his side.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice low.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
He kissed the top of my head, and a sense of safety washed over me, as it always did with him. We might no longer be mated, but our connection was undeniable—the sense that I belonged. The conviction that he was mine.
