Chapter 266


    Weightlessness consumed me, the oblivion fading when I was suddenly somewhere else. A ce I had


    never seen before, in a time that no longer existed. A woman stood next to a huge square stone, a man


    on the other side, his resemnce to Kyan and all Octavian men was uncanny Witches circled around


    chanting, their hands in the air as storm clouds swirled above. Their clothes and dresses told me this


    was a period of time that existed centuries ago.


    “Once this done, it cannot be undone, Kaif,” The woman says. He peers over his shoulder at the young


    woman who stood off to the side but within arms reach of Kaif, she had the same regal air to her as the


    woman who held out her hand to Kaif, a dagger was in her hand, the same de I saw upstairs yet no


    gemstone was in its hilt.


    “It’s the only way Celeste; I will not lose her,” Kaif tells the woman, her dark flowing curls picked up in


    the wind, blowing behind her like a dark veil.


    “Very well. Luna,e forward, dear,” Celeste called to her daughter. Kaif smiled tenderly at her,


    though I could see the dangerous glint in his eyes, A glint that told me he was no longer human. Kaif


    was Lycan, a beast. Looking around the vast vige, I noticed the Lycans chained down, caged, yet


    here Kaif stood in control, and by the look on his face as he stared down at his future mate, she was


    the one that helped him keep that control. This was the seance to bind them. Celeste cut both their


    palms before drawing the blood into the stone.


    She murmurs a few words, their blood mingling together before catching fire and turning to tar before


    she raises her hand, drawing the tar-like substance off the rock and into the air. The torches stabbed


    into the ground red high into the sky while the tar-like blood drops dropped back into a goblet Celeste


    held in her hands. I watched as Kaif and Luna drank from the goblet; it appeared to be some ceremony.


    “Correct,” Dominic’s voice says, answering my thoughts before he materialized beside me.


    “This was the first pairing; she tied their souls. Now watch,” Dominic says, and I turn my gaze back to


    the memory ying out in front of me. Kaif drinks from the goblet and heaves in a breath, his eyes


    flickering ck before he roars, suddenly shifting, and out came the beast.


    Celeste jumps back away from him and tries to tug her daughter away, who just stared, Kaifs breathing


    ragged, and he truly was the monster they portrayed him to be. Luna, however, held no fear despite her


    mother trying to pull her back. Instead, she reached her hand up and cupped his giant furry face, her


    hand running down his neck to stop as it fell over his heart.


    “Right here, this where you are,” Luna murmurs to him. His trembling stops, his breathing slows, and


    finally, he begins to shift back; it was so weird seeing a Kyan’s look-alike in a time period that ended


    eons ago. Back to himself, he grabbed luna around the waist and sank his teeth into her neck. She


    clutched his arms, her back arched as he marked her before she passed out. “Mine, forever mine,” Kaif


    murmured as he scooped her up.


    “That was our first mistake, taking a god’s daughter for a mate,” Dominic said as my surroundings


    swirled and faded before it was sometimeter.


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    Luna held a baby boy in her arms. She sat in a rocking chair, her son suckling at her breast o n the


    porch of their home. It was a clear day as I stared at the vast homestead. Kaif, I could see, was in the


    fields sowing seeds by hand, working thend while Luna watched.


    I watched Kaif, and it wasn’t until I heard Luna’s scream for him did I turn back to the house. A man


    appeared out of nowhere. He stood on the step. I found him imposing, hemanded attention, and


    the vibe he gave off sent a chill up my spine.


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    “Father,” Luna gasped. Clutching her boy in her arms.


    “Your mother was a fool for thinking she could hide you from me,” Hades said, walking up the steps


    slowly, his steps calcted and his eyes falling on the child in her arms. Hades sneered.


    “You disrespect me so, to breed with the mutts your mother created,” Hades said. Luna backed up, and


    I heard Kaif’s roar behind me, but he was too far away. Hades tried to grab his daughter, but she was


    helpless with her arms full with her son. She could only run, which is what she did.


    “Kaif!” Luna screamed, the sound so petrified it hurt my heart and made it clench as she ran from the


    man who she called father only for him to materialize in front of her. Her feet faltered as she stood on


    her dress and tripped, pivoting just in time before shended on her baby. Her screams for her mother,


    for Kaif, were pointless as Hades advanced. Her cries for him to let her go fell on deaf ears.


    “She has brainwashed you against me,’ Hades’ roared, gripping her arm, trying to rip the baby from her


    arms. “You’re not keeping that mutt,” he snarled at her, his hands yanking at the baby’s nket. Kaif


    raced toward them, screaming for his mate and son while Luna struggled to protect her son from her


    father. Kaif’s feet creaked on the wooden floors of the porch when Luna screamed. My heart lurched in


    my chest when magic fizzled in Hades’ hands aimed straight for the baby in her arms.


    Luna screamed, and Kaif roared as Hades went to deliver a lethal blow to their son. Luna did the only


    thing she could. She threw him. Kaif’s feet faltered as his eyes followed his son, wrapped in his white


    crocheted nket, tossed in the air.


    “I’lle back for you both,” Luna screamed just as Kaif caught the bundle in his arms only t o look up


    to see Luna m her hands into her father’s chest, her own magic mming into him, and Hades


    gripped her arms and snarled before they vanished into thin air. Kaif wailed, shifting back into his


    human form. His son tucked in his arms as he unraveled him, checking on him.


    His shoulders dropped with relief as his son let out a scream. Momentster, Celeste appeared frantic


    looking for her daughter as she ran across the field. She stopped on the steps, and her eyes went to


    Kaif, who was on his knees. “I’m toote,” she sobs, stumbling over to him. Her hands are on his


    shoulders as she peers over him to look at her grandson.


    “I’ll fucking kill him. I FUCKING KILL HIM!” Kaif roared.


    “Vengence does nobody any good,” Dominic says, appearing beside me. The memory speeds along,


    and suddenly it is night. The magic in the air was electrifying, and the sky was now dark. I gasped


    when I realized we were at the ruins. This property was Kyan’s, the thick forest surrounding it was dark.


    Giant ming torches sent clouds of ck smoke into the night sky.


    “We call on our ancestors, to Kill a god I must make you one,” Celeste tells him.


    “It’s the ruins,” I tell Dominic, who had been wandering with me through the memories, remaining silent


    but here.


    “Yes, our second mistake, thinking we could kill a god and get away with it,” Dominic murmured.


    Celeste produces two identical daggers, two huge rubies. The cauldron that sat in the middle bubbled


    as she tossed them in. Celeste cuts her palm, bleeding into the pot before cutting Kaifs.


    “To give life, we must take it,” Celeste says.


    “We are only taking life,” Kaif says to her, looking confused. Celeste shakes her head.


    “He will kill her if she disobeys him, Kaif. He would do it out of spite,”


    “What are you saying?” Kaif says, tilting his head.


    “There are two daggers, one to kill a god, one to give life to one, bnce,”


    “But I only possess dark magic; I can’t use the light,” Kaif tells her.


    “No, but I can. I am bestowing a gift on you. I am making you a god. Only a god or goddess can wield


    these daggers; only a god kill another god, are you understanding?” Kaif watches as


    she slices her wrists.


    Holding them out wide while turning her face to the dark sky. She murmurs words in a foreign tongue,


    and storm clouds brewed violently. Kaif takes a step back from her as veins of darkness sliver across


    her milky skin, her eyes turning ck as coal, and she cracks her neck. Her voice echoed the louder


    she chanted, her blood spilling onto the ground when a lightning bolt broke across the sky, hitting the


    ruins and before striking the next. I gasped, looking at the pattern above, as the lightning struck.


    A pentagram of light and electricity hung overhead before I shrieked. Dominic grabs my arms, and I


    watch the lightning smash into Kaif’s chest. He screams as the lightning speared him to the ground,


    and he copses.My heart pounded at what I just witnessed as hey limp, his breathing stopped, and


    Celeste looked toward the trees, darkness tainted her, and ck veins streaked her skin, moving as


    she walked into the trees beforeing back out.


    Only when she did she didn’te alone. No, she came with a girl; her hands and feet chained, a gag


    in her mouth. Celeste dragged her thrashing body toward the cauldron before bending her over it. My


    heart pounded in my chest as the young girl thrashed.


    Celeste murmured a word, and I watched as the girl’s eyes flickered ck. She was a Lycan. Celeste


    then plunged a knife into the artery in the girl’s neck, her blood spurted and poured out, and I felt sick.


    She was only a teenage girl. She fell limply at Celeste’s feet, and Celeste turned, cutting the girl’s heart


    out. She stood above the cauldron and squeezed the heart in her hand. Murmuring some spell that


    made lightning hit the cauldron and smoke before she dropped the heart in.


    She then dips adle in the cauldron before taking it to Kaif, she prys his lips open and pours it down


    his throat and leans down and kisses him. Kaif sucks in a breath and lurches upright, breathing heavily.


    Shadows slivered across his skin, etched into it like tattoos, the same markings that shadowed Kyan’s


    arms and Dominic’s.


    His eyes go to the girl, and his eyes open in horror. “What did you do?” he gasps.


    “What I had to,” Celeste says, walking back to the cauldron. She motions Kaif to follow, and h e growls,


    moving the girl’s body away, before giving his hand to Celeste, she cut his palm. The mes red


    higher as they chanted, and eventually, the smoke cleared. Celeste moved, dipping her hand in the


    cauldron. She hisses, pulling the stones out and dropping them in Kaif’s hand before pulling out the


    daggers.


    “One to transfer life and power, one to trap and kill it,” Celeste murmurs. She cleans the daggers on her


    dress and cleans the stones, popping them into the hilt on each dagger.


    “Why do you need one for life?” Kaif murmured.


    “Because when you kill Hades, he will kill Luna, and when he does, I will trade my life for hers,” Celeste


    says.


    “So the other dagger was not meant for Seline, but her daughter?” I ask Dominic. He nods.


    “Yes, but the Luna was killed,” Dominic exined.


    The memory moved once again to Kaif’s son killing Luna with the dagger instead of Hades, trapping


    her soul forever in the stone. Her rage that her son didn’t recognize her, didn’t know who she was was


    heartbreaking as she begged and pleaded with her son.


    He looked confused and torn before Luna turned on Kaif, who begged her to stay before she tried to kill


    him, and in turn, her son chose his father and the man who raised him. Then I watched the curse


    Hades bestowed on him. Before I watched Kaif kill each and everyone one of his mates. His curse


    turned him darker with each one, and for a while, he gave up. He killed thest three before me when


    they gave birth and didn’t even allow the mother to hold their children, just let them give birth before


    killing them.


    I could understand why all his mates lost their minds. With this, I could only see him killing


    them, the monstrous side of him. The only difference was I knew the reason behind their deaths. Why


    he did it, he wouldn’t allow the woman he loved to kill the child he helped create.


    Thest one was brutal horrible to witness, and I clenched my eyes shut as Kaif quite literally ripped


    her apart. Her screams would forever haunt me; for years, I lived with their attempts to kill the children


    but never saw the oue of whether or not they seeded.


    “It’s nearly over, Marabe, but you have marked Kaif now, when you wake, you will obtain their


    madness,”


    “What?”


    “You’re strong enough to endure it, you have before,”


    I choked and sputtered, staring at the women’s dead body. I shake my head.


    “You can endure it, you did for Rose, that hatred, that darkness you already contain it, but now it will be


    unleashed. Remember who you are, Marabe, remember what you are,” Dominic urged


    “I am darkness; I can’t be more than that. What sort of monster would it make me,” I asked, petrified


    “The sort that can kill a god, you are the moon goddesses daughter, you are the key to breaking this


    curse, you just have to remember whates with darkness, is light,” Dominic says.


    “I don’t understand, just tell me,” Why was everything in riddle. “I can’t; I would if I could. What. Comes.


    With. Darkness. Is. Light. Think Marabe,” Dominic says. “Find the bnce,”


    “Eziah!” I gasp.


    “For you are the Gemini twins,” Dominic says with a smile.


    “Get the stones, break the curse, set me free, I will take care of the rest, I just need Celeste grimoires,


    get me the grimoires,” Dominic says.


    “From where? How do I give them to you?” I ask him.


    “Break the curse, set me free,” Dominic says, vanishing, and I gasp at the sensation that rushes


    through me. Like I was falling off a steep cliff, the air flowing so fast around I clutched air, and then my


    head as pain rattled through my skull. I screamed before mming back into my body. My scream was


    deafening, and I lurched upright. Only to be met with the sounds of ss breaking and a dark room.


    Glowing eyes peered back at me. The glowing eyes of my mates.


    “You’re okay, E, you’re okay,” Kyan whispers, clutching my arms in his warm hands. I suck in a


    breath looking around the room, and Jonah gets off the bed when the lights start flickering.


    “Generators kicked in,” Jonah murmurs, looking out the window. “But she knocked the power out to the


    entire city,” he says, and I gasp.