39. ~Abigail Rose~

39

~Abigail Rose~

To say life didn’t always go to plan didn’t quite cover it.

Especially not at this juncture.

But as it was, circumstances had led us to this.

Led me to this.

Objectively, it was the only viable solution to our problem, to the poison that had infected the supernatural world and cost us all so much.

Subjectively, however, they couldn’t accept that.

El was all about finding another way.

But this time there wasn’t one.

There was just this.

And I’d made my peace with that.

The truth was, ever since I’d lost the love of my life, a piece of me had been missing, my thirst for life and the world I existed in had left me. And the struggle to remain in the light despite the emptiness that I felt had been wearing on me more and more with every passing day. Only my daughter and El had managed to keep me holding on.

But even that wasn’t enough now.

It couldn’t be either. I had to do this.

For her as much as anyone else.

She’d been harmed so severely by black magic, that which Constantine Vale had wielded against her, and it would always be her greatest weakness and point of vulnerability.

No more. Not when I wiped it from the face of the earth.

“It’s time,” I told El as he moved to call his power.

Even if he did, he couldn’t stop me, not if I employed the full breadth of my abilities.

He stilled, however, and stared at me sadly, an understanding passing between us.

I raised my shields, allowing only the black magic to pass through.

And then I sped up the siphoning until it was assaulting me at full force, black magic flowing through my system rapid-fire, as I took all there was existing in the supernatural world unto myself.

I could hear the three of them yelling at me to stop, but I blocked it all out.

Even as they began to assault my shield in a desperate bid to stop me.

I choked as the concentration of black magic started to impact my physical faculties and I collapsed to my knees.

But still I didn’t stop.

Not until I had it all.

Not until my mission was complete.

My final act upon this world.

One that would spare them all.

One they deserved to be spared from.

Through the pain of the poison infiltrating my system and it swirling all around me as I drew yet more inside, I looked out at my daughter standing there blasting her power at my shield, making it shudder combined with El’s power.

She caught my eye and I rasped, “Don’t let fear and grief guide your life, like it has mine far too much. You’re stronger than that. You have a fire in you that burns brighter than I’ve ever known. You have so much to do, so much to be. Do that for me, my darling. Live your life free and full of love.”

“Mom,” she whimpered, her magic sputtering out as her emotion took her over.

The same thing happened to El too as he obviously realized I had just moments left until I’d absorbed everything I needed to.

He stood there shaking his head at me in sorrow.

“Don’t remain alone forever, my sweet. You deserve more than that. You have so much love to give.”

“Abi—”

“Thank you. For your friendship. For everything.”

I jolted as the siphoning came to an end.

It was time.

The one thing that could extinguish black magic was the lifeforce of an angelic being.

And that was what I would provide.

With it swirling inside me, threatening to make me its host, it would die along with me.

Extinguished from this world.

I braced myself, then staggered to my feet and called my celestial fire forth.

I allowed it to gather in ferocity until my hands were shaking with the sheer magic I was calling all at once.

And then I turned it on myself.

Everything I had.

My own screams sounded in my ears as agony tore through me.

I looked at my daughter one more time.

And then I let go.

“Mom!”

To be continued in FALLEN HEIRS