Chapter 19

Nineteen

Before my father gets the chance to open the door, however, we are knocked off balance by another explosion, this one much closer. Looking through the grid pattern of the metal catwalk, I can see part of the back wall of the mess hall downstairs is now blown in.

Three huge men in black military-looking protection gear storm through the gap, guns raised. They spread out from the hole, and through it walks a woman with short dark hair.

She looks up at us almost immediately, as if she already knew exactly where we’d be in the room, and tilts her head slightly. Her gaze on me makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The three men turn from their positions around the room, raising their guns towards us. She holds up a hand, two fingers and thumb raised, and they freeze. I would think they were actually frozen, but I can see their chests moving as they breathe.

“Aria!” My mother’s voice breaks the silence.

I shift my head slightly so I can see her through the catwalk floor as she comes to a stop beside the woman. I am about to call back to her when my father grabs me from behind, pulling my back against his chest, an arm across my shoulders. I can’t see his face in this position, but I do see his other arm raise with the familiar gun in his hand. In the next instant, when I am sure he will put it to my head, he surprises me by pointing it down at the women instead.

“Ahhhh, Evangeline. The years have been kind. You are still breathtaking, my love.”

“Edward, please let her go.”

“Let her go? I don’t think so,” he sneers. “You have kept her from me for years, told her nothing of her heritage, her lineage, her power...”

I hear my mother’s shocked gasp from up here at his words.

“Yes, that’s right,” he coos. “She knows quite a lot about your deception now, my queen.”

Queen ?

“Mum?” I blurt out in confusion, not needing to voice the myriad of questions running through my mind. She knows me better than anyone.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” she says with tears in her voice. “I just wanted to keep you safe. I didn’t want this life for you. You don’t want it. Please trust me.”

“Trust you? I find out that I have been lied to my whole life, and then that person asks me to trust them now? You, who have taught me that trust is earned, and once broken, is hard to earn back. I know what you would tell me if it was anyone else. Fool me once, shame on me?—”

“Aria, please,” she pleads. “You don’t understand what’s happening here. Let me explain. Let me tell you the truth, and if you still want to go down this path, we can work out how to do it safely.”

“You’re right. I don’t understand what’s going on here. Why is that? Because I have been lied to my whole life! I’ve had enough of being asked to trust the very people who have been lying to me!” I shout.

“If you leave me now, Aria, you will never know your true life. She will steal you away again, and only tell you the parts she wants you to hear,” my father whispers in my ear. “Ask yourself, have I lied to you once since our meeting? My methods might be a tad harsh to you, but I have been nothing but honest.”

I pull away from his grasp, taking a step forward. My mother moves further into the hall below so she can see me as I lean over the rail of the catwalk to look down at her. She looks so small from his angle. The woman follows my mother into the room, and I can see my father’s gun trail her in my peripheral vision. I have so many questions, so many lies to unravel, but I ask the one I need to know to decide what happens next.

“What am I?”

My mother’s eyes flash a glow of green, and I know. I know this is the secret she has hidden me from. My father, being a princess, all of it is secondary to this.

But she says nothing. I count the seconds that pass in silence.

“Your true name, my darling daughter, is Aria Liliana Ashmodai,” my father says, stepping up beside me. “You are a descendant of Asmodeus and Lilith. You are a princess, the heir to the Kingdom of Lust, and the first true-born Succubus in nearly a century.”

I truly don’t know what his declaration means, but I absolutely was not expecting that . Succubus? Like a sex demon?

I turn to face my mother again, hoping she will shed some light on this crazy, but her eyes only hold defeat. He isn’t lying. I silently plead with her to say something, anything, to explain what is going on. Anything that might help me understand why she has done this. She says that she was doing this to protect me, that I don’t want this life, but how can I make that decision if I don’t know what this life is?

To my disappointment, she offers no answer, only looks at my father. “You had her awakened then.”

“I arranged a meeting with a worthy Cambion, a Mr Cleave, but he and Aria took matters into their own hands. Thankfully, I was there to secure them both before she could feed from him again. He was already showing signs of addiction after their first night. Such is her significant power. He has also been dealt with, though, before the obsession could set in, further saving our daughter from the horrors this life can have. A life you did not prepare her for. But I will.” He gently touches my arm, turning me to him. “Come with me now, Aria. I will tell you everything and teach you what you should have already known about who you really are.”

“Aria.” The woman beside my mother speaks, catching my attention. “My name is Andromeda. I am the head of The Den, an organisation founded to monitor and safeguard creatures around the globe. We have been watching your father for years, trying to take him down. Your mother works for us, with us, and we have been developing a synthetic formula that would mean beings like you would no longer need to feed from humans. This is the only true, safe way forward. You have no reason to trust me, and I won’t ask you to, but trust that your mother has only ever had your best interests at heart and did what she thought was best to keep you safe. Safe from him. You do not need to come with us. I will walk you out of here and personally see to it that you have somewhere safe to go while you work through everything you have learned.”

She takes a step towards us, now placing my mother slightly behind her, hands open in peace, but I can see the twin swords peaking over her shoulders, a chest full of knives, and two guns strapped to her thighs. Her men all inch forward.

“So, you’re the famous Andromeda, slayer of creatures who don’t toe the lines you draw,” my father responds. “Like you have some kind of authority over us!” Putting his hand in mine, he turns to leave. “Come, Aria.”

I look down at my mother, her face broken in grief and guilt. I want to go to her; I want to put my trust and faith in her. She has been my rock, my constant, my everything for my entire life. I want to give her a chance. I want to know that my unwavering faith in her, and belief in her, hasn’t been misplaced. But I’m so heartbroken by the lies, and I’m being pulled in too many directions.

Go with my mother and hope she will give me the truth she has so far refused? Hope that if I choose to have my father in my life, she will respect my wishes? Or do I go with Andromeda and her very intimidating men? The fact that their guns remain trained on us isn’t exactly filling me with confidence that I will get to choose what happens next if I walk down those stairs.

Do I put my trust in my father? Yes, he kidnapped me, but so far, it seems like he is the only one willing to let me choose. He will tell me about the life I could have had. Answer all the questions I didn’t even know to ask. Show me what my life could be. We haven’t gotten off to a great start, but if I try to think of things from his perspective, maybe the desperate acts to get me here are justified a little?

I look around the room once more, feeling the weight of my options, and the pressure to choose. And I must choose right now. I seriously doubt anyone here is going to let me tell them all to go to hell!

So, I do the only thing I can to find out the truth about who I am. I nod to my father.

He fits his thumb to the security panel and the door opens. I step through it behind him, his hand in mine still, to the sounds of my mother’s sobbing. The door slides closed behind us, cutting out the heartbreaking sound, and I follow my father up the stairs and into the new life, new world, that awaits me.

The End . . . for now.