Unbound by Amber Lynn Natusch

Author:Amber Lynn Natusch [Natusch, Amber Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amber Lynn Natusch
Published: 2021-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

15

“They’re inside,” Cass yelled from across the street.

Oz tore the door open and ushered Demeter and me inside, where we found my mother lying on the couch in the living room, being courted by death, as a black-winged being sat by her side.

“How is she?” I asked as I rushed over. But it was plain from the extreme pallor of her skin—the pasty grey that infiltrated it—and the shallowness of her breath that the end was nigh.

I reached behind me and grabbed Demeter. “You will help her or you will die. It is that simple.” My brothers looked from her to me. “I can will the details of Hecate’s conversation from you by force, if you would prefer, or you could—for the second time in your wretched existence—do right by me.” I glared down at her as her anger gave way to fear. “Know that if I do reach into your mind for those details, I will not leave it unharmed.”

“I will do as you ask,” she replied through gritted teeth.

“Good. Now, Casey,” I called, “you must help, too. Demeter cannot do this without you.”

One look at the pain in my eyes and he was at my side. “What do you need?”

“It was your mother, not the Light, who performed the ritual to fix my mother’s soul.”

“She did not fix it,” Demeter interrupted. “Whatever your mother lost when she turned Dark is still lost. Hecate merely corralled and bound the soul that replaced hers. This allowed her to live as she once had. It kept her from succumbing to the darkness ever again.”

“But she has not become Dark,” Pierson observed, and my mind reeled, Phobos’ words niggling in the back of my mind.

“Then maybe it is not damaged,” I whispered. “Maybe it is gone.”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Demeter said, her tone harsh.

“Khara,” Casey called, pulling me from my ruminations, “what do you need me to do?”

“I need you to be your mother—to use what you have inherited from her to do what needs to be done to save mine.”

His lips pressed to a thin line as he grabbed my shoulder. “I don’t know how—”

“But I do,” Demeter said, cutting him off. “If you do as I say, Celia might have a chance.”

Casey looked at me, and I nodded. “She knows the necessary steps.” I turned to look at the woman who had been charged with raising me, the woman who had never cared for me—never loved me. “And she knows what is at stake. She will guide you, or her fate is sealed.”

Casey’s black eyes seemed to darken as he glared at Demeter. He knew what it was like to never have a mother’s love. It seemed that murdering his had not quieted that resentment—had not sated that anger. He would do anything he could to make sure that the one who loathed me would help save the one whose love I had only just come to know.

“All right, Demeter,” he said, stepping to my dying mother’s

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