deCEIVED (Book 2)

31: Michaela

I knew what this creature was. I'd learned about it from Chloe and Magnus after training had ended one day. These creatures showed you your worst nightmares before poisoning you with their fingernails- and if that didn't kill you, they would keep attacking you until you were dead. The more fear you had in you, the more likely they were to kill you. And sadly, I'd never been more afraid of anything in my life.

"Daddy, what are we going to do?" I whispered.

"Just stay calm. We can get rid of this." Dad replied.

"But that's crazy! We don't have enough power to defeat that creature!" I stammered.

"It's worth a shot," Dad said.

"Dad, we have to get out of here!"

"Where would we go?"

"I don't know! But we can't stay here!"

Suddenly, the creature grabbed me and took me away from my father. Its fingernails were so close to digging into my skin, and that only made me panic even more.

"DADDY!" I screamed. "DO SOMETHING!"

"I won't let you take my daughter away from me!" I heard a voice shout.

"One of you must go, Phoenix, and you're too valuable for me to get rid of. Now give me your daughter- unless you want to repeat the day your wife died!" Another voice taunted.

I closed my eyes and tried to calm down by taking deep breaths. But it was hard to calm down, since I knew I was about to die. No...I can't die like this!

Then, when I thought I was going to get stabbed by the creature's fingernails, the creature let go of me, and I flew out of its hands and landed on a tree branch. I glanced up to see what caused the creature to let go of me, and I almost couldn't believe my eyes.

It was the creature from the Society- but I knew his name now. It was Nolan.

"Leave her alone," I heard a voice in my head hiss.

"I've been waiting for this for a long time, Lucas," another voice snarled.

"I'm the Shadow Warlock. My name is Nolan now." The first voice snapped.

"Whatever your name is, just know that I came for your daughter, and I'm not leaving this place until you're both dead and rotting." The second voice retorted.

"You must be mistaken, WESLEY," the first voice growled, "because if anyone's going to die tonight, it'll be you!"

Lucas? The Shadow Warlock?

Then it hit me. That creature- the Shadow Warlock known as Nolan Lucius Potens -was actually my father.

I wanted to help him fight this creature, even if he was suddenly more powerful than me. But I couldn't move forward, because my father- Nolan -had formed an invisible border to protect me. So instead, I could only watch them fight.

Nolan would hit the creature when his fists had indigo lightning balls in them, and the creature would fight back by trying to scratch and poison Nolan. Sometimes, Nolan would freeze the creature and beat it up before it could thaw out, but if the creature was lucky, he would break free from the ice by cutting the ice with his fingernails that never froze.

While Nolan and the other creature were fighting each other, I could feel myself transforming again. This time, my hair was caramel blonde, my eyes were jade green, and a pair of white angel wings were forming on my back. But my right wrist was stinging like mad, and when I looked down to see why, there was a tiny, phoenix-shaped scar on it.