The Reaper Saga [Book 1-3]

THE CEREMONY [EDITED]

I wish I were blind, oblivious to the world.

Where I have always been the brave one, today I was anything but that. Even looking at myself in the mirror almost made me cringe. The fire in my eyes had been lost the moment they put me on a wedding dress.

"You look so beautiful, Emie."

"Do I?" I fingered the sleeves of the black satin floor-length wedding gown with a scowl. Considering it was more of a sacrifice rather than a wedding, it was a bit ironic that they wanted me to look delicate.

Beautiful.

As if there was any beauty in bleeding flesh.

Belle's smile vanished instantly. If I squinted too hard, I could even see the disappointment in her eyes. "You don't believe me."

"Believe you?" I wanted to laugh. "I believed you once, Belle, not again."

"Stop calling me Belle! I'm your mother."

Bitterness had crawled its way inside me a long time ago and still, I have learned to ignore its presence. But now? Now I wanted to feast on it. "Not a real one. Mr. Sullivan and you proved it over and over again that trusting either of you is a mistake."

"Look at me, hun. I know you're ready, you can do this." Despite my anger over everything, she clutched my hands tightly as if it was her lifeline. "I don't like this either. But do I have a choice? No, none of us do."

"Let me run. You can do that for me. Just let me run." If I wasn't bound to this territory I didn't even have to beg like this!

"I can't do that. Not after last time." Of course, merely asking for anything in this clan wasn't going to work. What was I even expecting? "You look very upset-"

"You see this?" For emphasis, I rolled over my sleeves to reveal the triangle mark on my arm. "For years, I've been banned from casting any spells or learning them in the first place. Why me? What have I ever done to the clan? Why do I have to marry a man, oh, no, wait, a dead man who has been lying in a grave for God knows how many years? A Darkness!"

I could remember how I was in awe of the things they could do with their powers back when I was still a child. But the moment I tried to do the same thing, I was gifted with a mark that would never allow me to do magic.

Giving me a weak smile, she cleared her throat. "Emie, hun, we've been over this already. We need a pure soul to harness every bit of Darkness's powers. This is a sacrifice worth dying for."

Pure soul...I didn't think of myself as a pure soul. Not when it cost my life.

"Would you say the same thing if I were your real child?" I wondered aloud, not caring the way she flinched.

A tear rolled down her cheeks at my admission. As much as I hated my step-parents, I couldn't deny that Belle could almost pull off being a mother. Especially when she choked up. "Conrad may seem like he hates you but, know that, if he didn't saw the scroll himself, he would never let it go so far. As for me, I love you as my own."

My pretense slipped only for a second. "Not enough to save me."

"I saved you once! And what did we get in return? People dying, disappearing, and all the bad things that could happen to us. The prophecy is real, we've all seen the consequences of ignoring it before. This whole year we've suffered because I stopped them from taking you. The nearby clans are breathing down our neck. You know that! Any moment they will attack and without Darkness's help, we will all die."

My chest tightened to the point that I couldn't see through all the chaos around me. Nineteen years was hardly enough for me. I wanted to live...maybe even make a family of my own. And more of all, I wanted to cry out at the injustice happening to me but something held me back. I wanted to show them that they were wrong. Despite walking toward my death, I wasn't weak. I was the strongest of them all.