Page 99 of Incoronate
“Right,” I said dismissively. “I’ll start working on that just as soon as I turn in my chemistry homework.”
“You needn’t work on it. It is already yours to claim should you choose to.”
Dominic set his glass down with an audible clink, his dark eyes hardening as he locked his attention on Anita. “Explain. Now.” His voice carried that edge of threat that made most people take a step back, but Anita didn’t flinch.
“She is Lucifer’s heir, no more and no less than Ares is. Until the time comes that he can stake his claim, the throne of Hades will sit empty.” Her eyes locked onto mine, dark and depthless. “That is, unless you take it.”
The floor seemed to tilt beneath my feet.
“You have every right to claim it in his stead,” continued Anita, her voice edged like flint. “The throne cares nothing about destiny or age or prophecy. Only blood. Lucifer’s blood. And yours runs just as deep and true as Ares’.” She leaned closer. “All you have to do is take it.”
The words slammed into me like a freight train. My breath caught and the room suddenly felt too small, the air too thin.
“Claim it, and you’ll have an army the Order can’t touch.”
I felt like I was falling into an endless hole with no up or down, no solid ground to catch myself. The world had twisted sideways and I couldn’t make sense of which way was right anymore.
“How does she claim it?” asked Dominic, as though I would ever consider doing such a thing. As though it were even remotely a possibility.
“One declaration,” she replied. “Accept what you have been running from and embrace it. Accept what you are and speak the words.Per sanguinem patris mei, thronum vindico. By blood of my father, I claim the throne. That’s it.”
The image flashed through my mind unbidden. Me speaking those words, my voice claiming something ancient and terrible. My whole body recoiled, my stomach twisting around a revulsion that ate its way up my spine like rot.
I would never do that. That wasn’t who I was. It wasn’t who I wanted to become.
“And then what?” I asked, disgust threading through my voice. “I become some demon queen? Rule over hell with my army of demon minions?”
“You become what you were always meant to be,” said Anita, simply, as though we weren’t talking about claiming the throne to the literal underworld. “Powerful enough that the Order wouldn’t dare raise a hand against you. Protected by legions that answer only to the blood of Lucifer. An army the Council has no magic to control or defeat.”
She let the offer hang there between us, tempting and terrifying all at once.
Everything in me revolted against it. From the idea of accepting that part of myself I’d spent so long trying to suppress. The darkness that whispered in my veins, that threatened to consume me every time I reached for my Nephilim power. If I claimed this throne they were offering, if I spoke these words and embraced what I was…
I’d never be able to go back.
“No,” I said firmly, shaking my head. “I’m not doing that. I’ll handle the Order without becoming…that.”
Anita tilted her head, studying me with something that might have been disappointment. “You’d rather fight them as you are now? Outnumbered and outmatched? When you could command power they have no defense against?”
“I’d rather stay myself,” I said, my jaw setting with stubborn finality. “I don’t want a crown or an army of demons. I don’t want any of that. We have a plan and it’ll work.”
It had to.
“Your plan will get you killed,” said Annabelle flatly.
“Maybe,” I said, lifting my chin. “But at least I’ll die as myself.”
Trace’s hand found the small of my back, silent support bleeding through our connection. Dominic moved closer on my other side, a wall of solidarity at my flank.
The sisters exchanged glances—some wordless communication passing between them that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“What do you care anyway?” I asked, frustration leaking into my voice. “So long as Ares is safe, what concern am I of yours?”
Arianna’s unfocused gaze sharpened on me, the color bleeding back into her amber eyes. “Because we’ve seen what could happen if you claim the throne. A future where you raise Ares without fear. Where neither of you are hunted every waking moment of your lives. Where you’re both…free.”
The words struck deeper than I expected and my breath caught.
Of course, that was what I wanted. More than anything. A life where Ares could grow up without looking over his shoulder. Where I didn’t have to sleep with one eye open, waiting for the next attack on our lives. Where we could just…exist.
