Tasting Darkness

Read Taming Darkness By Jessica Hall Book 3 Chapter 19 - Thankfully, | have forged my own path and was like neither of my parents. Both were inherently evil in their own sick and twisted ways, with plans for power and domination. After everything that had cto light, experiencing what Darius had at the hands of my father, through his memories, and what | had witnessed firsthand of my mother, | could wholeheartedly say | am a better person than they were, and apparently smarter too.

Maybe she'd been too enamored with the idea that she had finally won againstto even notice the walls of my trap closing in. She hadn't overpowered me, even if she believed that to be the case, but my only goal had been to get my mate's out. Not only out of that awful place, but far away from the eyes of my mother. Her hatred for them clouded the reality of what was actually going on. They were her kryptonite, which | would use to my full advantage, keeping her focused where | wanted.

As much as they played a part, it seemed | was enough of a distraction, her grand prize, the main attraction of all the twisted | things she had worked so hard to accomplish. | was to be the key to everything she had ever wanted to become.

From the moment I'd decided to go after my mother, | was aware | would do whatever it took to ensure the safety of my mates, even let them think I risked my life for them. It was a small price to pay for the song of revenge that played beneath my breath.

Given the choice of suffering their wrath over having to watch them in agony another moment, it was not one | had to think about. What she attempted to do to all of them inside that barrier had been enough to cement my decision. | would not be the reason they lost their lives.

Keeping in the forefront of my mind that my mates were not just Demonic-fae. Tobias was Vampiric fae, Lycus was Were-fae and Kalen, he was darkness. For these reasons, | had forced each of my mates through that portal and ignored their reactions. My mother would have killed them without a second thought. Her precious crystal would have drained my power, and we all would have been immobilized.

If she had succeeded, they would have been temporarily defenceless to her power, which was more than enough tfor that vicious woman to extinguish their lives.

With my plan firmly in place, step one was complete. Although it had been heartbreaking hearing my mates, as | saved them one at a time, it had been successful. | needed to get caught and taken away from them. I'd allowed my mother to tap into my magic, as a distraction, so she wouldn't touch theirs. It was risky, that woman's greed knew no bounds, but that worked to my advantage and | accomplished my first goal.

If my plan had failed, she would have syphoned all their magic, leaving them andpowerless while she slaughtered them, forcingto watch as they died.

When it cto me, | understood her plan, but she overlooked an extremely important detail. Her demonic crystals did weaken me, as she knew they would, but the effect was only temporary.

Even now, my power was slowly creeping back. It filled my being and overrode the shackles she'd constructed to take down a Demonic -Fae. That dark side ofwas gone, it had burned out the moment her crystal towers zapped the power from me. She immobilized Darius! magic in me, but completely forgot | wielded my own. But although intelligent, my mother kept overlooking the important little details, like | was a Harmony-Fae.

Okay, apparently, according to her, | was Seraphim. Which made zero sense, | wasn’t sure if she was trying to trickwith an obvious lie or if there was more to it. It would be something to figure out later if tpermitted.

One thing was painfully clear, my mother kept underestimatingand what | was capable of. It was as if she was stuck in svicious cycle of self sabotage.

Her sole focus was on how close she was to attaining her heart's desire and everything she had worked towards and ever wanted. She was blind to my previous actions, my current ones, and how | was acting now. She was so tied up in herself, she probably wouldn't even noticefalling off a cliff.

For the briefest of moments, | worried she might cotton on to how calm | was, and how | hadn't resisted, tried to fight back, or didn’t spit profanities, at least out loud. | was acting like a model prisoner, not someone who wanted to get away from her.

It was almost laughable, she believed that she was the one who had trapped me. That she could just drainof my magic and leavepowerless, an easy target. All of this was so far from the actual truth.

Standing here, being restrained by her minions is all onand my choices. | needed them to think they were winning this grand battle. | had given up my freedom in order to put myself in a position to take them all down.

The moment we stepped through the veils and wards that surrounded this place, | felt the shimmer of magic aroundand | realized it wasn’t just this place but the land that held power, it was almost supercharged. | didn’t have enough left to understand exactly what it was, but it was ssort of protection or concealment spell and that was also clear how her men moved in and out of the shields, just disappearing and reappearing elsewhere.

They pushed and shovedtoward the house. The house looked exactly how | remembered it, making my throat dry. My mother casually walked through the door as if she'd never left, and it madewonder if she ever did.

The magic crackled aroundas we went through the door, and the fake outside layer melted away, revealed to be the illusion | had suspected was there all along. It was nothing but a cover for what this place really was.

| was hot on my mother’s heels when | stepped through the door frand was transported, or maybe just exposed, to what was no longer my childhood home. She had broughtto her dirty little, or not so little from the look of this place, secret. It was a massive facility, and | fought to hide the spike of joy that flooded through me.

She'd just led my mates straight to her.