Descendants Academy: Young Adult Urban Fantasy, Belle Malory [motivational novels for students .txt] 📗

Riley’s mother. Petra as my mother didn’t. Good grief, I needed something to make some goddamned sense.

“Sheridan.” Petra’s voice sharpened.

I ignored her, continuing to pace. There wasn’t enough air in this room. I couldn’t breathe. I held my hands to my throat, on the verge of hyperventilating.

“Sheridan, get a grip!” Petra banged her fist against the table so hard, it shook the entire room.

I stopped in my tracks to look at her. As much as I didn’t want this woman to be my mother, I could feel the truth of it. “My bibliomagery,” I said, searching for any way out of this. “I thought it came from my mother.”

Petra crooked a brow, looking impressed. “You’re a bibliomagus?”

I nodded. “Athena descendants—”

“My blood is half Athenian, sweet girl.”

Oh God. I’d already forgotten about that. My legs shook, and I leaned against the wall for support. “And if I’d been who you thought I was…”

“If you were Riley, I would have killed you on the spot,” she finished for me. “Then the curse would be broken, and you’d be free to live your life without fear.”

There was no shame or hesitation in her answer. Riley was my sister, my own flesh and blood, but Petra didn’t care. She would have killed her anyway.

“All this time, I worried about being the villain,” I said, more to myself than to her. “Instead, I should have just embraced it.”

Petra rolled her eyes, and I didn’t blame her. I was headed into nonsensical rambling.

Slowly, I slid down the wall, crouching into my knees. This was not, in a million years, how I ever would have imagined meeting my mother.

A knock sounded at the door. Petra left to answer it, straightening to her full height. I dimly heard her and a guard speaking softly about an intruder at the gate. “You’re sure it’s him?”

The guard nodded.

“Bring him here.”

“Right away, Mistress.”

Once the guard was gone, Petra looked at me and shook her head. “You’ve managed to surprise me, which doesn’t happen often these days.”

I surprised her—ha! Well, she sure shocked the hell out of me, so I guess we were even. “How exactly did I do that?”

She crossed the room to stand before me, smoothing her braid. “Alexander Arius is here, someone I never expected to see again.”

I held my breath, my heart beating about a million times per second.

Xander came to the Underworld?

I couldn’t believe he would risk coming back here, to a place he both hated and feared.

Petra glanced down at her nails. “I believe he is attempting to rescue you.” She said it with all the indifference in the world. “He took out half my guard before they finally captured him. Had he simply asked, he would have discovered you’re free to go as you please.”

“I am?”

She gave me a weak half smile. “Of course.”

“But…why?” I probably shouldn’t question this, but I couldn’t help it.

“I might be imprisoned in this godforsaken hellhole.” Her eyes flashed with bitterness as she gestured to our surroundings. “But I would never wish the same for you. After all, you’re my daughter.”

God, that word. Daughter. It literally made me cringe.

“Xander said you tortured him,” I said, my voice full of disgust. “Is it true?”

“Yes, I did,” she said, again surprising me with her brutal honesty. “It was part of my job at the Hollowed Castle. There, you either do what you’re told, or you die.”

“Your job was to torture people?”

“Not always, but I have a talent that the Hollows find useful.”

“What kind of talent?” I wanted to know exactly what she put Xander through during his captivity.

“I can make people see things.”

Almost as soon as she said it, our surroundings slipped away. I was transported into a dark bedroom. In the corner, a baby-faced version of Petra sat in a rocking chair, in her night robe, gazing down at a baby in her arms. My throat swelled—that was me in her arms. She smiled, looking more in love than I’d ever seen anyone.

Just as quickly as it had appeared, the scene vanished. Petra stared blankly at the floor, frowning. “That particular vision came from memory.”

My eyes and nose stung, and I blinked away tears.

“You meant everything to me. When they took you…” She shook her head, sighing. “It hurt more than when Daniel left, and I stupidly believed that was the worse pain I knew.”

I pressed my lips together, refusing to feel sorry for her. She might be my mother, but that didn’t make her any less of a psychopath.

Several minutes later, Ajax arrived with the coffee. Two Strongarms followed him in with Xander, each holding him beneath his arms. Once inside, they dumped him on the floor. I sucked in a breath at the sight of him. His dark hair was mussed, he had a split lip, and he looked pretty beat up. The fight wasn’t out of him though; I could see it raging like a storm in his eyes. As soon as they dropped him, he picked himself up, ready to take them all on again.

He saw me and stopped. “Sheridan?”

I raced into his arms, and he held me, trembling against him. “You shouldn’t have come.”

He snorted. “A million armies wouldn’t have stopped me.”

Behind him, Petra sniffed. “Oh, sweet girl. Don’t tell me you’re headed down my same path. If you’re smart, you will have learned something from my story.”

Xander stiffened at the sound of her voice. “Petra,” he said, curling his lip.

“Good to see you again, Xander.”

“Can’t say the same.”

Petra shrugged. “You may not believe it, but I am happy to see you alive and well. I hated the way your dad tried to break your spirit at Hollowed Castle.”

“You tried to break me,” he corrected her. “Maybe they were his orders, but you carried them out.”

She shrugged. “If it helps, I always went much easier on you than what he demanded.”

“It doesn’t,” he said, rage brimming from each word. He took a long, deep breath. “But if you release Sheridan, I’ll turn myself in. I’ll go