Revealing the Monster by Amelia Hutchins
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Rebirth wasn’t something I wished to endure, but neither was dying. I’d fought too hard to live, and I sought the life for which I fought. I wanted Lucian above anything else. I needed my monster, and I wanted to be his, the monster he adored and loved above all else. ~Lena
The sound of people talking nearby woke me. I blinked, staring up at the cathedral ceiling above me. Every ache and pain made itself known immediately. I trembled uncontrollably while something blocked my vision of the colorful roof. I opened and closed my eyes as my stomach rumbled, and everything seemed to grow to an unbearable level.
“Stop screaming!” I shouted, listening as my voice echoed around me.
“She lives,” Lucian murmured. “Welcome back, gorgeous.”
“I had the strangest dream,” I muttered, grunting as my belly growled once more.
I blinked slowly. I hadn’t felt my stomach rumble since I’d died. My hand moved to my tender abdomen, and I winced. My mouth was dry and tasted like I’d swallowed one of my mother’s concoctions that never seemed to cure ailments, but always added a few more to the complaint list.
“How do you feel, Lena?” Lucian asked while pushing hair away from my face.
I tried to get up, but he prevented it with his hand against my chest.
“Careful, it is going to take a little while to remember how to move correctly,” he said cryptically. I stared at him, narrowing my eyes while I replayed his words.
“Did I die again?” I questioned skeptically.
“Not entirely.”
I groaned, closing my eyes, then opened them to look up at him. “It wasn’t a dream, was it?”
“Nah, Kitty,” Spyder laughed from where he stood beside me.
“Why am I sore? I feel. I feel everything.”
“Because you’re yourself again, Magdalena,” my mother whispered.
I sat up, grateful that Lucian caught me before I could topple off the altar where he’d placed me. My lips quivered as tears flooded my eyes.
“Momma?” I sobbed, covering my mouth with my hand as emotions slammed into me. “Grandma?” I all but screamed, staring at them both.
“Easy, Lena,” Lucian warned. “You’re basically human again. Your body needs time to adjust to the change.”
“How is this even possible? You died! I burned your bodies on funeral pyres!”
“You set fire to our corpses, but Lucian claimed our souls. Here, in his world, we’re real. It was the only way he could save us from what we’d done to ensure our bloodline would survive. When you died, Lena, we used the sand to see which one of us would live. The answer was you, and you needed to be yourself again to continue the line. Lucian knew what we’d done, and he made us an offer. He allowed us to choose who would go on without being born into a cursed loop,” my grandmother explained. “He offered us a chance to live inside his world and to be able to watch our line go on through you.”
“Kendra?” I asked, watching their smiles drop.
“She wasn’t capable of accepting the offer because of Makenna. She couldn’t die before her daughter was born. We were created to protect our children, even if it meant shielding them from ourselves. Kendra made a deal with Lucian without us knowing. She allowed him to shield her womb so that he could place it back into you when the time was right. You’re whole again, Lena. You’re a witch, one that will never die or be cursed by any being.”
I slipped from the altar with Lucian’s help, moving closer to them as my mother held out her arms. I reached out, touching her as a sob broke free. She was solid and whole. She wrapped around me, hugging me closely before she placed a soft kiss against my brow.
“My sweet girl,” she whispered thickly. “I am so sorry that we had to make you think we didn’t want you. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, pretending to be afraid of you so that no one suspected what we’d done.”
I inhaled her familiar scent, wrapping my arms around her to hug her tightly. “It’s okay.”
“I had to do it to make the demon believe Lucian would suffer because of our plans. Lucian told me how you could be saved, but that he’d need an entire coven to help him. I wanted to be here with you. Now we will always be together, Daughter. Once Kendra is reborn, we will bring her here, too.”
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head as I pulled back to gaze at her. “She will be born mortal. She will live again without us or any immortals interfering with her life. She wished to be human when we were children. She didn’t want to be awakened into her powers. She only did that for you. We will watch over her, but we won’t interfere until she is old enough to make a choice and decide her fate.”
“But she may not choose us,” my grandmother pointed out softly.
“That’s her decision.” I paused as the sound of crying tore through the room.
I stood motionless, listening for the cry. My feet moved on their own, and slowly, I turned to where I’d heard it coming. I heard it again, and my heart hammered, thumping wildly as I stared up a familiar set of stairs.
“It sounds like someone is awake,” Lucian murmured against my ear.
Tears filled my eyes, swimming in them while I listened for the noise again. A soft cry that almost sounded like a whimper echoed through the room. I took another step toward the staircase, noting that both Spyder and Lucian moved beside me, ready to catch me if I fell.
I whispered the spell to displace air and space, appearing at the top of the stairs. Turning, I peered down at the shocked faces. Obviously, they’d forgotten that I had the grimoires of the dead witches within me. I hadn’t. I vanished again, arriving inside a white bedroom with a large four-poster bed and shimmering curtains of silver draped over the iron rods over the bed.
A woman’s voice filled the room. “Can I help you? Unfortunately, this area is off-limits…”
I turned, staring at the woman before my eyes lowered to what sat behind her. My breath caught in my lungs, and I slowly, clumsily walked toward the rune-covered, clear box. Tears dropped from my cheeks unchecked as a sob broke free from my lungs. My knees threatened to give out as I touched it, watching as the cover vanished.
Inside the small incubator was Harbinger, his midnight eyes watching me as I fell apart. My entire body shook with the unchecked emotion rushing through me. My legs were wobbly, but strong arms wrapped around my middle, holding me up.
“Oh, God,” I said on a breath through the tightness of my throat, turning to peer up at Lucian, who smiled down at me.
“Not quite, but he’s gotten me the closest to feeling like there’s something heavenly within this world, Lena. Meet our son. He’s been waiting for you,” he whispered, kissing the back of my head.
“It isn’t him, right? Just his soul?” I murmured, uncaring that I was a mess. I had tears blinding me, and my nose was threatening to run along with them down my face.
“It’s him, Magdalena. I wasn’t about to let them take what we’d created together.”
I reached my trembling hands down, running my fingers over his baby soft skin. My mouth opened, and a sob ripped from me as I scooped him up.
Our son made a cooing noise, and I spoke softly, sweetly to him, unable to make coherent words as I lifted Harbinger into my arms.
Lucian helped me to a chair, where I sat, staring at the child I’d lost to protect as well as the world and the man I loved.
My eyes rose, holding Lucian’s gaze with wonder. “He’s real,” I whispered, afraid if I spoke too loudly, he’d vanish. “Our baby.”
“Our son,” Lucian confirmed. “Our son who is in need of an actual name.”
“He’s pretty perfect, Kitty,” Spyder stated from the doorway. “He must get that from you because we know he didn’t get it from his dad.”
“You both knew and didn’t think to tell me?” I asked, realizing that they’d kept this from me, too.
“I couldn’t chance Lucifer learning about him through your mind. I tried to tell you there was more in jeopardy than I could explain. If I had told you everything I’d planned, shit would have been put into place to prevent it from happening. I wanted you to have a life of your choosing, Lena. I didn’t want you to be locked into one you settled for because it was the only option you had at the time. I wanted you to be yourself again and choose your path.”
“You were planning to change me back this entire time?”
I peered down as Harbinger stretched out, cooing while he watched me with interest. He knew who I was without me saying it. I looked at the ceiling, and the pictures changed, projecting images of Lucian and me throughout the time we’d known each other. It was as if he’d opened a window into my soul, showing our son every perfect image that I’d never even realized we’d made until now.
“Of course, I did,” he stated, watching me adjust the babe in my arms. “You were born a witch, and you chose to come back for the Awakening. You wanted to be one, and family was important to you. I wanted you to be yourself. The same woman who walked in and knocked me on my ass the first time I met you. To me, you were perfect, just as you were created to be. You didn’t choose to become soulless; that decision was made for you because you weren’t ready to give up living. You allowed your soul to leave, which hindered the plans I’d made to ensure you could never be killed.” Lucian moved closer, kneeling beside me to touch Harbinger.
“The moment you told me you loved me, you began to die, Lena. Katarina had cursed me to murder anyone that I ever fell in love with again. I acted badly, I admit. But then you died before I could protect you from that curse. I explained to Kendra what would happen when she had Makenna. She would allow us to end the pregnancy to save her life, or we would start working to save you from what you’d done. I wasn’t accepting that you were gone, so we went through the motions because it was all we could do. I worked on this plan that would have been perfect, except you allowed Nyx and Hades to put the furies into your corpse.”
“Because I didn’t know what else could be done to stop death from occurring,” I stated, watching as his lips curled into a smile.
“You didn’t trust me, and I don’t blame you. You were trying to protect me while I was protecting you. I should have known you were selfless and pure and that you would stop at nothing to keep those you loved from harm. You surprised me, but you also taught me a few things too. Now, there’s an entire room of people below waiting to make sure you’re okay. Name our son, because when we present him below, I prefer to give them his actual name. Not the one his mother screamed in rage as she broke apart, fulfilling her end of a promise.”
“Benjamin,” I said without hesitation. “Benjamin Harbinger Blackstone,” I murmured, kissing his dark curls. “Did he get anything from me? He looks like you, which I’m not complaining about, but he could have at least looked a little like me.”
“He has your attitude when he’s hungry,” he offered, watching as my mouth opened. “And I’d like to think he’s as pure and perfect as you.”
“I’m not putting him down,” I whispered.
“You have to put him down so we can get you showered.”
“I’m not letting him out of my sight,” I argued.
“Lena, you are. Because I really need to kiss his mother and hold her for a moment. I watched you get stabbed—again.”
“Because you freed a freaking prince of Hell, which wasn’t very nice,” I grumbled, hiking an eyebrow at him.
“Don’t give me that look. Only Asmodeus could unlock the furies from inside a body. Killing the host and removing every trace of its soul was the only other way. I did what I did, and I’m not fucking sorry.”
“Not even a little?” I asked, watching his lips tip up at the corners.
“No, because you’re here, and you’re holding our son, Magdalena Blackstone,” he whispered thickly, leaning forward to kiss Benjamin while I looked at them. “I wouldn’t change a single thing that happened. It all brought us here, together in the end.”
“I love you even if you’re the most stubborn, pig-headed male in the entire universe.”
“Remember that, woman. Now hand me our son. He’s still growing and requires rest.”
I peered down at Benjamin, smiling as he looked up at me. “I told you I’d find you and bring you back. Your daddy is pretty amazing, but don’t tell him I said that. He’s already got a head big enough that he needs his own realm to house it.” I kissed my son’s forehead, gently handing him to Lucian. Silently, I watched as he stood with Benjamin, carrying him to the incubator, where he cried loudly and appeared back in my arms.
Chuckling, I glanced at his father, who tilted his head, hiking one eyebrow to his hairline. Lucian turned toward us, crossing his arms, watching me rock the chair with our son snuggled close.
“I’ll tell the others that you are cleaning up,” Spyder muttered from the doorway, observing us together. “He may look like his father, Kitty, but that boy has claws like his momma. I’ll see you guys in a little while. I’m sure no one will complain too loudly when I pull out the good stuff to drink and celebrate our victory.” He winked, vanishing from the room as Lucian walked to the bed, sitting in front of us.
“Now, this is a home I want to come back to.”
