His pained expression killed me. It was at that point that I actually witnessed the true person that lay behind all that rude and insufferable façade.

My father.

I just couldn't believe that I was staring at the man who fathered me.

"Maera," he said over again, reaching out with his left hand to graze it against my cheek.

I wanted to say something, but the amount of emotion boiling up inside my chest made it difficult for me to speak. At that point, I had so many questions. So many feelings I wanted to express. From one point of view, I wanted to know where Cleo was, since Mik wasn't out to hurt me as I'd originally thought. But on another view, I just wanted to ask why I was abandoned or if he ever tried to look for me.

When I actually did manage to open my mouth to say something, Micaiah immediately let go of my hand stood up, his entire body tense.

With the contact no longer there, the agony subsided, but a new sensation came in; one that I hadn't noticed before. It was the feeling of being watched.

The shadows. They were now making themselves known.

And not only them, but their rotten master as well. Et Kar. He was also here. I could damn near feel it. Every bone in my body quaked, but I fought to keep still. If he was here then that meant he was going to act on his threat. The threat to make me one of his witch slaves, permanently.

I rose from my kneeling position and stood beside Mik, waiting and watching for them to show themselves. But something kept on nagging me; a tinge feeling at the back of my mind. Like my subconscious was trying to tell me something.

Lucifer groaned and upon instinct, I moved downwards to crouch beside him once more.

"I'm fine," he assured me as he carefully struggled to get on his feet. His voice sounded croaked and his balance staggered a bit, but he still managed to rise before I got the chance to even touch the ground with my knees.

"I thought wolf-men couldn't get hurt?"

He shrugged gently and cast a sideways glance at Mik. "I was just taking a nap."

I wasn't stupid. That look obviously meant something and there was more to the story, but I couldn't dwell on it. Not now. The presence that was behind those bushes was beginning to trouble me. Lucifer, however, took it upon himself to clear the suspicions and doubts in my mind.

"She's here," Lucifer said with conviction, and I could already guess who he meant. "They're all here."

"We already know that," Micaiah hissed, his eyes still affixed on the bushes before us, waiting for the moment they would finally come out.

Though before that could happen, Mik suddenly looked at me with an expression filled with regret. He lifted his hand with the intent of grazing his fingers along my cheek.

Lucifer growled softly behind me but I paid no heed. I had never felt the need to feel someone's fingers on my skin like the way I expected Mik's in that very instant.

I was anxious because I knew it wasn't going to be a sensual touch like Lucifer's, or a friendly one like Ellie's. This was going to be a father's touch, something I'd never experienced but had unknowingly craved for a long time.

Micaiah looked into my eyes and smiled wryly, "You look like you're expecting the world from this."

My heart twisted at those words, but I ignored it.

"Maybe I am," I responded, then added with my own sad smile, "even though I know that this isn't the time and the place."

At those words, he retracted his hand and looked back into the darkness before us. "No, it's not."

I nodded and turned my gaze away from him. Lucifer took that opportunity to move closer to my side. His proximity wasn't making anything easier either. The anxiety that bubbled quietly along with all my other unhappy emotions began to increase when he brushed against my arm.

But before I could say anything about it or even jerk away, something crawled out of the bushes: a flat black object in the shape of a human. It crawled out slowly. Each hand reaching out to grab the earth, as if it was using it as some sort of ladder to move across the ground.

Another shadow then appeared, flat on the ground, and mimicked the same movements. Others kept appearing one after another that soon enough we were entirely surrounded with prostrate human shadows.

But that was the least of my worries. Those dummies were the least of my worries. They didn't scare me in the slightest because I knew they were just an excuse to set the mood the way Et Kar had always liked it. Dramatic.

It was after the shadows had stopped barely a metre distance from our feet that Et Kar literally swirled out into sight. But he wasn't alone.

A woman, or rather a witch, stepped out beside him. She had long, floating black hair and her whole body was encased with shadows swirling and sliding across every inch of skin save her face.

What struck me was how alike we both were. I couldn't believe it. Her face looked almost identical to mine. Her black eyes, her skin, and even her hair. Almost the same.

I didn't want to say anything to her, especially since it didn't seem like she had noticed me yet, but the word slithered out before I could help it.

"Mom?"

As soon as it escaped, the Night Witch twisted her head to stare at me. But it wasn't a look filled with affection. No. It was one filled with hate.

The emotion caught me off guard, but I tried not to let it show too much even though it didn't make any sense to me. I wasn't surprised to not see any affection, but she didn't have any reason to hate me, and yet I could see the look in her eyes.

She cast a brief glance at Lucifer - who had just silently begun to change into a wolf - with accusation and a deadly intent shining in her eyes. It was probably because he'd failed to deliver me as was his previous mission. She probably had it in mind to make him pay for defying her. But that wouldn't be happening anytime soon.

"Don't bother to call her that," Mik said, moving to partly cover my frame from the witch's sight. As if to protect me from both my mother and Et Kar.

"It is true, she does not deserve it." Et Kar grinned, his white teeth looking more deadly than his eyes. "But she is not why we are here, is it?"

"I don't care why you came." Mik scowled. I couldn't see, but I was positive that his eyes were glowing like yellow fire in that very instant. "But now that you're here, I'm going to end you."

Et Kar's grin widened, not bothered by his threat. "Reina."

The Night Witch didn't take her black, haunting eyes away from me. "I know."

All of a sudden, it got harder to breathe. Even after she broke eye contact with me and levelled her gaze upon Micaiah's.

It was weird seeing both parents together and staring at each other for the first time. There was nothing sweet about this encounter, however. The only other thing that I felt off about was that the hatred in the Night Witch's eyes had a glimpse of an underlying passion that one had to be blind not to notice.

She continued to look into Mik's eyes, slowly closing the gap between them. Then before I realized, both of them disappeared into nothing, leaving me alone with a morphing werewolf and a demon god.

"Now, what I actually came here for," Et Kar focused his inhuman gaze on me. "To make you mine."

At that, Lucifer growled and took a threatening step forward. I gently brushed the back of my hand against his fur to calm him down. Et Kar wasn't going to ever have me, so I wasn't going to let him worry for anything.

"That's never going to happen." I maintained my brave front, using Lucifer as my stronghold. "I escaped you once I can do it again."

"I let you go," he corrected, slowly advancing, and slowly changing his form. "I didn't know how to handle you back then, love. You were new meat for me."

"You can't make me yours, Et Kar. I have nothing to do with you," I spoke firmly, knowing that he already knew what I was talking about. The reason why he hadn't been able to possess me yet. The reason why he had no control over me.

"Yes, you do. Like it or not I am a part of you." He proceeded to change, morphing gradually from a human-sized being into some sort of giant with longer and sharper nails and teeth. His body grew, along with his head, doubling his size in order to tower over me. To intimidate me more. And heck it was working.

Lucifer, however, wasn't deterred by the King of the Shadow Benders' size. He growled repeatedly and used his body to completely stand in between Et Kar and I, probably in case the bastard tried to touch me. That act certainly made me feel like I wasn't alone. That he would be there to fight with me even if we didn't stand a chance.

I probably should've felt gratitude, but deep down I knew that if Et Kar lost his patience with him, Lucifer would be dead before he would even have the honour to defend me. So due to that, I grabbed on to his fur and tried to subtly communicate with him before he did anything that would cost him his life.

"Why do you even want me?" I hoped the fear in my voice wouldn't be heard. His now huge size and his wandering eyes added more trepidation than I'd hoped. "I am not a Night Witch. My blood is impure and I have nothing to offer you. Just let me be."

"You have nothing to offer, yes. But you are...special," he circled Lucifer and I as he said this, "and I want to taste just how special. I want you to be mine, love. I want a piece of me in you. I want you to walk with more of my essence in you. I want the shadows to quiver when they see you, to feel a roaring part of me in you."

He stopped right in front of me and completely ignoring Lucifer, he stretched his neck to shorten the distance between our heads. I could feel his essence closing in on me, robbing me of breath, surrounding me and enabling my peripheral vision go blank.

All I could focus on was his empty, white eyeballs that were slowly sucking me in. I felt Lucifer's fur slowly slipping away from my grasp, as if something was pulling him away from me.

"I need you to give in to me, Maera," he whispered, his voice dissipating along with everything else. "Give in to me.

"Give in..." I started to say, as if I was being hypnotized without really realizing it.

It all just felt so real. Like I really did want to just give up once and for all. There was no way I would ever be normal, so why bother? It wasn't like I was a good person either. I had killed before, cheated and tortured people. There was nothing good about me. Absolutely nothing.

Even my subconscious didn't have the guts to say anything contrary, knowing it would just be a waste.

The bright white light that was sucking me in suddenly dimmed, and at that moment, I felt an inkling of self-will break free.

I wasn't a good person, no doubt. But that didn't mean I was also a bad person. The horrible things I did were always in self-defence. All the time. And if I had to fight to keep myself from turning into some bewitched slave to this monster, then I would keep fighting.

However, before I could get the chance, something happened. Something strange. My sight was still completely blocked with the white light, but I could certainly feel the shadows moving frantically around us, as if trying to warn of something.

Et Kar was the first to react, snapping me out of my daze, but by then it was too late.

The first thing I saw when my vision came to, was Cleo.

☆~☆~☆

This is basically the last chapter. The next would be the epilogue where hopefully all loose ends would be tied. This series is almost over. Thank God 😁

I'm not sure if I rushed the ending or not, so feel free to leave comments to let me know precisely.

Once again, thanks for reading! ❤

☆~☆~☆