I didn’t know why he had sought me out other than to see if Diabolus did have a child. I’d lain in bed thinking of reasons he had come here. I had tried to convince myself I should be scared of him. He’d been immune to my sorcery, and not even the Lord of evil had been able to do anything to him. Why was that? Did it have something to do with the holy blood in him? I had so many questions and I didn’t know if I’d ever have any answers. Diabolus wasn’t coming around to answer anything. Not now that Rathe was gone.

I stood outside my mother’s home looking up at it and my chest mourned the loss of a man I believed had been my father. I had believed in my goodness. I had thought I had it in me. None of it was there. My blood hadn’t been what had made me choose good over evil. How was it that the evil inside me was what had made me better?

The woman inside that house had given me life but lived in terror of me and I understood why now. I was the abomination. I should have never been born. She was right. I didn’t hate her for all she’d said to me anymore. She’d known all along who I was. What I was.

A small figure filled the attic window, drawing my gaze toward her. She was the only reason I was here. Annabelle stared back at me. I held up my hand to wave and she did the same. There was nothing left for her here on this earth. She’d died a child and stayed because of her mother’s grief. She’d not known to go on. She’d let the pain hold her here. I understood that now. Diabolus didn’t have to explain that to me. There were things that I just knew now. Since he’d told me who I was and who he was, I had started to have answers to things I hadn’t before. I just wish I had all the answers.

“Hoc est domum tuam. Hoc est tempus de hoc mundo ad mortem ire et liberum esse. Innocentes anima tua, accipe et vade. Soram, Annabelle. Ita summa petunt.”

That was another thing I just knew. It wasn’t always spells I cast. I was learning the difference daily. My sisters had always been taught spells, yet I could speak my own.