Mom’s lower lip trembles. “After Armageddon took Xavier, I never saw your father again. Three months later you were born.”
“Three months?” I wince. “That can’t be right.”
Mom inhales a shaky breath. “The Scala Heir develops faster than other children until age three. It’s the earliest they can transfer souls. I knew you were the Heir before you were born.” I imagine Mom in a post-war world, pregnant and alone. I let out a long sigh. At least she had Walker. I turn to him.
“Did you also know I was the Scala Heir?”
“Yes. Your mother told me.” He sets a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I’d sworn to your father to protect her and follow her orders in all things.”
I nod softly. Walker probably took some kind of sacred angelic oath. Those are unbreakable. I swing my attention back to Mom. “And that’s when you decided to hide me?” She must have been terrified that my true identity would be revealed. No end to the list of nasties that would want to control me. Or in Armageddon’s case, kill me.
“I tried to conceal you.” She smiles. “But from the time you were little, it was clear you had your father’s nature. Battle-ready. Fearless. Drawn to demon fighting like steel to a magnet. You were always sneaking into Arena matches, keeping notes on different types of demons and how best to kill them.” Her brown eyes brighten with pride. “Your father cast the last demons from Heaven, you know.”
I smile. “Yes, I learned that in a dreamscape.”
Crouching back on my heels, I try letting the truth soak in: my father’s an archangel. That’s a mind blower. I would’ve been thrilled to meet an archangel in my lifetime, let alone be related to one. And now I’m the only child that Xavier has fathered in all of eternity. Whoa. Mom starts to speak, interrupting my thoughts.
“I needed to keep you safe. From Armageddon. From the ghouls. From everyone. I knew what they’d do if they found you.” Her hands tremble beneath mine.
I give her fingers another gentle squeeze. “That’s not going to happen.” Fear rattles in my stomach. Honestly, that could totally happen. Focus, Myla. Remember what the igni said. You need answers and sitting around scared won’t get you any. I refocus on my task, my brain whirring through information. “Besides you and Walker, who else knows I’m the Heir?”
Mom lets out a long breath. “Verus. She saw it in a vision.”
I bite my thumbnail. “Everyone calls Verus the oracle angel.”
Walker shakes his head. “Her visions don’t always come to pass. Sometimes she fights against a particular future. In other cases, she works to ensure it happens.”
Rising to my feet, I plunk into the high-back leather chair across from the couch, my forehead knit in concentration. With all my energy, I sift through everything I’ve learned. “I don’t get it. The angels attend Arena matches. Why didn’t they have me awakened and angelbound before?”
“The awakening part is fairly easy.” Mom forces a smile. “You breathe in angelic stardust and it’s done. But you didn’t get near angels very often, except for Arena matches. And Walker guarded you there.”
My eyes grow wider with understanding. “So that’s why you had a coronary whenever I was called to serve. If I got too close to an Angel, one could toss stardust my way and activate my Scala powers.” I picture the white cloud at the Adair’s Scala initiation ceremony. The air tasted so sweet. That was the moment I awakened.
Walker steeples his fingers under his chin. “On the other hand, being angelbound is incredibly hard to do.”
Mom nods. “You can’t fake your way around it with magic or angelic influence. The Heir must feel genuine, intense love for someone with angel blood. Most often it’s a parent.” She shoots me a sad smile. “But you never met your father.”
I half-roll my eyes and let out a high-pitched ‘ooooh.’ “So that’s why you didn’t want me anywhere near angels, thrax, or the Scala.” It seemed completely insane at the time, but actually, she had a pretty good plan going there. Most likely, I’d never have gotten angelbound if I hadn’t met Lincoln.
Mom’s mouth forms a thin line. “Out of all the threats against us, angels were the worst. I lived in terror that you’d get angelbound.” She wags her head. “The way you hated thrax, I thought you’d be safe at that winter tournament. You loathed Prince Lincoln in particular. Then when you released demons at a royal dinner, I thought it was to antagonize him further.”
My mouth curls into a sneaky grin. “No, Lincoln was my partner in crime on that one.” Thinking about him gives me a nice jolt of positive energy. “So years go by, then the angels raise the question of the Scala Heir.”