Chapter 17

For a moment, Jade’s thoughts drifted to Benjamin. Could he be the exception her father had hoped for? But she quickly shook the thought away, trying to focus on the story of her real father instead. “It was my birth mother, wasn’t it? A Hierophant changing his mind?”
Her mother nodded slowly. “I didn’t realize it at first, in the year that followed, your father went on more solo missions and returned with increasingly rebellious ideas—ideas about capturing demons and running tests on them instead of killing them. He wanted to study the old texts, to see if anyone had ever found a demon with a soul intact. He never found anything, but the elders were furious. He was their golden boy, and within a year, he became dirty in their eyes. I noticed he started receiving secret letters and making whispered phone calls when he thought the family was asleep. I confronted him, but he never gave me a straight answer. I never imagined he was secretly involved with a Hierophant. In our society, that’s the most unbreakable forbidden rule.”
Jade listened intently, her heart heavy as she tried to piece together the fragments of her parents’ tragic love story.
“For two years, this went on,” her mother continued, “but soon after his twenty-third birthday something changed. He received news that scared him enough to come clean to me. I was twenty-one, already living away from home, in love with your adoptive father. The Seraphina life felt so distant by then, like a different world.
“One day, I opened the door to find your father standing there, his face conflicted—caught between joy and the deepest sorrow. I knew something was wrong. ‘Dawn,’ he choked out before breaking down into sobs. I brought him inside, and that’s when he confessed that he had fallen in love with the most beautiful woman in the world—a woman with the purest red hair imaginable. At first, I was horrified. I didn’t know whether to comfort or scold him, but I knew I was all he had.
“He told me how they first met while she was in New York, trying to protect its citizens from the growing demon population. It was the site of his first solo mission, and they had been tracking the same horde. At first, they hated each other, but they soon realized they needed to work together to hunt down and weaken the horde. They started debating philosophies, questioning everything they had been taught since birth. When they finally hunted down the horde, your father killed while your mother weakened, but neither felt the same joy as before. From that first meeting, they never stopped talking. What started as secret run-ins in New York evolved into letters, then phone calls, until eventually, they stopped taking on real missions so they could meet in private. A month ago, they secretly married,” her mother revealed, her voice thick with emotion, “and he pulled a ring from a chain around his neck. Then he showed me a letter your mother had just written, confessing that she was pregnant with you.”
“And it was the worst news imaginable?” Jade guessed, clutching her hot cocoa as if it could offer comfort. She sank deeper into her seat, a preemptive tissue already in hand, ready for the tears she knew would come.
“No, your father was the happiest I had ever seen him,” her mother said softly. “But it was also the most difficult moment of his life. They knew there would be no turning back. A child meant a life on the run because you had to be kept secret. He confessed that they had planned to meet where they first met each other, then disappear and keep running if that was what it took to keep you safe. He was ready to turn his back on his people completely, all for you, the unborn child he already cherished more than anything in the world.”
“But the plan backfired?” Jade asked, her voice trembling with anticipation. Her mother nodded, a sorrowful expression crossing her face. “This seems like a story where everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong.”
“In many ways, it was,” her mother began, her voice heavy with the weight of the past. “Your father and mother did run away together, and you were born eight months after your father came to see me. I was the only one he told, and I begged him to come back, to let me see you. He said they had found a safe place, that he couldn’t reveal it, but they would take the risk and visit me. I was overjoyed. For one secret weekend, your father came, bringing your mother and you. You were the cutest baby I had ever seen—only two months old, with a full head of curly black and red hair. You always had a smile on your face, and to anyone watching, you would have looked like the perfect little family. In the few short hours I spent with your mother, I saw how caring and gentle she was. She was an amazing woman, and it was easy to understand how they had fallen in love. When they left, I assumed it would be years before I saw you again, in reality, it was only a few short days.”
“What happened?” Jade asked, bracing herself for the heartbreaking end to her parents’ story. She knew her mother was just about twenty-three when it happened, the same age Jade had always been told she was born.
“On their way back, they were discovered by Vindicators. They were captured and questioned, and you were almost put to death until your mother’s people came to argue for your life. In the middle of the night, your father tried to escape. He found your mother and you, but while they were running, they were ambushed by demons. Your father was killed, and so was your mother. But the demons had all shared a bit of blood, so none were completely immune to our powers. We arrived just in time to save you and hold the demons at bay, mere feet away. We rescued you and recovered your father’s body, but your mother’s was still on the other side of the barrier our powers had created. When we returned the next day, it was gone.”
“And I was given to you, my closest relative, so I could live outside that world and maybe have a chance at a normal life. The Hierophant agreed to guard me, and you and Father adopted me to save me.”
“And also, to love you, as I always have,” her mother added softly. “I used to pray at night that you hadn’t been gifted with any powers, but as you grew, I knew that wasn’t the case. You had eyes of fire and hair to match, and my prayers turned to hoping you would never find out what you were.”
“But I did.”
“You did,” her mother agreed, her voice tinged with sadness. Throughout their conversation, she had barely looked at Jade, too afraid to see the judgment in her daughter’s eyes. The subtle shift in their relationship hung in the air, a reminder that things had changed forever.
“What were their names?” Jade asked, needing something tangible to hold on to—a small piece of her parents to keep with her. Names were simple, yet they held so much meaning.
Her mother finally looked up, her eyes filled with sorrow and love. “Your father’s name was Mathew. And your mother… her name was Amber.”
“Mathew and Amber.”
Jade repeated the names in her mind, her voice a whisper of grief as she reached for another tissue to wipe her tear-streaked face. The story of her parents was sadder than she had ever imagined. She had secretly hoped that maybe they weren’t dead, that they were just locked away somewhere, waiting to be found. But hearing their story now, it felt as if they had just died—because she had only just found them.
She watched the fading sun sink beneath the tree line, the ruby wisps of cloud slowly dissolving into the dusk. Jade and her mother had been outside for a long time. The stories had been necessary, filling in the gaps of her past that she hadn’t even known existed. But they weren’t enough to make her forget the pain of everything else that had unraveled in the process.
“I have to ask,” Jade began, her voice tight with emotion, “why have you never told me? Even just knowing I was adopted, without all the details? I could have managed this whole new world of Seraphina so much easier if every other side of my life wasn’t shattering along with it.”
Jade’s mother slowly stood and took the three short steps to kneel before her daughter. She cupped Jade’s hands in her own, trying to bridge the distance that had grown between them.
“I just didn’t know how,” her mother admitted, her voice trembling. “I wanted to. Your father and I discuss it every year. At first, we excused it because you were too young, then because you were going through puberty, and we knew that was such a fragile time for building your identity. Then your sister came along, and we didn’t want you to resent her. And then you moved to New York, so far away from us.”
“And then I came home as an adult,” Jade said, pulling her hands away and placing them on the empty mug beside her. The motion felt final, a physical manifestation of the emotional wall she was trying to erect.
Her mother’s hands fell to her lap, and a tear slid down her cheek. “You’re still my baby. I didn’t know how to tell you without breaking the family apart.”
“I understand,” Jade said after a moment, her voice softening. “In a lot of ways, I do. But I’m just not ready to let it go. I need some time to adjust. Can we hit a pause on this conversation? I need a break—time to think.” She shifted in her chair, angling her body away from her mother. She needed to be alone to contemplate in peace, without the weight of her mother’s gaze on her.
Her mother understood, giving Jade the space she needed. “Of course,” she said softly, “but I want to give you one thing.” She reached into her pocket and placed a small envelope on the table beside the now-empty mugs of hot chocolate. “It’s a token I’ve had locked away for a long time. Remember I told you my brother was visiting with you? We took a single photograph that day, and I put it in a locket I always meant to give you when I told you the truth. Let me know if you need anything, but I’ll leave you alone for a while.”
Once her mother disappeared inside the house, Jade lifted the envelope, hearing the soft jingle of a chain against paper. She tipped it over, letting the necklace slide into her hand. The locket was a simple silver oval, unadorned and plain, but next to it on the chain hung a gold ring, large enough to fit a man’s finger. Jade turned the ring over, reading the cursive inscription on the band: “Love will prevail, your Amber.” It was his wedding ring, she realized. No, not just any ring—her father Mathew’s ring that tied him to his true love, her mother, Amber.
Jade clutched the ring to her chest, tears spilling down her cheeks, she gently opened the locket, which had fallen to the other end of the chain. Inside was the photograph her mother had mentioned.
Her father and mother stood with her between them. Three smiles and pairs of blue-speckled eyes looked out from the tiny image. Jade couldn’t believe she had no memories of those few months with her parents. Her father’s hair was a wild mop of black curls. His smile was wide and open, so much like hers—so wide it was hard to tell if he was laughing or just smiling. Her mother’s hair was a brilliant red, straight and shining like the setting sun. Her smile was more reserved, but her eyes, large and slightly too big for her face, were filled with joy and secrets. And there she was, a tiny baby sandwiched between them, laughing and looking up at her mother.
Jade stared at the photo, its tiny size belies its immense significance. It was more precious than anything she had ever owned. She moved over to the hammock and lay down, holding the locket open as she stared at the picture, trying to memorize every detail. This was her only connection to them, and she wished she could recover just one memory, but the early weeks of her life were too far gone.
The sound of a car rolling on gravel caught her attention, followed by Abby’s giggle and her father’s deep laugh. They were home. Both of them were removed from the Seraphina world, and for a moment, Jade wondered what her father thought had happened to her real parents. A car crash? A murder? He didn’t know the real story. Only her mother did—maybe her grandparents, too, those strangers who must exist somewhere in the world but who had never wanted anything to do with her.
The screen door creaked open.
“Angel?” Her father’s baritone voice broke through the quiet. “I spoke with your mother. I just wanted to see how you were. If there was anything I could do?”
Jade didn’t turn to face him. “I love you, and I always have,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.
“I know,” her father replied gently. He sighed, then turned to go back inside, leaving her in peace as her mother had likely instructed him to do.
Jade curled up tighter, closing the locket and gripping it to her chest, holding it as close to her heart as possible. The stars began to appear in the darkening sky, and Jade let her tears flow freely. She cried for the life she had been robbed of as a child, and for the one she had just lost all over again. She cried for her dead parents and for the ones who had raised her, now burdened with guilt over their lies. Mostly, she thought about what could have been and might still be. She wondered what training with Aiden would be like and what it might have been like with her real parents. Would they have told her stories of the Seraphina as bedtime tales, lulling her to sleep with histories and legends?
Somewhere amid her sorrow, she fell asleep, letting her dreams take over where her thoughts had left off. She barely noticed when her adoptive father gently picked her up and carried her inside to bed.