CHAPTER 21

CATRIONA

The room was quiet, but I wasn’t. Inside, I was shaking.

I stared at Jayden, who now slept like nothing happened—as if the spirits hadn’t just used his body like a damn vessel. I pressed my hand to my mouth to keep from crying out.

My chest ached. My mind raced.

They’d spoken.

And they were getting desperate.

I climbed out of bed slowly, careful not to wake him. My legs were shaky. My heartbeat a mess.

"Reach us," they’d said.

But how?

Was it really only through death?

I paced across the room, arms wrapped tightly around my body, staring at the floor like it held answers. My son was in danger. Jayden was a target. And I was caught in the middle of something bigger than I could explain.

And now they wanted me to choose?

Kill him?

I’d die first.

I looked at Jayden again. A soft breath left his lips. Peaceful. Blissfully unaware of what had just happened.

I needed answers. Real ones. I needed a plan.

Because this wasn’t just about haunting dreams or unexplained powers.

This was war.

And I had to win it for my son.

I sat there long after Jayden’s head slumped back against the pillow, his breath steady but his expression far too still. My heart thundered in my chest, but the only thing louder than that was the voice.

> "Child, find a way to reach us. He's going to destroy your family once again. Or else... kill him."

It wasn't just the words. It was the tone. The cadence. It wasn’t Jayden’s voice—but it was inside him. And it wasn’t the same kind of spirit vision I’d felt before. This was different. Urgent. Off.

I stood up slowly, backing toward the wall as I replayed the voice in my head. Again. And again. I shut my eyes and let the memory repeat itself like a broken record.

"He’s going to destroy your family… or else… kill him."

No name. No answer. No guide. Just a threat wrapped in prophecy.

Something was shifting in the veil between their realm and ours. The way the voice echoed through Jayden—it wasn’t just a visitation. It was a possession. A forced channel.

Which meant time was running out.

I paced the room quietly, barefoot, my fingertips brushing against the shelves and furniture like touch would anchor me. I needed to reach them. Not just dream of them. Not brush against them in my sleep.

I needed to enter their realm.

There had to be a way.

I sat there on the cold floor, legs folded beneath me, the silence of our room swallowing everything but the sound of my racing thoughts. My fingers raked through my hair again and again until my scalp ached. I couldn’t think straight anymore.

“Enough,” I muttered, standing. “You’re spiraling.”

I stepped into the bathroom, letting the water hit my skin like needles. Hot. Soothing. I let my head tilt back, eyes closed as the pressure of it all washed down the drain with the steam.

Just a few minutes.

Just to relax.

When I was done, I stepped out, towel wrapped tight around my chest. But as I crossed the tile, the world shifted beneath my feet. One misstep. Water. Slippery floor. My foot shot forward—air, then pain. The sharp edge of the sink corner clipped my ribs, but it was the back of my skull slamming into the tiles that ended everything.

Blackness.

---

Light.

But not the warm, natural light of dawn or the fluorescent white of bathroom bulbs.

This was... otherworldly. Blinding. Cold and pure.

I stood—barefoot, clothed in something I didn’t remember wearing. A linen-white gown that felt stitched from fog. Around me stretched an endless silver forest. Leaves shimmered like moonlight. The air buzzed with a low hum, like whispers moving through another layer of existence.

And then I saw him.

The tall old man standing ahead, surrounded by the shimmer of a reality not quite tethered to this one. I couldn’t make out his face—not clearly—but his form glowed. Radiant. Too bright to focus on directly. He looked like he was carved from the stars themselves, wrapped in robes so blindingly white I had to shield my eyes.

Still—I stepped forward.

“You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to reach you,” I breathed out, heart pounding. “Thank God I finally have.”

A flicker in my mind—blood on tile, the crack of my head, the world vanishing.

“Am I dead?” I asked, my voice echoing around us.

Or maybe not. Maybe I was just unconscious. Either way... I’d done it. I’d found them. The spirit guardians.

“I need answers,” I said, stepping closer. “What do you want with me? Why are you haunting my son? Why did you tell him Gabriel was his father when you know damn well he’s not?”

The tall figure tilted his head slightly. And then he began to shrink—not in power, but in form. His light faded, like a dimmer being turned down slowly, until he stood before me at eye level. Human in shape now. Still older than anyone I’d ever met. His beard was long and silver, streaked like smoke. His skin was deep like weathered stone, lined with the age of centuries. But his eyes... they were young. Unsettlingly young. Burning with knowing.

But then something shifted.

The air turned heavier.

His smile lingered too long. Too still.

"They can’t hear you anymore, child," he said, voice curling like black smoke in my ears. "I locked your precious guardians away. Sealed in a realm where they can’t help you, can’t whisper to you in your dreams, can’t protect you like they used to."

I froze.

My breath caught. The realization settled in slowly, crawling over my skin like ice.

He wasn’t one of them.

He wasn’t a guardian.

He was something else—something corrupted, and cruel. My stomach twisted as my instincts screamed at me.

I took a step back.

Or tried to.

An invisible wall slammed against my back, holding me in place. I pressed my palms to the air, but it didn’t budge.

He took a step closer, his eyes gleaming now with amusement.

"Where do you think you're going?" he purred. "Don’t you want to know the truth? About how you were born? Don’t you want to know what this is really all about?"

I clenched my fists. "You’ve been the one manipulating my son. You’re the reason for all of this."

He smiled wider, but there was no warmth in it. Only teeth.

"I’m the reason you exist. And now, it’s time you finally learn why."