Blood Legacy

The candles sputtered and danced as Santa Muerte appeared in the smoke. Her towering form of shifting darkness and bone caught my breath and tugged at my heartbeat.

"Kneel," the death goddess ordered Nicolas.

I pushed myself back against cold stone and watched my husband go down to his knees before the ancient altar. The air reeked of sage and copper.

"You bear their mark," Santa Muerte spoke, her words carrying through the room. "The Shadow Walkers live."

"What are you talking about?" Nicolas's voice didn't shake, but I saw his fists clench.

Santa Muerte leaned toward him, her bony fingers brushing against his chest. The same symbols cut into the walls around the chamber flared to life beneath his skin.

"Your blood remembers what your mind has forgotten," she said.

Nicolas stared at the glowing patterns. "This is impossible."

"Nothing is impossible for those who walk between worlds." Santa Muerte turned her hollow gaze to me. "You should know this better than most, Isabella."

I winced at my true name. Even now, months into inhabiting Valentina's body, hearing it sent shivers down my spine.

"Leave her out of this," Nicolas growled.

"She's already part of it." Santa Muerte's laughter rattled like dry bones. "The prophecy speaks of twins born to a Shadow Walker. Your daughters will either unite the families or destroy them all."

The chamber door burst open. Adrian stood there, clutching yellowed papers.

"I see you've learned the truth, brother." His smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "Did she tell you what the Shadow Walkers really were?"

Nicolas rose very slowly. "Enlighten me."

"They were hunters." Adrian tossed the ancient documents at Nicolas's feet. "They destroyed criminal families like ours. Your bloodline makes you our enemy by birth."

I saw Nicolas's reflection in the window start to move independently. Valentina's consciousness stirred, trying to warn us.

"You're lying," I said.

"Ask your father, Isabella." Adrian's eyes gleamed. "He's waiting in the courtyard."

My blood ran cold. I hadn't seen my father since before my death.

"Go," Nicolas said in a soft voice. "I'll take care of Adrian."

.

The courtyard was bathed in moonlight by the time I found him. Diego Romano stood precisely as I remembered-immaculately attired, oozing with patriarchal command.

"My beautiful daughter." His smile was razor-sharp. "Though I suppose I should say Valentina now."

"What do you want?

"To save your husband's life." He stepped closer. "The other families are moving against him. But I can protect Nicolas if you give me what I want."

My hands lit up with the same glyphs I'd seen on Nicolas. "And what's that?"

"The twins." His voice was ice. "They need to be bound in the old ritual. Their power is too dangerous otherwise."

"You want to sacrifice my children?" The symbols on my hands blazed brighter.

"I want to save this family." He reached for me. "All of our families."

I backed away. "You're not touching them."

"Then you condemn Nicolas to death." His eyes hardened. "Adrian has already convinced three families to move against him."

I ran.

The tunnel system underneath the compound was dark, a labyrinth of tenebrous corners and sunless corridors. My father's men were close behind as I ran through the dark. The twins' energy surged and bucked wildly, making the lights surge and flicker.

Ancient glyphs, identical to the markings on Nicolas, covered the walls. I reached out a trembling finger to trace them, feeling their power hum beneath my skin.

I closed the door to the ritual room behind me and barricaded it; then I wrapped up the twins, whose cries made the ceremonial candles flare with a supernatural blue.

"He's coming." Valentina's voice reverberated from every reflective surface. "Nicolas found the ritual book."

"Will it work?" I clutched the twins closer.

"It could save you all." Her image fractured across multiple mirrors. "Or destroy everything."

Gunfire exploded outside. Nicolas fought his way through my father's men to reach us. I saw glimpses of him through the shadows, smoke-like, the sigils on his skin branching with every use of his power.

The chamber door exploded inward. Nicolas was outlined in the doorway, his skin aglow with symbols that mirrored my own.

"We have to do it now," he said, striding to the altar. "Adrian's forces are right behind me."

The ritual started, and Nicolas sent the twins floating into the air, wreathed in tiny forms of supernatural light. At the same time, Valentina would show up in every reflective surface, stretched between the points of her existence.

The power in the room gathered like a storm: three bloodlines, that of Shadow Walker, of Valentina's, and my family's magic spiraling together in ways that had never been seen.

It finally broke with a shockwave that knocked us all off our feet. The twins floated down, gently, their perfect skin bearing new sigils.

Dawn light filtered through the high windows as the dust settled. Nicolas pulled me to my feet; our combined power hummed between us, a living thing.

Adrian and my father stood pale in the doorway, staring at what we'd become. Instead of weakening Nicolas's position, they'd helped create something that had never been-seamless fusion of bloodlines and power, of everything.

"What have you done?" Adrian whispered.

I smiled, feeling Valentina's consciousness finally settle into harmony with my own. "We chose our fate."

On a dime, our various sigils went off on all our skin into blazing agreement; a new dawn breaking on the families whether they were- ready or not.