Empire of Eternals (Book 1 of The Eternal Series) ✔️

Chapter 37 | Red Sea

Milan Cathedral, Italy

***Paige Johnson POV***

If 3 months ago you had told me that Hermione and I would be travelling to Milan to stop the resurrection of Kristopher, I wouldn't have been surprised. Our lives had been severely messed up since we supernaturals were born.

We barely had time to breathe before we were thrown from one fight to another, the scenes of it scarred into my memory as nothing frightened me anymore. It almost felt as if we were forced to grow up before our time, not given the chance to explore the freedom and excitement of our youth.

Hopefully, after this ended, I could explore that inner child within me. At such a young age, as I liked to call it - despite severals protest - I murdered my parents with my magic. That was the memory that had been scarred into my mind, and nobody could comfort me and tell me it was a mistake.

Then there was the time when Adriana abruptly went missing, only for me to find out she was hiding from a classmate of mine. And not just months later, the scene unfolded in front of my eyes as Aiden strangled her to her near demise.

After that, there were only 2 months of peace between Dexter and me before we were thrown into another bloody phase of our lives which was going to haunt my dreams. Believe me, I didn't complain about the thrill of joining the supernaturals after distancing myself from them for 6 years.

It was, however, a little terrifying learning about their history, especially Adriana's and how she came to be. I never expected her to be related to Kristopher, well, at least not in the way I expected her to be. They only shared the gene of the hybrid, but they were well distant from being family.

When I first heard about Kristopher - and as horrible of a person I sound - I immediately concluded that Adriana was going to end up like him. They were both hybrids, the rare species to exist within our world, and it would be surprising if she didn't.

The line that drew the differences between them was the gap between their 2 existences. Kristopher lived in an age of just witches, and the rise of a rare species terrified them. Now, Adriana was one of the few lucky hybrids to exist where she could get the help she needed to control her dual sides. That's what made them so different.

Kristopher was a boastful, arrogant, cruel man. He was so far gone, fallen off the wagon so many times, that his creations had to put him down. Adriana was probably one of the few kind people I had meant. Though, our relationship had strained after the news between her brother and me.

I had attempted to keep my distance from her, but it seemed like fate had different plans. Adriana and I were like life and death. Without death, or Adriana, there was no meaning to life, or me. Death gives life a unique meaning that cannot be forgotten. That is what we were.

And to pay off that meaning that Adriana had given me, I was in Milan, miles away from Dexter and the others, about to practice a spell written by me, so I could find the blood-stone's location.

"Hermione, you going to get out of the car anytime soon?" I asked from the trunk of the car, her view vanishing as I placed a backpack on the package tray

"Just give me 5 minutes." She replied, her voice low and slurring

I knew this was a solid lie. No person could ever ask for another minute and wake up after the time has passed. But, I didn't want to push Hermione. After what she had told me about her nightmares, the spell that I cast over her had worked, or at least I thought so.

In the rearview mirror, the streetlights casting a dim shade across her porcelain face, I saw her lightly tinted pink lips turned into a barely noticeable smile, her eyes still closed as she stretched forward, her view vanishing once again as I stuck my head into the trunk.