Onuh_Margret

> Rejected by her family and abandoned by the man who defiled her, Xoxo begins a painful journey alone and pregnant. With nothing but a mystical amulet gifted by her dying grandmother, she steps into a new life that will test her strength, love, and fate. Years later, she finds herself married to a wealthy man—only to realize he is the same one who destroyed her past. When she gives birth to twin daughters, one is stolen under supernatural circumstances. Now a powerful woman with only half her heart, Xoxo must rise, reclaim her stolen child, and face the truth buried deep in blood and magic. A story of pain, power, and destiny

my return to you

Chapter 9: Blood Between the Stars

The wind in Paris changed that morning.

It moved like something alive — twisting between streets, hissing under doors, rattling rooftops. The moment Xoxo stepped outside, she knew: the Gate was no longer just calling.

Ziora and Zikora stood by the window, their hands clasped. They had both stopped talking. Their eyes glowed constantly now, gold and red swirling in tandem. The amulet around their fused wrists shimmered with a heartbeat.

"They're slipping," Xoxo whispered to herself.

The cult hadn't needed to come.

The power was unlocking from inside.

She raced to the embassy where the diary had last pinged via its enchanted seal. Jamal Atanda was waiting — frantic, pale.

"They've taken the girls' energy signature," he told her. "They don't need the bodies to complete the ceremony. Just the bond."

"The Gate opens fully. The twins will no longer be just children. They'll become... conduits."

"Of everything our ancestors feared."

Back at the penthouse, the girls were no longer speaking in their voices.

Ziora chanted in a tongue older than Latin, older than Igbo.

Zikora's voice echoed twice — once in her throat, once behind her eyes.

Then the floor beneath them cracked.

The walls flashed with symbols only the diary had shown.

Xoxo burst into the room, holding the one item she had never used — her grandmother's second amulet.

Then maybe she was the last seal.

"Girls!" she cried. "Come back to me!"

They turned to her slowly, in unison.

"I'm your mother," she said, stepping into the crackling energy field. "And I will bring you back."

The amulet in her hand burst into flame.

She screamed and slammed it against the fused amulet on their wrists.

A silence so loud it split the sky.

When she opened her eyes, they were no longer in the penthouse.

The Gate of Names stood before them.

A massive stone archway suspended in space. Etched with every symbol from the diary. Bleeding light.

"Who offers the blood of return?"

"Who carries the bond of flame?"

"And who carries the truth of the mirror?"

"Then choose: enter and forget... or seal and suffer."

If they entered, they would leave her.

If they sealed the Gate, they would return — but the cult would never stop hunting them.

Xoxo wept as she smiled. "Then we seal it… together."

And the Gate exploded in golden starlight.

A message burned into the floor where the Gate had once split the penthouse.

But you awakened the Flame.

Three days later, Zikora asked a question over breakfast.

"Mommy, what happens when a mirror breaks?"

Chapter nine