Chapter 44 #2
I struggled up to standing, stumbling toward him, raising my hands in the air. I waited three beats before gently pushing my palms in his direction. Fire after fire after fire followed him, knocking Zahhak over.
His force field around us must have stopped working, because I could now hear noises from outside, though my ring of fire held strong.
“Roxana!” Azar shouted, and then, quietly, “Her eyes are red.”
“She’s more powerful than you think,” Keyon said.
I heard Zain grunting in pain, and this encouraged me to take further steps toward Zahhak. He dusted himself off before standing up, smirking.
“Your powers aren’t enough to stop me,” he said. “Feeble, just like your angel. And, of course, your mother, who degraded herself by wedding a pathetic human.”
His words broke something within me. My poor mother, who had wanted to shield me from all this, who had run away from this beast, who had tried to live a normal life with my dad.
Who had been killed and who I missed so much it physically hurt.
I had to end this cycle for her, if not for all my past selves who hummed beneath my skin.
I mustered up all my power, clenching my body until the fire within me burned hotter.
His next words, however, fanned the flames. “You and that angel are destined for misery. You will never be happy together. You, Roxana, will never be happy. In your next lifetime, maybe you’ll accept that.”
No, no, no, no, no, the voices within me screamed.
And my own voice was loudest, desperate to prove him wrong.
Letting out a shriek, I raised my hands and threw another fireball at him, all the fire within me expelled with the flick of my wrist. As the fireball slammed toward him, the impact sent him flying.
Even from a distance, I heard the snakes continue their complaining, hissing their unhappiness, their demands in his ear. They had the ability to drive him to insanity. That was his curse for making that deal with Shaitan and killing his own father. To defeat him, I needed their help.
As Zahhak got back up, I raised my hands and created small fireballs, five on each hand. As they spun, I released them. Not at Zahhak, but at the snakes atop his neck. They whizzed through the air, fast and hard, but I stilled them just before they made contact with the serpents.
I edged my flames ever closer, burning them a little. They hissed in unison.
Zahhak’s laugh was short, empty. “You cannot kill them. Trust me, I have tried.” He swiped a hand, and I was thrown backward, my head slamming against the ground in the process.
Head throbbing, I forced myself to sit up. I spat out blood. Zahhak was saying something, but I could barely hear him. The shadow of a past self—Anahita—was trying to speak to me. I felt her reaching for my brain, caressing. She was the serpent speaker, the most reclusive of all my past selves.
Zahhak walked toward me. My fireballs were still hovering beside the snakes, moving with him.
I had no time to marvel at how I had managed to hold them there and began to hiss, speaking a language I didn’t know existed.
What will it take for you to turn on him? I asked the snakes atop his neck.
He is our master, the one on the right said.
But we despise him, the other said. Living with him is torment for us. We were not meant to endure him for this long.
You were ordered to torture him, I told them, Rabiya’s knowledge taking over. You were Shaitan’s punishment, but you have gotten complacent. You must turn on him and fulfill your duty.
No, the serpent on the right said, while the one on the left let out what could only be described as a sigh.
He’s no longer immortal. If you help me kill him, you can be free, I told them.
Distantly, I heard Zain screaming my name. Zahhak’s eyes were assessing. He could toss me with one look; I didn’t have much time.
If you won’t listen…I said to them before singeing them with my flames.
They hissed. It was endless, their sounds a melody over the crackling fire that surrounded us.
Time stilled as their cries cut through the field, forcing Zahhak to his knees.
Their cries were his own personal torment, as was originally intended.
He struggled to stand, hands held over his ears.
I kept the flames over their bodies, torturing them.
I pulled back, marginally.
The snakes began discussions among themselves.
He is deplorable, the one on the left said. Every day, we are unhappy, stuck on the neck of that decrepit fool.
It is true, the other said. We could return to hell. But if it doesn’t work?
Then we will just continue to make his life miserable.
Worth a try, I said.
The snakes crossed each other around Zahhak’s neck, pausing to look at each other before wrapping around again.
“No,” Zahhak choked, removing his hands from his ears and getting up. “What are you saying to them? Stop!”
Don’t you want to be free? I asked just before Zahhak used his powers to send a punch to my gut. I had been bowled over, winded.
When I looked up, I saw that the serpents had tightened their grip on his neck. Squeezed.
Zahhak choked, disbelief plain on his face at their betrayal.
I stood on shaky legs. “You’re wrong,” I said, fire running through my veins. “I will be happy. We will be. And that starts with ending you.”
I channeled three hundred years of rage and betrayal and hope from deep within my core, then produced a fireball that grew and grew until it was half the size of me.
The heat and effort of it made my eyes water.
Blinking through tears, I pelted the fireball at Zahhak, using all the force I had left, feral screams escaping my lips.
Zahhak’s body was set alight, his garbled cries short and sweet.
Finally, we are free, one of the snakes sung.
Then he was silent.
The Jinn King was dead.