Chapter Twenty-Three
W hen I arrive back in my room at Cordelia’s, my legs are so weak that I find myself sitting on the floor.
My tail and wings make the position rather uncomfortable, and I know that I need to pull them back to me. I’m just not quite sure how to do it. So I try focusing on the sensation that I felt when I was learning to hold on to my pheromones.
I track the feelings and movements of my body when I’m breathing. The tightening feeling when I inhale, as if every muscle were trying to pull closer to my core. A warm sensation flits through my body, and I know without checking that I have managed to do it. It just felt right.
Fuck yeah! I actually did it!
I smile at the pride that fills me with that notion, but the pull of my lips sends sparks dancing across the surface of the sensitive skin there. My fingers instantly begin to trace across them, as the moment replays in my head.
What the fuck was that ?
Why the hell did Blake kiss me? And why do I desperately want him to do it again?
The emotions that filled me with that simple meeting of lips was just too much at once. His chaste kiss was like tiny electric bolts across the sensitive skin, and there was this nearly unbearable pull from inside of me. It felt as though something was trying to break free, and whatever it was, it needed him .
For the first time, Blake was staring at me as if I were something he longed for. But that was crazy… right?
Blake and I are just friends, nothing more. In fact, on most occasions, I am fighting every nerve in my body to keep from punching him in the nose again.
After successfully working myself into being fully irritated, I stand up and start pacing the room aggressively.
I never asked him to kiss me.
How dare he? I should have punched him. He was just trying to get me riled up. Yeah, that’s right. He was even pushing me around during our “training” and pushed me right into the mud.
Asshole.
Catching a glimpse of myself in the room’s mirror, I stop and stare. I don’t look like I was just training. I look like he tied me to the back of his bike and drug me through every puddle in existence. All that torture disguised as a training exercise, just to see if I had some weird ability. It was insane!
The memory of the darkening sky comes back to me.
Oh shit.
He was right?
I created a fake solar eclipse and brought darkness to the light. Does that mean there is darkness inside of… me ?
No. I shake my head at the thought. That can’t be true. Mother would have told me. At least I hope so. But what if my father’s genetics have left a blight on my soul?
People aren’t just inherently bad, right?
Blake seemed to think it was a Noctifer Witch ability, and I trust his judgment.
Maybe Cordelia would have some more insight? I make my way out of the room and head to the door. I will just go to her now and chat about it. I stop for a moment and consider taking a shower first, but I abandon the thought when I realize how early in the day it is yet and what that means for my training schedule. Maybe I can convince Codrelia to make some of that tea that tastes like peach cobbler, while we wait for Blake and chat. By the time he makes the trip back to the village, he will have realized how much of a dick he is and come apologize properly.
With words instead of stupid soft, delicious lips.
I grasp the door handle to head outside when a large BOOM shakes the walls of the house. Without hesitation, I call on my sword. It’s in my hands in an instant—one of the many quirks we discovered with my transport ability—and wrench the door open.
The wind is kicking dust everywhere and visibility is low. I shield my eyes with my free arm and head outside. I can hear people yelling to my left and when I look in that direction, I can see the glow of flames.
A brief moment of fear rips through me.
We waited too long for the hunt, and now we are the prey.
The Creatori has found us.
That final thought sends a resolve straight through to my gut. This just makes our job easier. All I have to do is find the beast before any villagers come to harm. I head towards the healer commorancy to check on Cordelia. Last I knew, she didn’t have any patients, so there was no need to evacuate the building. I just want to get her to safety first. In the brief time I have spent here, I have grown so incredibly fond of her. My grandmother was not around when I was growing up, and Cordelia feels like the closest thing I can have to that kind of connection.
I reach the door to the building and am about to turn the handle when I hear shouting coming from down by the water. I take a deep breath and release the handle.
Cordelia is a strong woman, and I have to believe that she can take care of herself. But if her people are hurt, or trapped, or worse… I have to help them. I turn quickly toward the sounds and am running as fast as my feet will propel me. I can’t use my transport magick when the visibility here is so low. I don’t know what situation I would be popping into. Besides, I may find someone along the way who needs help.
I don’t pass anyone, but the sounds in front of me are growing louder with each step. When a small ball of water hits a tree next to me, I slow down. I’m just about to call out to them and let them know that I’m here to help–and not to toss anything else at me–when I begin to make out the silhouettes in front of me.
There are four of them as far as I can tell, and they move in perfect tandem. They are dressed in some sort of dark robes that cover their entire bodies, obscuring their faces, and are slowly making their way towards the shoreline, where the top of the water is in flames. Between the black-robed enemies and the fiery waters, are the vast majority of the people I have seen around the village. And standing at the front of their line is Cordelia. I can’t hear what they are saying to the merfolk, but Cordelia is yelling back at them. It’s almost as if…
Ice shoots through my veins. It’s not the Creatori that’s come. It’s the fiends that helped it escape from its most recent prison. The ones who burnt down my forest and killed Ori. That thought sends anger straight through my body. I still can’t hear the being speak, and I imagine he is using the same violating head speech as before. I do hear Cordelia’s answer this time. Loud and clear.
“I told you. There are no princesses here.” She locks her gaze with mine, meaning the message to me as a warning, and to him as a command. “You need to go now,” she says before turning her attention back to the figures. “Go before I make you all pay for harming my village and my people.”
I know that she is trying to tell me to run, but how can I possibly be so selfish as to just leave her behind? To let her people face my battle for me?
The hairs on my arms stand on end and I feel the magick pulse from the beings. As one, they begin to conjure flames in their hands. I can’t let them hurt these people.
My wings burst from my back and I’m airborne without a second thought. I land beside Cordelia and throw up an air shield. Some of the people behind me let out a small gasp, and the look on Cordelia’s face is one of pure fear. I know she isn’t afraid of me though. No, she’s afraid for me.
She looks back at her people and gives them a slight nod. I feel their magicks welling up behind me. They aren’t going down without a fight.
Good.
The beings waste no time hurling their flames at us in quick succession, but the attacks are restricted to the outsides. Thankfully, the people in those positions are very capable with defensive measures and not a single bit of the fire makes it into our circle. They pause in their assault and the voice fills my head this time, instantly putting my teeth on edge.
“Come with us, Princess and no harm will come to these people. All we want... is you.”
I curl my lip in disgust. “Does that line really work for you, bud? I’m no one’s princess and I have no interest in going anywhere with you. Consider this your final warning. Take a hike.”
“Then you have doomed them all,” the voice says. I feel the heat behind me rising and hear the gasps from the merfolk at my back. I turn to throw up a shield to protect them, and realize my mistake too soon. The beings return to their assault at our front, but thankfully Cordelia is working to keep them occupied. When the person to my left falls with a dart in their neck, I understand what they mean to do. I can’t get the shield on the water to cooperate, so instead I use my air to push the flames back from the shoreline. Some of the smaller merfolk–children I realize–have already dipped into the water I have cleared to prepare for escape.
I turn back to the fight when a stray fireball hits the center of a merfolk on the farthest side of our group. Cordelia’s face snaps in their direction as the magickal opens their mouth in a silent scream. Their body is ash in seconds, with no indication they were just there with us. Pain and anger fill me for the life we just lost.
The life of a magickal trying to protect me . This has to stop.
When I look back at Cordelia, her eyes are filled with hate and have become completely white. She snaps her arms out to her sides and I feel the rest of her people rushing into the waters behind us. Running from her?
She opens her mouth and screams. The sound nearly makes me wet my pants, and my ears feel like they’re bleeding after a few seconds.
Holy shit !
Cordelia isn’t just another merfolk.
She is a fucking siren!
I would be filled with a deeply intense awe right now if I didn’t think my brains were beginning to melt and leak out of my head. It seems to be having a similar effect on the attackers though, as most of them are now hunched over and grabbing at the hoods of their robes.
The one in front stands up so quickly that his hood falls back, revealing his deathly white face. His eyes are pure black and his cheeks are gaunt. His hair is thinning drastically. Although I know he is a demon, I also know that this is not how he must have once looked. A menacing smile stretches across his lips, as a tiny bit of blood falls from one side of his mouth. His ears are also bleeding, but he doesn’t even seem to notice or care. He brings a cupped hand to his mouth and whispers into it, before throwing the invisible contents towards Cordelia.
Everything happens so slowly. Or maybe, it happens so fast that my brain doesn’t even register the action. I feel the intent of the spell that is heading straight for Cordelia’s heart.
I’ve felt it once before. It’s not just any attack spell, but a curse. It is the same curse that killed Ori.
Not again. Not her. Please Gods, no!
My body moves to position itself directly in front of Cordelia, and an instant later the curse rams straight into me. I must have pushed Cordelia down when I moved, because she is scrambling to her feet to try and stop me. But it won’t work.
She’s too late.
The sounds around me become fuzzy and my body feels far too light. The force of the curse knocks me to the ground, but it doesn’t hurt when I fall. The attacks around me seem to have stopped and the attackers are now fleeing. All except one.
“You stupid child. Now we will take the half-breed in your place.” He pulls the hood back up and leaves with the others.
Half-breed? No! That means they have Blake. I have to help him... but I can’t seem to move right now.
My body feels like it’s on fire, but I’m far too tired to care.
When Cordelia clasps my hand and looks into my eyes, I manage to get out a few words through the fast-approaching sleep that seems to be overwhelming me. “They took him.” She nods at me, and a raindrop hits my cheek.
No.
Not a raindrop. A tear.
Cordelia is crying?
“They did, you foolish girl. Why would you do that?” She asks me, but I can’t seem to answer. If I could, I would tell her that I did it because I love her. She is magnificent, and while we may not be blood, I love her as if she were the grandmother I never got the chance to know deeply enough, but the one that I always wanted. The grandmother my heart needed.
Why are the lights so bright? Maybe I should close my eyes…
I barely see her face through my half-closed eyelids, but she is shaking her head. “I can’t fix this child,” she says to me, her voice raw with emotion. “I can’t fix this, but I can make it easier for you.” She places her hand on my forehead.
Somnum Nunc
Her words drift over me softly, and my eyelids become heavy.
I feel nothing but pure peace wash over me.
The last thing I see before the darkness embraces me is the fluttering of bright blue wings.
Such a beautiful dragonfly.