43. Trust can birth the ugliest Truths #4
“The elite put up more of a fight than anticipated. Though dead, I couldn’t save the mother and fayling. Other glooms attacked while we were in combat. I’m sorry.” Hurt hides behind Niro’s emotionless facade, reminding me of his past friends. It pains me knowing he couldn’t save them.
“No, I’m sorry. Thank you for trying,” I respond, understanding all too well what this type of loss feels like.
Everyone huddles around. Shifters are drenched in blood, wearing smiles of victory while celebrating in the nude. Clothing is optional but staring isn’t. And by each of their expressions, it’s me who is not accustomed to this form of…friendship.
Chatter springs about, but something strutting down the hill towards us, holds my attention.
Who is that? A tall, lone individual, wrapped in clothes of the deepest blacks and a hooded cloak, approaches.
“Umm, am I seeing things?” I question, speaking over their excited voices. “Please be a friend.”
No one speaks, but they all ready themselves. “Kitten,” Russ says, moving adjacent to me.
“Yeah?”
“Do you want your dagger back?”
“Of course not, it’s a gift.” I smirk, but his horrid expression sends my head towards our incoming friend. They now have another army of glooms trailing their rear. *Sigh* Not a friend.
They raise a hand, and behind us, bones snap into place. Groans and snarls play a symphony of growls and wails. The glooms we killed are beginning to rise, ready for another attack yet remaining still. Unmoving but watching.
“We’re surrounded,” Yasmine announces, panning between both large groups. “Sigils, one of you use them. We should regroup and come back with more students.”
“Sigils won’t work,” Ethan grits. “Whatever’s happening here desires for us to see how it plays out. Their life, or ours.”
A knot twists in my gut, digging deeper by the second. By looking at those left and right of me, I can tell our powers are scraping the dangerous zone.
It’s difficult to determine which group of our enemies will attack first. Those behind that move closer, but cease within striking distance, or the being walking up, coming to a halt about ten yards away.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Alex projects, but it vanishes, leaving trails of phantom-like smoke wisping in their wake.
“I see,” behind us, a feminine voice speaks, arms folded at her back with deep pink eyes shining under her hooded cloak.
I hate those fucking eyes. I meet the onlooker of my many failures.
“You, unworthy group of…students, managed to take down my creations,” she says, panning between us and them. “Who leads your group?”
“Answer his question, who are you!” I shout, requiring this second name to be added to my list. She pauses, if for a breath, and is on me in the next.
Her hand meets the soft flesh of my throat, and she lifts me from the ground to ensure we are eye level. Pointed nails, biting the flesh around my veins, hold me steady, and my body becomes motionless under the weight of her aura.
Formidable…Ethereal…Alarming…Regnant . This being is nothing short of celestial.
Breathing omnipotent magic, she presses her aura on us all.
Grunts and curses sound around me from the others not being able to move.
Inside, my body screams and kicks for release, but as others watch, I look compliant. Who are you?
“You–how is it possible?” she asks, tilting her head down and back up. “Your name, child, what is it?” I’m given just enough space to answer, but I refuse.
“Who. Are–”
“Your name!” I wince from the intrusion of her nails breaking my skin. Their tips are flush with my throbbing veins. She, in all definitions, holds my life in her hands. “I won’t ask you again,” she seethes, and I believe her.
“Ky-Kyra.” The words stutter out. Releasing her hold, causes me to plummet, collapse to the ground, and I land on my ass. Whatever hold she placed on the others, relinquishes, and Russ helps me to stand.
The way she was able to render us useless with ease is alarming.
Stepping back to view us as a whole, this mystical being removes her hood, leaving gasps and confusion amongst the masses.
Raven hair, buttery-brown sugar skin, the deepest forest green eyes behind the glow of pink, and honey tan lips.
If beauty had an equal, it sure as hell isn’t her. That claim wouldn’t do her justice.
She is irresistibly bewitching.
“You’re not an ordinary fay. Demigod perhaps?” Angie asks, moving closer behind me. Russ and Caspian stand to my right, Ethan and Alex, my left. Angie, Marcel, Ashlyn, Niro, and Yasmine are a line behind us. All have weapons drawn.
“Goddess, dear female. Your mother would be ashamed if she had lived long enough.” Angie growls at the response, drawing her feather-bladed sword, but stiffens under the magic of this deity.
“Come, bring Her with you and kill the rest. But keep the genie alive. She may be useful,” our newest foe suggests, but to whom is she speaking to?
Ethan grips my collar, turning me and striking his spear’s tip into my chest. But it falters. His movements are frozen, shy from piercing my skin, and I can feel the deity’s magic blanketing over him. “You’ll perish before you and your mother’s plan comes to fruition.”
Not bothering to fight his hold, I instead, search his gaze. Past the pain, past his anger, hellish flames are spotlighted by a warming light, echoing the many losses he has endured, my reflection stamped between both shimmers of red and gold.
“Ethan,” I whisper, “I don’t know her nor is this my fault. Tell me you don’t believe I would put either of your lives in danger? You can’t be so foolish to believe that.”
He searches my gaze in return. Our auras, scratching below the skin, beg to unite. I can’t lose another life. None of them, including his. Especially knowing what the two of us are meant to become. My hate for him stems from his objection to my life, but it’s not worth this.
“Enough. You’ll meet your end soon. We’re leaving,” the Goddess announces.
A pair of firm hands land on my shoulder, and those facing me morph their faces, revealing deceit and treachery. Pulled from Ethan’s hold, I’m spun around by Caspian meeting my gaze with an emotionless take.
“No.” I shake my head out of disbelief. “No. No!” But he grips my arm, pulling me along. Every fiber of my being pleads he is not the traitor. I yank, pulling back when both armies of glooms scratch and howl, quaking the ground with their advancements.
“Let her go!” Russ shouts, drawing my dagger and slicing for Caspian’s clutch.
A deflecting arm thrust turns into a wrist grab and twist, and is followed by catching my dagger. Caspian drives the blade into Russ’s chest, and my heart shatters. I collapse with shouts of agonizing pain.
“No!” Tears, shrouding my vision in an instant, blur this reality from the other. “I trusted you!” I shout at the one fay who is capable of more than what Ethan could ever do–killing me but keeping me alive to enjoy the misery .
Ivy rushes over, meeting my own tears as her slim frame nudges under him, and I crawl to them.
His body jerks from blood loss and forms a puddle beneath his body as he gasps for air.
His damaged lungs fight to hold on. “Angie!” I shout once more.
Whatever is happening around me no longer matters.
I gave him the weapon that is taking his life.
“Please, save him,” I beg as she drops down, lifting him onto her lap.
“No, don’t touch him!” Ivy snarls, tugging him back.
“Please, she’s the only one who can–”
“You.” The death of her gaze tramples what remains of my fleeting organ pumping my blood. “If he dies, I’ll spend my life hunting you and anyone you’ve ever cared about. No God will keep you safe.” Her eyes shift into their tyrian purple, cat-like nature, and I nod.
“If he dies…” I say, sobbing. The thought hurts more than her threats. “I-I won’t fight you.” She blinks, releasing more tears, washing away some of the grime stuck to her cheeks. My life for his seems like a fair exchange.
“Marcel, now!” Alex shouts while they move to attack. Whatever hold was on them no longer exists, and he races off, shedding his clothes as massive wings explode from his back, shifting Marcel into the once seen, silver dragon.
“Daughter, do come quietly. I’d hate to spill my own offspring’s blood.”
“I’m not your fucking daughter!” I snap her way, pulling on every drop of magic I have left. Six crescent blades manifest and fire, creating a mass shockwave of energy, which trembles the ground. I search for Caspian, but he is in a current bout with Alex, deflecting and dodging his attacks.
Choking pulls my attention to where Angie and Russ sit. “Is–Is he…” I ask, hovering my trembling hands over his frame wanting to do anything, everything, to ensure he will be okay. For mine and Ivy’s sake.
My shattered heart melts under this heat of lies.
Betrayal. Hope caused this, and I was stupid enough to play its game.
The truth is lies can be beautiful, masked with all the right words and actions.
But shed its exterior coat, and the truth is uglier than one can bear.
Yet another lesson I’ve learned tonight.
Trust no one.
Smoke creates a camouflage for our enemies, and high above–just out of view–green flames spew onto the battlefield, melting enemies and dead shifters alike.
Glooms cry, meeting Marcel’s rage, but my sight now stands firmly on the Goddess, raising those slain.
I’m not at all phased by her surviving my attack.
“Kill the dragon!” she hollers, and all the glooms aim skyward. But the beasts on our side shift, leaping into the fray in all-out slaughter.
“I don’t know you,” Ivy starts, placing a hand on Russ’s chest. “But if you can save him, you’ll have anything you desire from my kingdom.”
“I’m not doing this–”
“Please,” she begs, standing and passing a look between us both. “Save. Him.” Angie nods, placing both hands over his wound, leaving Ivy to do what she does best. Hunt.
I’m motionless under my own doing. Chaos circles, and my eyes swap between Caspian and the Goddess. How could all of this happen? Blaise said stick to the plan, but what plan? Disloyalty and death?
“Now, Marcel!” Alex yells as the ground splits, drawing more bodies from their graves as the Goddess breathes false life into them.
Metal clashes from him and Caspian while I glare into the eyes of Rosie’s killer.
The one name on my list that is responsible for so much anguish.
Now I have a face for it, and if I live past tonight, every one of her kind will know I’m coming.
May their Gods have mercy on her soul.
I moved to stand. Weakened knees and blurred vision all but topple me. My aura is depleted, and I can’t create a dagger, let alone join this fight. But if they die, we all die. Adrenaline is my lifeline. I know once it fades, so will my consciousness, so I need to make the most of it while I can.
Drawing my last metal dagger, I feel winds of tremendous force rain down.
Marcel’s wings beat with strong vibrations, and he grasps me.
Razor sharp talons cage my frame as we take towards the sky.
My objecting screams are muffled by the flowing air.
The higher we climb, the more land I can see, and hundreds of thousands of glooms are rushing towards the small group of fays I love dearly.
They are going to die down there, and I am powerless to stop it.
TO BE CONTINUED… in Rebirth Of Bonds.