Chapter 2
Two
For the first time ever I wake up without pain. Opening my eyes to blinding white, but I can feel my body and there is no needling sensation or ache.
How long was I out?
I know for sure I had been in the sun death realm for a while after something. I can’t quite remember as voices muffled begin speaking and overlapping. But there is no headache from it. It simply sounds like I am underwater as they speak.
The last thing I remember before the sun death realm was the standoff with the devil and the water and thunder mage.
Even then, that memory is spotty. I only remember needing to protect Jullia and the devil being called Kolasi.
The god’s punishment. It seems fitting that he is known as the Death Devil.
Death Devil, sun devil, golden devil, red devil.
There’s a tug within me that sharply pulls and I blink several times to help clear the white light I’m only seeing. I remember finding out that Callahan is my fated. . . but there had been a reason I never stated that out loud.
Why did I never say it?
I needed to do something.
Mavyn.
What?
Mavyn.
I said what?
There’s no response other than my name being said again. Are they not saying it in my head? I was sure they were speaking in my head before.
The light begins clearing and the first thing I see is gold. Gold wrapped within black and still blurry. But I can see the rest of Callahan clearly, so is he –
“Mavyn,” he breathes out on a choked sigh. Then weight is pressed on top of me and I’m now looking at a ceiling. The same ceiling I remember seeing in the infirmary.
“Callahan,” I croak. The sound scratches up my throat and I go into a coughing fit. Someone puts a straw between my lips and I suck a cool, refreshing mouthful of water. It feels like a soothing balm for my throat.
“You’re alright,” he whispers. “You’re alright and you’re alive and you’re awake. You’re real.”
He keeps repeating that last part as if I was imaginary before. Why wouldn’t I be real?
Drinking the cup dry, I lick my lips and roll my eyes around to get my bearings. I’m in the infirmary from what I can tell. Some sort of blanket draped over me and I can feel the needles in the top of my right hand, probably supplying me things I need.
“What happened?”
Nana comes into my peripheral with a scowl on her face. My eyes widen when I see her and Ms. Elaycia steps up behind her. Her aura curling around her and the scent of blackberries and orchids making my eyes water.
“You’re here,” I croak. Emotions bubbling up because I have missed them for months. I have missed home. “How are you here?”
Both of them shift their expressions to mirrored confusion. Nana returns hers back to a glare as she points a menacing finger at me.
“Don’t try to distract us with your tears, Mavyllora!” Nana snaps. “You answer my questions. Why could I not feel you when I was in your head? Why was it pitch black and why were you like this for two months. What happened?!”
What?
My brain glitches. I feel like there is a whole chapter I am missing. So much fog and shadows in my memory.
I remember seeing Kolasi and the mage and then the sun death realm. Pain and then more pain. This had been the longest time I was held in my nightmare.
Nana waves her finger at me. “Well? Are you going to explain yourself?”
I still can’t believe she’s here. Her and Ms. Elaycia behind her. Are there others? Do I get to go home?
“Mavyllora!” she snaps, and I flinch. I used to hate when she would call me that before. It’s what the sun devil would call me. Whispering into my ear with a lowly roll of his tongue right before he would sink his fangs into me.
My name. My full name that he had used as he claimed me the day before I turned ten. He said that my tenth birthday present would be a cemented bond. And the only way to try and force a cemented bond is through sex. Especially if they’re a virgin.
So I stopped his blood. His and his fated bitch water mage.
“Don’t call me that.”
Her expression flinches but then she reinforces it and glares at me. “Explain yourself. Now.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I’m still laying on my back staring at the ceiling. In my peripheral I notice another body, and paying attention to it, I feel other bodies standing by.
“You were comatose,” a lazy voice drawls, “for two months.”
My body feels fine, my head feels fine, so I jerk up and look straight at the person who spoke. A sense of déjà vu hits as Thorne stands near the foot of the bed with Darian behind him and Professor Asier beside him.
The only difference between now and what happened after Thorne had pushed me into the sun is the demigod is here, and the devil and demon councilmen. I don’t know why they’re here but I remember faintly having seen them before. There was an altercation, I think.
I turn to a glaring bone witch and furrow my brows. “What the fuck does he mean I’ve been comatose for two months?”
Nana opens her mouth but Ms. Elaycia places her hand on the witches shoulder and steps in.
“What was the last thing you remember, Mavyn?”
She sounds worried but she’s trying to hide it. Her body is tensed and her hand not on Nana’s shoulder is fisted.
I glance at everyone before shrugging. “I was fighting Kolasi.” Her shoulders drop a bit before I say, “Or more like facing off because we weren’t really fighting. I think he slammed me against a wall.”
Expressions hitch and then Callahan asks on a breath, “Where were you two facing off at?”
None of this is making sense.
“In Professor Asier’s classroom. Where I was told to stay put.” Everyone is looking at me like I’ve got a bomb strapped to my head. “What is wrong with you all?” I turn to Nana and Ms. Elaycia. “And how did you guys find me and get here?”
No one answers me and the first eyes I see are gold ringed red ones. There’s something about those eyes that give me the feeling I’m forgetting something important. I look over his body to see if it’ll give me a hint, but all I get is a stone statue.
His voice brings my eyes back to his. “Why did you let everyone believe you were a vampire?”
His words are soft but the meaning is like a punch to the gut.
A tank slamming into me and I make sure those five doors I have within me are closed and locked and my aura is hidden within my blood behind the blue belladon.
I double check that there shouldn’t be any way for them to assume I’m not a vampire because I feel weak, I feel powerless, I feel like nothing.
“W–what?”
His eyes darken with his aura building behind them. “You are not a vampire, Mavyn. Rosenbail of Maril stated that as if we should have already known, saying you were never human before, and your guardians have confirmed it.”
I look at Nana and Ms. Elaycia who are both mixed with confusion and worry.
I don’t know where Rosemary is since she’s not in the room, but it would make sense she would assume everyone else already knew I wasn’t a vampire.
Unless she, Nana, and Ms. Elaycia were told the story about how I came to be at Syngenia, but I still don’t even know how they’re here.
I start shaking my head as I rub my face. I know there are gaps in my memory but it seems like I’m missing a lot right now.
“When did you speak with Rosemary?”
Someone starts rubbing my leg and I look down at Callahan still next to me with supportive eyes. Within me there’s that pull again. Our souls wanting to seal the bond between us because we’re fated.
“Mavyn,” Varian demands. I snap my head towards him. “Answer the questions.”
Glaring, I bare my teeth at him. “Just because you are my fated too doesn’t mean you get to order me around like I’m a doll on a string. We still aren’t connected either so you don’t own me.”
He jolts back as if I hit him and the rest of the celestials stare at me with wide eyes.
“You know,” he chokes out, and I roll my eyes at him as I look away. Within me I find that thread that connects us through fate and pluck it. He and Callahan flinch at it. “When did you find out?”
“When you obviously did. In my dorm room after I came back from the sun death realm. When you find out you’re fated to someone you both realize it at the same time. One of you can’t realize it while the other is oblivious. That’s a known fact.”
He’s watching me like I’m not real. So is Callahan and the rest of them.
“Now someone tell me what happened between me looking at Kolasi in that classroom and going comatose for two months.”
No one speaks again. They’re all still watching me like they can’t believe anything. As if this is a dream and they’re all waiting to wake up.
Newsflash. They can’t be dreaming if this is my dream.
Which. . . looking at everyone, this might be. Nothing is making sense right now and I can’t remember things I know I should and Nana and Ms. Elaycia are here.
Thorne shifts forward gaining my attention and swallows.
“You had faced against Kolasi in Varian’s classroom and were about to kill them when he disappeared.
You saved those students and then two days later was family day.
Callahan brought Elaycia Sorenli of Havebeth, Esmirra of Ebony, Rosenbail of Maril, and Caleb Cougenha to you for it, and then the rebels attacked a second time. ”
A second attack?
My eyes widen as I ask, “Is everyone okay?” Immediately I think of Jullia and Asher because they also aren’t here and I have no idea where they are.
Callahan squeezes my leg as Thorne nods with a cautious expression.
“Callahan told you to stay on the terrace because you were still recovering, and once on the field with Rosenbail she told him you would not be staying put and you would be fighting. She said he didn’t know something about you, but that he would.
She knew that he had not seen your soul when you both realized you were fated. ”
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
This is not good. This is really not good.
“And then she said not even Esmirra could see your soul when you first came to her. They all had thought you were human, but quickly realized you were not when you told them you used a blood art to kill the devil and mage. She said you were not a vampire. She said you were never human.”
What the fuck happened after the faceoff with Kolasi?
Thorne continues, his voice in its lazy drawl but his body is wired so tightly it looks like he’s about to snap.
“Then witches presented themselves on the battlefield and were about to kill us, but you appeared with red lightning before us and created a shield of blood saving us.
You killed the blood witch and then went to war with Kolasi.
You were about to kill them all right before they disappeared.
Whatever force you were using – “ His words slowing, “ – basically killed you too. You drank nearly all the blood in my veins before essentially going brain dead. Which is the state you have been in for the last two months.”
He begins rolling his sleeve up and on his right wrist are two stark imprints that haven’t faded yet.
“Esmirra has tried every single day to enter your mind and force you awake. She said you weren’t dead because your shields were still up blocking both Callahan and Varian, but inside your mind there was nothing.
For some reason, today you finally responded to her.
Or rather, you responded to Callahan. Esmirra took him with her into your mind and you acted like a child pouting, refusing to wake up. ”
I swallow thickly as my eyes don’t leave the scar on him. My own body breaks out into a light sweat and it itches my own scars. The one right over my heart pulsing with a dull ache I’m more acutely aware of right now.
It’s not a claiming mark. It will fade soon enough.
Mine.
No.
In every lifetime.
You are dead, I whisper to that voice. You’re not real.
It means nothing. The scar.
Nine fucking years. Nine fucking years where my fangs have not pierced another person’s skin and within the last four months I’ve already left two marks.
Why is everything getting complicated now? Why is the universe being an even bigger bitch to me now? What kind of monster was I in a previous life to have been given all of this?
“Mavyllora,” Nana gently calls but I flinch again and dig my nails into my palms.
Mavyllora, he would whisper. His empathic magic roving through my system, twisting my emotions and feelings, before his venom would. Mavyllora, my sweet little thing. Are you going to be a good girl for me? Can you feel me? Can you feel what being a good little girl does to me?
I’m going to throw up. I’m heaving and I’m going to throw up because I can imagine it so perfectly.
I can still feel his rough fingers digging into my small body and scraping over my smooth and scarred, cursed flesh.
The burning had been so constant from the skin on skin contact that it sometimes no longer felt like pain.
I would crave his constant touch because when he would stop for a time only to touch me again the burning was always worse.
“What is happening,” a voice demands.
I’m in a nightmare.
I was wrong before. This isn’t a dream or real life with everyone else dreaming. This is a nightmare. Because that voice. . .
Mavyllora. Mavyllora my sweet little thing.
I wish he had just killed me all those years ago.
I wish I had stopped my own heart instead of his.