Chapter 41 #2
“What’s going on?” Yepa asked, standing and glaring at him.
Ojore held his hand out. “Please, just hear me out.”
“They set foot north as we headed west,” Sephyr replied. “We communicated with Roya yesterday. They’re fine.”
“Fuck,” Ojore said. He roughly sat down on the sofa, causing it to shift on the ground. He looked at Yepa. “The people who joined us today aren’t who they say they are, Yepa.”
“What do you mean? Who joined you?” Benny asked.
“King Ael and Seda did.” Ojore looked at him and pursed his lips. “But, they act differently, Benny. King Ael is nice to me, and you know how much I dislike that grumpy asshole. I have reason to believe they’re not who they say they are.”
“Who do you think they are?” Yepa asked. “I swear, Ojore, you left our community years ago to go live amongst the humans, and you return to bring with you only chaos.”
“I don’t know,” he replied with a bear-like growl. “But it’s not them.”
Benny’s eyes widened. He recalled the others talking about Neoma using some potion to change Praxis into Ael. They had been sent away from Umbrea. “It’s Meir and Neoma,” he said.
“Who the hell are Meir and Neoma?” Ojore asked.
Benny sat straighter in his chair. It had to be them. “Meir’s a Fae advisor, and Neoma is some woman he’s along his side. They were sent away from Umbrea for impersonating King Ael.”
“Can you contact your friends and check?” Yepa asked, looking toward Sephyr, her lips pursed and slightly crinkled with irritation.
“Only Roya’s with them now. Ferona remained in Umbrea,” Sephyr replied. “I’ll try.”
She closed her eyes.
“What do we do?” Benny asked the others, watching as Yepa chewed her bottom lip.
Yepa exhaled deeply. “We act as if they’re who they claim until we learn more. I need to leave now. I’ll check on your friend, Askold. Don’t discuss this with anyone.” She glanced at Ojore. “Anyone. Do you understand? No need to cause trouble until we have a plan.”
Ojore huffed in response, “Fine.”
Yepa opened the door and looked back at Benny. “There’s a dinner tonight. Please join us.” She didn’t wait for their response as the door closed behind her, leaving them in silence.
Sephyr finally opened her eyes. “Roya’s unreachable. Ferona says King Ael and Seda never returned, and they’re prepping for the Jotnar to arrive. I fear I’ve said too much through the whispers.”
Roya was unreachable? Benny’s mind stalled as the news dropped into him like a pit of despair. What happened? Did that mean she was injured? They just reached out to her not that long ago. Did they reach La Uma and were now hurt… or worse?
An ache began to bloom within him, but he swallowed it down. His sister and the love of his life were okay.
They had to be.
“I don’t trust Yepa,” Sephyr said after looking around to make sure she was gone.
Benny, Sephyr, and Ojore walked the path from the medics’ tent to the courtyard where the dinner was supposed to be held.
Askold was awake and seemed fine, though exhausted, and chose to remain in the tent with Vira rather than venture to the dinner.
Aurora was apparently tired of people and decided to stay outside the tent as well.
They hadn’t seen Meir or Neoma yet. He wasn’t sure what he should do when he did see them, though. Just pretend to be happy to see his sister? He felt it was strange that Yepa wasn’t more concerned with the news and wanted them to keep it a secret.
“Does anyone else have a bad feeling about all of this?” he asked the others as they listened to the loud yells and cheers coming ahead.
“Yup,” Ojore replied. “I think we need to leave tonight.”
Sephyr didn’t respond, instead choosing to remain silent as she walked alongside them, her eyes scanning the area around them.
“So we eat, pretend things are okay, and then what? Take off after?” he asked.
Ojore only nodded in response.
Benny tried his hardest not to think about Roya being unreachable, but every time his mind wandered, his heart sank further.
She’s okay, he reassured himself. They’re both fine.
They approached a large gathering of people, merrily eating. Drunken laughter spilled from their lips as they cheered.
“To an alliance!” he heard someone say as they clanked together beer steins loudly.
Narrowed eyes met theirs, and Benny felt like they were all staring at them.
They made their way to an open table at the far end of the gathering. Platters of food lined the center of the table, but Benny couldn’t bring himself to make a plate. He looked over at the random Lycanthrope watching them warily.
A loud cheer rang out, and Benny looked up. Yepa’s tall form ascended the far stairs alongside the replica of Ael and Seda, who were holding hands and smiling brightly at everyone.
Seda didn’t have her wings, and Ael’s bright smile seemed uncanny, like it stretched a little too far.
“Fucking A,” he said under his breath. “It really isn’t them.”
They watched as Yepa made her way to the center of the stage, Ael and Seda following. Wild cheers rang out as she turned to the crowd.
“We need to leave. Now,” Ojore snarled as he began to stand.
Yepa raised her hands, calming the crowd, and Ojore’s eyes snapped to hers.
“It’s been hundreds of years since the Fae and Lycanthropes have had an alliance.
I want to thank our friends here.” She pointed at the impostors.
“For helping us to bridge the gap between our societies. The Fae have promised to join us in revenge against the weakness that has descended upon this world! Lycanthropes! We’ve found our divine angel! ”
The image of King Ael transformed into Meir, and a wicked grin spread across his face. His eyes were solid black, like endless puddles, sucking the life out of anyone who looked.
The ravenous crowd began to cheer wildly with deep howls and growls echoing across the area.
“But…” she started. “We have some among us who do not wish to join us.” Her mismatched colored eyes shifted to Benny, Sephyr, and Ojore. “And instead, choose an alliance with the weak.”
Benny saw Seda’s replica grin as she looked at them.
An arrow shot through the crowd into Ojore, piercing his throat and causing blood to run down his shirt. Ojore’s heavy body crumpled onto the ground with a loud thud.
Benny froze in fear, his body failing to respond.
“Ojore has not been one of us for a long time. He chose to live amongst the humans and befriend that imposter Monster King of theirs.” Another arrow shot through the crowd and impaled Sephyr’s chest. She tried to shift into her Corvid form, with feathers expanding around her, but remained partially human.
“The Corvids, also, have chosen to go against the balance of this world. Their kind left us a very long time ago. They’re not one of us! Their angel only brings darkness!” Yepa’s eyes shifted to Benny. “And the humans. So weak and pathetic. They do nothing as the Jotnar eats their people.”
A loud cheer rang out among the crowd, and Benny felt his body start to respond. He shifted out of his chair quickly and ducked under the table as an arrow flew over his head, landing with a loud crunch into a tree behind him.
“We have a chance now to unite and work alongside our angel! The angel of death, the Black-Crowned King! We’ll no longer be seen as weak! We will defeat the frailty of the world with our new brethren!”
Benny could hardly believe what was unfolding. He crawled toward Ojore and Sephyr, their blood seeping into his hands and knees. Ojore’s motionless body lay on the ground, while Sephyr was gasping for air with ragged breaths.
He asked her in a panicked whisper, “We have to get out of here. Can you reach the others?”
“Come out, human. We do not allow weak, pathetic people amongst our kind,” Yepa’s voice purred.
Sephyr’s anguished eyes met Benny’s. “I’ll try,” she gasped, shutting her eyes. He saw her eyelids flutter briefly before they became still.
Her chest stopped moving.
Benny’s blood ran cold. He didn’t know what to do.
Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, he thought. He began to crawl through the trees behind him, fear racing up his spine. He had to get away and had to find Aurora, Askold, and Vira.
“Oh, human…” Yepa said. “You cannot escape us. You and your friends will die tonight. I may have wasted an antidote on your friend earlier. But he’ll not leave this place either. Thank you for bringing us a Unipaca, though. She’ll be instrumental for our cause.” He heard her chuckle.
The trees began to close around him as he quickly crawled through.
A feral howl ripped through the darkness from the shifters, and Benny’s panic crested like a tsunami crashing into him.
He jumped up and ran, feeling his chest rise and fall with each unsteady breath.
He didn’t know which way to go, but he pushed himself forward.
The sharp hiss in the air met him before the impact did. He collapsed to his knees and stared down, seeing an arrow protruding through his chest.
Howls and roars began to close around him as he looked up and saw dozens of Lycanthropes surrounding him with snarling faces. Seda’s replica walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. He looked up and was met with a smile that looked exactly like his sisters’.
Tears began to roll down his cheeks as he stared into her violet eyes. He felt no physical pain, but the same ache in his heart from earlier returned with a vengeance and began gnawing upon his soul, eating him from within.
He could feel the darkness slowly encroaching on his vision.
He had nowhere to go and no one to rescue him. Ojore was gone, Sephyr was gone, and his sister’s face loomed over him with a cruel amusement that tormented his soul.
This wasn’t her. He wouldn’t allow this false image to tarnish the love and memory he had of her.
His mind wandered to the memories of his mother’s smile, at the way she would cradle him in her arms. He reflected on his father’s defiance against injustice, which sparked the Rising.
Yepa was wrong about humans. They had endured the most and still survived.
Images of Aurora flashed through his mind, of the small Unipaca who happily munches on apples and stamps her foot in irritation.
She needed to flee before they got to her.
He felt his body fall backwards onto the ground as he stared up into Seda’s eyes, seeing the trees sway behind her. Slowly, he started to see himself as if he were floating above, staring down at his body lying in the cold dirt.
He thought about Roya and how he loved her, how he never got to say those words aloud, and how much he wanted one more chance to hold her tightly in his arms. He thought about how he could break down her walls and see the beautiful smile she always kept so hidden, and how strong she always managed to be.
She was okay. She wasn’t gone from this world. He could feel it now; he could sense her magic out there somewhere, burning bright with that beautiful vengeance he loved so much.
He heard a caw in the distance. Vira maybe?
“I love you,” he pushed the words out for the first time, feeling the softness of his voice echo into nothingness as he stared down at his body, his lips unmoving.
His vision blurred, replaced by an overpowering brightness that surrounded him, as if the sun had finally risen.
He didn’t feel like he was here or there, like time didn’t matter anymore. A saturation of loving warmth bloomed from within, flowing outward as he took in his surroundings. The feeling of serenity draped itself around him, and the realization dawned on him that everything was going to be okay.
He was safe.
He was returning to a home long forgotten.
A soothing voice called to him, “Come to me, my child.”