Chapter 43
Ael
Ael saw a large cloud of his breath escape his lips with each gasp. His father’s head, alongside a piece of his body, had been staked to the center of this cavern, on display like a prized possession.
He felt no remorse for his father’s fate. Though it was revolting and malevolent, he wasn’t here to save that asshole. Let him rot in this cold, unforgiving purgatory for the way he treated him and countless others.
“Don’t go in, Ael,” his father’s tormented face said. “She died. That’s not her!”
Ael averted his gaze from his father toward the glow from the amethysts, the light unable to reach into the dark network of alcoves that extended beyond this lair. He heard a chuckle coming from a recess along the ceiling, and his eyes shot upward.
“I’ve missed you, my son,” the voice said, sounding just as he remembered. He felt a sudden surge of sorrow at the sound of the voice.
It wasn’t her. It couldn’t be.
Uncontrollable emotion began to blur his vision as memories of his mother flooded through him—her tickles and laughter, and her pain-filled eyes as she watched him being torn from her for the final time.
Roya and that asshole, Kalon, were trapped on the ground in a thick, gummy paste, desperately trying to escape, but only tangling themselves further.
He saw Seda kneel to help them and reached out to stop her, shaking his head as he pointed up toward the dark pit.
If she touched it, she would get trapped, also.
Ael blinked away his tears, slowly unsheathed his sword, and stepped further into the cavern, distancing himself from his father’s mangled head.
“My Cahir…” the voice cooed.
The amethyst stones began to pulse vibrantly, partially highlighting the darkness beyond. A long, pointed tip, like the end of a black widow’s leg, wrapped around the edge of the opening.
“Show yourself!” he demanded of the monster within, straining to see through his blurry vision. “You’re not my mother. She died.” The final word broke in his throat, feeling his emotions tear through him like a wicked storm. What kind of cruel beast took pleasure in mimicking the despair of loss?
Seda held her knife by her side, her hand shaking as she gripped it firmly. He stepped in front of her. He would not allow this beast to hurt her in any way. He brought her here. This was his fight to finish.
Another spider’s leg wrapped around the ledge, and slowly, the darkened shadow of La Uma crawled into view.
Ael tightened his grip on the sword and anchored himself, waiting for her to strike. The rapid pounding of his heart beat wildly in his chest. He didn’t know what to expect when they set out to find La Uma, but it wasn’t this.
La Uma appeared. A giant spider emerged, blacker than night, with a large emerald green stripe down her back.
Eight legs like sharpened needles connected to a rounded body in the center, with two extra arms on the front of the arachnid body.
But her head… her head hovered above her form, hanging on nothing but air.
Long black hair with a familiar white stripe cascaded wildly in the air.
The face of his mother stared down at him.
Ael’s sword clattered to the ground, and he sank to his knees as a painful cry escaped his lips at the sight of her. That same painful ache from years past when he lay by her casket burned through his chest.
“Don’t believe her!” his father screamed.
“Silence!” La Uma hissed in response, expelling a thick paste from her body onto the staked head, leaving only muffled sounds behind. She shifted her gaze back to Ael and slowly crawled along the walls, whimpering as she descended.
Seda bristled next to him. He could see her body shaking from the corner of his eye, but the pain tearing through him was too much. He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t react. It was her—the person whose loss molded who he became, leaving an open wound on his heart for hundreds of years.
La Uma slowly crawled toward Ael.
“How?” he choked out.
The monster reached out and ran her cold hand across his face, lifting his chin, and staring into his eyes. He gazed into her familiar, emerald eyes and cried out once more.
Tears that matched his own trickled down her cheeks and landed onto the spider’s body below.
“Your father tried to kill me, my darling. But like all things in his life, he failed,” she said as her voice deepened with rage and she spat in the direction of his father’s head.
Her eyes widened when they snagged on Seda, and she hissed wildly in response, shirking back into the recesses of her cave and growling.
Ael’s gaze shifted to Seda. Wild fury burned behind her eyes, and they were glowing vibrantly. Beads of sweat dripped down her forehead as she struggled against the magical depression of the cave.
How was her magic getting past the barrier?
“You…” La Uma said as she slowly uncurled her body from the corner. “You’re finally here.”
Dark clouds began to form in the cavern as electrical shocks radiated across the ceiling.
Seda raised her arms, and her eyes narrowed on the covered head of his father.
“Stop!” a familiar voice screamed from behind them. Ael’s awareness came rushing back to him, and he shot to his feet, grabbed the sword, and quickly turned around.
Tahti and the same Lobison, Sacha, barreled through the macabre tomb behind them, carrying the head of another Lobison.
“Don’t hurt her!” the witch screamed as she hobbled forward.
Thunder roared through the cavern as lightning danced across the ceiling. Seda looked furiously between Sacha and Tahti, narrowing her eyes once more.
She slowly lowered her arms, releasing the magic within, and began to pant as the magical barrier once more descended, blocking her storm. A loud zap sound erupted, and the clouds quickly dispersed.
“Explain,” Ael demanded of the witch. He pointed to his mother. “Explain now!”
Tahti held her hands up, words quickly tumbling from her wretched lips, “The day you were torn from her arms—that was the day your father demanded I kill her and erase her magic from this world.” She took a deep breath, quickly looking between him and Seda.
“Your mother was once the most powerful Dark Witch in all of Xyberus. Your father only married the poor girl from the north to use her for his own gain. But once she had you, her dark magic turned into something stronger, something pure. She channeled that love and became the most powerful witch in the Coven of the Wilds—The White Witches.”
“But she’s alive!” he snarled in response, feeling the anger surge forward. He wanted to kill this witch. She had played enough tricks on him over the years, and this was the fucking cherry on top.
“Yes. She is, King Ael. I faked her death, but my magic had its limits, and I accidentally turned her into what she is now. When we left Umbrea to bring her here, we stole the Stone of Peace. Your father wanted to collect all of them, and we stopped him from having this one.”
A feral growl rumbled in Ael’s chest. All these years, Tahti knew his mother was alive, and she never told him. “Why did you never fucking tell me? And why did you leave your house? You play too many fucking games!”
The witch shrugged. “I had more important things to do. But I left my book for Seda to find—”
Kalon cleared his throat, and they all looked at him.
“Hello, Tahti,” he said from the ground with a broad grin on his irritating face. “How have the millennia of nightmares been since you stole from me?”
Tahti seethed and pointed a bony finger at him. “You! Why are you here?”
“Oh, you know… just here to collect the stone for Seda. The stone you stole from me,” he said. “Do you recall? Or has your mind finally given out after all these years?”
“The stone isn’t yours, asshole,” Ael replied, his irritation with Tahti now doubling with Kalon’s voice in the mix. He was right. Kalon wanted the stone. Why wouldn’t Seda just allow him to kill the man?
Kalon winked at him.
“You two know each other?” Seda interrupted, looking between Kalon and Tahti.
“Tahti and I used to… be friends,” Kalon said with a pause and a chuckle. “Get me out of this mess, Fae witch, and I’ll forgive your transgressions and no longer haunt you when you use your magic.”
The witch’s eyes narrowed as she looked down at him. She spat on the ground and smiled widely, showcasing her dark, sharpened teeth.
“You should really get those checked out,” Kalon said as he grimaced at her rotting mouth.
“Enough!” Seda snapped, glancing at him before turning her attention back to Tahti. “Release my friends from this hold. We’ll not harm her. We’re here to collect the stone and leave. The stone you told me I needed. Where is it?”
Tahti waved her hand in the air, dismissing Seda.
“We have things to discuss first. The stone belongs to Misandra, or as you know her, La Uma. You came here looking for a fight, thinking you needed to kill a monster, but that’s not the case, child.
Not everything in this life is brute force or fear.
” She looked to Ael’s mother and motioned her over.
The spider’s body gradually moved closer, her eyes fixed on Ael.
He swallowed hard. How did he not realize she was still alive?
All this time… he could have spent it with her, could have come to her when she needed him.
She didn’t need to be alone in this cave like she was.
She had been here for hundreds of years, wasting away in this cold cavern.
Tahti grabbed the severed head from Sacha and tossed it toward La Uma. “This one betrayed the balance. This one tried to hurt an innocent. We offer him to the Amethyst Wrath.”
Both Tahti and Sacha bowed before his mother, and her emerald-colored eyes began to change, swirling into a white hurricane.
The severed head’s eyes shot open, and it began to moan loudly.
“Find a place for him. His pain will continue to power the yanantin,” Misandra softly said.
Ael looked at her in confusion. Why did she bring these beings back to life only to condemn them to eternal pain and suffering?
Sacha grabbed the beast’s head from her maw and backed into the entryway, telling it through muffled words, “You brought this upon yourself.”
Tahti wiped her hands on her worn dress. She looked at Seda and sighed. “You are powerful, child. You’ve gotten past our suppression spell. I’m quite pleased. You’ll need that to move forward.”
“What do you mean?” Seda asked.
“To defeat the evil in this world, we need strength. But not only that—we need compassion. The world is unbalanced, and malevolent beings with sinister plans are rising. Not everything is what it seems. Some of the beings you call monsters are just part of nature. Have you seen that yet?” Tahti took a deep breath and pointed to Misandra.
“You set out to kill a monster, but what happened? She isn’t a monster at all.
She’s a testament to perseverance. She was wronged and torn from her child, and now devotes herself to our cause.
You must do the same. You must return the yanantin to this world.
It’s why you were created, why you were reborn. ”
What the fuck? Ael thought, looking at the woman like she was bat shit crazy.
“Hold up,” he interrupted. “What do you mean by ‘reborn’? I swear if this is another trick of yours…”
A long pause followed, and Tahti glanced up at his mother. She nodded at her.
His mother walked into a dark alcove and returned, holding the same dark-blue, diamond-shaped gemstone he remembered from his childhood.
She spoke, interrupting the silence, “This is not her first life. She’s a guardian, my Cahir—the key to the Celestial Vault, Bearer of Moonlight, and Arbiter of Eternal Justice.
The crystal is hers to take, to bring her wrath upon this imbalanced world.
We, the Coven of the Wilds, are mere subjects to the cause, spanning across a multitude of species.
Doing what we can to aid the Mother Goddess.
And you, my Cahir, were born to help her. ”
She smiled at him and held the stone out to Seda. The rippling blue light cascaded around the room, highlighting everyone in dancing blue ribbons.
Seda reached for the stone, and as her fingers made contact with the solid surface, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed onto the ground.
Ael rushed forward and pushed his mother away from Seda, crashing onto his knees and picking up her limp form. “What did you do?” he choked out as he clutched her close to his chest, looking wildly around the room.
“Her memories are returning to her,” Kalon whispered.