10. As I Awake #3
“Isadora. Isadora, Isadora, Isadora! I will accept no other answer then Isadora!” Beatrix wailed, pounding the table each time she said her name.
Odessa cringed at the sound and scooched away from Beatrix.
I, too, would not want to be close to her when she was enraged like this.
I barely wanted to be near her when she wasn’t.
“Come on, Bea, Odessa has that moxie! She’s just like her mama. She would be perfect to run that Layer,” Elias tried to coax Beatrix, who was having none of it.
“She is releasing demons that are causing flat-out destruction on Earth. We can’t just feed whenever we feel like it. She’s reckless and stupid. I refuse to work with her!”
“Tell me how you really feel,” Odessa snorted.
Beatrix whipped around to jab a finger at her.
“Oh, I will, little missy. If Atlas has any semblance of brain cells left, he will see the destruction headed his way from making YOU leader of anything. As if that Layer hasn’t been through enough!
We don’t need a selfish slob like you overindulging and making more problems for the rest of us. ”
“Ok, ok, let’s take it down a notch…” I warned gently. Beatrix snapped, physically snapped, her mouth shut and turned back to me, crossing her arms and huffing angrily. I gave her a soft smile to thank her for cooperating, and luckily, she echoed it frailly.
“I like Isadora,” Evris blurted as she sipped her fourth green tea since we had arrived.
“I like a ruler I don’t have to worry about.
She seems to have a clearer head, a resistant conscience.
I agree with Beatrix about the overindulging.
Odessa has been breaking our rules and doing whatever she wants down there, and that is not a good first impression. ”
“Isadora can be just as bad as I can!” Odessa fired off. “Did you all forget when she sent a purge up to Earth and killed over 300,000 people? Behind mother’s back, at that!”
“She was young,” Peregrine calmly stated. “She was trying to please her mother, as you have tried many times yourself. We are demons, after all. It’s normal to do things like this, but not when you are not permitted to.”
“You’re all just falling all over her. Who gives a flying fuck about your opinions? You’re not the God of Death, so until they dig my grave, I’ll maintain that I am the better suited sister!”
“There’s no need to argue…” Dad tried to squeeze in.
Odessa waved him on. “Can you spit out your winner already? I’ve had enough of this.”
“What a great first impression to make on your new boss,” Beatrix scoffed.
Odessa was seconds from ringing her neck, so Dad took control of the table again.
“Thank you, everyone, for your valuable input. Regardless of how Odessa may feel…” he shot her a side-eye for her earlier comments, “I for one think you have every say in this. As the current God of this Realm…” He took a loud, deep breath.
“I am confident that Isadora would be a good match.”
“What?” Odessa peeped, bewildered beyond comprehension.
I swallowed a rising lump in my throat. “I, too, as the next God to rule this Realm, agree that Isadora would be a better match. I’m sorry, Odessa, but we have made our final decision. We would be glad to find a different position for you, if you’d accept it.”
A stagnant silence filled the Inn. Odessa sat there like a statue, completely void of all emotion. Isadora bit her lip with worry and hesitantly set her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Odessa?” she whimpered.
“How dare you…” Odessa breathed, her eyes vacant as rage consumed her.
“How dare you think you can disrespect my mother’s wishes?
She has told me from the time I was born until the day she died that I would rule her Layer, and you think you can toss me aside like some common trash? That I will go down without a fight?”
“Odessa, we can absolutely find something for you-…?”
“HOW DARE YOU!” Her voice came out layered by three of her, and her body contorted until she stood as tall as the ceiling.
Her hair grew until it wrapped around her body as a black cloak, and from underneath it, plumes of crimson smoke spilled from her cracked-open jaw.
Dozens of eyes opened from within the darkness of the cloak, and her mouth, which was now skinless and showed rows of razors sharp teeth, opened to let out a horrific screech.
Dad whipped his scythe free and changed to Grim immediately, his familiars materializing as their own cloaked figures behind him.
To see him summon them meant this was serious, so I summoned Akira and joined him in my own Grim form.
“Do not do something you will regret, Odessa!” Dad boomed over her howls.
“I’ll be damned if you take this from me! DAMNED!”
“That is enough!” Isadora rose from her seat and brought an arm out from around herself, her eyes pure red. “You will accept your fate and leave this place before you cause more harm.”
“And what are you going to do if I don’t, sister…” she sneered back at her.
Isadora cracked a smooth side-smile. “Why don’t I show you?”
1. Radius Lucis: Ray of Light