31. Maya
thirty-one
Maya
I sit up, look around me, and find myself in front of a monstrous fireplace. Around me is a vast mansion room with couches and countless bookshelves spilling over with gold-edged books. Lining the edge of the room are scrolls encased in glass crystal cases on stands, positioned evenly around the room. I stand up and look around, only to realize I'm completely alone. The monstrous fireplace snaps and crackles behind me, and I am drawn to its warmth. I walk through the room and to the large double doors inside. Everything inside me was telling me not to make my presence known yet.
As I walk past the scrolls, I see an intricate K carved into a wax seal that contains them. Other scrolls contain a cursive stamped N in the same font. As I make my way to the doors, I push them open and slip through. Outside is a vast hallway with heavy velvet curtains hanging on either side of the windows and tied back with heavy gold ropes.
As I walked through the hall, I looked out the windows and noticed that there was a forest outside for as far as my eyes could see. At the end of the hall, I came up to a large door that was gold-edged with intricate gold swirling designs. When I pushed the door open, I entered a large library with a vast room with shelves from floor to ceiling; each shelf spilled over with more dilapidated books.
On the back wall was a monstrous tapestry showing three figures of goats. The goats sat in a swirling pattern, and on the top left was a solid black goat facing the center. On the top right was a golden goat, and at the bottom between the two was a small, innocent-looking white goat. I stared at the tapestry, and suddenly, it became familiar to me as if I had seen it 1000 times before this.
Suddenly, the door to the library swings open fully, and Emmett and Emery come racing towards me. They throw themselves at me, laughing happily. I'm absolutely stunned and fall to my knees, hugging them with tears streaming down my face.
"Where have you two been? How did you get here?" I'm sobbing and holding them close.
"Mr. Nicolas brought us!" Emery says happily. She's wearing a pastel red dress, curling her hair lightly.
"He adopted us!" Emmett proudly proclaims. I look around the room; it's just us three. The entire castle seems to be completely quiet.
"Where is he?" I ask the children.
Their eyes light up, and they both grab my hands, pulling me out of the room and down the hallway. We make a right turn, and they burst into a large room that looks like an office, with a large polished hickory desk sitting in the middle.
Nicholas sat in the large chair at the desk. His hair was down, and he sat with his head propped against his hand as if waiting. As soon as we entered the room, his face lit up. He stood and began to walk over with his arms open as an invitation. I put myself between Nicholas and the children, but they pushed past me and hugged him around his legs.
"I'm glad you finally made it, my dear," he says, smiling warmly. He looked completely friendly, but as the memories of my dream came back to me, I was reminded of the truth.
"Why am I here?" I ask him.
"The real question is, Maya, why haven't you been here?" He hugs the children and motions them away, and they quickly leave the room, shutting the door behind them. I don't take my eyes off him, and he walks around the room. "I've been very patient with you. You should be grateful." He runs his fingers over the golden spines of books lining the nearby shelves. "As you can imagine. I'm not very fond of sharing, but luckily, this is one of those things where you have to make the decision to come to me. So lucky me, I had to deal with it."
"What are you talking about?"
Nicholas suddenly closes the distance between us and lifts my hand, revealing the coin.
"You brought yourself here, did you not?"
"That wasn't me," I snapped and ripped my hand away from him.
"But it was you, Maya. You see, you're the only one to use that coin to move around freely. My brother and I don't possess that ability. That's what makes you the guiding light for us. The beacon. " Nicholas snapped his fingers, and suddenly, I was in a floor-length white silk dress that hugged me tightly. He bends down, bringing his nose to my chest, and breathes me in deeply.
"Don't worry, my dear. We'll get his smell off of you," Nicholas' words vibrate a low octave. I bring my hand up quickly and slap him across the face. The impact draws blood from his lip, and he slides a long snake-like tongue out to lap up the crimson liquid.
"She said you were a spitfire," he chuckled. He motions with his finger to the back corner of the room, cast in shadows, and suddenly, a cat walks out. My cat. My heart stops as I watch the cat I had grown to love for so many years morph into my grandmother. Only she's younger, as she was when I was a child.
"It's nice to see you again, my dear," she says. She hugs me, and I'm stunned to retaliate.
"What's going on?" I say with a shaky breath.
"My dear, exactly what is supposed to be happening," she coos.
I take a step back, putting distance between myself and the other two. My grandmother reaches for my hand, pulls the coin out, and holds it before me.
"You brought yourself here just as you were supposed to do."
"Someone better fucking tell me what's going on," I yell and Nicholas chuckles. Nicholas takes a step towards me.
"Before you what? You can call your guard dog, but he does not possess the power to come here. Call him if you want. You'll only be making this easier."
"Don't fight it, Maya. This is what you were born for." My grandmother smiles.
"What?" I look at my grandmother, who has a sweet smile on her face as if pitying me.
"It's time for you to take your place as the beacon." I take a step back, completely overwhelmed by the situation. "There has to be three. There have always been three. You are the third."
"Stop," mumble.
"It was your job from the beginning, Maya." she continues.
"Stop talking," I take another step back, and my back hits a wall.
"You are the third guiding light. The third Christmas spirit," Nicholas leans against his desk, and his eyes rape my body.
"Shut up!" I scream. I cover my ears with my hands, and suddenly, the estate rumbles, and books fall off the nearby shelves.
"Don't you see Maya? This is what you were born for and what you were chosen for," my grandmother says franticly as if she knows she's not convincing me.
"Don't come any closer," I commanded.
"My dear," Nicolas says sweetly. "Evelyn, I think it's about time that the children eat. Would you mind preparing their food for them? I would like to speak to Maya alone."
"Of course," my grandmother leaves the room, shutting the door softly behind her.
Nicholas was right in front of me with a hand around my waist. He begins pulling me around in a soft dance, just like he had done in my dream. I fight against him, struggling and punching his chest, but his hold on me is unbreaking.
"You can't fight it forever, my dear. Asher fought it and looked where it got him. Six hundred years later, he's still blessed to walk this earth forever-" he spins me. "Just like you and I."
"Please," I beg him. I try to push away from him.
A growl escapes Nicholas' chest, and he brings my chin up with a finger. "I'm starting to understand why he adores you so much. You're quite entertaining."
I pull away from his grasp, and he pulls me close once more before diving his head between my neck and biting down harshly. I slam my fist into his chest, and he reaches a hand down, gripping my hip bone. I cry out in pain as his thumb digs into my fresh tattoo.
He rips his hand away as if in pain. His thumb is bleeding as if he had been burned. He suddenly grabs me around my neck and slams me against his desk. He rips my skirt up, and as soon as his eyes land on my tattoo, they go dark, and he roars.
"You sneaky fucking girl," he hisses. "Did you let him do this to you? Did you beg him to do this to you?" He runs his thumb over my tattoo and shoves it deep into the fresh wound, and I cry out in pain. I struggle against him, and he rubs his thumb harshly over the tattoo, making my body jolt with pain.
"Asher," I cry out.
"Cry out for him more, doll. I want him to see what I'm doing to his little fucking toy." Suddenly, Nicholas is thrown away from me and crashes into a nearby fireplace, sending hot embers flying around the room and raining down on me. I roll over to the side of the desk and brush off the hot coals. I fall to the floor and hide from his sight. Standing there on the other side of the room is a monstrous being towering in the room. It dwarfs Nicholas and I.
The beast has the legs of a black goat. The hooves snap through the room's floorboards, the air around us whips wildly, and candles blow out one by one. The creature's skin is ashen gray. And its goat-like eyes scan the room quickly. Horns tangle through the creature's black hair and out of his skull. There was something familiar, but the desire to be close to this monster was overtaken with fear, and I sat there staring. Heavy chains sat loosely around the creature's waist and ankles, jingling angrily and whipping through the air like snakes. The creature breathes a cloud of air from his nose like a bull, and his body vibrates with power. Illuminating the room, more than the leftover candles and fireplace, are the creature's tattoos that glow brightly against his gray skin. I look down and notice the tattoo of a white goat on his wrist.
"Asher?" my voice weakens as I stare at him. Suddenly, the creature looks at me, and the tattoo on my hip bone begins to glow softly. I smile as a feeling of comfort and familiarity washes over me, and I get up and race to him.