Twenty-One
CHAPTER
Viotto had his arms crossed, and a scowl plastered across his olive features. My eyes rested on the scar across his face, sitting in silence. Viotto, Nevan, Zathrian, and Mateo went back and forth, unable to come to an agreement.
“You’re telling me that Neil has gained control of the Lelarin throne?” Zathrian huffed, his face red and riddled with anger. “Gods above, how did that even happen?!”
“Wasn’t Samael supposed to ascend to the throne so the problems in the Mortal Realm would resolve themselves?” Mateo questioned.
“He was!” Zathrian raised his voice.
I blinked, still wrapping my head around the entire situation, sitting there entirely dumbfounded.
Why Samael? What interest did Neil have with the Mortal Realm, anyway? Pale as a ghost, I thought of the events that transpired that day, remembering that I saw Samael and Casimir the day I died, and… what Gelia told me the day I tried to climb the Wall. To make things worse, I never told them.
“Uhm.” My attempt to speak up was drowned out by the raised voices around me.
“Seems to me that Neil has plans to gain control over the Mortal Realm, and ours. He thinks that if the Wall comes down, he can stretch his territory across East Haven.” Viotto paused to look at me.
Gods, why is he looking at me like that? I do not like where this was going, not one bit. Please don’t drag me into this.
“He thinks that if he can get Aerilyn, he can absorb whatever magic she has to have as his own and use it at his will to take down the barrier, and the Wall, and expand the Realm of Clouds into the Mortal Realm. He wants to take control of its people and bring back the old ways that died long ago.”
“What old ways?” I questioned with wide eyes, looking between them.
Zathrian pinched the bridge of his nose.
Mateo reached out to rub my upper back, attempting to comfort me.
“The ways before the Wall went up, and the barrier was placed to protect us all. Back then, long before your time, humans were mere pawns. Servants. Property. They groveled at our feet and worshiped us, and back then, not all Beings were kind to them. Humans were not viewed as the people that they are.” Mateo paused. “You understand, don’t you?”
I understood.
Slaves.
They were slaves to their—our—kind.
Nodding at his words, my eyes left Mateo’s and went to Zathrian.
I was once a slave. Property to the very High Lord that stood across the room from me.
The one I was currently looking at. Things had changed so much that it was still hard to wrap my head around it.
Especially now that I was here in the Realm of Stars and no longer within the Realm of Clouds.
“It’s not right,” Nevan cut in.
“It’s not, and we can’t let it happen, not again. The Realms would crumble if that wall came down. It would be an absolute bloodbath,” Viotto agreed.
“We have all lost far, far too much to get the Wall placed to begin with… I won’t allow it to happen, not again.” Zathrian exhaled.
“What are we to do?” Mateo asked, rubbing bigger circles on my upper back.
“I, uhm, I don’t understand why you would have voted for Samael to rule in the first place… I saw him and Casimir together, discussing something privately, the day I died. And… he was the one to kill Gelia and then me,” I finally managed to blurt out.
They all stared at me.
“What?” Zathrian asked.
I nodded. “The day I died, I saw Casimir and Samael talking. Casimir handed him something and I only caught a glimpse of them. When I went up to Gelia’s room for afternoon tea later that day, I walked in on Samael killing her, and then you showed up, pushed me into him, and he killed me, too.”
“You saw Samael and Casimir talking that day?” Zathrian asked.
I nodded.
Viotto and Zathrian looked at each other, and then at me again.
“Samael was working with them all along then,” Zathrian stated, sounding defeated more than anything.
The room was silent. I didn’t know what else to say, so I chose to do the only thing I could do and push the conversation forward.
“What does my magic have to do with anything, anyway? I don’t even know what I am capable of. I can’t even control it.”
“I don’t know.” Zathrian looked sincere and, for once, I actually believed him. He turned to Mateo with a look I couldn’t quite explain.
Does he really not know? What does he think happened that day?
Viotto slid a hand through his hair, still sitting beside the crackling fireplace that warmed the room. The weather was cool for mid-summer, thanks to the mountainous terrain of this Realm. “The only explanation is that you were co-created by the Gods.”
All eyes turned to Viotto when he said that, mine included. A heavy silence filled the room. What?
“I mean, anyone who has ever been different like her was co-created by the Gods,” Viotto repeated. “She showed up in the Realm of Clouds, but she has shadow manipulation that those in the Realm of Nightmares possess.”
“And she is a Seer,” Zathrian added.
“That only solidifies my thoughts. Only the Gods can do that. She marks off all the boxes… Now if she had healing magic, then that would be irrefutable proof.” Viotto paused.
“I mean look at her, we all know she isn’t like us.
She doesn’t even have wings, and her hair should be white, but it isn’t.
She looks like none of those in the Winter District.
Who knows what her magic can really do?”
“Impossible.” Nevan butted in.
Mateo was speechless.
Zathrian’s eyes scanned mine, some unspoken passed between us.
His hand slid to his chin in contemplation.
“She can heal. We discovered that the other day.” He paused.
“Well,” he stumbled on his words, seemingly not knowing what to say, “we will need to do whatever is necessary to keep them away from her. More than what we already have done… and get answers from the Gods themselves.”
Co-created by the Gods? Meaning… my parents possibly aren’t my parents? None of this makes any sense at all.
Mateo pulled his hand away, resting it in his lap. He picked at the skin on his nails.
Everyone nodded, except for me. I didn’t know how to feel about the matter. Picking at my own fingertips in the same way Mateo was, I was beginning to feel more like a pawn again than I did a person. I am not a pet. I am not a toy. I am not a p—
Mateo leaned over, grabbing my hands to stop me from doing more damage to them than I already had. My fingertips were already raw and painful.
“Or we use her as bait and trap them,” Nevan suggested.
Zathrian was quick to protest. “No. We will do no such thing. It’s not worth the risk. She has been through more than enough and she is not a pawn to me. No. Absolutely not. That is entirely out of the question.” He huffed.
“Hear me out. We could use her to coax him out. Make him think that he has the advantage and sideswipe him when his guard is down. Then we take him to the Gods ourselves. Let them decide his fate,” Nevan said.
“Or, we can stop talking about me like I am not sitting right here listening to everything you all are saying,” I butted in, annoyed that they spoke of me as if I couldn’t hear them.
“She’s right, you know,” Mateo agreed, taking my side again, something that I had noticed he always seemed to do in one way or another. Sometimes more subtle than others. I appreciated him far more than he knew.
An idea came to mind, but I wasn’t sure if it would work. Perhaps it was foolish, but something drove me to open my mouth, anyway. “Or… what if I go back to the Mortal Realm and tell everyone the truth about what happened?”
Zathrian shook his head. “It’s better the Mortals stay out of this. The less they know, the better.”
I protested, “But it’s their—”
“I said no,” Zathrian retorted.
I understood where he was coming from. Divine beings came from stories and were not always depicted as kind creatures.
Some saw crossing the Wall as a blessing, while others saw it as a curse.
If anything, the Wall and everything in Wisteria were considered taboo to those who resided in the Mortal Realm.
Even with times changing in East Haven, and the knowledge of the Wall and the history behind it, it wasn’t something that was often talked about, if at all.
“Well, we can’t just sit by and do nothing,” Viotto said.
“He’s not wrong,” Nevan agreed.
“We take Neil to the Gods before he can get anywhere near her, and we show his people the monster he truly is. The Gods will punish him for his wrongdoings, and someone else will take his place as High Lord. And while we’re at the Mountain, we will ask the Gods about Aerilyn’s part in all this,” Zathrian said, gesturing toward me.
“Aren’t I safe here, though?” I asked.
Zathrian nodded. “He can’t hurt you here.”
We both knew that Neil was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and his entire Court was fooled by that. Everyone except for—
I turned to Mateo, thinking about Acheron.
Clenching my jaw, I was unsure of what they meant by ‘taking’ Neil to the Gods.
I had gained a great deal of knowledge over the past weeks from literature and history books about the Four Realms of Wisteria, but no one had ever said anything about being able to meet said Gods.
Now wasn’t the time to ask, either. Sitting in silence, I listened to them go back and forth.
“And how do you suppose we do that? We can’t exactly just stroll into his Manor.” Nevan sighed.
“Acheron can help us,” I added.
Everyone turned to look at me, then at Mateo, and back to me once more.