A Passage of Threats

  “His will belongs to Azazel, Phoenix. It’s not like he has any control over it. You didn’t see him. He puts himself through a lot of pain just to try to break free from it all. I can’t put the full responsibility of mass murder on his shoulders, not when I know for a fact that he’s fighting it, that he doesn’t want it. He doesn’t have a choice, but if we find a way to remove Azazel’s spell, it would mean we could turn others, too,” Aida explained.

  “Assuming the others would want to be turned back.”

  “Marchosi is the same. He doesn’t want to be there. He had no other choice but to say yes. I’m not sure any of us would be able do things differently if we were in his place,” she replied. “What I’m saying is that we have spotted an actual weakness in Azazel’s army. It’s something we’ve never been able to glimpse before, and it could end up being the tipping point of this entire war. We could turn the tide in our favor.”

  What Aida said made sense, even if I didn’t like it. If we saved Patrik from his curse, we would gain his support, and, from what we’d learned so far, we knew that he was one of Azazel’s most powerful lieutenants. That much strength combined with tremendous inside knowledge would surely bring us closer to defeating the monster. The fact that Azazel had not learned what Patrik was up to was another positive key point in the strategy, meaning that the lieutenant was duplicitous enough to be an effective “inside man”.

  “We can also assume there is another Daughter,” Vita continued. “And Azazel has her. It’s why the Daughters haven’t intervened against him. They must have made some sort of bargain. Her life and safety for their withdrawal.”

  “Then why did they put this protective shield around the house? Maybe that’s how the Destroyers get in, maybe Azazel holds the other Daughter over their heads and forces them to remove the shield eventually, once he figures out it’s their doing? And why did they shroud Eritopia in a spell that keeps Azazel in, if he has their sister?” I asked, going over possible scenarios.

  “Maybe there were terms and conditions to their agreement. Maybe the Daughters stayed away to protect their sister but found a loophole to still intervene without breaking the deal with Azazel,” Field mused, looking into the distance.

  I followed his gaze and saw Goren leaving a group of Destroyers behind to get closer to the shield. He looked up, his lips moving.

  “I’ll look into this when I go under next time,” I replied. I nodded toward Goren. “What is he doing there? Talking to himself?”

  Aida looked at him and was the first to stand up and approach him. We followed and reached the shield to find Goren looking pale and sweaty, mumbling as he paced around a patch of yellow grass.

  “My liege, we’ve tried everything,” he said, gazing up.

  A few green fireflies flew above his head, and a deep voice echoed from them.

  “Until the explosive charges I’ve sent get to you, continue to keep an eye on the space,” the voice said. “There are creatures in it. I saw some of them before the Druid stomped us out.”

  “That’s Azazel,” Vita gasped. “I recognize that voice. It’s him!”

  “What do we do if anyone comes out, my liege?” Goren asked the fireflies. “Do we shoot to kill?”

  “Not unless you have to. I want them alive. There’s a creature in there with large black wings. I want him for my collection.”

  We all looked at Field at the same time. He stilled, eyes fixed on Goren. Aida was as white as a sheet of paper as she placed her hand on his arm.

  “He saw you,” she managed to say, her lower lip trembling.

  “Understood, my liege,” Goren replied and bowed as the fireflies scattered.

  The Destroyer slithered away back to the camp they’d made several yards to our right. I felt queasy at the thought of Field being on Azazel’s radar.

  “Field, he saw you,” Aida repeated with panic in her voice.

  “It’s fine. I’m obviously not flying out anytime soon.” His reply was calm and composed. I figured he didn’t want her to worry too much. He took her in his arms and held her tight. Her head rested on his chest.

  “Either way, this isn’t good. I can’t help but wonder how much he saw through those fireflies,” Vita said, watching Goren as he left.

  “And what explosive charges was he talking about?” I asked.

  Was he going to try and blow the shield up? Did he know what kind of magic he was dealing with?

  Would those explosives be what would eventually let the Destroyers in?

  Aida

  We moved our conversation inside Draven’s study, behind closed doors. Field took it upon himself to scour some of the Druid’s books for any information we could use, while Vita, Phoenix, and I continued looking over possible scenarios based on our visions and the choices we could make.

  “Let’s just remember that what Vita saw is a possible future, not an absolute certainty,” Phoenix said, pacing around the room.

  “True, but it’s not just any possible future,” I replied. “It’s one that kills us all. The Daughter will explode, and we will all die. Are any of us ready to deal with our mortality? Because I am having a hard time brushing this off as a possible future. I’m sorry.” My stomach twisted in knots.

  Phoenix stopped to look at me with a pained expression and shook his head slowly.

  “No, Aida. I’m not looking to die anytime soon, nor am I willing to let the Daughter die. Let’s not forget that there’s a very high chance that if she dies, I die too, no matter where I am. And that’s not on my to-do list,” he replied.

  “We can’t look at Vita’s vision as something to just accept. We have to see it as something we can avoid,” Field interjected, while flipping through an old almanac.

  Vita collapsed in Draven’s chair, shuddering and swallowing back tears. She’d actually seen it happen. She’d taken it the hardest out of all of us.

  I moved to kneel before her, resting my hands on her knees in a reassuring gesture. I had to keep her calm—we all had to keep our composure if we wanted to prevent a tragedy.

  “It’s okay, Vita,” I said gently. “Phoenix will talk to the Daughter, and we’ll find a way to stop it from happening. He does have a point, as grim as that vision might have been. The Daughter would never do this on purpose. She wouldn’t kill us all. She’d help us find a way to stop it, I’m sure.”

  The door burst open, startling us. The Daughter stood in the doorway in her white linen dress, her reddish pink hair disheveled and violet eyes glazed with tears. She’d been crying.

  “I would never… I don’t want to hurt you,” she sobbed as more tears streamed down her cheeks. She stepped forward into the room. “I don’t want to kill you. I don’t want to die. I love you all so much. You’ve been so good to me. I can’t. I just can’t.”

  She broke down.

  Phoenix reached her in two wide steps and took her in his arms. He held her close, kissing the top of her head as she let out all her grief. His shirt muffled her voice.

  I felt sorry for her and Phoenix. They’d gotten so close so quickly.

  “It’s okay,” he said to her. “It’s okay.”

  “But it’s not! I don’t want to kill anyone! I don’t want to hurt anyone!”

  “You heard us talking about the vision, didn’t you?” Vita asked.

  The Daughter looked up and nodded between hiccups. It was truly heartbreaking to see her in that condition. She was one of the most innocent creatures I’d ever seen, and watching her cry brought my own tears back to the surface.

  “I was walking past the door and heard Phoenix’s voice. I stopped for a minute, just to make sure he was okay, and I…I don’t know much about what you saw, but if I’m meant to end it all, there has to be another way,” the Daughter replied, wiping her eyes.

  “In Vita’s vision, you explode.” Phoenix sighed. “There’s a bright pink flash that wipes everything out, including Azazel. We don’t know anything else beyond that.”

  “How do I g
et there with you?” the Daughter asked.

  “We don’t know.” He shrugged. His gaze was fixed on her face, reading her expression carefully. “But apparently your presence there, on top of Azazel’s castle, is a surprise to us, to me. As if you’ll be gone and then returning to destroy Azazel.”

  “And there’s another thing you should know,” Vita said. “According to my vision, Azazel has another Daughter in his possession. She’s referred to as a child, the little one, and she’s the reason why your sisters haven’t been more active against Azazel.”

  The Daughter stilled. Her eyes were wide and glassy, and her lips parted slowly.

  “A younger sister? How is that possible?” she asked.

  “We were hoping you could tell us. Do you know or remember anything?” Phoenix asked.

  “I…I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I wish I knew… I…I can reach out to my sisters. I can talk to them. I can visit them in my dreams, but I usually stay away, because they always tell me the same thing. That I need to wake up and take control. That I must end it all. That my sacrifice will be required to rid Eritopia of this darkness. They always make me sad and worried, so I stay away from them. But…but knowing this now, knowing that I may one day kill you all…that I have another sister and that Azazel has her… I have no choice. I have to speak to them.”

  We spent a minute looking at each other.

  The Daughter wrapped her arms around Phoenix’s waist, seeking comfort and warmth.

  I had a hard time seeing her the way Vita had seen her in her vision. All I could see was a fragile young woman with powers she had yet to fully understand. Even that freaky thing she’d done with Goren, she’d had no idea how it happened or whether she could do it again. Her abilities came to her in sudden, unexpected snippets, and we’d all agreed to look after her, protect her, and help her. She’d been nothing but sweet and helpful in return.

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea to speak to your sisters?” Vita asked reluctantly. “Last time we reached out to them, they took Draven’s eyes. They’ve not been exactly friendly or easy to deal with. What if they make everything worse?”

  “But they also answered the succubi’s prayer,” I murmured, remembering my vision of Anjani’s sisters around the campfire and the appearance of that strange crystal. “While we don’t know what that means, we know for a fact that they’re listening and that they can see what’s happening across the galaxy.”

  “Yet they’re also telling the Daughter that she has to sacrifice herself,” Vita replied. “And then I see her destroying us all. I have a feeling their involvement runs deeper than we initially thought. After all, none of them bothered to mention that Azazel has their sister, so I really don’t trust them. Especially after I saw Destroyers coming into the mansion. Their protective shield is supposed to keep them out.”

  I sighed heavily and slumped. Vita had a point. The Daughters had not been very forthcoming, nor had they been useful. Instead of answers, they gave us more riddles. Instead of help, they crippled Draven for days.

  “I have to try,” the Daughter mumbled.

  It wasn’t a comfortable idea, but we’d run out of options. There wasn’t enough of that invisibility spell to get us all out of the Destroyers’ range if we decided to leave the shield on foot. Field had captured Azazel’s attention, which made his flight far too risky to be considered as an escape option. Worrying about Field’s safety shot thousands of sharp pins through my heart.

  We didn’t know whether Draven, Serena, Hansa, and Sverik had made it safely onto the other side—wherever that was. I was having trouble summoning a vision of them, because why should my Oracle abilities work without a glitch, huh? And the mansion was surrounded by Destroyers who would soon be in possession of explosive charges. Adding Vita’s visions of Destroyers invading the house and the Daughter obliterating us on top of it all made it even clearer.

  The Daughter reaching out to her sisters wasn’t the best idea, but at this point, it seemed to be all we had left.

  Serena

  Evening had set in by the time we reached the northern shore. The ocean lapped gently at our canoe as Draven and Sverik paddled in a constant rhythm. The sky was painted in dark shades of blue and purple. Billions of stars glistened above, and the giant moon shed light on the white marble mountainside rising above the water.

  Zeriel and a dozen other Tritones swam below and occasionally jumped and splashed around playfully. I sat up straight with Draven behind me. His breath tickled the back of my neck. I looked over my shoulder to find Draven’s steely eyes focused on me. I smiled, and he winked in response, making me tingle all over.

  His mere presence was illuminating and energizing to me, and I had a feeling that we were still barely scratching the surface of our relationship. The one thing I knew for sure was that he would be the force I needed to push through and save myself, my friends, and him. The universe had been kind enough to not drop us into a volcano when we passed through the stone. I took that as a good sign and found hope in the thought that one day our biggest worry would be deciding whether to move permanently back to The Shade or live in Eritopia with our newfound friends and lovers.

  The sight before me broke my train of thought. As we got closer to the Maras’ city, it proved to be a mighty fortress carved into a white marble wall. It was a simple and minimalistic structure with narrow stairs leading up and down to different levels. It had sprawling terraces, straight architectural lines, and small, square windows.

  Its base opened out onto the white sandy beach. The fortress was covered with a large rectangular roof, supported by tall columns, and reached the shore via a series of low, wide steps.

  “Here we are,” Zeriel said, gripping the side of our canoe as he pulled us closer to the beach. “It’s called White City.”

  “Simple, but accurate,” I quipped, marveling at the enormous structure before us.

  “I should warn you not to speak out of turn when we meet them, at least not before I make the introductions,” the Tritone warned, his beautiful tail morphing into a pair of legs once more as he reached the shore, while the belt and delicate fabric he permanently wore around his waist served as a clothing piece.

  We got out of the canoe and walked across the sand. The other Tritones followed us.

  I looked up at the city, then at Zeriel, who was shamelessly admiring me, his eyes smiling.

  “Are they aggressive?” I asked.

  “It depends on how you come across. They’re ruthless by nature but will not bother to kill you themselves. They’ll bend your mind and convince you to do it yourself,” he replied casually, looking over his shoulder.

  I gulped.

  One by one, the Maras emerged from the base of the city, seemingly floating down the stairs toward us. Their long black capes covered their bodies and heads. I couldn’t see much, so I turned on my True Sight to get a better look at their faces.

  “How have they survived here for so long?” Hansa asked. “Why hasn’t Azazel crushed them? Better yet, why haven’t they risen against him since they can control people’s minds?”

  “Their numbers have dwindled over the past centuries. Azazel’s magic is stronger. His Destroyers aren’t fully affected by the Maras’ powers, from what I’m told,” Zeriel replied, watching as they walked toward us. Their feet barely touched the sand. “Normally, an adult Mara can push you into doing and thinking anything, and you lose control over your will, and, in some cases, even your memory if they want you to. But I heard the Destroyers’ wills already belong to Azazel, so they’re not something the Maras can take. I believe they’re better equipped to answer your questions in full detail, Hansa.”

  I scanned the Maras approaching, and the one in the middle leading the group caught my attention. His skin was pale, his eyes were the color of jade, and his features were strikingly beautiful, as if he’d been carved out of a marble block by Michelangelo himself. The others were equally superb creatures, tall and pale, their eyes
in different shades ranging from black to intense greens and blues.

  The middle Mara was the first to reach us. His gaze scanned us from left to right, then head to toe. I stilled when his eyes met mine and flared a most peculiar yellow, as if lights had been turned on behind the jade irises. He cocked his head to one side and took a step closer.

  I felt Draven’s hand brush against mine as he stepped forward in response, as if asserting himself as my protector. While I found that incredibly hot and sweet, I had a lineage to honor. I took a deep breath and introduced myself as a sentry by reaching out to the Mara’s mind. I attempted to read his emotions. It was more about making my powers felt than anything else. But I hit a blank wall.

  “Zeriel,” the Mara said, ignoring me completely. “What brings you here?”

  “We need to talk, Jax,” the Tritone replied. “There’s an alliance coming together against Azazel.”

  “And how is that my concern?”

  “How is it not? Eritopia is your home too,” I replied, even as I wondered why I couldn’t reach out to him with my sentry abilities. He looked at me, his mouth curving upward as he pulled his hood down, revealing his short black hair.

  “What are you?” he asked, then looked at Zeriel. “What is she? And what are you doing here? Unless you are here to repay the debt for Pyrope, I’m not interested in talking to you.”

  “Pyrope? What’s Pyrope?” I questioned the Tritone, who gave us a sheepish smile.

  “It’s an old favor that I have to repay,” he replied, then glanced at the Mara. “Can we talk about Pyrope later, please? My word is my bond. You know I’m good for it.”

  It took the Mara a few moments to respond. His gaze fixed on me. He nodded.

  “Thank you,” Zeriel replied, seeming relieved. “These are our new friends. Jaxxon, meet Draven, Hansa, Sverik, and Serena. They’re here to talk to you about joining forces against Azazel. I’ve already agreed to participate.”