Sapphire

  Shawna had accidently knocked over her tea cup she was so absorbed in his harrowing tale.

  “Gavan,” Shawna breathed, barely able to speak.

  “Yes,” said Orin. “The sorcerer you met that day was the one who helped raise me since I was three. The one who killed my family.” His face contorted with suppressed pain as he hissed, “For fun. He killed them all because he wanted to.” He closed his eyes, took a deep shuddering breath, and opened them again.

  He looked at Shawna’s expression and answered her before she could even ask. “He wants that more than anything.” He pointed at her necklace, and she laid her hand over it. “He has great powers. He can become any creature he wants, and even turn a rose thorn into a dagger. Even the molochs are under his control.”

  “The molochs?!” Shawna was confounded that anyone had enough power to control so many vile creatures. “How?”

  He looked uncomfortable, then shrugged. “There is more that I don’t understand. That is—” Mira stamped her hoof, and he glanced up at her. “That is all I know right now.”

  “So, what happened to you?” asked Shawna, oblivious to his pause.

  He ran his hand through his hair, then finally sighed and said, “I was taken by Gavan who gave me to the powerful sorceress he served. They kidnapped me, and she raised me as her own, but more as a slave than son.” His hands clenched into fists on the table-top. “She always told me that my village, my family, had been destroyed because of some prophecy.” He ground his teeth over the word. “So she taught me two things.” He paused for a long time then said, “She taught me how to lie undetectably, and to hate you. I was supposed to make you take me to the last realm. I would then take the necklace.” He tried to look at Shawna, but his eyes kept sliding away.

  She slowly sat up. It felt like her heart had stopped beating.

  “I hated you so much that—” He looked towards Mira again. “That I wanted to kill you. Then do what I was destined to do.” He was no longer looking at anyone. It seemed like he was choking on his own words. “To save our world…from you.”

  “What?!” Shawna screamed, leaping to her feet. She was hysterical from holding in all her anger at him, and ignored everyone’s efforts to calm her. “You wanted to kill me?! And when you kissed me, was that a lie too?”

  She was yelling so loudly that Faolan and Parla had come in, but Mira persuaded them to leave just as Shawna hurled her clay cup at Orin’s head. It morphed into a mass of blue flame, and he ducked without a second to spare. It smashed on the far wall and dispersed into harmless shards of clay again. He looked more frightened of her than an Agonian bear, and Shawna didn’t blame him. She was so surprised and frightened herself at the sudden magic that she forgot her anger.

  “Enough!” Mira’s voice silenced them all.

  Shawna immediately sat down as the calming magic washed over her like warm rain. Lula was speechless, looking at her friend like she had never seen her before. That look hurt Shawna more than Orin’s accusations or his knife.

  She seethed at Orin, her anger and disbelief more scorching than the fire she’d thrown. How dare he hold a knife to her throat, and blame her for something she never did, would never do. But most of all, how dare he lie about being her friend, about protecting her. She thought she had been angry at Mira, but Orin she wanted to run over with a semi-truck…a few times.

  “I thought you didn’t believe in the prophecy?” she said, crossing her arms in an attempt to keep herself from throwing more flaming objects.

  “I…I…” he stammered, getting back onto his stool. “I didn’t understand what it truly meant.” He raised his hands protectively. “I’m sorry. Truly I am so…sorry.” He waited for her to scream again. When she didn’t, he went on. “I didn’t know. I was just told by…by this sorceress. Some prophecy about a girl and how, because of her, my village was destroyed. She told me one day I would be able to avenge them.” He played his fingers along the rings of time engrained in the wood. “She told me this girl would destroy everything. One day she would come to our world with powers unimaginable. I would gain her trust, then gain her powers, and my revenge by betraying her. I would save us all. I would be a hero.”

  Every word fell like a shroud till the truth was suffocating her.

  “You.” Her voice cracked, she cleared her throat. “Your family was killed by my…by Adhara?”

  He nodded his head. The secret words Sirrush had spoken in her ear that dreadful day clamored in her mind. She wanted so desperately to tell someone, anyone, but he had warned against her divulging what she had learned. After hearing Orin’s true reason for finding her, however, she wondered how true Sirrush’s words really were. Both she and Orin had been used for another’s means. Was Sirrush using her as well, or was he on their side? She caught Mira watching her, and tried to decipher the look in her eyes, but the unicorn was enigmatic as always.

  “I’m sorry I threw my, uh, cup at you,” she said to Orin, not meeting his eyes. “Adhara used you…and killed your family.”

  She raised her eyes to see him purse his lips and nod. The gold stone around his neck glinted in the light. She finally realized where she had seen that glint on his neck before. The night her father had saved her as an infant. That woman’s voice, the voice of her mother, filled her head again like burning coals she would never escape. By letting her live, we’ll all perish.