by J E Mueller
Her wanting to avoid saying anything more made me very concerned. “Does anything else live here?” I asked instead.
“Plenty,” she replied. “There are creatures of the lake and shapeshifters. Only the fittest can survive here.”
“Then how was this a safe place to send me?” I asked surprised.
Marella laughed sweetly. “The shifters don’t harm others and have tended to make their job culling the numbers of the failed spawn. The lake creatures… well, I was certain you’d avoid the black water, so no harm there.”
Well, she wasn’t wrong. Everything from earlier came crashing back to me. “What happened to everyone? What’s going on?”
“Come,” Marella replied, placing her hand on my shoulder.
Suddenly we were back in the forest of my home. It hadn’t looked like much time passed at all. The angel seemed to be dead on the ground, and the demon wasn’t moving either. The Mad King, Romulus, was being held in a barrier by the Blessed ghosts, a dagger through his chest.
“What happened?” I was stunned and demanded to know everything.
I moved my attention from the ridiculous supernatural situation I was witnessing to find my friends. Jareth was on the ground, not moving. Lydia wasn’t far from him, but the steady rise and fall of her chest reassured me she was at least alive. Emmyth was hunched against a tree, bloodied and beaten. Rosalie was only a foot away from him. I couldn’t tell if either of them were okay or not. Both Key and Lee were missing. Danni was laying on the ground, but moving.
Marella shook her head. “There’s too much to do.” She tugged my arm, dragging me over to Danni and the hole she had dug earlier.
“Perfect, you made it back,” Danni said to Marella. Danni had a gash in her head that was still bleeding, but she seemed to be ignoring the pain. She continued whatever she was doing, too busy to do more than give us a glance.
Seeing that Danni was fine, I made my way over to Lydia. She looked terrible but managed to lift her head slightly as I got closer. Grumbling, she lowered her head back to the ground.
“Can you heal her?” I pleaded, looking desperately at Marella before rushing to Lydia.
Lydia could barely open her eyes, but she looked happy to see me. “You did survive,” she said, relieved.
“Of course. Who else is going to save your butt?” I replied and helped her to sit up.
“I still think, there was a lot of saving your butt going on here.” Lydia laughed, which quickly turned into a strained cough.
Sighing, Marella went and kneeled down at her side. “A demon healing a Blessed warrior? Her mind might implode.”
“Less talk, more heals.” Lydia grumbled at her.
I sat next her. “What happened here?”
Lydia groaned but forced herself to sit up, only to fall back over on me. “Ugh, it was something…”
“It’s hard to heal a moving target,” Marella chastised her.
“Fine… fine….” Lydia kept her head in my lap. “Where were you?”
“Another realm. It wasn’t exciting, now tell me, what happened?” I begged her.
Lydia smirked, already starting to look much better. “I saw Marella blast you with magic, and you were gone. I thought she sent you away, but I couldn’t sense you. Anywhere! By the time I reached her to demand answers all she would say was that you were safe, and then shoved me aside. Of course it was to spare me from being skewered, but that’s besides the point.
“The targets had realized that you were gone and for a moment blamed one another, and then both seemed to blame Marella, and quickly blamed us too. I had barely gotten my footing back when I had to dive out of the way, roll, and bounce back up to get back into the action. Rosalie was already in the fight. I had forgotten how good she was at blocking and being able to turn attacks on someone. She could almost hold her own, even against these much stronger foes.
“Almost! These guys were the real deal, so she needed help, which I was more than glad to provide. Same with Jareth. He quickly got into things, but even with our forces, and having Emmyth and Lee to back things up, we were still not gaining any ground.
“That’s when Zander stabbed Jareth. The wound was way too big to survive. Did you see that blade? Rosalie, I didn’t even know what to do. It was like a switch turned on inside and she just lost it. Her attacks were harder, her hits so much more precise. She not only made Zander step back, but also pull up a shield.
“And she broke it.
“I have never heard of such a thing being possible, but I guess when your love falls and the adrenaline kicks in that there are many odd advantages at your side. She so had this angel on the run, but bam! Beleth came and swooped in. Of course, we all jumped right back into the fray but the most we could do was keep Beleth away from her. Zander… Well, she did finally nail a great hit on him and with Marella’s aid subdued him.
“That’s when Beleth got the better of Emmyth and me. Emmyth was closest and took the brunt of the hit. We were both hit a ways back. My head was spinning but I managed to crawl over to him and get him healed enough so that he could heal me. Once I was ready to go and got him back on his feet we joined back in.
“As we were rushing back to the fight I noticed Key was heavily fighting the air. Pretty sure that was about when Romulus made his debut, but with Danni right there at her side, I didn’t think I had to worry much. That girl didn’t look like much when we met her, but damn, as soon as that Creator knowledge set in, she’s a machine. She knew exactly what she was doing. I left them at it.
“Beleth and that dang weapon. We were nearly there and another swipe of that magic knocked me off my feet, which was oddly perfect timing since several lessor minions showed up and the one that appeared in front of me also got hit with the blast, so instead of a surprise I was ready for combat when I bounced back up.
“The fight was finally starting to go well. You wouldn’t believe the hits Rosalie was landing. She actually had Beleth on the run with Marella backing her up. We all tried getting in there, but with the lesser demons, it wasn’t happening.
“Then I heard a scream and spun around to see Key crying, but not upset. It was too weird to figure out and I had to get back to the demon stabbing. A few moments later Key joined our fight. Lee enchanted her blade and with her added shields the lesser demons were gone in no time.
“Beleth knew the time was nearly freaking nigh and managed to hit Emmyth with a clear shot, knocking him all the way across the clearing into a tree. He got another good shot at me knocking me, where you found me. I know the rest got injured thanks to their cries, but as I looked up I saw Marella get a near kill shot on Beleth and subdued him. That demon was finally not going anywhere.
“My head was spinning and I couldn’t tell what Marella was saying to Key and Lee, but with a blast of magic she sent them away. I saw Rosalie stagger over to me, after a moment of healing energy she left for Emmyth. I couldn’t keep up with what was going on, but that didn’t matter ten minutes later, tops, you were back!”
Marella carefully got up and went over to Danni. We probably needed to join her. Tiredly, I helped Lydia up and we walked over.
There was so much to take in from Lydia’s rambling but Dani quickly interrupted my thoughts, “Get the other two please.” Her comment was directed at Marella.
Marella snapped her fingers and the bodies of both the angel and demon appeared next to her. “We’re just missing…” A sharp wind whipped through the area and I turned to see Kegan appear with both Key and Lee at her sides. “Ah, never mind.”
“What the blazes have you gone and done now?” Kegan demanded.
“We’ve decided to change the plan and thought you’d like to be part of the new world,” Marella replied simply, flashing a sweet smile.
“What did you do with Mist?” Kegan snapped at her.
“She’s still as dead as ever.” Marella clicked her tongue. “It’s not very fair of her to have gone and wiped the memory of one of your own, and y
et you’re still defending her?”
Kegan sighed, letting up on her defense. “A different plan gone wrong. In a few lifetimes, things would have righted themselves.”
“But the balance is too off for that. We can’t stay here without destroying this world. Certainly, you can feel it?” Marella stated.
Kegan closed her eyes and nodded. “Ah, that I can. I thought we had longer.”
“What’s going on?” Key asked Kegan.
“Too much, child,” Kegan replied before turning to Danni. “What are we missing?”
“Nothing. We just need Tella to remember,” Danni said, staring at me.
I took a step back in surprise. “Remember what?”
“You’re one of us,” Kegan replied. “You were in charge of the balance, but things went wrong and it was too hard to bring you back as normal, so we put you into Mist’s care.”
“Only things went even more wrong and most of your memories were lost. Even seeing past lives you could only go back so far. Which is why Mist never worried about what you would see. You can help recreate things,” Danni added.
I glanced over at Lee, not sure what to think.
Lee shook his head before replying, “I suppose if my father can be one of these angels, then really anything is possible.”
I glanced over at Key and she just laughed. “My dad came back as a demon and tried to kill me twice. While this isn’t the future you are expecting, what do you want to make of it?”
“I want to get rid of them all,” I stated. Whatever my heritage actually was, my thoughts remained the same. I could figure out the past later. “They need to leave this realm. That goal hasn’t changed.”
“We’ll need you to come with…” Danni said softly. “We need you to help with the balance. There will be a lot more work to do this time around. They can’t have so much room to move and corrupt.”
I glanced at my cousin once more. He didn’t seem to be sure as to what to say. Key stepped in. “We’re here for you.”
Danni stood up and approached me on shaky legs. “It’ll be a bit of a headache, but some memories should help.” She pressed her thumb to my forehead. Marella and Kegan did the same. A rush of thoughts came to me, but no headache came. As they stepped back, the answers looked so much clearer.
“A moment,” I told them and looked to Lydia.
“I need your help with something. Care for another big adventure?” I asked her.
“Please don’t say it involves any more demons,” Lydia grumbled.
“Of course it does, but I think we’ll be able to handle them much better this time around.” I promised her.
“If you insist.” She sighed. “What’s the plan?”
“A world with balance.” I smirked, and dived into the details.
Epilogue
The world needn’t be built from scratch. With my memories once more intact I saw all I needed to select a previous world for this plan. It would be wrong to cull an entire species of creatures. The angels and demons had a right to live, even if how they lived was less than ideal. The new system was simple. In theory at least.
Normal lives would not be affected at all.
It was imperative to keep these beings away from mortals. They wanted to sink into and manipulate everyday lives far too much. That wasn’t acceptable, but for them to live… a compromise had to be made.
Restless spirits who needed to achieve closure and those with a wandering soul were welcomed to our world. These restless spirits would once more have a human form, fight for the side of their choosing, and once their end was finally met, they would be able to move on and rest. Of course, spirits who were ready to cross needn’t bother with this new world. It was a more lively place compared to the old spirit realm. The idea didn’t require forcing children to grow into strange gifts and seeing spirits either. It was nearly perfect.
Nearly. Plans aren’t without their mistakes, but it was a harmless enough one. Those souls, still attached to mortal beings… those daydreamers and deep dreamers alike managed to find their way into this world. They would appear at random and travel until they were awoken in the world they belonged to. Unless they met an end within this world, in which case it would startle them awake.
Time after time, I found myself traveling back to the normal, mortal realm to make sure this was the case. Every time it was so. There were strange dreams and adventures for these souls, but there was no harm in it, so we left them be. Maybe all the extra traveling would let their souls rest in peace. Only time would prove if this was most often the case.
It was strange thinking back on how I even ended up here. I had missed much of the battle. Yet, this new world had been just the inspiration I needed.
And so began a new age where angels and demons couldn’t control any mortal realm.
Acknowledgements
There are so many people to thank who have directly, and indirectly helped with this project.
Randall: Thank you for always supporting my writing and understanding project crunch time.
TWC Discord: for the sprants, the screaming, and the wonderful amount of glitter.
Daryl: Thank you for the wonderful insight and help with the beginning. I hope the rest of the book is a fun surprise.
Kelly: Thank you for all the advice and support. You truly are a wonderful friend and a very gifted author.
Douglas Okey: Thank you for supporting my first book and making me laugh so much at my first signing event. More humor is always appreciated.
Rachel Lemons: For all the hard editing and killing off another red pen. Thanks for the commentary and that hilarious corner your cat ate.
Lia Rees: Your formatting skills are amazing! Thank you for all your help and getting me in there sooner.
Anika / Ravenborn Covers: Your covers never cease to amaze me.
About The Author
Jessica is a fantasy author who formed a love of reading at a young age. While unicorns and magic sparked an interest in the genre, it was childhood friends that convinced her to write. When not dreaming up new adventures, Jessica also enjoys video games, board game nights, and sending bad jokes to friends.
Her author page can be found at:
https://www.facebook.com/authorJEMueller/