by Maya Daniels
“FUCK!” Meda shouts, and my entire body goes cold. What have I done?
“We need to hurry!”
Derik grabs my hand and starts running, dragging me behind him as I’m tripping over my own feet, while everyone else follows as fast as they can. The air is much colder now, and I don’t know if it’s because we’re so deep underground or because the god whose realm we are in is mad as hell and will kill us all slowly and painfully.
We literally run for our lives for what seems like forever. Finally, we reach an open cave-like area in all these twisting tunnels. As we walk in, a small lake of still water that glows like it has a thousand stars in it rests in the middle. The light reflects on the walls, making them like hundreds of portals sprinkled around. I can’t help but admire them.
“Meda, hurry, open the damn portal,” says Remi.
Meda stands in front of the water, waving her arms. After a few seconds, a portal starts opening, and excitement is thrumming through me. We’re going to get away! Thundering footsteps from a lot of feet can be heard in the distance, sending my heart hammering my ribs like it’s going to fly out of my chest.
We’re so close, please, Goddess, let us get away. Please, I beg in my mind.
As the footsteps get closer, the portal grows wider. The ground starts shaking, and I look around with wild eyes, thinking Zack will show up any second, but instead, lots of rocks crumble, sealing the doorway to this cave.
Jezzinta smiles. “That should hold them back a little,” she says, and I beam at her. Smart thinking.
When the portal is wide enough, we all step forward so we can get through it. Remi gives me a quick glance and goes first, Philip right on her heels. I push Jezzinta to follow after, then wait for Derik, but he shoves me through before him, making me cringe. I wanted to wait for Meda. I have one leg through the portal when there is a large boom and the rocks blocking the entrance explode everywhere. As Derik throws his body into mine, I grab Meda’s hand and all three of us tumble through the portal together. Before the portal disappears, I hear Zack’s fury-filled roar.
A split second later, the portal is gone, and I can barely breathe because Derik and Meda are on top of me, but I couldn’t care less. I start laughing. Oh, what a glorious day it is to escape a certain death. I can hear the others joining in through the sound of my own laughter, and I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy in my life.
Remi, Philip, and Jezzinta help us all up. Everyone is hugging everyone, the guys slapping each other on the back for a job well done and the four of us are clutching each other in a group hug. Derik inches to me, pulling me away from the others and kissing me like I’ve never been kissed before, like he wants to leave an imprint on my soul. Honestly, he probably has.
After we finish, we just stand there in our embrace, staring into each other’s eyes.
“You came for me,” I tell him, trying to catch my breath.
“I will always come for you, Alexia. Not even death can stop me from reaching you.” His words are a vow, and it shakes me to my core because he truly means what he said. I can see it in his eyes.
Glancing around, I’m happy to see we’re at the clearing where we did the ritual. I guess that’s how they managed to open a new portal, because I notice the circle and the tools on the rock altar next. I should’ve known they would never abandon me and would do everything they could to get me back.
My legs hurt from all the running, so I sit down and start taking my sandals off. Everyone follows suit and we sprawl out on the grass just being, nothing else.
“Did you destroy the potions?” I ask, needing to know if it’s finally over.
“No, sister. We can’t destroy them, but you can, and we’ll tell you how when we get back in the house,” says Remi.
As much as I don’t like it that they still exist, I take a deep breath. I’ll do it as soon as I get home. For now, we all need to relax, and we are doing just that. Everyone is talking about something, and soft laughter rings through the air.
This is how it always should be, and this is what I want for the rest of my life, I think as I look at the faces of the people that mean more than my life to me.
Meda goes quiet, then, and when I glance her way, she is staring at her hands.
“Are you okay, Meda?” I ask, concern etched into my voice.
A minute passes before she lifts her head, and when she does, tears are running down her cheeks. “A vision. Remember, A-ma, in the circle, nothing is what it seems.” She grabs my hands, squeezing my fingers so tight they hurt. “Remember,” she begs.
I get chills down my back, but before I say anything, there’s a bright flash and there stands Zack in all his glory. He has fire in one hand and a flaming sword in the other. Everyone jumps up and spreads out until we all stand still, waiting to see who will make the first move. I conjure a flame in my palm, too, because if he wants a fight, we’ll all give him one.
He throws a flame ball towards Derik first, but Derik flicks it off with a sword that he pulls off his back, and I see it glowing bright with a golden light. Where did he get that thing?
“I see you added a guardian to your little group of freaks,” Zack spits, pulling my attention to him even though I have no idea what he’s talking about and I don’t care.
Flicking my hand, I send a fireball at him that bounces off like a child’s toy. He laughs. Asshole. I try gathering the water from the air and I send it at him, but it does nothing, so I give up on that idea. I’ll fight fire with fire. From the corner of my eye, Remi spreads her arms wide like she is calling him to embrace her, and the strongest winds I have ever seen start from her and slam into him. She is like an avenging goddess with her hair whipping around her face and her eyes spitting fire. It pushes him back one step, but he sends them back to her, making her body fly like a leaf in the wind and drop her on the ground, twisted in an unnatural way.
“No!” I scream as loud as I can.
I can hear Philip scream too, and I see him running to her. It can’t be … she can’t be dead, but she’s not getting up. I have no time to run to her because the ground starts to shake and I’m trying not to fall down. I balance myself and turn to Jezzinta. Her arms are up, she’s chanting, and trees and rocks are flying towards Zack, smacking him everywhere. He sends some back, but some hit him and I’m praying it’ll send him back from where he came from. Jezzinta drops to her knees and slams both palms on the ground. The earth splits open, swallowing him in it. As suddenly as it opens, it closes again, and everything is still for a second. Then the ground shakes again.
“That’s enough, Jez,” I start, only to cover my head against the pieces of soil that come flying at me when the ground explodes. Zack comes out from it, levitating a few inches from the ground. His perfect hair and face are dirty, and his immaculate suit is ripped all over. He throws his arm out and flames fly from him, hitting Jezzinta in the chest. With one last look, her body turns into ashes. I scream from the bottom of my soul. This is not happening. I’m not watching my sisters die while I stand here like a moron.
Steeling myself, I hurdle fireball after fireball at him, but he just flicks them off and cackles.
Philip runs towards Zack, throwing his dagger at Zack’s chest, but the dagger bounces off and falls to the ground. Zack lifts Philip in the air and throws him to the tree line, where his body hits a tree trunk so hard it almost bends in half. He falls motionless to the ground not far from where Remi is. The only thing I can hear is my own voice, screaming and swearing while calling him every name under the sun.
“Derik! Grab Meda and get out of here!” I yell at him, but he stands like a silent sentinel next to me, his sword in his hand. He doesn’t move an inch, almost like I haven’t just spoken, like he hasn’t just seen all the people I love being killed one by one. Zack reaches his hand towards Meda and starts pulling her towards him with an invisible rope. She digs in her heels and starts chanting, but nothing helps. I throw fire at him again to distract him, but it doe
sn’t work either. When she is standing before him, he grabs her by the neck. With one flick of his wrist he breaks it, her body dropping in a heap at his feet.
My scream is even louder this time, if that’s possible.
Turning to me, he smiles like the snake he is. “Your turn, treacherous witch.”
“Over my dead body,” Derik spits at him.
“That can be arranged,” Zack says like he is talking about a picnic date.
He throws fire at Derik, but that sword Derik is holding flicks it off again like it’s nothing. Maybe we can still kill him and make him pay for the people he took from me today. Zack moves towards us, and Derik meets him halfway. The swords clang, sparks and flames flying every which way. I throw more flames at Zack, hoping to distract him enough so that Derik can stab him, but it’s not helping much. It seems more like Zack is trying to entertain us than defend himself.
After a while, I can see he is getting frustrated, but Derik doesn’t even look tired. He keeps swinging his sword rhythmically, waiting for an opening. Concentrating so hard on Derik, I don’t see the flame coming my way until it hits me in the right shoulder. I drop to the ground, screaming as the smell of burning flesh assaults me. Everything seems far away, though, all the sounds coming through a long tunnel.
Derik roars, pulling my gaze to him. My breath stops. He roars in Zack’s face as two enormous white wings burst out of his back. My jaw drops. He swings his sword first, then turns to see if I’m alive.
It all happens too fast. My eyes widen, but my scream comes too late to warn Derik when Zack’s flaming sword goes through Derik’s chest. I can do nothing but watch the life exit his eyes, the same ones still on me, still making sure I’m okay. Zack rips his sword out, letting Derik fall to the ground, his unseeing eyes still on me. They are all gone, dead because of me.
Zack’s laughter drifts to my ears, waking me up. I feel like my soul is begging me to let it go, to stop fighting and set it free. That’s exactly what I plan to do.
Climbing to my feet, I move toward Zack while he eyes me warily. Good. He should.
“You win, Zack. Here I am. You can do whatever you wish with me. I have no fight left. You took everything from me that I love.” I take slow, steady steps, like a robot.
I’m not sure what he sees in my expression, but it must be what he wants because his smile is wide and victorious. “I knew I would break you this time. I knew you’d come to your senses and obey so I wouldn’t have to kill you like in the other lifetimes,” he says, his voice filled with excitement.
That stops me in my tracks. He killed me in my other lifetimes? The memories come like a flood, one after another, and in each his face is the last I see before my soul exits my body. In the middle of those memories, I hear Meda’s voice. “Remember, A-ma, in the circle nothing is as it seems”
I look up at him and see the calculating glare he is giving me, repeating his words in my head “I knew I would break you this time.”
The anger builds in me, slowly at first, but stronger with every breath I take. My body vibrates so hard I think I’ll burst into a thousand pieces any second. In the middle of it all, Meda’s words echo like they are on repeat “Nothing is as it seems, remember.”
A light breeze lifts my hair away from my face. I twist my head, my gaze burning into Zack’s, who acts like he is a little worried. He should be. I’m not in control right now. The rage is.
“Come now my love, time to go.”
He reaches his hand towards me, but he doesn’t move or come closer. In the back of my mind, I wonder why that is, but then I can only wonder why my body feels so hot, like my skin is burning. The vibrations grow stronger and stronger. My lips stretch into a smile, and by the widening of Zack’s eyes, I imagine it isn’t one of my nicer ones. The breeze shifts, turning into wind that blows harder and harder until it lifts my body in the air, my hair flying around me like hundreds of ravens and my arms are outstretched to the sides like I’m suspended on an invisible cross in front of him. The anger is still growing like wildfire inside me.
“You’re upset, my love, but it’ll pass. We will be happy together this time, I promise you,” Zack says, but it is faint to my ears, barely audible.
A buzzing starts in my ears like a thousand bees are around me, and I still watch him like a predator watching its prey. This god, this creature that only wants to hurt or use me and hurt or use the people I love. This thing that thinks he is above the law of the universe and can take away a life that is not his for the taking. At least with evil creatures, you know what you get. With him? He sneaks up like a snake, all sweet words and deeds until he becomes the snake in your bed that ends your life. Obviously more than once, as is the case with me.
“Love?” His word is spoken calmly, but I hear the worry etched in it.
His breath comes clear to me, his heartbeat, even the atoms in his body multiplying I can hear. All of it. And as I do, the anger inside me reaches a turning point. If this is the end of my existence, I will not go without making him pay. Not this time.
“You may write the destiny, my love.” I spit the last words at him, not even recognizing my own voice because it sounds like a million voices speaking at once. “But you will never write my destiny. Love is the only thing that has that power.”
As I finish the sentence, a stream of fiery water comes out from my heart, my mouth, my eyes, and my hands, shooting straight at him and turning him into ashes that are frozen in ice that burns with violet flames. It’s as gruesome as it is beautiful, and I can’t take my eyes off it. A portal opens and sucks him through it as I watch. There, it’s done. Now I can let go, I think as the fire gets hotter and hotter. Within a few seconds, the flames engulf my entire being and the ashes of what and who I am fall in a pile on the ground. All I see is darkness now. Maybe I’ll need to pay for the lives of those that have lost theirs to protect mine.
It’s strange that I still feel like I have a body, arms, legs, and a head. I try to move them and it’s like I’m covered in sand that’s preventing it. Lifting my head slowly, I open my eyes and look down to see my body covered in ashes where I’m curled up in a fetal position. Slowly I sit, then I stand. I’m covered in cinders and my legs are in the pile almost up to my knees. The clearing is empty. There are no bodies, nothing, just me standing naked in a pile of embers. I glance down at myself again, remembering what happened and wondering where the bodies of the people I love went.
“Ah! The phoenix rises from the ashes!” I hear a man’s voice, and tilt my head up straight into Lucifer’s face.
“What happened?” I ask him, confused.
“You were reborn, Alexia,” he says gently, smiling at me like a proud father. “Come, there is a lot to teach you so you can do what you want,” he says as he offers me his hand.
“And what do I want to do, exactly?” I’m still confused. Is this an alternate reality?
“To go save the people you love, of course.”
Taking his hand, I let him lead me. That’s right! That is exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to save the people I love and burn anyone who stands in my way to ashes.
To be continued
Semiramis Reborn Book 2
When you stare long enough at the abyss, the abyss starts staring back!
Having suffered to her breaking point, Alexia is hungry for vengeance and eager to unravel the mystery of her calling. But darkness is closing in from all sides, threatening her sisters’ lives and her own immortal soul. In this vicious battle to survive, Alexia must determine who she can trust... if anyone.
Thrust into a world of fantastical beasts and divine creatures, Alexia finds herself ensnared by the twisted agendas of those around her. Some wish to challenge her power, others to manipulate her destiny. To protect all she’s built, she turns to Lucifer—the first of the fallen—to be tutored in the ways of the realm.
Can Alexia find the peace she craves in the tempting presence of the Angel of Darkness?
&nbs
p; Read Reborn Now
who am I. Copyright © 2017 by Maya Daniels. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Cover of Darkness, Logan Keys
Interior design by Maya Daniels
Edited by Angela Haworth
Chapter 1
Do you know how many times I have sat alone in the darkness of a room not even realizing that the sun has gone down, and I need to turn the light on, while thinking about who I am? Or even more specifically, what I am and why was I given this life that seems to be doing everything in its power to make me suffer? If you wonder why, have a seat, grab a box of tissues if you are an emotional wreck like me, and let me tell you a story about a girl that wished she were never born.
People call them “gifts” when you are born with some ability different than what’s considered normal in this fucked up world, but I beg to differ. Anyway, I have had a few of those ever since the day I took my first breath and up to this day, I wish was also my last too. I don’t mean to be a downer, it is what it is, you know. We are given many choices in a lifetime, but not the choice if we like to be a freak of nature or not. Nope, that’s something decided on our behalf long before we release that first scream coming out of the womb. We just learn to suck it up with time.
So, as I said, I am one of those with the “gift”. From an early age, I learned a few things very fast. One. No one likes to be told when you see and hear things they don’t understand. They’ll tell you to shut up or laugh it off, but you’ll feel their fear and judgment, especially if you are an empath, which in my basket was added as, I thank you sucker, part of the gifts department. Two. Being an empath, you have compassion and love for everything, but just so the Goddess can make it more interesting for you, you’ll have the most empathy and compassion towards those who will hurt, betray, and belittle you. Three. Not even the one that gives you life will want to deal with the freak of nature you are. Ok, maybe this is not the case one hundred percent, but after so many years, I’m yet to meet one that had it differently, so I’ll go with this statement.