by Emery Skye
I heard agonized screams where Amalie sat. The Tricksters laughed raucously.
Rage stopped the convulsions and gave me strength. I jumped to my feet and ran. I hurdled over the fence and charged the Tricksters. Nothing was going to stop me from shredding those fuckers.
Nathan suddenly appeared in front of me. I would have run him down, but he grabbed my arm, spun me, and held me. His lips moved near my ear, but all I heard was the thunder of my own heartbeat.
I fought him, eager to obliterate the Tricksters. I pushed him, but he squeezed me tighter. Sweat and tears glued strands of my hair to my face. He was stronger than I. He protected me. My heart constricted. It felt like a cinderblock of sorrow and guilt had been dropped on my chest for the noviate, for Amalie, and for myself.
My knees gave out when the adrenaline dwindled. Nathan knelt, catching and holding me. I buried my head in his chest. Everything blurred. My eyes burned. I couldn’t hear anything. I was numb.
“Anna, breathe. Breathe, my strong Anna,” he whispered softly. “Just breathe,” he repeated over and over again.
I had won the competition, but lost a part of me. The part that gave angels compassion. I would kill them.
After what seemed like a hundred years, I lifted my head from Nathan’s chest. Amalie and Taylor knelt next to me. They wept. Amalie would never be the same. She was no longer the sweet, angelic, naive, innocent girl she'd been. She was now a Warrior. Taylor was different, too. This had quenched part of the fire in her soul. I was different. Now bound by something stronger than friendship, Amalie, Taylor, Nathan, and I stood as one to face the Master Trickster.
Chapter 23
“You win, Anna.” The Master Trickster hesitantly and begrudgingly told me.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Annnnnnna,” Fawn slithered, hopping up down near his Master.
“No one has ever beaten me,” His voice was filled with anger and disbelief.
I kept my eyes from looking into his.
“Well, except one,” he said with biting sarcasm.
I wondered whom he meant, but I keep disinterest written on my face.
“We won,” Nathan shouted sternly across the arena. “It is time that you give us what is rightfully ours.”
“Yes, yes. Transportation and information. Is that right?” The savage barbarian asked.
“Yes. The information about Alyosha.”
“Alyosha Deror?” He directed the questions to Nathan, but kept his indignant gaze fixed on me. I tried to keep my eyes away, but it wasn’t without difficulty.
“Yes, Alyosha Deror. You know much of him?” Nathan mused disbelieving.
“I know of everything, Nathan. Including your brother’s whereabouts.”
Amalie wrapped her hand around mine hearing Alyosha’s name and squeezed, tightly.
Apparently he did know everything; even that Nathan and Alyosha were brothers. I wondered how that made Nathan feel.
“And...” Nathan said.
“And, your brother is being kept deep in the darkness of the Cavern of Darkness, itself.”
“We don’t need your riddles, you slimy fuck! We won fair and square, now cough it up!” Taylor shouted from beside Amalie. She stepped forward and must have felt the weight of everyone’s stares, because she slowly stepped back into line.
“Ah, yes. I don’t suppose you have been much help. Maybe one day you’ll realize your potential, Noviate Rachiel.”
How in the name of The Powers does he know all of this?
“I know my potential,” she growled back. “I know the potential of my dagger.” Her eyes blackened with anger. I quickly looked away, not wanting to see something...private.
“Tay-lor,” Nathan snarled under his breath.
When Nathan snarled, it was a good indicator to SHUT-UP.
“That is what your arrogance makes you think,” Master Trickster smiled faintly at Taylor. He then shifted toward me. “Your transportation awaits outside.” He stood up and began to walk away. The darkness almost swallowed him entirely.
“Wait,” I shouted. He made a ninety-degree turn back towards my direction. “You didn’t tell us where Alyosha is?”
“I did,” His disturbing lips made a suckering sound as he spoke.
Confusion and disbelief swept through my body. This was the ridiculous information the noviate had lost his life for.
“But...but we don’t know where that is,” I cried out loudly over the laughing Tricksters.
“You should, you have seen it.” He brought his fingers up to his lips and sucked some gunk off of them, one by one, creating a sound that made my stomach churn. “Do you want my advice?” He paused like we were going to jump up and down with joy to get his advice. “Leave the noviate to his own fate, and return to whence you came.”
That was no longer an option. It never was. The noviate would not lose his life in vain. That was one thing I could control in this nightmare.
“Another bit of advice. I would run, my clan is very hungry, and it would be wrong for me to deny them a good meal.” He turned, and I watched as darkness engulfed him.
My whole body tingled with fear and anxiety. The Tricksters jumped up and down and leapt out of the stands and onto the dirt of the arena where we stood.
Automatically, the four of us took the fighting position—our backs together and daggers drawn. They crawled in on us from all around, there had to be hundreds. Their spines snapped in and out, up and down, as they drew closer.
“That piece of shit. We should have known this would happen,” Taylor spewed. “And, where the is Lucas? For the demon; that boy has terrible timing!”
“Good question,” Amalie said quietly.
“Shut up, and focus,” barked Nathan.
I sighed and scanned my surroundings to see the whole situation. There was no visible way out but the way we came. We were going to have to fight to our deaths, or so I thought.
“Up there, he’s up there.” Amalie shouted and pointed her finger to the stands. Lucas stood there and was waving us over, shouting something that was difficult to hear.
“How the hell are we going to get over there, that stupid….?” Taylor laced together a few very elaborate, creative curse words that made Amalie jump in surprise.
“We are going to fight,” yelled Nathan.
That was when I saw it, a Trickster leaped up at me. I pulled the long dagger up and sliced the slimy thing in half before it reached me. Both halves of its body fell to the ground and the battle started: Four Angels against a hundred or so Tricksters.
“The ring,” Nathan shouted after what seemed like a lifetime of fighting. So far I had only one good cut and a few bruises from where the Tricksters jagged nails had slashed my skin.
“What are you talking about?” I screamed and punched a Trickster in its gooey shoulder.
“The ring Azrael gave you! Put it on... NOW!”
I glanced down to see the ring on the chain hanging around my neck. I pulled down on the ring ripping the chain off my neck and slipped it on my finger, hoping it wasn’t a bomb.
Everything stopped or I was just going really, really fast. A Trickster still came at me, flying through the air. I lifted my dagger and sliced him in half. Like that, I continued slaughtering the Tricksters one by one. One by one, I became increasingly more exhausted. My heart began beating slower, my limbs became heavier, and my muscles became weaker. Swallowing and breathing became painful. Once back over to Nathan, I pulled the ring from my finger cupping it in my hand and fell onto my knees.
“That way,” I pointed. “Quick.” I whispered faintly.
Nathan swept me up into his arms and ran in the direction I told him, cradling me close. He ran through the path where there were now no Tricksters. My eyelids became tired, but I willed them to stay open with all my power. Everything was numb in my body as he ran.
I couldn’t feel my fingers, arms, or legs—nothing. It was like I had been paralyzed. Yet, guilt, sorrow, despair, and every bad feeling I h
ad ever had, every bad experience in my life—my sister falling through the ice, the disappearance of Alyosha, to what I thought had been rejection from Deror, the agony of the children I had seen in the Trickster’s eyes, the screams of a woman on our path through the Dark World, to witnessing the death of the noviate tonight—flashed before my eyes, casing my heart and consuming my soul, making me want to weep forevermore.
We kept running, but I could no longer keep my eyes from closing, and finally I was enfolded by Darkness, sinking lower and lower into an abyss.
Chapter 24
My eyelids weighed a million pounds, and my body was anchored like a tree into the ground. The hard jagged floor had molded to my arms, legs, to everything that I am. My heart burned from inside me. The darkness inside my body matched that of my externalities. It was too much for a junior in the Academy; it was all just too much.
There was something different about me now—something I couldn’t understand. I could feel a pull of something bright and loving fight inside my body. It felt like a lesser dose of what I had experienced when I had been punished by the Patron. It fought to help me open my eyes.
As I tried to unglue my eyelids, the light source inside me lifted the weight off of them. Slowly, I peeled my top eyelid from the bottom, and my surroundings were dark, darker than I imagined. It took a minute for my eyes to gain the strength to make out the shape of a young girl with long dark hair tracing her body in the shadows. It was Amalie; I could tell it was her when I saw those bright, blue eyes filled with concern.
My Amalie, where were we? I wondered to myself. Where could we be that could possibly feel this dark—The Dark World.
I remember.
We traveled to the Dark World for Alyosha. I fought my mind for the memories that were mine.
“Anna, Anna. Can you hear me?” asked Amalie quietly, forcing a faint smile.
“Shut up, beetle brain, she needs her rest! Can’t you see that?”
Guys, I am fine. I tried to say it, but nothing came from my lips.
“What is wrong with her, Nathan? Why won’t she say anything?” Amalie’s eyebrows rose, and her face stayed tight.
Nathan leaned his face down toward mine. I kept my gaze fixed on his, but he dropped his face so I could no longer see it. I felt a light tickle on my ear.
“I miss you, Anna. Come back to me. Come back to me, my strong Anna,” he whispered and then he gave me a light kiss on my check.
His scruffy facial hair tickled my face, just a little bit. Electricity shot through my face into my body to the tips of my fingers. It was the type of electricity that made me feel giddy from the inside out. My fingers started moving, slowly. Nathan had filled my body with an emotion strong enough to fight the Darkness lurking there.
It was fought by love.
“I’m back,” I breathed in his ear that was still near my mouth.
“Did she say something? Did she say something? I think I heard her. Oh-my-goodness, did you just see her finger move. Anna!” Amalie shouted.
“God, rug-rat back off, she is going to go back into a coma because of your shouting,” Taylor barked and shot Amalie a sideways glance.
My heart dropped at the concern and love my friends felt for me. A small smile formed on my face.
“She smiled!” Amalie shouted at the top of her lungs. Then with the might of her tiny body, she grabbed Nathan by the shoulder and heaved him off me. She jumped on me and hugged me fiercely. My body ached, but I fought the pain. It was wonderful to have her so close and so relieved. It was like my waking had lifted a weight off of her heart.
Taylor reached down and tugged on Amalie. Taylor attempted to pull her off, but Amalie just swatted at her like a fly.
“You’re going to crush her,” Taylor said.
“I am fine, Taylor,” I interjected. “Where are we?”
“We are at the Cove,” Nathan answered.
“The Cove?” My lips perched and eyebrows rose. I struggled to sit up, but my body would not allow it, yet. So I lay there on the hard, tough ground and waited impatiently for my strength to return.
“It’s a really smelly, disgusting, and utterly classless place in the Dark World,” Taylor continued.
“The only thing classless here is you, Taylor,” Amalie voiced sternly.
“Oh honey, you are just so wrong all the time. Tell me: How does one become as stupid as you are?” She paused momentarily. “Actually, don’t.”
“Stop this,” I shouted. “What is going on here? We just made it out of the Tricksters lair together, for each other, and you idiots are at each other’s throats? Do you have any idea how stupid that is?” I looked over at Nathan. “Nathan,” I said hoping for a bit of help.
“It’s just been really stressful; you have been asleep for a very long time, Anna.” Nathan responded.
“Please, help me up,” I asked.
Nathan reached one arm under my back and the other under my arm. He slowly pulled me up. My neck leaned back, and Nathan had to move his arm up so that it rested under my neck, it was like the way someone would hold a baby. I was as weak and fragile as a baby, for some reason.
“How long have I been asleep, exactly?”
“You have been asleep for—” she counted on her fingers, “—three days.” Amalie was the one who answered me.
“You’re kidding,” disbelief tinged the air, anxiety dispelled in my voice. “What happened?”
“The ring, it almost killed you,” Nathan uttered with a guilt-ridden voice. “I shouldn’t have told you to put it on.” He said sadly, and his eyes dropped down to the ground in an effort to evade my face. He was scared for me.
There was a long, long silence.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I finally said.
“Yes, it was,” he looked up at me with tears welling up in his eyes.
“Damn right, it was!” Amalie shouted at him erratically. “Whatever that thing is, which I highly doubt it is the Ring of Solomon, it is definitely bad, with a capital B. We could have made it out on our own.”
Taylor stepped forward and placed a hand on the woeful Nathan’s shoulder.
“No, we could not have made it out on our own. We would have died if Anna hadn’t put on the ring and did whatever the hell she did.” She paused and looked at the audience, namely me. “What did the ring do, anyway?” She cocked an eyebrow.
Finally, I was actually being included in the conversation about me.
“Well, I don’t remember well. It was strange.” I paused trying to find the right words to describe what had happened, but truthfully, I was not even sure what had really happened. “It was like...like...everything stopped so that I could kill the Tricksters.” I moved my hand up to wipe my hair out of my eyes. It was difficult to move my hand, but luckily my strength slowly returned. “Or...maybe...I was just going really fast. It was all kind of a blur, to be honest.”
Again, they all stared at me. Again, there was no sign of Lucas. Then, they stared down at my hand. I hesitantly followed their awe struck gazes.
My hand! Tiny white swirls etched into my skin, like tiny tattoos. They started at my finger and worked their way up to the base of my wrist on the top of my hands.
“What the hell are those?” inquired Taylor, stunned.
“I..I don’t know,” I stammered quietly rubbing the tiny tattoos.
Nathan reached over and grabbed the hand with the tattoos, my left hand.
“I don’t understand,” his eyes rounded.
“What don’t you understand, Nathan? I am not going to die or something, am I?”
“No, no. It’s just I have never seen or heard of anything like this in my life,” he jumped to his feet, wicked fast, pulled his fingers back through his hair, and shut his eyes tightly. He was clearly infuriated. The question was: Why?
“What’s wrong?” I asked again, sounding more than mousey.
“Stop it, Nathan! You’re scaring her!” Amalie jumped in front of him. She, then, turned slowly to
face me. “Everything is okay, sis. Nathan just lost his mind there for a second.” Her tone deepened, and she turned back to him. She grabbed his arm, and I could tell her grasp was tight. “Everything is fine, now.” She said in a deeper, darker voice than I had ever heard her conjure.
“Um... Well, at least they are pretty. I mean they could be black like a hooker’s tattoos.” Taylor didn’t actually help, but at least she tried.
Above all else, I now had strange, swirly tattoos after using a more than strange, slightly forbidden to angels-ring that almost killed me. Hmm.
Nathan paced a few strides from us. I wanted to ask where Lucas had run off to; just thinking about Lucas made my stomach knot tightly. It felt like there was a fist running through my intestines.
Suddenly, I saw lurking shadows in the Darkness near where Nathan stood.
“Nathan, come back over here. I feel weak again. I need you to help hold me.”
“Shit,” he muttered to himself.
He had jumped up so fast that he had forgotten that he had been holding me up.
My new tattoos were the least of our worries, I thought.
“Look, we have bigger fish to fry,” I stared at Amalie, Taylor, and Nathan in the eyes, individually. “How are we going to find Alyosha, and where and what exactly is the Cove?”
“It is pretty much a concave, arched molding that we found when climbing a mountain,” answered Taylor. “You needed to rest, and it was difficult carrying you.”
“Shut up! Nathan carried her, not you,” interrupted Amalie.
“What about the horses? Did you leave them behind?” It seemed odd that the horses were the first things to pop into my head, but sure enough I was slightly troubled by the thought of not having them.
“No, we didn’t leave them. They scrambled up the mountain.”
Nathan moved over and propped me up with his arm, holding me into his chest, so that my neck wouldn’t flop over to the side.
I observed the Cove. It was a dark cave space. I could faintly hear water nearby, and I wondered if a stream flowed through the Dark World.