by Mary Duke
“I am a God,” Thanatos shot back. “I do not have to earn anything.”
“Oh, of course not,” Zavery said mocking him. “Because the world and everything in it is indebted to you, simply because you exist.”
“ENOUGH!” Illiah shouted. “We don’t have time to be petty. If we’re going to keep the Realms from imploding, we need to get started.”
“Get started on what exactly?” I questioned. “Are you forgetting you locked us out of the mountain?”
“I didn’t forget. I just didn’t know what to expect when I went in there, you know?”
“None of us knew what to expect,” Zavery replied. “All we had to go off of were the stories we were told of him, and the knowledge that your father screwed him over and locked him in a cave.”
Illiah shrugged her shoulders. “What’s done is done. I can’t take it back.”
“You’re right,” I agreed.
“So long story short,” Illiah said looking to Thanatos. “I am now sole Keeper of the mountain. Everything inside, the things, the magic, the beings, the spirits…they’re all connected to me now. The previous Keepers, all those who came before my grans, as well as my grans, they all had a lot to say about him. Those stories we were told, the scary bedtime stories, though there is some level of truth, I can assure you his twin sister is the one we have to fear.”
“Wait,” I said. “He has a twin sister?”
Thanatos smiled. “There aren’t many who know of her. My mother always hated her, and the first chance she got she banished her from the realms. After that everything about her was gone; no one spoke of her name, of her existence…It was as though she was an imaginary friend or something.”
“And you were okay with this?” I questioned. “Don’t twins feel some sort of unexplained connection?”
“No, I was not okay with it…and though Hel and I did share a connection, it was a dark time in our family’s past. A very well hidden, dark time in my family’s past.”
“What does she have to do with any of this?” Zavery questioned. “Better yet, why is a plan even needed? You’re free, the ring is back on your finger, why don’t you just do whatever the hell it is that you do, take the souls back and end all of this?”
“It’s not that easy,” Illiah replied.
“Well, it could be that easy, if I wanted to risk ending the realms…I’m a true immortal, I’ll survive…and to be honest, if the realms are filled with more self-absorbed brats, I’m more than willing to hit the reset button.”
“Hey!” Illiah snapped. “That’s not what we discussed, and that is NOT what we agreed on.”
Thanatos smiled. “You’re right. We agreed that it’s best to keep our distance from Hel, all while keeping the power of all the souls hidden from her. You also agreed to help me kill my mother, and I, oh so willingly, agreed to help you kill his mother,” he said nodding towards Zavery.
Chapter Three
SNO
After hours of bickering, a place to rest, recoup, and gather information was finally chosen.
“Hey,” I said reaching out to Eris.
“Yes?”
“Can you do me a favor?”
“Eat the bickering fools? Gladly,” Eris responded.
I chuckled. “I was thinking more along the lines of, don’t let them kill each other. I’m going to shut my eyes for a few minutes.”
Kegan smiled. “I think we’ll be able to keep them in line.”
I shrugged my shoulders. Though I knew I should care more, at this moment the pull to close my eyes was overwhelming, and I couldn’t battle it any longer.
“FINALLY!” Ayana screamed.
I sat up and looked around. I was no longer lying beside Eris, and Kegan was nowhere to be seen. “Where am I?” I questioned rising to my feet.
“Where isn’t important, what is important is the reason I brought you here.”
“And what is that?”
“It’s Zavery,” she said walking up to me, her face riddled with worry.
“What about him?”
“He’s spiraling.”
I couldn’t help but let my lips curl into a smirk. “Isn’t that who he is? I mean he’s known for that, right?”
“This is serious, Sno. Without his guardian, he’s unpredictable.”
“I didn’t know he was ever predictable.” I said trying my best not to sound sarcastic.
Ayana tilted her head and stared at me.
“I was being serious. I may despise him and his family, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t kept tabs on him over the years. Believe me, if you were told you were the exact opposite of someone, and you were the bad half, you’d have done the same.”
“The interpretation of that prophecy,” Ayana said shaking her head.
“I know.”
“But this,” she said as she turned around and started to pace back the way she came. “This is serious. He and I are linked just as you and I are, and his thoughts, his actions… They’re dangerous.”
“Wait a second. His thoughts?”
“Yes. They’re scattered, incomplete, and jerky.”
“You know what he’s thinking?”
She turned back towards me. “There is so much you don’t yet know, Sno.”
I studied her face. In all the times I’ve seen her and spoken with her, she’s never appeared so anxious.
“Walk with me. There’s much I’m going to tell you.”
I nodded and followed her lead.
“Most of my children, or children of the moon, however they’d like to be identified, never see me. Though I do reach out to those with special talents and abilities, to help them hone in and focus their energy on light magic and doing good in the realms.”
I smiled, remembering the first time Ayana reached out to me.
“You and Zavery, the both of you changed everything for me. It had been almost five hundred years since I had witnessed any of my children be born with this level of potential, or the ability to harness the power the two of you can… And I failed you.”
I stopped walking.
Ayana slid her arm in beside mine and locked elbows with me, urging me to keep walking. “There is and has been a great deal going on in the Realm of the Gods. I let myself become wrapped up in things that did not deserve my attention, and in doing so, I lost sight of what truly mattered. Now I’m sure you can understand, fifteen years to me and fifteen years to you is vastly different.”
I nodded. I could only assume that when time meant nothing, keeping track of it wasn’t important.
“Now, as I let myself get drawn into one of my sibling’s, let’s just say projects, the two of you grew from malleable children into the young adults you are today. Your minds already filled with intentions, beliefs, and dreams, all shaped by the happenings of your short lives. It wasn’t until I took a deeper look into what those happenings were that I realized that it was quite possible I was too late.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t follow where you’re going with this. How did you fail us?”
Ayana sighed. “I had my own hopes and dreams for the two of you. I had planned to bring you here, to my home, to nurture your minds, protect you from the harshness of the world, so you could grow to protect others.”
“I still don’t see why you believe you failed. We are here, are we not?”
“You are, but you’re broken. Your heart, your souls, they’ve been marred by the years you’ve both been on your own. Because, though you may not want to admit it, the two of your lives mirror one another; though aspects are different, the outcome and effects are the same.”
“You know something my mother used to tell me?” I said.
“We don’t have time for stories.”
“This isn’t a story, and I think you need to hear it before you say another word.”
Ayana bit her tongue and waited for me to speak.
“I used to read, I would literally flip pages till I got blisters. I’d read anything I cou
ld get my hands on, and when I’d come across stories of people who went through something and made the wrong decisions or made a decision I didn’t agree with I would ask questions. It got to the point where my mother sat me down and told me that the only way I could truly understand something was if I’d been through it.”
“Now I am the one who does not follow you,” Ayana said.
“You just said that you had wanted to keep us away from hardships, so we could protect others from them.”
“Yes.”
“How could we possibly protect others from something we didn’t understand?”
Ayana paused, chewing on her words.
“I just wanted you to know that despite the fact you believe you failed us, or that we’re broken, I don’t feel that way. I truly believe my mother and father’s words. I believe that everyone’s past builds them into the future person they need to be. Every obstacle I’ve overcome was put there for a reason.”
“Most mortals.” Ayana smiled. “Want everything easy, and complain when there’s a single bump in the road.”
I returned her smile. “Haven’t we already established that Zavery and I aren’t like most mortals?”
“Yes. The two of you are…well, there are none like you now, nor can I say there will ever be again. That is why I’m so worried that I failed you. I was given this chance. The two of you were born of my blood…you were created in my image.”
“Well, the past cannot be changed, so there’s no point in focusing on it,” I said, taking one of Kegan’s favorite lines.
“I know. I know. I just can’t shake the feeling that I messed everything up. The thoughts that are running through Zavery’s head right now…they’re not thoughts any sane person should have.”
“How do you know what he’s thinking exactly?”
“Because I have a feeling that I’m really going to need your help with him, I’m going to let you in on a little-known secret about the gods. In order to create a being, it must be made from the god or goddess’s soul. It literally takes a piece of us to make you. So because there’s a piece of me within you, I can hear your thoughts, I can feel your pain.”
“Really? Like everyone?”
“I can only hear those gifted with magic, my magic to be exact, those who pull their power from the moon.”
“How do you manage that?”
“To be honest, it’s like a radio, and some voices stand out more than others. There’s no managing anything…or at least I haven’t found a way to manage anything.”
I nodded before she stopped, jerking her hands to the sides of her head and falling to her knees.
I fell to my knees beside her. “What’s going on? Ayana, are you okay?”
“It’s Zavery,” she said scrunching her eyes together.
“What’s wrong with him?” I questioned, my mind instantly getting pulled in a hundred different directions. “I knew I shouldn’t have left him there with Illiah and Thanatos alone.”
Her hands fell from the sides of her head. “It’s not them,” she said standing again. “It’s his mother.”
“His mother? Did she find us?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s the reason I brought you here, Sno. Zavery is spiraling. It took years for his guardian to get him past all the things his mother had done to him. Years of piecing him back together and building him up. And that was only possible because he believed his mother had died, that the cause of all his pain was gone.”
“She’s not dead though.”
“I know…but the one person who pulled him through the darkest years of his life is.”
“I didn’t think Guardians could actually die.”
“Everyone can die; for some, it is just harder than others.”
I didn’t know what to say. Part of me didn’t believe he was actually gone for good; I had actually expected him to come back.
“The Dark Mountain houses magic that even we do not understand. The cave which you passed, the magic which radiates from it, nearly took the life of my brother. He too became consumed in what he saw; if it were not for our father’s ability to heal, we would have lost him.”
“I had no idea,” I said.
“It was when we were children. The Dark Mountain, believe it or not, was one of my family’s first homes, before we became who we are, that is.”
“Seriously?”
“It was before the realms were created,” she said cracking half a smile. “Now, as I said, Zavery is spiraling. Wrapped in grief and consumed by guilt, he’s becoming lost in his desire for revenge. Right now he has it set in his mind that if he kills her, it will make everything right again. If he kills her, his guardian will come back, and his life will go back to being complicated, but in his eyes manageable.”
“She can’t just die though. If he kills her, we all die.”
“Yes,” Ayana agreed. “And part of him knows this, but that part that acknowledges this doesn’t care. It believes that he cannot survive while she is alive, so he’s dead either way.”
“What can I do?” I questioned. “I mean you’re telling me this because you believe I can do something, right?”
“I need you to put all your differences aside, forget all the things that divide the two of you. I need you to make him feel accepted, make him feel like he’s not alone.”
I bit the inside of my lip. I honestly believed we were as close as we’d ever had to be. I could carry on a conversation with him and be in the same room.
“Sno,” Ayana said grabbing ahold of my hands.
I couldn’t make any words come out of my mouth.
“I hate to put this all on your shoulders, but you’re the only one. You know the power that runs through his veins. The temptation that pulls you to use it in ways it ought not to be used. More importantly, you understand his heart, because though you lost your parents under different circumstances, you both grew up on your own, having only yourself and your guardian.”
“Yes, but his parents are the reason mine are dead. They killed them looking for me, to save him.”
“They did that. Not Zavery. Zavery too was a child, just like you were.”
Ayana’s hands jerked back up to the sides of her head, and she tried her best to speak through the pain.
“You need to go back. You need to help him. I can’t. There’s too much going on right now here. If they were to find out I even talked to you…my mother…she’d have my head.”
“I don’t know what to do.” I said as everything around me began to fade.
“Be there,” she replied. “Your presence is what he needs.”
Chapter Four
ZAVERY
“Stop! No. Just Stop!” I screamed covering my ears and turning away from Thanatos and Illiah.
“Stop what?” I heard Illiah question.
I covered my ears and muttered under my breath. “You’re not here. You’re not real. Get out of my head. You’re dead. I watched you die.” I fell to my knees, slamming my hands against the ground as I screamed. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”
“But I am here, Avey. I’m not dead.”
“No!” I shouted again, as everything around me began to fade.
“Mommy’s here. Don’t you worry.”
I was in limbo or something. I don’t know what it was, I never knew what it was, all I knew was that I hated it. It was like being stuck between having a dream and waking up.
Your mind raced, but you couldn’t move or see anything.
I took a deep breath, or at least I think I did. I told myself to. I knew how this worked, I knew her game plan. I couldn’t let her get under my skin. I wasn’t going to let her win.
“You’ll wake up, you just have to wait her out,” I told myself. “You’re nowhere near her. None of this is real. She can’t hurt you.”
Then she spoke. “You are a fool to believe I cannot reach you.”
I tried my best to ignore her, repeating to
myself that she wasn’t there, she didn’t matter. Though when the pain intensified, I realized that this was different from all the times before.
Light began to illuminate the darkness around me, and for a moment I froze in fear.
“Impossible,” I whispered under my breath before my fear began to turn to rage as the memories of this place came flooding back.
She snickered. “Nothing is impossible if you have enough power.”
I ran my hand up the stone wall as I stood, still trying to convince myself that I wasn’t here and that none of this was real.
“What, you don’t like it?” she questioned from behind me. “It’s exactly the way you left it.”
I tried to calm my nerves, but nothing was working. Every time I took a deep breath, I could smell and taste the thick, damp, musky sea air. As I braced myself against the wall, I could feel the cold stone. All I could hear was the rapid beat of my heart, and if I dared close my eyes, the suffocating darkness ignited my other senses. I was back in my family’s castle, three levels below the ground. I was back where I was kept for much of my life as my power raged out of control. I was in the pit.
“You spent so many years here, I thought it would be the perfect place we could reminisce about all your wonderful childhood memories.”
I watched as my hands curled into fists. I wanted nothing more than to slam them against the stone, as I had done so many times before, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. This place was fortified against magic, and without it I was weak.
Her laughter echoed off the walls. “That’s right. You. Are. Weak. You’ve always been weak, and you’ll always be weak.”
I began to turn around, fighting the fear that tensed every muscle in my body. I didn’t know who I would see when I turned around. Nor did I know which would be worse. Would I see the woman who birthed me, who repeatedly beat and tortured me as I child, in an attempt to make me the perfect child she believed she deserved…or would I see this new woman she had made herself into, the woman who was solely responsible for killing every person that ever reached out to help me since I escaped this place?
“Look at who’s become brave,” she sneered.