I knew there was no chance at freeing my arms and running off in some unknown direction. I was in their land, and I didn’t know where the portal was exactly. And if I found it, I had no idea how to work it. I’d have to escape by another tactic.
“You’re pretty,” I said with a surprised look from her.
“Really,” she snickered. “What makes you say that?” She grinned as she crossed her arms waiting for my reply.
I studied her for a few seconds thinking carefully of what my answer would be. “I always thought demons would be ugly, but you are beautiful.”
“Hmmm,” she sounded surprised as if no one had ever told her that. “Some wouldn’t say that because beauty is defined in so many ways. Take some plants for example. Some of the most beautiful flowers are the deadliest if consumed. So, even though I truly think you find me attractive in as one would look at art, I’d look closer and wait to make a compliment until you’ve studied every inch of who I am.”
I thought my kind remarks would’ve caught her off guard, because how many people say to a demon that they are attractive. I would have to work harder to charm the scales off of her if I was to even attempt to reach the heavily guarded portal.
“But daughter, I’m glad you can see some beauty in me because I plan on keeping you as I planned so long ago,” she said bending down beside me.
“You’re mother never wanted you.” Her words surprised me and I gasped as if an iron spike was being driven through my chest. “Actually, I had no intentions of biting you. It was a spur-of the-moment decision on my part that is now paying off.”
I swallowed hard. “You knew who my mother was?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m your mother, and no one else.” She grabbed my chin making me look into her eyes.
“Get away from her!” Malachi yelled with one eye swollen and the other barely open.
Eveie turned and hissed at him until the hissing turned to amused laughter. Malachi had come with me through the portal. I didn’t think he’d risk his life to save mine, and now, I felt obligated to save him as well.
“Oh, little monster, how paths can cross in the most unexpected ways.” She tousled his hair as he flinched at her touch. Eveie only laughed as you would at the antics of kittens playing.
“It seems like you were just a boy a few days ago, and just look at you,” she said, opening her arms to him as if showing him off to an invisible crowd. “You are practically a grown monster—delicious,” she licked her lips.
“But mother,” I said, even though the words were bitter on my tongue. I had to play this mother-daughter game with Eveie if I was going to win any trust with her. “He is useless to us, leave him be.”
“April, don’t listen to her!” Malachi yelled, oblivious to my plan.
Eveie gave a scowl and slapped him across the face.
“I thought about taking you—never had a little boy before—but Ebony said to leave you so you could spread word of the handy work of demons.” She lifted him to his feet. “You are like a doll to me—like one of April’s dolls she use to play with.”
Just the thought of Eveie watching me grow up, made me shudder. All those years of those vivid, blue eyes watching me, unnoticed, following me, and making me her daughter in them, should have been disturbing, but it wasn’t. There was something in her, deep within her that drove her to do what she did.
“Let him go!” I yelled. “You have me now, mother!”
Eveie held him for a second more then dropped him to the ground, just like a toddler would when done playing with a doll. Malachi gasped for air as he laid on the floor.
Eveie turned, and came over to me with a smile. She untied my hands and took my bloody wrists in her hands examining them.
“Medusa string is a wicked thing,” she said, running her hands over the several gashes that lined my wrists. “There, and without the use of serpents oil.” She smiled with a shrug of her shoulders.
I looked at my wrists. “Thank you,” I said looking into her eyes, and for a moment, a piece of humanity stared back at me. I wasn’t sure if it was something of Ezra in me that allowed me to see it, but there was more to Eveie than just being a village-killing demon.
“Eveie, what are you doing?!” A harsh voice erupted behind her. “You were just supposed to watch her, not undo her restraints so she could escape like a rat!”
As if being called to attention, Eveie got up, but stood protectively in front of me. I leaned over to have a look at the demon.
Wrinkled, white, parchment-like skin, hung on her face as if it was clinging to it, and could possibly fall off at any time to expose the bone underneath. Her eyes reminded me of the deep potholes that littered the parking lot at Sunrise Acres—muddy-brown, covered with the dull colors of oil that skimmed the surface of the disgusting water that dripped from the bus that parked there. Her arms were bony with knobby elbows, and her fingers were long and stringy that curled around like tiny snakes. She was dressed in a long, black coat that was sleeveless and had an arched collar that haloed around the back of her head. Her hair, if you could call it that, consisted of a few strands of silver that floated delicately around her wrinkled face.
“Eos,” Eveie whispered her name. “She wouldn’t stop trying to loosen her ties, so I took them off or she would have cut off her hands. Then where would we be? We need her alive and well to take her energy.”
Eos stepped in front of her and gazed into Eveie’s eyes as if searching for something. “You have severed your ties with this monster.” She questioned. “You cannot have any feelings for her.” Eos stood close to Eveie. “Not that demons are supposed to have any feelings for little monster children,” she said under her breath, but loud enough for us to hear. “Very well, bring her to the garden, and let’s get our power we so deserve.”
Seth
The angels couldn’t penetrate the portal, and as each minute went by, our chance slipped away along with it. At least Malachi was with April, but I didn’t know how long he could hold out with the demons. He hated them, not that we all didn’t, but he barely escaped the massacre that took his whole village. I remembered how often he was questioned by not only the police-like Custodians of Iethia, but the angels as well. They came several times the first few years Malachi stayed with us. My mother hated them, but she had no choice but to let her adopted son go through what she called an angel-inquisition.
It had always been me and my mother, and when Malachi came into our family, it was like getting a present—at least for me. Malachi kept to himself at first and was slow to be a part of our lives. His family was murdered before his young eyes, and he would have violent dreams that would not only wake him, but me as well. His fear for the darkness was so great; we had to leave a light on while we slept.
Slowly, as all stories do, Malachi’s faded out of the everyday talk of others, and to my mother’s relief, it faded from the interests of angels. Malachi was resilient, and as he grew, the bad nightmares faded. He appeared like any normal monster, but I knew he had scars inside that would never heal and I hoped were not ripped open again.
“I’m worried about Malachi,” Nessa said, handing me her plate filled with different greens and topped with what looked like crumbled cheese. “I can’t eat now, and you need your strength.”
“Here we’ll split it because I know you’re hungry too.” I handed back her fork.
“Malachi’s strong and he’ll protect April.” I tried to sound positive, but I felt the same as Nessa—worried.
She took several bites of the salad. “Seth, we have to do something because the angels aren’t even able to work the portal. I heard them say something that it was webbing, and soon it would be permanently closed at our end. And to top it all off, Ayil said the stone, your stone the lightstone, is useless now. She called it contaminated.” She had the salad nearly gone. “All they told me was to stay out of the way and watch over you.” She looked at me. “I think you are better since you have that curious grin on your
face—Seth…you have a plan don’t you?”
“Not fully ready, but I know the stone isn’t useless, at least not yet.”
My wounds had nearly healed, but Nessa’s bruised eye was beginning to turn different colors and she walked with a limp. I knew she would follow me wherever I went, but I knew she wouldn’t be strong enough to battle demons, and I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to battle them and protect her at the same time.
Ayil, Uncle Hes, and Rusul were working on the portal. Yolanda held the lightstone in her hand. Isaiah and Edan looked like they were trying to create another portal by use of an etch—another implement used by the Fae to make portals.
“If we are going to save April and Malachi, I need that stone,” I motioned towards Yolanda, “and go through that portal.” Ezra had told me that the stone was not useless or corrupted as the angels thought. I felt something, a connection to it that I couldn’t explain.
“What are you going to do? Go and ask her for it or just take it from her?” Nessa and I stood behind a giant pillar. “They don’t even want us in the room with them. Mostly it’s those two archangels that don’t, and they keep barking laws and regulations at everyone.” She peeked at them as the morning sun filtered through the openness of the building. “They’ve sealed this area and are trying to get more archangels here. That’s what their portal is for. Your uncle and his team ignored Isaiah and Edan, and are trying to use the portal Eveie used. But it’s starting to web shut, and I know whatever exactly that is, isn’t good.”
“I need you to go and talk to Isaiah and Edan while I get the stone from Yolanda.” I gazed down at Nessa as the sun illuminated her nearly white hair. She’d look almost like an angel if her face wasn’t scrunched up with confusion.
“What?” She asked shaking her head. “What am I supposed to talk to them about? I suppose I could have them repeat a few laws I didn’t understand or if there were anymore that might interest me in why I shouldn’t be here, and the possibility of being put in confinement.” She crossed her arms.
“I need a diversion to get the stone away from Yoloanda, and use it to enter the portal. If you keep them busy, then all I have to worry about is getting the lightstone and going through the portal. And I’m fast enough to do it.”
“Rusul is like a brick wall,” she said, glancing at him and then at me. “Can you bust through a brick wall?”
I drew in a deep breath. “For Malachi and Ezra, and, April,” I looked at him as my heart raced, “I can.”
Nessa assessed the room with me. “Well, if we’re going to do this, we need to move.” She walked out into the room, and towards the two archangels.
She acted impressed with the portal and asked questions about it as Isaiah asked her several times to go away and stand back. Nessa had a charm to her, but I knew that charm would wear thin if I didn’t act now.
I focused on Yolanda. Delicately, she held the lightstone in her hand and in front of her as it caught the rays of light. Fragmented beams of light radiated from it. I watched her handle it as I gazed at it like a hungered beast waiting to take over another beast’s fresh kill. The stone was meant for me, and I wasn’t sure if it was destiny, fate, or instinct, but I felt drawn to it.
I kept my eyes on the stone as I snatched it quickly from Yolanda. Too surprised, Yolanda didn’t have time to react as I charged towards the portal with my outstretched arm that held the lightstone firmly clenched in my palm. The portal began to hum, and without warning, light exploded as if a dam holding back gallons of water gushed to the floor and filled the air. Uncle Hes, Rusul, and Ayil were knocked and pinned to the ground surrounded by the tendrils of light.
I didn’t look at their faces as I walked with unblinking eyes towards the portal and entered it.
With my arm still taunt and held out in front of me, I walked through the blinding light. I felt the pull the stone had on my hand, and if I would’ve let it go, it would easily fly from my hand. I kept my grip on it until the tension faded and I was standing on a grassy hill with black mountains in the distance.
“Let go of me!” demanded a voice behind me.
I turned around, and sprawled out between the tall blades of grass was Edan and Nessa. My stomach dropped as now I knew I had to be responsible for not only Nessa, but Edan as well. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
“Ouch!” Nessa yelled as Edan got up and Nessa rubbed her ankle.
“What in all the ages are you doing? You can’t do what you just did without consequence.” Edan, who was nearly as tall as me, stood with glaring eyes.
I didn’t have time to argue and shook my head at him as I helped Nessa to her feet.
“Are you alright?” I asked her.
“I would be if Archie-the-Angel here wouldn’t have stepped on my foot.” Gingerly she touched it. “I think it is worse.”
“I’m reporting this and keeping track of everything that you do.” Edan pulled out a small notebook and a tiny pencil from the spiral binding that held it together.
I grabbed it from his hand, and crumpled it in my fist as I glared at him.
“We are in the Shadowlands with three demons here holding what could possibly be the demise of not only Iethia, but as many worlds as they want. You will listen to me, write nothing down, and do as you’re told if you want to get out alive.”
“You don’t understand, monster,” Edan leaned closer to me and glared at me in all of his whiteness. “I’m an archangel, and—”
I grabbed him by the neck and shoved him into the smooth, black granite portal frame that stood out like a half-buried picture frame in the ground. Glaring into Edan’s surprised eyes; I slid his body against the cool stone until his feet were slightly off the ground.
“I don’t care if you are the head archangel,” I said as Edan struggled to undo my grip around him. “You will listen to me if you want to get out alive or die—either by my hand or a demon. Understand?”
Gasping for air, and with a slightly red face, Edan agreed with a slight nod and a blink of his eyes. I let him down, and turned my attention to Nessa.
“You and Edan will stay here next to the portal,” I said as Nessa tried to stand on her slightly twisted ankle. “You will guard the portal and protect Nessa.” I pointed at Edan and warned him with my glowing eyes.
He nodded his head as he rubbed his neck that was beginning to bruise. His mouth twitched with words of protest, I’m sure, but never spoke them as he glared his warning.
“The council will hear about this—don’t think they won’t,” Edan finally said as I stood next to Nessa.
“You have to be alive to tell them your version first,” I replied as something materialized in the portal that caught my eye.
I pushed Edan out of the way and looked at the portal that ghostly reflected the green landscape behind me and the room back at Shangri-La. The two places overlaid one another. I tried to see what was going on back in the portal room at Shangri-La, but the two images were slowly fading. Suddenly, an image formed through the swirling silver that was consuming it. It was Uncle Hes and he looked at me and smiled, then was gone.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Eden asked. “You’re just staring into the portal. I thought you were going to be the hero-of-the-day.”
I pulled a sheathed dagger from pocket and tossed it towards Nessa. “If anyone comes besides me, or if Archie gets a little too annoying, kill them both.” I turned and sped off not hearing whatever Edan had to say in protest.
The landscape was beautiful, and I couldn’t see how demons could have created something breathtaking. The gentle sloping hills were covered in a carpet of green grass, the delicate wildflowers that danced in the wind crowned the knolls in their colorful glory for miles. The black mountains glinted with silver as the sun bathed me in warmth.
I stopped running, and caught my breath. This couldn’t be created by demons, and I didn’t know how vast the Shadowlands were since I’ve only seen fragments of it through Ezra. It was easy
to get lost in the beauty that mesmerized me in this lands now controlled by demons. But where were they? They could be anywhere, and even had portaled to another area entirely.
I stood on top a hill overlooking the vastness of the lands before me and I felt I was trying to find a needle in a haystack.
“You shouldn’t stay in the open,” a voice of a young child said behind me.
I turned to see a girl no older than nine or ten with black hair and pale skin looking up at me with blue eyes. She was dressed in a long, blue dress and had a number of necklaces of tiny shells around her neck. She nervously rolled the purple and blue shells on one of the necklaces between her fingers.
I took a step towards her as she ran down the hill.
“Wait!” I yelled as I followed her down the steep incline and towards a forest that suddenly sprouted with a groan from the ground it sprung from.
Dirt and debris fell from the newly grown trees that shook and swayed into place. The girl ran into the forest that was like a giant, green curtain swallowing her whole. I ran in after her, and pushed back the whipping limbs that were like springs being released from the rich, black soil in this newly born forest.
She was small, quick and darted through the trees like a tiny rabbit. I lost sight of her a few times, but could hear the rattling of her necklaces as she ran.
“I’m not going to hurt you!” I yelled as the forest thickened with trees and grey rocks jetted out of the ground between the towering trees.
She kept running as fast as she could until she crested over a small hill and disappeared. I followed her, and nearly fell into a rushing stream with colorful rocks protruding out of the sparkling water that caught the sun and glistened like jewels in a river of silver. The girl stood at the edge of the stream and looked at me over her shoulder.
“I didn’t want Eos to see me or see you,” she said in a calm voice as I stood nearly winded from running after her. “My name is Ella, and I’m Eveie’s daughter.”
Dancing With Monsters Page 17