by Amy Marie
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie, but she isn’t buying it.
Her behavior has changed. She’s shifted back into the stiff conduct from when we first met. Empty and emotionless. Her true demeanor.
Lilly is the real second destructor.
“It was you all along?” I ask, knowing the answer.
She tilts her head. An expression I’ve come to recognize all too well.
“What about the element guide?” I ask.
“There is no such thing as an element guide. I am sure you know by now, dear light, I am the element destructor.”
“What about Mrs. Spacey?” I shake my head, confused.
“Quite easy to control, I assure you.”
“But, how?” I whisper.
“There is much you do not know. But this time we can finally tell you,” she laughs, a seductively evil sound. “You see, by the next time your soul may find its way back, the balance will be overthrown, and destruction will have taken hold.”
“When?” I ask.
“Can you not tell? It is happening all around us. Look at the natural elements. They are beginning their transformation into tools of destruction.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“The rain, the storms, there will be flooding. It’s already begun. They will not relent. Water is the first. The howling winds, tornadoes and hurricanes, and gale forces will be beyond human control. Air will be second. The Earth will follow in a trembling path, breaking everything you know apart. Lands will crumble into the seas. Do I need to spell it out for you, what the final strike will be?”
“Fire?” I barely get the word past my lips.
Fear has immobilized me. If what Lilly is saying is true, the end of the world is coming. All because I failed to restore the balance in time.
“Where is Talbot?” I ask.
“Taking care of your element friends, I would imagine. We swapped duties for the day. A warm welcome was waiting for them when they reached my home,” she smiles. But it’s an empty taunt.
I close my eyes. “Darcy,” I can barely speak his name without pain consuming me.
“Ahh, yes. I was hoping we would get to that,” she says, surprising me. “He should be here any minute.”
My eyes pop open. “What do you mean?”
“Nora! NORA!!!” A feral howl tears through the passages that lead to the sanctuary.
Darcy is coming! But how did Lilly…
“There you are, my dark one,” Lilly purrs at Darcy when he tears through the door.
My heart goes so hollow, it seems to stop beating. In its place, pain flows through my chest.
My dark one?
I sear Darcy with a look of accusation.
Darcy’s eyes bore into mine. There’s power there. Uncontrolled. He’s barely hanging on. He looks to Lilly, his face a mask of pure anger blocking out any other emotion.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asks her.
“It’s okay. She knows,” Lilly says, swinging her hips as she moves and tilting her face up into his.
In the moment, I’m not sure how I’m still standing. Everything inside of me wants to shut down.
Darcy and Lilly?
How could I be so stupid?
But of course, they’re better matched for each other. They are both so beautiful, so dark, so exotic. My dreams were even warning me. How could I have missed the obvious signs?
“What” Darcy starts to say. He pushes Lilly aside and moves toward me.
I hold up my hand to stop him and it’s glowing. My emotion has taken over. If he takes one more step, I’ll blast him with unharnessed light energy.
Tears stream from my eyes.
Darcy stops and holds his hands up. “Nora, please. Listen to me. She is lying. I have nothing to do with this woman. We found her apartment. Her element safeguard was fake. The plants, they were not real. It was staged. The safeguard was never complete. As soon as we found it, we all tried to call you. But then Talbot was there. He attacked the elements, and we all split up. I was able to”
“Stop,” I say, and my overwhelming power of compulsion silences him.
Lilly is behind Darcy, smiling in triumph.
I’m angry at her deception. But I could kill her for playing me through Darcy.
The picture is there in my mind, too easily formed. The pair of them working together, plotting.
Then the picture changes, as I envision my revenge. A beam of pure light slicing through Lilly’s body, tearing her apart, particle by particle.
No.
A voice from deep within me stops that line of thinking.
Not like that. Don’t use the power that way.
I put my hand down, fighting myself internally.
Darcy takes the opportunity to speak again. “Nora, please. You know me,” he implores.
I close my eyes in pain. I have to shut out his words, silence his lies.
“Enough,” says Lilly. “If you will not tell her, I will.”
I open my eyes, yearning for the explanation, yet afraid to hear.
Lilly moves next to Darcy, she puts her hand on his arm and a black light of energy glows between them.
“We are the same, he and I,” she says to me while looking up at him. When her head turns my way, I can see her eyes glowing with the same dark light as the Darcy in my dreams.
“At least, I was once like him. Now I am something different. Something less, but more. I still carry the shadow of my powers.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“I am Lilith. I am of the night. I have held the powers of darkness in my soul, before my soul was taken from me. Now I am empty, but there is still a shadow of that power in the emptiness.”
…you were not the first light soul. There was another before you…
Lilly’s own words spring from my memory.
If I was not the first light soul, then Darcy was not the first dark soul. And if Lilly has held the powers of darkness before…
“You were the original soul of darkness,” I conclude out loud.
“She’s catching on,” she says, looking back up into Darcy’s face.
The dark light of energy that has been glowing between them is growing stronger. I’ve been too wrapped up in Lilly’s explanation to realize that Darcy seems to be frozen in the embrace of their shared power.
“Darcy?” I attempt to speak to him, to get his explanation, but his eyes take on the same dark glow.
“She did not know you were helping me.” She strokes her hands through his hair intimately. I grit my teeth at the gesture.
“Did you think I could possess all of those people on my own?” she turns to ask me. “My dark powers are only shadows of what they once were. I need Darcy.”
Anger is growing inside me with every breath.
“We are alike, you see?” she looks my way, speaking as if this should be obvious to me.
My hands begin to glow.
“There’s no room for this light in our dark world,” she says to me while moving up to whisper into Darcy’s ear.
Darcy’s face is a frozen mask of anger. His eyes still glow with Lilly’s connected power, but his body is straining, veins popping.
Is he being controlled? It almost looks like he’s struggling against her.
There are flashes of hazel fighting to break through in his eyes. Watching them, I’m filled with a new energy. Something more powerful than any of the light energy inside of me.
Hope.
“Darcy,” I say his name once more, hoping to reach him through the darkness.
“She is nothing to us,” Lilly says, too close to his ear. “Tell her. Together we will rule the darkness.”
Darcy’s face contorts.
“Tell her!” Lilly’s eyes spark with the dark light.
“Nora…” Darcy fights to get the words through.
Lilly’s grip tightens on his arm, and the dark energy glows with new strength.
“Tell her, or I will ensure you are lost in the darkness,” she whispers.
Darcy’s eyes meet mine. There’s something there, behind the dark light. An energy that is unbreakable, reaching out to me. His soul, connecting with mine.
“No,” he barely gets the word out through his clenched teeth.
His eyes glow hazel once more.
He is mine.
“If you will not be controlled, dark one, then I must insist on disposing of you,” Lilly says. With a flick of her wrists, Lilly’s hands begin to glow with an even darker light than before. Before I can even move my hands to channel my own power, she hits Darcy right in the chest with her glowing darkness. His body flies across the room.
He crashes into the wooden lattice panels in the earth garden. His limp form looks crushed and broken. I wait for his body to move, but he just lies there, defying his immortal curse.
A new emotion fills me. One I have only felt in my dreams. A horrifying mix of pain and anger from the separation of my other half. I use it to fuel the rage of my own power.
With a scream of anguish, I turn to face off against the first soul of darkness.
Me against Lilly. Light versus dark.
Lilly sees my glowing hands and sets herself up in a stance, ready for the fight.
In an instant, we both unleash our powers in a stream of energy from our very core, channeled through our glowing hands. Mine glow nearly white and Lilly’s glow black as night.
The force of our opposing powers colliding nearly destroys everything in the room.
I never knew I could harness this type of energy, but my emotions are fully fueling the light within me against the opposing darkness.
With the exertion of energy, I’m losing strength and can feel the light draining from me. The threat of darkness keeps me holding on just a bit longer.
“You cannot beat me, Nora. The emptiness has devoured my soul, and I am cursed to live forever,” says Lilly.
“Cursed like me,” Darcy’s words take me by surprise from the corner of the room. He raises his hands and they glow with a deep, almost purple light. His power is dark, but it is different that the evil glow of Lilly’s empty darkness.
With a wave of Darcy’s arms, Lilly is taken by surprise and knocked back against the wall, held with her feet above the floor in the choking grasp of his power.
I fall to the ground, drained of my energy.
Darcy faces Lilly with renewed strength.
“Your empty powers are no match for my true darkness,” he growls at her.
She smiles despite the choking grasp of dark energy around her neck. “Yes. Embrace your power, dark one. True darkness will consume you, just as it did me.”
Raising my head, I watch Darcy falter.
The struggle for power hits him hard, and the dark energy dissipates, releasing Lilly.
Even as she struggles to catch her breath, she wears a feline smile.
I want nothing more than to wipe that smile right off her face.
To my surprise, Darcy does just that. With a quick jab, Darcy knocks Lilly to the ground, seemingly unconscious.
He turns from her and moves over to my side.
“Are you alright?” he asks, caressing my cheek.
“I thought you were with her. I thought the darkness would control you,” I say, tears filling my eyes.
“I was never with her. I am yours. Till the end,” he rests his forehead on mine.
A deep, haunting laugh comes from Lilly’s crouched body.
“Do they not remind you of us, my star?” she asks, looking up. Her eyes look beyond our huddled embrace. We turn and follow her gaze, and our bodies freeze together in horror.
Marcus Talbot stands in the doorway of the sanctuary. His shirt is covered in blood. His hands glow with… light.
Chapter 27
Empty light.
Can such a thing be described?
Vague... dim... hazy... Like looking directly at the sun, and then closing your eyes to find the ghost of the sun’s light burned into your eyelids. The light glowing from Talbot’s hands is like that. It’s like a shadow of the light that glows from my hands with my power. But the glow is unmistakable. His powers were once powers of light.
Talbot and Lilly are the team of two destructors. Lilly is really Lillith, the original soul of darkness, who had been consumed by her power of darkness and lost her soul to the emptiness. Her other half, would have to be the original soul of light. The one she called her star. The morning star.
“Lucifer,” I whisper his name as my mind catches up to the connection and my eyes reflect the glow of his empty light power.
Darcy’s eyes harden in anger as he turns to look at the object of his cursed existence.
“A name used a very long time ago,” Talbot says with an empty gaze.
Lilly gives a hollow laugh from behind us.
“Our names have changed many times,” she says, “but we remember. We were the first.” Her eyes are trained on Talbot, never leaving him, awaiting instruction.
“Where is the guardian?” Talbot asks her.
“Dead. I killed him,” her response makes me want to be sick.
I look to Darcy to share his silent pain. The news of Uncle Mike hits him hard. I do my best to send him my emotions through my eyes: grief, guilt, and remorse for not being able to save our guardian. His answering gaze is of understanding and patience, but deep sorrow.
“There is another,” says Talbot, breaking our connection.
“He is not here. He is with her sister,” Lilly sneers in my direction.
They don’t know about the second sanctuary?
Thanks Goodness!
Uncle Mike must’ve kept the sanctuary expansion plans secret from Mrs. Spacey.
Darcy squeezes my hand that’s still locked in his grasp.
Reassurance.
We still have each other. This isn’t over yet.
“What about the elements?” Lilly asks him.
“Two of them escaped. I left the other for dead,” he gestures to the blood on his shirt.
Lilly smiles as she slithers over to her mate. She’s always reminded me of a snake.
The thought brings Uncle Mike’s book to mind with the underlined passage snakie sorceress. Lucifer has the reputation of being the primary form of evil throughout history. But I won’t underestimate Lillith. She is the unknown foe, the sneaky, slithering temptress.
Together they are a formidable pair, the fallen powers of light and dark. I compare them to Darcy and myself, and wonder what led to their demise.
To buy time, I ask, “If you two were the original souls, what happened?”
Talbot regards me with a cold stare saying, “You will not stall our plans.”
Lilly appears smug, but caresses Talbot’s arm. “My star, we have won. The great shift will soon take place. They cannot stop it now. Let us finally tell them, before we dispose of her soul this final time. I want them to know what led to their final destruction.”
Dispose of her soul?
They plan to kill me and keep Darcy alive again. My eyes widen in fear. His eyes share the same dread, but we both remain silent. Let them talk, we need the time.
Talbot’s answering glance is of complete indifference. Lilly takes that as a cue to go on with her story.
“In a different form of existence, we were the first souls, the first creations born from the energy. Because we were the first, we were the most powerful. And we watched the energy grow through the processes of creation. More souls were created, but they were given less and less power. They were inferior.”
She starts her story as if she’s been waiting to tell it for a long time.
“We knew we were different than the other souls. The powers that belonged to us were limitless. So, we embraced them, developed them, and used them to gain control over the other souls. But some souls resisted us. Some thought we should not have such power, and some wanted to fight.”
&nbs
p; She gestures to Talbot. “The power of light was used to compel some of the souls onto our side. But even with their help, we were still becoming outnumbered through creation. So, I began to push my powers of darkness. Souls began to fall under my control, and through our powers, we began to rule that existence.”
Lilly has always had dark features, but the dark expression she gives before continuing sends chills throughout my body.
“But the energy did not agree with what we had done. Creation was halted, the souls we ruled began to shatter, and our powers of light and dark consumed us. Our existence fell away and after suffering the brunt of our power, the two of us were cast out into the emptiness, never to be seen or heard from again.”
Lilith and Lucifer were the reason the souls were shattered. They brought on the destruction of that existence because of their desire for power. I grip Darcy’s hand tighter than ever with the realization of what we’re facing – true evil.
“Instead of destroying us, the emptiness embraced us. With the creation of the new world, the emptiness faced the threat of being filled.” She points to herself and Talbot, “So we were given access to the new world through these indestructible empty shells, and a promise to rule the emptiness if we followed one simple order.”
No need to guess what that order is.
“Complete destruction,” the words hiss from her mouth like poison, smooth and deadly.
“If there is nothing, there will be nothing to rule,” Darcy speaks up.
“When there is nothing, we will rule the emptiness,” she replies.
“What will happen to the energy?” I ask.
“The energy will be hollowed out into emptiness, like a vacuum, losing all powers and creative forces. It will still exist, because energy cannot be destroyed, but it will be the opposite of filling the void,” Lilly’s eyes gleam with her desire for destruction and the downfall of the unfathomable energy.
My mind swirls with childish visions of heaven and hell, battles of angels and demons, and prophecies of the end of the world. Everything I know from my own religious upbringing, as well as what I have learned through the study of others, all come crashing into my mind at this pivotal moment.
We’re talking about the end of everything as we know it. This is the energy and the emptiness, the essence of everything around us, and whether the details of any myths were right or wrong, here we are on the brink of destruction. Our differences in interpretation mean so little when we all face total annihilation altogether.