by Aubrie Nixon
Valessa snorted. “Oh, this is just too good!”
“Zad, please. Don’t drink it,” Sephera pled. “We can find Reina a different way.” She cried out as Zad opened the vial. He didn’t even look at her as he drank the liquid.
Sephera’s shoulders fell in defeat.
Zad pulled out a small dagger and sliced his hand. Holding it over the bowl, he let his blood fall. The liquid in the bowl began to simmer and smoke.
“It’s ready,” Valessa said. She cupped her hand and placed it in the liquid. Then she brought the liquid to her lips and sipped it. “Loriaga, Ostednde, Reina,” she said. Her eyes rolled back in her head until only the whites showed. She began to chant loudly, her arms raised in the air. There was a large crack and a flash of light as smoke began to fill the room.
Sephera pulled her tunic up over her mouth, coughing. She waved her hand in front of her face, trying to clear away the smoke. A gruff female voice spoke. “Eripitay!” The smoke began to clear.
In the center of the room stood a woman with long black hair that fell to her waist. She wore an emerald dress with a black cloak. “Hello,” she said. “I believe you have been searching for me.”
“Reina?” Sephera asked.
The woman turned to Sephera and gave a small bow. “Hello, my dear. You go by Sephera this time, correct? It has been such a long time since I last saw you. I believe it was during the third cycle? You were much different then. You went by the name Lilly.”
“I don’t care what I went by, or who I was then. I don’t care about any of it,” Sephera spat.
“Ah, I see. That is a pity. You were so good, so pure then. I see that has changed.”
“So I have been told,” Sephera replied.
“Well, child, don’t look so glum. We can break the curse now and go home. You will love our Realm, though I have not been back in over five thousand years. I would assume much has changed.”
Sephera gasped. “So I was right, you are the First.”
Reina gave a small bow. “I am.”
“How do you know that I am fully balanced—that I can break the curse and reunite our realms?” Sephera asked.
Reina smiled. “Because you passed the tests and summoned me. From what I have heard, you and Valessa made that possible. Your methods, however, were rather . . . well, what's done is done. And this time you had him.” She pointed to Zadkiel.
“Me?” Zad asked. “What do I have to do with this mess?”
“Mess? Dear boy, this is no mess. This is chaos. Beautiful, dark chaos.”
“It’s evil and despicable, and I want no part in whatever you are planning. I have had enough of this darkness. I refuse to take part any longer.”
Reina raised an eyebrow. “You think it is darkness that is evil and disgusting, boy?”
“I don’t think it is, I know it is. I have seen what it is capable of when it entangles you in its grasp. It curses and destroys everything it touches.”
Reina let out a mad cackle. “Darkness is not the only evil in this world. Light can be just as deadly. There is ALWAYS a choice to be made.”
“Yet any dark thing” —he spat at Sephera— “always turns out to be monstrous.”
“Zadkiel!” Chantry scolded, shocked by his statement. “How can you say such a thing?”
He turned to respond, but before he could, he fell to the floor coughing. Black liquid oozed from his mouth.
“ZAD!” Sephera yelled, running towards him. But Brenner stepped between them, an orb of blue light pointed at Sephera’s heart.
Sephera stepped back in shock, helpless as Zad continued to cough up black blood. “Reina, please, help him!”
Reina shook her head, “I cannot. He ingested the liquid willingly. The sickness has already taken hold, though I did not intend for it to work this quickly.”
“I took it yesterday.” Zad coughed. He stood, his chin covered in black blood.
“Ah, well, that was your mistake then, Zadkiel. If you had waited, perhaps you could have lived. Pity. It is rather fitting, though, for one who hates the Darkness so much to be consumed by it from the inside out.”
“NO! NO! Please, Reina, the cure! Please, give him the cure. I beg you! I will do anything. Please save him,” Sephera cried, throwing herself at Reina's feet.
Reina glowered down at her. “Get up, girl. Your mother would be ashamed. Do not beg at my feet for the life of someone so unworthy.”
Sephera stood slowly. “He is worthy, I swear it. Please, the cure,” Sephera whispered.
Reina smiled. “Cure? There is no cure, sweetness.”
Sephera felt like she had been slapped. “Wh—What?” She glanced around the room. Daegan merely shrugged. Valessa smirked. She looked at Zad, who stared at her with venom in his eyes.
“Did you know?” she snarled at Valessa. “Was all of this for nothing?”
“Of course I knew. Don’t be stupid, Sephera. Daegan assembled this team for me. You were all meant to take the journey together so that we could be sure that you were ready. And, I am pleased to say, you are. Poor Zad here followed you to his own demise.”
“Why? What has he got to do with anything?” Sephera asked angrily.
“Because he loves you—well, parts of you,” Reina explained. “He hates your dark side. If only he did not harbor such hatred for it in his heart, perhaps he could have been spared. But alas, then it wouldn't be so beautifully tragic. He never deserved you, Sephera. He would have betrayed you the first chance he got if it meant that he could shut out the Darkness.”
“He would never betray me,” Sephera said.
“Are you sure about that, Sephera?” Daegan asked. “Look at him now, how quickly his love turns to hate. I told you once that your loyalty and blind trust for him would be your undoing.”
“You are wrong,” she said, peering up at him.
“I am sorry, Sephera, but this is for your own good.” Daegan said in her ear. “Valessa!” he commanded.
Valessa held Zad’s bag. She heard him suck in his breath. Valessa dumped the contents out at Sephera’s feet. Clothes, coins and notebooks littered the cold floor. In the middle of the notebooks, was a small bundle of folded papers with her name scrawled across it. It was written in Baleem's handwriting. It was the letter.
Sephera reached down to get it but just as she was about to, Zad tackled her to the floor, grabbing the letter from her and tossing it into the fire.
“NO!” Sephera yelled, sickened. “Zad! What have you done?”
He looked at her, unfeeling. “You were supposed to let me protect you, Sephera. You were supposed to let me in, let me share your burdens. When you came back from hunting that stag, I knew something was different. You had a new darkness about you. I tried to get you to talk to me, but you wouldn’t. So I took the letter. I hoped that when you had returned from the altar with Daegan you would explain what happened. I knew he had told you what he was. But you still didn’t tell me. You put all of us in danger. By trusting them you have endangered Nostorra and the entire world. You let their evil pull you in. Now it seems that you are the worst of them all.”
Zad—her Zad—had betrayed her. He had known how badly she needed that letter. He had even known who she was and what needed to be done. He had been so caught up in playing the hero that he had kept it from her in some insane ploy to keep her “safe.” She realized in that moment that he had never truly loved her, for if he had, he would have accepted her as she was, darkness and all.
“I will never forgive you for this, Zadkiel.” The leaden words dropped from her like doves falling dead from the sky.
“I don't care,” he replied coolly.
Reina began to laugh. “Oh, Sephera, come now. You didn’t honestly think that he was worthy of you?”
Sephera turned to glare at Reina. “So all of this was just a test?”
Reina shrugged. “Is that so bad, Sephera? Without it you would not have known who you are and what you are capable of. You would have never kno
wn of his betrayal until it was too late. Now you are free, Sephera. Free to claim what is rightfully yours. Free to reunite our realms. Nothing is holding you back.”
Sephera growled at the horrible woman in front of her. They had all been using her. She was nothing more than a pawn to them. The darkness in them had been warped into cruelty by their evil designs. She looked up at Daegan, who stared at her deeply. You always have a choice, his eyes seemed to say.
Sephera smiled. She knew what she wanted to do. She made a choice. She lunged at Reina, pulling the dagger necklace from her neck and stabbing it directly into the woman’s chest. She brought the blade down over and over, letting her anger and grief guide her hand. Blood sprayed Sephera’s face at the force of her blows. Her teeth were bared as the life left Reina's startled eyes. She kept stabbing until she was pulled off by Daegan.
“She's dead, Sephera,” he said softly, trying to calm her. She growled at him, dagger raised and feral rage in her eyes.
He held his hands up. “Easy there,” he warned.
She turned from Daegan and walked towards Zad, Reina’s blood dripping into her eyes. She wiped it with her forearm. Her vision cleared, and she looked into Zad’s eyes. They had always been so affectionate and carefree, but now they were full of arrogant contempt. The boy she had grown up with—the boy who knew her inside and out—was gone. In his place was a deceitful, hardened man. She answered his scowl with one of her own and pulled out her curved blade, bringing it to his throat as she pressed the point of the tainted dagger against his side and backed him into the wall. Brenner’s magic crackled around her, but Zad waved him off.
“Let her do it,” he challenged.
Sephera laughed as the magic faded. “You would give up so easily on the woman you love, Zadkiel?”
“No, I wouldn’t. But the Sephera that I knew and loved disappeared when she left to hunt that stag. She is dead. You . . . you are not her. You are a sickness, a disease. My Sephera could have been redeemed. You are an abomination,” he spat.
Sephera shook her head, her jaw clenched. “This is who I’ve always been, Zad. You just refused to see it. The only one who has fundamentally changed is you.” She brought her arm to his throat, keeping him pinned to the wall. Then she brought her lips to his, giving him one final kiss. She released him and cast her weapons on the ground. Zad scoffed and spit on her feet, then wiped his mouth.
She smiled at him. “Hold on to that kiss and give it to my Zad for me. Let me know when he returns.”
She turned away. “We need to get rid of that body,” she said, pointing to Reina.
“Allow me.” Valessa snapped her fingers. The body disappeared, leaving behind a pool of dark, crimson blood. “I sent it to the Tower. I want to study its magical properties.”
“Of course you do.” Sephera shook her head.
“We need to get to the castle,” Zad said, leaving the room. Brenner followed him. Chantry had the decency to look thoroughly torn about what to do.
Sephera waved her off.
“I’m sorry, Sephera,” she said before following Brenner.
As Zad left, so did Sephera’s anger at his betrayal. In its place came a sadness that cut so deep, she feared it would never heal. A sob tore out of her, and she fell to her knees, not caring that Daegan and Valessa could see.
Daegan coughed loudly and motioned for Valessa to follow the others. The woman nodded her head once and left. He approached Sephera cautiously and crouched down next to her, lifting her chin.
“He is not worth your tears, Sephera. Don't let him take too many. I understand the need to feel the pain. Allow it now and then think on it no longer,” he whispered quietly.
She didn’t answer. After a few moments, he gave up and left. She wrapped her arms around her knees, and rested her head. Her tears mingled with the blood on her face and fell like rusty raindrops on her arms. She laughed softly. It wasn't quite a bath, but it would do for now.
She was furious with Daegan and his deceit, but their quest was over. She didn’t know what was going to happen next. But whatever it was, everything would be different. She could no longer trust anyone. Baleem had lied to her, and Zad . . . well, Zad wanted nothing to do with her. A vile sickness was engulfing the land, and there was no hope of finding a cure. The imbalance between the realms was tearing the world apart, and only she—the most feared woman in all of Nostorra—could bring the balance needed for it to heal. And what a sorry piece of work she was, spilling tears over a simple man. All she wanted right now was to give up and let the Darkness consume everyone. If she was destined to be their savior, they were all doomed.
She let herself cry a moment longer before taking a deep breath and getting to her feet. Then she grabbed her weapons from the ground and sheathed them. As she stepped out onto the darkened street, she was met by the Royal Guard. Zad, Brenner, and Chantry were standing nearby. Daegan and Valessa were on their knees, their hands tied behind their backs. Before Sephera could call out, she was shoved to ground and tied up.
“Sephera Travelle,” said the captain of the guard, “by order of His Royal Highness, the King of Nostorra, you are under arrest.”
Sephera sucked in her breath and looked up at Zad, who appeared just as shocked as she was. “Under what charge?” he asked.
“For conspiring with the Dark Ones and plotting against the king. Do you have anything to say in their defense?” the Guard asked Zad.
He met Sephera’s eye, and for a moment they stared at each other. She thought she saw a glimmer of sadness. “No,” he said and turned his back on them, leaving them to their fates.
“They can’t do this! Zadkiel, you have to do something,” Chantry pleaded desperately as Zad and Brenner pulled her along with them.
Sephera closed her eyes and reached out to Brenner. Please, you must cure Zad, she begged. As the three figures rounded a corner, she struggled against her restraints. The guard watching her grunted in frustration before bringing the hilt of his sword down on her head. Her world went dark.
CHAPTER 36
Sephera sat up as footsteps scuffled outside her cell. She went to the small, barred window that was built into the top of the cell’s massive wooden door.
“Sephera, my girl,” Baleem said sadly.
“Baleem! What is happening? You have got to get me out of here!” she begged.
He looked at her sadly, his dark eyes narrowed. He shook his head. “I cannot, Sephera. After listening to your charges and speaking with your team and Zadkiel, I have realized there is nothing that I can do. I apologize, Sephera. If I would have just told you of your heritage earlier, perhaps the outcome would have been different.”
Sephera sunk to the floor and sighed. “I am not entirely innocent of what they say. But it was not me who did those awful things. Sacrificing innocent mages for their souls? I would never do something so cruel, not this version of me anyway.”
Baleem sighed, “I know, dear girl. I know.”
“Have you come to tell me what they’re going to do to me? ” she asked quietly.
“I came to tell you that it is okay to give in, Sephera. Our world may be Light, but it is just as cruel and just as twisted as the Darkness. If you want to give in to your dark side, let it reign; that is just fine. It is up to you to choose who you are when you do.”
“Why are you saying this?”
Baleem bowed his head in shame. “You and the others are to be executed at dawn.”
Sephera nodded, taking in her master's words. She stood to face him, putting her fingers through the bars of the small window.
Baleem wrapped his hand around them and met her eyes. “Whoever you decide to be, Sephera, I will be proud of you. You have grown into such an amazing young woman. I am honored that you let me be a part of your life. And I am so sorry for not telling you everything sooner.”
“Thank you, Baleem,” she said softly. “Take care of Zad, will you? There has to be a cure. And tell him that I’m sorry.”
Baleem nodded. “Goodbye, Sephera,” he said, and then he was gone, leaving her to await her fate.
She didn’t want to die. But she was ready. There was no use fighting it. She couldn’t stop the cycles after all. Perhaps she could next time. Whoever she became, she hoped it was someone who had the strength to put an end to all of this madness.
She didn’t sleep the rest of the night. Instead, she paced the floor, thinking of all that had occurred and all that she’d lost.
When the dawn came, she stood as her cell door opened and held her hands up to be cuffed by the guards. She held her head high. She felt no fear, for she was the Lady of Death, and she was ready to meet him.
She was led to a large stone room with three wooden blocks in the center. The guard took her to the center block. “Kneel,” he ordered.
They were soon joined by four other guards who shoved a scared looking Valessa to her knees on Sephera’s left. Daegan knelt to her right, his face tight and ready to face his end.
The door opened, and the king strutted in, followed by his personal masked guards, Baleem, and the executioner. Sephera looked at the king, defiance in her eyes.
“So, you decided to work with filth and evil, Sephera? Such a pity. I had hoped this reincarnation of you would show more promise,”
Sephera’s eyes widened in surprise, and the king laughed. “Yes, Sephera, I am your father. I am surprised you are just now realizing it. This time you seemed so intelligent. I had hoped that you would help me this cycle, to rid this world of the black taint that seeks to consume it. But I guess I was wrong. Such a pity you have to die yet again. Until next time, my dear,” he smiled at her cruelly.
“You are a dark stain on this world, father.” She spat at his feet.
He bent down and lifted her chin with his hand. “You are just like your mother. So spirited, even as you face death's door.” He punched her, and she tasted the familiar coppery taste of blood.
Sephera smiled. “I would gladly die time and time again if it meant that you suffered.”
He hit her again, and then patted her face. “One day, my dear daughter. One day you will understand.”