by Salem Cross
“It is not a wizard,” Camille retorted. “We all keep a close eye on the witches and wizards in our territories. We would know and sense any wrongdoings before it got to be a problem this big.”
“As more Guardians take their lives because of this blasted curse over us, we are struggling to ensure all territories have a Guardian presence,” Arthur interjected. “Things could easily slip by while we shuffle Guardians to newly unmanned territories.”
“Or when they go missing or are murdered…” Ashe grumbled.
The tension in the room grew thicker. Muscles were flexed, jaws clenched. I stopped a shudder from running through me. The Guardians in the room were naturally intimidating. Seeing them upset over the news of a murdered Guardian made them even more frightening.
“Who is capable of murdering Guardians?” Camille asked of the group. “This is insane that it took our arrival to learn of any of this. The shifters, they had no notion to reach out to the nearest Guardian for help?”
“It is not like there is a directory with all of our numbers or even our names,” Jasmine interjected. “Those change all the time when we need to switch territories. They probably had no idea who to ask for or who to look for.”
“What has been done to locate them?” Devon asked angrily.
“Diane, Samson, and Zara have gone to explore Cain’s residence. Hopefully, they found clues that will help us figure out what happened to the Guardians who oversaw this area,” Rylan said with a frown.
Disgruntled murmurs and low conversation broke out. I took advantage of the distraction to talk to Rylan,
What was discussed while I was gone?
Arthur found a pack of werewolves, Rylan answered slowly. The tight set of his mouth told me this was bad. They were taken care of, but he believes there could be many more. Jasmine’s group found ancient writing carved into random trees. Nikolas translated them as names of past gods. None of them could pinpoint an exact location of where the dark magic is coming from.
I shuddered as the reality of the situation grew graver. Rylan removed his hand from mine and placed his arm around my shoulders.
Do not be frightened. We will stop the gods’ return, he told me confidently.
“If we find who’s behind this, we can avenge Zein, Cain, and Ekon’s deaths,” Arthur said loudly over the side conversations. Everyone quieted down. “So we need to figure out a motive and who, or what, would bring back the gods.”
“Who benefits the most from murdering Guardians and bringing the gods back?” Jasmine asked out loud.
“It has to be someone with a strong motive to bring back the gods,” Nikolas mused. “Somehow whoever is behind this must have some type of relationship with one or more gods, or their family used to.”
“A child of a god would have the motive to want to open the gates,” Camille heckled. She turned to look at me. “Did you want to meet your father, little one?”
“Camille, enough,” Rylan snarled.
“It could be a Guardian,” I muttered more to myself than to her.
Heads swiveled in my direction. Oops, I forgot about the heightened hearing. Had I thought the temperature in the room had dropped when I first entered the room? Well, now, it certainly dropped another ten degrees.
Mae, Rylan warned as he stiffened beside me.
“You would accuse a Guardian of trying to open the gates?” Nikolas’s hiss of indignation cut through the silence in the room.
My comment had been more of a jab rather than a true accusation. It was stupid to provoke a group of people who already hated me, but why did I have to put up with their chauvinism? In any case, I had already put my foot in my mouth. I guess it couldn’t hurt to consider the possibility that it could be a Guardian…
“From what I have learned, Guardians were the closest beings to the gods. You were literally created by them to serve them. Could it be possible that out of all the Guardians there are and have been, maybe someone may have missed serving their god?” At the swift intake of breaths from several Guardians in the room, I knew I was probably digging myself a hole, but I pushed forward. “Think about it, as insane as it might sound, there were some Guardians who probably lived better lives despite being enslaved. Maybe they were treated better by their god or whatever, but in any case, once free will was granted to you do you think that maybe some didn’t see it as a bad thing to want to stay with their masters?”
“I will rip the tongue from your mouth, child,” Nikolas hissed. His eyes blazed red as he took a step towards me. Rylan stepped in front of me and snarled defensively.
“What Mae says is blasphemy!” Camille cried out as her face hollowed and eyes turned red.
“Of course the young demi-god would look for the good within her own people!” Devon snapped, his dark brows coming together in a deep scowl.
Yelling broke out amongst the Guardians. Okay, so my idea wasn’t so smart. Too late to take it back now.
“Actually, Mae may have a point,” a soft voice drifted over the unrest in the room.
To my surprise, the conversation ceased immediately. Everyone turned to look at Jasmine. Her dark eyes swept the room as she made it a point to meet every angry gaze.
She crossed her arms over her chest and said, “To gain enough strength and power to single-handedly bring back the gods, this person must be collecting magic from somewhere. More than likely from creatures who have power. Name another species that has access to all the other supernatural creatures on this planet? We have ledgers, notes, and books on the different species and what they are capable of. With that information, it would be easy to begin picking off individuals that we have noted with extraordinary strength in their magic.
“Because the dark magic is so thick here in this area, that must mean that someone has been casting it for quite a long time. Someone would need to have not only started collecting power long ago, which would make them immortal, but also keep the missing supernaturals they are using to siphon power from a secret. A Guardian could certainly do that. And what other creature would be strong enough to even attempt to harness all of that power they collected throughout the years?”
The only sound in the room was the heavy breathing of outraged Guardians. No one seemed to know what to say. Rylan and Arthur exchanged looks while Ashe frowned thoughtfully. Everyone had been quick to argue and threaten me when I had suggested that a Guardian could be behind this. With Jasmine, no one seemed to know how to react or what exactly to do with her theory. The respect the others in the room gave her was something earned, not given. I frowned as I realized I did not know much about my friend or her past. I would have to rectify that.
Abruptly, Rylan growled.
“The others have arrived. They have brought a trespasser who has been toeing the line of our territory,” he told Arthur and Jasmine. He looked back at me. “Stay here.”
“Um, no,” I protested quickly. He was not going to leave me in a room full of hostile Guardians. It didn’t matter that Jasmine and Arthur were staying behind. Rylan sighed but he didn’t argue with me.
I followed him out of the loft, down the stairs, and out the front door. Outside Diane, Samson, and Zara stood in the driveway. The sun was just setting behind the trees and stars were just beginning to glitter in the night sky. The woods behind the arrival of the last Guardians silhouetted their frames, giving them a surreal appearance. Gripping the back of his neck, Zara held the young park ranger Thomas in her hand. When his eyes landed on me, he began to struggle against her hold.
“We found him lurking just beyond the premises,” Zara said and tossed the man to the ground. “He was holding this.” In her other hand, she held a hemp drawstring bag that was leaking some type of dark fluid.
“Yes, it is you! I have come to warn you!” Thomas proclaimed as he scrambled to his feet. Before he could get his footing, Rylan knocked him backward. Thomas landed on his butt, but he didn’t appear too perturbed. His gaze stayed locked on my face.
“You cam
e for me?” I asked, confused. Thomas bobbed his head up and down eagerly.
“How did you find us?” Rylan asked and took a step to the side to place himself between the ranger and me.
“I can feel her,” Thomas said with awe as he pointed to me. “My heart cries out for the attention of the True One.”
“The True One?” Samson repeated with a scowl. Again, Thomas nodded animatedly.
“Yes, there was a false god who blacken my soul and blinded me from the truth, but you—” he said, staring at me with a wide grin, “—You cleansed my soul. I seek only to obey and to serve the True One.”
He reached out as if to touch me despite the distance between us. Rylan growled. The crazed look in Thomas’s eye hadn’t been there when I had first met him, and it gave me the creeps. There was something off about him. What was going on?
“Who is this false god?” Rylan growled. “What do you mean by True One?”
“What did you want to warn Mae about?” Diane took over the questioning. “How can you feel Mae?”
Thomas gripped his head as if in pain and squeezed his eyes shut.
“No, no, no,” he muttered. “I will only speak to the True One. Only she matters, only her words are worth hearing.”
The reverence in his voice and the words he spoke only caused my unease to grow. Instinctively, I took a step back towards the house. Thomas stopped shaking his head, and his eyes flew open in a panic. He reached out for me again, his face twisted in worry.
“No, True One. Do not leave me!” he cried out. “I am lost without you. Guide me, let me serve you, do what you please with me, but do not leave me!”
“Mae, question the man,” Diane commanded softly, her eyes on the ranger.
I looked at her, then to Zara who was watching me with curiosity, before turning my attention back to Thomas. He was waiting with a childlike eagerness for me to say something.
Drawing in a steadying breath, I asked, “Do you know the name of the man you claim is a false god?”
Immediately, Thomas shook his head, his expression becoming forlorn.
“I would tell you, True One, if he had given me a name. He came to me, to all of us, in dreams and forced us to serve him.”
I thought of the pictures I had seen earlier that day, and my stomach rolled.
“Did he make you kill people?” My voice came out as a whisper. Thomas nodded eagerly, pleased to provide me with the information I requested. “Why did you listen to him?”
“He twisted our minds, made us think we were doing it for the greater good,” Thomas told me.
What person believed killing others was for the greater good? How sick was this false god to force these people to do such terrible things?
“Are all the park rangers involved with the killings?” I asked, not wanting to know the answer. Thomas nodded again. “How long has this been going on for?”
“We have been serving him for a long time. Long before I arrived here. We all have been fooled by the false god, True One.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?” I snapped, tired of the weird title.
“Because you are the True One. I can feel you coursing through my veins. Your presence in my mind is like the air in the spring, sweet and crisp.” He emphasized the “p” in crisp with joy.
Rylan’s parents and Zara turned their attention to me, curious about his response. I felt the soft buzz of communication as Rylan filled them in on what happened this morning. When the buzzing stopped, I looked back down at Thomas who waited patiently for my next round of questions.
“You said you came to warn me. Warn me of what?”
“The False One will come to destroy you. He felt when you severed our tie to him, and he became angry. He doesn’t like to be bested. He kills anyone that stands in his way, and now you stand between him and his goal.” Thomas raised a victorious fist in the air. “But I know you will be able to stop him! You just needed to be warned. That… and the sacrifices to help you gain your strength.”
Sacrifices? I stood there baffled by his words. Then I noticed the way all the Guardians turned their attention to the bag in Zara’s hand. It was still dripping. In the gravel drive, a dark spot had grown and was beginning to glitter in the rising moonlight. Oh no… no, no, no. The air in my lungs vanished when I realized that whatever, or whoever, he had sacrificed was in that bag.
Had I done something to cause this reaction when I had tried to remove the dark magic in Thomas? Should I have just let the dark magic kill them? Just the mere thought of allowing someone to die sickened me. But was Thomas better off now than he had been? It hadn’t just been Thomas I had tried to fix. So where were the other three?
I already knew the answer before I could ask it out loud. That bag in Zara’s hand, that had to be what happened to the others. Had they taken their own lives, or had Thomas murdered them in my name? People were dying because of me. For me. To help me. I took a step back again but stumbled. My stomach heaved. In front of everyone, I turned and hurled onto the drive. People were dead because of me. Dead. The word repeated itself in my mind.
The others were right. They should be worried that I was here in the midst of all of this. What good could come of a child of a god being here on earth? It didn’t matter that I still felt as human as I had before learning about who my father was. I was hurting people without even trying. My heart slammed against my chest as panic began to set in.
I straightened and glanced at Thomas who was watching me patiently. He nodded to me once, as if he had conveyed something to me. Then, he reached down into his boot and pulled out a pocket knife.
“Now you know of the False One,” he said proudly. “Allow me to lend you my strength.”
Before I could register his intentions, he flicked it opened and shoved the knife into his throat. My hands flew to my mouth to cover my scream. His eyes fluttered shut and his body fell over.
In my head, I was screaming. Watching the life seeping out of Thomas’s eyes, still fixed on me, was horrific. My body shook. I couldn’t think with all the screaming in my head.
“We need to alert the others,” Samson said at once. Without another word, he stepped over Thomas’s body as if it was nothing and passed me to head inside.
“We need to find more park rangers, press them for more details. Someone must know what this ‘false one’ looks like,” Diane told the rest of us.
“Compelling them to give us information will not work. Jasmine tried and failed,” Rylan said as he shook his head. “Whatever we do, we must act fast. If this man is right about retaliation from our unknown foe, we should expect trouble within the coming days. Mae’s presence has been detected, and whoever is behind this will see her as a threat.”
Zara said something, but I was done standing beside a man who had taken his own life. Their calm discussion of what to do next felt wrong. It was as if they were unfazed by this man’s hideous act. I headed back into the house.
My body felt numb as I walked through the front door. In my head I could see Thomas shoving that knife into his neck over and over again. As I approached the stairs Nikolas slid into view. He crossed his arms over his chest and planted himself directly in front of the stairs.
“What is wrong young goddess?” he sneered. “Cannot stomach a little blood?”
“Move, Nikolas,” I said. My voice sounded strange to my ears. Nikolas’s pupils narrowed.
“Look at the mess you caused. That is, what? Four lives lost because of you?” He taunted. “Are you sure you are not a monster? From where I am standing, it certainly appears that you are.”
I could hear the cold loathing hidden beneath his mocking tone. I met his gray eyes with a frown and said, “You’re right. I did cause the mess out there. And I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”
My voice broke on the last word. Instead of allowing myself to break into tears in front of the terrifying Guardian, I stepped around him and took the stairs two at a time.
Once inside
my room I shut the door and collapsed onto the floor. I was out of breath, and I couldn’t seem to catch it. Tears blurred my vision and spilled down my cheeks. Four men were dead because of me. Four. I had taken a bad situation and made it worse. So much worse. I thought I had helped them. I was a monster, and what made this so much worse was the fact that I had begun to believe otherwise.
As I sat there crying into my hands, minutes trickled by. Eventually, the tears began to slow as fatigue overrode guilt. Just as I was about to pull myself up off the floor there was a knock on the door. The sound made me jump. If it were Rylan, he would have walked right in. Was it Arthur or Jasmine? I got to my feet and walked over to the door. Cautiously I opened the door and found Zara standing there. A frown tugged the corners of her mouth downwards.
“I am sorry to bother you, but I wanted to check to make sure you were alright,” she said. I opened the door wider and stepped out into the hallway with her.
“No, I’m not alright,” I told her honestly. “I swear that I did not mean for that to happen. I thought I was helping…”
Zara shook her head and said,
“You cannot blame yourself. Dark magic tampers with the mind and soul. Who knows how long they were affected by it? Your magic may have removed the bad stuff but the side effects of that darkness would have lingered. It would have eaten away at their minds, twisting it permanently. You cannot blame yourself for what that young man did out there.”
I stared at her, frowning. She stared back. Her dark brown eyes searched my face for something. Maybe it was the same thing I was looking for in hers.
“Why are you checking on me?” I asked curiously. “Why don’t you hate me like everyone else?”
Zara rolled her eyes before answering, “The others are being ridiculous. Until there is a reason to be suspicious, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. It is not your fault that one of your parents happens to be our enemy.”
I gave her a rueful smile.
“Thanks, I appreciate you giving me that courtesy.”