I rolled onto my back, clenching my fists. I stretched my leg out and pulled it back in, trying to keep it in motion. Motion distracted from the pain. When the sting started to subside I climbed to my feet, only to meet two bright green cat eyes and a furrowed brow that formed an angry glare.
“You need to learn to listen!” Rayna snapped. “If you’d have gone first like I told you to, we’d all have had plenty of time to make it!” She ended with a growl and punched my arm.
I didn’t bother with a response. I’d scared her, and this is what happened when she got worried. It was a trait I’d almost come to appreciate.
“We should find a place to rest,” Tiki said. “Drakar is one of the safer worlds, but at night it’s still best to stay together.”
We stood at the end of a long road I’d seen three times too many. Empty booths lined both sides of the street, an eerie silence roaming the market and striking toward me with a shiver.
A few demons crouched in the first few alleyways we past, but they didn’t move or speak. We walked halfway into the market when Tiki took a turn down an ally. It was dark and narrow with clay walls towering on either side of us. The ally ended abruptly with a small doorway on the left. Tiki pushed the wooden door that didn’t appear to have a handle and we entered a cold, dim-lit room. The air was damp and a few bodies curled up on the floor in the shadows. Square columns held up a ceiling decorated with holes. There were a couple of growls and squeaks from above, and the skittering of nails tapped along the floor.
“There are demons all over the place,” Rayna whispered. “How is this any safer than out there?”
“This is one of the regular spots for the creatures without homes. Many of the recently freed slaves of Drakar come here. I’ve stayed here many times. Nobody here is going to hurt anyone.”
We gathered around the glowing remains of a fire pit in the corner of the room. A small pile of wood lay to the side and I grabbed a few logs, throwing them onto what was left of the hot coals. I crouched down to blow on the embers in hopes of reigniting the flame before realizing that it wasn’t necessary.
My fire element channeled down my arm and sparked from my fingertips. With hardly any effort, a stream a flame shot into the pit. The fire rolled over the logs, swallowing the barky fuel and crackling to life. Flames snapped at the bark and in seconds we had a roaring fire.
“Nicely done,” Rayna said.
We sat next to each other and she stretched out her arms, letting the heat warm her fingers. Tiki sat crossed legged on the other side of the fire and Vincent lay down next to him. In the fire’s light Vincent didn’t look like himself. It wasn’t just his solemn expression and the lack of witty outbursts he’d had since we left Lavinos, he actually felt off. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something wasn’t right.
“You okay?” I asked.
“We’ve gone from being kept prisoner in blistering heat, to being humid and cold in a half-condemned building. I’m wonderful. And now I’m going to sleep on this ever-luxurious dirt floor.”
A loud noise grumbled from within me, followed by an ache that spread through my core. My hands were already shaking and the tremble seeped into my body. It was as though my insides were vibrating.
“Was that your stomach?” Rayna sounded astounded.
I looked down and ran a hand across it. “I guess not eating for a few days is starting to catch up to me.”
Another sound came, but this time it was Rayna.
“Me too.”
“You should have eaten in Lavinos. I told you both this.” Tiki sounded like a father scolding his children. “I will get us food, but it will have to wait until morning.”
“We’ll be fine,” I said. My stomach grumbled again.
“We’ve got time to rest right now. I suggest you take it, Chase Williams. And you too.” Tiki looked at Rayna. “Tomorrow could be a very long day.” He lay back on the dirt floor and closed his eyes.
“He’s right,” Rayna said. “You should get some rest.”
“I will.”
Rayna’s eyes stayed fixed on me before she leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Goodnight.”
My stomach grumbled again and Rai fluttered off my shoulder, landing on top of Rayna. She pecked at her arms a few times before settling along her hips. I stared at the fire as the ember arms reached up to expel the darkness that bore down over it. I thought about Marcus and the others, hoping they were okay. I saw the small wall that surrounded Stonewall, the glowing eyes of pure bloods standing behind it. Their eyes blazed with rage, fogs of breath spilling from their lips. I shuddered and let the image fade.
Nervous tension seeped into my neck. I had so many questions and I whispered to the gods for help, but only silence followed. Drake Sellowind’s face drifted in my mind. He seemed to be the only person willing to give me answers. The problem was I didn’t want the answers he was giving.
A few moments after I thought it, there was a cloud crackling sound from outside. The wooden door at the back of the room creaked open and a beam of moonlight spilled in from the doorway. Inside it stood the very Dark Brother that had crossed my mind. Even in the dark I could see the blackness of his eyes. A shiny glint of reflected moonlight flickered as he turned and disappeared back into the alley.
I looked down at Rayna, then at Vincent and Tiki. They were motionless on floor, their chests and shoulders rising and falling with heavy breaths. I walked outside as the tail end of Drake’s coat fluttered around the corner and I ran after it.
When I was back on the main street of the market, the Dark Brother continued down his path. I walked at first, watching him keep a slow and steady pace, never looking back to see if I had followed. With the massive moon above us, Drake’s hair had a slight bluish tint to it, and he moved with such grace it was almost entrancing to watch. Although his feet touched the ground, he seemed to float over the earth. With the market and small buildings behind us, Drake stopped in the middle of the dirt road. His shoulders drooped with a heavy sigh and he stared up at the sky.
“It seems you do have a few tricks up your sleeve. I’m not sure how you got everybody out of that prison, but I must admit I’m impressed. The Lavinos dimension is well known—and respected—for its hatred of anything impure.”
“You’re here again. Why? Can’t you get it through your head that I’m not going to help you?”
Drake’s skin glowed in the moonlight and he arched a brow. “You don’t get to pin this one on me. You summoned me, brother.” He tapped the side of his head.
I wanted to tell him to stop calling me that, but he hadn’t listened yet so I didn’t waste any energy on it. “I thought of you for one second, I’d hardly say I summoned you.”
“I told you we are connected.” Drake shrugged, walking farther down the path. “It is what it is. I just assumed you craved more answers to all those burning questions.”
Colorful grass waved left and right in a soft breeze, tall trees loomed over the path, some of their branches completely bare, leaving rose-like petals to decorate the ground. I hadn’t realized until then that we were a ways from the market. It sat in the distance, nearly covered in shadows.
“Yeah, you have all the answers, don’t you?”
“I want to enlighten you. You see me as evil, Chase, as your enemy, but I am not. I come now as I have come before, to show you I am not what you think I am. I am merely a creature of the worlds on a quest to free his father.”
“If you really want me to believe that, how do you justify all this? You’ve killed people, destroyed lives, and threatened entire civilizations that refused to join you. All of this to get back at the man responsible for destroying so many worlds.”
“My father is not some evil entity that thrives on hatred and pain. My father started a war against the gods who opposed his desire to have us accepted. Can’t you see? He did all that for us! For Darius and me. And look where it got him.”
“Was the need for acceptance so bad tha
t you can justify killing thousands of innocent people?”
“Don’t be so naïve. Most of the people who died in that war had no trace of innocence left. Innocence is a child’s laughter or a young boy’s heart. Innocence is that which has not yet been touched by pain. It doesn’t take long in any life for that to be stripped away. You’re not innocent and I’m certainly not, so who is?” Drake took a few steps down the road and turned back to me. “I asked you once what you would do to have your mother back. The answer was anything. But what would you do to have your father back?”
“My father died a long a time ago.”
“I’m not talking about the father you know now, or even the father who exiled you. What would you give to have the father back you remember as a child? The one who laughed with you, taught you about magic and the world? The man who picked you up in his arms and made you fly?”
I stared up at him and when I didn’t respond, he shook his head.
“That’s my point, Chase. They’re your parents. You love them and you would do anything for them. I’m doing whatever it takes to get my father back. Is he going to challenge the gods? Yes, but they brought that on themselves. I don’t care about some throne in the Otherworld, not like Darius. I want my family back. And I will do anything to have that. Given the opportunity, you would too.”
“I wouldn’t kill inno…you’re killing people who don’t deserve to die. Maybe they’re not innocent, maybe they’ve made mistakes, but that doesn’t mean you have the right to slaughter them. When Ithreal rises, he’s going to tear the freedom from everyone. Your actions will destroy nations and families. Believe it or not, somewhere in the middle of all that will be an innocent life, and Ithreal will take it. All because you had to have him back.”
Drake thought about it for a moment and nodded. “I am eternal, Chase. What good is that if you cannot share it with those you love?”
“And what if that love doesn’t exist? What if everything you think about your father was a lie? It’s been thousands of years, Drake. How can you be certain he’s the man you remember?”
“You’re reaching, Chase.”
“Am I?” I walked up to him, assuring myself I could convince him to stop all this. I didn’t know what it was about Drake, but he had some level of civility. I felt like he and I were on the same level. “Before you took the ring from me, I called upon Serephina. She told me about your father.”
Drake laughed. “And what did the goddess tell you? That his black soul rotted the lands, spreading disease and famine so that he could watch their lives fade? Did she tell you all who worshipped him were doomed and that he thrived on stealing this…innocence you’re so fond of?”
“Nothing so cliché. She told me why the gods made their oath to no longer merge with one another. There are only seven left, and nobody wanted one god to rule all the worlds. But Ithreal, your father, he didn’t want to be a part of that oath. He wanted Serephina’s spot at the head of the table. My guess is you were just an excuse for him to finally attack.”
“That is enough!” Drake grabbed my shirt, pushing his face against mine. “You will not speak about my father that way.”
“What if I’m right? What if you bring him back and he casts you aside as nothing more than a pawn?”
“That would never happen.”
“You don’t think so? Why were you trapped on Earth?”
“What?”
“When the Great War ended, the Circle put up a barrier to block out the other dimensions. All other demons had been pushed back from our world, but not you or Darius.”
“Because my father was not stupid!” Drake scowled, and it made me feel good to know there were emotions inside him. “Father knew there was a chance we would not win. He ordered us to stay behind with the outline of a plan to bring him back.”
“Do you hear yourself? That isn’t love. He is using you. If he loved you, he wouldn’t have left you stranded in some world that you could never truly belong to. Surrounded by people who looked like you, but could never know what you truly were.”
“I belong nowhere,” Drake said, his stone-cold composure returning. “Your efforts bore me. Please tell me you did not call me here to try and sway me.”
“It’s something to think about, isn’t it? You’ve spent all this time trying to convince me that you’re not the bad guy here, yet you won’t consider this?”
“No.”
“Then why the effort to make me join you? Don’t say it’s because you want to save me from Ithreal, or that it’s because we’re brothers. I don’t want to hear that. Tell me the truth.”
Drake stared at me from the middle of the road and I realized I was shaking. Anger had flooded my veins and all my elements flourished in my chest. The Dark Brother had swallowed any emotion that he’d unveiled and sighed.
“It’s an ironic situation, this…” he said, pacing along the road. “I’ve done…horrible things, Chase. Not just to the world, but to you.”
“You’re just figuring this out? Between you, your brother, and Riley, you’ve taken almost everything from me.”
Drake closed his eyes and drew in a long breath. “You’ve no idea how far back all this goes. I’ve been taking from you since you were a child.”
The anger I’d felt started to drift away, the elements dwindling with it. Drake had stopped and stared straight at me, but he didn’t look determined, he looked sad.
“And where’s the irony in all this?”
“The irony is that I’ve gone to great lengths to get my father back. And in doing so, I’ve taken yours.” Drake plunged his hands into his leather coat. He was still, with the moonlight casting over him like a sculpted figure. “I’ve been on Earth since the Great War. I fought, we lost, and I went into hiding. For thousands of years I tried to bring the Protector to light and find the very creature that could set me free. For one reason or another, my brother and I failed time and time again. Hundreds of hunters and heroes lost in that sanctuary, trying to obtain the scroll. Thousands of demons killed trying to find the key to the other dimensions. And then came your father. We spent all this time looking for the one, and he came to us.”
“You’re telling me Riley just showed up at your doorstep hoping to set free a demon god trapped in another dimension?” I almost laughed but it wasn’t needed, the humor was clear in my voice.
“On the contrary, your father showed up on our doorstop to kill us. He wanted to be the best of the best, but more than that, he wanted to be legendary. To reach that pedestal he desperately strived for, he sought out a bigger challenge than he’d ever faced. One the Circle thought was a myth.” Drake paced over the rocky ground, his eyes panning back and forth in his head like he was reliving it in his mind. “When your father found us, he thought he’d discovered his ticket to becoming legendary. Instead, he found the first battle he couldn’t win. In the end your father succumbed to our wrath, but I’d be lying if I said he didn’t surprise me. A man with such valor, such honor, such strength…I couldn’t just take all that away. That would’ve been a waste.”
“So you recruited him.”
“In a manner of speaking. We’d recently started our search for a new candidate and we’d hoped your father would help, but he would not be swayed. To him, there was no good demon but a dead one. Thankfully, one of my brother’s many talents is compelling others. A gift handed down graciously from our father. He didn’t just make Riley do what we wanted; he made him want to do it. He weaved the idea of a peaceful world into his mind, imbedding it so deep into his own thoughts your father believed it was his to begin with. But that power corrupted him, making him unworthy to enter the sanctuary. And so we posed as mere servants who would assist him, holding back bits and pieces of what needed to be done as if to force him to spare our lives.”
I opened my mouth to speak but I couldn’t. Riley had been compelled? I wanted to believe my father had been stronger than that, but compared to the Dark Brothers, even he wouldn’t have sto
od a chance.
“You were nine years old when that happened, and it was then I saw the answer that eluded me for so long. We didn’t need one hero; we needed two. At nine you were already brave and full of courage. You loved your parents unconditionally, and you looked up to your father as though he wore a cape. He was your hero. We needed that passion, that love, that…innocence, and we needed to mold it to our will. ”
I wanted to move, I needed to, but my feet had grown roots that stretched deep into the moist earth below.
“Doesn’t it all make sense? Your father’s personality changes, his increasing obsession with power and rank among the Circle, his slow descent to becoming hostile and abusive? Darius’s magic buried itself so deep that it took on a life of its own. Your father would stop at nothing to see his plan through. He would stop the war between good and evil and unite everyone under one banner—his. There had actually come a time when Darius needed to compel him a second time just to stop him from taking action too soon and ruining everything.”
Drake stared at me, and I don’t know what he saw looking back at him, but he frowned. “For almost a decade, my brother and I have used you as a pawn, Chase. That is why I feel the need to save you. Call it guilt if you must, but I stole your family so that I could have mine. I would like to give you something in return. In fact, I can give you more than I’ve taken. You’ll have the power of a god and you’ll be eternal, but you don’t have to be alone. You can be a part of this family. My family.”
I couldn’t tell if Drake was lying. No, it had to be the truth. The story was too grand not to be. My chest felt like it had sunken into my body. My ribs pressed against my heart, smothering it and slowing its pulse. The life had been sucked out of me, and if it weren’t for the deep roots keeping my feet flat on the ground, I’d have dropped to my knees.
“Why didn’t you just compel me too?”
“You would have never made it into the sanctuary, let alone survived Serephina’s test if we had. We needed someone pure with the desire to do good in the world. Someone who had something to prove to everyone, including himself. Why do you think we kept your elements from appearing at the ceremony?”
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