by Trina Bates
“It is, and of course he can. Most Warlocks and Witches, from my understanding, can. It comes in pretty handy when we want to travel without anyone's’ knowledge. Most Warlocks leave a signature when they cast, one that can be traced by certain members of the Conclave.” The disgusted look on his face and the shiver that runs through him give me pause, but he quickly brushes it off and I’m sitting here more baffled than ever. What kind of Other can trace magic? That sounds like an invasion of privacy. “Rhett doesn't have a signature. We think it has to do with a part of himself he has yet to tap into. Don't ask me, there's no way I have any idea where to even start with that shit,” hearing the joking tone of his voice and seeing this almost playful side of Merrick is a nice change to his cranky, brooding attitude I have realised is his normal demeanor.
Opening the book, on the first page is a picture of what looks like a fairy; small, but with very large wings, it’s sitting atop a flower. Looking down at the page, I frown. We are about to have some issues, I can’t read a single thing. The writing is a bunch of symbols and a few simple dots. Gibberish.
Showing it to the guys, they look just as befuddled as I am. Turning the page, Merrick stops me when we find a picture of what looks to me like an elf.
His eyes sparkle and there’s surprise in his voice. “That’s Fae, and I can read this. Can either of you?”
Both Rhydian and I shake our heads, his hushed voice and the hand he’s holding over his mouth make me appreciate how strong this big guy really is. Not only his body, but his mind and feelings, he’s adorable.
“What does it say?” I ask him, hoping I’m not overstepping any boundaries when I place my hand on the back of his as he traces the picture of the Fae.
“‘The Fae are many, a very diverse race.’” His brows draw together, the confusion apparent on his face, more so with the frown that has overtaken his mouth. “The words keep changing. When I thought of my mother, who’s a Smith like me, it told of all the different abilities our kind has for Smiths, but when I thought of Lyra, it told of her abilities. This can come in really handy for a lot of things. Mostly it talks of our origins, where we came from. Who we were as a people, before the Fall. Here,” he says handing the book back to me. “Find a Demon or Valkyrie, let’s see what it says. This is amazing, I haven't come across a book like this ever, have you Rhydian?” Merrick asks with wide, questioning eyes as he sits up straighter, trying to get a better view of Rhydian, on the other side of me.
“No, but I can only hope it might have some insight into my kind. There are so few left, the stories are too blurred to know if something is true.” Rhydian looks like he has more to say, but the words never came. He has his head cocked to the side and seems to be deep in thought, his full lips are pursed and it’s so hard for me not to take advantage of the situation and kiss him.
Trying to get back on task and stop thinking about Rhydian’s lips on mine, I start flipping through the pages. There are so many beings, so many different races. I didn’t know the world of Others is so diverse. I was under the impression we all were lumped into a few different groups, Fae, Witch, Vampire, Angels, Demons, Shifter and Demi’s. There is an entire book filled with pages of them and this is just one.
Finding a page with a woman, wearing an impressive, yet scandalous set of armour, with alabaster wings, and riding a fucking alicorn, my little heart is beating a mile a minute! Every little girl’s dream is for unicorns to exist, if alicorns do, then surely unicorns will!
Finally getting excited about something, I delve in and wait for the writing to make sense. Nothing happens at first, but then the words start shifting and changing into something I can actually read.
“What does it say, love?” Merrick asks with his hand on my thigh and a hopeful gleam in his eyes.
A whole lot of shit I don't understand.
“Give it a minute, you're a dual blood, the book has to get a feel for you,” Rhydian surprises us both with his answer.
Seriously, I swear they can read my mind. Dual blood. Sounds so much better than, half breed.
“We can hear you,” Rhydian says so matter of fact, it throws me off for a second. “That's part of the reason we’re so connected to you, why we can’t wait to get back to you. Your mind is open to us. We don’t know much about the way we can all hear each other and talk, but it has only happened to the three of us… no one else before we met you and Ebbin.”
So that’s how they knew to do all the things I wanted when we were together that night. -They can fucking hear me!-
They both laughed, of course hearing my words. My face is burning, with embarrassment and I can’t contain the burst of laughter that slips through my lips. No fucking wonder they were so amazing, and why they always seem to hear things, I know I say in my mind. Shit keeps getting stranger with every passing minute.
“If we let our walls down, you can hear us as well. We didn't tell you because it’s a very touchy subject. We don’t know where this is going to go. We didn’t want you feeling obligated, that because of this, you would have to be with us. Or that we’re invading your privacy.” He makes sense and I respect them, I’m not mad at all amazingly, they’re protecting themselves, their hearts. They had no idea what would happen or how I would react. It’s sweet. Just like with Lyra, it feels right, like this is what is supposed to happen, it all simply fits.
“You asked for no secrets? This is the biggest one we all kept.” His eyes are boring into my own, making me squirm under his intense gaze. It’s like he is trying to will me, to not be mad, or take this the wrong way.
-Shit, I wonder what else they have heard!-
It is a lot to take in. How can it not be with everything else that is going on, but it’s not what he’s thinking. It’s new, another thing I’ll have to learn. That’s all.
-We hear what you push out the hardest, thoughts that have the most emotion behind them. If we try, we can hear everything you're thinking, but we want you to keep as much of your privacy as possible. Being in someone else's mind, is revealing.-
Looking back to Rhydian, I jump up, a little weirded out that he just talked to me in my damn head!
Pacing back and forth in front of them, I think my next question to them. Trying to find out how this works. I think about all the dirty thoughts I can put into their minds, when we’re around others, the jokes I can play on them. The devious things I have planned. I try to keep them from hearing my thoughts on that one, and surprisingly no one’s face changes, and neither of them fidget making me think they are trying to hide that they actually did hear it.
-Rhydian, how do you know about the book. You kept silent when we were talking about it. Even shook your head when I asked if you could read it.- I pursed my lips out at him and sit up straight trying to will my gaze on him, like he had me a moment ago.
-I didn't lie, I can’t read it. I'm not Fae that is truth. I didn't say anything because I have only heard stories. Before I did say anything, I wanted to be sure. My people’s ways are lost to us. There's more myth behind our stories than any truths. If the stories I have heard are true, the book connects to the reader, it can taste your essence, much like the Blood Fae did, though different. I still don't know if this is what the stories have told us about. There is no harm in looking, and I will ask my parents as soon as I can. Can you come sit down and try again?- he slumped forward and his shoulder dropped as he looked into the trees ahead of us.
-You're infuriating, you know that? Quit keeping me in the dark, you shits. If you all want to be with me, drop your walls and let me in. If you can hear me, I want the same. Or I swear, Merrick you're going to make me a badass metal helmet that shields you jerks from being able to read me, and how sexy would that be? Huh? Can’t pull my hair then now can ya!-
With all of us laughing at my joke, I sit back down in between them and take another crack at the book.
Mira:
When the words finally start to make sense, I tell them what I can. My mind is going crazy with anything and
everything to do with Valkyries. To answer the thoughts in my head, the book changes trying to accommodate what I am thinking.
“First, it’s telling me the origins of the Valkyrie. We weren't made. Per say. We were bred. Essentially, I am a demigod? Though very, very weak. I am the child of the demigods,” I should be freaked out by that, but with so many things being thrown at me and in such a short period of time, it hardly phases me.
“Some god decided to make one of his sons mate with numerous winged warriors from another realm. The only way this was accepted, was to send the first child born from the son and the winged woman who gave birth first, back to the other realm with the mother after a period of ten years. It doesn't say what the winged women were though or how many were sent to be breeders.”
-That’s fucking disgusting. Anyways-
‘The daughter born of a god and an outerworld warrior, Alyria held more power than any that came before and after her, including her parents. Being immortal, due to her father's’ ability, she bore many more warrior daughters herself. Her children received all of her Valkyrie powers, but also had gained many more from their father’s. She didn't breed with the men from her world, but with others she found traits in that would suit her daughters’ needs later in life, granting them powers she herself did not wield. Some could shape shift, others possessed magic, some could possess a person and make them do their bidding, but the most magnificent were the ones that could call to the elements of any world and shift the way battles were won by causing droughts, fire, drown villages and freeze the enemies from their homes.
The Valkyries born to the god and the other outerworld women were no doubt powerful, but could only bear children from the world they were now stuck in, the world of the gods. They were not immortal, but had very long lives, the majority living a few thousand years. Their powers were much weaker and not as vast as those of the women born to the original Valkyrie They could not breed with anyone off their world, resulting in their children being limited in the powers they received. They were only able to bring the dead of their choosing back to their realm to have their spirits live on.
The first child, Alyria, could bring the spirits of worthy men back to her world as well, but she was also able to bring some back to life in dire circumstances and only those she deemed worthy. She could turn the tables in battle, killing scores of men and women, just by a thought. She is the one pictured, here.
Alyria's own pegasus, Alrion, had become infected by a poisonous arrow. The poison overtook his mind and made him turn on his master, delivering a fatal poisonous bite. Though she was believed to be immortal, she perished, proving she was not a true immortal, though if she had not been poisoned her years would have gone on to the end of time. As she spent her final breaths in battle, she was able to will her soul and powers to her daughters, giving them her immortality and the abilities she was born with.’
“Other than that, the rest of the powers given were the ability to... I think it says jump realms. I don't know what that means, and it won't go into detail. It also says the reason for Valkyries ascending at twenty-seven was so they were able to have a mortal life, choose what they wanted. If they didn't declare themselves Valkyrie by their twenty-seventh birthday, they would become fully mortal. You have to be in your ancestor’s world to ascend or you will stay mortal and never be able to go back to your home. To find the side you come from, find the tether inside yourself. Pull the cords and jump.”
Without giving my brain a moment to process what I just read. I scan the page as fast as I’m able and search for Demons.
“You can't drop a load like that and expect us not to have more questions! Just hold on a minute, Tatts.” Rhydian’s use of Blue’s nickname for me surprises me, but in only the best of ways. I love the name. When she took me in, she had an artist (now mine as well) come over to tattoo a protection spell on her right shoulder. She had asked me to get the same, but Oren, the artist, told us it would only work on Others. I wish I had just gotten it, but I was too young, too scared, and believed I was a weak Hollow. Good thing I have Rhett in my life. He can do one for me now, without the need to put it on my skin. I might have a lot of tattoos but I‘m pretty partial to the ones I get. They all have some kind of meaning to me. Like the flowers on my right arm, they were the first gift I received from Ebbin, I still have the bouquet. They are Everlasting Iris’s. The stems have been cut, but they will never wilt or die. The feathers on my left leg is for the first pet Blue had ever given me. A cloud bird, his name was Fred and he was utterly amazing. His body was blue, with two long feathers on top of his head that swayed in any slight breeze, his wings were large, billowy and white. They looked like clouds. He couldn’t stand being without his mate and was slowly dying so we sent him back to Fae where Blue had gotten him from. It broke my heart when he had to go, I sat in my room and shut the entire world out for a week, barely eating. I understood why he was so sad and needed to return to his realm, but it didn’t mean I liked it or dealt with it well. He was a dear friend and it was hard to let him go. The only thing that got me through was knowing he was happy and alive, once again reunited with his love. I hope, even to this day I will see him again. I have to or I wouldn't have been able to leave my room and get back to my normal life.
“I want to get as much information as I can. Then we can go back through. I don't want to be in the fucking dark anymore Ry,” he smirks at the use of my own nickname for him, and nods for me to keep going. “There's too much at stake and I'm done going into shit blind. Just let me have this, okay?” I ask. I try my best to give him a reassuring smile, thought I don’t think I did too well.
Looking from side to side, they sit silently waiting for me to find what I’m looking for, but they both look at me with sympathy and understanding.
Most of the pictures, but not all, are painted in black. This one, the one I land on next, is painted red. Black eyes, horns, and a tail. I can only guess this is for Demon.
-How cliche.-
“Very,” Both men say at the same time making me peer up from the book and roll my eyes forgetting they can hear my thoughts now.
“That is seriously going to take some getting used to,” I mumble under my breath. Still addled that they can hear my thoughts and talk into my head.
“Just why can you hear into my mind anyway? I have never heard of that,” I question both men, searching their eyes for some kind of answer, but getting none, those damn blue eyes and silver are hiding something, I can feel. I’ll figure out their secrets in time.
“It’s a bond we all share with you. More accurately, you amalgamated us, made us a unit, bonded us heart and soul to you. We aren't really sure why, but most, if not all, Others can hear each other's thoughts. You can connect with pretty much anyone if you will it and push yourself hard enough to get into a network. From what we know, Hollows aren't able. That should have been the first sign that you were more than what you seemed.” He smiles brightly at me and clasps his large hands together as he stares intently at me, and explains the rest. “It’s also one of the reasons we are so attached to you and have been from the very first night. You linked us together, formed an amalgamation,” Merrick’s words only confuse me further, but hearing we made a ‘bond’, formed an amalgamation? That’s very strange to me. I decided to see where this journey would take us, and that means this too. I’m happy to have them by my side.
With the air starting to chill, I nestle deeper into the cushions. In doing so, both of my guys lean into me, each with a hand on one of my thighs warming me up.
A blush no doubt taking over my face, I start to think of what I’m wanting, what I’m needing the book to show me. The book obliges. I didn't need the origins like Rhydian or Merrick. I want to know about what a Death Demon, the other half of me, is.
‘Death Demons have no masters. Hounds are all that can defeat them. Alastor, the only known Death Demon to survive the Fall, had seven children. None survived past their second year.
; “Fuck, that's pretty sad actually,” I say with pity in my voice my shoulders falling at reading something so sad.
‘With his most recent dying almost twenty-five years ago. His abilities, which would be handed down to any Death Demon, are ripping souls from their hosts and either feeding off of them, or sending them to ‘Hell’. “Sounds like a typical Demon to me,” I say, as I shrug my shoulders.
‘He is known to cause plagues, to feed his appetite of making people suffer mentally and physically with just a thought, he can take a soul from one body and put it in another living host, though it is undetermined if this is a mercy or punishment. Alastor has also been known to stop time for brief periods.
“So, he’s a total dick…” I snort out while skimming the next part before I say it aloud. ‘If a soul is pure, and he takes it, feeding off of the soul, his power will be drained for a time.’
“It doesn't say for how long, but it does tell me the only reason I haven't manifested my Demon side, is because I haven't ever been around Death or actually wanted something dead bad enough to bring that part of myself to the surface. Which is true. I haven't ever seen someone die, and I haven’t wanted someone dead bad enough, that it would make me manifest. Kind of makes sense. Morbid, but, okay? Let's see what we have here,” I say reading back over the pages, trying to see how much more, my life can get fucked up. Doesn't make sense how I can even be a Death Demon if all his kids died. Yeah, I haven't been around that shit, but still. I have wanted a few people on the Conclave dead. Like the asshole Warlock that threw fireballs at me, or the Fae that would take my blood three times a day to test it. I guess I’m lucky he wasn’t a Blood Fae. The Conclave would have known then what I was. I guess it’s a good thing they’re so rare. Most staying in Fae. As far as I know, there are only a dozen or so within a three hundred mile radius and none want anything to do with being associated with the Conclave.
“So, I'm thinking we were told I’m the wrong kind of Demon, if any. Valkyrie, we have to find out which side I'm from and I still have my reservations about that too. No idea what that shit about a tether and pulling the cords is about. I need to figure this all out before my birthday. If I want this little girl to live, and myself, I can't be Hollow not even a halfling. We know the risks, and I'm just not willing to take them.”