by Ivy Asher
“I don’t know, actually,” she tells me, her head tilting to the side in thought. I study the movement raptly and smile a little because I do the same thing when I’m thinking.
It’s weird how not weird it is to think of her as my sister. Maybe it’s the fact that I used to be able to feel her when I was younger, and despite being told otherwise, my subconscious never let go of that. Or maybe in the small time I’ve spent getting to know her, it’s impossible not to feel connected. Despite our different coloring and her thick Southern accent, we look alike, and sometimes, I’ll catch her making some expression that mirrors things I do too.
I was glad to hear about her parents she grew up with, and a little surprised that the love and acceptance didn’t make me sad or jealous. Instead, I was relieved that she had that growing up. That her and Delta both had loving and happy childhoods. I wish I’d had that too, but it’s comforting to know that they did.
“Apparently, we’re part Heaven and part Hell, so I don’t know if we’re even official demons or if we’re more halfies,” Medley continues. “I haven’t really had a chance to talk to Nefta much about what we are, or really about anythin’,” she adds.
I look over to Toreon, who’s clearly listening to our conversation even though he’s pretending that he’s not. “Mates. Is it a demon thing or an Annuli thing?” I ask him, figuring he’d know.
He hasn’t explained what he is, but he knew about us and supposedly, Annuli are really rare. I’m guessing, based on the whole protector thing and portal thing, that he just might be pretty damn rare too. It would make sense, seeing as how he’s in this dungeon with us.
He rolls his eyes. “Only humans are rudimentary enough to think one mate is always sufficient. While there are demons and hosts of Heaven who take only one mate, it’s not common,” he explains, like some judgmental professor teaching a class that he thinks is beneath him.
I snicker a little because he didn’t miss a beat in answering the question, further proving that he’s hanging on our every word. He can act bored all he wants, but I’m not buying it.
“So how many mates do you have?” I ask him, my throat tightening as the thoughtless question leaves my lips. It’s too late to pull the words back in though, and I suddenly feel awkward about bringing a subject up that might be painful and is really none of my business.
Toreon is silent for a beat, and just when I let out a breath, certain he’s going to ignore the question, he surprises me. “I don’t have any mates. There wasn’t anyone for me before, and now...” He gestures to the cage around him, his current circumstance all the explanation he needs.
“How do you know how many you’ll have?” I ask Medley, diving back into the diverting conversation that steals me away from this horrible place we’re holed up in. It’s been nice to just disappear in the picture her words have painted for the past couple of hours. Plus, I like to hear her talk.
Medley chuckles. “Well, the way it worked for me and Delta was we sorta got whoever came with the gate.” She shrugs, a wide smile on her face.
“Like a you break it, you buy it kind of thing?” I clarify with a giggle.
She smiles. “Pretty much. Only with us, it seems more of a you fix it, you keep the hotties that come with it sorta deal.”
“Could be worse,” I observe, still amused by the whole concept.
“Too true,” she agrees on a happy sigh.
“So what happens with the gate where the guardians died? Do I get that one? Do I hold interviews for a mate-guardian combo or something?”
Medley chuckles and shrugs again, but something about my question tickles at my mind. It’s like the sensation of déjà vu, only not exactly the same. It’s that feeling you get when you know you’re forgetting something but have no idea how to remember what it is.
“You’re lookin’ forward to havin’ plural mates, huh?” she says, wagging her brows.
I feel Toreon’s eyes on me, and my cheeks immediately grow warm. “Umm, what? No,” I say quickly.
Medley’s eyes dance with mirth. “Aww, come on, sis! Ain’t nothin’ to be shy about. Delta gave me the mate talk, too. But she helped me realize that you just gotta follow your instincts when it comes to that and forget about human relationships. I was drawn to Flint and Alder immediately. I bet it’ll be the same for you.”
I don’t know why, but my eyes dart over to Toreon before I even realize what I’m doing.
“I wonder if you’ll have more than her,” Medley muses. “Ooh, maybe you’ll go and have somethin’ crazy, like seven hot demon mates all to yourself.”
I nearly choke on my tongue. “Seven?” I squeak.
She giggles. “Who knows? We’ll get out of here first and then figure the rest out,” Medley reassures me with a wink, but I hear Toreon scoff from his cage.
We both turn to look at him lying in the middle of his cell, his hands laced behind his head.
“We are gonna get out of here,” Medley argues, already knowing what the sound means coming from him.
“If there were a way out of here, I’d have found it already, Annuli. Trust me, you’re setting yourself up for bigger disappointment by pretending you’re going to get away. Morax may be a maniac, but he’s not stupid. He also happens to be the most powerful being I’ve ever seen aside from Lucifer, or are you forgetting he managed to create a separate realm when everyone thought that was impossible?” Toreon points out.
When he draws it out like that, it’s hard to deny that we might never see the light of day again, but it’s not in me to give up. Even as a kid, I was always hopeful, always working and striving to find a way around my problems. I can’t look at what’s happening to me right now in any other way. I have to have faith.
“Well, you haven’t seen what the…” Medley pauses for a second in thought. “Shoot, we don’t all have the same last name,” she points out. “I was gonna say you haven’t seen what the Bell sisters can do, but that’s not right. Maybe Annuli sisters?” she states, but it’s more question than a declaration. “Nah, that’s not as cool soundin’ as I was hopin’ it would be.”
I smile as she taps her lip and looks up like she’s expecting the answer to be floating somewhere above her head. I want to say that I wouldn’t mind sharing her last name—like real sisters, but I don’t.
She shrugs. “I got nothin’, but the name ain’t what matters. What does, is that we’re here now, and neither you or Morax have seen the likes of us before. So put on your positive panties and let’s figure shit out, okay, mister? Maybe your guard friend that Sable was tellin’ me about can help us.”
“All Vudu is going to end up doing is getting himself killed. What is it about Morax can control every part of you that you don’t understand?” Toreon demands frustratedly, as though our refusal to give up personally offends him.
“He can’t control Sable,” Medley counters with a victorious gleam in her eyes.
“Well, unless she can teach everyone in the world how to do that, we’re no better off!” Toreon growls.
Toreon’s irritation settles around us like a weighted blanket, and I tell myself that he’s been through more than I know and that it’s not fair for me to judge his behavior now. I’m not all that certain that I’m not going to die down here, but the difference between the two of us is that I’m not willing to just lie down and let it happen. I still have fight in me.
“Hmm…” Medley pushes up from where she’s sitting next to me and moves to her knees in the center of the wall of bars. She looks at me expectantly and gestures for me to do the same. As soon as I settle in front of her, she sets her hands on her knees and focuses on me.
“You’re right about that at least, Toreon, but Sable doesn’t need to teach the world,” she says, giving me a smile filled with determination. “She just needs to teach me and Delta how to resist him. Then we can kill him, and all of this will be over.”
Toreon doesn’t respond in any way to her words, but they settle into me and stoke m
y hope like gasoline being fed to the flame of a candle. The accelerant of her statement feels like it turns my softly glowing wick from something barely there and soothing to a raging inferno that could ignite anything and everything.
“Do you think that could work?” I ask, and there’s no hiding the hope in my voice.
“I don’t know, but it’s worth a shot,” she quickly answers back with a shrug. “Now, how does it work for you? What do you do that shuts him out?”
I consider how to answer her, forcing myself to dip into difficult memories to try and trace step-by-step what’s happening to me and why his power can’t seem to get a foothold.
“Okay, so your tribulations,” I start, and she nods eagerly. “I think something similar happens to me, but instead of the darkness leaking in and helping me go full Annulus badass, it wraps me up and keeps anything from getting to me,” I explain, not sure if that makes any sense at all. “Like a cocoon. I can see and hear everything, but it doesn’t really touch me. Nothing hurts. It’s like I make some kind of barrier around me.” I’m not even sure if that’s what happens, but it’s the best way I can explain it.
“How do you control what the blackness does, though?” she questions.
I wrack my brain for answers and a way to understand how it all works. “For me, it’s always just done it that way on its own. But you mentioned Delta said she’d see the blackness too, but it never took over all the way for her. I’m hoping it’s this innate protection that we all have, but it manifested differently in all of us. If so, it must be the same, so maybe we can manipulate it, make it work for us in a more conscious, intended way.”
“That makes sense,” Medley states, licking her cracked lips. “Okay, let me try to see if I can call to it. I’ve never tried before.” She closes her eyes, and I can tell she’s concentrating hard.
I close my eyes too and visualize her grabbing her blackness like a thick cloak of armor and wrapping it all around her. I watch that action over and over again in my mind for a while until I hear Medley huff, and I open my eyes to find her looking back at me.
“I don’t know how to even find the darkness. I don’t feel it in my body all the time. It sorta just creeps in whenever I’m all riled up and I need it.”
I nod, knowing what she means, but before I can open my mouth to offer any other thoughts on the matter, a familiar sting at my back has my wings shoving out of me, and I know from what Medley’s explained, my hair has turned the same dark purple as my feathers.
“Ouch,” I mutter, looking over my shoulder at the appendages that just love to pop in and out of me whenever they want.
Medley jumps a little at the sudden return of my wings. “Well, look at me just jumpin’ the gun,” she announces, shaking her head. “We need to get your wards removed once and for all. They’re broken alright, which is why you keep going in and out, but let’s just shatter them all together.”
She explained to me about the wards Nefta put on us as babies. Too bad mine either never worked properly or fractured when I was a kid, and that’s how I was able to see demons. All that time, I thought it was my mind that was broken, but really, it was her wards. Thanks, Mom!
“How do we do that?” I ask.
“Delta had to go into Nihil for hers, but for me, they broke with her blood.”
I’m immediately assaulted with images of vampires from various TV shows and how they look as they bite into the neck of their prey. A shiver runs through me at the thought, and I have to keep myself from scooching back.
“I have to drink your blood?” I ask, unable to contain the revulsion that takes over my face.
“What?” Medley asks confused. “Eww, no. I just need to put some of my blood on you, or at least, that’s what Delta did. It might be a shot in the dark, but…”
Relief washes through me, and I shoo away my Vampire Diary thoughts. I mean, if Damon was in front of me saying he has to bite me to save me, then I’d definitely take one for the team. But if the roles were reversed and I had to do the vein chomping...well, suffice it to say that salvation may be a long time coming.
Thank goodness we’re not vampires.
A giggle escapes Medley’s mouth, and she points at me as she tries to quiet it. “You should see your face right now,” she exclaims quietly, cracking up. “I should’ve said yes just to mess with you a little.”
I glare at her, but the warning in it is lost when my mouth betrays me and breaks into a smile. I can’t help it, her giggles are contagious.
Medley reaches for her scythe, but once again, she can’t connect with it. She curses in frustration and pulls her hand back. “I was hopin’ his compulsion would wear off by now like Delta said it did for her.” She releases a weary huff and starts to look around. “I need somethin’ sharp so I can cut my hand or arm or somethin’.”
I look around my cell and pick up the metal plate that’s still here, wondering if I can bend it somehow and get it jagged enough to cut. Can half angels, half demons get tetanus?
I wish the tweezer things that Morax forced Medley to use were still in my cell, but as soon as I tossed them away and they clanged to the ground, they somehow disappeared and showed up back on the wall.
“Here,” Toreon announces from behind me.
I turn to see him holding out the onyx tool that Vudu gave him.
I get up and walk over to him, reaching through the bars where his hand is outstretched. “Thank you,” I say just as our hands connect. We both pause for a moment, our fingers touching slightly, and Toreon looks at me, something indiscernible crossing over his face. But then he quickly lets go, and I pull the tool back through the bars with me.
I look down at the file in my hands, noting that it’s lighter than I thought it would be. My eyes flick back up to Toreon’s intense gaze, and there’s still a hint of something unfamiliar in his eyes.
Is that hope?
Just as quickly as I see it, Toreon blinks and shutters the emotion. I’m once again staring into apathetic eyes, and the familiar slump of defeat is back in his shoulders.
I want to rescue him.
That thought pops into my head, startling me, but...it’s true. I do want to rescue him. And maybe that’s ridiculous, considering I’m brand new to this world and I really don’t even know him, but I want to put that hope back on Toreon’s face and take away his despondent surrender. I want us to get out of here. All of us.
With hardening resolve, I move to the other side of my cell and hand Medley the weapon.
She holds the file in her hand and tests the weight for a moment before bringing the tapered end to her palm and slashing her skin with it. She hisses as a gash opens up, and blood pools to the surface.
Medley hands me back the file, and I clutch it in one hand while extending my other to her. With a cupped palm that’s slowly filling with blood, she reaches out to me. I’d be worried about how deeply she cut herself if I didn’t know how quickly we heal.
Our arms meet between the cold bars that separate us, and Medley brings her hand over my forearm and upends her cupped palm. Warm liquid spills over the lean muscles of my arm, and I force myself to focus on the heat and the comfort that it provides, not the color or consistency of Medley’s blood as it coats my arm.
She smears it into my skin, and then we both wait to see if anything will happen. I’m not really sure what to expect. She and I stare at it, and just as one of the drops slips down to the underside of my arm to fall off, something strange happens.
My skin starts to heat up. It’s like it’s matching the warmth of Medley’s blood and then saying look what I can do by one-upping it. The heat isn’t uncomfortable, but any hotter and it would be.
I gasp when I see that the blood that was about to drip down my arm and fall onto the floor betrays the laws of science and slinks upward. In a blink, my skin starts to soak it up, drop by drop, like I’m a thirsty sponge.
I gape as the blood disappears from my arm, and heat forces its way into me, like
whatever power is in Medley’s blood is injecting itself into my skin, my veins, my muscle and bones and my every cell, and I actually feel the last of the wards shatter.
And then I ignite.
10
X-men was one of my favorite things to watch when I was younger. It was one of the movies I was lucky enough to view while I was in the asylum for movie night.
Even though one of the orderlies put a stop to it for being too violent and giving some of the other patients ideas, I watched it as much as I could before it was taken away. It fascinated me. Maybe it was the thought that being different made you special instead of broken, and that perspective spoke to me on a visceral level. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for special effects and action. Either way though, I always thought Jean Grey’s character was annoying.
It’s not until now, when fire is consuming me from the inside out like I’m a phoenix rising from the ashes, that I sympathize with her plight. I might’ve found it hard to choose between Wolverine and Cyclops too with this inferno building in me. She clearly had every right to be a little whiny and indecisive, and then flip to murderous psycho if this is how she felt inside. Who can really blame the girl for being a tad unhinged? No one should be held accountable during these kinds of hot flashes.
Fire licks up the insides of my body, and Medley reaches out to hold onto me as every muscle in my body tenses. I clench my teeth against the scream that wants to rip free from my throat, my entire body taut.
I know that I can’t let the scream out or make too much noise, because I can’t bring any attention to what’s going on in here. We’ve been left alone so far, but I have no doubt that Morax’s guards will report anything suspicious back to him. It takes everything inside of me to stay quiet. I wish for the darkness that cloaks me in numbness, but it doesn’t come. Instead, I feel something inside of me grow so hot that it starts to melt.
All I can picture is glass as it’s melted by some master craftsman and blown into a figurine or maybe a bowl. The liquid glass grows red-hot and malleable, and with seasoned, practiced hands is shaped into something beautiful and then cooled so it can keep the shape forever.