Two Halves Box Set

by Marta Szemik

  For the first time, I used a door to leave Xela’s lair. As soon as it opened, the heat from the underworld hit me as if I’d bumped into a wall. It felt like I’d been wrapped in tin foil and thrown into an oven. Or a steamer—the hot air was heavy with moisture, the humidity condensing into droplets on the uneven floor and dampening the earthen walls of the dark corridors Xela led me along. She moved through them like a blind person, counting the steps in a whisper before the next turn. When my head hit the low ceiling, I shifted to shrink two inches. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of rotten eggs and dirty socks, the signature stench of the seekers. There must have been hundreds lurking nearby. Mingled with that odor was the sulfuric smell of geysers.

  “We’re under Shoshone Park,” I said.

  “Yes. Hold on.” We stopped to peek cautiously around the corner. “Okay, it’s clear.” She tugged my hand.

  We stepped into an octagonal hall. Tipping my head back, I looked up at a chandelier suspended from the middle of the natural granite ceiling, its hundreds of candles illuminating four support pillars that rose from the floor to roof. Flames roared angrily in an oversized fire pit in the floor, the acidic odor from whatever was burning bit at the inside of my mouth. I shifted to change my taste buds.

  “You live that close to Aseret’s dungeon?” I asked in surprise.

  “I’m one of the few.”

  “Why?”

  “Shh.” Xela turned to face me, her hazel eyes sparkling with power I hadn’t seen before; as if, somehow, this place strengthened her. She stepped forward with confidence, pulling me along. “No one’s here.”

  We ran toward the fire pit in the center of the room.

  “Where is Aseret?” I asked.

  “This hall is only used for grand affairs. He’s probably in his dungeons. We don’t have too much time.” Xela leaned over the stone wall surrounding the raging flames.

  “Careful.” I tugged at her arm.

  “Don’t worry. It will show our future.” She straightened and stood before the pit, tilting her head forward, eyes closed. Her arms dangled at her sides, palms facing forward. Small tremors passed through her body as her eyes moved under the lids.

  Then she exhaled and her shoulders drooped as she slowly turned toward me. Xela didn’t have to say anything for me to understand her expression. The spark I’d fallen in love with was gone from her eyes; I knew our destiny forked.

  “We need to go back.” She nodded toward one of the five openings in the walls.

  I inhaled and nodded. Seekers.

  We skittered into the opening that would take us back to Xela’s burrow moments before Aseret and his zombie seekers entered. I stopped, pulling on Xela’s hand, wanting to eavesdrop.

  She shook her head and whispered, “Too dangerous, you can’t stay long.”

  “Just one minute,” I pleaded.

  Xela sighed but didn’t argue.

  Within the hall, the seekers’ commotion stilled. I pictured Aseret lifting his twig-like arms to gain attention.

  “The time hasss commme,” he announced.

  The seekers roared, then fell silent again.

  “The vampirrres will be dessstroyed, and humannns will follow.” The way he spoke, with the words oozing from his mouth, was both irritating and hypnotizing. “We will ruullle!” he hollered, and I pictured him levitating the way he always did when he was high on his own power.

  Xela tugged insistently at my shoulder, and I complied, following her to the lair.

  I welcomed the cooler temperature inside her home, dropping to sit cross-legged in front of the fireplace. Xela came to my side, stroking my arm.

  “He’s planning to kill everyone,” I said.

  “You care,” she cooed, leaning in. The tips of her fingers touched my pelvis as she pulled the shirt over my head.

  I turned to face her. “Of course I care.” I removed her top, then lifted her legs to wrap them around me. My thoughts fogged. Xela’s closeness drew my attention to her, and away from Aseret’s plan to destroy humanity. I pulled away by a fraction.

  “Then you should understand why you are to be marked with a water mark,” she murmured, pressing herself to me again.

  I strained to concentrate.

  “What did you see in the fire?” I asked.

  “We’re not meant to be.”

  “No hope?” When she didn’t confirm, I added, “There is hope?” My heart thumped and I widened my eyes.

  “I’m not sure. I looked far ahead. At one point, we will meet again, but we won’t be together yet.” Her fingers kneaded my shoulders. Each touch sent electricity through my body reviving all my muscles, like shock therapy, but I was certain she hadn’t used magic.

  “Yet?”

  “Beyond that, it will depend on your actions. You’ll want to kill me.” She lowered her hands to my arms, continuing the massage.

  “I never will. I promise.”

  I wasn’t sure whether her smirk was because she knew I’d break the promise or because she’d waited for me to make the promise.

  “Do we still have some time?”

  She lowered her hands, pressing them to the small of my back, her front forced against my chest. “Very little.”

  Her mouth inches away, I shared her breath, its sweetness intoxicating.

  “Then let’s not waste it talking.” I leaned back to lie down, pulling her on top of me. She moaned as her thighs flexed, and I was lost in her again.

  At two in the morning, I lay on my back, my arms resting under my head. Xela’s cheek was pressed to my chest; her eyes were closed, but she wasn’t sleeping.

  “You’re hungry,” she said.

  That’s when I felt my stomach grumble and my nose picked up a new smell. Goulash. I forgot to readjust my taste buds after we returned and hadn’t noticed when Xela prepared the stew bubbling over the fire. I must have dozed off.

  She stood, not bothering to get dressed, and walked away to lift two bowls waiting on the mantel to fill them from the cauldron. After dipping pieces of bread into the heavy pepper-onion sauce, Xela returned to me with the bowls. I licked my lips.

  “They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” she said, handing me one bowl and slipping her legs under the velvety blanket we’d shared.

  “I’d argue with that.” I smirked, my gaze wandering to her breasts, then falling to her hips.

  “Oh?”

  I laughed and focused on soaking the bread in the goulash. The sauce dripped onto my chin when I lifted the bread to my mouth. Xela wiped it with her fingertip, then licked it off her finger. The sauce was spicy and sweet, with enough consistency to settle on the soaked bread. I pictured myself happy with Xela and couldn’t imagine anyone else in my life—no other woman, witch, vampire, shape-shifter, or demon. It would always be Xela. If not her, then no one else.

  Suddenly, the stench of spoiled eggs and dirty socks filled the lair. I inhaled it, remembering the burning sensation on the inside of my mouth.

  “No! Not now!” Xela shot upright. She snatched up her clothes and quickly pulled them on.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Stay here. I’m being summoned.” She waved one hand at me, chanting a spell while pulling her tank top over her head with the other hand. “They won’t see you. I’ll be back.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To see Aseret. Shh.” She pressed her finger to her lips.

  As soon as she was dressed, the odor intensified. My throat ached when I inhaled and it felt like I’d swallowed razors. I held that breath as two seekers walked into the lair through an orange mist that appeared out of nowhere, replacing the pit and the cauldron. It looked like they walked out of the fireplace. Xela stood motionless, her head high, eyes focused ahead as they pressed their hot paws, a seeker’s best weapon, onto her shoulders and walked with her back into the mist. They all disappeared.

  The stench left with the seekers, sucked back into the void as if it were a cloak they co
uldn’t part with. A rosy aroma filled the lair, and was sure it was Xela’s doing; I knew the blooming flowers were for me.

  I paced from one end of the room to the other, wishing she’d come back. Without Xela, I again felt lost in oblivion. She was my destiny. What did Aseret want with her? Didn’t he have other witches hovering around him, seeking power? Xela wasn’t like that. She already had power, more than the other witches I’d seen, but she kept her black magic to herself. My sorceress did not seem to want to be part of the world she belonged to.

  I should have gone with her...,

  But her magic tied me to the lair and kept me invisible. Danger lurked on the other side of the door. As a creature not tied by the sphere to the underworld, I’d get lost in the ever-shifting maze of corridors. Besides, Xela had asked me to stay, which meant she was coming back.

  My witch was gone for three hours before she walked out of the blooming rosebushes toward me. As soon as she stepped through, one of the red roses darkened from crimson to black.

  “Are you all right?” I sprang to her side.

  “You have to leave.” Though she wasn’t one to cry—no black witch would—I could tell she held back tears. Why else did her hazel eyes reflect the flames from the fire with such clarity? “I can no longer see you or you’ll get hurt.”

  “No!” I uttered. “Is that what Aseret said?”

  “I don’t have a choice, Xander. If you stay, I’ll have to bring you to him. I can’t keep you hidden for much longer. He sensed your presence in the underworld. He wants you to join him.”

  “Then let’s go.” I rushed toward the wooden door.

  “He’ll mark you.”

  “Like I said, let’s go.” I repeated, urgently. If being tied to the underworld was the only way to spend my life with Xela, then so be it.

  “Xander, I care for you too much to let you do this for me. You may not know it, but I’m certain you shouldn’t be bound to the underworld.” She paused, gently taking my hand off the oval door handle. “This is my choice, the only one I’ll probably be able to make for a long time, before everything changes.” Her eyes rolled back in their sockets, then came back to me. “And I choose to save you.”

  “I want to do this—for us,” I begged.

  “It’s not where you’re meant to be.”

  But her lips disagreed as she pressed her mouth hard against mine, her body glued to my front. The fierce exchange made my blood rush in my veins, concentrating it in parts of my body only Xela could satisfy. She pulled away, and I knew I’d lost her. My gut told me this was the end of “us.”

  I reached for her. “Xela.”

  “Go. Don’t come back. Promise me.” She took another step back, her eyes pleading.

  “I can’t.”

  “If you don’t, he’ll kill me.”

  “I promise,” I blurted, knowing it was the most difficult promise I’d made in my life.

  She closed her eyes, and I felt the time hole on the tip of my nose. I froze. “No.”

  As the room spun, my jaw tightened, my knuckles whitened, and I was sure my face was tinged green, reflecting the rage bubbling in my veins.

  * * *

  Two days.

  I didn’t speak to anyone at the hill. Mira stayed away from Eric, pacing in front of my bedroom door. Ma left food on the threshold, hoping I’d eat. The chirping of the crickets began to irritate me. I had no will to silence them.

  “Give him some time,” I heard Eric say. The strength of my voice vanished, and I couldn’t even ask him to be quiet, because that would be taking away the freedom he had, as mine was about to be taken away.

  “It’s been fourteen hours. This is killing him.” Mira felt my pain, as I always felt hers.

  “He just needs time—more than a day or two. Once he’s marked, his priorities will shift. He’ll understand his destiny.” Eric’s footsteps mimicked Mira’s. I imagined him wrap his arms around my sister from behind.

  “It’s not fair. Can’t you do something?”

  “It’s not the right time yet.”

  “What does that mean, not the right time?” I could mentally see my sister throwing her hands up, huffing at lover boy.

  My insides twisted, knowing that my feelings affected her, but I couldn’t control the void inside me. It would never fill again, never leap with happiness the way it had with Xela. It wasn’t my intention to upset Mira, but there was no other way.

  “That it’s not the right time. That’s all I know.”

  She knocked on my door. “Let me in, Xander.”

  “It’s open,” I mumbled.

  Mira entered and dropped to sit cross-legged in front of me. My pain reflected in her face. My green shading hadn’t faded yet. “Talk to me,” she demanded.

  “I’m in love with a witch.” I sighed and rested my head against the wall. Xela was the only one on my mind, her rosy scent covering every inch of my body, the only topic I wanted to talk about.

  “Okay.” Mira’s face smoothed.

  “A black witch.”

  “I know.” She took my hand in hers. “Can I do anything?”

  I shrugged. “Get the sphere mark?”

  “I’ll do it for you.”

  “I know you would.” I exhaled. “But it’s not something I can ask of you.”

  “Run with me?”

  My brows rose voluntarily. Running made us free. When the wind connected to our bodies, all nerves awoke. It was the only time we could be ourselves, even at a time we didn’t know who we were. We hadn’t done this in a while. Like an expectant kid hearing an ice cream truck, I felt my pulse speed as excitement spread. As the fastest creatures on earth, we were untouchable, though we never ran away from a challenge.

  “Now?”

  “Come on, you moper.” Mira punched me in the arm. “I bet you can’t catch me.” She punched again. Only my sister knew how to motivate me: challenge.

  “Oh, you’re gonna regret that one.” I pushed off the floor.

  “If you can catch me.” She darted out of the room, then out of the hill.

  I followed, seeing Eric roll his eyes on my way out.

  Because of her head start, there was no way I could make up the distance between us since our maximum speeds were identical and she pushed her feet to the limit. All I could do was follow. We headed north. Branches began slapping my arms as the familiar forest track narrowed. I shifted, toughening my skin so it wouldn’t tear. The cuts would heal in seconds, but I much preferred to concentrate on my speed. Mira was right: running, was exactly what I needed. It kept my focus away from Xela.

  Xela. My hand flew to my pocket where the white gem nestled. Then I remembered my promise . . . and that my promise was sound. How could I have agreed not to see her again? Didn’t that contradict my earlier oath to come back? I desperately sought a loophole that would allow me to break my pledge to Xela. I shouldn’t have promised not to see her. But I recalled Xela’s pain; my pledge had been the only thing I could say to take the ache away. What I’d said was impulsive, but I had to keep my word.

  Realizing Mira had stopped, I froze in mid-step twenty feet behind her. For the first time, I’d realized where she brought us. She stood by the tree where Ma had found us, where the keepers had sent us to learn about who we were.

  I wondered what had happened to the shape-shifters who bore the sphere. Did they all join Aseret? What about those who had the water mark? Did Aseret just kill them off? What was the point of us having to experience life before we were marked now? After all, we were the last ones. Why not mark us now and avoid the nothingness?

  “Come, you need to remember who you are.” Mira nestled her back into the under footing at the base of the tree, as if she was snuggling on top of fluffed pillows.

  I didn’t argue; I lay down beside her. As soon as my back touched the snowy ground, my body shifted into an infant. So did Mira’s. It was the only form in which our thoughts cleared and the importance of life flourished. The differences between
good and evil were sorted. The electrons whizzed through my brain, organizing my priorities.

  Drawing a deep breath, I concentrated on the naked branches swaying in the night sky. The white crescent of the moon shimmered between the frozen spines of the trees. On the next exhale, I strained to be thoughtless. The moisture in my nostrils began to freeze in the crisp air.

  Could I kill if I had to? I had been so close to doing so, which made me sure I should be tied to the underworld. Was having the sphere the way to go, or was there another way to be a part of Xela’s life?

  How could someone I’d just met have so much power over me? I knew she hadn’t put a spell on me, but her body controlled mine when we were together the way no one’s had before. Yet somehow, Xela was right. As much as I wanted to be with her, perhaps the sphere wasn’t for me.

  “You know deep down we’re meant to have the water mark,” Mira said, interrupting my thoughts. She turned her head to face me. Had a human seen two infants talking to each other like adults, they’d think we were the spawn of the devil itself.

  “I know,” I said.

  “It will pass, Xander.” The guilt in her voice flew through me. Mira knew she’d have Eric to share her life with; nothing could prevent them from being together once she, too, was marked with the water sign.

  The wind blew, lifting lone snowflakes off the branches to swirl and settle in new spots.

  “I wish that was true.” I sighed and emptied my mind again.

  We remained in our infant form until morning.

  * * *

  One day.

  When the first rays of sunlight filtered through the forest, the wind blew again. We jumped as if shocked with electricity, instantly shifting into our adult selves and standing back to back, scanning the forest. It was in our nature to be wary, and in this case, we were right to be.

  I sniffed. Stinky socks and spoiled eggs. Seekers.

  “How many?” Mira asked.

  “I don’t know. It feels like—”

  “Twenty or more,” she finished. “You think we can take them?”

  “No doubt we can.” I turned clockwise, moving in unison with my sister.