Ouroboros (Seven Relics Saga Book 1)

by Brea Essex

  I felt arms come around my shoulders, and I buried my face into Zac’s chest. “You can look now. It’s over,” he whispered against my ear.

  My eyes slowly opened, and I peered up at his reassuring face. Even in the midst of everything falling apart, still he tried to make sure I was okay. I peeked at my sister, who was currently sprawled out on the ground. Jumping to my feet, I ran over to her, and fell to my knees at her side. “Ash!” I reached out a hand and shook her. No response.

  As I reached out to feel for a pulse, her hand shot out and grabbed mine. Her eyes flew wide, but they were no longer the same vibrant sapphire blue. It looked as though the irises had swollen, engulfing the entirety of her eyes in black. No white could be seen. Flames danced in the center of the black sea. They looked as though they had a life of their own. I was too late.

  Zac appeared out of nowhere and pried my twin’s hand from my wrist. “We need to go,” he murmured as he pulled me to my feet.

  Still I reached for my sister. I couldn’t bear to leave her like that, possessed and doomed to deliver what could only be evil spawn. I stumbled as I was dragged away.

  “Bye, bye, ZachaRhi. Catch you next time.” Ty waggled his fingers in a mockery of a wave as Zac wrenched me away.

  We landed back in the same room we had stayed in countless times. Zac whispered nonsense words in a soothing tone. He smoothed my hair back from my forehead. “I promise I’ll come back for you.”

  “What?”

  “You’ll understand soon. I love you, Rhiannon. Never forget that.”

  His features blurred before me and everything went black. I felt lost, floating. I looked around frantically. Where had he gone? I was alone…

  When I opened my eyes, my mother was leaning over me. She blurrily came into view. “Mom? What are you doing here?”

  Tears were coursing over her cheeks. “Oh, honey! I’m so glad you’re awake!”

  She pulled me into her arms and crushed me against her. I glanced around the room. What was I doing back in the hospital? “Mom, you’re hurting me!” I exclaimed.

  “Sorry!” She reluctantly released me and I lay back against the pillows. She sat down on the bed next to me.

  “Ummm… how did I get back in the hospital?” I asked.

  “What do you mean ‘back in the hospital’?” my dad asked.

  My parents were really confusing me, and I could tell that I was confusing them. I just stared at them for a moment, trying to figure out what to say.

  They both looked at me worriedly. Finally, my dad pulled his chair closer to the bed and took my hand. “Rhiannon, you had an accident. You fell while rock climbing. Do you remember that?”

  “Yeah, of course I remember that! That was a couple of weeks ago, wasn’t it? Or has it been a few months? I don’t remember.”

  “Yes, it’s been a while,” he said. “Rhi, honey, you’ve been in a coma.”

  I was having the weirdest sense of déjà vu. Hadn’t all of this already happened? I didn’t ask that, because it was obvious they were starting to think I was crazy. Instead, I asked, “Where’s Ash?”

  “Who’s Ash?” my dad asked.

  “Aislinn... you know, my sister.”

  My mother looked pained. “Honey... you don’t have a sister.”

  Huh?” Okay, it was one thing to act like the past couple of weeks hadn’t happened, but to not remember my sister? Someone had gone off the deep end, and I didn’t think it was me.

  My mom placed her hand over mine, the one that was still grasping my dad’s hand. “Why don’t you rest? You’ve had a very traumatic experience and are probably having some memory loss.”

  I was beginning to think that I was indeed going crazy. Or maybe everything had just been some weird coma-induced dream. “I guess so…”

  As I was closing my eyes again, I glanced toward the foot of the bed. Zac was standing there. I guess it wasn’t a dream after all, I thought. He smiled and gave me a wink. As I watched, he shimmered and disappeared.

  Fifteen

  “What do you mean you’re engaged?” my mother shrieked at me. “When did this happen?”

  My parents and I were currently sitting in the living room of our house. Being home was a painful reminder that Aislinn was missing. Oddly enough, she had disappeared from all of our family photos. When Typhon had taken her from us, he had certainly covered all of his bases. Our parents still had no memories of her. I supposed it was for the best. It might be even more excruciatingly painful for them than it was for me.

  “It’s a… recent development,” I told them.

  “How recent?”

  “A few weeks.”

  “But you’ve been in a coma.” My mother looked confused, and understandably so.

  “Yeah, I know.” There was no way that could I explain to them that Zac was currently a spirit, or that I had met him while I was in the coma.

  “And when, exactly, where you planning on telling us this?” my dad cut in.

  “I’m telling you now, Dad.”

  My parents were silent for a few moments. “When do get to meet him?” my mom finally asked.

  “Soon.” Hopefully, I added silently.

  “Soon? What is that supposed to mean? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, exasperated. I pushed to my feet and paced over to the fireplace.

  “Why are you being so evasive?” my dad wanted to know.

  Turning to stare at them, I said, “I’m not being evasive. What is this, Twenty Questions?”

  “Damn right it’s Twenty Questions,” my dad said, standing up as well. “It’ll be a lot more than twenty if you don’t start giving us some answers.”

  A shimmering in the corner of the room caught my attention. Zac’s form coalesced until he looked solid. I tried not to look at him. My parents would wonder what I was staring at.

  “Tell them I’m out of town,” he said.

  “He’s out of town,” I repeated back to my mom and dad.

  “Out of town?” my mother echoed.

  “Yeah, visiting relatives.” That seemed like a safe excuse. “I’m not sure exactly when he’ll be back, but I’ll bring him over to meet you guys as soon as he does.”

  They looked slightly relieved. “All right. I suppose that’s acceptable,” my father said.

  “Are you going to tell us the name of our future son-in-law?” my mom asked, sounding slightly bitter.

  It was then that I realized I didn’t know Zac’s last name. “It’s Zachary Cohen,” Zac informed me.

  “Zachary Cohen,” I told them, relieved that Zac had been in the room just then.

  Neither of them said anything. My father stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed over his chest. He looked upset, possibly a little mad. My mom still sat on the couch, one leg crossed over the other. Her hands twisted together in her lap. They both looked as though they had aged since my accident, and since Aislinn’s disappearance.

  They might not consciously remember her, but I was willing to bet that the memories were there, buried somewhere deep in their subconscious. They had experienced a lot of trauma in a short amount of time, and it showed in their faces. I wondered if they would ever be the same again. Hopefully we would get Aislinn back one day, and our family would be whole once more.

  “Well, I guess we’ll try to be happy about this,” my father told me.

  “William, you expect us to be happy about the fact that she tried to hide this boy from us?” my mother asked, clearly shocked.

  “I didn’t try to hide him from you!” I protested.

  My dad held up a hand to quiet both my mom and me. “Now, Eva, I’m not sure why Rhiannon felt the need to wait until now to tell us about this… Zachary. But the fact is, she’s our only child. At least she didn’t run off and marry him without telling us. She’s eighteen, and technically an adult. She can do whatever she wants.”

  My mom reached up and smoothed back her already perfect hair. “I don’
t like this.”

  “Neither do I, but hopefully we will in time.”

  “Does this mean you’re not going to help me plan?” I asked in a small voice, hoping that the prospect of party planning might bring my mother over to my side.

  Luckily, it worked. My mom turned to me. “Of course I’ll help you plan.” She forced a small smile. “You and I both know that you’re hopeless when it comes to party planning and décor. I don’t want your wedding to be a disaster.”

  Nice, Mom, I thought. Glancing briefly in Zac’s direction, I noticed that he looked surprised at my mom’s condescending tone. I had failed to warn him about my parents. It drove my mom crazy that I wasn’t a girly-girl, like her. Aislinn had always been her favorite. Now that she wasn’t here, there was no buffer between my mom and me. She didn’t have a daughter to share her shopping habits and decorating skills with.

  “Thanks,” was all I told her.

  “We still want to meet him as soon as he comes back,” my dad said.

  “Don’t worry; he’ll come by to meet you guys as soon as he can.”

  “When’s the wedding?” my mom asked.

  I looked over at Zac, who shrugged. I repeated his gesture. Who knew how long it would take to recover his body? “I’m not sure. A few months? We haven’t set a date yet.”

  “Well, that’s unacceptable! How am I supposed to know how long I have to plan?”

  “I don’t know, Mom.” I pushed a hand through my hair, exasperated. I was tired of their millions of questions. I just wanted to go lock myself in my room. “Just assume you have a few months. Zac and I will set a date when he gets back. We’ll let you know as soon as we know. I promise.”

  She didn’t look happy, but then again, when did she? “Do you have any idea how many people will be attending?”

  “Don’t know. We haven’t done a guest list yet either. Sorry.”

  “Fine. I suppose you’ll inform me whenever it’s convenient for you.”

  “No. I’ll tell you when we decide,” I reassured her.

  “All right.” My mother got to her feet and walked out of the room.

  “I guess that means the conversation is over?” I asked my dad.

  “For now.” He nodded. “Rhiannon, you’ve always been a little difficult, but I certainly didn’t expect anything like this.”

  “Like what? Me wanting to get married? Me not asking you for permission? Like you said, I’m eighteen. I can do what I want.”

  He walked over to where I stood and looked down at me. I had forgotten how tall my father was. In reality, he was a little shorter than Zac, but in that moment, he seemed like a giant. “Yes, Rhiannon, you can do what you want. But that doesn’t mean you have the right to hurt your mother and me like this.”

  “How am I hurting either of you? Don’t you want me to be happy?”

  His face fell. “Of course we do. But I would have expected a little more courtesy out of our only child.”

  I’m not your only child! my mind screamed. Out loud, I said, “I’m sorry you feel that way, Dad. I never meant to upset you or Mom. I had hoped you would both be happy for me.”

  He sighed. “We are happy, Rhiannon. We just weren’t expecting this news sprung on us like this.”

  “How would you have preferred that I tell you?”

  “I don’t know. You could have brought him home as your boyfriend first. You could have let us get to know him before announcing that he was joining our family.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you, except that I’m sorry. I just hope you like him when you meet him, and that you’ll welcome him as part of our family.”

  “I’m sure we will like him. Just give us a while to get used to the idea of our eighteen-year-old daughter getting married, okay?”

  I wondered what he would think if he knew that his other eighteen-year-old daughter was already married and close to delivering what could only be a monster like its father.

  “All right. I will.”

  Reaching down, he placed a hand on my shoulder, gripping it tightly. “We’ll talk more later.”

  I nodded. He walked out of the living room. I motioned for Zac to follow me down the hall to my bedroom.

  Once we were safely inside and I had closed the door, I turned to Zac. “Sorry you had to hear all that,” I said quietly. My parents might not have been able to hear him, but they could certainly hear me. I didn’t want them to think I was talking to myself and come to check on me.

  “It’s all right. But wow, your parents are kind of a nightmare.”

  “They’re not that bad. They’ve been super weird since Ash… disappeared. I think some part of them wonders what happened to her, and wants to know where she is.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, that can happen. I don’t know what exactly Typhon did to them. Obviously he had help.”

  “What do you mean?” I cocked my head to one side and sat down on my bed. I patted the spot next to me, indicating for Zac to join me.

  “Zayin can’t perform spells. Sure, we can do basic glamours, but we can’t perform things like hypnosis or memory wipes. He had to have had a witch to help with that.”

  I pondered that for a moment. “So, if we were to locate this witch—could we have him or her reverse the spell? Could we return Aislinn to normal and restore my parents’ memories?”

  “It’s possible. Of course, that’s assuming that the witch will cooperate. Who knows what Typhon offered them… or threatened them with.”

  “If we can’t find them, or if they won’t help, would I be able to do it?”

  He lay back on my bed, folding his hands behind his head. “I suppose so. It’s entirely likely that you would be able to. It might take us a while to find the correct spells. You might have to undergo some more training.”

  “Would we need to return to Hecate?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “We may be able to find a witch here who is experienced enough to help you, or at least train you.”

  “So, what are we waiting for? Let’s go to that necromancer library and try to find the spells. Maybe someone there would know, or could find out, who helped Ty.”

  Zac sat up again, shaking his head. “It burned down, remember?”

  I froze. How could I have forgotten that horrible night, with the terrible fire? That was the night my sister had been taken from me. “This is all my fault, isn’t it?”

  It was a conversation we had had many times. “It’s not your fault, Rhi,” Zac reassured me.

  “But I called her to me. If it weren’t for me, she wouldn’t have been there. Typhon never would have gotten his hands on her.”

  “He would have found her anyway. He couldn’t have you, so he needed her.”

  “What do you mean?” This was something we hadn’t discussed before.

  He sucked in a breath, holding it for a moment, and then expelling it sharply. “I think he needed you, but settled for her.”

  “But why me? Why her? What did he need us for?” He was confusing me.

  “The child, Rhiannon. The child your sister carries. It has Zayin blood—and necromancer. Your sister might not have powers like you, but she still carries the necromancer blood. It’s genetic. She may very well get powers when she’s older. Yours just happened to activate early because of your head injury, remember?”

  “How could I forget?” I asked bitterly. “So, what do you think he plans to do with this child of mixed blood?”

  “I have no idea. I definitely want to find out, though. He’s up to something. But we’ll have to destroy the child,” Zac said.

  I stared at him, horrified. “What?”

  “Don’t look at me like I’m a monster. Who knows what this child will do? Who knows what kind of powers it might have? No, we have to deal with it before it becomes a problem.”

  “Well, didn’t Hecate say that necromancers have to have empathy to draw ghosts to them? That the spirits wouldn’t speak with them if the necromancer trying to summon them weren’t c
ompassionate and willing to listen to them, and to help them?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I think she said something like that.”

  “Then maybe that’s what he’s trying to do: maybe he wants a child who will be able to summon the ghosts, as well as control the demons.”

  “If this child is anything like his or her father, they’re certainly not going to have enough compassion to get the ghosts to talk to them.”

  I lay back on my bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling. “But if the baby is anything like Ash… she’s not the most compassionate person, but she’s certainly a hell of a lot nicer than Typhon is. At least, she was,” I amended. “You know, before Ty interfered.”

  “From what you told me, she seems like a good person, but she doesn’t exactly strike me as a humanitarian.”

  “She’s not that bad,” I whispered.

  “Look, I’m not trying to talk bad about your sister. I don’t know her, after all. I’m just saying that maybe we’ll get lucky and this child will be apathetic like his or her father. It’s entirely possible that with Typhon raising it—along with your sister, the way she is now—the child might not be the nicest person. Maybe she or he will lack the… softheartedness… to communicate with the ghosts.”

  “I hope you’re right,” I told him. “I really do.”

  Sixteen

  Six Months Later

  It had been a full six months since I had woken from my coma. My parents had been smothering me and coddling me since I had been discharged from the hospital. They still didn’t remember Aislinn.

  A lot of my time was spent pining for my twin. I was having a hard time adjusting to life without her. If my parents had been there to support me, maybe it would have been easier. Zac tried his hardest, but it was difficult. He just didn’t understand. Also, I could no longer touch him.

  After careful research, we had discovered that our time together had been a very long astral projection. I had existed in the spirit realm, and the glamours that Zac had placed on me had been useless. No one would have seen me anyway, with the exception of the necromancers at the libraries. As for the man in the camping store in Greece... well, we couldn’t figure that one out.