Into the Abyss

by Brenda K. Davies

  “Death would never allow himself to be caught in such a place,” Lust continued.

  There must be a rivalry between Death and Pride as Pride’s head snapped toward her. “Coward,” he sneered at her.

  “Call me what you will, but I’ll be alive.” Lust turned dismissively away from him. “You,” she looked at Olgon and rolled her eyes as Eron twisted his head around. “You should probably help your lover,” Lust said to Pride.

  Pride glanced at the brothers before shrugging. “I’ll find a new one. I was growing tired of him anyway.”

  “He’s a powerful aid to our cause.”

  It didn’t matter what Olgon was as Eron succeeded in decapitating him. He roared as he lifted Olgon’s head into the air and shook it.

  Lust turned and pointed toward a male jinni. “Open a way out of here for us, now.”

  The jinni started to wave his hand in front of his face. If he succeeded in opening a portal, then it wouldn’t matter if I could find a way to take the three horsemen down at once, as they would all flee. Racing toward him, I seized the jinni’s head and twisted it around before he could open a doorway out. Tearing his head from his shoulders, I spun and heaved it at Lust.

  It spun rapidly through the air, and with a startled cry, she yanked her mount back to avoid its trajectory toward her chest. The horse pranced away until his ass bumped into Pride’s horse, who snorted and shifted to shove Lust’s mount away.

  The urge to go to sleep hit me at the same time blood rushed into my groin, and I became semi-erect. And all the while, I resisted shouting the boast of my kill to all the Abyss. Momentarily overwhelmed by the conflicting emotions, it took me a minute to realize the horsemen were unleashing their abilities.

  Drawing on my bond to Amalia, I resisted the horsemen’s effects as Lust spun toward the other jinn.

  “All of you!” she commanded. “Open a portal for us to get out of here, now!”

  I couldn’t kill all the jinn, and she knew it. Some of them edged further away from the horsemen, but more of them came forward.

  “No!” Eron shouted. Lifting the headless body of his brother, he spun it and smashed it into three of the jinn closest to him. “No more helping them!”

  I didn’t need Amalia’s empath ability to feel the madness oozing from her father. The severing of his bond to his Chosen had broken him.

  The emotions Lust, Pride, and Sloth released amplified until I found my head bowing and my eyelids drooping. The jinn closest to the horsemen started to react to the horsemen. A couple of them sat, three of them started tearing the clothes from each other, and another stood haughtily by while fluffing her hair. Those farthest from the horsemen hadn’t been affected yet, but it was only a matter of time.

  Caught up in their spell, the illusions I’d sent forth started to fade.

  I have to fight this for… for… I struggled to recall what was happening, where I was, and then a flash of freckles and multi-hued eyes burst through my mind. Amalia! I have to fight for her!

  Lifting my head, I focused on Amalia standing in front of the monolith. The jinn who had started toward her again were frozen halfway up the base of the monolith. Caim stood ready to take them on, but they didn’t look willing to go any closer to Absenthees.

  More of the metallic color cracked and chipped away from the monolith. The vivid glow of the waking Absenthees suffused Amalia in a radiance nearly as dazzling as the sun. The symbols on the structure all burned a brilliant white, and as it grew brighter, I felt the effects of the horsemen weakening further.

  When the last of the metallic color fell away, four bolts of light burst out the top of Absenthees and struck the smaller, rotating pieces of stone. Fissures zigzagged across the surfaces of those smaller structures as Absenthees started to emit life once more, instead of absorbing it as the jinn forced it to do for thousands upon thousands of years.

  “We have to go,” Lust said, unable to keep the hint of panic from her voice.

  While I’d been focused on Amalia, and fighting against the horsemen’s powers, a jinni succeeded in opening a portal next to Lust. She turned, and without looking back, disappeared into it.

  Shaking off the last of their effects on me, I ran toward Pride when he started to follow her, but Amalia’s father got to him first. Grasping Pride’s leg, Eron yanked the horseman from his steed.

  Pride hit the ground with a small grunt, but it was the only sound he made before he turned and lunged at Eron. Enclosing his hands around Eron’s throat, he rose again as he drove Eron to his knees. Pride squeezed until Eron’s face turned a florid red.

  Arriving at their side, I drew back my fist and hammered it into Pride’s face. His cheek caved beneath the blow and knocked his hold on Eron free. When my punch connected with the horseman’s cheek, the last of my illusions faded away, including the one cloaking me.

  “Pride goeth before the fall, bitch,” I snarled at him.

  Pride fell to the ground as his mount charged me. I tried to leap out of the way, but I wasn’t in time to avoid the horse’s head from bashing into my side and flinging me back a few feet. Mouth wide open, the horse grabbed Eron’s arm when he threw it up to protect himself. The beast lifted Eron off the ground and flung him into the air.

  Eron’s breath exploded from him when he hit the rocks a few feet away, but he was already regaining his feet when Pride whistled, and his mount spun toward him. The beast’s hooves clattered off the stone as it galloped at full speed toward its master.

  Pride seized his mount’s mane when it raced by him and swung himself onto its back in one fluid motion. Sloth’s mount followed at a much faster speed than I would have believed possible for the rider and his rotund beast.

  They raced for the portal as Eron launched at Pride again. Eron caught Pride as I ran at Sloth and, leaping into the air, hooked my arms around his thick neck and yanked him to the side.

  My momentum carried us over the side of the horse and toward the ground. When we hit the earth, my grip on Sloth was knocked free. I bounced across the terrain before crashing into the base of Absenthees. As I rolled, I realized the rocks forming the ground of the crater were losing their dark coloring and becoming the same multi-hued stones that surrounded the pool and been hidden behind the waterfall.

  Sloth landed a few feet away from me, and I watched as he stumbled to his feet before staggering forward.

  I expected the jinn to rush forward to help him, but some of them were either fleeing through the open portal or creating their own to escape through. The ones not fleeing the Abyss were staring at the monolith or Eron and Pride as if they were trying to decide what to do.

  Shoving myself to my feet, I ran for Sloth as his horse galloped toward him. I poured on the speed, determined to beat his mount to him. Lowering my head, I ran my horns straight through Sloth’s neck.

  Sloth jerked, choked, and then gasped when the tip of my horn burst out the other side of his throat. His hands clawed at the horn as I lifted Sloth off his feet before tossing him to the ground. Slamming my foot onto his back, I pinned him down and yanked my horn free.

  His mount snorted, and smoke billowed from its nostrils as it closed in on me. It was only three feet away from me when I lifted Sloth and spun him toward his steed. The horse’s hooves tore up chunks of pale pink and orange rock as it tried to stop itself from crashing into its master, but it was too late.

  Waiting until the horse was nearly on top of us, I released Sloth and dove to the side. Rolling across the ground, I bounded to my feet in time to see the steed trampling its master. Sloth’s thigh bone burst free of his skin, his other leg twisted awkwardly, and one of his arms flopped to the side as blood spilled from his mouth.

  I ran toward the broken horseman as his mount turned back to charge me again. Falling at Sloth’s side, I sank my fingers into the wound I’d left in his throat as his horse’s nearing hoofbeats thundered in my ears. Its breath heated my cheek as I tore Sloth’s head free.

  Three inch
es away from me, Sloth’s horse burst into a cloud of brown dust that coated my clothing and filled my mouth as it showered me. Blinking away the dust coating my lashes, I lifted my head in time to watch Pride toss aside Eron’s decapitated body. The horseman dropped Eron’s head on the ground before his horse strolled through the portal.

  Amalia, I thought sadly, a second before a swelling light filled the Abyss.

  CHAPTER 45

  Amalia

  When the last of the black color faded from the four smaller monoliths, the light from Absenthees became blinding. It stretched over the land until I was sure the spreading tendrils of it illuminated every crevice of the Abyss. Bowing my head, I turned it away from the structure.

  The heat of Absenthees still didn’t burn me, but instinctively I pulled my hands away from it, as did the other Faulted. The power swelling within Absenthees crackled against my skin, and I knew it would not be contained.

  Run!

  No sooner had the impulse hit me than Caim turned toward me with his arms outstretched.

  But it was too late.

  Light flashed outward in a concussive blow that lifted me off my feet and flung me away as if I weighed no more than a speck of dirt. Caim’s spread wings filled my vision before I closed my eyes.

  Though it threw me backward, the light was also comforting and empowering as it enveloped me like a mother with her child. The sense of rightness stealing through me was nearly as deep as when Magnus was inside me, claiming me.

  This is what the Abyss is supposed to be.

  A smile tugged at my lips before I hit the ground and skidded across it.

  The rocky ground abraded my ass, but the smile didn’t leave my lips as warmth spread throughout the land. That warmth scrubbed away the lingering life force coating me until I felt clean.

  I didn’t stop skidding until I crashed against one of the walls, the breath burst from my lungs, and my smile faded away.

  I lay for a minute, taking stock of my body. My ass throbbed so bad, I didn’t think I’d sit for a week. My back and legs were swollen and probably covered in bruises. My chest was still sore from the kick Lust’s horse had given it, and the rocks against my back poked my shoulder blades through a hole in my dress. Blood trickled from a wound in my shoulder, but I was intact.

  Magnus! My father! Where are they?

  Cautiously, I cracked open one eye. When I discovered the light had died down enough not to sear my eyes from my head, I opened them both.

  Magnus was rushing toward me; his face strained with tension, and his bloody horns turned outward. The happiness suffusing me at the sight of him gave me a rush of strength. Pushing myself up, I winced when my body protested the movement, but I rose onto wobbly legs.

  Behind Magnus, I spotted Caim rising unsteadily to his feet as well as the Faulted and the jinn who hadn’t followed the horsemen. I searched for my father as I stretched my arms out to Magnus. Pulling me into his embrace, he lifted me off my feet and clutched me against his chest.

  “Are you okay?” he demanded.

  “I’m fine, are you?”

  “Yes,” he said as he buried his face in my hair.

  “My father?” I croaked, afraid of the answer.

  When his arms tightened around me, I knew my father was gone before Magnus spoke. “I’m sorry.”

  Tears burned my eyes, and my fingers dug into his shoulders as I clung to him. My father wouldn’t have survived the loss of my mother, but I’d wanted the chance to tell him how much I would always love him and how much they both meant to me.

  “How?”

  “Pride killed him, but your father killed Olgon before then.”

  “Good.” It was a word I never thought I’d say about the death of my uncle, but after he stood by and watched Pride kill my mother without so much as a hint of remorse, he stopped being family to me. He would have killed Magnus and me; his inaction killed my mother.

  I buried my face in Magnus’s shoulder while I battled my fury and sorrow. My fingers threaded through his hair as I sought comfort in his steady presence and his love for me. It took a few minutes, but eventually, I felt stable enough to part from him.

  No matter how badly I yearned to hold onto him and give in to my emotions, I couldn’t. There was far too much to deal with before I could take the time to grieve.

  “I’m okay,” I whispered and pulled my head from his shoulder. “You can put me down.”

  I sensed his reluctance, but he set me on my feet and kept his arm locked around my waist as he stepped away. Once I could see behind him to the world beyond, shock shivered up my spine. A sense of unreality descended as I took in my new… no, not new… reawakened surroundings.

  In the center of the crater, Absenthees had shed its black coating to become a solid white, crystalized stone. Four pieces of white rock branched out from it and formed bridges to the smaller monoliths. Those bridges had pierced the smaller structures and made it so they no longer rotated around Absenthees.

  Unlike Absenthees, those smaller monoliths had each taken on a different hue. One was a pale orange, another a rose pink, the third the color of lavender, and the fourth was the color of the sky on a cloudless day. Power crackled as it flowed between all the monoliths, and I realized this was the way Absenthees should have always been. The jinn’s abuse of its abilities broke this connection between the structures, and when it broke, the land died.

  Now the reawakened land was thriving with life once more. The rocks around us were multi-hued pastels. The leaves on the trees lining the tops of the walls were mostly orange, but a few had sprouted green leaves, and one large tree had leaves that matched the colors of the smaller monoliths.

  The tree’s multi-hued flowers were the size of my hand as they stretched toward a sky that reflected the color of the rocks. Those numerous colors swirled throughout the sky, and like Earth, a few puffy white clouds floated across it. The ruins remained mostly piles of rubble, but the rest of the land was coming alive again.

  In Magnus’s arms, I’d finally found the place where I belonged, but in this land, I’d found the place where I fit.

  “It’s magnificent,” I breathed as the other jinn and Caim wandered around with their mouths open.

  A melodious call broke the hush of the land. Another answered the first call and then another. From between one of the cracks in the walls, a small yellow head emerged. The creature’s round, black eyes took in its surroundings before it crept out from its hiding spot with more than a dozen of its species following it.

  Waddling like ducks, the creatures were the size of a squirrel as they craned their heads back and forth on their short necks to inspect us and the land. Exceptionally cute with their fluffy yellow feathers, orange beaks, and plump bodies, they emitted curiosity and excitement as they squawked, stomped their webbed feet, and bobbed their heads up and down.

  When their yellow wings unfurled to reveal the multi-colored feathers underneath, I realized they were the same creatures as some of the skeletons we’d come across. They must have been in hiding, or perhaps hibernating since the Abyss became a wasteland.

  With another sweet song, the first one spread its wings and took to the sky with the others following it. From all around the Abyss, more filled the sky until their lovely song echoed throughout the land.

  I gasped when, from behind the multi-hued flowers on the large tree, small creatures crept forth and rose into the air. Tinier than the birdlike animals, these creatures were of such various colors that it was impossible to name them all.

  “They’re butterflies!” I gasped as more of them rose from other areas of the Abyss. Or at least they were similar to Earth’s butterflies, but these were larger and possessed more color variations.

  “They are,” Magnus murmured.

  “What else is going to come alive again in here?” I wondered.

  “I suspect many things.”

  “And all of them will be wondrous.”

  Magnus drew me closer agains
t his side and nodded to where the others were starting to cluster near the base of Absenthees. “We should join them.”

  “Yes.”

  “You did this,” he said as we walked over to the monolith. “You brought life to this place again.”

  “We all did this,” I replied. “And we are all going to protect it.” I focused on Rislen when we stopped before her. “The fae didn’t fight for this land before, and they lost it. For thousands of years, our loyalties kept the jinn bound to each other, but those who left here with the horsemen have chosen them over us. The horsemen slaughtered my parents; they will destroy Earth, the humans, and anything else in their path. They would destroy this place again, and so would the jinn who left here with them.”

  I waved my hand at the marvel the Abyss had become as I pinned the non-Faulted jinn with a remorseless stare. “The Abyss will never again be used to hurt others. If you have a problem with that, then leave now and don’t come back, or there will be a battle. I will not allow anyone to destroy this place again.”

  “And neither will we,” Nalki said. “We would have left with the others if that was the side we chose, but we stayed because—” His voice trailed off as he looked at Absenthees. “—because this feels right.”

  “Yes,” the rest of them murmured.

  I pondered if these jinn had a little more fae in them too. Not enough to be Faulted, but enough to feel that this was the true way of this land more than the others did.

  “We will also fight for this place,” Nalki stated, and I realized he’d risen to take over Olgon’s role as leader of the remaining non-Faulted jinn.

  “You might have to fight the other jinn,” I pressed, knowing neither the Faulted or non-Faulted would be eager to do such a thing. “Especially if they come back here with the horsemen. I will destroy anyone who tries to ruin the Abyss again.”

  “We will protect this place.” Rislen’s gaze drifted to Absenthees before rising to the creatures soaring through the sky. “It must be protected.”