by Hadena James
“Good to know,” I said. “One crisis averted, I think.”
“You think?” Sonnellion asked.
“Well,” I looked around. “No one has exploded, but I’m tempted to add a ‘yet’.”
There was another swell of magic. It was almost a peacock purple, changing to blue and back to purple depending on your point of view. I watched it with increasing dread. There was something sinister about it.
It swirled, getting larger as it moved through the air. The room seemed smaller with the magic in the room. Pendragon jumped into action. He threw open the door and yelled for his children.
The Succubi and Incubi came back into the room. They didn’t stay. They looked at the magic and ran away. Anubis stood, grabbing hold of Fenrir. Together they moved away from the table. Following the movements of the Overlords, Daniel stood. He stared at it in terror, shrinking into Vishnu. To see my brother cower in fear unfroze me. I pushed away from the table with enough force to turn over the chair.
The sound of the chair hitting the timbered floor was like an explosion. I looked around, no one else seemed to notice. Their faces were drained of color. Only Sonnellion seemed as confused as I did.
“Whose is it?” I asked.
“Someone who can’t come back from the dead,” Pendragon answered. “The only being worse than…” He didn’t finish his sentence, instead he stole a quick glance at Sonnellion and blushed.
“Someone was worse than me?” Sonnellion raised an eyebrow.
“Who he is doesn’t matter, what we do with his magic, does,” Anubis stopped any other questions.
“Well, wouldn’t it go back to the Overlord?” I asked.
“Normally, yes,” Anubis answered. “In this case, no.”
“I don’t think now is the time to be mysterious,” I answered.
“It is the same magic that animates Cerebus,” Daniel took hold of my hand.
“Um, ok,” I looked at my brother.
“We trapped his soul inside the Hell Hound to ensure that he could never be resurrected. Technically, he isn’t dead, but he was stripped of his Elder Mark and the Mark was tossed into Pandora’s Box so that no Overlord would have to take his magic,” Anubis finally answered.
“If it is really that bad, what do we do about the cloud of it hanging around near the ceiling?” I asked.
“No clue,” Pendragon answered. “I don’t think anyone can hold his magic and use it. I’ve never seen my children run from magic, ever.”
“Well, we’d better think of something quick,” in my experience, magic that was just hanging around tended to do bad things. Worse, we had some very powerful Witches in the room that were currently frightened and frightened Witches occasionally casted by accident.
“I’m open to suggestions,” Anubis finally looked at me.
“All I know is I’m not taking it in myself and magic without purpose tends to do bad things if left alone too long,” I told him.
“Could we create another box?” Fenrir asked.
“Can you magic it up in about five minutes?” I retorted.
“What if we forced it all into Cerebus?” Nick offered.
“We do not want Cerebus to have all this power,” Anubis answered. “You think we have five minutes?”
“Maybe less,” I looked back at the swirling mesmerizing cloud of magic. “Probably less.”
“That’s not comforting,” Kagutsuchi answered.
“Well, I’m not sure what else to tell you. Daniel, why did we need to destroy Pandora’s Box?” I turned on my youngest brother.
“Because the magic holding it together was losing its power. I didn’t know there was anything like this in it.”
“I don’t think very many beings knew there was something like this in it,” I assured him.
There was an urgent need to do something about the magic. However, what the something was, I didn’t have a clue. The situation somehow seemed dire.
“If you were to cast a spell using the magic would that dissipate it?” Fenrir asked me.
“Nope, it isn’t that kind of magic, it’s more like a soul,” I told him. “Which is part of what’s freaking me out.”
None of us turned to look at Nick. It was still a secret that he could create bodies for not-quite-dead souls. The world finding out that my brothers, working in tandem, could actually resurrect the not-quite-dead was need to know information and so far, no one needed to know. Especially since we didn’t know if this could extend to the quite dead.
The magic began to swirl faster. This was the bad sign I was waiting for. I looked at Anubis.
“Did you think of anything?” I asked him, moving Daniel and Nick behind me. I grabbed Anubis and pulled him closer.
“No,” Anubis said. Daniel grabbed hold of the Overlord and pulled him in. We began to make a wall, shielding the two younger boys.
I took a second to survey the room. I didn’t know what it was going to do. I wasn’t sure we would survive it. I was sure that my Coven and my Overlords standing together was more likely than the other Elder Overlords in the room.
“Get behind us,” I told them. “Fen, Ani, help us make a shield.”
Pendragon stood next to me. I looked at him; he returned the look, his face hard set in defiance. There was no way I would get him behind us. Sonnellion squeezed in next to me and took my hand.
“Sonnel,” I started to say.
“No, niece, I can stand with you, I am strong enough.”
“I doubt it,” Daniel said from behind us. “I don’t think any of us can stand against it.”
“We could try running,” Nick suggested.
“If it doesn’t hit us, it will hit someone else and the two closest beings are Eli and Lucifer, neither strong enough to stand up to this,” I answered.
“It is me it wants,” Pendragon whispered. Another Elder secret quietly and only partially revealed. If it wanted Pendragon, it was a Keeper, which meant Pendragon hadn’t always been the only one.
I wanted to probe that, but there was no time. Morgana and Kagutsuchi were moving towards us. Azreal grabbed Kagutsuchi, shoved him to the back, against the wall.
The magic exploded. It showered over us in blue and purple sparks that burned the skin. My eyes hurt from the brightness. Someone screamed. It wasn’t me, but it was still a woman. I felt the world swim, as I searched for the only other female around.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I was in the hospital. The bed was large and uncomfortable. Pendragon lay on the bed to my right. Anubis to the left. My head hurt, my brain hurt, worse though, my soul ached. Somewhere my brain recalled the scream I had heard as the magic exploded.
“Morgana,” I whispered.
“She is worse than you, but alive,” Rachel’s voice came to me from the foot of the bed. I raised it up and saw her.
“Her scream, I thought she had died.”
“I said she was alive, but worse than you. I didn’t say she would live, not for sure.”
“Oh god,” I moaned. “The rest?”
“The Overlord Temporarium is with Morgana. The Bound fared best, Morgana and Kagutsuchi the worst. But Kagutsuchi will live.”
“Pendragon?”
“He’ll live.”
“Sonnel?”
“Will also live. Nick,” Rachel’s voice cracked. “Nick saved all of you.”
“Nick?” My blood ran cold.
“It turns out he can give bodies that aren’t Elder as well. The Succubi and Incubi took the thing he created and locked it up. It isn’t as powerful as Cerebus, but close. My guess is something similar created Cerebus.”
“Daniel and Nick both agree that Cerebus isn’t natural or alive or dead,” I told her.
“Yes, they did,” Rachel took a seat. Tears dripped from her eyes. Her cheeks were stained with dirt streaks. “What the fuck were you thinking Brenna? Putting yourself in harm’s way like that? You nearly died, again! What would we do without you?” He voice was loud, echoing off the
walls, hysteria filled it, making it higher pitched than normal.
“She did what she had to do to protect all of us,” Pendragon answered, his voice was hollow and sounded like it should have belonged to someone else.
“No, I do not accept that!” Rachel shouted at the bedridden man. He looked terrible.
“Rachel, if she had not drawn the magic into herself, at least temporarily, there would be many dead Overlords,” Elise’s voice came into the room.
“I couldn’t have,” I protested, “it wasn’t just magic, it was part of a soul.”
“You cast the Double Soul spell on yourself, Bren,” my mother looked at me. “We think there’s a fifty-fifty chance that you would have survived it. Luckily, Daniel and Nick realized what you had done and created that thing and Daniel shoved the soul into it.”
“I don’t remember that,” I told them.
“None of you do, Vishnu’s mind had to be checked to figure out what had happened,” Rachel looked at me. “You really didn’t mean to do it?”
“The last thing I remember is Morgana screaming.”
“It was after that, you’ve done it before, cast that spell as you battled for survival. Just not on yourself, I don’t think any Witch has ever tried to cast it on themselves. It might have helped your chances of survival, but,” my mother shrugged.
“Thank you,” Pendragon’s broken voice came to me again.
“Uther are you going to be ok?” I asked, ignoring my mother and sister for a minute.
“I’ll heal,” Pendragon assured me.
“Are any of the others awake?” I turned back to my mother.
“No, none of the Overlords are awake and Sonnel is the only other being from that room that is,” Elise answered me. “We are going to have to magically scrub it before it can be used again. There is a lot of residual magic in the room and most of it is bad.”
“And us?”
“You attempted to take your own life to save the lives of everyone else in that room. You get to stay here for a while,” my mother told me. “We’ve moved Eli and Lucifer here.”
“Are they still suffering?” I asked.
“Yes, but it is getting better,” Olivia walked into the room holding the newborn Amanda. At her heels was Hannah with another newborn. The infant was squiggling gently in her arms. Thomas followed, holding Trent. I looked at the trio. They had all developed souls. I sighed with relief that I didn’t know I needed.
“Well what did you name her?” I asked Hannah.
“Ginger Nicole,” Hannah held her so I could look at her.
“Interesting name,” I looked at my niece, her electric blue skin and matching wings were still breathtaking. “For a child that’s blue.” I giggled lightly.
“Electra sounded too much like a superhero with issues,” Hannah smiled back at me.
“Uh huh,” I agreed and looked around the room. “Why are you forcing all this smiling and feelings of well-being around me?”
“Because you need it,” my mother responded. “Not only are you normally unhappy, but now you’ve been touched by that magic and it’s left a small stain of even more unhappiness. The best medicine for unhappiness is happiness and since the Overlords can’t help, we are.”
I didn’t miss my mother’s innuendo; I just decided it was better to ignore it. Rachel and Hannah both gave me a grin. Thomas handed Trent to Elise and walked from the room. I wanted to go with him.
“Well,” Vera said as came into the room. “How are you feeling dear? I’ve brought you a little pick-me-up.”
I expected a potion. Instead there was a bottle of whiskey. I knew it didn’t belong to my father’s private stock, but it belonged to somebody’s judging by the age of the bottle.
“Back on a serious topic, what happens if Morgana doesn’t…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.
“We’ll burn that bridge when we get there,” Pendragon announced. “Could I have a swig of that?”
I still couldn’t really see the Overlord, but I passed the bottle to Hannah. She took it around the bed, yanked the rest of the curtain back and I got my first glimpse of Uther Pendragon. It took my breath away.
He was charred. That was the only way to describe the blackened, peeling skin. Most of the soft tissue on his face was gone. I looked at my own hands. There were no fire marks, no charred skin. Everything seemed fine. I looked back at Pendragon.
“Does that hurt?” I asked.
“Only as much as it looks,” Pendragon gave a small chuckle through his teeth.
“Why is he like that and I’m not?”
“Because he shielded you from Daniel and Nick’s creation, I think we’ve been letting them watch too many reruns of MonsterQuest,” my mother informed me. “Because I’m pretty sure they created a creature based on the Jersey Devil.”
“That breathes fire,” Rachel added.
“Did the Jersey Devil breathe fire?” I asked.
“Considering it wasn’t real? It can do whatever it wants,” Vera smiled at me.
“How long before I get out of here?”
“Until some of the sadness and melancholy drains from you,” Rachel gave a giggle.
“Essentially that means eternity for you,” Hannah also giggled.
“I am not melancholy or sad,” I informed them. “I’m just a touch moody.”
“Whatever,” my mother scoffed at me. “You are about the most unhappy Demon on the planet, and I can’t understand why. You have great friends, great family, you’re strong, respected and a natural born leader. You have every reason to be happy and yet, you never are.”
“Not all of us are born with a cheery disposition,” I said.
“Yes, but in our family, they are, look at dad,” Rachel answered. “Hell, we are all happier than you.”
“Maybe dark, brooding and unhappy suits me. Maybe I’m the tortured hero in this epic,” I answered. “Maybe I’m slightly haunted by the power I wield and the prophetic words of the dead Centaur.”
“Daniel says you won’t destroy the world,” Rachel reminded me.
“Daniel also didn’t expect for half a soul to come out of Pandora’s Box and try to kill all of us either,” I responded.
“Fine, be miserable,” Rachel huffed.
“It isn’t about being miserable,” I finally gave in. “I killed an Overlord. I don’t have a clue what I’m doing most of the time. I run around like a chicken with my head cut off and hope that no one blows up or worse. And we are still in the dark about where my basement full of cursed items went. What kind of life is that? You guys think I’m miserable, but the truth is, I’m just overwhelmed,” I thought for several minutes while my family stayed silent. “That’s the other part of it. My siblings all have less power than me, but can do something with it. I have tons of it and have trouble making it rain fish. I feel like I am just a magical vessel for my siblings or my mother or my uncles or my Overlords. Sure I can do parlor tricks and a few nifty things like waking up trees, but I can’t do anything that seems useful. My ability to use magic is as barren as I am.”
I don’t know what thought that triggered in my mother, but Elise stood up and walked out of the room, with Trent still in her arms. She returned after a few seconds with a couple of nurses. The nurses grabbed hold of Anubis’s bed and wheeled him from the room. The Overlord gave a quiet groan with the motion, but he didn’t wake up. Next, she herded my sister and sister-in-law out of the room.
Suddenly, I felt deserted. Had I said something to piss her off? I looked over at Pendragon. He was struggling to move.
“Maybe you should just lie there,” I said.
“Maybe,” his cracked face was a touch unnerving. “However, I know what you are thinking and you’re wrong. They didn’t just desert you, leave you to an unknown fate because they were afraid your darkened state would start to stain them. They left you alone so I could talk to you.”
“That was what I was thinking,” I admitted.
“We are
a great deal alike, Brenna. Both of us can wield more power than should be natural, it could drive us mad, has many before us, but you and I will persevere. We will continue forward unlike the others. You say you feel like a magical vessel, there only to be used by those around you. There is probably a great deal of truth to that, but that doesn’t make you any less important. Do you think Daniel and Nick could have saved us from him if you hadn’t been there to give the strength? Do you think your siblings would be alive if you hadn’t been there to help them in Berlin? You and I are special because of the powers we hold, the amount of power we can hold. I can keep this Island and the prison running because of it, what would happen if all those damaged and psychotic Elders could not be contained by me? The Overlords would be forced to kill them, it would break each of them, eventually. Some faster than others, but all would go, and with the falling of each Overlord, the breed would weaken, until there were more mad Elders than sane ones. What would that mean for the world?”
Since I had never considered Pendragon from that point of view, I shut my mouth and listened and thought.
“Now you are the merging of many things; Demon, Witch, Human, all those titles could apply. But you are exceptionally powerful for any of them, too powerful perhaps for any of them. And so you are limited in what you can do with the power. It isn’t a bad thing, from where I sit, I have seen firsthand the strength you can give others. Without it, they would fall and as they fell, they would take others with them. Again, there would be a break down in our society until there were more Elders like Stephen than like Rachel. It may be that your purpose is to provide magic to those around you, those that need it and don’t have it. You do not have to cast the magic yourself or face the thing that lurks in the dark head on to win the battle. Sometimes the best battle strategy is not the logistics of the attack, but the arming of the troops. I think as you age, your ability to give power to others will increase. I think that is your purpose and I think it is a noble purpose, because when war comes, the outcome will be dependent on who has the best weapons. They are finding our weaknesses, weaknesses we didn’t even know we had. They are finding the tears in our cohesion and pulling the tattered threads apart. But you bring cohesion, you bring magic that is no more understood than my own and you, like me, can help remove some of their own power.”