by Lainy Lane
"Fine," she said simply. "We find a way to win a war against Kailen and his Ly Ergs, surely it’s been done before right?"
Jarreth shook his head no. She turned to Drake, somehow hoping for a more positive response. He refused to look up at her.
"Oh." Calandra finished off her drink. "Well, we'll be the first to figure it out then, that'll be an accomplishment." She nodded proudly. "But first we have another ordeal to figure out."
Jarreth asked the question with his look.
"Akiye's coming," Drake answered.
"When?"
Glyda finally returned to the table with new shots for Jarreth.
"Tomorrow," Drake answered for Calandra who wasn’t looking forward to seeing Jarreth’s response.
His eyes widened, and he took down the two shots Glyda had just delivered in an instant.
"Don't worry." Calandra smiled. "Something saves me."
"Don't count on anything to save you but yourself," Drake scoffed, and Calandra's confidence deflated.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Akiye
The cold breeze rushed in and brought with it an Autumn feel despite it still being spring. The ominous clouds overhead covered the field in a dark and dreary gray light. The field was still a pile of ash other than the tree. The whole scene was nothing like it used to be. The life and joy had been sucked from this place, and the tree in all its beauty seemed out of place here. Its pink blossoms had turned into flowing open flowers. Its branches and trunk were covered in vivid green moss. The brightness of it contrasted the darkness of the rest of the scene entirely. The contrasting scenes called to Calandra and she basked in the story it longed to tell her. New beginnings. Beauty amongst the ashes. Rising from the fall. New life amongst the death. It all fit into Calandra's current world so well. She was a phoenix rising, and her surroundings reflected it perfectly as she awaited what Drake still insisted would be the end of her.
She held fast to the faith she had in her stars. Something was going to intervene. She still hadn't figured out what that something would be or how or where it would come into play, but she knew it would happen regardless. Drake and Jarreth stood on their respective sides reflecting the other reminder of destiny, the dragonfly mark on her shoulder. They were at the ready, each determined to stand by her to the end. They both had their own different reasons, yet she needed them both for her own various reasons as well. Calandra worked hard to keep her breathing steady and her nerves under control for once.
"Ready?" Drake brushed his hand against hers and sent a cold chill shooting up to her shoulder.
"Ready for whatever." A small chuckle escaped and it surprised even her given the circumstances.
"Sure?" Jarreth lifted his arm up and nudged her with his elbow sending an electric current through her.
"Yep." Her confidence had returned tenfold now that she was in her field. Despite its current state, she still felt more alive there than anywhere else. She knew she could face anything there, especially with her ying and yang next to her. But, as usual, just as everything seemed to be in place, one single moment sent it all flying right off balance again. Tristan walked into the field and sucked every shard of confidence she had built up flying into oblivion around her.
"What are you doing?" Her voice was several octaves higher than usual.
"Jarreth told me I should be here." He looked at Jarreth before turning back to Calandra.
"You most certainly should not, Tristan! Who knows what she is capable of, you need to go." Calandra's nerves picked up of the thought of him being around when Akiye did arrive. "Jarreth what were you thinking?" Her foot stomped on the ground as her temper rose under her skin.
Jarreth's eyes floated around nervously. "I thought it would help stabilize you?" His voice was innocent, and she knew he had the best of intentions in mind, but that knowledge didn’t change anything. Tristan was still there, and no one had any clue what to expect to transpire when Akiye arrived.
"Worrying about his safety was supposed to stabilize me? I fail to see the logic in that plan, care to elaborate?" She put her hand on her hip.
"I'm a big boy now, I can take care of myself." Tristan was offended.
Like she had time to get into that, the thought shots unwelcomely through Calandra's mind.
"Against an Equinox Faerie? Yeah, okay." Calandra rolled her eyes.
"I survived a muse, surely I can handle this." Tristan's face turned red.
"Jarreth saved you, Tristan." She regretted the words as soon as they were out. If it hadn't been for her, Tristan wouldn't have needed the healing of a muse in the first place. Besides, she had been the one to send Jarreth in to save Tristan from it. It was a low blow, and she knew that Tristan didn’t deserve it.
"Calandra," Jarreth tried to reign her in, but his voice didn’t sound as strong as usual.
"Don't get me started in on you at the moment." She turned to face him as she said it and immediately turned back to Tristan. "And before that I saved you. I tried to get you out of this place altogether, but your stubborn self just wouldn't leave." Why was she being so mean exactly? The anger building in her didn’t make any sense to her, much less any of the people staring at her in disbelief. She wasn't mad at Tristan, she was worried about him, yet somehow it was coming out as anger. Anger he didn't deserve at all.
"And your mother saved you, so don't pretend like you can always fix things, Calandra," Tristan spat out and immediately seemed to regret it.
Calandra was stunned in the aftermath of Tristan’s words as they washed over her. She stared at him, running through every comeback she could think of in her head, hoping for a brilliant one to pop up, but she came up with nothing even close to astute. She was simply left speechless.
"I'm sorry," a cold, high-pitched voice cut into the argument. "I believe I was the one who saved her, thank you very much." Everyone turned in unison to face Akiye who was standing on the opposite side of the field.
She drifted effortlessly across the field toward them. Her hair was a vivid red, and it flowed down to her back. Strands flew through the wind as she walked, creating a soft flowing train behind her. Her dress was strapless and low-cut, it started as crimson, faded to orange, and then to gold with a train made of leaves and the entire ensemble glittered as her hips swayed. She stopped just in front of Calandra and glared at her. Her eyes took Calandra's breath away, and she suddenly knew exactly why her own eyes looked the way they did. Akiye had mixed streaks of orange and yellow making up her eye color with red leaf imprints in them. There was Akiye’s piece that had been unwillingly given to Calandra. The very thing she had always thought made her a freak had come from the part of Akiye that had given her a second-chance at life.
Akiye was simply breathtaking, and she radiated the power that she held through her skin. Calandra stood, waiting for some kind of a plan to make this meeting end well to come to her, but found her mind instead covered in a deep fog. There wasn’t a single thought going through it. Everything was blank, and she had the strangest desire to simply stand and do absolutely nothing. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to keep breathing, even that seemed like too much work.
A cold chill coursed through her and pulled her out of her funk. "Don't look into her stare, Calandra," Drake explained quietly as he averted his eyes from Akiye. "She can control your thoughts."
The fog cleared and she instantly felt much more herself again, minus all the thoughts about being able to succeed at figuring out this meeting.
"This is what I gave up a piece of my soul for?" Akiye cackled. "Immature fights and nothing but an easily controllable pawn? You'll never defeat Kailen anyways, why did I waste myself saving you exactly?"
Each word was a bomb to the wall of confidence Calandra had built up for the meeting, and it all crumbled into a million pieces around her feet and stole her ability to breathe along with it.
"What? You have nothing?” Akiye's voice seemed to grow colder as she continued to speak. "I must say, you
were much more endearing as an infant, at least then I wanted to save you."
Calandra's heart pounded against her chest over and over again as if it was ready to beat straight out of it. She ran through things to say in her head, but nothing would come out of her mouth. The beauty and power that steamed off of Akiye was simply breathtaking, and Calandra felt far more intimidated than she ever could have prepared for.
"Why are you here?" Drake's voice startled Calandra out of her stupor.
"Because of her of course." Her smile was evil as she pointed her long, narrow fingers at Calandra. "What is the big fuss about anyway?" Akiye stepped closer to Calandra, and she had to remind herself not to look directly into her gaze.
Calandra could practically feel the power radiating in the small distance that separated them, and she had a desire to reach out and touch her, but she bit it down quickly. Who knew what might happen if she were to act on it. Drake caught her eye from her side and nodded a warning in her direction. Calandra pulled from her powers to get herself back in check.
Akiye placed her finger on Calandra's dragonfly, and a frigid chill ran through her and goose bumps formed underneath her touch. A crimson and gold autumn leaf appeared just under the body of the dragonfly and seared her skin, leaving a crimson edge around it. Akiye, Jarreth, Drake, and Tristan's eyes all widened in response to it.
"What the..." Akiye slid her finger from Calandra's shoulder and took a few steps back. She seemed to be fighting to hide the look of awe from her face.
Jarreth ran his finger along the outline of the new addition to her mark. The currents running through her ignited something and formed a new strength inside of her. She lifted her arm and removed his hand from her shoulder. She took a deep breath in and forced herself to stand taller as she faced Akiye. "You have no business here," Calandra said with a newfound determination in her voice.
Akiye seemed to have recovered completely as she responded. "Oh but I do, sweetheart, I most certainly do. You see," Akiye started to walk circles around their group as she continued with her explanation, "there is a debt that is owed to me for saving your life."
Drake's body tensed, and he sighed as if he had somehow expected this twist.
"That debt was paid when you took my mother's life." Calandra didn’t allow herself to waiver, despite doubt trying to rise up in her again.
"There's a few facts of the story that you simply do not know, my dear. First, and most important, is that more of me transferred to you than what I anticipated when I saved your life." Akiye's eyes cut into Calandra and she felt as if she might catch on fire at any moment. "Your eyes, for example, you shouldn't have been able to inherit my sign of magic, yet here you are with the autumn colors streaking your eyes as well as your hair." Akiye continued pacing a circle around the four members of her audience and watched their eyes follow her around as she spoke. "The other thing you are unaware of is that your mother's debt wasn't actually paid to me due to your mother’s inability to listen to the wording of a Faerie dealing. I believe that portion you can blame on your great-grandmother, my dear."
"What does Echo have to do with it?" That fact had Calandra thrown off completely.
"It's Echo's fault that your mother was unprepared in making a deal with a Faerie. Had she shared more of her heritage with her, she might have known to listen to every word a bit more carefully before foolishly entering into a deal she was unprepared for."
"Who was Hollyn's debt paid to?" Jarreth's voice startled Calandra as he had been unusually quiet during the encounter.
Akiye stopped her circular pace in front of them and stretched her arms out. Her eyes closed and glowing embers of orange, yellow, and red surrounded her body. They encased her body in a large ball of light and morphed into new colors of green, pink, and purple. They settled around her and landed slowly on the ground and, as they did so, Akiye was no longer there. Her hair was now dark honey brown with deep blonde highlights throughout it. Flowers bloomed just above her right ear, and her skin was a deep sun-kissed caramel. Her dress was knee-length and white with cords wrapping around her bodice. Her wings were translucent except for the outline of them and the tiny veins that ran throughout them. Her eyes were green with yellow streaks and shadow flower imprints, just as breathtaking as Akiye's, but a clear vision of the opposition between the two women.
"Vyri," she said quietly and smiled a smile that was far sweeter than Akiye's, but somehow still just as cruel.
Calandra looked to Drake with a million questions written on her face. "Spring, the other part of the Equinox. Akiye and Vyri were more or less one and the same, counterparts so to speak."
"Not the same enough in the aspect of a debt to be paid though, so don't get any ideas." Vyri's voice was soft with a harsh edge, and her eyes cut into Calandra as she spoke.
Calandra rolled her eyes at the audacity of the situation. Technically speaking, if they were one in the same, then the debt had been paid one way or another. Leave it to Faeries and their mind tricks. They had deceived her mother so that her death had meant nothing in the end. She may have bought Calandra some time, but in turn, she hadn’t really saved her at all.
Before Calandra could say anything else, the glowing balls rose from the ground once more. They surrounded Vyri's body and morphed back into the colors of fall. When they dropped back to the ground, Akiye was back once more. Her red hair and matching lips were glowing underneath the remaining light from the embers that had changed her back from her counterpart. Her wings once again resembled leaves, and they appeared brown and cracked in places. Her eyes were cold as she stared at Calandra and her surrounding posse.
"What exactly are you after, Akiye?" Calandra finally decided she was beyond sick of the games being played and she was going to have to make a stand to stop them. If she was ever going to find a way out of this mess she needed to have all of the cards laid out on the table in front of her. It was time to take a stand and figure out how to play her way around this situation.
"You," Akiye's eyes darkened as she said the word.
"Not happening." Drake stiffened next to her. "What's your alternative?"
Akiye cackled, "I have no alternative. I need a soul, I gave part of me up to save her, I will have a life in return for my sacrifice. A sacrifice for a sacrifice, it's only fair game. You know this, Drake."
"I also know there's always an alternative, even for someone as cold as you." Drakes' eyes were focused on Akiye and determination filled them. His face was set into harder lines than Calandra had ever seen. He was dedicated to this fight, the fight for her life. Her heart swelled, more than she wanted to admit, at that realization.
"A sacrifice for a sacrifice, Drake, period point blank. Someone will have to take the fall for what I gave up for her." She shrugged as if the deal she was offering didn’t leave someone without a life.
"No," Jarreth's voice was stern, and his body was still. Calandra wasn’t entirely sure he was even breathing.
"So sweet, the two of you working side by side to defend her, but if I have no willing sacrifice to take the fall, then I will have to take matters into my own hands. Either way is really fine by me." Her lips curled up into an odd attempt at a smile. It was a disturbing image that sent a shiver through Calandra.
Calandra looked at Drake and then at Jarreth as her mind attempted to rush through her options, which seemed to be few and far in-between at the moment. She was lost as to what to do or say next. The situation seemed hopeless. She would have to accept her fate and turn herself over to Akiye. She felt Drake’s objection resonate within her. She ignored it as best as she could.
Akiye stepped back a few feet and held one arm out in front of her with her palm facing toward Calandra. "Times up!" She smiled a wicked smile as crimson red and orange streaks of light flew from her palm and shot directly toward Calandra.
Before Calandra had time to process what was happening Tristan's scream rang in her ears. In a blur of movement, his body crossed before hers, a sacrifi
ce that she didn’t deserve.
"No!" The word seemed to carry into eternity as Calandra’s body ached at the sight of Tristan’s body flying in front of her and the impact of Akiye's spell hitting him full force as he shielded Calandra's body from it.
Her heart sank to the ground, along with her body, as she threw herself on top of his lifeless body and let the darkness overtake her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Darkness
Tristan's lifeless body lay before her. Thanks, or no thanks, to Drake she had come to within moments. She wanted to return to the darkness in her head and ignore the situation in front of her. He had sacrificed himself for her, and with one last cruel smile, Akiye had disappeared from the field, taking his soul along with her. "The debt is paid— for now." Her voice rang through Calandra's ears as she stared at Tristan's dead body and the world around her faded to black.
Drake reached out and grabbed her hand, she was trying to fade back to black, that was where she wanted to be. He slapped her cheek a few times, and she finally opened her eyes, just to glare at him.
"Not this time, Calandra," he told her and forced her body to stand up.
She mustered up the best evil look that she could and convinced her feet to not fail her the way they threatened to.