Look at me.
His eyes shift toward mine, obeying my inner command. The power rolls out of me, stronger than I have ever felt it before, stronger than I have ever wielded it, stronger even than the foundations of the earth. The boy’s eyes are blue. It’s the only thing I notice—the only thing I focus on. His blue, blue eyes…blue as the sky in a breezy summer day.
He sighs and closes his sky-tinted eyes, and I know I’ve healed him. It’s a wound, not cancer. There’s no battle to fight. In a moment, as if by magic, the blood will stop gushing out, and the doctors will be able to treat him and wonder at the resistance of his little body. I know I’ve healed him, and I’m glad for it.
Then I collapse. The hunger comes back with a drunken vengeance, stronger than ever, threatening to pull me into a big black blob of comatose nothingness.
“The blood’s stopped.” I hear one of the paramedics say, confusion in his voice. Of course the damn blood has stopped. I healed him. I want to say this out loud but can’t speak. The world spins around me in circles, and I feel myself starting to sweat as if in a fever.
“The boy seems to have fallen asleep.” Another one of those useless paramedics says. The sound of the stretcher’s wheels stops for a moment. “Right after that man sitting on the ground over there looked at him.”
“What?” Kismet says loudly, laughing nervously. “That’s ridiculous.” She starts laughing and breathing so fast I think she’s hyperventilating. From the corner of my eye, I see the three paramedics looking at me funny.
I can’t look at them directly unless I want to kill one of them. The temptation is almost too much to handle.
“Let’s go, team! There’s no time to waste!” Another voice barks, and they jump. They get moving, and the creak of the wheels starts again, growing more distant, until I can’t hear it anymore. I can see the woman freeing herself from the man’s grasp and running towards her son, tiny sobs escaping her lips. Only that it’s not one woman now, but three.
I’m so dizzy… I know I’m about to fucking faint and go into a coma and probably die because I’m so stupid.
“Daniel, what the hell did you just do?” Kismet says, her voice trembling. Somehow, she manages to get her hyperventilation under control. She pulls me up by the arm, and I feel my knees buckle under me. Her pale face stares into mine.
“I…I don’t know. I just healed him.” I say, dazed. I don’t understand anything anymore.
“You two better get going. There’s nothing more to see here.” The man who had been restraining the woman says, fear in his voice. He stayed behind, probably to check up on us two. At the sound of his voice I am instantaneously hungry again, but this time, it’s too much. It’s definitely too much. I double over in pain and press my hands against the cold cement.
Then I retch.
“Son, are you all—” The man starts to say, but it’s too late.
I look up, and my eyes lock with his.
I am aware enough of my surroundings that I notice Kismet using her superhuman speed to run around the hospital entrance, jump up and destroy all of the cameras filming us. But then my focus centers exclusively on the paramedic, and I can feel myself holding his life with my gaze. I could almost play with it if I wanted to, but I don’t. All I want is to feed.
This time, I’m the cancer, leeching out his life. I’m the impostor. I’m the one who will take him whole.
His eyes go dull a moment later, and his body falls to the floor.
He is dead.
I am revitalized.
The world crashes around me.
Revelations
Everything is quiet. My body lies motionless on the ground, and for a moment, I feel nothing but the pleasure of warm, new life coursing through my body. The better-than-everything feeling consumes me.
After a while, I begin to come down, and I start to feel a dull pounding ache in my knees and the wet ground pressing against my back. The hospital doors close and open behind me, and the faint smell of that citrus-scented cleaning solution reaches my nose.
I look up at the sky and notice tiny droplets of rain falling on my skin. The irrational thought enters my head that the sky is crying because of what I just did… and then I realize Kismet is crying, too.
I sit up and look at her. She’s holding a hand to her face, sobbing quietly. “Why are you crying?” I say, my eyebrows knitting together. Did I do something to her? I would never forgive myself if I hurt her in any way. “Kismet?” I ask, my voice faltering. She just shakes her head.
I look at the dead man lying a few feet in front of me. His vacant eyes stare at me, asking why did I take him, why, why, why?
Kismet slaps me, hard.
I bring a hand to my burning cheek, and look at her, numb.
She wipes her tears and sets her mouth in a grim line. “There’s no time for shock or nervous breakdowns, we have to go before someone finds us out here next to a dead body.”
My face stings where she hit me. I wish I could move. I wish I could run and run and never come back again. “I can’t.” I say, hot tears running down my cheeks. She grabs me by the underarms and lifts me up.
I find I’m not dizzy, not anymore.
“Come on.” She urges me. “Run.”
Someone screams from behind me. I whip my head around and see it’s a little girl. She clutches her face and looks at us, her big eyes boring into mine.
“I’m sorry, okay?” I say out loud to the dead man, even though I know he isn’t listening. He will never listen to anybody’s voice again. “I didn’t mean to kill you.” My voice cracks. The little girl screams again.
“Fucking great…” Kismet mumbles. “Let’s go!” She yells. I take one last look at the dead man before taking off.
We run down the hills of Seattle’s upscale Queen Anne neighborhood, jumping over gates and trunks and dodging trees. I can hear a siren in the distance, and my pace picks up. It’s the police; they’re coming to lock me up and force the truth about what I did out of me. My pace picks up even more. No, it’s NOT. Relax. You’ll be home soon. Everything will be better once you’re home. I force myself to believe it. A blur of red hair flashes next to me. It’s Kismet, also picking up her pace.
Sweat is pouring down my face and getting in my eyes. I squint and wipe it away with my sleeves, scraping my eyes with the rough fabric of my sweatshirt. The rain is pouring down harder now, the cold drops mixing with the saltiness of my tears and leaving me blind. I slip and skid through the mud before reaching the bottom of the hills.
Kismet grabs my hand, and we run back to the Industrial District as fast as we can, passing lit-up buildings and cars and unsuspecting pedestrians, their clothes whooshing as we run past them. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of their oblivious, confused faces as they try to make us out but are not really sure of what they have seen.
I can hear myself sobbing, despite my efforts not to, and feel the dull throbbing of my heart inside my chest. Pain rushes through me, but it’s not the pain of hunger. I stumble and almost fall, but Kismet steadies me quickly, not missing a beat.
The streetlights of Seattle glare down at us, exposing me as the monster I am. But nobody notices us. Nobody looks our way. It is as if nothing has changed in this sad world, even though everything has changed. Everything is different now.
We finally reach the opening in the ground in the middle of the Industrial District that leads to Agartha. Our chests heave up and down as we gasp for air. My lungs burn, and my legs ache, just like the burning and aching in my soul. Kismet pulls the manhole cover up and gestures me to get in first, looking around and whipping her head from left to right to make sure there’s nobody around.
I jump in quickly, and my feet touch the hard, dry ground a second later. I hear Kismet’s footsteps as she climbs down the metal ladder and puts the cover back on before also jumping down, landing beside me with a thud.
We walk through the darkness in silence, my feet moving forward mechanically. Hours, days, w
eeks pass by in total darkness. Then, the feeling of guilt starts to bite at my insides, slowly replacing the pain. No, it’s more than guilt. It’s hatred. It’s like I want to die for what I did. At the same time, I’m thinking, Keep your cool. Nothing bad will come of this if you Keep. Your. Cool.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ll probably get Solitary. But Kismet will surely visit me down there every day, and I’ll get through it with her help. It will be hell, but I’ll survive.
We reach the large copper door, and Kismet knocks three times fast, two times slowly. I snap back to reality when the doors grind open. An unfamiliar face peers back at us from behind it.
“Kismet Newland and Daniel Maze,” Kismet says calmly, as if nothing has happened at all. “We were on a Mission.”
“Neither of you look hungry.” He says, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Which of you two was healing?”
“That’s none of your concern,” Kismet says coldly.
“Me,” I interrupt, holding out a hand to stop Kismet from entering by force. “And I’m pretty strong. Don’t feel hungry at all.” I do the best to sound cocky and hope that the darkness will hide the tears on my face. He looks back at us a moment, and then shrugs.
“You better get to the dungeons quick and get yourself some life,” He says, opening the door. “We don’t want another of you youngsters fucking up because you overestimate your strength.” He says, clearly talking about Benedict.
I quickly wipe the tears off my face with my sleeve and walk in, praying that the guard won’t notice them. Kismet follows me.
“Thanks,.” I say quickly. He shuts the doors behind us with a clang.
“What do we do?” I whisper to Kismet, my voice fast and nervous. “We can’t go to the dungeons, my life-force is replenished. None of us can kill when our life-force is replenished.”
“We go to our room, pretend nothing has happened.” She whispers back, slow and collected.
I shake my head. “A witch would have seen this already.”
Kismet starts walking faster. “You don’t know that.”
As if on cue, Beatrice appears in front of us, emerging from the shadows of the tunnel.
“Come with me. Both of you.” She seems calm, but there is a slight edge to her voice. She turns around and starts walking away. Kismet and I look at each other.
“Told you.” I say, a nervous dread creeping up on me. We follow her, but instead of going downwards into our superior’s chambers, like I expected, Beatrice leads us up and to the right, to the seers’ rooms.
“Beatrice, where are you taking us?” Kismet says.
“Be quiet, Kismet. Now is not the time to talk.” She picks up the pace, shadows dancing on her pale skin as she walks beneath the dim light of the kerosene lamps. Finally, we reach a place in Agartha I have never been in before. We stand in front of the opening of a large cave with a translucent green curtain acting as the only barrier between it and the tunnel. I can hear faint whispers, and see some dark figures moving on the other side.
Beatrice pulls the curtain aside and asks us to come in. I hesitate. We’re not supposed to enter the seers’ rooms. Ever. But Kismet follows her in, not thinking twice about it. “Beatrice, if you don’t tell us what the fuck this is about…”
The words die in her mouth when she enters the cave, and I hear her gasp in surprise. I quickly pull the soft, silky curtain aside and walk in. My jaw drops. Three glowing orbs of light are suspended in mid-air in the middle of the rocky, jagged cave, forming a perfect triangle. The orb at the top glows golden, and it’s the smallest of them all. The one on the left is red and slightly larger, and the other one is about the same size, glowing blue.
“What the hell?” I say, mouth open in awe.
“No Sun-Child has ever seen our magic.” A voice says from behind the globes. I peer into the darkness and see that it is Hilda. She looks very irritated. Alice is beside her, biting her nails.
“Hilda, please,” Beatrice pleads. “I told you what I saw.”
“Helping friends is not in the terms of our contract with The Children of the Sun.” Alice says, her lips quivering.
“But we must,” Beatrice says resolutely. “He’ll kill him.” She adds in a whisper. Hilda stares at Beatrice, her eyes narrowed into two tiny slits.
Wait… Did she say someone will kill me?
Moments pass with their eyes locked in this silent battle, the atmosphere rife with tension. “You already put us in real danger by protecting someone else. Now him?” Hilda whispers, but I can make out every word. And I know that they’re talking about Benedict.
“It’s different now, Hilda,” Beatrice says. “The Prophetess might have sensed the shift now that she’s in proximity to our powers. He’s not safe here.”
Finally, Hilda gives in and looks away, sighing. “All right. But let’s make this quick.”
Beatrice lets out a breath of relief. “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry, but what is happening?” Kismet says. I’m still too shocked to speak. “And what in the world are those?” She points at the glowing orbs.
Hilda walks around them and faces us. “This is a Triad.”
“Um, okay. That explains everything. Thanks so much.”
Hilda glares at her. “I don’t even know why I am telling you this, but a Triad is a very special form of witch-magic.” She continues. Her skin looks eerily white under the glow of the orbs. She gazes up at them with a creepy devotion in her eyes. “The three corners of the Triad are composed of extremely dense energy conjured up from Agartha’s surroundings. They feed off The Children of the Sun’s powers, and each corner represents a different kind of energy.”
“What do you mean, feed?” I ask, my voice low. I look at the glowing, insubstantial orbs that seem to inspire so much awe in the witch. They don’t seem solid, or liquid, or like anything I’ve ever seen.
“It means that every time you use your powers, either to heal or kill, the Triad becomes stronger and more effective.” Beatrice says.
“What does it do?” Kismet says.
“It shows us things.” Alice states simply.
Kismet raises an eyebrow. “Like, what things?”
Hilda and Alice look at Beatrice. “The blue orb shows us the names and locations of people who need healing. It’s my duty to read it and garner information.” Beatrice says, turning towards us. “The red one shows us people who are dark of heart that can be captured and put in the dungeons for The Children of the Sun to feed from. That’s Alice’s job. And the golden globe, the smallest and most powerful of all, shows us those who will be gifted with your power who must be recruited into the tribe. It’s the most delicate one, and Hilda is the only one who can read it.”
I continue to stare at the orbs, completely dumbstruck. I’ve never really given magic much thought, but I certainly didn’t think anything like this could exist.
“So that’s how it’s done,” Kismet says after a moment of silence. “Is it like this all over the world?”
Beatrice nods. “Every tribe of Sun-Children, no matter where they are located, must have three witches under their employment so they can conjure up a Triad in order for them to do their duty. In exchange for something else, of course,” she explains. “Witches and Sun-Children have always had a mutually beneficial relationship since the beginnings of your existence.”
“What do you mean you read the orbs?” Kismet asks. “How can you tell who to heal and capture and recruit?” Kismet asks.
Hilda’s lip curls up, and neither of them says a word.
“Okay, I get it,” Kismet mumbles. “That information is off-limits.”
“Beatrice, why did you bring us here?” I ask, growing impatient. My body aches, and if I’m going to get punished, I want to get it over with fast.
“Because we saw what happened.” She says, her eyes piercing into mine.
“You mean I killed an innocent man” I manage to get out, not really believing it is me saying those words.<
br />
“I mean the fact that you healed twice, Daniel,” She says. “Without feeding in between.” The witches stare at me like I’m some sort of freak.
“You’re evolving,” Alice whispers, fear in her voice. “And that is not good.”
A suffocating silence descends upon the room. “I don’t know what the fuck you mean.” I say, shattering the tension surrounding us.
“Rafael will know about this soon, Daniel,” Beatrice says, her expression unreadable. “He’ll kill you.”
Her words linger in the air.
“Are you insane?” Kismet screeches. “So, he’s evolving. Isn’t that what the Prophetess said would happen to all of us?”
“Kismet, calm down!” Hilda yells.
“No, I won’t calm down! All of you are crazy. Rafael wouldn’t kill Daniel; he wouldn’t…” She looks at me, urging me to back her up.
“Kismet,” I say, harder than I intended. I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to release the built-up tension in my head. “Don’t you understand? I’m a threat now.” All of a sudden, I feel weary, exhausted, like I haven’t slept in days.
Kismet shakes her head, refusing to accept it. “Why would Rafael kill you?” she says, softer this time. “The Prophetess saw this would happen; it’s a good thing.”
“Stupid girl,” Hilda sneers. Kismet narrows her eyes. “Daniel is right,” Hilda continues. “He has evolved, but Rafael hasn’t. Don’t you remember what the Prophetess said? The first of your kind to evolve will become the new leader of your people. What do you think will happen when The Children of the Sun discover Daniel is the first one of your kind with the power to heal without killing first?”
“But I did kill,” I state matter-of-factly. “I took the life of an innocent man.”
“Yes, but it was the first time,” Beatrice says impatiently. “It will take a while for your powers to fully develop.”
I stare at her, feeling dubious. “How do you know that?”
Beatrice takes my hands in hers. “You have to trust me.” She says. “Sun-Children around the world will hail you as their leader into the New Age of Light, because you were the first to show signs of your people’s evolution. You, Daniel Maze, and not Rafael. And that will eat him from the inside out.” There’s a manic glee in her voice. I break off contact with her, suddenly remembering what Benedict said to me the day I went down to the dungeons to ask him what really happened the night he took an innocent woman’s life…
The Sun Child (The Sun Child Saga Book 1) Page 8