by J. D. Dexter
Riiiiight. If I’m so unworthy, then why does she keep sending people after me?
“I’m also guessing that she’s the one who’s told you all about me, huh?”
“Of course. I’m very close and important to her. She trusts me implicitly.” Her shoulders lift as she tosses her hair back.
“Uh huh. How long have you known about me?”
“I’ve known about you since your adira ignition.” If her lip could curl any higher, she would look like a dog locked in a dominance battle.
“Wow, you must be really important to her then.” I lean forward just a little bit. “I didn’t even know I was from Ankarrah until about seven months ago.”
“See? She doesn’t love you. You are simply another failed merging she must clean up.”
“Sounds like you’re right. I’m less than nothing to her.” I bend my head, pick at my nails. This chick is high on crazy pills and Kool-Aid. “How many other failed mergings has she had to take care of? How many others like me are there?”
“Hundreds.” Lazara snickers. “Almost a thousand. Only the best ones are kept.” She smiles again.
“You definitely made the cut then. Which reminds me, your arm-sucky thingy? My hand still hurts from that.” I shake the burning hand slightly.
She sneers at me. “I’m from a cross-species merge. One of only five successful ones.” She preens.
“Wow. Your dad must be pretty high on the power grid then, too.”
“Of course,” she spits. “My father is the king of our world.”
“Then why are you on Ankarrah?”
“Anixia demanded my return once she found out how powerful and unique I am.” She looks down her nose at me.
“Wow. You’ve definitely got me beat then. I’m practically powerless.” I hunch my shoulders.
Lazara turns her head and growls at Kez. “And you. You call yourself a Captain of the House Guard. You will be punished for your actions in helping to try to overthrow the Trium. They’ve been made aware of your seditious acts. Even now your family has been imprisoned and punished.” Her victorious evil smile has my hand itching to wipe it from her face.
“When was Keziry’s family taken?” I ask.
Lazara glares at me, her lips pinched together.
“I’m guessing Mommy didn’t tell you that?”
“Of course she did! I’m one of her closest confidants. I even gave her the idea.” She sniffs loudly.
“Nice job. Anixia really believes in you to take your advice. Did it take you a while to come up with that?” I ask her.
She snorts. “No. Four hours after they abandoned their posts, I told Mother than something should be done about the deserters.”
“So they’ve been imprisoned for a couple days on Ankarrah? I’m still not sure how the time difference works between Earth and Ankarrah.” I look away, hunching my shoulders.
“Only an idiot would be stumped by the time differences.”
“Then obviously you have it figured out.” I wipe under my eye.
A host of snorts sound from behind me.
She heaves a huge sigh. “They’ve been imprisoned for almost eight Ankarrahi days.”
I settle on the ground, trying to get more comfortable. My motion brings me up against Kez’s side, my only way of letting her know she’s not alone.
“I’m sure, since you’re so close to Mother, that you’ve got the prophecy all figured out too, huh?” I thread defeat through my voice.
Lazara twitches, her face closing down, her eyes focused on the floor directly in front of her.
I blow out a relieved breath.
“Mother knows what she must do to remain in power and break the prophecy.”
“So she knows, but she hasn’t shared that with you. That must be a knife in the heart,” I taunt her. “I guess there’s someone ahead of you in the Mother’s Love category.”
“There are none more loved than me. Mother simply cannot share the information, or the prophecy will come true. You are not worthy to hear her plans.”
“Probably right on that score. But if sharing the plans means they won’t come true, then I’m not sure that’s a very good plan.” I snort. “I’m mean, just sharing them makes them fall apart? Sounds like she’s relying on hope and prayer for this prophecy to end on the good side for her.”
“She does not need hope or prayer for the prophecy to end in her favor. She is the most powerful queen in the known multi-verse. Thousands of worlds, trillions of people and races depend on her. Hope and prayer,” she scoffs.
That sounds like an awful job. I shudder.
“Why do so many worlds and people depend on her? Isn’t she just a queen in Ankarrah?”
She rolls her eyes at me. “You truly are an idiot.” She tips her nose into the air.
“Then set me straight.”
She shrugs her shoulders and sighs deeply. “Anixia has already fulfilled three prophecies on other worlds.”
Gasps fill the small section of first class.
Lazara’s eyes light up at their reactions. “You see how powerful she is? She will vanquish you with barely a thought.”
“How did she fulfill prophecies on other worlds?” I ask.
Another heavy sigh and condescending eye roll. “Because she is the most powerful person known. On one world, she raised a centuries-dead seer. On another, she saved the planet from being sucked into a deadly vortex. On the last one, she defeated a plot to kill off its inhabitants. So you see? You have no chance against the power and might of Anixia.”
“Wow. She really is impressive,” I say honestly. Anixia really is powerful. But I’m not willing to lay down my sword before the fight’s even begun. Nothing will stop me from avenging my parents.
The burning in my hand has been slowly traveling up my arm. I wiggle my fingers around the Coke can. I can hardly feel the aluminum in my hand.
Brushing it from my mind, I focus on Lazara once again.
“Yes. You should give up now. Surrender your paltry power to me, and I will allow you to live.”
“Excuse me, what?” I blink.
“I infected you with a venom native to my father’s species. You can no longer feel your hand; your arm is going numb. Soon the venom will travel to your heart. At that point, it will—”
“I can still feel my hand, so I think you’ve got some bad information there, sweet cheeks.”
“Impossible. I pumped a lethal dose into your frail human body.” She looks at me with narrowed, accusing eyes.
Masculine growls and grunts fill the space. “Take it out of her, or I’ll make sure you die a slow, torturous death,” Hunter says from directly behind me. The heat of his body sinks into mine.
“Sorry to burst your crazy bubble, honey. But I can still feel my hand and my arm. Whatever you did to me, doesn’t seem to be working.” I shrug my shoulders.
Inside, I’m freaking out a little bit. I send my adira searching through my body. On the outside of my awareness, I hear Kez peppering Lazara with questions, her tone sharp as a scalpel.
Focusing inward, I see the poison filtering through my hand and arm. Like chips of ice in a fast-paced river, they bob and weave in the stream of my adira. I send more adira to the places where it’s beginning to sluggishly pump, encapsulating the shards of venom in impenetrable bubbles.
Once I’ve isolated all of the venom, I begin forcing the venom-filled bubbles to the surface of my skin, I hold out my cupped hands. The bubbles settle peacefully in the shallow bowl. Through the unbreakable bubbles, I see the venom writhe and squirm like it’s alive and suffocating within its thin confines.
“No. No, you should be dead.” For the first time, Lazara sounds scared. A quiver threads through her voice as her eyes crinkle in the corners.
“Sorry, babe, but I think Mommy Dearest has lied to you. And not for the first time, I’m afraid,” I say. I’m still watching the fragile spheres in my hands, almost mesmerized. The colors are beautiful pastels that seem so
delicate, but are holding a poisonous substance within their shells.
“Man, adira is so freaking cool,” I say to no one in particular.
Brock’s deep, husky laugh sounds again. “Anixia has lied to you about many things. The first being that she is a Creative.” He pauses while Lazara sucks air through her nose so fast it whistles.
“The second lie is that Finley has merely a paltry amount of power.” His voice is drenched in condescension. “Finley has more power than you can imagine. She will snuff Anixia out of existence with half a thought and a mere brush of her mind. You serve a liar, a coward, and a fool.”
“This pretender is lying. One of you is helping her. Anixia promised that I am more powerful than she, that I will be victorious in my mission.” Lazara’s words bring my head up. She’s struggling against her bonds.
“No, dear sister, you will not.” I lean toward her. “If you see Mother before you die, tell her I’m coming for her.”
Lazara opens her mouth to spew more vitriol. I quickly tip my hands, letting the poison-filled bubbles to tip into her waiting mouth.
“You made this choice when you attacked me, dear sister.” I lift her chin after the last bubble slides over her lips. Her eyes bulge as Kez leans forward and pinches her nose.
Just as her face reaches the color of Bozo’s nose, long tendrils emerge from the small incisions on either side of her neck.
“Qoptons! Back! Everyone get back,” Brock yells. His outthrust arm slamming into my rib cage as he pushes me back.
The venom bubbles spew from her gaping mouth as the tendrils increase in size and length. “You should have listened to me, dear sister.” She mocks me with my own words. Looking like a cross between Medusa’s snakes and a Hydra’s multiple heads, the tendrils lengthen and writhe around her head as if they’re alive and sentient.
One wraps around my ankle. I barely muffle a scream as sharp needles sink into my skin. At once, a burning sensation engulfs my ankle. Spreading quickly to my calf and up my thigh, I’m pretty sure this is going to be my end.
I kick at her weakly, all of my strength pulled under the tide of venom spreading through my system. Levered up on my elbows, I look into her eyes.
No longer bi-colored green, they are fully black. Like looking at a starless sky.
“Anixia,” I whisper.
“Hello, Fyndrexia,” she says from Lazara’s lips. “What a wonderful family reunion for you. You get to meet your sister as you lay dying.” A high-pitched laugh, an eerie imitation of a little girl’s, floats into the air.
“Why? Why did you kill my parents?” I say between gasps of air. My whole body is on fire. I feel like I have magma running through my veins, burning through my entire system until all that’s left is brittle obsidian.
“I told you in my note.” She smirks at me. Lazara’s face looks like it’s struggling to hold the expression. The edges of her mouth are pulling and stretching in awkward ways. “You should not have disobeyed me. Young who disobey me do not live long enough to do it twice. You have no one to blame but yourself.”
Lazara’s hand lifts and pats her head. “Lazara is a good and faithful daughter.” Watching Anixia pet her daughter’s head with the daughter’s hand is disturbing.
The heat in my body rises. My limbs are no longer working, I can’t feel my hands or my legs. I’m surprised I’m still upright on my elbows.
“Drop your shields, Fyndrexia. Drop your shields so Lazara can consume your power, and I will make her end your suffering quickly,” she says.
“Screw. You.” My throat closes around the words.
“Have it your way,” she says simply. No anger or disgust in her voice, merely acceptance of the situation.
A piercing scream lifts through my battered, broken body. It ends on a gurgling cough as the fire in my veins eats through my lungs.
I wrap my adira around my mind, sheltering it behind the impregnable walls of my mental shields. Huddling around it like a like a group of homeless people around a trash fire, I keep it safe and protected as my body consumes itself from the inside out.
An enraged howl is the last thing I hear before I drop into the black.
23
“You promised me, Mother. You promised that I would be able to absorb her insignificant power when she perished.”
“And you will, dear daughter. First, you must prove yourself victorious over her. You have only killed her human casing. She still lives on the Matrix. Find her, consume her, and you will be rewarded greatly.”
“Why did they say she is a Creative?”
Deep inside my mind, I feel a bit like a fly on the wall. I can’t see where I am. The only thing I know is that my mind and adira are still safe inside my mental shield.
I can no longer feel my physical body. I sense no silver tinsel or threads connecting me to anything. I’m too scared to move or draw any attention to myself. I really don’t want to find out that I actually am a fly stuck in a spider’s web.
That scenario ends badly for me.
“When did they say this? Who said it?”
Uh oh, sounds like Mommy Dearest is a little scared now.
“The deserters. They laughed at me when I told them that you are a Creative. Laughed in my face, Mother,” Lazara whines.
“Quit your sniveling, little girl. Tell me what they said.”
Lazara outlines our discussion, skimming over the parts where I almost had her. I chuckle silently when she stumbles over the Harry Potter quote. Her confusion is easy to recognize.
“Why did you not know about her, Mother? She could have killed me. You would have been without your closest confidant; I almost died!”
“I didn’t know about her because someone has been protecting her from me. It must be Shavix.” I can just imagine her stamping her little foot, her hair floating all around her head like a black nimbus. “I’ll deal with him later.” She pauses. “You will earn your place beside me some other way, Lazara. I must absorb Fyndrexia. You will not be able to handle the power if she is, in fact, a Creative.”
“You promised!”
“And now I’m telling you things have changed.” Her tone shifts to sugar with a thread of steel. “I don’t want to lose you, darling daughter. This is for your own protection.”
Liar.
Making sure nothing can get through my shields, I make sure to broadcast to every single person using the Matrix.
“She’s lying, Lazara. She wants my adira for herself. She has been sacrificing her young and absorbing them to gain power. I infiltrated the mind of her minion, Drake. Through his eyes, I saw her sacrificing babies and absorbing their power. She wants my power for herself because she doesn’t want to fall before me in defeat.”
“Fyndrexia, how nice that you’ve joined us for your own execution. Reveal yourself now, or I will have Lazara down the plane that carries your friends and loved ones,” Anixia says flatly.
My heart stutters before racing like a trip hammer. I push aside the terror.
“I’ll come out from hiding if you tell Lazara the truth.”
“I have always told Lazara the truth. She is my closest confidant; I have no secrets from her.”
“Lies. She thinks I want to rule Ankarrah to turn it into my debauched playground. I have no desire to rule anything.”
“Everyone wants more power, Fyndrexia. Even you who professes to not.”
From inside the protection of my shields, I can feel someone poking and prodding the space around me, like running a metal detector over the ground hoping for something to set it off.
I reinforce my shield, balling myself tighter and tighter together. Mentally, I picture the Marvel hero Ant-Man and his ability to shrink down to the quantum level. I keep that picture in my mind as I keep tugging and pulling myself towards my center.
“Another lie.”
A flash of heat surrounds my shield.
“Do not call me liar, Fyndrexia. I have never lied in my life.”
“Th
en you willingly omit truth from your words. You speak half-truths and obfuscate your intentions behind double-speak and misdirection. You want my Creative adira so that you can create and destroy without measure or control. You were content to let Lazara absorb my power when you thought it was of lower levels. You cannot let your darling daughter,” I sneer the words, “supercede your power. You tell her it is for her benefit that you will absorb me. You simply don’t want to share power with her.”
Lazara gasps. “Mother. Is this true?”
“Of course not, Lazara. Fyndrexia is trying to turn you against me. I could not stand it if you were scattered if you were unable to absorb her power fully. I could not bear to lose you.” I can hear the fake sincerity in her tone. Why can’t Lazara?
“Snooze. Hey, if she scatters while trying to absorb me, then you would get a two-for-one deal. Both of our adira would be up for grabs. Right, Mommy Dearest?”
“Do not disrespect our Mother in such a fashion, Fyndrexia. She has stated her truths.”
“Yeah, emphasis on ‘her.’ She cares nothing for anyone but herself and how much power she can accumulate. She wants to rule the Multi-Verse, not just Ankarrah’s system. Tell me that isn’t true, Mommy Dearest.”
Silence.
The poking and prodding now feels like someone is using a bulldozer trying to unearth me. I have no feet, and even if I did, I’m not sure I’d try using them right now, to help me move around. I’m stuck in a single spot and praying I don’t get caught in the net they’re throwing out.
“I’m still waiting for your truthful answer, Mommy Dearest. You can stop searching for me. I told you that I would reveal myself when you told Lazara the truth.”
“Yes, I want to rule the Multi-Verse. Lazara would be with me as I did so. I would not consign her to a life without me.”
“Would she get to rule beside you?”
“She would be with me.”
“In what form would she be with you?”
More silence.
“Answer her, Mother. I would be in my true form, ruling beside you.” Lazara’s voice lacks conviction.