by Lisa Daniels
“It is. It really, really is. Anani learned of your love for Akeno, and he removed you from his life. It is the same as what happened at your birthday.”
“No,” her voice waivered, “it’s not quite the same.”
“Uncertainty creeps in. Then let’s take a look at another example. Akeno disappeared from your life and–”
“Shut up!”
“Oh, so touchy. It struck a nerve with you, hasn’t it? The fact that you fucked Anani as soon–”
“Shut up, you heartless bastard!”
“I'm heartless?” The voice tsked, the amusement heavy with each emphasized noise. “I have never come between best friends, never fucked two–”
“I hate you! I will never–”
A laugh cut her off as she shouted into the abyss. “Oh, yes, the more you struggle, the deeper your hate, the closer you draw to me. The only being you ever truly loved is yourself.”
“I have loved and lost in a way that you could never understand without warping it into some sick fetish. I know that I was loved, that–”
“That you mattered, right? Yes, Akeno’s greatest lie, that you are worthy of being loved. That you are a rich treasure. He had to prove that he could make you into such a treasure, and boy, did he fool you.”
Zandra’s mind was screaming out at the pain in his logic. For every turn she tried to take, the demon countered it with something grotesque, attributed other meaning to it that wrapped it back into the view of the world that fit into a small dark world.
“I don’t know anyone who thinks you are weak.”
The voice rang clearly in her head. Zandra twisted and turned, looking for the source. Too afraid to call out his name, afraid that it would give the demon more power, the witch tried to center her thought on the single sentence.
“Oh ho! The little witch thinks she has found a glimmer of hope. Let us stomp it out before she is given to thoughts of grandeur and redemption.”
Zandra ignored the taunts, her mind focusing on the one idea that spoke to her existence, and her existence alone. “I don’t know anyone who thinks you are weak.”
The demon’s voice was elated as the thought ran through her head. “There it is again. The voice of the shifter you betrayed. Do you know what he was willing to do for his friends? Oh, but you will love this because Anani knew how–”
“Don’t you dare say his name.” The thought was like a primal growl as the demon laughed.
“This is going to be a delicious night as I show you what you lost when you chose Akeno over Anani.”
“You don’t deserve to know their names!” She could hear the sound of her voice over the rush of the abyssal white noise.
“And yet, I more than know them. Akeeeeeenoooo. Ana–”
Zandra’s hand whipped forward and she felt lightning shoot from her fingers.
There was a moment of quiet, then the demon really began to laugh, “Wohoo hoo! The little witch is on fire.” At the word, her skin began to bubble, then flames burst out over her.
Zandra focused on the one thought, fighting back the urge to scream. I am strong on my own. She stretched out her arms and thought of a strong wind that could block out oxygen. Her hair whipped around her as the flames were extinguished.
“Clever, clever, but for each of your attempts to fight me, you increase the odds that you will be struck.”
Lightning shot through the air, but before it could hit her, Zandra channeled it into her hand, then thrust it back out into the night.
The voice hissed in her ear, “You were nothing when I found you. A mass of dying flesh. I saved you, and this is how you repay me?”
“You did not save me. You tried to enslave me.”
“Hmmmm, enslave you. That isn’t such a bad idea.”
Chains flew from the darkness, wrapping around her arms, legs, body, and neck. She could feel the air being choked out of her.
You aren’t really here. This is the demon’s domain. Your body lies broken on the side of the stream near Sukhothai.
“Yes, broken, as you will be. You belong to me, that was the agreement.”
“There was no agreement. You forced your way into my mind and body and I did not have the tools to repel you.”
The chains tightened around her, but it no longer affected her.
“And what will you go back for? That broken body? The inevitable void of oblivion? How is this worse than what you face?”
“Because here I am your slave. There I am free to make my own choices. I choose oblivion to the inane existence you offer. At least ceasing to exist means I will do no more harm.”
“Are you sure? I think that your death is going to have quite the effect on someone.”
An image appeared in the voice. Anani was holding her crumpled body. What was left of her was no longer old and nearly mummified.
“Ah, you missed one small detail! The experiences of all of my patience took its toll. That is not the body you left behind.”
The sound of Anani’s pleas were becoming increasingly audible as he buried his face in her hair.
“Very convincing,” she snarled, “but he hates me. After what I did, he will know.”
“Of course he will know. Anani is not your fool anymore. The night you fucked he knew.”
The anger was rising, but she continued to try to calm her mind. “If he knew, he would never have sought comfort from me.”
“Oh, my poor, sweet, naïve little creature.” The voice dripped with sarcasm. “He learned of Akeno’s death when he returned. Do you think that Cyprian would hide that from him?”
Zandra was immediately struck with the possibility that Anani had known all along. His behavior, his words, they began to take a different shape.
“Do you know what’s even funnier?” The joy had returned to the loathsome voice. “The fact that he cursed you as he sought comfort from you. He believes his friends are dead. While it is true that both of them came very close, the only friend he lost was the one who died in your arms. His best friend. The man he tried to save and failed because you interfered.”
Zandra thought she could feel her heart racing as the words circled inside of her head. Cyprian and Ash were alive.
“I have to tell him.” Suddenly, she began to move her arms as she tried to return to her body.
“Ah ah ah, I’m not about to let you go again. You have already proven how low you will stoop to avoid our agreement. Accusing me of manipulating a situation and forcing you into something that you would have chosen to do even without me. You care more about your life than–”
“I have to tell him.”
There was a cold snapping noise, like a whip over her mind. For a second she cringed, but then her arms reached out again.
“You still defy me. Then I think we need to delve into the pain that you planned to keep just for yourself.”
Chapter 10
From the Strength and Hearts of Others
Zandra fell headlong into an entirely different kind of nightmare. Before her were Anani, Cyprian, and two people she did not know.
Anani was shouting at them to stand back. “This one is mine!”
A tall, young man grabbed his arm, a look of fright on his face. “Anani, that is abyssal steel. If you do this, you will die.”
Anani shook off the young man. Next Cyprian tried to hold him back. Anani held out his arms and a wind with the force of a tornado slammed into Cyprian.
The voice hissed in her ear, “You see how he discards his friends to take the glory for himself. Cyprian and his charge, Ash. Quite the strapping young man, wouldn’t you agree?”
Zandra’s eyes couldn’t leave Anani’s face as he grabbed the hilt of the sword. Behind him, Cyprian charged the wall. As soon as he was in the air, Cyprian shifted into his dragon form, and he slammed head first into the wall. The woman stood by, her face unreadable as she watched Anani, as if she could not see anything else.
Anani drove the sword into his stomach. Blood spurted
out, covering the altar that had held the sword.
A sinister voice whispered so that only Anani could hear, “More. I need more if your friend is going to live.”
The woman stepped forward. “It’s a trick, Anani! You can’t save him like this!”
Cyprian roared and rammed into the barrier. It shook, but held. Suddenly a second dragon appeared, much larger than Cyprian. It was green and beautiful. It shot a large stream of green flames against the barrier. Zandra rubbed her eyes as she imagined rose petals falling after the blast. The wind barrier cracked a little as Cyprian rammed into it again and again, and the green dragon continually shot fire at it. Every once in a while, the green dragon would do what looked like a little dance, moving his legs up and down in front of him before taking another breath and blasting the wall. If she hadn’t been so transfixed on Anani, the whole display would have made her laugh.
Anani drove the sword into himself again. Then again. His blood spurted all over the altar, making it look like it had been covered in vivid red and blue paints.
“Anani! NOOO!” The woman ran up to Anani, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him to her, the blood spilling over her.
Immediately, jealously flared up inside of Zandra. The image faded.
“Yes, while you were off suffering in Melzi, he found someone else.”
“No.” She couldn’t believe it.
“You just saw it. The way that woman held him close, calling his name. You were just a temporary reprieve while he tried to figure out how much more he loved her. Now that he has tasted you, Anani will be able to give his heart to Noely.”
Zandra blinked at the familiar sound of the name. “Noely?”
“Yes, his new love is named Noely.”
She burst out laughing, “Noely is the angelus. She will never love anyone beside Cyprian.”
The voice was shaken. “The angelus? The angelus has–”
In her excitement to prove the demon wrong, Zandra had given it a weapon that could upset the precarious balance that kept Letera together. “You are fighting me right now, demon. I may not be an angelus. I may not even be a sorceress, or a powerful witch, but I am more than enough to defeat you.”
“You are certainly something worth keeping around. I should keep you as a pet on the planet just for these kinds of tidbits of information. Yes, your obvious value lies in–”
Zandra dug through the memories and forced one of the most recent spots of pain to begin to play around them.
Cyprian was standing at the mouth of a volcano, his arms outstretched. The young man stood closest to him, his eyes darting between Cyprian and the rest of the party. Anani was barely standing, his arm around Noely’s neck, the blood still pooling around his feet. It was clear that he was barely able to stay awake as he begged his friend to stand back.
“Cyprian, there is no possibility of surviving this. If you jump in there, you will not be coming back. Noely will watch you die, and for what?”
“You are in no position to talk, Anani.” Cyprian’s voice was cold and hard, a tone that she had never heard before. It made her blood run cold to think that he was capable of such a calculating voice – it was every bit as compelling and edgy as the demon who tempted her now and the creature that had commanded more of Anani’s blood. “Noely.” His voice was a little softer as he addressed his love. “Please take Anani somewhere safe. There is still a chance that he may heal.”
Before Noely could reply, Anani pitched forward out of her arms, his own outstretched. From the ground, he pulled the air toward him, Cyprian’s beautiful hair swirling around his face. “Don’t worry, Anani, I will see you on the other side.” His eyes showed sorrow as he looked at his bloodied friend. Next he turned to Ash. “You will do just fine, so long as you remember that humans are never worth the effort you make for them.” It was pure Cyprian logic – his hatred for humanity appearing to have grown since they last talked.
The young man shook his head, “Everyone is worth saving. Augustin is worth saving. Humanity is worth saving. You are worth saving.” He stretched out a hand. “I am supposed to be the reckless, irresponsible one, but even I can tell this is the wrong answer. Come back.”
“Admit that humans are horrible.”
“I admit that some are, but not all of them. Let me introduce you to Ailey. She can teach you the value that humans bring to Letera.”
At the mention of the medic from Melzi, Zandra’s eyes widened. A few puzzle pieces fell into place. A presence had been protecting. A presence that seemed familiar. Though there were definitely different auras around each of the dragon shifter types, there was a commonality that was unmistakable. A small smiled spread across her lips.
A voice hissed in her ear as the drama unfolded in front of them, “What about this could possibly make you smile? Perhaps you begin to see the futility of everything.”
“No.” She shook her head, and in her mind, shiny locks bounced from side to side. “I was just thinking how incredibly lucky Ailey is.”
“What?” The demon was clearly lost as it tried to follow her logic.
Cyprian had just finished saying something to Noely. She began to run forward as he held his arms out and allowed gravity to pull him down into the volcano. Suddenly a large green dragon swooped across her vision and down into the volcano’s mouth. Noely ran to the edge and looked over. She placed a hand over her chest and another over her mouth as the picture faded out.
“That was when Anani passed out. It was the last thing he remembered from the encounter.”
Zandra smiled. “Thank you very much, demon. You were right. That was highly educational and has emphasized a number of things that Akeno and Anani have taught me over the years.”
“Did you miss the part where Anani’s friends left him there for dead?”
“No, they didn’t. Don’t be so pathetic that you think I would fall for that.”
“Then how do you explain the fact that he didn’t know that they weren’t dead?”
“I will explain that after I have a chance to talk to them. From what I saw, his friends were willing to sacrifice themselves for each other, and to be honest, they really should have been listening to Noely. Males.” She rolled her eyes for emphasis.
Suddenly she felt something warm and sticky start to flow down her throat. Initially, she tried to move her head away from whatever it was, her imagination returning to the nightmare of Sluagh and sewage.
A distant voice whispered in her ear, “Drink. Please just drink it. I don’t know what else to do. I can’t lose you, too.”
The voice hissed around her, “No! No! She’s mine! The witch is mine!”
Zandra kicked out as something reached up and grabbed her leg.
“I don’t belong to anyone, least of all a demon.”
Tentacles snaked up her legs and around her waist. Zandra focused and sent electrical discharges through her body. The voice screeched in pain, but continued to try to hold onto her. “Mine!” Its screech was like an earthquake that surrounded her. Closing her eyes, she focused and pushed back on the sensation.
“You are too weak. You cannot survive without me!” The demon was losing its grasp on her, as her mind began to rise out of the abyss. As she neared the surface, it howled defiantly at her, “When next you fall, I will be there to claim you! You are mine, and I will never let you go!”
Stretching out her hand, Zandra focused all of her magic. Channeling it into a single burst, she sent a blast of flame into the darkness. There was a shriek and the last thing that she could see was a pit aflame, and a small, pathetic-looking creature cowering in the shadows.
“I look forward to it. Knowing your best angles will make the next session a little less educational, but I look forward to besting you in a shorter time frame.”
There was a pathetic whimper as she burst through the surface.
Her eyes still closed, Zandra began to sip at the source of the warmth, her body beginning to feel lighter and more alive.<
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A sob shook her body, and a warmth spread along her entire frame. Zandra opened her eyes and stared at a mop of blackish-white hair. Something warm was pressed against her mouth, and her hands had taken hold of it. She pushed it away from her, trying to get her eyes to focus.
“You’re alive!” Anani pulled her into a hug that threatened to squeeze the air of out her. “You’re alive. Oh gods, I don’t know what I would have–” His eyes looked down at her, then he pressed his lips against hers.
Chapter 11
A Battle of Admissions
Zandra wanted to get lost in the taste of Anani, but her mind was muddled and she couldn’t believe that what she was seeing was real. Pushing him away, the witch tried to figure out what happened. “I belong to no one.”
The shifter pulled back, a pained expression on his face. “I would never claim that you are mine. I just–”
“No. It’s a trick. I am not fooled.” She thrust her hands forward and blasted a small ball of fire. “I am not yours, demon!”
The feel of something wet and sticky splashing over her face caused Zandra to pause. She licked her lip and tasted a familiar minty tang. Placing a hand up to her mouth, she drew it away and saw blood. Her eyes went wide as Anani moved away from her. “Blood?” She sat bolt upright and began to pat her body, trying to remember where she had been hurt. Her eyes turned to Anani, who was holding his wrist, his eyes wide.
She crawled over to him, and he immediately tried to back away from her. “You are hurt! How did you get hurt?” She began to mend the wound as best she could.
Anani pulled his arm away. “No. I will not allow you to mend me. You nearly died because I didn’t realize–” His voice was thick as tears filled his eyes.
“Who hurt you?” Zandra could feel the anger welling up, and she wasn’t about to let the incident go without retribution. “Who did this to you?”
Anani shook his head. “I did this to myself. I didn’t know what else to do.” There was uncertainty in his voice as he looked at her.
“You were going to kill yourself?” Zandra stood up rapidly. “Gods, Anani, I am not worth your life. Not 100 of me would be worth a single year of your selfless life. Don’t you ever try–”