by Leyton, Bisi
“No.” She clutched his arm “Everything he did was to save me.”
“He tried to kill me.” Bach was furious, but his mother’s touch calmed him. “Two years ago, Felip almost killed me.”
“He explained what happened.” His mother glanced coldly at Felip. “He said you prevented RZC agents from bringing her here.” She pointed to Wisteria. “Felip tried to stop you, because I needed Wisteria to set me free.”
“Why do you need her?” Bach asked.
“She was the one who sealed me in The Deep, so she would be the only one who could release me,” his mother elaborated.
“And you decided to work with Red Phoenix? This does not make sense. Red Phoenix hates The Family,” Bach grimaced
“Beloved, there is no more Red Phoenix.”
“Those people who came after you were a bunch of RZC operatives in costume. They pretended to be Red Phoenix because that would make you more afraid,” Felip added. “And it worked. You were so terrified you stopped us from getting Wisteria and reversing what she did.”
Bach glanced back at Wisteria. “You did seal her in The Deep!” he exclaimed in puzzled horror. “You wanted to kill my mother?”
*****
Once again, dread filled Wisteria. “She’s dangerous Bach. Get away from her now. ”
The dim lights around the room shook.
He stood there, glaring at Wisteria in pure bewilderment, as he had finally accepted what she’d been trying to tell him. “You could not have trapped my mother in The Deep. I would know if you had tried to murder her.” Apparently, he still couldn’t believe it.
“It is the truth, beloved,” Coia concurred. “But it was an accident. She had not intended to kill me, which is why you cannot sense any guilt in her.”
“I wanted to.” Wisteria knew what Coia was doing.
This served to make Bach’s eyes darken as he stared at her.
“Perhaps her father tampered too severely with her memories.” Coia motioned to a threshold that Felip had activated, using the pile of dark glass. “Come, beloved, we will have ample time to discuss what actually happened.”
“No, he won’t go anywhere with you,” Wisteria said, unwavering. “He belongs with me.”
As she spoke, several of the bulbs in the room burst.
“D’cara,” Bach cursed.
“Relax, child. Even I cannot break the Mosroc you two share.” Calmly, Coia reached out to Wisteria in an attempt to reassure her.
“You will not have him!”
The ground shook and a massive hole appeared in the ground, cutting Coia and Felip off from him.
“What are you doing?” Bach called. “Stop this, Wisteria.”
Shaking her head, Wisteria didn’t understand what was happening. “I’m not doing this.”
Moving closer, Bach took her hands. “You are, and you have to try and stop this.”
Wisteria eyed Coia.
There was an even more violent tremor, knocking everyone to the ground, expect Wisteria and Coia.
“She is doing it to protect you, because she is afraid,” Coia revealed. “So she will not stop and since she is a direct descendant of the First Pillar, she can bring all the Ninth metal in this chamber down.”
“You do not have to protect me from Coia! But if you continue to do whatever it is you are doing, you will kill us all.”
“Lady Coia, the Terrans will be here in minutes. We must journey from here, immediately.” Felip approached her, his hands turning blue. “I will pulse them both. Ready, cousin?”
“Shut the hell up, Felip!” Bach shouted. “Wisteria, listen to me.”
When his green eyes pierced into her soul, she felt the tremors subside.
“The doors are Ninth metal.” Coia turned to Felip. “No one will get through, unless Wisteria lets them.”
“What does that even mean?” Wisteria responded.
“How come she’s able to make those holes, or keep the door closed?” Ollie inquired.
Felip laughed. “You are truly as dumb as your dad.”
“Come with us and I will not only tell you everything you want to know about Hemlock, your mother, and sister--I will promise that you can be with my son forever.”
“You do want that, do you not?” Felip smirked.
Wisteria felt as if all the answers she’d been asking her mother about for years were suddenly only a few questions away. All she had to do was ask, but she remembered her rule of not dancing with the devil. “I want to know what happened to Lluc and Jason first.”
“What happened to him?” The mention of the Lluc seemed to break the trance Bach was in.
“Your brothers are with me. I promise they are safe. Felip rescued them. Soon, his Terran companion, Nular, will be with him,” his mother replied.
Wisteria wondered what Coia meant by rescued. Any rescue involving Felip was probably worse than death. But by Bach’s relaxed expression and lowered shoulders, she saw he believed her.
“Come with me and you will see them.” Coia stretched her arms out to him.
“We will go,” Bach answered, still locked on Wisteria’s gaze.
It seemed as long as he did this, the earthquake she was creating was restrained. However, she could still feel the burning rage inside of her.
“But Felip stays here,” he stated.
“Bach, don’t leave. Please, just . . .” There wasn’t anything logical she could say to reason with him, so she pathetically begged. “I—don’t leave me.”
“Come with us,” Coia prompted.
“We have five places,” Felip said. “Two of them will be yours.”
Quick count, there were seven people in the room: Wisteria, Bach, Coia, Felip, Ollie, Malcolm, and Enric, who still lay motionless several feet away from the group.
“You want to leave Ollie and Enric behind,” Wisteria noted. “They are not needed, right?” She knew this was perhaps a way for them to reveal what they were up to.
“What? You’re going to abandon me here?” Ollie rushed over to Felip. “You promised to take me with you when this was done.” She clung to her uncle of sorts like a six-year-old child would.
He extracted himself from her grip and pushed her away.
“Ollie, get away from him.” Wisteria hurried to her, distraught that she couldn’t protect the girl.
Bach, on the other hand, proceeded to pound Felip in the face.
“No, I’m not going anywhere with you, bitch,” Ollie shrieked as Wisteria tried to see if she’d been hurt. Getting up, Ollie kicked Wisteria down before returning to Felip.
Bach grabbed her. “You are going to steer clear of Felip.”
“You cannot control me.” Kicking and punching, she fought to break free.
“This is a moment for The ‘Family’ album.” Felip laughed.
“I am going with Felip. You losers can’t stop me.”
Horrified, Wisteria had seen this Thayn-like devotion in a Famila girl once before in Alba, Enric’s sister. Alba then went on to kill her own father because Felip directed her to. Felip later abandoned her, alone to face the judgment. According to Bach, she’d spend the rest of her life in a bridewell somewhere deep in The Family’s home realm.
“Um, no.” Felip laughed at Ollie. “Do you not want to stay here with your beloved Enric?”
“You want me to die here?” Ollie burst into tears, to Felip’s continued amusement. “You’re taking her but leaving me?” She stopped fighting and sobbed pitifully on Wisteria’s shoulder.
“Oh, this is not a discussion. We do not need you, because you actually have too much Family in you.”
“What are you saying?” Wisteria asked.
“You ever wonder why half-human Famila children, like Oleander and me, are almost as powerful as full Family members?” Malcolm asked. “Or why we also have all The Family’s weaknesses and abilities?”
“No.” Before coming to Franklin, Jason had been the only half-human Famila man she knew.
F
elip was probably less than ten percent human, so it was understandable that he was almost as strong as the rest.
“The Family traits overpower and dominate the human limitations, which makes your human blood ten times more powerful than Oleander’s,” Malcolm explained.
“You are ten times as important,” Felip snickered.
“Go to hell!” Wisteria had heard more than enough.
“Felip, it is not that straight forward,” Coia added, as the cracks around her widened. “This is no way to talk about my granddaughter, even if she is not coming with us.”
“Mother, there is no way in this realm that I will leave without Oleander, or with Felip,” Bach announced. “He stays with Malcolm while Enric journeys with us.”
“That hurts,” Felip responded in a false hurt tone. “After all I did for you to get your mother here? I needed the obsidian crystal to ensure she could journey out of The Deep and I got the dark glass that enabled us to actually build the threshold. And you reward me by threatening to leave me here to die? You should be on your knees begging me to come with you.”
“You are not coming with us.” Bach charged for him.
Wisteria grabbed him before he could reach Felip.
“He has to come, Wisteria. He’s the only one who knows how to get to where we’re going,” Ollie pleaded.
“How do you know this?” Wisteria turned to the other girl.
“I have been spending a lot of time nurturing the little peanut.” Felip beamed. “We used to talk about what was on the other side and the other realms. It is a pity she will never get to see it.”
“I won’t leave my daughter and I’m not going anywhere with you,” Wisteria snapped at Felip. She turned to Coia. “We can’t go with you.”
“We have to. If we do not leave with her, she will go with Felip. He has confused her in some way,” Bach whispered as he cupped Wisteria’s face. “Once she has recharged, she will realize what has actually happened.”
“Let’s leave on the Nieves. The others can go where they want, but we—you, Ollie, and I—will go somewhere, anywhere,” Wisteria whispered digging her nails into him. “Do not go with her, Bach, please.”
Her tone reminded him of Radala’s remarks about his mother being crazy. Something wasn’t right here, but he didn’t know what. Bach knew there was a lot he needed to understand about Wisteria’s panic and deep rooted hatred of his mother. “Once we get out of here, we will talk about it. Come and see for yourself--everything will be fine.” He attempted to draw her toward his mother. “Once we leave Felip behind.”
“It’s not just Felip. There’s something wrong with Coia, because I know now why I was trying to kill her.” Wisteria gasped, covering her lips with her fingers. “I remember I wanted to kill her, so I sent her into the deep darkness—The Deep.” She squinted at Coia.
The cracks between Bach and his mother widened and the shaking became more intense, knocking Wisteria down.
“She will take the whole facility down. The Terran jaga lined this facility with Ninth metal. It is amplifying her—abilities. Mother, if you do not end her, she will kill us,” Malcolm bellowed as parts of the ceiling fell around him. “You have to stop her.”
“I am not strong enough to do that,” Coia responded, as she too crashed to the ground. “And we are not hurting her, or anyone. She is only trying to protect my son.”
Trembling, Wisteria got to her feet and shook her head. “I’m not doing this!”
“Of course you are. You are Hemlock Zey’s daughter and the last of the First Pillar. If you wanted to, you could level this place to the ground.”
“No, Mother, why are you telling her this?!” Malcolm tried to reach out to Coia as the ground around the woman continued to give way.
“Why? I have nothing to hide from her,” Coia said weakly. “Wisteria, you do not understand how to use the knowledge because no has explained it to you. Did you even know it existed?”
Wisteria didn’t, but she wasn’t going to say anything.
“Poor child, I am sorry your parents hid this from you,” Coia disclosed. “When your people built the artifacts for the First Pillar, they ensured that someday they would able to use it.”
“No!” Wisteria yelled. “I am not one of you. I’m human.” She knew she wasn’t a Famila girl in any way. She didn’t react to bean vine, the way The Family did. Her eyes never turned green, even in the brightest weather. Physically, she was not as strong, tall, or fair-skinned as the members of The Family.
“I am not saying you are one of us. You are human, like the most of the First Pillar. Like your father Hemlock Zey, and your ancestor Biel Zey,” Coia continued.
The threshold vibrated and rattled.
Coia looked unsettled. “Please listen to me.”
“Mother!” Malcolm edged his way toward the dark glass.
“It will be okay.” Bach took her hand. “You can trust her because she is a good person.”
“I am a good person. I promise nothing will happen to you or Bach. Come with us,” Coia again offered.
“Or stay here with me?” Felip smirked. Even with his life on the line, Felip didn’t seem to care.
“No,” Wisteria answered, as the threshold in the room turned red.
“Wisteria!” Bach yelled. “Stop! Do not do this to her.”
“D’cara,” Malcolm cursed, as the threshold started to turn red. “She is opening the threshold to The Deep.”
“Amazing!” Felip laughed.
“No!” Coia screamed in terror as the wind picked up and started blowing, shifting her toward the threshold. “Bach, help me.”
“Wisteria.” He sounded terrified that Wisteria was somehow sending his mother back to The Deep. Bach gripped Wisteria. “What are you doing to her?”
Wisteria didn’t answer and she didn’t look at him. Instead, her eyes were fixed on his mother.
Stepping in front of her, Bach blocked her view of his mother. “You can control this. You are sending her back.”
Once his eyes met hers, Wisteria felt her rage subside. “I have to.”
“Wisteria—”
“Fine, go with Bach,” Coia said, as her hair blew backward.
“No!” Bach protested furiously. “She will stop it. Wisteria, you will make this stop, right?”
“Wisteria, we will not take him or your daughter,” Coia called out, inches away from the red threshold. “Bach, go with her.”
“What? No!” Bach yelled.
“Do not concern yourself--I will send for you,” Coia reiterated.
Almost immediately, the rapid wind calmed down and the threshold turned black again.
Malcolm helped Coia up, and they moved toward the threshold that was now covered with the dark glass.
“I will send for you,” his mother stated, and disappeared through the threshold.
Malcolm soon followed.
Finally, Felip stepped up and winked at Wisteria before departing. “Enjoy the gift.”
As soon as they were gone, some of the unbroken lights came back on.
“Bach.” Wisteria blinked as soon as the threshold sealed up behind Felip.
“You tried to kill my mother again,” Bach gasped out in shock.
“Bach, I can explain . . .” She reached out to him.
He moved away from her. “Do not touch me. You made it clear I was not important to you.”
“Bach—”
“No, this is my fault. You told me what you did and I just could not believe that . . . you could be so . . .?”
“I can’t explain it,” Wisteria maintained as she frowned. “I was scared. Bach—”
“I know.” He nodded, sighing with frustration. “I do not know what else to say, but we will figure this out once we get back to the boat.” Frowning, he forced himself to smile as if he was trying to reassure her. He stretched his hand out to touch her hair.
“Bach—?” She still couldn’t understand any of this. She only knew what she felt. Coia was
dangerous and she was a liar.
“We’ve got to help Enric.” Ollie pointed to Bach’s injured friend.
“I am not going with you to the boat. I’m taking Ollie to the East Exit,” Wisteria announced as all of the events whirled in her mind. Now, all she wanted to do was run away, hide, and pretend that none of this ever happened. Even in the midst of Nero, she always found safety with her mother and that’s where she would go now. She was beginning to think her mother was right to have hidden this life from her.
“No. We will leave together.” He stormed past her, jumping over the cracks in the ground to reach Enric. “Can you walk?” Bach offered to help him up.
“Yeah.” Unaided, Enric lifted himself up, but stumbled back down.
“Let’s go,” Ollie whispered. “We should get out of here before Bach loses his mind. Coia was trying to take it over.”
Wisteria jerked her head back and looked up at the younger girl. “What?” She wasn’t sure how to respond to Ollie’s sudden change.
“It was why your nose bled. Your Mosroc was stopping it.” Ollie pointed to Wisteria’s nose. “Does it hurt?”
“I’m bleeding?” She wiped her nose and saw blood on her hand. “Why?”
“Felip told me centuries ago the ancient Family members Dy’obeth used that ability to enslave The Family. I don’t know how well it worked, but we should go before we find out.” She pulled Wisteria toward one of the doors. “Please, Mother.”
Ollie’s last word seemed sweet. Felip must have had some hold over her, and now he was gone, so Ollie was fine. This gave Wisteria added courage to face the madness outside. She would be doing this for her daughter.
“No, we leave together. The draug might have overtaken the upper levels. Every moment we are wasting here is one where we are closer to death,” Bach said.
The familiar groans of the draugs echoed in the room.
“D’cara!” Enric muttered.
“How did the draug get in?” Ollie gasped.
“Isn’t it obvious? Felip let them in. There must be another way out of here,” Wisteria guessed out loud.
“That was the qwaynide’s gift,” Bach added in a hateful tone. “I cannot understand why or how he deceived my mother into trusting him.”