by Bonnie Lamer
“As Ormar has already stated that we are not welcome, I do not see how giving you such information would help our cause. We will…” A blinding pain does what these Dragons could not. I am brought to my knees. As is Kallen next to me.
“She is hurt,” he manages to say through the pain. He is correct. Xandra is hurt and her soul is calling out to both of us.
Chapter 29 – Xandra
Belial is waiting for me when I appear in the commons. Apparently, there’s no starting gun or even someone saying one, two, three – go. So I am blindsided by enough magic to send me sailing backwards a good twenty feet. Wow, this hurts more than I thought it would. I may have been a bit harsh when I’ve done this to others. Well, some others.
I don’t have a chance to catch my breath before I am hit again. It happens so fast I can’t even react. I am brought up into the air and dropped to the ground from a good thirty feet. Raziel’s body is strong enough to take it but it’s far from pain free.
I pull magic through me but not fast enough and unfortunately I can barely protect myself with what I have flowing inside me. I am having trouble deflecting the razor sharp black magic that is ripping the skin on my forearms to shreds as it tries to get to my face. I feel like I just stepped through a plate glass window. Three times. Then rolled around in the glass for a good ten minutes.
You would think that there would be gasps or oohs and aahs from the spectators because everyone is here; every Angel I have ever met and about a thousand more. Word travels fast through their wings I guess. But they are too dumbfounded to vocalize anything. The sight of Raziel’s body being thrown around like a rag doll I suppose is a little shocking. What is a rag doll anyway? And where did that expression come from?
Focus, Xandra. I need to do something fast because I’m starting to lose a lot of blood. This feels like the time Grandpa rammed my spell with his car and I almost died. I need to think and that’s hard to do with Belial grinning down at me evilly as he shoves so much magic through me that my innards are becoming liquefied. I believe they’re leaking out of my nose.
“No fight in you, Raziel?” Belial asks. “It is good to see that my suspicions are correct.”
“What suspicions?” I manage trying not to swallow my nose blood. My entire body hurts and I don’t think I can move anymore.
“That you are no longer omniscient. If you were, you surely would not have challenged me. I am stronger than you Raziel. We both know that. This is a battle you cannot win without your foresight.”
I feel him drawing the magic that will literally crush me and I’m just laying here because I don’t know what else to do. Isn’t my life supposed to flash before my eyes? Shouldn’t I remember something other than my last conversation with Adriel? I am merely suggesting that a creative defense would be prudent. Great advice but I have nothing following that thought up in my brain.
Belial’s magic comes down on me with so much force I feel all of my ribs crack and my femurs buckle and splinter. I feel my smaller bones becoming chalk and the pressure of his magic keeps pushing down on me. The pain explodes everywhere. I didn’t know it was possible for this much pain to be in one place. Pain isn’t even a strong enough word to describe what I’m feeling. Even Raziel’s body can’t take this forever. I’m fading and I know I’m close to dying. I feel my vision going and then everything is dark.
My mind has shut itself off from the outside world and I’m now swimming in a black, inky sea. I can see two lights in the distance and I know I’ll be safe if I can get to them. I swim and swim, kicking my legs as hard as I can, but I’m not getting any closer. It’s like trying to swim through tar. I will never reach them in time.
A slight wind brings a song from them. Not a song really. More of a chant. They are calling to me but I can’t come.
As I slip back into consciousness, I realize it’s not their voices that I need to be listening to. There is a voice much closer to me trying to get my attention. It rises up from below me and slowly drags me out of that cold, dark sea.
It takes a moment for my mind to remember that I have wings all the time now. That’s where the voice is coming from. It’s a pretty voice. I wish my voice was that pretty. I can’t make out the words yet but the sound is comforting.
At least it was. It’s more of a screech now. “Xandra! Get off your stupid Witch Fairy ass and fight! If you do not, I will kill you myself!” Adriel shouts through our wings.
That’s really not the most encouraging speech I’ve ever heard but she did get my attention. I am merely suggesting that a creative defense would be prudent. She’s right, I realize. I can’t fight Belial on his terms. I don’t even have any idea of how to do that. So, I have to do it on mine. Fortunately, I come from a family familiar with dirty tricks. Dagda has probably taught me the most but I learned a few things along the way from my Grandfather and Kallen and Kegan as well.
I’m not going to push against his magic because he’s better at manipulating his and would easily break down my defenses. I need to get him on the defensive. Thinking back to when I first became Raziel, I send my magic below me, not above.
Belial is surprised when the ground underneath him disappears and he is hanging from the side of a large chasm. It only takes a second for him to spread his wings and fly to level ground, though. That’s okay. That’s enough time for me to simultaneously start healing myself and send out a burst of magic that zooms past him. Belial laughs at my poor aim but when it comes back and hits him in the back of the head and shoulders and bends several of his feathers, he doesn’t think it’s so funny anymore.
My ribs hurt as I stand because I healed my femurs first. I can’t stand on my ribs so they’ll have to wait a minute. Holding my sides in an effort to not move them, I visibly brace myself for the impact of Belial’s magic. It doesn’t reach me though because I’m now on the other side of him. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. I can teleport. All that knowledge in here yet this brain didn’t feel the need to remind me of that before now. It’s like my mind stopped functioning when I realized I wasn’t the toughest and strongest in this fight. I’m over that.
This is not going to be my proudest moment but I’m going to use a dark magic spell that Dagda taught me. I murmur it quickly while Belial is caught off guard. “In desperation I invoke, my blackest magic to evoke, sensations that are grizzly and grim, after my foe’s senses bedim. Death is a consequence too rich; bring destruction when this soul is bewitched.”
As Belial whirls around to find me, I direct pinpoints of magic at him. Thousands and thousands of them. They are coming at him from all directions like bomber bees but way smaller. It is almost impossible to protect against these little shafts of magic because they’re so small and there’s too many of them. That’s not the playing dirty part though. It’s where these pinpoints go that is. They don’t seek out vital organs to take out a victim. Nope. They’re going to do worse than that. They’re going to do what Adriel warned me I’d have to do. Torture him. When Dagda taught me this, we used plants for practice. Even he has never done this on a living being. So he says. It’s supposed to be a last resort in a desperate, life jeopardizing situation. I think this counts. I probably wouldn’t die in the fiery pit, but I’m pretty sure I would want to. So I’m making a last, desperate attempt to save myself. And Raziel. I’m going to feel the shame of this moment for the rest of my life.
Belial tries to throw up a circle when he realizes what I’m doing but it’s too late. My magic is already inside him. All of it hits him at once. Some of it burrows into his eyes, severing veins and muscles. Some of it burns into his groin like hot pokers attacking muscle tissue ensuring certain things will never work again. A lot of it burrows under his skin shaving off layers bone. One at a time. Each hair on his body is being pulled inside of him by its root. Also one at a time. His joints are being attacked; the tendons and ligaments holding them together are being ripped apart. He attempts to use his magic in his defense, but he is dete
riorating so fast that he doesn’t have the strength to push it all out. As his bones disconnect, he falls into a broken heap on the ground. I have never seen anything so ghastly in my entire life. Not even in horror movies.
There are still no gasps or oohs and aahs from the crowd gathered around us. Disgust, fascination and alarm flow through them as they watch the spectacle of Belial’s body being torn apart from the inside. The oddest thing of all? There’s no blood anywhere.
Chapter 30 – Raziel
We cannot see what Xandra is going through but we can both feel her pain. There is nothing we can do about it. We cannot send her our magic or teleport to her. We have tried. All the power and strength Kallen and I have is meaningless. The one we love may die at any moment and all we can do is suffer the same pain.
It seems Kallen does not think that is enough on my part because he uses a pretty mean right hook to knock me to the floor. I would retaliate in kind but I am too busy trying to pry his hands off my neck. We have both pulled magic but it has become a molten line above us which is useless to me at the moment.
Forcing a hand away from his, I hit him. His nose is spilling blood on me now but he still has a firm hand on my throat. I try again and this time I am able to knock him loose enough to roll us over so I am on top. I punch the outside of his elbow hard enough on the nerve to force his hand to reflexively loosen. He uses his other hand to punch me in the face so hard I know my jaw is broken.
I do not know how many punches are thrown, or how long we have been at it, when we feel the heat of the flame headed our way. Instinctively, we let go of each other and use the molten line of our magic to shield ourselves. The flames hit it with enough force to send some of the flames back towards the Dragons. Ormar cries out. She was closest to us so she took the brunt of the flames.
A burst of magic from behind us causes Kallen and I to fly apart. An extremely angry Isla and a rather baffled Garren are holding the Dragons at bay but that won’t last long. Isla is strong but they are stronger.
I look over at Kallen and his face is the picture of horror. I understand why when I look down at my bloody knuckles. They are not my knuckles. They are Xandra’s. Kallen may see me in my true form, but it is Xandra’s body that he hurt. And I am no better letting things get so out of hand and not protecting her body from harm as I swore to do.
There is not time to think about that at the moment. The Dragons are upon us and they have witnessed the disunity amongst us. Kallen and I add our magic to Isla and Garren’s as we move next to them once again.
“You need to try,” Kallen says to me. “Before war is declared.”
I know what he means. I have to try to teleport the four of us out of here. Time to test my control of Xandra’s magic. Pulling them into a huddle, I imagine being at the rebel Goblin’s compound deep in the Land of the Free.
Unfortunately, we get lost somewhere in between.
Chapter 31 – Xandra
“Stop! You have to stop.” It dawns on me that someone is pulling desperately on my arm. I turn my head slightly and am forced to remember that I have not finished healing myself. I believe I am in shock. “Xan…Raziel, please. You must stop.”
I turn my head back to what I had been looking at. I cannot be responsible for that. No one could be. No one who has a heart. Or a conscience. But least of all. Me. I’m not that evil.
Stop this. My own brain is shouting this to me now. Finally, after a long moment, my lips are able to move to say the words. “Magic black I must call back. Leave this soul, he will harm no more.”
Such simple words to stop the agony. But it has not stopped. Belial is basically a skin sack on the ground. A horrified second has me rushing to him. Pulling all the magic I can into Raziel’s body, I push it into Belial. He screams and roils upon the ground as his body is put back together. It is no less painful being made whole again than it was being torn apart.
Finally I can stop. I can stop torturing him. I fall to my knees next to him, too exhausted and painful to stand any longer.
Belial is gasping for air. I see fear in his eyes when they meet mine. “Raziel,” he wheezes, “You have taken my place. No longer will I be thought evil.”
I close my eyes as the truth of his words sink in. Raziel is not evil, but I am.
“Evil is relative,” a soft voice says behind me.
That was definitely not Adriel. I open my eyes and whirl around to see which Angel is telling lies in an effort to make me feel better. What I find is a woman surrounded by blue light as if simply being close to her makes the white light of Angels change color. Her hair is black. A true black that seems as if there is no light that could penetrate it. Her face is soft but strong at the same time. Her lips are red perfection. Her eyes, her green, green eyes, are the color that an emerald wishes it could be. There are depths to her eyes that make me fear what they have seen.
She is tall and beautiful. The blue aura around her feels as if it is what the garden of serenity was made from. It would be impossible to feel anything besides calm and quiet in her presence. Even my guilt has moved to the back of my mind.
And there’s only her. All of the other Angels have disappeared. I look behind me and find that Belial is gone as well. Turning back to her, I ask, “Who are you?”
“I am Haniel.”
Okay. Maybe I need to be more specific. “What kind of Angel are you?”
She smiles and my heart lightens. “I am a Seraph.”
Wow, she’s really forthcoming with the details. “Um, I don’t know what that means.”
“I know,” she says.
I’m at a complete loss here. “Did you come to punish me for what I did to Belial?”
Again with the smile that makes it seem like nothing bad has ever occurred. Anywhere. Ever. “No, of course not. Belial knows his place. He simply forgot for a moment. Just as Raziel had.”
Some of my anxiety from a few minutes ago is starting to come back. I’m pretty sure she knows who I really am. I bite my bottom lip, which probably looks funny on Raziel’s gorgeous face, and ask, “Are you here to punish me for pretending to be Raziel?”
She shakes her head slightly and her black hair glides back and forth across her shoulders. “I did not come to punish you for something I have done.”
“You? You made us change bodies?”
Her smile gets more beautiful every time. “No other Angel could have done so.”
Oh. “So it’s not Raziel’s fault?”
“No.”
“Why did you do it?”
“It is not the time for that yet.”
My eyes scan our surroundings to see what she might be waiting for. Nothing that I can see. “Can we change back now?”
She only smiles in response. Okay, her pretty smile is starting to annoy me now. I’m about to tell her that when I appear. Not me. My body. The one that Raziel is in. And Kallen. My true love. Without thought of anyone else, I run to him and wrap my arms around him so tightly he can’t breathe. Since I basically tackled him, we also fall to the ground.
“I have missed you so much,” I say as he hugs me back.
Then he struggles to be free of my grip when I won’t let go. “Xandra love, I have missed you as well. I think at the moment though, we should focus on what is happening to us.”
I can’t help a small pout which makes him chuckle. Placing his hands on my cheeks he kisses me. I think he’s totally oblivious at the moment that he’s kissing Raziel’s lips. I’m certainly not going to remind him.
Still pouting slightly, I let him go and stand up, offering him my hand. As one we turn to Raziel and Haniel. There are so many ‘iels’ with the Angels. I wonder why that is?
When I look at him, I expect Raziel’s eyes to be sad or hurt because of how I greeted Kallen, but they’re not. They’re more thoughtful than anything. He returns my smile and nods slightly in greeting.
“Have you seen it now, Raziel?” the beautiful Angel asks him.
He tilts his h
ead to the side. Actually, he tilts my head to the side. This is really weird. “My apologies, Haniel. I am not sure that I understand.”
“No, I suppose you would not quite yet.” Glad she’s cryptic with everyone, not just me.
Haniel walks to me. It looks more like gliding than walking because her movements are so fluid. Putting her hand under my chin she lifts my face so that I am looking into her eyes. “It is time for you to return to your body now.”
I can’t help a wide smile. “Really?” Then I remember what happened before she brought me here and my smile melts away. How can she be so nice to me when I’ve been so horrible?
She shakes her head slightly. “You must not think of such things. It is not time for that.”
Meaning there will be time later? Like when I get punished for my actions. My soul is probably one big black shadow now. And what’s up with her being able to read my mind? I don’t like that at all. Which she knows now because she can read my mind. “I can’t help it. I did horrible things to Belial and I should be punished for that. No one should suffer that way.”