“How sweet,” I said, turning to Enoch. The darkness was coming at an alarming rate.
“Giving in?” he asked excitedly.
He walked over to the window, hands behind his back. “Ava, I know you lied to me.” He turned, grinning.
I frowned.
“You see, if you had lost your innocence as you proclaimed…” Slowly he came toward me, eyes blazing with pride at his discovery. “You would have had your powers.” He grinned. “You see, to Change is just the beginning, but to acquire your powers you would have had to breach the gap between your heart and your soul, and the only way to do that is to have lost yourself in the physical and emotional pleasure of it all.”
“So, maybe I didn’t enjoy it.” I quickly countered.
He snorted. “Those darts, each one laced with a potent potion that drew you to…”
Suddenly, I realized that all those times I had felt attracted to the male species…
“It was before.” I interjected
“Easy there.” He chuckled. “What you are, what is inside of you…” He touched my chest with one hand. “…Once you lose your innocence, it acts as a catalyst to your powers.”
“That’s why you wanted me to…”
He nodded.
“Asshole.” I sneered back.
He turned to the bed.
“Your father said to wait…” I stated. I had to stall him as much as possible.
Suddenly he spun, a growl escaping from his throat.
“My father has been blinded and controlled by the ancestors, he has no idea how things have evolved, what you really are.”
“And you do?”
He smiled an all-knowing-smile.
“What did you do, Enoch?”
“It doesn’t matter. I did what I had to do.”
“For what purpose, exactly?”
“My own!” He shouted, and pulled me to the bed.
When he shoved me onto the bed, he held out a green vial. It glowed in his hand.
“You see this?” He waved it in front of my face. “You have no choice.”
I gasped. The liquid inside the vial wafted in circles as if it were imprisoned smoke.
“That’s right, Ava.” He slowly walked toward the window, his gait resembling that of a monster. “This here is powerful magic that will seduce you into its power.” He turned and flashed a row of brilliantly white teeth.
“I’m glad to see you didn’t inherit your father’s looks,” I said bluntly.
His face dropped, his eyes iced over and a smirk slowly rose from the corners of his mouth. “You’ll give yourself to me freely,” he said, pressing his lips into a thin, hard line.
I smiled my wickedest smile. “You’re a coward.”
He shrugged uncaringly. “If you say so,” he replied absentmindedly as he fondled the lid of the vial.
I knew I had to do some quick thinking to get into that monster’s head, and I was aware that I needed to play to his ego.
“It’s easy to force my hand, but it will mean nothing. It won’t be me that lays in your bed tonight.” I smiled. He needed to have some sense of victory, I knew that much.
“All you will be proving is that you weren’t able to get the girl on your own, but had to resort to using daddy’s magic to get her to agree to go to bed with you.”
He took a step back toward me. “Shut up,” he sneered.
“Why? Because you know I’m right? You’re nothing without your daddy.”
He clenched his fists.
“How am I supposed to fall in love with that? I could never love a man who can’t think for himself. You’re the weak one, not me. I will never regard you as anything more than an extension of your father’s will. And, believe me when I say this, there is nothing attractive about that.”
He smashed the vial onto the floor in a fit of rage. The soft mist rose around his legs and evaporated into the air around him.
“I don’t need magic,” he said as he stalked toward me.
He forcefully grabbed my sweater while his other hand grasped my jaw. He pulled me into a fierce kiss. It wasn’t like before when he had crushed his mouth against mine. This time, it was both aggressive and gentle. He wanted me to feel that some part of him did want me in a gentle loving way. His hands shivered as he pulled me closer. I let him and I indulged in the moment, knowing full well that playing along would give me a few more seconds to summon the numbness. He closed his eyes and his grip became like that of a robot as he started to soak up my essence. I absorbed his poison as I kissed him back, allowing the numbness to take over. I felt my temperature rise as a feeling of power started to bubble up inside me. I knew what I had to do to fully gain my powers; it was the only way to gain supremacy over him – to become what I was meant to be. But, foremost, I had to become what I didn’t want to become. To know yourself, you have to know who you are not. To find the light, you have to go through the dark.
The rage grew and it wasn’t long before I was almost totally gone. I tore at my clothes and then at his. He was totally taken aback and fell to his knees. My skin glowed all over. Using my bare feet, I pushed down on his chest until he was laying flat on the floor in front of me, yielding completely. A foreign, evil smile made its way onto my lips as my hands glided over his chest like melting ice. I might have been enjoying it a bit too much. I lowered myself on top of him. Electricity surged through my skin as I pressed my breasts against him. All of a sudden, I had the incredible urge to throw up and had to quickly swallow the last of my concerns and considerations. I felt my life slip away, but also felt something take hold of me. Once I was inside of him, I could almost not bear the surge of power.
“HANG ON!”
It was all so surreal. I concentrated on following through. The only solution was to fight myself, to revel in the pleasure of it all as my powers emerged. My body was bruised inside and out, and suddenly, I was set alight. It came over me and Ava was buried far beyond my reach. I had succeeded in implementing what I had been created to master. I did make love to him, as much as I possibly could stand to. The dark cloud poured into me. I was instantly aware that it would kill him, but the shift had taken over and I had lost all control. At that moment, I had hoped it would kill us both. I drew in the darkness and blacked out as I submitted to its power.
Coming to, I found myself standing in front of a towering mirror. Etched into its delicate frame were engraved symbols, adorned with all kinds of gems shining as bright as the sun. I was memorized by its beauty. I recognized some of the symbols as being Minoan. Running my fingers along the edges, I observed that they appeared to be from several different languages. My hands trembled as I recognized some of the symbols; numbers from the human race. The amethyst on my pendant suddenly faded, its lustrous glow giving way to a dull insipidness as I looked into my reflection for the very first time. I almost felt weak in the revelation of what had just happened, what I had done. My eyes were as gray as a wicked storm, skin as pale as ivory and hair as gold as a solar flare colliding with a star. My skin still aglow, I felt the hollowness take over. In the reflection of the silver glass, I saw his body. Slowly, I turned around to see Enoch spread out on the floor, lifeless and gray, black hair sprawled over the dark, red carpet – death. I hurried over to him, grabbing some sheets to cover myself. I stood over his comatose body and kicked his arm, but he didn’t respond. I couldn’t remember what had happened. Unexpectedly, Troy’s angelic face flashed before my eyes and then it all came back to me. I remember a power surge before a bright glow and then…
“I killed him,” I grunted, but the revelation only held emptiness, and the darkness lasted for a moment longer.
“I told you I would kill you and you didn’t believe me.” His ice blue eyes, void of light.
“Now, every last one of you will feel my lethal retribution.” I spoke the words out loud, but they seemed distant as they came out of my mouth. I was saying things I didn’t feel. The numbness had already become a part of me. I
had switched from being myself to being someone else, like I was simply breathing in air. I walked over to the door, mechanically. Before opening it, I twisted on my heel and looked at Enoch’s dilapidated body one final time – no, I still felt nothing. I swung the door open, the coldness refreshing against my feverish skin. The guards came rushing over to me and pointed their spears at my throat. One of them peeked into the room and dropped to his knees in an instant. The others followed quickly, almost immediately kneeling at my feet.
“That’s right,” I said, smiling. “Go tell your king…” I looked into the eyes of the young man kneeling beside me as he trembled, unable to hold my gaze, or too afraid to. “…I will see him now.”
The young man rose, bowed and scurried down the hallway. The other guards ran over to their dead prince.
“Get that out of here!” I shouted, motioning to the body with my free hand and with the other, I clung so tightly to the thin layer of fabric covering my naked body, afraid to let go as if it were the only part of me left that cared.
I watched the four men lift his body, his dark hair swaying against the air as they exited. I shut the door behind them. I wanted to feel bad for killing Enoch, for Arriana’s sake, but I felt nothing. I didn’t feel sad or regretful. It should have bothered me, but the only thing that troubled me was that I didn’t give a damn. And, the only thing I regretted was that perhaps Enoch was the only one who had truly ever known what I was. He sure seemed to think so. But, he was dead, along with my feelings for him. I looked down at my hands and felt rejuvenated. It felt like I had just woken up for the very first time. My skin still radiated with a faint, golden glow. I walked back to the mirror and scrutinized the horrid masks that hung on the wall beside it, desecrating the beauty of the traveling mirror. An electric charge ran through me, and that was what I had become. I pulled all of the masks down from the walls and smashed them to pieces on the stone floor. I pulled the wire free from the clay holding the pieces together. I wanted to see the color of my blood one more time. I wanted to fathom what I was, but the blood didn’t come. The wound healed perfectly even before I could see it. I closely examined myself in the mirror and saw that every scar on my face had healed, too. I realized that my powers had arrived along with the darkness. I wrapped the wire around my upper chest and pulled the dark cloth I had draped around me, through the hoop and folded it over like a dress. I need my hands so I could strangle the Isithunzi to death the minute he walked through that door. I hesitated. I wasn’t very clued up on black magic, and I wasn’t sure what I had done earlier. In addition, I didn’t know if I could do it again. The minute he heard of his son’s death, he would come. The thought of Enoch being his son made bile rise up into my mouth. I was disgusted that I had dated a half-breed, a monster. I sat down on the floor beside the mirror. My mind was not my own. I gazed at the fragments of clay scattered around me and swore. I needed help. I remembered they were under the impression that I could speak to the others telepathically. Could I? I wondered. I sat with my face to the mirror and touched both hands to the cold glass – I would use it as a mediator. Now that I had my powers, I would have to at least try. I started to focus, took in the vibrations around me as Kronan and Tatos had showed me. I know what to do, I reminded myself. I just have to remember something that is already a part of me. I called for Kronan in my head, but nothing came back. Then I called for Anaya, but once again nothing happened. I bit down on my lip.
“Maya,” I said softly, remembering her navy blue eyes, her rosy cheeks, her ivory skin and how it contrasted with her dark hair, her sweet scent. I imagined her in my head as if she were tangible and standing right in front of me.
“Where are you?” Her voice flew into my mind, distant at first.
I showed her, with my mind.
“Ava?” Her thoughts were transmitted into my mind again, a little louder this time.
“I’m fine. Great actually,” I thought. “Hurry!”
I showed her a vision of Enoch’s body.
I felt her smile.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Uprising
The witchdoctor finally arrived, ceremonial paints of red and white covered and marked his entire body, neck and face like a second skin. Despite the brave face he was putting on, I could see the panic in his eyes. His son had gone against his wishes, had screwed it all up for him, and it was entirely my doing? Inside, I was laughing hysterically. If there was one thing I was good at, it was manipulating people to do exactly what I wanted them to do. I’d been doing it my entire life, and it was paying off.
“You will let me and all the villagers go free,” I said, the second he walked in.
“They do not belong to you,” he sneered.
“You,” I stressed as I stomped toward him, “do not own anybody.”
Between his contorted fingers, he held a dark orange clay pot. He pressed it toward me.
“The remains of your beloved,” he said with a smirk.
I knew he was lying. It was plastered all over his smug face. I smiled dryly.
“I won’t tell you again,” I threatened.
He fell silent. I walked back to where Enoch had lain earlier and crouching, looked down at the tiny black specks on the wine-red carpet – his blood. I smiled up at him, challenging him. Did he want the same fate? I mused. I stood still, smiling at him. Quickly, he grabbed his staff, and before I could react, a bolt of lightning shot out from the skull and penetrated my chest. My body knotted under the pain.
“Oh, Ava,” He laughed. “This is how wrong you are.”
He smashed the pot on the ground and walked toward me. I rose slowly, one limb at a time, my skin on fire. Nothing I couldn’t handle at that point.
“You have stolen my son’s essence. You stupidly forgot that my blood runs in his blood, which means I own you.”
Another bolt of lightning came hurtling toward me. My chest rose and fell rapidly as I gasped for air. I closed my eyes and took the sting. When my mind finally recovered from the shock, I drew in a steady breath and filled my lungs with warm air. My smile returned. He didn’t know it, but the poison that was running through my blood was slowly being diluted by the stronger bloodline, a bloodline I didn’t understand, but could feel its power working for the first time – in the way I needed it to. I don’t know how I knew this, I just did. It was the same as what had happened earlier, when I had known how to do things I had not done before. It was as if my soul had remembered what my mind could not. The details were still unclear to me, but I was sure that the chain of events leading up to Troy’s death had sparked something within me. Consequently, Troy’s death had been the catalyst that had set it all in motion and sparked my destiny. My body and soul crossed over when I had given myself to Enoch, brought on a power I hadn’t yet explored. I pretended to yield to the witchdoctor. Why I hesitated to kill him right there and then, I’ll never know. I guess I couldn’t stand the thought of touching him. He swallowed a vial of dark liquid, pulled me toward him and blew dark smoke into my mouth. My eyes widened in shock as the smoke clung to my taste buds, causing me to gag and hurl a few times. He began his ritual, speaking, chanting, dancing all around me. The drums echoed throughout the night air. The same acid I had thrown up when I was in the infirmary was now streaming down my throat once more, burning its way into my lungs and stomach, slowly filling me up with an angry presence. It was a different kind of darkness, it was not my own. I stood staring in disgust and horror. What was happening to me?
“Feel it, Ava. Feel the power of our ancestors work its way through you.”
I screamed and gasped for air. My mind began to fog over. I was heading into the unknown, not consuming it. I started to tremble all over. I tried extremely hard to keep my mind afloat as it reached and clawed for freedom. All of a sudden, an unfamiliar voice echoed through my mind as one more bolt from his staff rippled through my body, bringing the fog to the forefront of my mind.
“The spirit of Shaka will rise again!” The witchdoct
or’s voice boomed throughout the room.
My body jolted as the spirit of the ancestors took hold of me. My mind clouded over until I was no longer looking through my own eyes. They became strange to me and the room became unfamiliar. I robotically grasped the witchdoctor’s staff. I felt alive with a rotten hatred that coursed through my veins – the taste of revenge hung in the air, this too, was not my own. When the witchdoctor bowed, I could feel a piece of myself beating faintly inside me. My soul smiled. Me – I was still there, inside somewhere. But my face never smiled back. As the foreign eyes looked down at my arms, a strange voice, nothing like my own, screamed out of my mouth, “A white girl!”
The Broken Destiny Page 28