“It would be so easy to kill you in your unconscious state, but I like a fight.” He smirks at her. “Are you willing to fight, Annalisa, for your life?” He swats down to get a better view. Her pale skin is turning shades of pink from the cold air that blows on the parts of her exposed body. “Are you cold? That’s too bad, isn’t it?” He stands again. He starts to pace back and forth. “You had me fooled for a while there. Alyssa? Were you scared of what I would have done to you if you told me your name was Annalisa?” He glares down at her. “You wish you had a chance to kill me again, but I have something that will keep me alive for many centuries to come. I just need to kill you first. I can’t have you attempt to murder me again. With or without being your Elim, I want your blood in my hands.”
Julian means every word he said. He does want to kill her. He understands something that he is trying to ignore. His hatred for her only strengthens his love for her. He had many chances of killing her, but he would never act on them because he’s too blinded by her betrayal to see the love that he has for her. How will he kill her when it would be like killing himself?
Alyssa groans in pain as she begins to move. Her eyes open to see him. He has the Katana in his hand. Her eyes widen in fright as his smirk appears. She crawls backwards to put some distance between them.
“Don’t be scared Annalisa. I won’t harm you-” She sighs in relief. “-yet.” He finishes.
“Julian. I-I-” She gulps, not having any words to say to him.
He presses the tip of the Katana to her lips. She flinched back from the contact. He can tell that she’s too afraid to move. “You shouldn’t speak. It will just make everything worst. I do want you to listen. That’s an order not a request.” She stays still. He begins his speech with a dark chuckle. His finds the whole situation amusing. It is much better than the entertainers he had hired before. “I have a question, and I want your honestly.” He guides the tip of the Katana to her exposed neck. It gently presses upward her skin until it’s below her chin. He makes her look up at him. “Why did you do it? Why did you kill me?”
“I-”
He presses the tip of the Katana deeper into her skin. “Answer me!”
“I don’t remember! They said it was a curse!”
“Who? Who said that?” He yells.
“The Elims.” He lowers the Katana in confusion. “That blonde and that man with dark hair told me.” She searches his eyes for the names of the Elims. “Miranda and Gabriel. They’re the ones that told me.” Her sharp breaths turn into shallow ones. She’s fighting the tears that are falling in silence.
He clenches jaw tight. “Gabriel and Miranda said it was a curse?” She nods with regret.
Alyssa positions herself to kneel before him. “I’m sorry!” She cried. “I’m sorry for doing all those horrible things to you. I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t. I have to live with the guilt. I just wish you would have told me instead of those strangers. I wish it was you.” She finishes in a whisper.
He stands there in shock. He doesn’t know what he should do. Miranda knows something that she didn’t tell him. What is she hiding from him?
He doesn’t notice her pounding her small fist on his chest. “Say something please. Scream at me if you have to. Just do something.” She grips his shirt between her fingers and cries.
“Julian!” He snaps his head towards the new voice that rose above Alyssa’s cries. Miranda runs toward them. Fear is in her eyes. Gabriel isn’t far behind her. “Let her go.” The Adviser Elim orders him.
He narrows his eyes at her. “What do you know Miranda? What are you hiding from me?” He attacked her with his questions.
Her eyes move back and forth between him and Alyssa. She’s trying to find her words, but it’s stuck in her throat. That’s when he knows there’s more than enough she must be hiding from him. He knew her loyalty was to the Heavens, but it was low for her.
“Hand her to us. That is an order.” Gabriel roars. That voice annoys him. He will never let them control him. He will fight if he has to. He will get what he wants, he always does.
Julian pushes Alyssa behind him, protecting her. “Not until I have my answers.”
<><><>
Miranda nervously glances at Alyssa. The poor soul is cowering behind Julian. She should have known that Julian wouldn’t have listened to her orders. When she received a call from Gabriel informing her that Julian had disappeared, she knew something was wrong. She then called the Keepers, Dev and Emily, to see if they had Alyssa back. They said she never appeared after she left. She knew Julian had something to do with it.
She notices the fighting stance Gabriel has. The last thing that should happen is a fight for dominance. Gabriel maybe stronger than Julian, but Julian is stronger than any immortal with Alyssa on his side. She will have to keep that small secret to herself and hope that Alyssa will too.
“Gabriel.” She warns him. “Let me take Julian.”
He narrows his eyes toward the fallen king. “I won’t allow it, Miranda. He’s not thinking clearly.”
She gently lays her hand on his shoulder. “Trust me, please.” She begs the Authority Elim with her eyes.
He nods. “I will take the human.”
“I will come to you when I finish.”
“You have no choice.”
She ignores his comment. Miranda turns her attention to her friend. “Julian, let Alyssa go with Gabriel. We have to talk.”
Julian thinks about it. Then he steps aside and let’s Alyssa go. The God’s daughter runs toward her instead of Gabriel. “Please, take care of him.” She pleas to her. “He’s not the same.”
Miranda smiles down at her. “His king is showing, not the Julian you know. Time will be the only one to make him see reason.” Alyssa takes a glance back at her lover before she follows Gabriel out of the clearing.
“Where do we go?” Julian asks her.
“We will go to the Keepers ground. I will tell you Selene’s and the God’s agreement.”
Mends from Reveal
“You hid this from me?” Julian asks.
Miranda nods, her eyes not meeting his. “I couldn’t tell you without betraying my word.”
“I knew that Annalisa was Selene’s daughter, I never knew that she was also the God’s.” He states.
“You were never meant to know. The Witch’s Tree tells the story of Annalisa’s creation. The Keepers have many secrets from both the Heavens and the Underworld. They keep track of all movements the Immortals make.”
Julian’s anger rises. “So this was his plan all along? He wants me to protect his precious daughter?”
“Yes and no. Of course he wants his daughter’s protection, but being assigned to her was your punishment for neglecting Anna and the other children you were meant to protect. He realized that you would never have it in you to neglect Annalisa. That is why he assigned her to you.”
“Does he know how much I want to kill her? Is he waiting for me to do just that so he can turn me over to Hades?”
“Julian, you and Annalisa are a force to be reckoned with. Having one of you in Hades power will be killing millions if either of you lose yourself to the darkness, especially you. You’re an impulsive man. You see no reason when you see the truth in front of you. You’re turning into the same king that Annalisa killed all those centuries ago. Is what you want? For her to hate you? To despise you?”
“She betrayed me.”
“She saved your kingdom.”
“By killing their king. I highly doubt that.”
“It’s true. Your greed for power and wealth blinded you to see the suffering and torture your kingdom went through to give those priceless things to you. Children starved. Mothers worked to the bone while their husbands were sent out to war, to rule whatever other kingdom you decided was better to have as your own. You were a mad man. You cared for no one, but yourself. Yet, your entire kingdom respected and honored you. They saw you as their god. You could have done no wrong in th
eir eyes. They were just as blinded as you are.”
“It’s nonsense.” He points his index finger to his chest. “I protected my people from harm, poverty, and slavery. I protected them against everything.”
“That was true at first, but then you needed to protect them from those things coming from you. That is what you don’t notice. Annalisa helped free the kingdom by killing you and herself.”
“She didn’t die like I did. She is still human.”
“She’s an Immortal. She became one the Moment you died. You were connected to her in mind and body. You were hers and she was yours. When she was ordered to kill you, she didn’t just kill you. She killed herself as well.”
“Ordered? She was ordered to kill me?”
“Yes. You may not notice it right now, but you were the cause of both your deaths.”
“Who ordered her?”
“The curse.”
“What curse?” He can feel the whiteness of his eyes turn pure black.
“Your eyes are turning pure black Julian. I will not speak to you under those conditions.”
“Answer me!”
“The God and Selene had a deal long ago. Selene was convinced to help create your fall. She saw how you ignored your people’s silent cries for help. She wanted to defeat you. The God was driven by his anger over the ignorance of his followers. They all worshipped you. They looked up to you as their savior when he was the one they were supposed to vow their loyalty to. Together, with his blood and hers, they created Annalisa. She was created as a curse. The orders were specific. She was to seduce you, earn your love, and then murder you. It was simple, there was a chance that it wouldn’t have worked, but it did. You fell in love with her as quickly as it was for you to take over a kingdom. You cherished her. You drowned her in riches and power. She fell in love with you too, but then she started to see the king you really were. Her guilt was overruled by her order. She saw it as a way to save your kingdom, even if it was only an order to kill you.”
“How do you know what she felt at the time of my death?”
“The Book of Shadows that the halfblooded witch, Cynthia Machiavelli, has. That book has all the answers, but it gives you clues to lead you to the answers you want. I found out about Annalisa’s feeling through that book. Right now Alyssa doesn’t remember her past. She only knows what has been told to her. Her guilt is eating at her for a memory she has no recollection of. You punish a woman whose memory is lost.”
“She has to remember. I remember.” He points out.
“You were always strong. You channel all your fears, and weakness in anger towards others. Alyssa channels hers in herself.”
“You are trying to save her with spilling lies to me!”
“I am trying to make you see the truth that is right in front of you!”
“Truth is what I know. I am right. I know it. Annalisa remembers everything. She will pay for her betrayal. Understand that Miranda. I will not let this go pass me again.”
“You are a foolish man, Julian. You kill her and you will just kill yourself when you finally realize what you have done.”
“If you are not with me, you are against me.”
She narrows her eyes at him. It’s painful to have him say those words to her, but that has always been his way of life. It’s either alliance or enemy. “Then I am against you. I will coat my palms with blood to protect her.”
“Then this means battle.”
“This means your end. Annalisa dies, and so do you in heart. Be prepared for that.”
“I have been prepared a long time.”
“Then I leave you to it. Farewell, Julian. You will have time to call this off. The choice is yours.”
Miranda vanishes into the sky. He’s called a battle. That means that she will have to warn the God the threat of his daughter’s life.
Alyssa has her head down in class. She ignores at the stares from her classmates. She doesn’t look directly at any of them. She’s like a walking zombie. Her eyes are bloodshot and the bags under them are showing even more. Brandon and Jim are worried about her, but she doesn’t need their worries. She doesn’t want to attend school, or pretend that everything is fine anymore. It’s not fine, nothing is fine. The looks in Julian’s eyes were so cold, so lost. He really did want to kill her. He wanted to kill her with the same Katana she uses to train and fight with. How will she grow to live with herself as a killer? That’s what she is, a killer. She’s a woman who murdered a man in cold blood.
Alyssa walked in front of Brandon and Jim after school. They questioned her many times on why her sudden change, but she ignored them. They followed her silently, waiting to see if she would breakdown and maybe jump off a bridge like last time, but she won’t do that. Death is an easy outlet. For what she’s done she will need to live through the guilt, and the pain of revelations that now haunts her mind.
Alyssa drags her feet around her room. She’s wearing Pink branded sweat pants with a tight white shirt and some Pumas. Her messy hair falls lose on her shoulders. She’s been hiding behind her hair almost the entire day. She tells herself that she will never wear her contacts ever again. She will show her true purple eyes that way every time she looks in the mirror she will see who she truly is, a murderer.
Brandon and Jim enter her room. Brandon has a glass of water and a small white pill and Jim is holding up a sandwich wrapped in a napkin.
“You need to sleep.” Brandon emphasizes to the small pill in his hand.
“First, you need to eat something.” Jim motions to the sandwich in his hand.
“I’m not tired or hungry.” She walks to the window. She stares out the sunny day, trying to ignore her friends.
“It wasn’t a question. You have to eat and then sleep. It looks like you haven’t slept all night. And you didn’t eat all day.” Brandon states.
“I’m fine.”
Jim sighs. “Alyssa, what is really going on? Did Julian-”
She abruptly turns around with crazed eyes. “I said I’m fine!” She yells at them. “I’m fine! I’m fine! I’m fine!” She repeats over and over again.
“You’re not fine and we know it.” Brandon takes a step toward her. “Tell us what’s going on. Is it Julian, is that it? What did he do to you?”
She glares at him. “He did nothing to me.”
“What happened then? Why are you acting like this?” Jim asks her.
“Acting like what? A crazed woman? Well, I am. I’m going insane so leave me alone.” She snaps before she turns her attention back to the window.
Brandon leaves the glass on her bed stand. “Give me a call when the Alyssa I know comes back.”
“This is me.” She whispers.
“No. The Alyssa I know would never be so defeated. Whatever happens to her she would put a smile and walk it off. The Alyssa that I’m looking at now is giving up. I don’t know what’s going on, but whatever it is the Alyssa I know would never give up.”
“Then you don’t know me.”
“Maybe I don’t. At least this time, text me that your jumping over a bridge. That way I will be on time to stop you before I jump after you.”
She hears the door slam.
“Alyssa. Whatever it is. You know you can always count on me. You’re not alone.”
She turns to Jim. “I’ve always been alone or left alone. I guess it’s time for you to leave.”
“Brandon is right. The Alyssa we know would never give up. It seems like you already did.” Jim doesn’t slam the door like Brandon did, but leaves her even feeling worst about everything.
She channels all her anger and frustrations and grabs the glass of water they left. She throws it across to the window. The glass shatters to the floor, and leaves cracks on the window. The two men that she thought would never leave, she drove away.
Julian walks into the spacious basement of The Jag. His thoughts are leading him to the middle of the padded mats.
“Your presence is always an honor, my king.”
“I see you have recovered.” Julian states without taking a second to actually look at the follower.
“Yes, I have. Hades had no comment to your message, my king.”
He thinks about the message he sent Hades. He is one step closer and he didn’t think that Hades would have had any comment. That is no surprise. “Well, Hades does well not to comment.”
“Do you need anything, my king?”
“Where does your loyalty stand Jag?”
“I am bonded to the underworld, my king.”
He nods. “What if I was to say that I can severe your bond to the underworld and have you bonded with me? Who would you choose, Hades or me?”
Jag nervously shallows. “Of course, my choice would be with you, my king.”
“Good to know.”
“Is there anything else I can do for you King Julian?”
“I want you, and the pests you call brothers, to clear the area. My men are surrounding the perimeter and unless you really want to meet hell in the flesh, I suggest you leave now. I want to be alone with the Proelia when she arrives. Go and torture some poor unfortunate souls.”
“I will clear the area, my king.” Jag bows down to Julian to before his departure.
He turns his back toward the door. “King Julian.” He whispers to himself. “That I am.” He smirks.
“King Julian.” He knows who it without turning around.
“Being exposed to the Immortals will be your death. You must remember that Hans.”
“I do, liege, but the Goddess insisted to see you. Should I escort her inside?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I should have known better than to think that the beloved king would ever be less dangerous. Ordering Hades’s followers and having his men give you their loyalty is a war waiting to happen.” Julian turns toward the familiar voice. Caledonia, Destroyer Goddess of the underworld, stands with her marvelous beauty. A nice her long, gold glittery dress, which matches the blonde in her hair, hugs her body tight in all the right places. Her pale golden eyes show the seductiveness she carries around her. Her smooth pale skin glows like every goddess. Such a beauty, but he finds her plain. Caledonia is what everyone would expect of a goddess. She’s beautiful, seductive, but her innocence is always questionable.
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