by Iyanna Orr
After a ten minute walk, Dane started barking and ran ahead. Neither Rory nor Chandler went after him. Dane was usually good about coming back, but the two didn’t have to worry at all. When they turned a bend in the trees, Rory’s car was being given all of the dog’s attention. It looked brand new and not even having been driven through the dirt marked its white pain. Chandler could see Rory was itching to go to it, but his friend didn’t trust those two any more than he did.
“I’m Michael. Max and I figured it was best to fix the car,” the boy said. He flickered a glance at Chandler and smirked. “Since we’re going to be spending so much time together.”
“What fun,” Rory muttered sarcastically.
“What do you mean?”
“You want to know why you are the way you are,” the girl, Max, chimed in. “We know.”
Chandler stared at her as Max looked back at him boldly. He knew that he wanted the truth, but having it come from someone who’d attacked him and Rory three days ago didn’t seem so reasonable. She could tell them whatever they wanted to hear, but there would be no solid proof to give her story any sincerity. Yet, what other choice did he have? Max obviously wasn’t human, and she already knew far more than Chandler did.
After he and Rory had exchanged glances, they all ended up inside Rory’s car, speeding back past the hotel. Chandler didn’t know if they were still heading for Rory’s’ grandparents’ house, but he obviously seemed to have a destination in mind. Rory drove, and Chandler sat in the passenger seat, keeping quiet as Max spoke. Dane had taken his space in the car and immediately fallen asleep. Max and Michael were forced to fit themselves in around the dog, which meant Dane’s head and hind legs were on their laps.
“What you are is a complicated, and very illegal. It’s called a Nephalem, born of a curse conjured between an angel and a demon. Before you even factor magic into the light and dark interaction, it is forbidden for the two to be in the same company. But when you put them together, and they find they have a similar goal in mind, monstrous things can happen. One of those things is a curse cast between them for the sole purpose of gaining something.”
“What could they have gained by making me this?” Chandler asked.
“That is what I am not sure of,” Max answered. “Angels and demons never agree on anything, which is why your existence is looked down upon by anything and everything in the universe. As of right now, you are the only one of your kind in existence. Your renewed prophecy was discovered by our mother after we were born.”
“Renewed prophecy? It existed before then?”
“Yes,” Michael cut in. “We’ve traced your prophecy back to the time when the dimensions’ greatest enemy was born. You’ve been born hundreds of times since your prophecy was first spoken, but he’s immortal, and every lifetime, he’s caught up to you one way or another.”
“Who is he?” Chandler inquired.
“There was a time when the universe believed he was a demon; one of the most powerful,” Max said. “But it was eventually discovered that he was not a demon. He’s just a man from Legacy Four. His name is Drake.”
Everything wound back to the dream. Chandler remembered the man Drake and the woman Zafrina who killed his parents. The people, or whatever they were, had raised him when they were supposed to be trying to kill him. He settled himself in the passenger seat and stared at the road as they reached the highway.
“Max,” he heard Michael mutter quietly. Chandler turned to look back at him, but he and Max were looking out the back window. Max cursed, then turned back around, closing her eyes and placing her hands on the back of Chandler’s headrest. She whispered something under her breath, enunciating the words, though he had no idea what they were.
Then the entire world started spinning out of control. A nauseating feeling crept up Chandler’s spine and settled somewhere in his stomach. He clenched his teeth together and groaned. The spinning sensation had intensified before it got better, and he was sure he’d lost consciousness for a moment.
When they stopped, they were in ruins. The car hovered inches above the ground. The nausea was passing, and Chandler stepped out of the car, managing to keep his balance. They’d all left the car by the time he made it out. Their feet hovered above the ground, and when they finally dropped, Rory stumbled off to the side and threw up behind a decimated tree. Following him was Dane, jumping out of the car and shaking himself until his fur stood on end. He paced around Rory’s feet, and Chandler turned away. All around them were fallen stone buildings and burned forestry. A road, barely visible through the debris, was the only thing that marked a trail. Small beady eyes watched them through tree limbs that animals had made their homes.
“What just happened?” Chandler asked, turning back around to look at Max. Michael was brushing the dirt off of his vest and skin. He didn’t look concerned with the car sitting in the middle of a burned forest, and Max was just staring at the space above the car.
“We had to bail,” Michael answered after he checked himself over. “We were being followed.”
“By?”
“By those things we killed outside the hotel,” he said. He glanced at Max. “Did you know they revived so soon?”
“No,” Max answered quietly. She wasn’t watching the sky anymore.
“Where are we?” Rory asked, his voice unsteady. Chandler turned, studying the forest, but Michael and Max had gone quiet, staring around and taking in the sight. There was a truth here, just like there was a new truth to his life. When it appeared that they couldn’t hear him, Rory looked at Chandler. He cleared his throat and repeated Rory’s question louder. Max jumped, whipping around. Michael took her hand and squeezed it lightly, then let it fall. Max watched Chandler, her eyes clouded.
“This is our home,” she said, and Chandler could hear the quaver in her voice. “This is where Michael and I were born.”
“What happened to it?” Max shook her head and didn’t answer, but Chandler turned his eyes to her brother. Michael gave a derisive snort.
“Depends on which version you want to hear: the short version, in which the entire attack is our fault or the long version where, again, the attack is our fault. Your pick,” he said, his jaw tight.
“I’ve got time,” he told Michael, but it was Max who answered.
“Our home, this place, isn’t like the other dimensions. It’s on Earth; in the Bermuda Triangle. People, ships, and planes go missing and are never seen again because our home is riddled with magic, and it leaks into Earth’s atmosphere. Once we discovered the deficiency, we tried to contain it, and it worked. But we cannot change what is already done, and the flaw remained. When the humans continued to land in our world, we took them in. Once they arrived, there was no way to send a human back through. Our magic became benign in their presence until we received the Elder’s advice: ‘Humans do not believe as well as one should hope, but their determination outshines it all. Give them something to protect, and they can become one of us.’
“Our humans became our allies once they realized there was no going back. They became precious and were adopted by the Elders. We learned about the Earth from them, and they learned the truth from us.
“Our world’s sudden understanding of the humans was a lifeline for us. Suddenly, our home was more alive than it had been since we settled. We began to pay attention to the stars: prophecies rose from the ground, dropped from the sky and blew through civilizations like the wind. It was the beginning of our purpose. It was thousands of years ago, but we still live by the legacy of what the Elders taught us. Of course, everything good has a consequence. At midnight, of the year 1111, on what the humans call New Year’s Eve, the last living Elder stepped onto the Earth plane to found the entire world frozen. Night wanderers were outside, unseeing and unmoving, for an entire hour. The Elders have seen it all, but the shock of what was happening because of us was too much. He came back to report to us, and he died a few hours later.”
“What do you mean
because of you?” Chandler asked. “What did your people do to cause it?”
“We are supposed to be separate. Earth was built without magic for a reason. Without magic, they’re more powerful than any species within the Downworlds. But to suddenly introduce it to them, indirectly, takes its toll on the universe. We tried to stop teaching them, to see if the world would right itself, but it didn’t, so we kept teaching them. It never got worse.
“In our world, that hour makes the entire Earth come to a standstill. We stay awake and aware. Eventually, we found out that our magic is void in those moments. We have nothing. The prophecies stop, the plane stops whispering to us, and our Elders cannot speak with us. That is why Michael and I were the abominations of our world when we were born.
“In that hour, we should not have been able to be born. We should not exist. To make it much worse, the moment we were born, a prophecy was delivered. The words could not have been simpler. ‘Three will need to survive to save them all.’
“No one knew what to make of it. We were taken away to be sent to an institution where we would grow up learning about magic, weapons, strategy, survival, and war. We learned the basics of our world; how to tune into the frequencies that are the prophecies, how to work out what they mean and how to watch the occupants so we could make sure they came true. When we turned ten, we got the first injection to prepare us for the powers we would receive when we reached a mature age. This enhanced our senses and broadened our minds so we could begin to learn the way of magic, how to grip it and how to manage it. Unfortunately, for the rest of them, this gave us the opportunity to find out why Michael and I were never allowed to have classes with the other children.
“We found the prophecy faster than we thought we would because it was hidden in plain sight. It had been written on the tomb of our ancestors for years. We would often visit, simply because our mother had died days after we were taken from her. The peacekeepers caught us there, hiding, doing our best to find out what the words meant.
“We were taken to the council, a group of thirteen leaders who kept the peace. It is said that the council embodied the spirits of the Elders, but we never believed it, as we saw all for what it really was. Twelve of them were simply corrupt, drawn in by the promise of more magic, but the last was different. There was a spirit with him, but it was not one of the Elders, and it certainly wasn’t good.” Max’s eyebrows furrowed as she lifted her head. Her mouth was drawn down into a frown, and her eyes flickered back and forth, seeing everything.
“What?” Michael asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she replied after a hesitant moment. She cleared her throat and continued, but Chandler noticed she was still scanning the trees. “The council believed Michael and I were more trouble than they thought should exist in Monsil. Prophecy aside, we saw everything, and they were afraid we would expose them for the frauds they were. A few days before Monsil was destroyed, we were being packed away, hidden in the council chambers until they could find an inconspicuous way to get us somewhere else.
“We were ready to leave the day everyone was attacked. We were on the ship, and it was only a few moments until our birthday. Our powers were going to come soon, and they wanted us gone as fast as possible. We were taking off when the entirety of Monsil was engulfed in black smoke. There was no warning… it simply appeared. Our plane was trying to land; I could see it. It was on auto-pilot, seeing as there was no one who felt they should leave their home because of two teenagers. I switched to manual and tried to fly the plane away.” She cleared her throat heavily and leaned against her brother for support, still gazing into the trees.
“It was then that our powers came, at least, mine did. We were both in that plane; both so very vulnerable to anything that might come our way, but it was me that felt like my brain was melting from my mouth, my eyes, my ears. I’m not sure how we got out of there because I passed out. I know Michael would have been too worried about me to try to control it,” she said, turning her eyes to me finally. “Someone wanted us to live.”
“Who?” Chandler asked, but she never answered. She was back to watching the trees, her eyes wide and her hands fluttering around her. There was an unvoiced question between Rory, Michael, and Chandler, but Max heard it loud and clear.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” she whispered. “Someone’s here.” Just then, Dane began growling. He was standing frozen, ears swiveling this way and that as he listened. He stepped closer to the trees that surrounded them.
“What’s going on?” Rory asked, taking a step back. His eyes were traveling from Dane to Chandler to Max. Chandler moved closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He’d gotten Rory into this, if inadvertently, and he wasn’t about to let him get hurt. Rory was still watching Max, but Chandler’s eyes were on the trees as well because he knew exactly what she was talking about. His hand tensed, and he pushed Rory hard in a direction that was clear of our hunters. Dane’s growl erupted into a harsh barking that echoed back to them.
The forest around us exploded. Soldiers wearing thick, black armor ran forward and grabbed hold of them. One had Chandler’s arms pinned to his back, and as other came forward, he used the leverage to raise himself from the ground, kicking the soldiers in front of him in the chest. The soldier stumbled back, but he was back on his feet quickly. When he went for Chandler again, he smashed his shield into Chandler’s ankles. He felt the bone snap in two, beginning to heal almost immediate, the bone being set in the wrong place. Rory stumbled into the trees, falling over Dane and roots that had broken the ground. The soldiers were ignoring them, focusing on getting hold of Michael, Max, and Chandler.
“Get out of here!” Chandler yelled, and a hand clamped over his mouth. He growled into the gloved hand as he watched Rory turn and run, looking back every few seconds, with Dane on his heels. When he and the dog vanished, Chandler pried open his mouth as wide as he could and closed, biting through fabric, skin and eventually, sinking through flesh and muscle. The soldier screamed, drawing Max and Michael’s attention. Chandler could see them fighting back to back. They kept looking at him, but they were going in the direction that Rory had run. If they would’ve come back for him, they would be captured too. Chandler watched them go with a sense of foreboding. He could tell they weren’t leaving him; not yet. They would probably try to find Rory and then back to find him. As they disappeared into the surrounding forestry, Chandler felt the hilt of a sword slam into his skull, and all was dark before he hit the ground.
Chandler woke with a gasp, sitting up straight on the uncomfortable bed. He was staring at a stone wall that held a single window with crossed bars covering it. He turned and put his feet on the floor, bracing himself on the bedpost as he remembered his ankle. When he looked down at it, it was twisted to the side and angled so that it wouldn’t have lain flat on the floor had he tried. When he tried to stretch his wings, he found that they were bound to his back and no matter of maneuvering would get them loose.
There was food on the floor some distance away, set up on a thick metal plate. Chandler scooted down onto the floor, ignoring his complaining ankle, and grabbed the plate. He dumped the bread and berries onto the floor. Chandler took off his shirt and wrapped the plate in it, then put both between his teeth and bit down. His teeth sunk in, and he clamped his lips down on the texture material of his shirt. When it was secured, he closed his eyes and grasped his ankle between his hands. Taking a deep breath, he counted to three, and then jerked his wrists.
The sound of the bone breaking again echoed in the cell, and no doubt carried to the guard, but Chandler couldn’t bring himself to care as his eyed widened, and tears welled as a muffled groan slipped through. He blinked away the tears as he heard footsteps, but ignored them as he looked down at his leg. He gazed intensely at the limb until he found his vision flickering before it settled, and he could see the broken bone in his ankle. He shoved the two pieces together and carefully aligned the jagged pieces back into place. He sat u
nsteadily, tears streaming unhindered over his face, and holding tightly as the bone healed again. When Chandler blinked, clearing his vision, all he saw was the bruised skin where his hands had gripped too firmly. He set his leg down and stood carefully, gently applying pressure.
Chandler sighed in relief when there was no pain. He dropped back into his uncomfortable bed — cot, he noted a moment later — then looked over to the door, where two guards stood watching him.
“Problem?” he asked, and the exhaustion in his voice was palpable. They only watched him for another long second before they turned around and station themselves outside the door. Chandler closed his eyes and collapsed back onto the bed, asleep before his head made contact.
Chandler was standing in a different cell. The bars in front of him were made of bone and tied together with thick ropes. Moss grew carelessly on them as the dirt floor emitted a smell of decay. He turned around, and there was a cot, stuffed with what looked like hay. It rested on the floor, pulled as far away as it could get from the chamber pot in the other corner of the room.
Sitting on it was a man. His hair and beard were overgrown. The hair covered most of his face, but what you could see of his skin was dirty and peeling. His eyes were flickering restlessly behind his eyelids, and his mouth was moving fast, uttering words Chandler couldn’t hear.
When his eyes opened, he took a step back and stared. The eyes were completely white; the irises and pupils gone. Chandler thought he recognized those eyes, but he couldn’t recall where he’d seen them. He wasn’t sure if the man was looking at him, but he knew for certain that the man knew he was there. He felt the magic as it began to fade. It leaked from every stone and blew past the cell bars. The man’s breathing grew ragged and broken as he wheezed.