“Dragontear…” he said breathlessly. He was beside her then, the fire around them simmering down to nothing. The ground stopped rumbling and the lava disappeared almost instantaneously. His eyes returned to a dull blue, a bright red rim around the iris fading to nothing. “Why did you bring her out here? She could have been hurt.”
“She brought herself out here, through me,” the vision said.
Lana’s chest rose and fell, her eyes no longer moving rapidly. Instead, she blinked, inhaling deeply when she opened her eyes. The White Dragontear disappeared when she saw Aiden leaning over her. An image of a man with blood-red eyes surrounded by fire flashed in her mind, causing her to look away from him.
“Lana,” Aiden’s voice was soft, his hand on her cheek smooth when he touched her. “Don’t be afraid, everything is going to be alright.”
“I saw fire, a monster. Aiden, where are we?” she asked, tears falling from her eyes. He picked her up, her arms wrapped around his neck.
He didn’t speak, only walked through the forest, making no attempt to stop when he heard twigs crunching in the distance or wolves howling at the moon on the mountain. The figure appeared and disappeared when he walked past her.
“Aiden? Did you see that?” Lana asked. When the figure appeared again she asked him to stop. “Do you see her?”
“Your mind is playing tricks on you, Lana. I need to get you home so you can sleep; you’ve had a rough night,” Aiden said, pulling her away from the figure.
“You won’t tell her you can see me too,” he heard in his head. Aiden shook the voice away.
“I’m not crazy,” Lana said softly. “I know what I saw.”
“Fine, I will.” The figure morphed inside Lana’s body, visions of another world passing through her mind. Lana saw a black-haired woman with bright green eyes holding hands with a brown-haired man dressed in armor. The woman wore a red dress, laced down the back with black velvet and had her hair braided with ribbons interlaced within the braid.
They were beneath a cherry blossom tree in full bloom, bushels of pink and white flowers looming above their heads. The couple was in love, they danced beneath the tree before screams echoed through the valley. The soldier released her hand, drawing his sword before heading back to the castle. She took his hand, spun him around to face her.
“I’m sorry, Aiden,” Lana heard the girl say. Her eyes became large spheres, fingernails turned into sharp claws and fangs dropped from her gums. She slashed her hand across his armored chest, the plate of metal falling in pieces to the ground. His chest began to bleed and she slashed his face. He fell unconscious before she left him lying on the ground beneath the tree, the petals of the flowers falling all around him like snowflakes.
Aiden laid Lana on the ground, placing his hand on her chest. Whispering into her ear, a bright blue film surrounded his hand as he pulled it away. The blue aura turned into flames when he clenched his hand into a fist and slammed it into the ground. Light gray dust spread around his hand and the voices and visions stopped. Tears stained his cheeks and his hands when he placed his face in them, sobbing.
“Aiden? Lana?” Dimitri said, leaning next to the girl in white. “Aiden what happened?”
“Essi…Leressi…” he sobbed. “Leressi.”
Dimitri picked Lana up, the three of them disappearing in a rainbow of fog.
Chapter 19
Dimitri placed Lana on the bed, pulling the sheets to her chest. She opened her eyes slowly, the image of the Fury beside her blurry.
“Where am I?” she asked softly, her voice raspy.
“You’re safe now,” Dimitri said. He sat on the edge of the bed, Lana sliding to the side so he had more room to sit.
“I remember you, you saved me,” Lana said, her memories of him foggy. “What happened?”
“Many years ago, yes, I did,” he said. He twisted the ring around his finger, its emerald stone glimmering in the candlelight. “Members of the Darkness have found you, Lana. We intercepted them at the carnival grounds and put two of them down, but they will return again.”
Her skin paled and her eyes drooped from the weight of exhaustion. “Where’s Rae? I need to see her.”
Dimitri placed the palm of his hand against her cheek, stroking the skin with his thumb. Her shoulders sunk into the pillows, her body falling heavy against the mattress. With a single stroke, she fell asleep, a deep sleep she needed.
“We move in the morning, but for now, rest, my dear Candra,” Dimitri whispered.
~
Small luggage piled up on the couch, Dimitri and Terra speaking in low tones while Wiley and EJ grabbed what they needed from the clubhouse. Their Diviners huddled in a recliner, grabbing at each other’s hair and whispering with their high-pitched frequencies the Furies could never hear.
Out on the balcony, Micah and Christine stood close, leaning against the railing that burned and overgrew the night before.
“So, you know these guys pretty well?” Micah asked, his green eyes gazing over the ash created by Aiden’s temper tantrum.
“Not really,” she said, looking at him. “They keep me in the dark on a lot of things.”
“Then why do you stick around?” he asked, meeting her gaze.
“They need me, I’m their Seer,” Christine answered. Micah’s reaction to the word ‘seer’ made her smile.
“So, you’re a fortune teller, that’s handy,” Micah said. Christine didn’t find it amusing; instead, she greeted him with a punch to the stomach. “How accurate are your visions?” he asked, rather strained.
“Not very… I see bits and pieces of what is going to happen,” she said, a tinge of sadness in her voice. “I knew something bad would happen last night, and I warned Aiden, but most of the time I don’t know when something is going to happen, it just does.”
Christine turned and walked toward the sliding doors, memories of the past flooding her mind. She placed her hand on the glass, a sharp pain between her eyes stopping her from opening it. It started at the top of her nose, in between her eyebrows and moved its way up her forehead and around the curve of her skull to the back of her neck. She placed her free hand at the base of her neck, digging her nails into the skin. Clenching her teeth, she screamed, Micah placing his hands on her shoulders to steady her.
The tan brunette rocked herself back and forth, her hands covering her ears. Her head was tucked into her chest as she mumbled words Micah could barely hear.
“Don’t take me back, don’t take me back,” Christine whispered. The Diviners and Furies stood on the other side of the glass doors, staring at the Seer tucked into the fetal position.
Micah placed his hand on her shoulder, grabbing one of her wrists. He brought his face closer to her ear to whisper but was greeted with sharp nails slashing his right cheek open. Her eyes were red with tears, her cheeks sticky with the liquid.
“I’m not crazy, don’t send me back there,” she said, sobbing. Turning around, she stared at the others staring back at her. “I’m not crazy, don’t send me back there!”
She turned and ran, jumping off the balcony. After landing on her feet, agile like a cat, Christine continued running into the woods, leaving everything behind. She didn’t look back, not at Micah, Dimitri, EJ, or the house. Instead, she looked forward, through the ash Aiden created, through the gashes in the mountainside. She could never understand her power, or what she was, and knew neither could the Furies. She had given them the time they asked her for, and there was no more left. She needed answers, needed to know what she was, and why she was made.
A wave of warmth went through her, and she noticed she was not running through the forest any longer, but through a grass field. Daisies and Dandelions blew in the wind, their fragrance filling her nose. She stopped, breathing in the sweet scent. Although it brought back a sad and terrifying memory, she turned around, and stared at her childhood home.
The house was distressed, its baseboards rotted and old. The weeping willow beside the hou
se slumped, its branches reaching the ground, brittle and broken. The paint on the wooden siding was so badly chipped, the color was unrecognizable. With the front door hanging off its hinges, the windows had been broken as if someone threw bricks through them. This wasn’t the house she remembered leaving with her mother.
Christine stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking through the doorway. Inside the house was dark; she couldn’t make out any furniture. Taking the first step of the stairs, the wood splintered beneath her foot. The second wooden board broke in half, trapping her ankle between the ragged wood pieces. Her hands met the porch hard. She thought she saw movement in the home, and the sound of footsteps and old boards creaking. Before she could get her foot free, the barrel of a shotgun was touching her forehead.
“Get on up, all slow-like,” said a man with a southern accent. She did as he said, standing tall after getting her foot unstuck.
He kept the gun pointed at her, his green eyes looking her up and down. “Who are you?”
Christine didn’t answer. The man cocked the shotgun, placing his finger on the trigger.
“Who. Are. You?” he repeated slowly.
“Your daughter,” she said. “It’s Christine. Don’t you remember me?”
He blinked and put the gun to his side, stepping closer to her. She sighed, smiling. The man grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her into the house. Instead of a living room, the doorway led straight to the basement where Christine could smell decay. She tried to get free but he only gripped her neck, pushing her head toward the ground.
The shotgun clanked on a metal table, bleach and alcohol burning her nose hairs. The man placed his arm behind her knees, cradling her in his arms before placing her in a chair she recognized as one she’d sat in at a dentist’s office. This one had been modified though with clamps at one end for her ankles and in the middle for her wrists.
The bloodstained metal clamps had sharp studs in them that dug into her skin when the man clamped each one onto her ankles. When he started tightening the clamps, she screamed. This alarmed the man, causing him to slam her head into the headrest of the chair. A leather strap greeted her forehead, fastening close to her right ear. All that was free were her hands now, which he proceeded to secure.
She could feel wet liquid rolling down her cheeks. “Why are you doing this?”
“Yer a monster,” he said. “Ye deserve ta die.”
“Is this what you did to mom? Strap her to a table thinking she was a monster?” Christine asked. “How could you do that to someone you claimed to love?”
The clamp for her left wrist had rusted nails on the inside, digging into her skin through the tissue and bone when he fastened the clamp. The other clamp came last, making her scream once more. She tried to fight against him but she had no true power.
C’mon, c’mon please show me something, she thought.
A searing pain started between her eyebrows, rolling up her forehead and around her skull to the base of her neck. Christine saw a bright white light, the man with a surgical saw in hand. He was laughing maniacally, her scared reflection in his protective glasses.
The man stopped laughing, looking down at his feet. She couldn’t move, and she saw a blue light fill the room.
When she came back to reality, she saw the man staring at her, a surgical saw in hand. He started laughing like in her vision and she thrashed in the bindings, trying to free herself. She knew it was no use but also knew there wasn’t long before someone came for her. The bright light was over her, illuminating her upper torso.
Christine could hear running water like a river in the distance. The man stopped laughing, looking down at his feet. When he lifted his leg and put it down, she heard a splash. She started screaming, the man lifting the saw above his head.
“She’s down there!” she heard. The water started filling the room, like a dam had been open, releasing gallons upon gallons of water into the tiny space. Christine held her breath, watching the man panic. The water was up to her head, then to the lamp two feet above her face. When the man started to float, a hand grabbed at his bicep, pulling him down.
She saw a black-headed man with a ragged-edged dagger in hand spin the man she once remembered as her father around to face him. He plunged the dagger through the man’s heart, turning the water a bright red. The water drained out of the room then, making small puddles on the ground.
“You’re safe now, Christine, I’ve got you,” Wiley said. Micah was beside her then opposite the Fury, aiding in the removal of the studded bindings. “Never run away again, do you understand?”
She nodded, coughing when the men broke the clamps securing her to the chair. They distracted her from the pain. Once she was free, the three retreated from the rank room in a blue translucent haze.
Chapter 20
Wiley placed Christine on the couch, Naida kneeling beside him. She placed her left hand on Christine’s forehead, and her right over her heart. Closing her eyes, her hands began to glow a dull blue hue, sinking beneath the skin. The puncture wounds on Christine’s wrists and ankles began to glow as well, healing from the inside out. Light pink scars lined her skin where the wounds were moments before.
When she woke, she saw each Fury lining the wall in front of her, their Diviners next to them and the pile of luggage, unmoved from where it had been before she left.
“Why haven’t you all left yet?” she asked.
“We couldn’t leave you behind,” Micah said.
Dimitri waved them all to gather around him. “Everyone, please take the hands of those on either side of you.”
They all held hands until the group stood in a circle around the luggage. Closing his eyes, he saw a room with salmon-colored wallpaper, a border of yellow and green butterflies close to the ceiling and tall bookshelves. There was a table in the center of the room stacked with various pages and scrolls. Chairs littered the room, some standing upright and some on their side. Large bay windows had their curtains drawn, so the only light coming into the room came from the chandelier attached to the vaulted ceiling.
He then pictured them all within the room, standing next to the table. One by one they released their grips on one another, and Micah led Christine to a red velvet divan in the corner of the room next to a high bay window.
“What is this place?” Rae said.
“Follow me, and I’ll show you,” Terra said.
Large doors opened wide, banging against the wall. A tall man with salt and pepper hair to his shoulders stood in the doorway, two young women by his side. He wore a gray suit with a red and black paisley tie. The woman to his left was a short blonde with one brown and one green eye. Her pencil skirt came to her knees and her crimson heels made her as tall as the man’s shoulders. The girl on his right was a mousy brunette with large round glasses, a notebook, and pencil clutched to her chest.
The man spoke first, his eyes locked on Dimitri. “I’m sorry. I didn’t authorize your visit.”
“We needed a safe place to stay, and this was the only place safe enough for us to come,” Dimitri said.
“You say that like I’m going to let you and your…friends stay here, Fury,” the man said, scrunching his nose.
“Benedict, we don’t have the time to stew over the past,” Dimitri said. “This world is in danger, and if we don’t do something about it, innocent people will die. And the people you are trying to protect will as well.”
The short blonde girl took a step forward and another until she was face to face with Dimitri. Tilting her head to the right, she looked him over. The blond of his hair was beginning to fade, the signs of aging showing at the roots. Although she was never taught in depth about the Furies, she knew the ones who existed never aged or showed signs of aging unless times of distress were upon them.
“Tell me Fury, what is coming?” He heard in his head.
Dimitri instead placed a single finger to her temple, providing her with a vision of the Darkness at the carnival. He took the memor
y from Lana, the battle she fought with Rayaz and the final moment when Aiden caught her before the Dark apprentice burst into flames.
She took a few steps back, turning to speak with her master.
“So, you’re telling me the Darkness has made its way to this world?” he said, chuckling. “And why are you bringing this plague to my Academy?”
“This conversation is better had behind closed doors,” Dimitri stated.
Benedict looked from the line of Furies and Diviners to Micah and Christine in the corner and back. He pursed his lips, knowing he couldn’t argue with Dimitri.
“Girls, stay here and make sure none of them touch anything,” he said finally.
Dimitri turned to EJ, leaning close to speak with him. “Head back to the house, bring Lana and Elijah with you.”
“What about Aiden?” he asked.
Dimitri closed his eyes, knowing he was only keeping Benedict waiting and impatient. “I’m more worried about getting Lana here than I am about Aiden. If he has his head on straight, he’ll find us. Hurry, Benedict will need convincing and she’s our only hope right now.”
EJ and Era left for the clubhouse while Dimitri followed Benedict out of the large study. The doors closed behind them, leaving his apprentices with their guests.
“Past aside, I didn’t know where else to turn, Benedict,” Dimitri said.
“You can’t expect me to say yes, regardless of what you throw in front of me,” Benedict responded. “This place is a sanctuary, a temple for people like us who are not accepted in the human world. And you’re insulting what I’ve built by even being here.”
He turned to face Dimitri, stopping in the middle of the hallway. “I’m sorry Benedict but we need this sanctuary as much as you do if not more.”
“And why is that?” Benedict asked.
“Do you remember when we first met? Somehow, we managed to find this place after everything crumbled and fell apart. Do you remember what we told you?”
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