Dancing With Monsters

by M.M. Gavillet

April

  I wanted to see Malachi, but wasn't allowed to. I paced the floor of my gazebo-like bedroom as the rain tapped on the glass overhead. I felt I had to do something because all of this waiting and being told what to do was irritating.

  I walked over to the door and placed my hand on the silver knob. The door was made of wood with seashells embedded into it and painted white. It was a beautiful door, I thought to myself as I contemplated opening it.

  I closed my eyes and pictured Malachi in my head. I've never had much boy-girl relationships before, and now I've experienced two. Ben was nothing but spell induced, and Malachi was woven into my destiny, but was someone who was woven into your destiny supposed to give you butterflies and goose bumps in their presence? I had to know if Malachi was alright.

  I pushed the door open to find Hesediel, Seth's uncle, standing in front of me. He was a broad-shoulder man with dark eyes and greying brown hair. He was a weathered looking man, the kind that appeared bitter, but then he smiled at me. Wrinkles formed around his eyes as he gazed at me.

  "May I come in, April?" he asked as I stepped aside and closed the door with a cold look of the pale guard standing outside my door. His eyes were neon blue, and his white skin was covered with swirling marks. In his hand was a silver staff with a very pointed end. I shut the door as Hesediel stood with clasped hands in the middle of the room. Rain pattered on the ceiling and shadows flickered throughout the room.

  "May I turn on an orillion?" He pointed to the globe that sat on a small table between two chairs. He brushed his hand across the bottom as it slowly began to glow.

  Warm light began to fill the room as he turned on more orillions.

  "I haven't talked to you very much, and thought I would come by to engage in conversation with you." He sat down and motioned for me to sit as well. "That is, if you weren't going anywhere, but I don't think you'd get past the guards." He glanced towards the door.

  "No, I wouldn't, and," I shifted my eyes from him to the door. "I wanted to know if Malachi was alright."

  "He is fine-tended to him myself, and he will make a full recovery." He leaned forward resting his elbows to his knees that were covered in thick robes of dark green. "I know you had no idea any of this existed just a few weeks ago, but it is something that was planned a long time ago by your mother."

  I felt like the air had been knocked out of my lungs and I questioned even my hearing.

  "You said my mother, not Eveie who wants to be my mother?"

  "No, the one that took you to the market in Nethopania to have your hexmark uncovered, and the one that nearly died after giving you away."

  My knees began to shake as I stood hanging onto the chair and digging my fingers into the plush cushioned back.

  "You?you knew her?" I breathed.

  Hesediel looked at me with concern. "April, do sit before you fall down. I know a lot has happened to you, and I hate to bring everything down on you, but time is not on our side."

  He got up and walked towards me.

  "Please sit and I'll tell you what should have been told to you a long time ago."

  Hesediel took my hand and in the soft light of the orillions with the rain pouring down outside beating like drums on the ceiling, he began to tell me something that I craved no matter how much I tried to bury it-he told me about my mother.

  Her name was Aleena Snowbird, and she was twenty when she had me. Her family lived in the northern part of Iethia called the Crosslands, but they disowned her when she met a monster from the Borderlands. She was young and na?ve, and quickly found out that her monster lover was no monster, but a demon disguised as one. Aleena had been used and fled to Duneloc where she went to the guardians for help. Hesediel became her counselor.

  "I was with the guardians, and serving my time in the office section before I could work out in the field where I wanted to be. I thought your mother was just another stupid girl from the Crosslands who spread her legs to the first monster who promised a way out of there, but she wasn't. She told me about the demon that had tricked her and the child she carried was a mixture of monster and demon with rights placed on her unborn child. Even in our world, the idea of a demon even making it out of the shadows was farfetched. But Aleena was very convincing and accurate with the activity near the Crosslands at that time. I believed her and secretly housed her. Ayil helped deliver you when the time came, and then your mother disappeared along with you."

  I felt a mixture of emotions swirl inside of me as I looked down at the floor and the flickering shadows. "But Eveie bit me-turned me into a monster that way."

  "She bit you, but she didn't turn you into a monster, you were already one, and one that was to be used for a purpose. You were the one to free the demons from the shadows and destroy all the angels, monsters or anyone that got in the way. That was the demon's plan with you. You were to be their legs and arms in the worlds of light for them. They wanted you to be their key to unlock the door that has been shut on them for too long. And then, unexpectedly, an ignorant monster got the idea of making a serum to strengthen the race of monsters. When I heard that demons consumed it, I thought all was lost." Hesediel leaned closer with his dark, unblinking eyes focused on me. "Seth has proven he is strong with archangel abilities, but you are the key to our plan, and a place for monsters in this world."

  "But I don't know anything about this world and just learned that the darkness that has followed me was Eveie and that different realms exist. How could I be the key to your plan?"

  "It isn't your knowledge, but the power inside of you. You have the power of two demons, an unfortunate human, and a monster in you." He got up and poured two glasses of water. "Here, you look thirsty." He handed me one with a smile, and I took a small sip as he watched me with eager eyes.

  "You bear the royal hexmark, and I believe that your father was no ordinary demon, but that of royalty and power."

  I stood up and walked over to the window. Darkness was taking over the wet landscape and rain gently came down pitter-pattering on the ceiling. I closed my eyes wishing Ezra or even Ebony would speak to me, but their thoughts were silent.

  "So, what are you going to do with me?" I asked as Hesediel stood and joined me by the window.

  "For starters, I need you to kill Isaiah," he said as I looked at his stone-like expression staring into the blackened distance that was being reflected in the widow in front of me.