The Lost Daughter: Hells Hallow Book One

by Bo Reid

  “We didn’t want anyone to panic, so we just took care of it,” Javaraya says.

  “No, you swept it under the rug because they’re your demons,” Arius counters, his voice laced with anger.

  “Like you’ve never swept anything under the rug before,” Kalayavan huffs.

  “I’ve never had half my people go into hysterics and decide to stake them and not fucking say anything.”

  “Okay, enough!” I yell, reaching my fingers up to rub away the headache forming in my temples. “For Hells’ sake how do you get anything done around here if you’re always at each other’s throats?” I grumble, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. “Look, we have work to do, there is no point in arguing over something that has already been said and done. They can’t go back and change what they did, so move on,” I growl.

  “Now, does anyone else have records starting from twenty-six years ago, approximately,” I ask, looking around the cabin. I eye each of their bags, sacks, and piles of journals that they subtly pull closer to themselves. “Fucking awesome, no one’s in the mood for sharing I see,” I grumble.

  “You seem to know more about whatever's going on than we all do, why don’t you start talking, and we’ll fill in the blanks,” Ajal offers. I narrow my eyes at him.

  “Fine,” I grit, slamming my hands down on the table in front of me and pushing myself to stand. “You want the truth? All of it?” I ask, and they all collectively nod.

  My head is starting to pound, my pulse is quickening, and I can feel my hands start to shake slightly. But Father said to tell the whole truth; Johnathan, Daniel and Mel, all agree with the truth. So here’s the fucking truth, every harsh word of it.

  “My mother was Khalida Morass, her name meant deathless, and she got that name because she was well over two thousand years old. I’m sure Javaraya has a copy of the coven tree. My father was Azrail.” A few hushed murmurs and what the fuck’s sound throughout the room. “He was the original Angel of Death. I have no fucking clue what we are going up against. I don’t know if we have the power to bring this thing down but I know my coven thought we would, and I have to trust that they knew what they were doing. When I was a baby, my coven stripped their powers, all of their powers. They gave them to me, but you cannot strip a witch of their powers, it’s as much a part of them as their blood. Take it and they die; they died for me. I have all their power. I have the power of eleven coven members, one angel of death, and what I was born with.” I stop, planting my hands on my hips. “The purest dark bloodline the realms have ever had, that’s what I was born with. Questions so far?” I snap.

  “How did you get our powers, and what do you have?” Dearil asks.

  “The Devil’s fire, I don’t know why mine is blue and not red, Deimos thought it might have to do with my bloodline and the original power I was born with.”

  “Who’s Deimos?” Ernesh asks.

  “Friend of the coven, he taught me how to control my powers when they came in. Anyways, I also have the call of the siren, my hearing, sight, and smell are all elevated thanks to vampires and werewolves. Lightning obviously comes from the dragons; again, don’t know why mine’s purple, just seems to be my color. And I can do this,” I say a moment before I glamour into another form; the female form I created to go into town before I wanted others to know I was here.

  “I fucking knew it!” Kalavayan growls.

  “Oh, shut up, you did not,” I say, rolling my eyes and transforming back into myself.

  “What about the healing thing?” Arius nods towards my hands.

  “That, I really don’t know. I thought it probably came from a white witch.”

  “How did you get all these extra powers?” Javaraya asks, fully knowing the answer already.

  “Mostly in the same way I got my coven’s powers, except they stole these long before giving them to me,” I say, moving my hand up and flashing a bit of blue fire across my hand.

  “So they killed beings, took their powers, and then gave them to you?” Ajal asks, and I can sense the venom in his tone. I can hear the way his heart rate picks up, and the slight growl under his breath. “Aren’t you one lucky little witch?”

  I narrow my eyes at him. “You think I wanted this? You think I fucking asked for this? I fucking didn’t, I didn’t ask for any of this shit. I was fine, fucking fine up until seven years ago. Then bam, it’s sorry, Tanda, I know we have looked after you and treated you like family for your entire fucking life, but you’re actually a dark witch. And you’re evil, and your real family was evil, and get the fuck out becuase it's not safe for us if you’re fucking here!” I scream, throwing my hands up in the air. My chest is heaving, and I’m attempting to calm my racing heart but I can’t. As I look at the others, they’re all leaned back on the couches. Shocked expressions on their faces.

  “What?” I hiss. “Never seen a witch get angry before?”

  “Babe…” Arius whispers. “Maybe make the flame go away, it’s… a bit warm in here.” He motions to my hands, and when I bring them to my face, I see the purple flames, but they’re not as they usually are. They coat my arms to my elbows, and the flames spread off my hands eighteen inches.

  I bring my hands in front of me, lacing my fingers together as I take several deep breaths. Closing my eyes, I will the flames to disappear, calling them back into my body. When I open my eyes again, the flames are gone, but the men in my house are still staring at me as if I have grown an extra head.

  “I just have one question,” Javaraya starts, and I warily look over at him. “If you got all these powers because your coven killed the beings that possessed them originally, how do you have that one?” he asks, motioning to where the flames have disappeared from my hands.

  “I told you, I don’t know,” I whisper, leaning against the fireplace and sinking down to the floor. I let my hands lay lifeless besides me. I’m just tired, beyond fucking tired.

  “I think we can be done for today,” Arius says.

  “No, we’re not fucking done,” I growl, my eyes snapping to meet his. “Not even close.”

  “Bonding,” Dearil says. “What is it, and why do we need to do it?” he asks.

  “Bonding shares our powers,” I say.

  “Again, why would we need to, or even want to do that?” he asks.

  “Every power of yours that I have, if we bonded, yours would get amplified too. Think of it like connecting multiple batteries, or engines, to a single object to power it. The object gets more juice and runs better, only I’m the juice, and you all are the objects needing to be powered. I power all of you.”

  “And how does bonding work, does that contract really do it? ’Cause that seems a bit simple to me,” Ernesh adds.

  “No,” I state, my tone flat, emotionless.

  “No?” Javaraya asks. “Pretty sure just last night you said you didn’t know.”

  “Yeah, well, last night I lied,” I huff.

  “So you lied last night when we were having a little heart-to-heart. So why should we trust anything you have to say right now?” he grits.

  “You trust me or you don’t, it’s your call. You don’t trust me, we die. You do trust me, and Hell, we might still die.” I shrug my shoulders.

  “You instill so much confidence,” Dearil deadpans.

  “What can I say, I’m a ray of fucking sunshine on a cloudy day,” I say sarcastically.

  “Okay, let’s just get on with it. What do we have to do to bond?” Ernesh asks.

  “Fall in love.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Ernesh

  “Could you repeat that?” I ask.

  “Fall in love,” Tanda says so flatly I don’t think she can even believe the words that are coming out of her very mouth. We’re all silent for several moments, the creaks of an old cabin the only real sounds emanating around us. Until Ajal bursts out into laughter. Full on belly laughter as he doubles over, holding his side and attempting to catch his breath.

  “Oh, Hell,
that's perfect, fucking perfect,” he laughs, barely able to breathe.

  Tanda just stares at him, no emotion crossing her face. She doesn’t move a single muscle as she watches Ajal.

  “I’m fucking matched with my own kind already, what am I supposed to do? Tell the woman I’ve been with for fifteen years ‘sorry, babe, I know we’ve been together half our fucking lives, and you’ve been matched to me already so no one else can fucking touch you, ever. But I gotta go fall in love with a fucking witch, later.’ Yeah, that’s going to go over real fucking well,” he huffs. I turn my attention to Tanda who just continues to study each of us in silence.

  “I didn’t make the rules, and I didn’t ask for this,” she finally whispers before standing up and walking across the room. No one says anything as we watch her walk outside. “You can show yourselves out,” she calls over her shoulder a moment before the back door slams shut.

  I reach out and punch Ajal in the shoulder before sinking down onto the couch and huffing my irritation.

  “What the fuck?” he growls.

  “You could have handled that better,” Javaraya states.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, mister forever bachelor. What was I supposed to do? Go oh goodie, I get to bond and fall in love with a witch, my lucky fucking day!” Ajal yells in a fake chipper tone, begging to be punched again. “Our lives don’t work that way, and you fucking know it; you get to be with whoever you want, well good for you. Demons get to be with whoever they fucking want, whatever, dilute the bloodline. Witches? They already do whatever and whoever they fucking want, so this is no big thing for her. But for us?” He motions to the rest of us. “It doesn’t work that way. My kind are matched at birth, Javaraya, you know this. I don’t get to fucking pick; I don’t have that choice. Dearil, when was the last time a siren married a land dweller?” he asks.

  “I can’t think of anyone. We all sleep around but marriage? Not really a thing, we would be forever forced to live on land, and that doesn’t work well for us,” Dearil says.

  “Arius, last time one of your vampires married, oh, I don't know, say, a bear shifter?”

  “Never,” he grumbles.

  “And Ernesh,” he starts, and I hold my hand up to stop him.

  “We get your point,” I grumble. “That doesn’t mean you had to be an asshole.”

  “You’re right, next time, I’ll fall to my knees and present her with a fucking ring,” he deadpans. “I’m fucking out of here.” He stands, walking towards the door. “My territory records are in the bag; she can have them. If you all figure out another way to finish whatever this is, I’m all in for a good fight. But love is off the table.” He wrenches open the door and stalks outside, slamming it closed behind him.

  “I say that went well,” I grumble.

  “He had good points,” Dearil mumbles slightly under his breath.

  “We don’t even know if she is telling the truth,” Kalayavan argues.

  I lean forward picking up a small leather-bound journal and flipping the pages. Most are blank except the first two. There is a note written to Tanda from what looks like her father. The next page is in the same handwriting, but it reads like a one sided conversation. I drown out the noise around me as I read the brief passage. I’m nearly to the bottom when the book is ripped from my hands. When I look up, no one else has it; I glance around the room and see Tanda standing in the doorway to the back of the cabin. Her eyes are glowing a vibrant shade of purple, and she is clutching the book tightly to her chest.

  I slowly stand, putting my hands out in a means of surrender, trying to placate her. A breeze picks up inside the cabin, rustling the pages on the coffee table, Tanda’s hair whips around her face as she raises her free hand and points to the door.

  “Get. Out,” she growls, her tone coming out deep, dark, and demonic. It’s as if she’s possessed.

  “Tanda…” I start slowly. “I didn’t mean to read it.”

  “But you did,” she growls. Her hand is shaking, the wind inside the room picks up and nearly knocks me on my ass. But I’m a fucking dragon, and it’s going to take more than a little wind to push me out.

  “I’m sorry,” I tell her, moving around the couch, slowly making my way towards her.

  “Save it,” she says, her voice eerily void of emotions.

  “I believe you, okay? I believe you,” I say softly as I approach her. Suddenly the wind stops, all the papers that were flying through the air suddenly fall to the ground and she blinks her eyes till they are no longer glowing. Allowing me to step up to her, I tentatively reach out and graze my hand along her arm.

  “What did you say?” she whispers as she looks up at me.

  “I said, I believe you.” I watch as her eyes start to fill with tears, but she quickly blinks them away. “But that still leaves us with unsolved issues, like the fact that you can’t make someone fall in love with you, not if it has to be true. And how are you going to love each of us?”

  “I know. I get it.” She nods her head. “If I knew any other way, trust me, that’s what I would be doing.” She looks down at the book she still clutches in her hands. Peering around me she says. “When I said I wasn’t sure if the contract would work or not, that was half true. When I found out the key to bonding they set in place was true love, I tried to find alternatives. The contract was the closest thing I could find to something that might work.”

  “So there might be another way?” Kalayavan asks.

  She shrugs her shoulders. “I’m open to suggestions.”

  “Why don’t we all take some time, go home, and try to think of other ways we might be able to create the needed bond. We’ll hold a council meeting in a few days and bring to the table whatever we figure out,” I suggest.

  Everyone nods their heads, standing from their places and heading for the door. I look down at Tanda, and for the first time, I think I see the real her. The girl underneath the witch exterior, the woman just trying to do what she has to in order to clean up a mess that isn’t hers.

  “We’ll figure it out,” I whisper to her, and she just nods her head.

  I turn to walk out the door with the others, when I just barely catch her whisper. “I wouldn’t want to love me either.”

  My step falters, I turn and glance over my shoulder at her, but she’s not focused on me. She’s just staring down at the journal in her hands, and instead of doing what I should do. Instead of turning around and trying to comfort her, I walk away.

  Grandfather would be disappointed.

  “You did something stupid,” I hear my grandfather grumble as he walks out onto my balcony.

  “When don’t I?” I joke, but it falls flat, much like my mood since we left the Forbidden Forest. My grandfather just stares at me in silence, doing that thing he has always done. You know the thing where someone just stares at you, expressionless, in order to get you to start talking? Yeah, well, I hate that thing.

  “You knew, didn’t you?” I ask him.

  “Knew what?” He turns to stare out at the land that our large castle home overlooks.

  “Everything.”

  “I had my suspicions.” He shrugs.

  I snort. “Right. You knew what they did to her, didn’t you?” I ask.

  “Truly it wasn’t that hard to guess, not many things in this world could have taken them down. And nothing but a willing sacrifice could have done it in that short of a timeframe; I have suspected for many years they sacrificed themselves for her.”

  “Did you know about the bonds?” I ask softly.

  “Once she came back, I guessed that much.”

  “How did you know when she was back? The night she came here, you said that the Lost Daughter had returned. How did you know?”

  I catch the slight upturn of his lip as he tries to hide his smirk. “The purple lightning, it wasn’t hard to deduce that she had come home.”

  “How did you know about the bonds? Is there any other way?” I ask softly.

  “No, son, not with wh
at I’m sure her mother did. A true love bond is the strongest, most unbreakable form of magic. With the power they gave her, they needed to ensure there would one day be an unbreakable way for her to share the burden of that power.”

  “Burden?” I ask.

  He looks at me, a grim expression on his face, and his eyes begin to fill with tears. “It’s killing her, son. She’ll never admit it because she is a Morass witch to her very core, stubborn as all Hell. But she was not meant to carry the weight of those powers, and she cannot sustain them for much longer,” he says softly.

  “How long have you known about all of this?” I demand. “We need to help her!”

  “You need to love her.”

  He turns and walks back inside, leaving me with a war in my head. You cannot simply force someone to truly love another person. And just because you love someone doesn’t mean they will love you back. How is she supposed to love us all? Does it need to be true romantic love? Or is loving someone like family, like friends, the same thing if it's true?

  If we did fall in love with her, and if she did fall in love with each of us. If our bonds were solid, and we managed to win whatever war is coming, then what?

  What do we do after that? Are we together? Are we not? Does she pick one of us to stay with? Do we all go our separate ways?

  There are too many questions, and far too many of those questions are unanswered.

  Getting the truth was supposed to clear things up, instead it just muddied the waters.

  “Do you know what's coming?” I yell, turning around, I watch my grandfather’s step falter slightly.

  “No, only that we cannot face it alone.”

  Tanda

  “May I come in?” I hear a deep voice call. I glance around my back yard and catch the eye of an older man just beyond my barrier. I get up from my place on the grass and walk over to him.

  I cock my head to the side and study him. He appears to be in his late fifties, with a salt and pepper beard. But his large stature and brawny muscles tell me he has spent years flying in the sky.