by Celeste Raye
“Come in, Stephen. I was wondering when you were going to show up. It’s nice to have someone of your pure bloodline here. Mother will have fun watching you die.”
He stopped at the doorway and looked in. He saw Calypso, and even though the witch promised sure death, he knew that there was nowhere else that he would rather be. He wanted to be there with her, the one he loved.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint Mother.”
“Stephen, no! Just leave!”
Calypso was sitting in a chair; it looked like she wanted to get out of it but couldn’t. He could see her thrashing around, and as much as he wanted to help her, he knew that he couldn’t. He had to play it cool and try to get a read on the situation.
“I can’t leave you here, Calypso.”
“See, Calypso, I told you that he would be here soon. Ye of little faith.”
Calypso gave Stephen a dirty look, and he tried to calm her with his eyes, but there was no doing that now. She was furious, and he knew that she was mad at him. Calypso wanted him to stay away, but Stephen didn’t see that as an option, ever.
“So, what is going on here? I take it that you’re not going to help stop the curse and the Schell, huh?”
The older woman smiled and it showed her true age.
“Of course, we will not be helping you. We are going to get some popcorn and watch all of you burn.”
Stephen could see the lunacy in her eyes, and he looked over to Calypso to see if she could see it as well. There was nothing else that he could do about it. He wanted to get a sense of the room, but now he knew that they were being led by a woman that was obviously bat-shit crazy.
“We can work something out; I am sure of it.”
“No, there is no more time to talk. Take a seat next to Calypso. The Schell will be here soon.”
“The dragonkin are killing them at the coast. There is nothing that you can do about it, witch. They will beat them back until the humans are involved. It won’t stay quiet for long. Half of the country is going to burn before they ever get here. It seems like you and your mom are going to have one hell of a wait ahead of you.”
That gave him the results that he was looking for. The witch was no longer happy and cackling. She had a sour look on her face that didn’t seem to want to go away. As much as Stephen enjoyed the sudden fall of her face, he was just as quickly paying for it. He watched as the woman started to really think about it and he could see anger welling up inside of her.
“This will not do!”
His smile became a grimace as Deidre threw him across the room. He hit the wall and crumpled. The witch was so powerful that just a tiny flick of her wrist and he was done for. He was groggy when his eyes finally settled. The witch had rattled something loose in his head by the feel of it, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do.
The witch’s attention was on Calypso, and she was getting more and more upset. Calypso was spurring her on, trying to piss her off, and he couldn’t understand why she would want to do that. If something happened to her, he would never forgive himself. What if the same witch tried to kill her again?
“Come on, Deidre. Did you really think that they were going to be able to take out all of the dragonkin? They are just animated puppets, much like your mother over there.”
Calypso was speaking about the old woman, and she looked over to gesture towards her. That was when she saw it move and Calypso knew that the woman was still alive. It was hard to believe, considering how old the curse and the prophecy were. How had she lived that long?
Frank had told her at one point that if they could figure out a way to kill the next in the bloodline, they would be able to end the curse. But if she killed the actual witch that had done it, wouldn’t that do the same thing?
Calypso wasn’t sure if she was making the right assumptions, but she liked to believe that she was. There wasn’t much chance of anything else working, so all she could think about was making sure that she got close enough to the bag of bones with glowing eyes in the corner.
“You will not speak of my mother like that, girl! You have learned no manners, though I suppose that is my fault as well. I took your mother away from you too soon. I have been trying to get Freya for years, but she came out of hiding with you for your birthday, and her days were numbered from that point on.”
Calypso was listening but it wasn’t really sinking in. She noticed her mother’s name, and that was the last thing that she heard. Calypso hated that woman for her own reasons, but to add in the fact that she killed her mother was just too much for her to handle. Instead of trying to fight it any longer, she started to let the anger do what it wanted to do. It was a white-hot feeling that was coming out of her in waves.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Stephen was getting up when he saw the witch turn on Calypso. Calypso was upset, and she was struggling with her magical bindings. Stephen could see that she was breaking free and starting to be able to move. He thought that she was going to be attacked by the witch, but instead, Deidre turned towards him menacingly.
“I cannot kill you, Calypso, but I can kill the one you love. Mother will like that.”
Calypso cocked her head to the side and changed. She wasn’t trying to fight the bonds anymore. She was transforming and moving towards them. Stephen was then focused on the witch’s hand, knowing that it could make or break him without much effort on her part. It made him feel far too vulnerable.
Stephen felt himself flying through the air, but he didn’t stop at the wall. He went through the house and many feet away from it before he landed. He knew that it was Calypso that had done it, but he couldn’t believe it. What was she doing?
Since she threw him so hard, it wasn’t easy to get up. Stephen was battle-weary, and the last hit from the witch had knocked him hard. Now he was trying to get up, and then the house in front of him started to burn. As much as he tried, again, his broken body was finding it impossible to move. When he did, the whole house was in flames. It had only been seconds, but Stephen knew that it wasn’t a normal fire. Calypso was burning them all into the ground, her included.
He tried to move forward, but hands pulled him back. He wanted it to be Calypso, but it was Maddie. He had forgotten all about her.
“We need to get back. The sonic boom is going to be huge, ending a curse like this. It’s going to kill us if we don’t.”
“I am not going anywhere.”
“You have to; come on!”
She pulled on him, but Stephen was waiting for a miracle. He was waiting for Calypso to come out of the fire and be fine. She had done it before, maybe, just maybe, she could do it again.
Maddie started to run. Stephen saw her go, but he didn’t blame her. This was his to see to the end, even if it was a bitter one.
As soon as he thought that, Stephen flew back with wave of power that came through the air around the house. It swept through him, forcing him high into the air and then back down onto the ground, hard. Everything turned black.
Calypso rubbed her head and then her neck. Everything on her was aching, but she didn’t know why. She had just spent her first night at the Dynasty Club and now it was time for her to figure out what the day was going to bring.
She didn’t want to be there. She knew in the back of her mind that she didn’t want to train all summer, but Calypso knew she had to. Something was different though. Something felt off.
Getting dressed, she made her way downstairs for a quick breakfast, and then she was off to meet up with Frank. There was something new in the air, fresh, and the place was full of people and life. They smiled at her as if they knew her and she smiled back at them.
When she got to the training area, she saw Frank walking up from the other side of the gardens. He had a wide smile on his face.
“Good morning, Calypso; how are you feeling? You don’t know how long I have been waiting for you to wake up.”
Calypso wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, but she didn
’t ask. Her mind was muddled and the way he reacted to her, did not make sense. They didn’t know each other all that well, so she wasn’t sure why there was so much emphasis in his hug and sparkle in his eyes.
“Thanks for agreeing to train with me.”
“We have another person that we’re waiting for. You two are going to train together.”
“I didn’t know that I would have to share you, Frank.”
“Don’t worry Calypso. I have a feeling that you won’t mind.”
That smile was back, and she didn’t understand it, but maybe she didn’t have to. It was such a beautiful day; the sky was blue and empty, and it was calling to her.
“Tell you what, Frank. Why don’t I take a quick spin around to get myself limber while you wait for the other guy?”
Frank agreed, and Calypso changed and flew off towards the sun. It was only when she was up high enough to see around that she realized that she was no longer the same as she remembered. Her wings were darker, bigger, and colored in splotches of what looked to be bright paint in all different colors.
She immediately made a landing, and Calypso could feel everyone’s eyes on her. She looked at her wings in a panic, trying to figure out what in the world had happened.
“What happened, Frank?”
Frank was moving towards her with his hands up, trying to calm her down.
“It’s okay, Calypso. Really, it’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I went to sleep and woke up changed. What is happening to me?”
“It is not what is happening, but what happened. You don’t remember, do you?”
Calypso was shocked and asked Frank what it was that she was supposed to remember.
Frank sighed and smiled at her. “Don’t worry. You are just fine, Calypso, now that you’re awake. You just have to catch up, that’s all. You’ve been sleeping for a while, and there are many who can’t wait to see you.”
Calypso told Frank that she didn’t know anyone there, but he insisted that she did. “Trust me, Calypso, it’ll all come back to you, I was assured. You just need some time, or maybe something will trigger it. Let’s go get you some air, and we can talk about it.”
Her head was spinning, and Calypso knew not how to handle it. She was in some voodoo world, and she was half-expecting to wake up. It couldn’t be real, what was going on. It couldn’t be, so she was going to play along, sure that something would wake her up soon enough. At the moment, it was just getting weirder and weirder.
“Oh, wait, Stephen is here. I bet he will be able to help you better than I can.”
Calypso looked to where he was looking and she immediately recognized Stephen. With him came a flood of pictures in her mind. It all came back in hauntingly clear color, and she wanted it to stop. She felt every loss and felt the time that the witch killed her. She also felt the change to her current state, but nothing stayed with her as much as Stephen.
Her love for him was immediate, and it took no time at all for her to launch herself into his arms. The man’s kiss brought it all closer to home, and she wept against his shoulder. She couldn’t stop herself. Calypso was back in his arms, and nothing else mattered.
“We did it, Stephen, didn’t we?”
He agreed, and Calypso knew that the specifics would come later. There was a lot to still learn about what had happened and why she woke up with so much time missing, but for the moment, Calypso was going to focus on the good. Stephen was in front of her, holding her, kissing her. Whatever had happened, Calypso knew that it didn’t get much better than that.
Epilogue
The Dynasty Club was very different than the last time Calypso had seen it. Now it wasn’t deserted, with the fear of imminent death to worry about. Now it was filled to the brim with people, and all Calypso could think was how much better it felt that way.
Today was the day that they were going to bury her mother. Months had passed since her death, and the Schell; and Calypso losing all of her memory. She’d slept for close to three months; the power of the magic dispelled around her had knocked her out cold for all that time.
Now, she was standing at the balcony, waiting for Stephen to get back so that they could go together. The dragonkin had come out in droves to honor her mother, and that meant a lot to Calypso. It told her that her mother was loved, and even though she had been shunned, they all had, it was a new day for the Phoenix family. She wasn’t going to let any witch ever change that for her again.
Calypso knew that a lot of the guests never even knew her mother but they wanted to meet her. She hoped that this time around, all of the gossip would be good, and when she had her own children, they would grow up being heroes instead of persecuted for a curse. The curse was lifted in more ways than one, and Calypso was, for once, excited about the future. The dark cloud that had hung over her head for all that time, was gone. She was finally able to breathe again.
“Lost in thought?”
She grinned at Stephen and waited for her kiss. It was a ritual that they’d started before the Schell came, and it was one that they had continued since she’d been up.
“Yes, I was, but not anymore.”
“What were you thinking about?”
“Just how everything turned out. It’s kind of amazing.”
“You never cease to amaze me, Calypso. I don’t think you’d be able to, even if you tried.”
“Well, there is that, but I am just happy to see so many people here to celebrate mom. She would have loved to see all of the dragonkin together, no longer vilifying her for that witch’s curse. She would have loved to have met you.”
Calypso tried her best not to get teary-eyed, she really did. She didn’t want to make her face red and blotchy before she had to go out there and speak.
“Do I need to take your mind off of things for a while?”
She smiled. “Would you please? You’re the only one who can.”
“Thank you all for coming. It is a celebration of life, of one of our own, that brought us here today. I know that we have had far too many of these lately, but this will be the last.
“Freya was the first death in this tragedy, and we will honor her last. Her daughter has awoken from her nap… and she is here with us today.”
There was a tittering of nervous laughter at his nap remark, and then everyone turned to Calypso. She never did like undue attention on her. It made her squirm in her seat.
“So here we are. Freya was full of life, and she lived a long life, found her true love, and finally got the family that she had always dreamed of. She lived a good life, one that any of us should be satisfied to get.
“But it was not always a happy life. The Schell and the witch’s curse hung over her head for all of her life, her daughter’s too. Everyone in their line, as well as our whole kind, were held captives of fear.”
Frank took a breath and finally pulled himself together.
“Well, no more. We no longer have doom in the near future to keep us apart. No longer do we have to fight amongst ourselves. This peace can be permanent, and we owe it to those that fought and died so that we could all be here today.”
Calypso was moved to tears as Frank went on. He motioned for her to come up there, say something for the congregated people, but Calypso knew that there was nothing she could say.
“You got it, Frank. You always did have a way with words. You’re right. My mother would have loved this. She would have wanted you to say her last words and for everyone to be here together. That’s what she’s always wanted: unity within us.”
Frank smiled at Calypso. “I think we finally have it.”
***
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