“It was. But now, she’s ours. For years I’ve watched you grow, Emma. I taught you how to control your powers—but did you really think your powers came from the light? After what your family had done?” Fangs extended from his grin as he spoke, his voice becoming more distorted as Emma attempted to shield herself from the words he spewed.
“If what you say is true, then Lucia, too, would be cut off from the light. How am I to believe you?” Emma asked.
“Have you not heard a word I said? The girl is a Sanoon. The light could not ever truly abandon her. Her bloodline was destined to hold one of its precious virtues. You, however—the light has forsaken you. The more you use your powers, the more attuned to the darkness you become.”
She was shaking, her breath coarse. Could he be telling the truth?
“But trust me, her blood makes her weak. The cursed protector’s blood makes it harder for the light to consume her. We have the advantage.”
Emma’s eyes widened as the curve of Ralphoro’s thin, wrinkled lips formed into an evil snare. “Grasp onto your destiny, my dear, and accept the protector’s fate.”
Emma flinched backward, keeping her hands close to the warmth of her body as Leo’s hand seized the hilt of his dagger. Emma was confused. His words were baseless, cold, and relentlessly shocking, but they repeated over and over inside her head. Something told her, something whispered—what exactly was Ralphoro, or whatever he was, up to? Emma glanced toward Lucia as her breathing slowed. She watched Lucia squirm in anguish, trying to fight through the indescribable pain that consumed her.
“If I do, will you let her go?” The question came with two sad tears, one streaming from each of Emma’s eyes. “Will you give her a chance to challenge us?”
“Emma, what are you saying? Stop it now!” Leo demanded.
The evil turned its gaze toward him. “She’s made her choice, and well she has chosen.” Ralphoro sent his sword plummeting down once again into Lucia. She wheezed deeply as her body was pulled upward, until she slipped hard off the blade.
“Bastard!” Leo screamed, lunging at the old man. Leo shoved his blade forward, but it wasn’t enough. Ralphoro raised his hand and Leo felt a gripping force surrounding him, piercing him from every direction as if his entire body were suddenly afflicted by frostbite. He froze midair. The hilt of his dagger frosted over, and the air grew dense as he was lifted into the air and thrown backward. His body collided with the far wall, cracking the bone beneath his bruising muscles before tumbling forward to land in Lucia’s blood. Leo struggled to rise, but he collapsed as his breath left his body.
“Challenge us, she will. But first, you must swear to me your allegiance. Reject your calling to the light and swear fealty to the darkness. Only then will I release them.”
Emma’s eyes were quivering. In her heart, she knew this was wrong. Her duty to the light, her calling as a protector, couldn’t all be a lie. But there was something deep down that believed him. All her life, she had been alone, isolated, and raised among sin. It was the sins of her family, her blood, that bound her to this fate, this dreadful punishment. She stepped forward, away from the light of the lantern, and faced Ralphoro, her eyes still on Lucia’s squirming body. “A promise is a promise. I was damned the day Stello chose corruption. And it is now my duty to face the consequences. Leo, Luzanna . . . ” Emma released two more sad tears. Slowly, she approached Ralphoro before kneeling down in front of Lucia’s body. “Lucia, please forgive me,” she whispered.
Ralphoro smiled, seemingly in agreement, as his body floated into the dark background of the catacombs. The shadows drifted from the walls, swarming around his body. His voice distorted as he roared. Dark matter seeped from the boils in his skin, circling and spiraling around his body, latching onto it as he transformed.
The air swirled upward into an icy gust as he spoke. “We accept your terms, Emma. And now you shall know who I truly am.” From the darkness emerged large batlike wings, sharp to the tip with bladed edges. The wings sprouted from the back of a tall, dark-haired, humanlike being, only his torso was covered with a shimmering black cloth made of tar. His hands sprouted long claws covered with gauntlets made of thick demonic onyx, cut into sharp jagged edges. Horns climbed up over a handsome face with narrow scarlet eyes and long, thick lashes. His crimson irises held pupils slit like serpent eyes, and from his lips hung two razor-sharp fangs.
“Ragium,” Emma whispered as she closed her eyes.
“Yes,” the devil said. “You have much to learn, my sweet. You’ve only just begun to quench your thirst for power. Tonight, you will be reborn as a mistress of sin.”
“Emma, don’t.” Luzanna reached out toward her, mind racing. The final sin, greed, stood before them, finally revealing itself. “There is still hope. No one is irredeemable. There is so much good in you. I know there is.”
“Redemption is for the weak. Emma—rise and accept your new power,” Ragium directed with a claw at Emma’s chin.
Emma took a step, raising her body. Her gown was covered in the blood of her niece as she gaped into the eyes of the beast.
Ragium sneered. “With your power, the world will cower at your reckoning. You’re Terestria’s new queen.”
“But what if I don’t want to be,” Emma cried quietly.
“Oh . . . ” Ragium brushed Emma’s cheek with the side of his cold, bladed fingers. His eyes were tense, almost worried. “Like you have a choice.” He opened his hand, and from it a spark of anti-light formed a small violet sphere. The amethyst orb floated beneath Emma’s neck as she was pulled toward it with an incredible force. The orb flashed in a thick dark mist, relinquishing a thin iron wire that wrapped around her neck and ornately shaped itself into a chain. The orb jolted with anti-light again, sending Emma into a shriek as her body tightened.
An unknown force exploded within her, filling her body with emotions that were not her own. Envy. Hate. Pride. Greed. The dark matter shaped around the orb, stretching the fabric of time and space around her. The object pulled, absorbing the light as a black hole would a star. All was drawn into the orb as it condensed and vibrated. A powerful wave pulsated from it as a pair of horned black wings sprouted from the sides of what was now a teardrop-shaped pendant. The wings were demonic, emitting an ominous evil as they pulsed with dark energy.
Emma felt the power oozing from her fingertips. Her eyes darkened, changing into a blood red as her veins filled with a rage she could not contain. All she could sense were voices, deep distortions within her mind, ripping at whatever humanity she had left.
Ragium grinned, raising his sword high above his head in triumph. “And thus, the Dark Wings have chosen their protector! Here is our savior of darkness—Emma Sarina, our dark eminence.”
“Emma, you can’t be. You simply can’t!” Luzanna cried out, losing her breath. There was a rift that had just opened, far within the chasms of Luzanna’s mind, as she collected the images in front of her. Forces struggled to separate. “This is impossible!” Was this fate’s cruel design to have evil claim another innocent soul? A power of its own?
“And so the tables have turned,” greed jested. “To think, you thought your precious savior would never meet her match.”
Emma turned toward them, her eyes blank. She tilted her head, blinking softly. “I can feel it. The power. Has it been here all this time?”
“Yes, child.” Ragium growled. “Let the darkness consume your soul.”
Emma lifted her palms to where she could see them. She watched as anti-light sparked between her fingers. “I’ve never felt so strong.”
“It’s all a façade,” Luzanna called out, stepping toward Emma. “The darkness could never marvel to be as powerful as the light. It may seem impossible right now, but in my heart I know this to be true. With darkness may come fear, but as long as there is light, there is hope!”
It was those words that suddenly drew ai
r into Lucia’s lungs. Silent whispers echoed from beneath her pain, sprouting into bursts of power. Weakly, she lifted her head. In the haze of her blurred vision, she saw a glow under Luzanna’s fingertips. The opal was emitting an odd glimmer only she could see. Lucia, breathing heavily, held out a trembling hand. “Lu . . . Luz . . . anna,” she called out with all her strength. “P-put on . . . your . . . mask.”
With a swift kick, Ragium struck Lucia, who grunted in anguish. “Shut up! Can’t you see we’re having a moment?”
“And so are we,” Luzanna said, her eyes glowing with a fiery determination. She raised her mask to her face and closed her eyes.
Lucia started her prayer, remembering Luzanna’s words as they drifted between them. Lucia felt the emotion buried beneath, the lingering light lost on a field among a cliff. “Hope,” she uttered as the Light Wings glowed a bright pink. Her glove filled with the magenta light, and from it shot a beam that bound to the opal stone in Luzanna’s mask. Lucia collapsed just as a symbol traced under Luzanna’s feet.
“No!” Ragium roared. “Not now!”
Streams of light cloaked over Luzanna as her mask brightened, the light intensifying as it wrapped around her face. Leo dragged himself up, captivated by the blinding light that illuminated her body.
A bright magenta radiance surrounded Luzanna, as a misty aura of white light expanded her glowing armor. From her mask gigantic feathers blossomed, blazing, as enormous wings of stylized platinum sprouted from her back, sharp to the tips of detailed feathers. Her mask expanded into a long veil that draped backward over the waves of her golden hair. Magenta ribbons flowed from her waist as platinum feathers formed around her torso and over her thighs. Her hands were covered by light armlets, while an emblem was burned into the skin of her palm in the form of the symbol that radiated beneath her.
“Luzanna, you’re glowing,” Leo said softly. “You’re actually glowing.”
Luzanna’s body filled with power as her hope tightened within her. It was real, tangible, and unbreakable—the darkness would not win, not as long as she held on to this faith. She held out her hand as it was enwrapped by a bright pink flame. It exploded, letting out a bright white smoke as she traced a beam of light into the air with a finger. She grabbed hold of the light and spun it in her hands as a glowing spear formed, made of the same shining opal as the Elder Stone. “Leo, get Lucia—and leave him to me.” Luzanna shot forward, her wings propelling her with incredible speed. She gripped her spear as Leo dashed toward Lucia.
Ragium brought himself upward, flying into the dome overhead just as the tip of Luzanna’s spear missed by a mere second. “Emma, destroy her now! Use the power of the protectors and bury them within the catacombs!”
Luzanna pushed herself upward, spinning within her wings before sending her spear flying toward Ragium.
He dissipated into the shadows around them as the spear burst into light against the rock of the dome. The crust absorbed the force and sent a large crack toward the surface. Rocks began to fall from the dome as Ragium’s voice echoed in the air. “Emma, use the darkness. Bury them with it!”
“Emma, don’t!” Luzanna called out as she floated down.
“Please, Emma, you must resist it,” Leo said as he brought Lucia into his lap. She clung to him as her strength left her.
Lucia’s breath was shallow, but she managed to speak. “Emma, please.”
Emma shook her head. “Indeed. I’m impressed. The power of the virtues. It’s remarkable. But I’m now bound. There is no escaping fate. Surely you would know this by now.” She clenched her teeth as her eyes turned from soft to hard and filled with rage. “The Light Wings chose you, and the Dark Wings chose me. It’s that simple, Lucia. One’s virtue is another’s sin—and I will not let my brother go unpunished.” She held up a hand and felt the heat of a rising fire mix with the darkness within it, creating a deep, dark blue flame that sent the room into an even darker inferno. Two tears splashed down Emma’s face as she uttered an apology. “I’m sorry, Lucia.”
Luzanna’s eyes widened as Leo held Lucia close. Luzanna threw herself over the two, using her wings to shield them from the falling debris. As Emma’s power pulsed through the catacombs, it sent the entire labyrinth into a quake. The walls crumbled around them as the dome above cracked and caved inward. Death was almost certain, an inevitable doom they should have expected. Luzanna held on to her hope, using it to calm the air around them and shield them from the fire now spreading through the cracks of crumbling earth.
The sounds of crashing stone were overshadowed by the deep demented laugh of Ragium, as he appeared and took Emma up in his arms. Emma was emotionless, her dark eyes now void of humanity. With a wave of her hand, she shot a ray of darkness toward them.
Leo closed his eyes, hearing his words cry within him with a final effort. He looked at Lucia’s gentle face, with tears flowing, as he stared and admired her beauty once more as he always had. “I’m sorry I failed to protect you, Lucia. Please forgive me.”
Suddenly, as the world began to fall apart around them and Emma’s blast depleted the last of Luzanna’s hope shield, a ripple of light shot from beneath them, filling the markings of the crests around the altar. The Light Wings pushed up from under Lucia, sending a bountiful warm radiance around them. And just as Ragium looked in disgust at the light, shocked at how Lucia managed to raise her head to say a final prayer with the very last ounce of her strength, the light dissolved the trio into nothing. The catacombs fell into the shadows, sending the three virtues into another dimension tucked safe within a deep and relieving sleep, while Ragium and Emma disappeared into the darkness that created them.
Chapter Twenty:
The Awakening
There was an emptiness, a silence that shrouded Lucia’s thoughts. She wallowed in it, floating within the painlessness of this space far from the world she knew. Her spirit was flickering, beating like a pulsating star in the far reaches of space. Slowly, her spirit became brighter as it connected with her body, causing her consciousness to pull her awake.
Where am I? It was only then that she felt the prickling of water against her skin. Her eyelids lifted as she regained feeling in her hand. Wearily, she dug her fingertips into the mud beneath her. A huge influx of air entered her body as if she were an infant drawing breath for the very first time. She coughed as rain continued to pour over her, purple thunder flashing overhead. Lucia was on the surface of a grassy terrain within a vast empty field—alone. And for the first time in a very long time, she could feel again.
An inferno raged inside her, a burning anxious panic, as she pulled herself up from her side. The storm was amplifying as the wind blew toward it in the distance. Her eyes quivered, and she wiped the mud from her face with her hands. Leo. Luzanna. She thought, Where are they? How did I get here? She analyzed her surroundings, hoping to find her companions somewhere close by, but she was alone. Even the Light Wings around her neck told her so. She felt no life within a reasonable distance. The pit in her stomach hardened as her anxiety ripped at her torso, where the blade had—wait. Lucia jolted up, moving her hand toward where Ragium had dealt the mortal blow. Miraculously, the wound was gone. Not even a scar remained.
How am I alive? Lucia looked up at the darkening sky. Though she lived, she knew very well that she was not safe. The world had changed, becoming something unfamiliar and distorted, a shell of its former self caught in the grip of darkness’ conquest. It was as if the world had been cast into an eternal tempest filled with winds of sorrow and pain. And she could hear them, Terestria’s cries, as its light was seeping away and dimming beneath the storms of purple and gray. Not a single ray of light could penetrate through the overcast that shrouded the land in shadow; not an ounce of mercy left. There was no time, only an endless night. Terestria had fallen into ruin because life had played its hand into the sins the darkness had created, leaving her world corrupted. There was nothing l
eft to preserve—or so she thought.
Lucia shot upward, reaching painfully to grasp the Light Wings. “Light, I need you now. Please speak to me. Guide me. Tell me what I must do,” she whispered. She scoured her mind, hoping to find a glimmer of truth beneath the confusion, doubt, and fear. She waited, listened, and continued to pray. “My light, my salvation, I must go. I must find my friends. I have to finish our mission. I can still fight. By your will, I am alive. So I must fight until the end. Dear light, please hear me. I need you. Please.”
In that moment, her mind cleared. A tingle hovered over the back of her head as a comforting chill covered her body. “I am alive because I know. I am the scales of justice. I am your sword. My purpose is yours, and yours alone. Light, I know this. It is all clear to me now. Your will, your glory—it shall be yours.”
Lucia brought herself to her feet as the roaring of thunder intensified. She looked toward the storm. The wind was blustering from behind her, ripping through her hair as the Light Wings glowed. “There,” she said, looking across the mountain range ahead of her where the storm loomed. There was something familiar about this scene. It was as if she had seen it somewhere before. Could it be? she thought as she remembered. “One of my father’s landscapes.” The image flashed within her mind, its colors fresh and vibrant as she stared off in the distance. Her heart fluttered. Home. I’ve got to find the others, she thought. I can’t.
“But you must,” they whispered. “They are there. They need you.”
“My mother,” Lucia uttered. “She needs me.” She strode toward the storm, her steps quickening to a run. There was no stopping her. Her mind was made up. The Light Wings had directed her, so she followed. Rarely did the Light Wings ever grant her wishes. Rarely had they validated anything she ever felt. But this was what she desired most: to go home, to see her mother again, and to leave the rest of the world behind—was this now what she wanted? More than anything, was this how she truly felt?
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