“We need to go, now!” I demanded, grabbing Aria and running down the corridor with her. Cain and Aroelyn ran behind.
Each corridor we fled through appeared darker, thinner, smaller. They would soon become impassable, having crawled through the last two on all fours. My mother guided me. I felt her touch as she pushed me along each corridor, around each turn. I really hoped she knew where we were going. But it didn’t matter if she didn’t... I knew. Something inside of me pushed me forward, directed my path, and it wasn’t just my mother. It was my love of my child, my child, the bond of blood, of family. That alone would push any mother forward, just as mine always had for me.
Crawling out, we found ourselves in a large empty cave. I say empty, but the dark environment made it difficult to see if there was anything occupying the space ahead. “Eve,” Cain motioned, scrunching his forehead. Ah, the light. My hand raised, my mother helped, as a ball of vast, bright and beautiful light shot up and lit the room like a firework in the darkness. Sprays of starlight sparkled ahead, and Aria gushed in excitement.
Then a humorous clapping accompanied by a gallant giggling sounded in the far right of the cave. “Oh, little Evie! How spectacular!” Lilith said, walking through the starlit cavern.
“Why, Aria, what are you doing holding Evie’s hand?” she asked, puzzled. Aroelyn was behind me. Cain, too. “And who’s that behind you?... Aroelyn, is that you?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Aroelyn said, shuddering.
“And whose hand is it you hold?” she asked.
Cain stepped out from the darkness behind me. “She holds my hand, Lilith, now leave us be.”
“Cain! Where have you been? You naughty little boy, you!”
“Lilith, I’m not a child, don’t treat me like one.”
“But why do you hold this slaves’ hand?”
“Aroelyn is not a slave, Lilith, she is my beloved.”
Lilith’s face came fully into the light. Her eyes bulged, jaw dropped. “She’s WHAT!” she screamed, echoing her anger over every corridor that lay in the labyrinth of Hell.
She looked down and stepped towards Aria. Her eyes bulged further. I pushed Aria behind me as Lilith reached out to take her.
“Leave them alone, Lilith!” I demanded. “That’s enough of your games!”
“Games!” she cackled, “I haven’t even started my games yet, dear sister!”
I stepped forward, pushing Aria back towards her father.
“Where’s my son, Lilith?” I yelled, my voice echoing over the cave walls.
Lilith laughed. “Where is he?” she cackled, “Don’t worry I’d never hurt my grandchild!”
“What?”
Lilith giggled. “You fell in love with the Devil, little sister.” She fell to her knees, holding her stomach. The laughter was started to overwhelm her. “Your children are the spawn of Satan.”
Did she really just say that? Wasn’t Satan code for Lucifer? Isn’t that what Cain was on about earlier? Could it really be true? Did my beloved share a soul with the devil after all? That was wrong. Seriously, totally, and utterly wrong.
I stood there silent, jaw dropped. What could I say? Lilith continued to laugh, “Your face, Evie!” She laughed. “It’s a picture!”
Aria ran out of the cave, bypassed Lilith, and fled into the darkness. Aroelyn ran after her with Cain yanking me forward to follow. I was lost, oblivious to what was happening. My mind was a mess of chaotic endeavours. Leaving the cave, we could still hear Lilith’s catastrophic cackles as they diminished into the distance behind us.
“Aria wait!” Aroelyn yelled, catching up with her daughter as they ran through the maze. We all slowed down to stop, gasping for breath as I broke down and cried. Was it real? Were they just messing with me?
Cain knelt beside me. “I know I don’t know you all that well, but I am sorry you had to hear it like that.”
“It can’t be real,” I said. “I’d have known.”
“No, Eve, you wouldn’t have. No-one knew.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He couldn’t have. Even Lucian didn’t know who he really was.”
“How wouldn’t he know? He’s the Devil, for fuck’s sake.”
“How could he know? Lilith would have wiped any trace of memory from his system.”
“Why, though? Why would she do that?”
“I don’t know. I can only guess that she loved them both and couldn’t choose, so she made it so she didn’t have to choose.”
“That’s insane,” Aroelyn said.
Cain nodded. “That’s Lilith.”
We walked the rest of the way, turning around corner after corner, tired from the emotional turmoil of the day’s events. Finally, we entered a room much like the original one I’d been held in. It was lit by lanterns that cascaded their light across each wall. In the corner sat a little boy, skin as pale as snow, hair as brown as the trunks of trees that bared their leaves amidst the Autumn equinox. Who was the child? He must have been one, maybe two years old.
We stopped as Cain knelt to embrace Aria. Aroelyn stood by his side. I made my way over to the lone boy in the corner and perched beside him, watching the swirling darkness that encaged his innocent body. Something about him was familiar. “Hello,” I said, then smiled. His sorrowful expression greeted me. His tiny frame burdened with the loss of life itself. For such a young child, he looked like he carried a world of grief on his shoulders.
As his eyes met mine, his expression changed. Tears welled up and he reached out with open arms. “Mama,” he said.
Pardon? “I...” I didn’t know what to say. The child clearly mistook me for someone else. My son would be days old, not months or years. He shuffled closer, rocked back and forth on his bottom, and climbed up my body. Standing beside me as I sat, his head was at the same height as my own. “Mama,” he said, placing his grubby little hands on my cheeks. Could it be? Could this really be my child? My baby boy that was taken from me at only a day old? How could it be? He was too old.
“He is your son,” a tragic voice boomed across the open cave. I didn’t need to look; I knew. It was the voice of God. My father had found me once again.
“It can’t be!” I said, looking at the darling boy before me. His darkness enveloped fear within me, but his soul still had an ounce of light hiding within it.
It is... my mother sounded out in my mind. Hushing my fear, she urged me to reach forward, to save my boy from further torment.
“But how?” I asked.
“You’ve been with us for a long time, Eve, it is only fair that your child should grow well in your absence. I have taken care of him for you. Treated him as my own.”
“That’s not a comforting fact,” I said, picking my boy up into my arms.
His little body was warmed by my touch; his pale skin had been cold for too long. “It’s okay, now,” I said. “I will never let anything hurt you.” I felt his loss as he embraced me, holding me tight as if his little life depended on it. What had they done to him?
“I was waiting for you to join our side, Eve,” God boomed.
“That will never happen,” I spat. “You will pay for what you’ve done, you all will!” I raged. How could any of them do this to me, to my child? I’d missed so much already. Tears welled in my eyes, my throat balled as I choked back the urge to scream, cry, and rip everything before me to shreds. No, I had to get my son to safety first.
God stepped forward. “Child, you will do as you are told,” he boomed.
“Never,” I screamed, backing away from him.
Lilith’s cackles echoed across the room as she joined our father’s side. “Oh, Evie, give it up. We have you now.”
“No,” I yelled, turning to Cain. “Take my son, find safety.” I begged.
My child cried.
“Don’t you mean Malek... I named him for you. It’s a strong name, isn’t it?” Lilith grinned.
Malek cried. “Mama,” he said, gripping at the ragged dress I w
ore.
“He won’t leave you, Evie, he’s your son.”
My eyes pleaded to Cain, but as I turned to face him, I saw EJ bound into the room, grabbing Aroelyn away from him.
“Noooo!” Cain yelled, battering at EJ.
“Mummy!” Aria yelled.
It’s time Eve, my mother said in my mind.
I frowned. What did she mean?
Use the light Eve, remember the portal we made.
That was right. Before, when we were lost between worlds, we had made a portal home. My two unborn children had helped us to succeed. They had guided my hand and brought us home again. Could my son help with that this time?
My child stopped crying. As he sat in my arms, he smiled, his hands released, and he placed them on my cheeks. He knew. Somehow, he knew. I smiled, closed my eyes to the horror of EJ as he tore into Cain’s beloved. I closed my ears as I pushed away the screams of her final breaths and closed my hands around my child’s. Our powers combined and we created a vast vortex of energy before us.
“Cain,” I yelled, gripping his hand. He held Aria as he left his beloved in pieces by EJ’s hand. The four of us entered the portal, stepping out into the world we once called home.
CHAPTER 115: JULIAN
Trekking through the ice shards of Ballante Bay was the highlight of my morning. Even as an immortal, I still favoured the beauty of my home planet. It'd been centuries since I'd stepped foot on the icy waters of Aesteriah, and it always bought sentiment back to my frozen heart.
In the distance, the midday sun peaked over Heoine Mountain. The frozen nature of the ground I walked on began to fade, diminishing into little more than a puddle under my feet. There it was, the only throne left standing, and I was certain Magdalena would have taken her rightful place. It all could have been mine, if I’d given a damn. But after Vesta perished, the cold didn't touch my soul as it did back then. I began to loathe the caress of its nature, warming only to the touch of my maker, Lilith. But now that centuries had passed, my heart belonged to my family. They needed me. If the war didn't end, none of us would survive to see another day; Magdalena was our last hope.
Trudging through the swamped field, I gained access to the base of the mountain. Stretching up as far as the eye could see was a stone path edged with firelight, paving the way forward to the Queen of the land.
I'd say the journey had been easy so far. It was clear she resided here. She'd seen me coming a mile off, cleared the way, and paved the path for me. I had one hope... one wish to ask of her. I'd heard of a spell to raise the dead. I knew necromancy wasn't for the faint hearted and most of the time it would have disastrous consequences. But for me, for now, it was our only hope. I needed an army, and I knew of a wasteland of frozen corpses, right here on this planet, that could serve that purpose. I just needed her to cast the spell and make it so.
But Magdalena was never one you could control. Her freewill and stubborn nature are what got her banished in the first place. She owed me. If it weren't for me, she'd have been Lilith’s puppet by now, remade as her minion with little to no power left to give.
Lilith was always envious of Magdalena. She was the first witch she had created, an original of her kind. But what Lilith didn't realise was she had birthed an unstoppable force, a creature not unlike herself. Magdalena was modelled on Lilith’s very own nature, and when Lilith mutated her, she created an equal. But when she realised just how powerful Magdalena was, jealousy took over and she banished her, forming an enemy out of the friend she once was.
Rising up the path, a flood of emotions soothed my mind. Those were the days... both young at heart. We roamed the realms together causing trouble along the way. The overactive mind of a bored teenager was a dangerous one. The game we played of cat and mouse lost interest after the first century bled by. Instead, we had gone our separate ways and vowed never to seek one another again, for both our sakes... and the sake of the existence of life itself. Together we were frightful. Our devilish natures were inexcusable and dramatically sincere all at the same time.
Ah, Magdalena, what fun we had.
I reached the top of the mountain without a loss of breath or palpitation inside. There was a beauty to the view before me. I could see for miles. The sun mixed with the sharpened angles of icicles as they dangled from the cliff edge. The raw feeling of sand as it squished beneath my toes. The breath-taking awe of the love of life as she danced naked beneath the moonlight. Memories; the view brought back a cascade of memories from a former life, and my heart waned.
Before me stood a rich crystal palace, a place of virtue, perfection, and goodwill. Magdalena had done well for herself. She'd created the birthplace of witchcraft with the darkened nature of her arrival. I just hoped she remained on the side of the light, that's what Lilith had despised about her, after all; her ability to always see the brightness within the darkest of spaces.
Entering through the oval archway, I smiled at the sight of a former best friend sat upon the throne.
"Julian!" she said with a grand smile on her face. "It's so good to see you!"
"And you," I said as I climbed the three steps that led up to her. I kissed her cheek as she rose to greet me.
"I know why you're here, Julian. I understand the need... But do you understand the risk?"
"Yes, the need far outweighs the risk, Mags."
"You may not say that after the spell is complete."
"Do you mean you will agree to cast it?"
"I already have, my friend," she said, placing her arm around me.
"But how?"
"You forget my nature, Julian. I foretold this day many moons ago."
I smiled. "So, what do we do now?"
"We wait," she said, smiling. "We will know by sunset if they allowed it or not."
"They?"
"The guardian's, Julian, the balance must be kept."
"I thought that was an old tale used to scare the immortals into line?"
She laughed. "No, my friend, it’s true. The balance must be kept for the universe to exist in this time and space."
"I'd say it's out of whack right now."
She nodded. "I've sensed them stirring. It's only a matter of time, Julian."
"Until what?"
"Until they correct fate." She grimaced.
I frowned. If Magdalena was concerned, we should all be concerned.
"But for now, my old friend... let's eat," she said, clapping her hands three times.
A flurry of waiters entered the room. They looked human, or thereabouts, but their green skin made it apparent they were not.
After a hearty meal, we drank, sipping from the finest quality spirits the land could offer. It felt good to laugh again, reminiscing on the old days.
Day turned to night as the wind changed and the nightlife howled in anguish. Something was happening, something was changing out there. Outside, under the darkness of night, a rumbling concoction of sorcery and witchcraft took place. Aesteriah stirred. Bones rattled and a million dead soldiers rose from the grave. No army was any match for this army. Let the games begin.
CHAPTER 116: JULIAN
Consequences, right? She said there could be consequences. I would have hazarded a guess that the third of the army that turned on their own could have been part of the consequences Magdalena spoke of.
Why not? Go ahead and fight your brothers. It wasn’t like we’re on a deadline or anything. That alone would have been quite amusing, if it weren't for the fact the clock was ticking rather loudly, and the world was on the brink of extinction. All the while my guys pissed around amongst themselves.
"Mags, can't you do anything?"
"No, they're your army, Julian, command them!"
“How do I command a million skeletal soldiers with nothing to lose?”
“Everyone has something to lose],” she said as she turned away and walked out of the banquet hall.
She was right. Even the dead feared something. What would they fear? I’d had guessed tha
t stretching their creaky bones was a joyous experience. Would they really want to die again? Perhaps if I promised them their freedom for their assistance in the battle to end all battles? That could sway them, after all, everyone enjoyed the thought of freewill.
Looking out of the window, the dead marched forward. Bodies were flung about as the darkness corrupted their souls. Turning on their kindred was a show of their lack of loyalty to anything and everything... except, perhaps, their own need for survival.
I marched out of the castle, stood on top of the mountain, and yelled “HALT!”
Nothing, not one bony soldier listened to my command. “HALT, I SAID!” Nothing.
Magdalena joined me and placed her hand on my shoulder. “Now try,” she said as a warming light flowed through me.
“HALT!” I commanded, with the stern voice of fate on my side. Every soldier stopped. The battlefield below grew silent. I smiled at Mags, stepped forward, and commanded my army. “IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, YOU WILL FIGHT FOR YOUR OWN SURVIVAL,” I shouted. “EVERY ONE OF YOU HAS A CHOICE. FIGHT AND YOU FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM. WALK AND YOU WALK ALONE.”
A million mutterings echoed across the land as every single one of the dead stamped their foot down, saluting me as their commander and chief.
“Well, it looks like you have your army, Julian.”
“It looks like I do,” I said and smiled, hugging Mags goodbye as I descended the mountain to govern my recruits and lead them to the battle foretold on Earth.
CHAPTER 117: TAYLOR
We were home... if you could call it that.
Earth was shattered, broken and mushed up into uninhabitable pieces. Fire had ravaged the lands and buildings had fallen in the quake of Lilith’s destruction. The only living creatures were the failed experiments she had left behind.
Cain was broken. He sat on the ground holding his daughter tight. Both had lost their loved one; Aria a mother and Cain a lover. But if I knew my sister well, then I’d hazarded a guess that she was venturing out of Hell right now to drag us back down there. As for God... well, my father was the calculated chill factor. He wasn’t the man I used to know. Heck, I didn’t know who he was any more. I had no idea what he would try next. We needed help. We had to get out and we needed to reach Elysium.
The Celestial Rose BoxSet Page 73
