Black Ruins Falls

by Karen DuBose

  This is so not a normal pregnancy! How can I get her to understand that this has to stop until she is born? I can’t risk her getting someone hurt or killed. I try to get out again and she is refusing to let me leave.

  I try to calm myself down. There is no point in letting her sense me upset. I will figure out how to get out of here soon. I just hope it’s soon enough. I sit down and let the calmness surround me.

  Maybe she is keeping me here because she thinks I’m in danger somehow. I close my eyes and let the calm rush out of me, so she can see I’m ok. I keep letting it flow out of me in waves.

  “So, it’s not just you she can bring here without will.”

  I slowly open my eyes and hoping it not just in my head I hear his voice. When I open my eyes there is no one there. I look to my left and let out a sigh. I get up and rush over to him.

  “Bruno! Thank god you are ok. I tried getting back to you.”

  He wraps his arm over my shoulders. “I think she brought both of us here for a reason. We will just have to figure it out.”

  My jaw drops. Why didn’t I think of that? I just thought she was ready to play or eat. Her two favorite things to do.

  “I feel like a shitty mom just assuming things. She doesn’t speak, she just shows pictures.”

  “Has she shown you anything since you have been here?”

  I shake my head. “No, I think she is scared because I was freaking out when she brought me here. I was scared I did something to you. I guess I will see if she is ready to show us.”

  I let myself relax before I speak again. “Runes baby, why did you bring me and uncle Bruno here?”

  We wait for her to answer. When she doesn’t after a few minutes, Bruno and I look at each other. I’m starting to get worried. I’m about to ask her again when scenes flood my mind. They are going so fast I can’t tell what it is she is showing me. The pressure is getting to be too much, and I drop to my knees. I hold my head between my hands, panting.

  I start to scream when I can’t take anymore. Finally, the images slow down releasing the pressure. I take a greedy gulp of air over and over until I feel my lungs expand as far as they can.

  I watch the scene in front of me and I stop breathing. My whole body is in shock. Tears follow before I break down completely. This can’t happen. This has to be a mistake or there is another reason behind this. I’m about to ask when I’m thrown back to the real world.

  I’m in the same position I was in, except Kiernan, mom, and Oceana are holding some part of me. I stay that way shaking and crying. I can’t tell them what I saw. It’s too horrifying to even repeat.

  “Love, what is it? Are you ok? What happened? Did you have a vision?”

  The questions kept coming and I sat there numb. I couldn’t even find my voice to tell them everything will be ok and I’m ok. Because I would be lying to them. I won’t do that.

  After what seems like hours, I look up at Kiernan. I wrap my arms tightly around him and cry even more. How? How can I tell them that no matter what we do it will be worth nothing?

  I feel someone trying to get my attention by tugging my mind. I ignore it at first, but the pressure is getting worse. I’m about to tell the person that now is not the time, when I notice it’s Bruno.

  “Please tell me you didn’t see what she showed me?”

  “I would be lying and I’m not about to start that. If what she showed us is true, we will have to find a way to stop it. Maybe getting the Dragon stone is the only way. I can tell you one thing; I am not ready to die! We will find a way one way or another. Don’t you give up on me? Not now not ever.”

  I nod my head. “I will fight until the end.”

  I felt him nod before he leaves my mind. I can hear my mom shout my name a few times before I return to them.

  “Dariya! I swear if you don’t answer me, you will not like what I do to Kiernan.”

  I laugh at this. It wasn’t a happy laugh, it’s a sad laugh. One where you try to show everyone it’s ok but we all know better. “Mom I’m ok.”

  “So, we are back to keeping secrets and lies again. I thought we were over this.”

  “Mom, I’m not lying. I am ok. For how long, I don’t know.”

  Kiernan pulls my chin toward him. “What happened?”

  I… can’t tell him. I don’t want to see the fear in his eyes, but I don’t have a choice. They deserve to know.

  “I saw the plans the Demons have for all of us. They… Plan on tormenting all of us until the brink of death. They are pissed I killed their leader. That’s why they are after me…us.”

  He wraps me into his arms. I feel him tremble I know it’s anger and fear mixed together. He takes a deep breath before he speaks again. “When will this happen?”

  I look up at him and shrug my shoulders. “Runes is the one who showed it to me and Bruno. I think since I was already linked to him, she brought him with me.”

  I turn to Oceana and look at her with concern. “I think it’s time to figure out what is really going on. We need answers. We need to know if we can beat them and how.”

  She nods her head and stands up. “There is no better time than the present. Let’s go see what we can find out.”

  She reaches her hand out to me and I take it. I reach out to Bruno one last time before I go into the future. “Do not go anywhere near them until I have answers. Go back to the others and stay safe until you hear word from me.”

  I felt his nod. That’s one less worry, I have. Now, I just need to save everyone in the world from their wrath. They don’t deserve to die because of me. I didn’t even know it was their leader I killed at the club. I’m sure I would have frozen in place if I knew.

  “Here will be the best place. We can see the moon and sun in this spot.”

  I look up and see she is right. They are amazing to watch. It’s like they are chasing each other in the sky.

  “What do we need to do?”

  She looks at me with a sad smile. “I don’t know. We can only hope for the best. We might need the other Seer that is getting the visions, or we have to find a way to tap into Runes without hurting her.”

  How did I know this was going to be difficult? Oh, wait that’s because nothing has been easy so far. “Let’s try doing it ourselves, before we do anything, we will regret.”

  She nods her head and holds out her hands to me. I reach for them and a spark shot out of her hands into mine. It didn’t hurt per se. I felt the jolt but it’s warm. I can feel it traveling through my whole body. I can see the fear in Oceana’s eyes. She is yelling but I can’t hear her. I close my eyes as I feel the world slip away slowly.

  I lay here with my eyes closed. I don’t know if I am ready to see what waits for me.

  “You can open your eyes, sweet girl. I promise there is nothing here to fear.”

  My dad’s voice makes me pop my eyes open. He is leaning over me smiling. I jump up and hug him. I will never stop missing him and each time I see him is a blessing.

  “You know you gave Oceana a scare. She thought she done something to me,” I say smiling at him.

  His smile grows bigger. “I’m sure I will hear about it when the time comes. We don’t have a lot of time. I know how to destroy the demons for good. They aren’t the brightest bunch. They are their own downfall.”

  I look at him confused. “What do you mean they are their own downfall?”

  He looks off into the distance like he is searching for something. “There isn’t as many as you think there are. They are not a pack creature. They hate each other. They like to be alone.”

  It takes me a minute to get what he is telling me. “Are you telling me if we can catch them off guard and force them to be in the same place, they will destroy themselves?”

  “It won’t be easy, I can tell you that much. You will need to find the Dragon stone and soon. Your cloak is hiding them from everyone. Don’t doubt that. They will not be seen by the demons.”

  “If you are a hundred percent sure
they will not be seen, I will send them out again.”

  “You don’t need to send them on a scavenger hunt. I know where it is now. Sweet girl, you have been with it this whole time. It’s at the bottom of the waterfall hidden. All you have to do is find it. Once you have it, you need to take the demons out before you take the Elders out. The demon’s ascents will attach to the stone and once that happens their energy will take a hold of whoever you use the stone against. By the way, that little girl is something else. She will have her time to face evil. Just like you did. As much as you want to get involved you can’t. You will get her killed if you do. Don’t look at me like that. It’s when she is an adult.”

  I wanted to argue, but I know it would be of no use. He is always right about things. “I can’t believe we wasted so much time to find the Dragon Stone when it’s been there the whole time. How am I supposed to get the demons in one place where they will destroy each other?”

  “You are a smart girl. You have a great bunch of shifters with you. I think all of you can figure it out and quickly. It’s time for you to go before Oceana kills me for doing that to her.” His laugh echoes around the forest.

  “I guess I will see you soon. I love you and I’m sure mom and Oceana will kill you for doing this, just saying.”

  I hug him before I’m taken back to my world. “Love you too sweet girl and I think you may be right. The curse the witches have here is getting worse, this will be the last time I can bring you here until you kill them.”

  His small smile is the last thing I see before I close my eyes. I don’t want to think about not being able to see him again. Those hags will die for what they have done.

  Chapter Seven

  Oceana

  I’m standing here in shock wondering what just happened. I didn’t even use any magic yet. Dariya was shocked by something I had no control over. Now she is laying here in a heap. I screamed for anyone, even to her too, either get them to get her off me or for her to let go of me. Before anyone could do anything, she drops to the ground. Her eyes roll in the back of her head and she passes out.

  I hear the others running our way. I drop to my knees and check her pulse. It’s weak but it’s still there. I try using my healing magic on her hoping it will wake her up.

  Kiernan is the first to see us and he skids on his knees when he gets closer. He takes her into his arms. He isn’t even out of breath. “What happened to her?”

  I just look at him because I don’t know. “I don’t understand what happened. All she did was reach for me and an electrical current went from me to her. It’s like someone was trying to cover their tracks so we wouldn’t know who wanted to see her.”

  Kiernan’s eyes become his dragon eyes. “I’m so sick of all of this shit! Why can’t she get a break from all of this? Why does she have to be the only one to go through it all?”

  I know what he means. “I wish I knew the answer to that. I’m starting to think fate has it all wrong. One person can’t go through all of this and come out the same. She is going to change even more. I can feel it.”

  I don’t know how much more she can go through before she breaks. I hate to be on the receiving end when it happens. I hope she is ok and whoever has her isn’t hurting her. I wish I was strong enough to get her out of there. Even if I could I would probably do more damage than good.

  I can’t help but to think I felt something familiar about all of this. I know I felt that person before I just can’t pinpoint who. Every time I start to guess it, it slips away. It’s quite frustrating, to say the least.

  Kiernan’s question caught me off guard. “Why is Fate trying to ruin the best thing to ever happen to any of us?”

  I face him not realizing I had turned away from him when I was lost in thought. “I can’t answer that. We just have to hope and pray that they know what they are doing and to keep her grounded to us.”

  I don’t have the answer for him. I walk away from them, so they can be alone together. I need to talk to my sisters. We have to find that other Seer, and figure out what he knows. Someone with that knowledge is bound to know more than they are letting on.

  I don’t walk far before I spot them by the water’s edge. It seems they are getting along for the most part. I sneak my way up to them. They haven’t heard or seen me. I’m a few feet from them and yell, “What are you doing?”

  They all about came out of their skin. Naya jumps and falls into the water. Bexley screams like she is being murdered and Gracen jumps up and faces me ready to attack. I’m laughing so hard my sides hurt. Every time I look at them again, I laugh even harder.

  Gracen walks over to me and pushes me. “You could have given one of us a heart attack you know. I was ready to kill you.”

  I try to calm myself, but every time I look at them it makes me laugh more. “I’m…. Sorry… I couldn’t…help… myself.” I keep wiping my eyes and remove the tears flowing. I think I finally lost it or the stress is getting to me.

  Naya climbs out of the water and glares at me. Her hands are on her hips. She looks like a drowned fae. “You think you are so funny! Paybacks a bitch just remember that.”

  Bexley has a smile on her face. I know that smile too well. She is already planning revenge. “Glad we could make you laugh. What did you come here for?”

  I stop laughing and straighten up. “I need help with something. We need to find the other Seer. He or she is the key to defeating the demons. We can’t have all the forces coming after Dariya at once. She will never survive it.”

  Bexley walks over to me and faces me. “What do you need us to do?”

  The three of them have come to love Dariya as much as I have. She is like the daughter I never had or will have. I’m too old now to even think about having kids. I also never wanted to bring a child into this world with the Elders ruling. Who knows what they would have done to my child.

  I take a deep breath. “We need to channel our energy and figure out where they are hiding. I know I won’t get anything out of Kelso. He is useless, to say the least.”

  Naya is still ringing out her clothes. I pick up the wind to help her out. She looks up at me. “You wouldn’t be helping me if you didn’t scare the crap out of me. Don’t we need something of theirs to find him or her?”

  Gracen joins us in our little group. “I think Kelso just might come in handy after all. He will have to return to him or her sooner or later. We can just put a tracking spell on him. No one needs to know about it.”

  I look at her with wonder. “How are we going to get close to him to do that without tipping the Seer off? I don’t know what they can or can’t see. They are probably seeing this for all we know. We have to be smart about this.”

  Gracen looks at the ground. “I keep forgetting about that part. I'm not used to it anymore. We have been apart for too long.”

  I reach over and hug her. “I know it’s been too long. We will figure something out somehow. We need to go check on Dariya.”

  I filled them in on what happened, and they are pissed someone would do that to her. We walk back over to her. When we see her, she is sitting up smiling. I look at my sisters and give them a questioning look. They all shrug their shoulders saying I don’t know.

  I walk over to her slowly. “Dariya?”

  She looks up and gives me a sheepish look like I caught her doing something wrong. “Sorry about that. My dad wanted to play a trick on you.”

  I stood there shocked. I can’t believe he would do something like that. Her voice was small. “I know what you are going to say. He said you were going to pay him back for that.” I look down at her, still in shock.

  I clear my thoughts for a second. “Your dad is right. Why would he do that?”

  Her smile grew. “Two reasons actually. One to keep you on your toes and two, to give me information about the Dragon Stone.”

  She proceeds to tell us everything that was said. I can’t believe I didn’t think about that myself. I should have known the demons didn’t have t
hat big of an army. They would have destroyed us by now. I never even thought the stone would be here of all places.

  Bexley sits next to Dariya and Kiernan and hugs them both. “Seems the old man still has tricks up his sleeves. I’m glad to hear good news for once. Looks like we don’t need that other Seer after all.”

  I sit down with them bringing my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around them. “I think we will still need that Seer. I just hope whoever it is, is trying to keep Dariya alive for the right reasons and not use her to their advantage. I would like more information on it all.”

  I look up at the darkening sky and send up a silence pray. We are going to need them to stay a step ahead.

  Chapter Eight

  Bruno

  Just looking at the demons makes me want to kill them. The pure evil that pours from them gives off a sickly smell. Why are they guarding the old Moon Base? What are they hiding in there?

  Rome leans over and whispers to me. “You know if we do a surprise attack, we can take them. There is only four of them.”

  I look over at him and glare. “Unlike you, I would like to live another day. Even if we do defeat them. Dariya would hang us. I’m not about to disobey her. She does have a point, we can’t take them on. Not right now. We will figure out a way soon, I just want to know what they are hiding in there.”

  He shrugs his shoulders like he doesn’t have a care in the world. “I’d rather have fun than sit here and watch them. It makes me want to kill them even faster. I’d rather not find out the answer to that. That is probably where they have been hiding all this time. This place hasn’t been used in over fifty years.”

  I cross my arms across my chest and lean back against the tree. Sooner or later whoever or whatever they are guarding will come out. It’s just a wait and see game.

  I turn my head to Rome. “Have you checked on Keva lately?”

  He looks up at from his laying position. “Yeah, I’ve checked on my wife today. She is fine. Worried I will get myself killed. You know the same old same old.”