by Dianna Hardy
Her skin pricked with an odd sensation.
‘There's darkness in you, I can feel it.’
Calm stole over her, as a thought form, not within her mind, but deep within her soul, emerged. It felt like a cocoon unfurling.
Her mum frowned at her, then tugged at her arm again. “Elena, please.”
Behind her, she heard the sound of shells cracking.
“It’s a big issue of yours isn’t it?” she asked him. “Darkness.”
“You saw how it swallowed up my home,” his voice quavered, and he coughed. “Some kind of blackness with an agenda; my very first apocalypse.”
“And this same blackness, you later found in Lilith.”
Pain flashed across his eyes, and after a beat, he nodded. “It’s … uncontrollable.”
She nodded, slowly, in understanding, and put her hands back on God’s chest, ignoring the way they squelched and slid across him. No words were needed. Her natural, healing magic flowed through her, and bathed him in green light.
“Elena, no!”
But her mother wouldn’t be able to stop her and they both knew it.
“Katherine, we need to go.”
Her mother shrugged Paul off.
God’s skin repaired itself, new blood flowed through his veins as his cells replicated under Elena’s command. Colour returned to his cheeks and he sat up, completely healed, and stared at her in shock.
Her mother’s voice echoed his expression. “What the hell are you doing? This isn’t Karl.”
“They’re fused together.”
“Exactly. He’s—”
“I’ll take them both.”
The hatching of the eggs seemed ten times louder in the stunned silence.
“You’ll … Elena—”
“I’ll take them both. I’m not giving up on Karl. If they come as a package, so be it.”
“Elena—”
“Leave – while you can.”
An almighty crash sounded through the tunnels, rock falling, and then a deafening roar. Everyone had cleared out of the cave, except for her mother, Katarra, Ri Tian, and her grandfather.
“Mum, look at me. This is my wish. I have a clear head – this is my wish. Do this for me.”
Her mother’s eyes gleamed in the dim light.
“Katherine,” said her granddad, “if we don’t leave now, we don’t leave at all.”
“I’ll stay with her,” said Katarra, and then looked at Elena for confirmation. The demon looked positively green, her pallor already the colour of the dead.
Elena nodded.
Her mother took in a shuddering breath. “Okay, sweetie,” and then grasped her face and held her close, placing a kiss on her forehead. “Okay.”
“I love you, Mum.”
“I love you, too.”
Her grandfather squeezed her arm. “Take care.”
“Wait!” She reached into her pocket, pulled out Mary’s necklace and placed it in his hand. “I thought this was meant for me. Clearly not. Use it to get out of here if you need to.”
He took in a breath. “Thank you.” And then he all but dragged her mother out of there and back through the tunnel.
Elena turned to Ri Tian.
He nodded once, placed his hand upon his duplicate necklace, mumbled something in a language foreign to Elena, and then disappeared.
She returned her attention to the man she had just healed.
God leaned forward until he was kneeling, testing his weight as he did so. “I don’t know if I want to—”
“You stole an innocent man’s body for your own need. You only get one more choice, and be grateful I’m giving you one, because I’m not in a very giving mood right now.” She glanced from him to Lilith’s tomb.
‘You’re my whole world, Elena.’
“Would you give up everything to be with her again?”
He didn’t even hesitate. His eyes grew steady as he followed her gaze. “I would. Of course I would.”
She stood and made her way to the carving on the plinth. “Libero.”
A gasp sounded from behind her, as Lilith’s statue split and cracked right along with the eggs. “How … what’s going on? What are you doing?”
She didn’t answer, but climbed onto the statue and sat astride it. She turned back and looked him in the eye. “Tell me again, who I remind you of.”
He rose to his feet.
“It was Lilith you were talking about back at the house when you said that, wasn’t it?”
After a pause, he nodded.
“Eve created this tomb, not just from her fractured memory, but from the essence of Lilith herself which she pulled from the nucleus of Tír na nÓg.”
Understanding filled his features.
“This is your lucky day.” Her words strained as her eyes welled up. “I’m going to give you your happy ending, because it’s the only way I’m going to get mine.”
She nodded to Katarra. “Make sure he doesn’t run away.”
She smiled a weak smile, muttered some words in her Brujii tongue, and a dome-like shield encased him.
He looked startled, but didn’t move.
Elena turned back to the stone statue. Cracked and broken, it looked so much like a Shanka.
Are you still with me on this? Elena asked the demon inside her.
The succubus tilted her head in what seemed like contemplation to Elena’s mind. He loves her, doesn’t he? Uncontrollably so, which is why he’s tried so hard to control everything.
Yes, he does. As much as Karl loves me, and his angel loves you.
Then I think this will work. But it doesn’t matter – this is the end. It’s all or nothing. Let’s do it.
Elena lay herself, face down, along the length of the statue, placed her hands on either side of the cold stone, and called forth the power she wielded over life and death … just as the eggs hatched, and the screech of seven baby dragons filled the air.
~*~
Katherine raced through the tunnel with her father. She knew what Elena had in mind, because she’d seen it in a vision earlier that night. She had recounted her vision to her father after calling him in panic from her own house. She’d had to go back there; had had to revisit a thousand memories that lived in that home: Elena being born; at age two and grumpily teething; at age four and crying over not having enough fingers to count to twenty; at age five and beaming with pride as the stabilizers came off her bicycle; at age ten, twelve, fifteen… Her whole life she had shut her daughter out – what a lie. Elena had never left; she’d always been in her heart.
And this was hard – much harder than sacrificing herself for her daughter. It was everything she could do not to turn around and race back the other way, to take her baby in her arms one last time… She hadn’t been able to see the outcome in her vision.
The faint light at the end of the tunnel blurred behind her tears.
Finally, they came out the other side, back into the first chamber, and she collided into the back of her father who had stopped dead in his tracks.
And now, she could see why.
The Dragon stood before them, from ground to ceiling – not that there was really a ceiling. It must have been about fifty feet tall.
Her heart clambered up into her throat, stifling any scream that might have been trying to get out.
Around the beast’s neck was a thick, industrial-strength chain, and on the other end of the chain was Abaddon. He sat atop the animal, with a wide, proud grin on his face, as if he was going to take it to some Jurassic version of Crufts. “Always wanted to chain her up and ride her,” he bellowed.
The Dragon roared and threw its head back, smoke hurtling out of its nose.
Abaddon laughed. “Relax, you grumpy sod – you won. She’s all yours. But this is my final moment, so I get to say what I want.”
A loud, dangerous huff was his reply.
The Dragon changed tactic and lowered his head down to the ground towards herself and her father.
Christ!
Morgana had told them about Mary and Gwain’s blood infiltrating the Dragon and creating the consciousness for the reptile, but … wow.
It moved its gigantic head to the left and right, and then above them as if looking for something.
“Karl’s not coming,” voiced Abaddon, and Katherine spotted some object on his chest glowing as he spoke – Mary’s tear. She’d heard of it, but had never seen it. Until now. Was that how he was able to communicate with the Dragon?
Its next roar practically deafened her for a good thirty seconds.
“Whoa!” Abaddon pulled on the chain. “Elena’s with him.”
That seemed to calm the Dragon – almost instantaneously, actually, and strangely, Katherine also felt calmer witnessing the beast’s reaction.
From behind the Dragon stepped Lucifer and Michael, both of them looking warily at the creature.
“Right,” Abaddon addressed his audience. “I’m taking this baby up. This is the final act – mine, anyway. All passengers for the Fat Lady, hop on board now, and grab a chain-link.”
Michael was the first one up, using his wings to get there. Katherine strained to hear what he said to Abaddon. “So, this is how it ends for us.”
“There are worse ways to go, my friend. I should know – I’ve been the cause of quite a few endings … nothing quite like this…”
Lucifer stood next to Katherine. “I’ll fly you and Paul up.”
She looked at him, trying to gauge what he might be thinking after witnessing God’s recounting and learning Eve’s place in it all. He’d become impenetrable again. “Thanks.”
Something small and cool was pressed into her hand.
Startled, she looked down to find her father closing her hand around Mary’s necklace. “What the hell is this?” she started angrily.
“Use it to get out if you need to.”
“Don’t you dare—”
“I think Elena will succeed. In fact, I know she will. I taught her; I know her capabilities, and unless I’m mistaken, she’s consumed Brujii magic on top of her own abilities. She’ll succeed, and she’s going to need me.”
“I’ll stay.”
“No.”
“You have a son!”
“I have a granddaughter.” She was brought into an embrace and kissed, just as she had kissed Elena on the forehead. “I have a daughter – the best one I could have asked for.”
“Dad…”
He glanced at Lucifer. “Take her.”
“No!” Not enough time!
Lucifer complied, and she was whisked upwards until she was seated on warm scales, his arms keeping her in place.
She looked down to say goodbye, to say she loved him, to say anything that meant she’d get to speak to him again, but he had already gone.
“He knows,” whispered Lucifer. “He knows you love him, and he loves you more than you know.”
Her tears were silent as the Dragon turned to prepare for its flight. She leaned back against the angel, but all of a sudden felt him tense behind her.
Spinning round, she took in his face and then followed his gaze to the far side of the cavern. There was nothing there but blackness and shadows, and…
She caught her breath.
A flicker of gold hair; blue eyes, stark against a pale complexion… It was so blindingly fast, she wasn’t sure she’d seen it at all, but she must have done because that blurred face imprinted itself into her mind.
Waves of need rolled off Lucifer, matching the despair in his voice. “Eve…”
She grabbed him just as he shifted his weight to get off. “You don’t have to go to her, you don’t! It might not even have been her. Lucifer, you’ve been chasing a memory your entire existence; not even your memory – God’s memory. It’s time to let it go.”
He looked at her, uncertain, and all that was indecipherable fell away from him. If she thought she couldn’t penetrate him before, now, he was an unguarded beacon that shone his vulnerability into every corner … and yet, beacons could burn; become wild if untempered.
“The clawing desperation you feel right now, is part of your addiction. Beat it. You’re stronger than this.”
He still stared at the spot, unable to look away.
“Lucifer … your light is so bright. Meet the end riding a Dragon through the skies of the future, not following history into the dark of the Earth.”
Finally, he looked at her, defeated. “You’re extraordinary, you know that?” He ran his forefinger down her throat; over her heart… “Everything you’ve overcome… You’re stronger than your addiction; mine still feeds me.”
In one movement, he was over the Dragon’s side, already in snake form, slithering down its leg.
She followed his passage into the shadows, until she could see him no more.
Everything rocked backwards and she yelped.
Michael’s hand found her arm, and he pulled her in tight behind him. “Hold on!”
She did, tightly clutching the necklace her father had given her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spied seven small figures scurry in from the tunnel. The baby dragons!
Her heart constricted as she thought of Elena and her father, and she sent out a prayer, although she had no idea who might hear it – God wasn’t an option.
The Dragon leapt from its hind legs, Abaddon whooped into the open darkness above them, and then they were speeding upwards, to greet the dawn of a new day.
Chapter Twenty-Six
To watch true magic at play was something else.
She didn’t think anything would compare to seeing those seven eggs hatch; those dragons stagger out in search of their parent… Dragons – I’ve seen dragons!
But Elena, at full potency, swept everything else under the carpet.
The Brujii had always had a great love and passion for magic, and not just because it was the ‘gift’ forced upon them. Magic was a thing beautiful to behold when it flowed with grace and power.
Katarra tried to sit up a bit and winced. Her body was failing, her life force barely there. At least death’s door offered one hell of a view.
Elena lay, as if frozen, on top of Lilith’s stone form. A faint, green glow emanated from her skin, but that was just the natural colour of her craft. What Katarra fixated on was the shifting air surrounding her, so much so, that Elena seemed to be a mirage, or encased in a heat wave…
An earth-shaking roar sounded from beyond the tunnels.
Elena didn’t seem to notice, even though Katarra, herself, jumped out of her skin.
The shimmering haze that enveloped the witch and the tomb, thickened without warning, until neither could be seen. Pouring mist took up the centre of the cave.
Katarra risked a glance at God. He remained in the bubble she’d placed around him, looking like a scared rabbit. The bubble wouldn’t last very long – the minute she died, so would that dome cage.
Something fluttered in front of her face and she swiped at it, both annoyed and startled, and then became very still as she understood what she was witnessing: butterflies.
Another flittered past her, and she gasped as hundreds upon hundreds became visible, resting on all walls of the cavern; some of them in flight, and freakin’ hell! A swarm of butterflies crazy-flying around you as you instinctively ducked to avoid getting wings in your eyes and mouth, was scary as shit. She didn’t need to be told they were a manifestation of the witch’s magic.
“Elena?” she called out, her voice frighteningly weak. “Elena…”
A shadow stood in the coiling mist. It moved towards her until the contrast between dark and light grew, and physical form became clearer – Elena’s form, although … something was different. The way she carried herself? Yes, it was the way she
walked, and the reality hit Katarra as surely as her imminent death.
No way … it can’t be. And yet, it could – only Elena could have done it. To bring back the dead was one thing. To bring back those dead for too many millennia to count, was something else entirely.
Lilith emerged.
Her skin still carried a green hue that radiated, just as God’s clothes had glowed golden. The telling difference was in her eyes, her gaze simply ancient.
Fuck me, she did it!
Katarra fell back, slumping against half a shell of a dragon’s egg, no longer able to hold herself up. Her eyes closed as remembered words tumbled from her lips… “As Shanka fall, old love will wake eternal sleep … the final quake.”
Elena had fused with Lilith.
The last thing Katarra knew, was that the core of the Earth began to shake.
~*~
It took a while for her eyes to focus, and even when they did, all she could see was the last thing she had ever seen: his face.
The pain of the memory was almost too much to bear.
There had not been much of anything after that: a sense of peace, and then an eternity of unease as the light of peace was ripped from her. But what was eternity, when that final memory had branded her mind? Eternity was a second, that was all – a second gone wrong, resting in the flux of a decision made that defined forever.
She saw a red-haired woman lying dead on the ground. Or maybe she was sleeping. Either way, she hoped that eternity would be kinder to her.
The ground began to shake under her feet and all around her.
A strangled noise sounded from her left.
She turned and saw a man, and her first thought was that the dead woman must have meant something to him … but he was staring at her, not the red-head, shock in his gaze.
He blinked, and then blinked again… “Lilith?”
Maybe it was the way he’d said her name, or the fact that she hadn’t heard it uttered for an age, but in that moment, she saw the man that lay within the stranger’s body: she saw her God.
Dumbfounded, she opened her mouth, expecting nothing. Her fluent mother tongue poured out. “My God … husband mine…” And then a flood of tears.
He stumbled towards her. When his fingers touched her skin, she might have burst into a million pieces.
