Semiramis Series Box Set

by Maya Daniels

  “Little late for that don’t you think?” a male voice echoes around us and I look behind both women at the male staring at us with his arms crossed over his chest.

  Chapter 41

  Alexia…

  Looking over my shoulder, I do a double take. The man standing there looks so familiar my heart skips a beat but I can’t place him. Deep in my bones I feel like I know him, but I don’t think I’ve ever met him before.

  “Who are—” I start but Lucifer cuts me off.

  “Enki! I should’ve known you would not sit this one out. What do you want?” He hikes towards the man.

  “Enki? As in the God of waters?” I frown at Lucifer’s back.

  “The one and only, my dear,” Enki answers, his arrogant tone making me look like an idiot for not knowing straight away so I just want to slap him.

  “Well, good for you,” I chirp with a cheerfulness I don’t feel, making him raise an eyebrow at me. He looks down his nose as if I’m a stain on his shoe.

  “What do you want?” Lucifer is not the one for small talk.

  “What is rightfully mine. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  While they talk quietly, I observe Enki. I still have that feeling that I know him. He is tall, broad-shouldered, dark-haired, and just as disgustingly handsome as the rest of them. I mean really! Is it too much to ask to see an ugly god or goddess? His voice is deep and melodic and I can almost feel the power behind his words when he speaks, like he is trying to trick your mind into doing anything he tells you. Too bad for him that shit doesn’t work on me. Judging by the heated conversation, it doesn’t work on Lucifer, either. I look at Jezzinta from the corner of my eye, and she’s as cool as a cucumber. Good! It doesn’t work on her, either.

  His expressionless face is covered with a long beard, braided and tied up nicely down to his collarbone, but it doesn’t make him look wild. It makes him look wise and respectable. I snort at the thought, and his eyes land on my face. Giving him the most innocent look I can muster, I blink at him. He narrows his eyes at me like he can see through my charade, and my lips twitch. Well with everything spinning out of control, I figure if I go, I’ll go with a bang. Screw all these assholes and their self-righteousness.

  His lips press into a thin white line betraying his displeasure, and I finally grin at him. Well, bare my teeth is more like it.

  “What have you done to her?” He cuts off whatever Lucifer is saying.

  Lucifer frowns, looking back at me, and I smile at him, shrugging one shoulder.

  “We have done nothing but help her and protect her. You should go have that conversation with Tiamat,” he growls, getting into Enki’s face.

  “She is different,” Enki tells him, waving off his comment like it’s nonsense.

  “And how would you know?” I ask him in hopes he will say something to make me remember where I know him from.

  He takes a step back like I actually slap him and looks incredulously at Lucifer as if the angel will tell him I’m crazy or something. That actually makes me look at Anzu. I wonder if he knows Enki, too, and that’s why he didn’t warn us of his approach. My heart skips a beat when I see Anzu and the other one, whose name I don’t know, still like they’re frozen in place with a blueish shimmer around them.

  “What did you do to them?” I snap at Enki.

  “They’re fine. I just didn’t want them getting involved in this.” He sniffs.

  “They’re not fine, you asshole. How dare you?” I yell at him and lift my hands to remove whatever he has placed around them.

  As I remove it, it forms again in the same second. I frown and look at Enki. His hand is raised, too, and he’s smirking at me.

  “Release them!” I say through clenched teeth.

  “We can’t have a conversation if I do. It seems like they are protective of you,” he says the last words like that idea disgusts him.

  “There is nothing for you here. You should leave.” Lucifer grabs Enki’s arm and propels him away from us, making him stumble.

  “Oh, I don’t think I’m going to do that, angel. The tablets were mine before Inanna played her tricks and stole them from me. I’m taking them. You don’t think she exists only because I had nothing better to do, do you?” He points at me and my entire existence halts.

  My mind, my heart, my blood … everything stops at those simple words. I stare at him, not breathing as I search his face. He looks at me and gives me the biggest grin I have ever seen. I still can’t breathe and I’m starting to get lightheaded. Black spots dance in the corners of my eyes.

  “Oh, sweet goddess,” I whisper through numb lips, unable to take my eyes off him.

  “Alexia, breathe!” Lucifer’s words make me take a much-needed breath.

  “He made me, didn’t he?” I still don’t take my eyes of Enki even though I’m talking to Lucifer.

  “Yes, I am your creator—or your father. However you wish to regard it is fine with me,” Enki says arrogantly.

  Faded memories from when I was a child play in my head. That’s why I remember seeing him. He was around for a little while before he disappeared and left me with my mother. I think I’ve had way too many shocks the last couple of days because my entire insides are shaking.

  “Okay, Darth Vader, cut the shit! We get it!” Jezzinta snaps angrily at Enki, making him look at her with a frown. “See? You’re nothing to her if you don’t understand what I just said. She’s a nerd and you’re not.”

  She says it so matter-of-factly that you would think she just performed a DNA test and announced, “Enki, you are not the father.” Lucifer looks confused, too, and that is all I need to snap out of my shock. I look at Jezzinta gratefully. She nods her head as if that means mission accomplished. In a way, I guess it does.

  I look at Enki with new eyes. This man, god—whatever you want to call him—is the one that made me. The one who gave me life. I’ve spent my entire life begging silently to whoever would listen to let me meet him. I don’t know what I was hoping to achieve, but I wanted it so bad it overtook a part of me I never recovered. Now here he is, standing tall and proud in front of me, as arrogant as anyone I’ve ever known, and I have Lucifer around me twenty-four-seven. I have no idea what I expected. For him to hug me, to tell me he missed me, or even loved me. Whatever it was, he falls short. His first words are about the tablets and only the tablets.

  “Oh. Are you disappointed, Alexia?” His look and words are so patronizing, anger bubbles up in my chest.

  “I’m just a tool to you,” It’s not a question, it’s a statement.

  I don’t think he can read the turmoil in me, because he smiles as if I just told him he won the lottery, then he sighs. Or maybe he expected more drama.

  “That is why you were created, yes,” he tells me proudly. I stare at him.

  “She is not a tool!” Lucifer punches him in the face, making him fall to his side in the sand. “She will never be a tool, not if I can help it!” he yells down at him.

  I stay where I am and stare at him. Enki starts chuckling and wipes the blood from his lip with the back of his hand. His eyes sparkle with laughter as he looks up at Lucifer almost like he is lounging, waiting for us to feed him grapes. He is bare-chested and the blue fabric wrapped around his waist has lifted enough that his muscular things are in plain view. Luckily his dangly bits stay covered. I don’t think I can survive that image.

  “Oh, this is getting better and better by the moment.” He keeps chuckling “Lucifer is in love with my creation.”

  With that, he throws his head back and laughs so hard tears slide from the corners of his eyes before he flops on his back, pounding his fists on the sand. Lucifer’s anger blasts me. The hairs on my arms and neck stand straight, and I see Jezzinta rubbing her hands over her arms, but she says nothing. The longer Enki laughs, the more painful the prickling on my skin gets. My legs start moving without my permission, and when I reach Lucifer I lean my body into his side wrapping an arm around his waist. Like a swit
ch, the prickling stops and I kiss his chest.

  “He isn’t worth it,” I tell him, and he searches my eyes to see if I’m telling him the truth.

  I let him see it all. The hope, the expectations, the disappointment, the pain, and the acceptance of it all. And I really do accept it all. His eyes soften and he pulls me closer, giving me a gentle kiss on the lips.

  “You are not a tool,” he tells me.

  “I’m not?” I snort ungracefully.

  “No. You are not. He may be your creator, but he knows nothing of who and what you are, my love. We all know nothing. He may have planted a seed, but he did not know what would come of it apart from it being a tree. If it would grow to be an oak …” He kisses me again. “Or an apple tree,” he finishes quietly, brushing his fingers on the apple shaped brand at my wrist.

  I search his eyes, my mind whirling to figure out his cryptic words. Can he be telling the truth? Can I truly be more than what I have been told I am my entire life, or lifetimes for that matter? His ancient, star-filled eyes watch me, unblinking, with so much love and acceptance, it makes me want to cry. I want to believe his words so badly that my hands start shaking around him.

  “I have been a blind fool for many lifetimes. I do not care who or what you are, Alexia. I love you for it all. Everything that you are, everything that you will become. All of it. Whatever that is, it is mine and I will fight to keep it. Even if I have to fight you for it.”

  “How sentimental! Unfortunately, I don’t have time for this. Come along, Alexia, we are leaving.” Enki’s bored voice breaks whatever magick Lucifer has been weaving with his words. Unfortunately for Enki, everything the angel says takes root deep in my core.

  “And where exactly are we going?” I ask him.

  “Back to my realm, where you belong. The tablets are mine and they will stay with me.” He speaks slowly like I’m stupid.

  “Oh, okay, then. I’ll get right on that!” I shake my head at him.

  “In all seriousness, you should just go home and reflect on your choices,” Jezzinta says to Enki and I turn to look at her. She’s been standing there watching everything quietly.

  “You are coming with me!” He snaps at me, and I take a step away from Lucifer.

  “You’ll have to make me,” I tell him simply and push fire as hard as I can out of my hands towards him.

  It engulfs him completely, and for a second, I sag with relief, at least until he steps out of it, steam coming off his skin but otherwise unharmed.

  “You can’t fight me; I made you,” he says through clenched teeth.

  “Maybe she cannot, but I can.” Before the last word leaves his lips, Lucifer’s power slams into Enki, propelling him into the air and tossing him away.

  Like an acrobat, he twists his body in the air and lands on one knee thirty feet away, making a cloud of sand and dust puff out around him. He lifts his head slowly, his hair wild around his face as he gives Lucifer a feral smile.

  “I haven’t had a good brawl in a long time,” he says.

  He stands up and a powerful blast of water comes out of him, hitting Lucifer in the chest and surrounding him like a bubble. I can see him struggling to push out of it, his wings making it more difficult to twist and turn in the water. I reach a hand inside it, pulling the water to me and away from him. Turning around, I send it back to Enki. He frowns at me as if he thinks I’m betraying him or something. The arrogance of these entities is mind-blowing. Lucifer doesn’t hesitate. His rage is almost palpable, and he sends his power towards Enki at full force. It’s almost too painful to stand this close to it, and I hear Jezzinta gasp as she drops to her knees. I lift my hands, placing a barrier around her to protect her from it all. Thunder and lightning split the sky, which was, a second ago, light blue with not a cloud in sight. In the middle of all the noise, there’s a strong ripple in the veil between realms, like a rubber band has snapped, but I can’t concentrate on it because I’m almost done placing the protective bubble around my sister.

  The thunders are getting louder, the blood rushing through my veins pounding in my ears, making it sound like I’m standing on the coast of the ocean in the middle of the storm surrounding me, but I ignore it all. She will be protected before I join Lucifer. Just as the dome closes around Jezzinta, she lifts her head to look at me and her eyes widen at something behind me. As I’m about to turn, a clawed hand as big as my body wraps around me, squeezing the life out of me.

  “Stop!” The booming voice makes my ears pop and all the noise stops the same second.

  My eyes go straight to Enki and, as our eyes meet, his widen before they narrow, as if I have done something wrong to him. Warmth drips down my body and I glance down to see my blood flowing freely where the claws are digging deep into me.

  At this very moment, I understand why they say, “be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.” I used to think, what a load of crap. Why would I be careful if I want it? Well … sometimes what you wish for at the time is not what you want. I know it now that I’m staring at his face and see my life flash before my eyes while my blood soaks the dirt at my feet. A self-deprecating smile tugs at my lips and I close my eyes, surrendering to the darkness that is too happy to take me into its embrace, thinking how uneventful my death is after everything.

  Chapter 42

  Lucifer…

  Seeing Tiamat in her dragon form, holding Alexia like a toy in her claws while her head, arms, and legs are dangling overwhelms me with so many emotions I am frozen in place, empty of everything. There is no anger, joy, rage or … anything. Emptiness overtakes me and I stand, staring at nothing in particular. I hear Enki panting next to me but it sounds muted somehow so I ignore it.

  “Where are the tablets?” she booms, shaking her hand holding Alexia, making blood spray all over the sand. Saplings start growing immediately.

  I look at Enki, and he presses his mouth in a thin line, saying nothing. A blinking light gets my attention and I see a barrier that Alexia must have placed wink out of existence around Jezzinta. It’s like the final nail in a coffin. I don’t need to see it to know her connection with the light workers no longer exists. They will soon leave the realm of the living as well.

  I still cannot move, overcome by the silence in me. Anzu and the other creature are the same. Like stone gargoyles, they don’t even blink.

  “We don’t know and you better end me, too, you bitch, since you just took my sister!” Jezzinta speaks bravely or stupidly, I cannot decide which, while making boulders fly from under the sand towards Tiamat.

  Tiamat’s huge head twists to look at her, and in a swift move, she grabs Jezzinta, stabbing her body with her claws as she flings her away like she is a pebble.

  “Where are they?” she roars, shaking Alexia’s limp body at us. The only thing I can think of is how much Alexia will hurt when she sees what happened to her last remaining sister.

  “You should not have done that.” My voice is so soft and hoarse I can barely hear it myself.

  Enki jerks his head towards me like I have screamed the words, and widening his eyes, he takes a step away from me. I do not know why; I still feel nothing. The silence in me after everything Alexia woke in me is deafening. Tiamat stops shaking her hand and leans her head down, closing in on my face.

  “And why should I have not, angel?” Her voice hisses, her calculating eye zooming in on my face with clearly-visible glee.

  “She will hurt when she sees her sister is gone. She has suffered much. I do not like it when she hurts. It makes me want to destroy things.” I still speak softly and evenly, wondering how I am even capable of speech.

  Enki takes another step back but Tiamat is still too focused on me. I move my eyes from Alexia’s body to look at Tiamat’s eye, which is looking at me, her head tilted to the side so she can see me clearly. Her vertical pupil expands and contracts, scrutinizing me. I stare at it numbly.

  “You mean to tell me you care about this thing and not the tablets of destiny?�
�� She lifts, waving Alexia in my face.

  Her hair swings around, sending the smell of jasmine and roses to my nose. I take a deep breath. There is pressure in my chest, like she is squeezing me with her claws, not Alexia.

  “I do not care about your damned tablets, or any of you for that matter. Give her to me!”

  “I don’t think so, not until you tell me where they are.” She pulls her hand close to her body.

  “They were not here.” Enki speaks for the first time.

  “You lie!” She hisses in his face

  “I don’t lie, Mother. They are not here. No one knows where they are,” he tells her, and if I had not known better, I would’ve believed him.

  “You all lie! You killed my consort and stole them, greed for power fueling your hatred. Didn’t you think you would all pay for your actions?” Tiamat gets her face close to Enki, hiding Alexia from my view, and that is when something breaks inside me, like someone has broken a bone.

  With a roar louder than any sound that has ever come from my chest, I grab Tiamat’s head and twist, flipping her entire body over. She lands on her back. As the ground shakes from the impact, I pull her claws, breaking them apart. Then I bring Alexia to my chest, dropping on my knees where I stand.

  “Open your eyes, Alexia. Look at me … please.” My voice cracks and I clear my throat.

  Her eyes are closed, like she is sleeping, her dark lashes casting crescent shadows on her cheeks. Her lips are slightly parted, and she looks so peaceful I cannot help it when I bend my head and kiss her. Her lips don’t move. They are soft like petals but there is no life in them. They stay as they are. I watch for any sign that she is still with me. I hear Tiamat move and Enki starts fighting her, but I cannot think of why, or whether they will turn on me next. Smoothing Alexia’s hair from her face, I wrench her closer to me still.