by Mary Duke
I watched as the blood I’d spread across the map began to come together. “I know,” I said aloud, though I didn’t know if it was loud enough for him to hear me.
“There’s something I believe you should know; it’s about Hel, what her plan truly is.”
I ignored him focusing my energy before I downed the remaining blood in the vial.
“Who are you?” a young man said rising from the chair he sat in.
“Who I am doesn’t matter.”
He threw the fork he had in his hand at me, and his eyes grew wide in fear as he watched it pass right through me.
“That wasn’t very nice,” I said, walking around the table out of habit.
“You’re not really here.”
“Physically, no. However,” I said waving my hand across the table sending the plate and remaining silverware flying towards him. “My energy is everywhere.”
He looked down at his arm and the fresh blood that began to well at the surface of the cut from the knife as it flew past him.
“Who are you?”
I gasped sarcastically and slowly spun around in a circle. “You mean your father never told you about me?”
“You know my father?”
“Yes, Fabien, I know your father. He is the reason I am here.”
“Oh? Does that mean I can leave? Is he going to let me out of here?”
“Is this not your home?”
“No,” the young man answered as he backed himself up against the door. “My father showed up for the first time in years, grabbed ahold of my hands, and before I could react we were here.”
“Interesting,” I said as I continued to walk closer to him.
“If you know him, you know what he was planning, right? Well, I guess if you’re here he already did it, and I’m no longer leverage that can be used against him.”
“Actually,” I said as I could feel my blood begin to boil, “Your father’s plan failed, that is why I am here.”
“Wait.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have time for that. You see. Your father's big plan was to stab me in the back, and when that fell through he tried to kill me.”
“I…” Fabien said, his voice now full of fear. “I had nothing to do with any of this. This is between you and him. Leave me out of it.”
I smiled. “But you see, I can’t do that, because this does concern you.”
“My dad’s been MIA for most of my life; trust me when I say that if you want him dead, I will not stand in your way.”
I laughed. “Oh, child. Please. That’s not the reason. You see, your father put a curse on my family, a long, long time ago. He and I struck a deal so that in the end we would both be free.”
“Again,” Fabien said. “That’s with Quint, not with me.”
“The deal was struck with Quint; however, if I kill him, the contracts he’s made pass to his oldest son. Now if I am right, that is you…correct?”
Fabien froze. “I don’t want his contracts. I don’t want anything to do with his business. I don’t believe in it.”
“You wouldn’t have a choice. It would happen whether you wanted it to or not.”
“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”
“I’m afraid so. I really don’t have any other options,” I said as I reached for the sides of his head and focused my energy, so I could reap his soul from his body.
Chapter Thirteen
SNO
“Where are we?” I asked.
“We’re in a cave,” Kegan answered.
“Obviously,” I shot back, looking back at Illiah.
“Don’t ask me,” she said holding her hands up.
Thanatos began walking away from us. “We’re in the Cave of Clarity.”
“Okay,’ I said. “And where are you going?”
“I think you mean we,” Thanatos corrected me.
I looked to the others, unsure if we were really going to follow him.
Illiah began walking towards him. “Where exactly is the Cave of Clarity?”
Thanatos chuckled. “You really don’t know much about the Dark Mountain, do you?”
“We’re in the mountain?”
He nodded.
“So,” Zavery said. “No one can find us here?”
“Nope. Well, not as long as Illiah remains alive.”
“Is that a waterfall?” I asked as the thundering grew louder.
“Yes,” Thanatos answered. “It sounds more ferocious than it actually is. I think it’s the cave walls or something.”
Illiah gasped as we walked into the clearing. “It’s beautiful.”
“It is,” I agreed, though the sight of all the dragons’ gold made my heart ache for Eris.
Kegan could feel my pain and whispered to me, “Eris and Alec will be fine.”
“I don’t think I should have let her stay,” I said regretting that split-second decision we made before entering the gate that brought us here.
“There’s much you don’t yet know about her. Believe me when I say that she has more than one way to protect herself, and Alec is just as capable.”
“I’m sure. But the darkness that lingered over the island. It…” I said struggling to find the right words to describe it.
“It was death,” Kegan replied. “Well, that limbo phase right before death.”
“You know I didn’t get that. I mean, I’m thankful that she didn’t kill the dragons. Why didn’t she when she could have so easily? I think everyone knows that they are the least forgiving creatures, and if I had to wager a bet, I would say that she’s just made some serious enemies.”
“I have no doubt she has made some enemies, especially because Dragons hate feeling as though they’ve been spared. To them, if someone spares your life, you’re indebted to them, and dragons don’t do well when they’ve been backed into the corner.”
“Now,” Zavery said, joining into our conversation. “Do you think she spared them for that reason, or because she didn’t want to deal with the Dragons’ curse.”
“Dragons’ curse?” I repeated.
“If you kill a dragon, there’s a few other creatures too, it’s said that you’ll become cursed with bad luck.”
Thanatos laughed. “Now, I’ve never heard of killing a dragon giving you bad luck. Though if you kill a dragon, you’ll be marked. A dragon’s eye tattoo will appear on the tops of your hands, and it will only be visible to dragons and dragon riders. Now, as I’m sure you know, dragons are a tight-knit group, so anytime someone is found with that, they’re hunted and killed.”
“That makes sense,” I agreed, running my hand across a patch of the Dragons’ Gold, the moss that illuminated the cave. “So, why did you bring us here?”
“I take it none of you have been here?” Thanatos asked.
“I have,” Kegan said.
“Would you like to explain what happens then?”
“I’ll let you handle it. I’m sure you have a reason.”
“In fact I do. You see, this is the Cave of Clarity. It was created by a friend of my fathers, and given to him as a gift when my father created our world. When you submerge yourself in the water, you lose all emotion. Now, it’s not as bad as it sounds. You lose fear, anxiety, want, and all the other overbearing emotions that cloud your judgment. You become connected with your subconscious on a level only achieved in the deepest levels of meditation. At this moment, you can see all that troubles you. All that weighs on your shoulders. All the choices you have to make, and you see all of this clearly. The good, the bad, the consequences: it’s all right before you.”
“Wait,” I said. “Are you saying you’re having second thoughts about the deal we’ve made?”
“Not exactly,” Thanatos replied, walking into the water. “It’s just that when I was locked away, I was conflicted with the world one way; while I was here in the mountain, I came to terms with many of the things that tore me apart. Then when I was freed, I learn that…well, we won’t go into that right now
. Let’s just say, you’ll understand exactly what I mean when we enter.”
I looked to Kegan. “Is it safe?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “And I believe it may do you some good.”
I followed Zavery into the water, watching as Thanatos took a deep breath before letting himself fall backwards.
I didn’t know what to expect, but I was excited. I loved meditating, I loved the feeling of clarity, and it was something I haven’t had in what seemed like a very long time.
Taking a deep breath, I lowered myself under the water.
It was just as Thanatos had said it would be. I felt at peace. There was no rush to make decisions. I couldn’t feel the weight that I’d carried on my shoulders for so long.
Then a voice reached out to me; it was one I had never heard before. “What brings you here, Sno?”
I didn’t answer. I wasn’t expecting someone else to be here. I wasn’t expecting someone else to know all that troubled me most.
“Do not fear me,” he said. “Your thoughts will remain private.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Weylin. I am the creator of this place.”
“Why didn’t Thanatos mention you’d be here?”
“Because no one remembers that once they leave. After we end our discussion, and you receive the clarity that you need, you’ll leave here believing that you achieved all of these decisions on your own.”
“Are you saying I won’t?”
“No, no. I will not steer you in one direction or the other, I am just here to listen.”
“Oh,” I replied.
“And I can tell there’s a lot that you need to say.”
He was right. I did have a lot to say and an overwhelming urge to spill my deepest conflicts with him. What I didn’t have, oddly enough, was fear.
“It’s the water,” Weylin said. “Fear is one of the first emotions it takes away.”
“So you know what I’m thinking?”
“Yes.”
“Well then, I guess you already know what answers I’m here to retrieve.”
“I do, but you need to ask aloud. There’s something about hearing yourself ask, that helps you accept the answer you come to.”
“Am I making the right decision? Did we side with the right people?”
“I’m going to pick a quote from…I believe it was your mother, ‘if you have to ask that question, you already know its answer.’”
I smiled. He was right. She was right, she was always right when she said that.
“How do I fix it? I mean…There really isn’t a good choice, is there? Either way I go is the wrong way. If I continue with the plan Vera has made, there are consequences. If I do nothing, there are consequences.”
“Maybe there is a third option you haven’t yet thought of?”
“What’s that?” I asked before I opened my mouth and gasped for air.
*THANATOS*
“It has been some time since you have come to visit me,” Weylin said.
“That wasn’t my choice,” I said. “Believe me there were many nights I would have given anything for clarity.”
Weylin chuckled. “You are aware that you’re able to reach this level of clarity with practice.”
“I know.”
“But like your father, you too are impatient.”
“I am,” I agreed. “My father, his disappearance, his death…all of it.”
“That’s why you are here.”
“Yes.”
“Those dreams I had, the ones of my sister reaching out to me. Telling me that my mother killed him…I believe them now.”
“What’s changed?”
“I spoke with Holt and Vera. I reached out to Ayana. We all remember the exact same thing. We all recite the same words every time we are asked about it.”
“Do you believe someone planted those memories in your mind?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
“Can you help me? I need to remember the truth.”
“I can, but I don’t know how that it will help you,” Weylin replied.
*ILLIAH*
“I figured you would clam up.”
“Excuse me?” I questioned.
“From the moment you enter the cave, your mind becomes open to me. At that moment, I knew your secrets and all the questions you had.”
“And who are you, exactly?”
“My name is Weylin. I don’t believe we have been introduced yet, though through your grans I do feel as though I know you pretty well.”
“You knew my grans?”
“Very well in fact. I’ve been a part of this mountain since its creation. I have come to know all of its Keepers.”
“Oh.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“This is going to sound stupid, but I had hoped you were my subconscious voice that Thanatos had mentioned, not another part of this mountain.”
“Well, I am both of those things.”
“Really?”
“Indeed,” Weylin replied. “So, what is it you would like to figure out?”
“I made a deal,” I said.
“You made several of them,” he corrected me.
“Yes, I know…And I made one of those deals before I knew what I actually signed up for.”
“Go on, explain.”
“I thought you knew everything.”
“I do. Just trust me.”
“Okay. Well, when I got my immortality, and my magic back, I made a deal with Nyx. I swore that I would kill Thanatos. Now at the time of that deal, I didn’t know anything about him other than what I had been told, nor did I care about him. I just wanted revenge. I wanted Jadea to suffer as I suffered, and the only way I knew to make that happen was to get my powers back.”
“And now?” he pushed for me to elaborate more.
“Now, everything is backward. Nothing is as I thought it was, and I don’t know what to believe…Who to believe.”
“I see.”
“Well, could you do it? Could you follow through with the deal you made with Nyx?”
“No,” I answered truthfully. “I couldn’t.”
“Even if that meant that you’d once again become mortal?”
“I still couldn’t do it. I have no reason, no real reason to want him dead. The more I learn about him, the more he reveals about himself, the more I see that the stories I’d heard were from people who judged him before they knew him.”
“So you’re saying that everything you’ve heard has been a lie?”
“Yes.”
“So would it be true if I said that the truth has set you free?”
*ZAVERY*
“It’s okay,” a man said. “My name is Weylin. I am the creator of the Cave of Clarity.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m just going to go. I don’t feel like explaining my life, or the choices I have to face, to anyone.”
“There is no need to explain anything,” Weylin said. “Everything that you know, everything that you’ve felt, all the decisions that weigh on your shoulders, I know it all.”
“That’s impossible,” I said.
“I’m afraid it is not.”
“If you know, truly know, everything, you know the weight I carry on my shoulders every day.”
“I do.”
“Do you have the answer?”
“I’m afraid your clarity cannot be given the same way most others receive theirs.”
“Figures.”
“This is not a bad thing. In fact, I believe that once you accept you can’t keep others from their destiny, you'll have all the clarity you need.”
“But she doesn’t deserve this,” I argued with him before I heard Illiah’s voice calling my name.
Chapter Fourteen
NYX
“I will not repeat myself,” I said, as I leaned forward in my throne.
“I apologize,” Damatti, the commander of the Realm of the Gods Army, said.
“Mother,” V
era said walking in.
“Now is not a good time. There is too much going on.”
“I know. That is why I am here.”
I rose to my feet, my heart skipping a beat. “Is she here? Has she been spotted? What is it?”
“No. I came here because of you. Can we speak in private?”
“There’s no time for that.”
“Fine, I will say it here in the open for everyone to hear,” she said.
“It can wait for lunch. I’ve requested that you and your siblings join me.”
“No. You need to fix this now. Right now.”
“Fix what?”
“This,” she said pointing out the window to the lines of guards.
“I don’t understand,” I replied.
“You’re lining these men up for slaughter.”
I sat back in my chair.
“They don’t stand a chance against Hel.”
“They are all Demi-Gods,” I shot back. “And they signed up to protect this family at all costs.”
“Yes, to protect us against outsiders.”
“And what is Hel to you?”
Vera hesitated. “Though you have cast her out, Hel is still a Goddess…and after her stunt this morning, she could very well be stronger than any one of us.”
I stood up and walked down the seven stairs that separated us. “What did she do?”
“You mean you haven’t heard? I thought that’s why you were doing all of this.”
I repeated myself, “What did she do?”
“She visited Dragon Island this morning. She killed everyone that lived there and drained about thirty dragons, barely leaving them alive.”
“DAMATTI!” I yelled. “EVOLET!”
“What are you doing?”
I ignored her question. Now wasn’t the time to tell her my plan.
“Yes?” Evolet said as she came out of the door behind the thrones.
“Do you have it?”
“I do,” she said pulling an orb out of her pocket before handing it to me.
“What are you doing?” Vera questioned again.
“Keeping all of you safe,” I replied, gripping the orb in my hands as I said the spell that would absorb Vera’s soul into it. “You need to get the rest of my kids together. I can’t risk her getting ahold of any of them. She will turn them all against me”
