Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 1 (Afterlife saga Book 7)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “Good choice, I would get four.” Pip snapped her fingers and said,

  “Got ya!” and went back for three more.

  “Excuse me but they are one hundred and forty dollars each,” Snooty informed her and then grinned when Pip stopped mid grab. Then she turned her head back to Sophia and said,

  “Umm, at that price I think I will take the lot, you know, in case one accidently on purpose tears.” Then she yanked the whole lot off the shelf and dumped them ungracefully on the counter. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the facial expressions coming from the bitch who obviously hadn’t learnt her lesson from last time.

  “What’s tipping Toots to cuckoo central?” Pip asked Sophia innocently unaware of Miss Attitude. No wonder Adam would stop at nothing to protect her from getting hurt and not in the physical sense.

  “I’m thinking it has a name…Payback.” I heard Sophia whisper this last part in Pip’s ear.

  “Ah how lovely to see you once more, Miss Johnson!” I smiled at the sound of Mr Stanton, the shop owner coming down one of the aisles.

  “Mr…”

  “Tut tut dear, I told you the last time I saw you to call me Thomas. All this Mr Stanton makes me feel old.”

  “Well hello there, handsome.” Pip said sliding right up next to me, being her usual outrageous flirty self. Poor Mr Stanton didn’t know what hit him and blushed as if he was facing Pip in her underwear.

  “And who in the world is this charming young lady?” Pip giggled as if it had been Johnny Depp to say this to her and then pretended to curtsy. Then she held her hand out in a way that he had no other choice but to kiss the back of it.

  “So what will it be today Miss Johnson, another umbrella perhaps?”

  “Soon to be Mrs Draven.” Sophia informed him, stepping forward and introducing herself,

  “Pleasure to meet you, I am Sophia Draven and soon to be Keira’s sister-in-law.” At least I could count on Sophia not to curtsy.

  “Oh well I never! How lovely, have you heard this news Mandy, our town’s patron and well respected Mr Draven is to take this beauty for his wife?” He said clapping his hands once and holding them in front of his lips. I blushed and Pip nudged me and said,

  “That’s you that is.” I laughed once at her cute but obvious comment.

  “I was hoping you had something special that I could give him to wear on the big day.”

  “Oh but we are honoured that you would choose us here at ‘Stanton and Winsor’ for your groom’s gift, aren’t we Mandy?” He asked and when Mandy didn’t answer with enough enthusiasm then her boss shot her a warning look.

  “But of course, Mr Stanton,” she replied taking his silent threat a little bit more serious. After finishing with giving her a pointed look he slapped back on his smile and turned his attention once again to us.

  “What did you have in mind dear?”

  “Well…”

  “He will love it.” Sophia told me once we were all back in the chauffeur driven limo on our way home. I was still clutching the only thing I bought, one that had been close to draining my account of its entire savings but it was worth it.

  “I just need to get it engraved now,” I replied looking up to find both of them looking at me with daft, beaming grins.

  “What?”

  “You do know he will go crazy when he finds out that you spent your savings to buy that, don’t you?” I frowned, arguing,

  “Well I wasn’t about to buy my, kind of already husband, a wedding present with his money and besides, I hate using that card he gave me and…” Sophia held up her hand and said softly,

  “That’s not the kind of crazy I meant.” It finally dawned on me what she was trying to say and was left with no other reply than a quiet little,

  “Oh.”

  “But make no mistake, that money will somehow find its way back into your account but not to worry as he will still love the gesture.” And just like that she burst my happy bubble, one she created.

  “Not going to happen.” And I was adamant on this but Sophia just chuckled and replied,

  “We will see,” I huffed and looked out the window to see we weren’t far from my sister’s house. I started to get nervous that they might see Pythia so started to think of a reason to be dropped off just before the turning onto my sister’s driveway.

  “Oh, could you drop me off here, only I didn’t tell Libby I was coming and want it to be a surprise.”

  “But what if she isn’t at home?”

  “Or having sex?” Pip added.

  “I doubt that, not with Ella awake, besides, if they’re out then I know where they keep the spare key, I will just wait for her.”

  “Alright, if you’re sure,” I told Sophia I was and when she asked me what she should tell her brother when he comes back I told her the truth,

  “Say you don’t know. He will know where I am, that’s more than I received from him today.”

  “I guess you’re right.” Sophia said as if to herself before pressing a button overhead to communicate with the driver. We pulled over and before getting out I blew the girls a kiss and said,

  “Thank you for today, it really helped keep my mind off what happened earlier.” Of course I wasn’t just talking about the annoying fact that Draven had left with some woman that was clearly in love with him and hadn’t told me where, or even said goodbye. But they didn’t need to know that.

  “You’re welcome, sister.”

  “Yeah it was a blast Jug Juggler!” Pip said making me laugh as I got out the car.

  “Laters mi bitches!” I said trying to act hip for comedy value and it worked but not because of me. No it was down to the last thing I heard from Pip,

  “She said that all wrong you know, that didn’t sound gangster or even have an ounce of street in it.”

  “I know Pip, I know,” Sophia said as they drove off.

  “Well, here goes,” I said to myself as I walked down the gravel driveway. All I could hear was the crunch beneath my feet and the occasional bird chirping. So that Libby didn’t see me coming up the drive I decided to walk the rest of the way in the treeline. In the end it wouldn’t have mattered as Sophia was right, no one was home. Well at least if this all went the way I was expecting it to I had a safe haven alone to cry in, as I hadn’t been lying, I did know where the spare key was.

  I came out of the protection of the trees and walked back along the drive until I saw the natural path cut into the woods, the type only years of trodden feet make over time. I remembered back to my first day here and what felt like the start of my journey. And now I was about walk right back in there and start a new one.

  In a way it didn’t seem fair. All that had happened since that fated day I received word that Draven was dead and only a tear drop of it since included Draven and I back together again and happy. It was cruel and hard to accept, which was why I decided there and then that if this journey she spoke of meant I had to leave Draven then I would have to refuse. I would first look at every other option we had available to us and if it still didn’t work then I was sure I could convince Draven to work with me on whatever it was the Fates needed from us.

  I was back with Draven now and nothing Pythia was going to tell me would make me spend even one whole day and night without seeing him. It wasn’t going to happen.

  I had no clue what the Oracle was about to tell me but I knew one thing for certain…

  It would change everything but my mind.

  Chapter 11

  The God of Gods

  Taking that first step wasn’t easy but like many times before I did it holding on to the hope that it wouldn’t be as bad as I feared. I found Pythia sat on a broken tree, one obviously forced down by the freak storms we had been having recently. You could still smell the unearthed soil still attached to its roots but thankfully it was a dry day and the lightweight jacket I wore was enough to keep me warm.

  “You came.” Pythia said looking surprised for someone who knew the fut
ure.

  “I know that look. I don’t know everything, you know.” I held my hands up in surrender and she looked guilty.

  “Sorry, I guess I am a little jittery.” And she looked it. For starters she looked as though she hadn’t slept in days.

  “How long have you been on the run?”

  “I have been hiding in Afterlife for weeks,” she said, shocking me. Then I thought back to what Katie showed me, telling me that the Oracle was waiting for me in the Temple.

  “You weren’t there?”

  “I know and for a time it was the perfect place to hide. I needed to be close enough to reach you or should I say Katie, using her dreams as a way in.” Well I knew that feeling I thought bitterly.

  “ But I had to keep moving around. Thankfully the place is huge, so all I had to do was wait for Ranka to come back and…”

  “Wait, come again?”

  “Ranka was the one who saved me and changed my appearance as the King had everyone looking for me…as in a small black girl with the cutest curls…I miss my curls,” she said to herself and I told her to focus and explain.

  “Ranka was the only one who could save me and lead me to you but she had to wait until you were you again. So she sneaked me in and waited elsewhere until the time was right. The only flaw was my appearance because if the King saw me then he would recognise me instantly.”

  “How? Has he seen you in this vessel before?” I asked getting confused.

  “Although Ranka has the power to morph into any form she chooses, she only has the ability to change someone else back to their original body. This is how I looked when I first met your Draven.”

  “It was?” I was shocked but looking at her now I could easily see a different time in her.

  “Yes. And although throughout time the King has always cared for me and ensured my safety, I always knew the day would come when his protection would shift to another.”

  “You foresaw it?” She shook her head slowly and said,

  “No, it was always just a gut feeling I had, knowing that when he eventually found you that everything else around him would fade in your shadow.” I bit my lip not knowing quite what to say other than the small sorry I gave her.

  “It is nothing to be sorry for as it is the way it was always meant to be and what the Fates helped create all that time ago.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He knew about you the first day we met. I remember it so well, even now. How scared I was, I couldn’t stop shaking. I had heard whispers in the Temple of the great ruler who was as brutal as he was fair. The Fates spoke to me the hints of a prophecy many years in the making and of a great being who was unlike any other sent to this earth.” I sat down beside her as I knew this was the very start of her story.

  “The Fates instructed me to find him and even though at this time I was considered one of the most powerful women in the classical world I was refused permission to leave the Temple. My priests said the Temple hadn’t been without me in it since my birth, back in the 8th century BC.”

  “Be…fore… Christ?!” I coughed out, almost choking at how old she was.

  “Yes, I look good for my old bones do I not?” she joked and I had to wonder in all that time just how many hosts had she taken as her new form?

  “I will admit that it was strange seeing my old and first form after so long but more than that it is the memories it also brings with it. For so long I had been an unknown prisoner in the only home I had ever known.”

  “They wouldn’t let you leave?” She gave me a sad smile and shook her head.

  “I was considered too valuable and not always because of my birthright gifted to me by the Fates. You see people would travel far and wide to come and have their questions answered but not everyone listens the way they should.”

  “Do you mean that people sometimes hear what they want to hear rather than what they have been told?” I asked having known a few of these in my short time, my cousin Hilary being one of them.

  “Precisely that. And try to imagine all the important men travelling back to their King only to tell him that the war they asked of will be victorious because I told them so. When in actual fact what the Fates would say, is that only the righteous will win.”

  “And I can tell you now that greed is not a righteous act and neither is trying to conquer another land when your own people have never planted their seeds there and bore the fruits of their labour.” She shook her head and looked down at her cupped hands.

  “When I think of all the blood spilled in my name it haunts me even to this day. I used to dream of their blood overflowing in these hands and rising up from the guilt I felt. I began to hate it, to loathe who I was…that was until…” She paused, obviously greatly affected by the memory and I placed my hand on her arm in comfort as a single tear fell.

  “Until?”

  “Until a King entered my life and saved me.” I squeezed her arm in surprise and asked,

  “Draven saved you?”

  “He did. But I am getting way ahead of myself. You see once I was denied my quest by the priests, I was told by the Fates to warn them not to meddle in the Gods’ will, but they wouldn’t listen.”

  “What happened?”

  “First the priests all got sick but when they still wouldn’t let me leave the sickness spread throughout the surrounding towns. The streams turned to ash and darkness descended across the land. Crops wouldn’t grow and soon everything would perish around them.”

  “Oh God.” I muttered wondering how terrifying that must have been.

  “I begged for mercy for my people and for them to be spared but they would not hear my prayers. Finally, after the first priest died and no doubt fearing for their lives, the rest agreed to let me go. Half of them accompanied me on the journey but because of past wars between Greece and Persia, in the end the priests became too fearful of the new Parthian King and his growing Empire so they ran.”

  “What, they just left you!?”

  “Some men fear death more than the wrath of Gods, taking their chances and exposing how much their faith really means to them. But it made no difference in the end, as I was left to carry on alone. I remembered when I finally got there and saw the city for myself.” I listened to her speak of this ancient time and I was fascinated. I couldn’t help but wonder what it had been like and more curiously than that, I wondered what Draven had been like.

  “What was the name of the city?”

  “Ctesiphon.” She told me the name with a smile on her face as if she could still picture it in her mind.

  “It was the capital city of both the Parthian and Sasanian Empires.”

  “The Sasanian empire?” I asked curious and not really understanding why it would mean anything to me.

  “In 224 AD was when the king decided to relinquish back control to humanity, leaving Persia once again in its hands. The Parthian Empire became the Sasanian Empire and the name Arsaces was no more.”

  I was going to ask why but she shook her head slightly, changing my mind and asking something else instead.

  “But how could he get away with it? Surely people noticed the same person had ruled for…” She smiled and said,

  “Ranka has many gifts and rulers in that time didn’t tend to sit upon the throne for long, sometimes it was barely warmed by a new body before another was taking its place. It was long centuries fraught with greed and betrayal, often by those you shared blood with. It was because of these reasons more often than not most royal positions were viewed as more of a death sentence than an honour.”

  “Then how?”

  “Like any other empire, Rome or Greece, they all had their fair share of frequent deaths being replaced by new rulers, so it was only believable if the Parthian Empire was no different. That’s where Ranka would come in.”

  “What would she do?” I asked shifting my leg up to face her.

  “She is first and foremost a shapeshifter as you already know. She is a descendant from the H
indu Manushya-Rakshasi demon, also known as ‘The flesh eaters’ of our world.” I wrinkled up my nose and tried not to let a picture of Ranka gnawing on a human leg like a chicken bone from KFC enter my mind before I threw up.

  “I should mention ‘dead flesh’ that is,” she told me and even though I knew this was better for ‘imagined victims’ it however wasn’t for my stomach.

  “It is believed this is how she regenerates her cells enough to change form, giving back life to old ones, in both her body and the ones she consumes.” I knew it was wrong but suddenly I was feeling a lot better knowing that her and Draven were alone right now, as no offence to these Demons, but witnessing a chow down on some dead corpse like a zombie was enough to put anyone off the idea of sex, let alone their food.

  Oh yes, I think I was safe.

  “Like I said, her talents are not just limited to changing her own appearance and others as well but more importantly to the King, manipulating a person’s image to mortal eyes.”

  “But how long could she do that for?” Not believing something like changing a person’s image to everyone around them could be kept up for that long.

  “Indefinitely if needed.” She shocked me and she knew it when she saw my eyes widen in surprise.

  “She is very rare in our world and no doubt for that very reason she is unsurprisingly considered a great asset. One that would fit, say, sat at a council table alongside a powerful King sent by the Gods to rule amongst mortals.” The rest was easy to understand, as it was obvious Draven took on many forms in the eyes of us unsuspecting humans. And at the same time not having to change once in the eyes of his own kind…it was genius really. One ruler, one form and one name living in plain sight of his people.

  “Okay, so I understand all that but if she has been by his side since the beginning, then tell me why I or even you should trust that she didn’t just lure you here as a trap. Why would she risk going against someone she has been loyal to for centuries?” She smiled as if happy with my question, that or she was confident in the answer she would soon give me.