by Hayley Todd
A pulsing rang out behind my eyes, pounding in my head. It was an invasive thrum, thrusting through me. “Oh, God!” I cried, pressing my fingers to my face. Every patch of skin I touched seemed only to serve to explode the sensation, sending it skittering across the rest of my body.
My vision stirred with red clouds, floating across my eyes. The furious pain thudded against my entire consciousness. I felt as though I were crying fire, the burning rolling down my cheeks.
“Stop! Dammit, boy, stop,” my father babbled in a rush. It was hard to hear him over the swishing in my ears.
As soon as it had begun, the pain ceased, my eyes flooding with an empty darkness. I was certain they were open, but I saw nothing. It reminded me of waking up two years ago after being nearly beaten to death.
Someone approached, pressing a cool cloth to my eyes and cheeks. I blinked hard with the movement, trying to clear my eyes of whatever obstructed my vision. The more I blinked, the clearer the world became.
My father stood over me, a blood-soaked handkerchief in his hand. Over his shoulder, Anton watched me carefully. He seemed strangely blank, as though no expression existed in him, but his shoulders were just a touch too stiff, his form rigid.
“Her pocket,” he said on a gasp, like he had run out of air. He turned and bolted from the room then, without another word.
I was certain it was tears that seeped down my face then, hot, fiery tears. I turned away from my father, dropping my face into my hands. His hand lingered over my wrist, the near touch forcing the hair on my arms to stand at attention. Then he dropped it, stepping back to lean against the desk.
“Idiot boy,” he muttered, pressing his hand to his face in exasperation. “Kyra, I need to know everything. If we’re going to save Carson, I need to know what you know. The boy means well but that was not the way to go about it.”
I rubbed my forehead, easing away the last of my pain and silencing my tears. “W-what was that?” I asked, wiping spots of red from my face with the back of my hand.
Damien sighed, still not looking up. “The boy is a stronger empath than he knows,” he said more to himself than to me. He looked up suddenly, his eyes peering over me. He reached forward, holding the bloody rag forward. I grabbed it from him gently, dabbing around my eyes.
“I can’t say for sure but I think he...pushed into your mind. It was a huge violation. But it seems that he knew you were hiding something from me.”
I peered up at him, letting ignorance play on my face for several seconds. My father simply stared, and it was obvious that he knew already and didn’t anticipate letting it go any time soon. A hot well of guilt built within me.
I sighed and stabbed my hand into my pocket, digging around until I felt the cold touch of metal there. I pulled the necklace from my pocket and held it aloft, letting the large blue stone hang free.
My father’s eyes went wide. He stared over the gemstone, reaching out but not taking it into his hand. I gazed up at him, confused. “What is it?” I asked.
He looked at it from several angles, as though if he found just the right one, he would unlock all of its secrets. He pried the chain free from my hand with one finger, dangling it loosely as though afraid of its touch. “The Divinity Amulet,” he breathed.
The name tickled a memory in the back of my mind. That was what Babui Aka had called it, wasn’t it? The Divinity Amulet. Even as my mind spoke the words, a shiver rippled down my spine.
Damien twisted the chain this way and that, never allowing the blue gem to touch his skin. He peered into its substantial depths, seeking something. Then his eyes shot to me.
“Where did you get this?” he asked, his voice hard.
“I-I...I think Valeria had it,” I told him, thinking back to the visions that had danced before me as my own when I had last touched the tear-dropped gemstone. She had dug through that satchel with a vengeance, somehow knowing already that the item was gone but disbelieving that such a thing could’ve occurred. “Eolis gave it to me. He said...he said that it was supposed to be mine. Or he thought so anyway.”
My father glared into the item like he thought that would tell him more. Without a word, he lifted a phone on the desk, stabbing numbers in and waiting while it rang.
“Dad…,” I began sheepishly. He looked up at me, the phone still pressed to his ear. “It’s the same amulet that Eris gave Sage,” I said, watching as the news seeped onto his face. He stared at me, wide-eyed, as the person on the other end answered.
“Naomi,” he said quietly, “Kyra has the Divinity Amulet.”
There was a pause, and I could just faintly hear my mother’s voice responding on the other end of the line. He nodded along to whatever it was that she was saying. “Okay, I’ll see you soon, dear,” he replied to whatever her words had been, then hung up the phone.
He peered up at me as he rested the receiver in the cradle, holding the necklace out across the desk. I stood, looping my fingers around the necklace’s chain and drawing it back to me. I didn’t touch the gem, terrified of what secrets it held. I knew that the item was powerful, or so Babui Aka had thought anyway. I trusted the woman though. Something in me told me I should.
“So,” he said, “you met Babui Aka.”
I puffed a hard breath without meaning to. It was as though he could see my thoughts scripted or something. “Yeah,” I said on a humorless laugh. “Yeah, I did.”
He chuckled. “I met Babui Aka myself decades ago. She’s an...intense woman.”
I nodded. “I like her,” I said, quietly.
He looked like he had expected that. “Me too,” he whispered conspiratorially. “She is a wise woman. Take whatever she told you to heart.” He gave me a pointed look and I nodded my ascent after a moment. I would. Hell, I already had. The woman seemed to have a fathomless knowledge, like her mind reached into the dredges of the world itself.
The office door behind us swung open then, my mother striding in, followed closely by Anton and Kellic. Kellic had her arm looped through Anton’s and he pointedly avoided my gaze, choosing to stare at the carpet instead.
My mom didn’t even hesitate before tugging me against her chest. She slammed into me with a furious frenzy, patting my hair, tilting my chin to and fro, clucking her tongue as she licked her thumb and rubbed another stubborn streak of blood from my face. She glared over her shoulder at Anton, but moved her gaze to the amulet in my hand after only a moment.
“The Divinity Amulet,” she breathed, leaning forward to watch the gem spin. She reached forward with a gentle finger and only barely touched the stone’s surface. Her blue eyes went wide, emanating their own soft light which illuminated the room. She drew her hand away absently, staring into a space between reality, oblivious to the room’s occupants.
I cringed at the dazed expression, knowing the weight of that simple touch for myself. I didn’t know the ins and outs of the amulet, but I knew it had more than enough power to slap your mentality silly. I had lost an inordinate amount of time after touching the stone, sucked into its very depths. But I had been able to see Carson and that alone was almost enough to urge me to touch it again.
We all stood silently, watching my mother as she stayed hunched, her eyes glowing and not seeing. It was odd, the glow there. It was the same type of hushed light that would emit if she were using her magick, though nothing within her changed.
My father’s eyes were tense as he tracked her, his foot beating a nervous rhythm on the floor while we waited. After a few minutes of silence and stillness, he moved to her side, bending her slowly and resting her in a chair. She moved fluidly at his touch but otherwise did not react.
I refused to look at Kellic or Anton, staring hard at my mother, though I could see them from my peripheral vision. Anton looked as though he had been punched in the gut, his expression wrenched into a traumatic gaze. Had he not hurt me so thoroughly and invaded my mind only a few dozen minutes ago, I would’ve felt bad at that lost and pained expression.
Kellic clung to him like her life depended on it. Her arm stayed latched around his, holding him in place. I had to wonder, if only just for a moment, if the grasp was to keep him from coming to my side. Would he have, was she not holding him? I shook myself, returning my mind to my mother’s still form. I didn’t have time to worry over Kellic and Anton right now. My emotions were tumultuous enough without that.
Suddenly, my mother gasped, the glow fading from her eyes and her vision seeming to lock in on us. She panted heavily, my father rubbing her back gently as she came back to herself. She peered up at him, her eyes wide. “Damien, it is the Divinity Stone,” she whispered.
His expression didn’t seem any happier but he nodded slowly. “I figured as much,” he replied, lifting himself to his full height. She still struggled for breath, heaving one lung full of air after another but my father’s focus switched to me instead. “Kyra, that is a powerful and dangerous artifact. I don’t recommend playing with it until we understand its power more.”
I stared at the blue gem, wanting nothing more than to grasp it tightly and see Carson, even if for only just a moment. I missed him. I missed him so much that it hurt, a yawning, aching chasm opening within my depths.
Anton fidgeted, his footsteps tapping back and forth as he shifted his weight repeatedly. I watched Kellic glare up at him from the corner of my eye, trying to pretend that they weren’t even there.
Damien leaned against the edge of his desk and I shoved the necklace back into my pocket. I would’ve worn it had I not feared it so. “You missed the council meeting,” he said, the words hanging in the silence in the air.
I nodded. I had figured as much. Between the accident and meeting with Eolis and Babui Aka, fighting free of the wolves, making my way back home, and falling asleep, I had no idea how much time had passed, but I knew it had to have been more than an evening.
I peered curiously up at my father.
“Three days,” he said, eerily answering the question before I had even chosen to voice it.
Three days. I had been gone for three days. Carson had been gone for three days. It felt like an eternity.
“Based on my brief conversation with Eolis, it sounds as though you’ve already been informed of its major topic. We are at war,” he continued, looking me over carefully as he spoke.
I nodded at this too. That part had been clear.
“The part you may not know is that in vampire custom, Champions are elected from each species. The nomination can be challenged and only resolved by a fight of strength, courage, and cunning. Then those Champions are made to battle, to prove battlefield prowess. The winner of those bouts, will lead the vampire people in the upcoming war, legions of all different vampires at their back.” He told the tale in a way that had me thinking of knights and squires and roundtables and wizards. A simpler time, where war was common and commanding generals led their men into battles.
I wasn’t watching him, my eyes locked onto a patch of floor. My mind spun. Who would represent the Magicks? My dad? Damien was old in the sense of vampires, but he was as spry as he had ever been. But was I ready for that? For my father to defend our people with bloodshed? I wasn’t sure that I was.
“Kyra,” my father said, clearing his throat. I glanced up at him, my expression tight. “I tried to fight it, but the council has chosen you. You will be the Magicks’ Champion.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“What?!” Anton roared, pulling away from Kellic’s embrace. He stared pointedly at my father, still refusing to meet my eyes. “She’s the youngest Magick in existence! Why would they possibly appoint her to lead the entire clan?”
I hadn’t really seen Anton truly angry. I had heard him pretty miffed when I had first awoken from my coma, but I had never seen anything like this. Kellic yanked on his arm, forcing him not to advance across the room, though by the looks of it, he was trying pretty hard.
My father didn’t flinch and just kept his eyes lowered on my mother who still hunched over her own knees, breathing deeply. “I tried to sway them otherwise,” he replied, his voice soft.
“Evidently not hard enough!” Anton shrieked. “Send me. I’m the village pariah anyway.”
Damien’s head shot up, glaring at Anton. “Anton, I have never once declared you a pariah. I charged your father with his own crimes and left you absent of their blame. You came in here and prodded Kyra until she cried blood,” he hissed, “What more can I do for you, boy?”
Anton looked like he had been slapped. He cringed away from my father’s furious glare, drawing back with Kellic still wrapped around his arm. His eyes darted to me, for but a millisecond, before he glared at the carpet once more, his expression full of shame.
My father advanced on him anyway, snatching the front of his shirt in a fist. For a moment, I thought maybe the man really was going to slap him. “I’m not sure what it is that you’re going through right now,” he growled, low in his chest, his face so close to Anton’s that the wind of his words stirred Anton’s hair. “But get it the hell together.” He thrust forward, knocking slightly into Anton’s chest and sending him stumbling back a step.
Damien stepped back, commanding attention at the center of the room. “I tried to give them myself,” he said, solemnly but with a power that I wished I could have possessed. “They didn’t want me. They wanted Kyra. They wouldn’t take no for an answer. The position is an honor, a position of power. They will not send you, Anton. Kyra is representative of growth and authority and influence. She is who they want to lead them. She is who they have chosen.” He glanced at me, his gaze a little sad. “It is not something you can turn down.”
The room went still, all of us considering what he had said. I didn’t have a militaristic bone in my body. I could fight, and fight well, I might add, but a general? Even if I did beat the other vampire Champions, could I lead an army? I was doubtful. I couldn’t even control my own emotions.
“Kyra, I’ve seen you fight,” my father said, carefully. “You can do this. Especially, with that.” He gazed toward my pocket, gesturing to the necklace’s hiding spot. “Your mother and I will research the amulet. Until then, I don’t recommend it’s use, though that is your choice to make. It is said to have been cursed.”
“Cursed?” said Kellic, speaking up for the first time since entering.
My father glanced at her, then back to me, hesitating for a moment, as if finally feeling the tension that filled the room. He nodded. “There are legends of such an amulet, though it is hard to identify the real from the fake, and keep track of which ones reference this amulet specifically. But it was said to have been cursed. A gift to the god-queen, Harmonia, intended to dismantle her, and everything she stood for.”
“What about Carson?” I asked, sheepishly, fingering the silver chain in my pocket. I wanted to see him so badly, I was nearly ready to throw the thing on and let the chips fall where they may. I needed him, more now than I probably ever had. So much was happening. He would know what to do. He was my confidant and advisor. I wasn’t sure what to do without him.
Damien squared his gaze on me, taking a deep breath. “I will send every force I can to locate him. Lucas should be back at the estate soon. He had to make a quick trip back home. I’ll have him, Will, and Lucas’ people be on the lookout.” He took my free hand in his, staring down at me with green eyes that were so near in shade to Carson’s. “We will find him,” he assured me before stepping away and lifting the phone’s receiver to dial a number.
I took that as a dismissal, leaning down to give my mom a quick peck on the cheek, before fleeing from the room and throwing myself into the house of a million corridors.
The familiar halls had become more of a balm to my nerves than I had realized. I remembered running down these corridors two years ago, a frantic mess and feeling the tangible force of my life unfurling before me without my consent.
I had grown since then, becoming my own person little by little. Vampirism hadn’t much dampened who I w
as or how I felt. If anything, it had unlocked parts of my personality that had been hidden away by my humanity. I was appreciative of my new life, troubling as it may sometimes be.
There was a war brewing, growing just on our horizons, waiting for the moment to strike and curb everything that was and is. That was frightening, terrifying even. I didn’t know much of war, nothing that couldn’t be learned by an internet search or a quick glance at a textbook, anyway. How could I possibly lead one?
I knew vampires to be a proud people. Some were more... self-serving than others, but we all respected our abilities. I had felt like a demon at times, but a superhero at others and that had lent its own power over me. It was a force of nature to come to terms with, not a power to be feared and shunned.
I still adjusted daily to my new life, but it was worth every breath it gave. I had saved Will when all had been lost. I had sacrificed and struggled and experienced unimaginable pain and sorrow. But, I had risen from the ashes still, given the gift of new life. Though we experienced our more difficult times, my family loved and supported me and I wasn’t certain what I would do without them. But, I was still me.
I knew that I had lived in the shadows of others for so long that I had become reliant on their shade. But, it was high time that I be allowed to be myself, to make my own decisions, to carve the fight in my favor. If the Magick Council wanted me to be their Champion, then I would just have to learn how to be my own champion in the process.
I hadn’t been heading in any particular direction when I found myself standing before the gymnasium doors. It had been a long time since I had stood here. I used to find myself regularly training, always needing to hit something, to prove that I could stand when standing was hard. The quick visit to the gym in the city had been far too brief and far too long ago.
I swung the doors open, casting a glance around the room. It was empty except for two figures near a long line of punching bags. I grimaced as Anton braced a bag and Kellic delivered a punch to it that knocked him back a step.
