by Marta Szemik
I scanned the grand hall. The hundreds of glowing orange seeker eyes surrounding me made it seem smaller. Demons I did not recognize smirked, their eyes sparking with a hint of purple, heads held high. They were smarter than the seekers. Predatory gazes fixed on my unmarked wrists, then run along my body. My muscles tensed voluntarily when I saw the mark of the sphere glow on their wrists, as if they wanted to make their stature known. I recognized some as shifters and movers when a few at the side showed off their powers. Most had arms crossed over their chests. they weren’t going to fight, considering themselves too important to face only one shape-shifter. These demons were here to observe.
Before them, Aseret stood with Xela at his side.
I kept my defensive stance, ready to take on anyone who moved. The seekers knew me well enough not to start a fight, but with their master watching, most were ready to show off, even if it meant taking a chance at death.
“Well donnne, Xela. How assstute of me to have you on my sssside. Where isss the other one?” Aseret asked her with a hiss.
“She’s not connected to me.” Xela’s answer was flat.
Aseret wasn’t impressed. “I told you to bringgg them both.” His claw rose to smack her, but I flew at him with all my strength, shifting into a vampire halfway, and struck the side of his jaw. An orange gash opened on his neck that stretched up to his ear.
Within seconds, seekers were after me, and I released my long-held frustration on them, driving three to their knees in one swift move, careful not to kill them. That would make Aseret’s plan to mark me too easy.
“Ssstand downn, or she diesss,” Aseret threatened, emphasizing the last word so I understood that death would not be quick. He crooked his neck to the other side; I assumed he was trying to ease the pain from the gash. His nose twitched. “I mean it, Xannderrr.”
Fury raged through my body. I was sure I turned green and the shade would remain on my skin a while. My focus regained as I whirled to glare at him. He held the sharp nail of his forefinger on her neck just above an artery. Xela’s blood oozed around the nail. I stopped.
The closest demons grabbed my arms, their fiery palms burning my skin though they left no scorch mark.
“Ahh, he caresss for you. How sssweet!” Aseret mocked. “Xander, you want herrr? You can have herrr.” He pushed Xela toward me. She stumbled, falling into my arms. The seekers holding me stepped aside.
“Are you all right?” I asked her.
“It’s a trick, Xander. I didn’t summon you,” she whispered. “Don’t listen to what he has to say.”
“All you have to do isss joinnn me and she can be yoursss,” Aseret offered.
“Otherwise you’ll hold her against her will?” I retorted.
“Oh, she’sss not herrre againssst her will, Xanderrr. Neither are you. You wanted to be herrre, in the underrrworld. The heat drawsss you in.”
“Not for the reasons you think.” My eyes instinctively flew to Xela’s thighs.
“I doubt that. You’re not the firssst she’d usssed her body on to bring to the underworld.”
“What’s the catch, Aseret? Why do you want me? Why would you want me to stand down and not kill one of them?” I nodded toward the seekers. “What are you scheming?”
“If you join of your own will without killing, his powers will be stronger,” Xela whispered.
Aseret’s brows drew down in displeasure, though he pretended not to hear her. “Me, scheming? Neverrr. Another two hoursss and it will be all overrr.” His tongue slithered between his lips like a snake’s.
“What will be over?”
“The hereafterrr will be opennn.”
“What is he talking about?” I asked Xela.
“Come on, Xela, tell himmm what I told you,” Aseret urged.
“You can stop him, Xander, if you get the sphere—but not without it. He’ll open the portal where souls linger before passing to heaven or hell. He’ll imprison them so they won’t be able to reconnect with their bodies for their last breath that decides their fate.”
“Why?”
“Spirits have endless energy. Unclaimed, they stray in the hereafter forever. The keepers will make sure you’re busy while Aseret roams, stealing their essence, turning it into energy.”
Pop had mentioned us being watchers of the dead. Did the keepers know this was going to happen?
“Well done, Xela.” Aseret applauded as if she’d just won a prize, but Xela kept her head down. “She doesss exactly what I wannt each timmme.” He was succeeding in infuriating me, but I didn’t succumb to his tactics.
“You trying to make my job easy, Aseret?” I asked, my chin lowered as I absorbed what Xela had said. I finally looked at him from below my lashes. Aseret’s stretched eyes narrowed, and it seemed like he waited for my attention like a cautious burglar in a jewelry store.
“No, of courssse not. I wouldn’t darrre.” He placed his white palm in the middle of his chest. “Let go of your frussstrationsss, Xanderrr. We don’t have to fight, we don’t need more scratchesss.” He glanced toward the left side of his neck, where the orange gash glowed. The sound of his voice was like a spell that kept his words lingering in the air. The seekers in the hall seemed to disappear as Aseret stood in front of the fire pit, his eyes fixed on me. “You’re a winnerrr, Xander. Join the ssside that will inevitably rrrule.”
“What’s your motive, Aseret?” I demanded.
“You’re ssstrong and unclaimed. I need creaturesss like you, who know what to do with powerrr when they have it. Not like these zombiesss.” He waved a hand at the unfazed seekers. “Once marrrked, you will have ssstrength beyond what you know. No one will be able to harm you. You can have herrr. She will be yoursss forever,” he cooed, seeing my gaze find Xela again.
My witch tried to speak, but when she opened her mouth, no sound escaped. Her lips trembled. The words stuck in her throat—Aseret wasn’t allowing them to leave her mouth, or was it someone else? Her eyes told me what she’d wanted to say: It’s not your calling, Xander. I am yours already.
“I knew you would commme. Feel the heat inssside you. It’s alrrready a part of you.” Aseret raised his arms as if embracing the heat of the entire fire pit.
He was trying to sway me, knowing I felt comfortable in the underworld because of Xela. Aseret used my need to be with Xela and my desire to be marked against me. But I knew my nature better than he did. I wasn’t a coward or a failure. I would not disappoint my sister, or Ma, or the humans and other species depending on someone like me.
“I was going to stop by today anyway, with my sister.” I smirked.
Aseret didn’t flinch. His usual expressionless face gave a sardonic smile. Xela’s apologetic eyes glossed over.
“You told him,” I whispered, fear suddenly creeping into my body. Aseret was expecting Mira to come. I was fine here, without her, but having Mira bound to the wall with magic ropes again—or worse—was the last thing I wanted. Our element of surprise was gone. I looked at Xela, who lowered her head.
“Good, two for the prrrice of one. What do you sssay we greet your family properrrly?”
“What do you want, Aseret?” I said flatly.
“Xanderrr, I can give you everything. All thisss,” he waved his hand around the room full of eager orange pupils, “can be yourrrsss. And mossst of all, she can be yours asss well.”
I didn’t want everything he offered, only Xela. “How?”
“Let me marrrk you.”
“It needs to be my choice.”
“Isn’t she yourrr choice?” he mocked.
“Let her go. She doesn’t mean anything to me,” I lied.
“Is that true, Xela?” Aseret hissed.
She lifted her chin. In her eyes, I saw regret, then something new—a spark of hate glittering around the rims of her pupils. I wasn’t sure whether the hate came from Xela, or from Aseret. It was the first time I’d seen it. She stood so close to the pit, I thought the black lace of her skirt would melt from the heat
of the fire.
“No,” she answered in a firmer tone than her usual. My ears perked at the change I detected in her voice, careless and ungraceful.
“Xander, you’re not the firssst shifter she’s used her body to sssway to the underworld.” Aseret nodded toward the demons I’d recognized earlier. All concentrated their lustful gazes on Xela. They’d been lured to the underworld in the same way I had—through my black witch’s lair.
The lump in my throat thickened. My jaw tensed, and I felt it lock into place.
“Don’t listen to him. You were different,” she claimed, but the hate and fear I saw in her eyes betrayed her words, as if what she’d wanted to say was manipulated by an unseen force while she fought against a power I couldn’t see.
“Of course he wasss.” Aseret laughed. “He fell for you quicker than the othersss. Why don’t we let him sssee your true beauty?”
Xela’s head fell forward in helpless submission. Aseret lifted his clawed hand and made a show of tasting a drop of red liquid on the tip of his finger. I sniffed. It was Xela’s blood.
“Akhana mur til blano kina fom,” he chanted. The foreign words released a two-toned stream of cold blue light flowing toward Xela.
The iced flame hovered over her before sinking lower to touch her head, then it flowed back up, lingering. Blue flickers of the flame connected to her hair. I’d seen several kinds of magic before, but none this powerful.
“What are you doing to her?” I asked in a broken voice that betrayed me. The drop of hope left in my heart urged me to run and sweep her in my arms, but my instinct kept me away.
Xela lifted her head. Hatred intensified the glow of her eyes.
“You thought you knew herrr!” A gurgle bubbled from the back of his throat as he threw his head back and cackled. The seekers and demons joined in his delight, their yelping echoing through the grand hall like a pack of hunting wolves.
I looked at Xela again, and the glowing hatred held a spark of death. The soul I knew was dying. My shoulders dropped, and I felt my heart disappear along with hers as if it chose to be locked up, gone from this world. Aseret owned the key that would keep Xela’s spirit locked away. I wanted to scream, but my eyes concentrated on the magic brewing over my witch’s head.
The flame defrosted, flowing down Xela’s body like water, streaming over her curves, each ribbon changing her appearance. The flame first caressed her, then savagely reshaped the flesh. Her body shook with seizures. I wanted to shut my eyes but couldn’t. The trembling stopped, her dark locks meshed in webs twined with debris, her hazel eyes sunken in gray hollows, her body coated in dirt and scum. Soon, the hourglass figure replaced with a lump for a body. She no longer looked like my black witch. There was nothing about her I would have loved. Even the heart I thought I knew began beating differently, the rhythm strangling each pulse.
“What did you do to her?” I squeezed the words between my grinding teeth, my hands clenched into fists.
“Thisss is who she isss, Xander. The only way to have herrr back isss to join me.”
“Turn her back, and I’ll join you,” I blurted.
“Come forrrward,” Aseret ordered.
The hall fell silent. I saw no one except Aseret. His eyes rolled back in their sockets as he chanted again. The pull inside my body returned.
Aseret’s voice resonated in my head: “Join the underworld and you will have everrrything you’ve ever wanted. You will not be lost in an endless oblivion. I will return Xela to the form you love. She will be yours and only yoursss. You will feel no pain. You will rrrule at my ssside. Spare yourrr soul mate, Xander. Isn’t she worth sssaving?”
There was nothing I wanted more than to have her back. I was ready to give up my life for her. Would that be so bad to give up your life for someone you loved? The other shifters and demons didn’t matter. Xela had her soul wrapped around my heart.
I looked toward my witch, trying to find that spark in her eyes that drew me before, but her eyes were blank, flatter than a can of opened soda. What did he do to you? I desperately wondered.
The walls of the grand hall seemed to close in. My feet were hovering above the ground. Aseret’s gaze pulled me toward him, and I let my arms fall to my sides and my head loll back. As I floated closer to him, the heat from the fire pit wrapped itself around my body, as if the flames were fabrics preparing me for mummification. Ready to be taken by the underworld, I looked at my left wrist where the mark of the sphere would soon be visible.
A memory flashed through my mind from when I was an infant—I’d imagined this moment and how it would feel to have either of the two marks.
The memory reminded me of who I was. I thought about my sister, about Eric and the keepers, remembering what they’d said. If I chose the sphere, Mira’s fate would be decided. Humans would have no protection. The future of all three species would be at risk. Even if I wasn’t sure how I was going to help them, I couldn’t let their destiny be decided by my personal choice.
Aseret’s pull suddenly stopped, and I faced the warlock from less than three feet, bound by blue magic light at my feet, no longer hovering. Aseret held his arms palm-down in front of him; they streamed orange light. The rock floor below them glowed, then split open. Within the gap, white shadows floated like feathers in a gentle mist.
“What is he doing?” I instinctively moved to stop him, but my feet were glued to the rock. A freezer laughed as I strained to break his spell.
“He’s opening the hereafter,” Xela replied in a voice devoid of care or passion. Any strength she’d muster, she used to open her mouth.
The chasm released a white spirit. It slammed into Xela’s body. Treachery and pain brimmed in her eyes.
“Can’t you do something?” I asked.
She laughed. Aseret had not only changed her appearance, he’d changed her soul. Or did he? Was all that had transpired in her lair an act? Was she merely luring me to the underworld, as she had others? Aseret had no intention of changing Xela back, I realized. He would not allow the cohort who brought shape-shifters to the underworld to leave his side.
My left wrist burned.
“Ssilly shifterrr.” Aseret cackled as he focused on the opening to the hereafter.
My choice had been made, willingly, and I hadn’t accomplished anything. Soon, my fate and my sister’s would be decided. Aseret was a liar—but I already knew that. I’d been blinded by Xela’s charms.
The glow faded from his palms. In a moment, the remaining spirits would be released.
Aseret turned his attention to my wrist.
Mira, where are you? I need you.
The sphere began imprinting, burning itself into my flesh. Then it stopped, and faded into nothingness.
I looked at Aseret in confusion. He was trying to hide his disappointment.
Why did the imprint stop? The glow under my feet disappeared. I took a step back.
“You have nothing to fearrr, Xander. It will only take a moment,” the demon lord explained.
I couldn’t be bound by the light while being marked—that would imply force. My marking had to be done of my own free will.
“Xander, don’t move.” Mira’s voice sounded in my head.
My gaze slid across the hall, to the left. The air there swirled, lifting the dusting of soil from the rocky floor and twirling it like a newborn tornado. My sister appeared—alone.
“Ahh, two for the prrrice of one.” Aseret laughed, but his joy diminished when the blue light reappeared at my feet. “Take it off!” he yelled, but his demons only looked back at him, puzzled.
Eric now stood on the other side of the hall, palms up, balancing blue spheres of light. New hope flared in my chest. Aseret’s plans weren’t going the way he’d hoped.
“You’re meddling in my businesss, benderrr!” Aseret hissed at Eric, his words harsh despite coming out at a snail’s pace.
“You are my business, Aseret. Have you forgotten I’m an evil-bender?” Eric smirked.
�
��Bend elsewhere, not in my underworld!” Aseret’s flat nose twitched as he floated backward.
“It’s not your underworld, you hypocrite! Need I remind you what the underworld was supposed to be used for?”
“I remember,” Aseret snapped. “That has changed—and it will soon be changed forever.” He looked down at the crevice into the hereafter.
“It’s time you’re reminded of who we are!” Eric’s lifted his chin, and the fleshy spikes on his neck lengthened.
“Xander, don’t do it.” Xela’s familiar voice came from a new body I no longer felt a connection to. “I will be bound here forever.”
My eardrums heard sizzling acid, not her sugar-coated plea. “You are no longer part of me,” I grated through clenched teeth. My body yearned for my black witch, but I knew I would never get her back. I was furious with Xela—this Xela, not the old one. My instincts warned me that my witch’s soul had been changed and was now controlled by a foreign influence. The anger bubbled in my veins. Ready to jump at Aseret’s throat, I bent my knees, but the blue light under my feet held me still.
Aseret floated closer to his seekers.
“Control yourself, Xander. We need to bind Aseret to the underworld. You’re still vulnerable,” my sister warned as she stepped up beside me. Eric wiggled between us, his palms balancing the fiery balls of blue sparks. The light holding me in one spot disappeared.
“You wouldn’t dare, benderrr!” Aseret hissed again, his zombie seekers closing in on all sides.
“Don’t pay attention to them. They won’t hurt us,” said Eric.
“They won’t? How?” I asked.
“The keepers will protect us.”
Aseret’s face sagged, and the strain to maintain his composure showed in his eyes as they swung from right to left, looking for the keepers. “Thisss is not a balanced fight!” Aseret growled.
“Actually, it is balanced now.” My father’s voice echoed down a staircase that ran up a side wall. He stood before the velvet curtains covering an entry at its top. Gabriel and Drake flanked him, their arms outstretched. A thin beam of transparent light flowed from their hands toward us. The magical energy formed a shield around us, protecting us from the seekers.
