I shake my head. “And you’re insane. You and the Prophetess both. You can’t take over the world.” I laugh at him.
“And why not?”
“Because it’s not right.”
“Not right?” His voice goes dangerously low. “There will be peace under our reign, Daniel. We will unite the world into one great nation. We will rule over humans, and there will be no more war between them. We will kill off the evil ones and the Immortals”—he glances at Piper—“and heal the sick and the righteous, the ones who deserve to live. There will be no more war, no more sickness, no more famine. It will be one great Eden, and our true selves will come alive. Our powerful selves. The self that proves that we are owed dominion over nature by the sheer power of our force.”
His eyes are aglow with hope and with a thousand dreams of a better world, and for a moment, I waver.
“But there’ll be no freedom,” Piper says suddenly, putting into words what I couldn’t even form in thoughts. “Only tyranny.”
“Small price to pay for world peace, don’t you think?”
Before Piper answers, I speak up. “What will happen when every single one of us has evolved, Rafael? You won’t be hailed as an incarnate god then.”
His mouth becomes a slit while his eyes widen with rage. I sense that I touched a nerve. “Not all of us will evolve the same way, Daniel,” he says through gritted teeth. “And even if we do, it doesn’t matter, because I was the first.”
His eyes are crazy now, and the muscles in his jaw are tense. I shake my head at him. “Except you weren’t,” I say. Rafael’s eyes turn to slits. “I was the first. And I’ll never go back to the Children of the Sun, you sick, crazy monster.”
“Then we have a problem,” he says, a venomous ring to his voice. “We can’t have two transmuted Sun-Children running around America who aren’t allies. It would defeat the purpose of the Transmutation. Half our race would follow me, the other half would follow you, and it would be such a disaster.” His words are light, but everything about him has darkened, as if a shadow has wrapped around all of his features.
“Cut the crap,” I say, trying to keep my voice calm. “What’s going to happen if I don’t accept your offer?”
“Dearest Daniel, it would pain me to kill you, really,” he says. “You’re such a fine specimen—there’s such potential in your powers.” He sounds greedy, expectant, admiring. “But I will kill you if I have to.” He looks at Piper and Kismet lying on the floor. “You will all die upon a single command of my will.”
“I think you misunderstood me,” I say gently, treading carefully now. “I don’t want to divide our people. I don’t want anyone following me. I don’t want to rule over humans.”
“Oh, that’s what you say now. But what will happen when you see the fruits of my labor? You’ll surely want a piece of it. The need for power is rooted deep in you, otherwise you wouldn’t have been the first, as you say yourself. It’s destiny, Daniel. There will come a time when it will be all you can think about.”
“Your theories are madness, Rafael. I have never wanted this power, and I would give it back if I could. All I’ve ever wanted is Kismet by my side.”
“I can’t let any of my enemies live. No one will destroy my plan for peace. Not even you, Daniel. And I know you’ll try, boy. I know you better than you know yourself.”
Well, fuck. It’s crunch-time.
I quickly run over the different options.
I could fight Rafael, which would end in the certain death of all of us. He said he could kill me, right? But did I believe him? And then it dawns on me. He’s only talking about killing me. But if he really wanted to, he would’ve already done it. That either means that he’s still hopeful about getting me to join him, or his powers haven’t evolved yet to the point where he can kill a Sun-Child, even if he can heal one.
But which is it?
A small bead of sweat runs down his forehead, and the corner of his lip twitches. It is then that I realize…
He’s bluffing.
Piper has inched her way over toward the door without either of us noticing her. She has her hand on the doorknob, ready to escape. Perhaps Rafael couldn’t kill Kismet or me, but if I could hurt Immortals, I was damn sure Rafael could, too.
“Piper, run!” I yell, and she rips the door off its hinges and runs free.
Rafael hisses. I run over to him, jumping over Kismet’s body and tackling him to the ground.
Rafael’s servant boy throws himself on top of me, clawing at my back. I punch him in the face, knocking him down to the floor. In the second it takes me to get him off, Rafael frees himself from under me. He kicks me hard in the stomach and then stands up. I grab the hem of his clothes and step over the boy, who’s clutching desperately at his bleeding nose.
I swing Rafael around and throw him to the wall, then immediately put my hands on his throat and squeeze. “Why don’t you kill me now, if you’re so powerful?” I say, my face an inch away from his. He’s still as stone, not moving an inch.
Then he grins.
His eyes flutter to a place behind me, to Kismet…
I turn around. The servant boy is kneeling over Kismet with the sharp end of a broken chair leg raised over his head.
“No!” I yell, but it’s too late.
He plunges the stake into Kismet’s stomach, blood spraying over his face. Kismet wakes up and screams. Time stops, and I can’t think; I can’t think; I can’t think… all I can is do. I run and grab the boy by the robes, take the stake out of Kismet’s stomach and plunge it into the boy’s heart.
He screams, but then I plunge it in again, and blood pours out of his mouth, his eyes glazing over. I drive it down again and again and again, until I realize all I am doing is tearing apart a dead body. I release him, and he falls over with a loud thump.
Somewhere behind me I can hear Rafael laughing.
Kismet’s eyes are open; she’s still alive. She looks at me, her beautiful amber eyes growing dimmer by the second as mountains of blood pour out of her mouth and nose—so much blood…
Time stops. Blood gushes out of her wound in rivulets. If I don’t act fast, she’ll be gone forever. “Kismet, please.” I grab her by the shoulders and place her on top of my lap. I press a hand on top of her stomach, trying to stop the bleeding.
She looks up at me. “Daniel…I…I love you.” Her eyes dim, and I feel like my heart could shatter. I kiss her, the metallic taste of blood on my lips. “I love you too, Kismet. You were my world.” I whisper into her ear. I look at her until she’s gone.
Then I shut her eyes.
“No…” I murmur. My hands shaking as I grab the sides of her cold, dead face. “No…”
I lie down next to her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders, resting my face in the crook of her neck.
I can’t tell how long I lie there, crying over her dead body.
After hours of this, when I’m cold and numb and don’t feel anything anymore, I sit up, wiping the tears and blood away from my face with my shirt. A hot, strong anger seizes me, shaking me awake. I get up and run out into the night, searching frantically for Rafael, my mind unable to process that he’s gone, unable to process that I failed.
I hear footsteps behind me, and I swerve around instantly, ready to attack. But it’s only Piper. She’s still here… beside me from the start.
We stare at each other for a moment, in the dead silence under the stars.
“Kismet’s dead.” I say, my vision getting blurry. “I failed her, I…” I fall to my knees, my face in my hands. Piper runs up to me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders.
“Daniel, I’m so sorry,” she says, voice cracking. I bend over my lap, clutching my pants, sobbing desperately.
“The bastard killed her,” I say. “She’s dead. She’s fucking dead, and it’s my fault.”
“Daniel, no, it’s not your fault, you could never think that it was—” she starts to say.
“Don’t you understand?�
�� I yell, shoving her away from me. She falls on her back and covers her face with her hands. “She was my soulmate, she was the love of my life, and now she’s dead, Piper! She’s gone forever, and nobody could ever replace her.”
Piper gets up and runs away toward the city. I slump toward the ground, having pushed away my one remaining friend.
Alone.
Shattered.
Utterly defeated.
Minutes later, Piper comes back. She’s carrying two shovels. I look up at her, but she still doesn’t meet my eyes. Instead, she hands me one of the shovels and starts digging. She works quickly, using all of her Immortal strength. The sight of her digging up scoop after scoop of dirt is strangely comforting to me. I stand up and join her, digging in silence and watching the hole get deeper and deeper, hollow and empty, like what remains of my heart.
Dirt gets under my nails, inside my underwear, under my shirt, but I don’t care. My muscles start to hurt, but I ignore all pain.
“I should’ve been stronger,” I say out loud after a moment. Piper doesn’t answer. “I should’ve fought harder,” I continue. “I should’ve dragged her away with me when I had the chance. Now she’s gone, and I don’t even know what comes next. I don’t know if there’s an afterlife. If there is, she’s probably in hell.”
“Then we’ll meet up with her there sooner or later,” she says.
Her words are so unexpected that I laugh, even in the midst of heartbreak. “What a strange comfort you are to me, Piper.”
She smiles a little. “Do you want me to bring out the body, too?” she says when we’re done.
I shake my head. “I’ll do it.”
I walk into the house and gently pick Kismet up. If it weren’t for all the blood and wounds covering her body, I could swear she was just sleeping. But then everyone says that, don’t they? I suppose death comes to us all, and it treats us all the same.
I lower her inert, stiff body to the grave for the worms to eat, kissing her cold, marble-white lips one last time. She fits perfectly.
“Until we meet again in hell, my love.”
Epilogue
We go to Minneapolis, the days and nights travelling there passing by in a blur. Mostly I either sleep in buses, or sleep in motels. It’s all the same to me.
When we finally get there, we stumble into Morgana’s apartment, and I leave Piper to do all the explanations. I walk into a bedroom, take off my shirt and crash into the bed, falling into a darkness so complete that when I at last resurface, I forgot who I was, where I was, or what had happened.
In front of me by the foot of the bed was standing a man I knew well. Slowly, everything returned to me.
I sit up. “Hello, Benedict,” I say, “I don’t suppose you have weed?”
He throws me a pouch, which I open, taking out a pipe and a bag of herbs. While I prepare the pipe, he talks.
“I’m glad you’re alive.”
“Can’t say the same for Kismet.” I say.
He stares at me, his face drawn, looking almost dissappointed. “I’m sorry, I suppose that was unkind.”
“We all mourn differently.”
“Yes.” I say quickly, and then light up the pipe. I offer it to him, but he refuses, so I smoke some more. “The truth is I don’t want to think about how Kismet meant the world to me. If I do, I’d crumble. I can’t think of her, not unless I’m willing to die.”
The wound is deeper now, knowing that she’s gone. Knowing that her life is spent. But now all I want is to escape.
Benedict takes a deep breath. “I killed all those people in Seattle.”
I choke. “It was you?”
He nods gravely. I look at him seriously for the first time. “It looks like you’ve aged ten years, Ben.” He has wrinkles around his eyes, and a sterner look than I ever knew in him.
“Much has happened in Agartha since you left.”
“I can imagine, seeing as you’re here and everything.” I light up the pipe again. “First to heal and kill abnormally, eh?”
“And you’re second.”
“Rafael’s third.” I say, spikes of anger flashing inside me at the thought of him. “But the tribe believes he’s the first. Except you were the first… and I know it.”
“I don’t want power over our people, Daniel.” Benedict says, sitting down on the bed with me. He frowns, contemplating the wall in silence. “I don’t believe I would make a good leader.”
“You would be much better than Rafael, at least. Benedict, we have got to get him out of there. This whole mess with the fire eaters… he’s insane.”
When I mention the beasts, Benedict flinches. “Don’t speak to me of them.” He says, looking at me in earnest. “Daniel, I…”
But what he was about to say I never knew, because at that moment Morgana barges into the room, Piper quickly behind her.
Benedict looks at Piper once and then at me, and his expression lightens.
“Ah, Daniel.” Morgana says. “Good, you’re awake. There’s much to talk about.”
I look at Piper, and she smiles at me. I smile back, feeling lighter myself. Morgana steps in front of me. “I need you to focus, however hard that is in your present disposition.” She stares at the weedpipe next to me and wrinkles her nose in disgust. “You understand we have to fight Rafael, right? We can’t let him go on killing people as he pleases and letting loose monsters into the world. We have to destroy him before he leads us all into a world crisis, which I believe would be to nobody’s convenience.”
“A coup d’etat.” Benedict says.
“That’s right.” Morgana says. “It’s time for us to take over. Well… more specifically, Daniel, it’s time for you to take Rafael’s position.”
“What?” I yell, outraged. “I’m not even first, he is!” I point my finger at Benedict.
“It doesn’t matter,” Morgana snaps. “Rafael doesn’t know about Benedict, and he doesn’t want to do it, anyway.”
“Neither do I!”
“It has to be someone, and if he won’t do it then it’s your responsibility, Daniel.”
I stare at her, fuming. “This is not fair.”
“Get over it.”
I seethe as I watch her saunter around the room in her high heels, her long black dress slit from her ankles to her thighs.
Wait a minute…
If Rafael doesn’t know about Benedict, then why is he here?
“You owe me, kid.” Morgana says, staring straight into me. I’m afraid of what she’s about to say, but at the same time unable to look away, desperate even to finally know what it is.
“You will marry me, Daniel.” She says, smiling sweetly. Behind her, I see Piper clutching her hands to her mouth. “And you will do so tonight.”
I laugh at first, and then stare at her in horror as I realize... “You’re not fucking around.”
Acknowledgments
I want to thank God for allowing me to express myself creatively through the written word.
I want to thank my husband, who always believed in me.
I want to thank my parents for their unwavering support, and my mother especially for reading to me when I was little. It sparked within me the love for storytelling. A spiritual teacher once said that one of the best things a parent can do for the education of its child is to tell them stories. That I never lacked, and I am truly grateful.
I want to thank my brother for always cheering me on. Bro, I am flattered to be your constant competition, and I hope I can live up to the standard.
I want to thank all my friends for their words of encouragement and for their involvement in the creation of this novel. Every word was appreciated, every opinion taken into account. You all know who you are, lo aprecio.
This isn’t the end of The Sun Child Saga. It’s just the beginning of many more stories to come. Please visit my blog www.moniquemihalitsianos.com for more.
Child Saga Book 1)
The Sun Child (The Sun Child Saga Book 1) Page 25
