by DL Kopp
I spiraled into darkness, and I only managed to gasp out three little words before I faded entirely: “I love you…”
And then I was gone.
Chapter Sixty
In the darkness, I dreamt.
I soared above the ocean, as weightless as a feather. My own powerful wings beat above me, carrying me effortlessly through the sky, and the wind whipped through my hair. I spread my arms and closed my eyes. The sheer joy of flight lifted me.
I climbed higher and higher toward the swollen moon. It was beautiful and misty, murky through the wispy clouds, and a fine mist lay over the surface of the water.
Without having been in that particular place before, I knew I was in the Radiant Lands of Myth and Faerie. Only in such a place could I feel so powerful. So free.
In the distance, a dark form rose out of the water, and I recognized it as an island. My island.
I landed in the midst of the golden apple orchard, touching down gently, and I folded my wings at my back. They were not black, feathery wings like those of Octavius; they were wide, delicate butterfly wings, with a stained-glass pattern of gold and silver and red.
“Octavius?” I called, gazing out into the trees. “My king, where are you?”
There was no response, so I began to search among the orchard, fluttering just above the surface of the ground.
I thought I saw motion in the distance, and I darted forward.
“Rich?”
But it wasn’t Rich, or Octavius. Nor was it the Byron I knew and loved.
It was Byron. Dead. Desiccated. Collapsed on the ground beneath the trees.
“No,” I whispered, “no!”
I fell by his body, touching him all over, but I couldn’t find a pulse or any hint of the heat we had known before. Where had he gone? The machine was there – the parts of his body comprised of cadavers – but the essence – the thing that made him Byron – the thing I loved so much – was gone.
And suddenly, the orchard around me was dark and hostile and terrifying.
“Byron!” I cried into an abandoned orchard. I was suddenly alone. So alone. “Byron!”
And there was no succor from my torment.
Chapter Sixty-One
“Calliope? Calliope!”
“No,” I moaned. “No, Byron!”
“Calliope, please, wake up.”
Hands pushed at my shoulders, and I thrashed against them. I couldn't bear to have them on me, not when everything hurt so much.
“Calliope, it's me!”
I cracked an eye. “Octavius?”
It was Octavius. He sighed with relief as I opened both of my eyes. “You were scaring me for a while.”
“What happened?” My throat hurt like crazy.
He sat back on the ground and sighed. I noticed I was out in the back of the school, where Octavius usually kept his motorcycle. It was quiet and dark, and I had no idea how long I had been out for. I listened, and I heard thumping. The dance was not only not over, but it hadn't stopped.
And I remembered, in a rush, what happened. “Byron?”
Octavius nodded toward the building. Rich and Byron were talking with their backs turned to us, and I relaxed.
“I think I've had enough shocks for one year,” I said. “My heart won't take it if you guys keep scaring me like this.”
“I'm sorry he hurt you.”
“No, I'm fine.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Your throat has bruises all over it.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could, Byron met my gaze, and he rushed forward. To my utter shock, it sounded like he was weeping, although I knew for a fact he didn't have tear ducts. He was upset enough to cry without tears. My heart broke.
“Calliope, are you all right?” he asked through his gasps. “Please, please tell me you're okay.”
I touched his face. “I'm fine.”
He continued to sob without tears. “I could have killed you!”
“But you didn't,” I said. “What happened?”
“I don't know! I was just...in the lab, and I lost track of time, and when I awakened, you were on the ground, not breathing.”
“Not breathing?” I repeated, looking at Octavius.
“Rich and I sensed it immediately,” he replied. “We can tell when things go badly. We ran out of the cafeteria and came out here. You were screaming, and you stopped breathing.”
“Geez,” I said, clutching at my throat. “No wonder it hurts to talk. No one else heard?”
“Too loud,” Rich said. “What did you see?”
“Byron attacked me.”
Rich and Octavius exchanged a look, and I quickly amended my statement. “Byron's body attacked me. He wasn't in there.”
“That's what we thought you meant,” Octavius said. “But that means we can't risk having him around you.”
“What?” I cried, jumping to my feet. “No! No, no, no--”
“Yes,” Rich agreed grimly. “You're too important. What we have is too important.”
Byron smiled softly. “It's for the best, Calliope. I'd rather die than hurt you.”
“But you already hurt me,” I blurted. “I'm not fragile!”
“I don't know what happened,” Byron said. “It could happen again.”
I shook my head. This couldn't be happening. The conflict was over; it had to be!
That's when it hit me.
“You came back to yourself when I was screaming,” I said. “I was dreaming. I dreamt about the Radiant Lands of Myth and Faerie, and that you were dead. I must have stopped it with my power!”
“Calliope,” Rich said, “you just want something false to be true too badly.”
“But I don't! It must have been Dr. Muzhchyna, it's the only explanation!”
Octavius frowned. “We took care of him.”
“Father's doing better,” Byron said. “This is my doing.”
“Don't you think he could have installed a failsafe? If something went wrong with his plan? Maybe he forgot.”
As if on cue, my cell phone rang. Octavius was holding my purse, and he unzipped the main pocket. He pulled out the phone and answered it.
“Hello? Yes.”
He looked up, shocked. “Dr. Muzhchyna. Yes. Yes, she's alive.”
As he pulled the phone away from his mouth, we all exchanged looks. They alternated between surprise and horror.
“He wants to know if you're hurt,” Octavius whispered.
I took the phone from him. “Doctor?”
“Calliope, I am so relieved!” he cried. “I had forgotten, in the scramble...anyway, I had a timer set in Byron, to take over if my plans fell through. It was vengeful, and evil, and I'm so, so sorry that I did it.”
I nodded in triumph, but tears sprang to my eyes. “You don't know what a relief this is,” I told him.
“Relief? He nearly killed you!” He paused. “He should have killed you. He is back to himself?”
“Yes, he is.” I smiled tearily in his direction.
“That...how did you accomplish it?”
“I don't know what you mean,” I said, even though I kind of did.
“He should have been a mindless automaton. The failsafe was a personality wipe, and he should have been lost forever.”
It made me even more touched that his concern first turned to me instead of Byron. I just would have been dead, but the very essence of Byron would have been destroyed. What a harrowing thought.
“The power I wield is more than just show,” I said. “He was made to love me, and I was made to save him.”
Epilogue
Everything became much easier from there.
I graduated from high school with honors, and both Octavius and Rich walked with me on either side, each with one of my hands. I looked ridiculous in my cap and gown, but Octavius looked amazing, as usual. Rich hadn’t bothered to wear his cap at all and carried it instead. He confided in me that he always had the horn of his unicorn form and found hats uncomfort
able, which was cute.
Byron cheered us from the audience, and I waved to him.
My kings.
I split the night into quarters: a fancy dinner with my parents in Coos Bay's finest restaurant, a stop at Rich's family's party, and a walk on the beach with Byron.
The last part of the night, I met Byron, Rich, and Octavius at the warehouse where the band played. It was two in the morning, the moon was bright, and the warehouse was no normal rehearsal space: it housed the biggest and most raucous party I had ever seen. A lot of familiar Coos Bay faces lined the room, but there were more strangers.
Octavius, with a grin, jumped on the stage immediately with his band and tore the place up. The crowd was wild, and I stood with Rich and Byron backstage, clapping along in appreciation.
At the end of the show, as the sun began to rise, Octavius pulled me out to join him. We sang the song that we'd come up with at our first rehearsal, and with him behind me, I wasn't scared. Heck, it didn't even feel like we had a crowd in front of us, or a band behind.
All I knew were the men that had saved me: Octavius, from the octopus, and myself; Rich, from my flight; and Byron, with the rest, saved both me and the world from destruction.
They loved me.
It was all I would ever need.
The End
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Epilogue
Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Epilogue
