by D. N. Hoxa
“Stand up.” McGraw’s voice echoed in the room made of stone. “Stand up,” he repeated, this time louder. The woman continued to cry uncontrollably. The third man was unconscious, if not dead.
Then, the man on the floor moved. He rose to his knees first, then to his feet. The camera zoomed in on his face. He was bald and a short beard surrounded his pointy chin. His eyes were distant and his thin lips slightly parted. His face was bloodied and expressionless—the face of a zombie. He looked ahead but didn’t see. I wasn’t even sure if he was breathing.
“Hands on your head,” McGraw said. I couldn’t see him anymore, just the face of the zombie stranger. He immediately pulled his arms up and put his palms on the top of his head, one after the other.
A moment passed, and another. I kept waiting for him to refuse, to shiver, to cry out, to breathe! But he stood there like a statue with his hands on his head just like the warlock ordered.
“Strangle the girl.” McGraw’s cold voice was like a slap to my face. The woman still tied to the chair screamed.
“No...no, no, please! No!” she begged, watching with wide, teary eyes as the man turned and approached her. The man looked stripped of all emotions. His hands went for her throat. He tightened his fingers until they turned white, and the woman stopped screaming—too busy gasping for air.
“Sire?” McGraw’s voice was no longer cold but filled with excitement.
Then there was nothing. The TV disappeared.
18
——————————
It took me a couple of seconds to gather my thoughts, and when I did, I wished I hadn’t.
All those humans…and they even made them kill each other. Just how many of them had I heard screaming during my time in Lyndor? Fifty? A hundred? Two?
I’d never felt more ashamed of myself. I’d learned to fight to help those who couldn’t fight for themselves. And I’d failed to help the people who’d needed me the most. All of it had happened right in front of my eyes, literally, and I’d been stupid enough not to question anything. I was willing to bet my life that this was the reason why McGraw didn’t want me down in the cells on my last visit to Lyndor. I had felt nothing at all because they were human. I couldn’t feel humans.
“This was brought to us almost a month ago. The first positive test. They’ve improved it since then,” the green-eyed woman continued.
“This is how you got the new recruits?” My throat was completely dry.
She nodded. “Yes. We’ve showed this video to those who cared to listen. Our number has grown noticeably in the last months. People finally see what has been right there in front of them for centuries. Sure, most of them do not care about humans, but they fear the Council’s next steps. After the humans, they will not stop. They will never be satisfied, and they will try to make a slave out of every creature, magical or not, in this world.”
“How is this connected to me?”
I made myself meet her eyes. Sure, guilt and embarrassment made me want to blush, but I needed to look at all of them. I refused to be played for a fool again. And that damn video wasn’t something I could ignore.
“Why don’t you take your seat?” the vampire spoke for the first time. Her voice was low and seductive. Sexy, just like the image of her. I nodded and sat next to Aaron again.
“Only a few years ago, an Oracle came to her powers, and she had a vision of the future. She made a prediction,” the green-eyed woman said.
“Wait. An Oracle?”
I was pretty sure I’d read that a Seer hadn’t developed into an Oracle in the last hundred years. When Aaron mentioned it to me, I thought he was just messing around, trying to get me to the Elders.
“Yes, an Oracle,” she said with a nod. “She saw you, Star. She saw the next Elemental come to her powers, the only one that could put a stop to Samayan’s plans and save us all.”
Oh, such a freaking cliché! I laughed. Save the world? Come on! My life was not a comic book or a superhero story. The real world just didn’t operate like that.
“Well, I’m sorry for wasting both our times,” I said, trying but failing not to feel pissed off. “You’ve obviously confused me with someone else because I most definitely will not be saving anyone.” Except for my family. “I kill, okay? It’s what I do, what I’m good at. I can kill without even thinking about it, but that’s as far as my talents go.”
“And that’s all we’re going to need from you,” the woman said. “Aren’t you already set on doing just that? Kill those you’ve worked for until today?”
She had a point. I was going to kill Council’s sups. And I was going to start with McGraw, who was obviously the warlock producing the damn potion. So, in a way, I was going to do what they hoped I would, though for a different reason.
“Okay, but that’s a coincidence. It has nothing to do with some Oracle.”
Nothing ever had anything to do with an Oracle. Fate wasn’t made to be foreseen.
“Yes, it has. It has everything to do with it. She saw you, Star.”
“Did she give you a damn picture? Because I doubt it, and that’s the only way you could ever truly confirm that she saw me.”
“The prophecy told us about you a year before you appeared. The woman who came into Samuel’s shop looking for Illyon,” she said, bringing back not so happy memories of the first time I was tortured, “she didn’t know who you were. She’d heard that you were Samuel’s Keeper, but she believed that you were human. After we heard about what she did and who she hired to come after you at the hospital, we checked on you to make sure you were okay. And when we found you, you had all the abilities that only Elementals have. But we confirmed it the same way the Council did.”
“Which was?”
“The star mark on your ankle.”
Holy shit. Nobody knew about my mark. I never showed it to anyone. Ever.
“How do you know about my mark?”
“We found the pictures made by the Council’s soldiers while you were sleeping at the hospital. There was no mistaking it. It’s you.”
She smiled like that was a good thing.
I cursed under my breath. The sneaky fucking bastards. They’d used the time I’d been unconscious in a hospital bed to check on me.
So many questions invaded my mind at the same time. What does my star have to do with a freaking prophecy? How can they be sure that the star was an indicator in the first place? What does the prophecy say, and could they be absolutely sure? Because I was almost a hundred percent sure that they weren’t.
“So all this time, you knew about me. Who I was. You knew about my family.”
And Ella was alive. I’d seen her with my own eyes. How?
“Yes. We knew. We also knew that they were in New York,” the woman said.
It sounded like a joke. I’d been killing Rebels for more than a year, and they knew about my family? They were lying. If they had really known, they would have used my family to stop me long ago.
“And you did nothing?” I said with a half smile to tell them that they weren’t fooling me.
The vampire raised her perfect brow and smiled just enough to show me the tips of her fangs. “They are merely human. They shouldn’t pay for your mistakes.”
She was right, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to bitch slap the hell out of her. But I didn’t want to start a fight with the illusion of a fucking vampire.
“Are you the only ones that know?” Because I doubted they would’ve been able to stop everyone from going after my family for such a long time.
“Yes. Only we. We know everything about you up until you went to Lyndor. We have been trying to reach you ever since, but you were like a ghost until now.”
“There’s got to be a mistake,” I said. It just wouldn’t add up. “I mean, I’m not even sure if I have any magic in me.”
“Of course you do,” the woman said, narrowing her brows as if I’d offended her. “You’re an Elemental. You control the elements.”
>
A sorry smile stretched my lips. Elemental. Everybody knew that was a myth.
“I can’t control anything. I have no idea what I am, but an Elemental is the last thing on my list.”
“On the contrary. You can control a great deal of things, not just the elements,” the woman insisted.
“Excuse me, but are you high on something? No one can control the elements. That’s a myth.”
At least that was something I knew for sure from what I’d read. And I’d read a lot.
“What does that mean? High?” the woman asked, looking at the others. Aaron tried to mask his laughter but he failed miserably.
“Nothing, Grandmother. Nothing,” he said, his hands in front of his mouth.
Grandmother?
“Oh, you silly girl.” The woman looked annoyed all of a sudden. “You should know by now that nothing is a myth! Elementals are real, and they can control the elements and just about anything else if they really put their minds to it. And you are one of them.”
Darkness gathered itself around her like a blanket. Suddenly, she didn’t look like a woman at all. She looked like the freaking Devil.
“Like I said, there has been a misunderstanding here,” I said, but grey-haired man cut me off as he spoke for the first time.
“What have you practiced until now?”
“Um, everything?” I’d tried everything. “I tried sparkly magic, potions, transformation, willpower, incantations, runes—all there is out there. I even tried shape-shifting.”
Not a pleasant memory. I still felt like the whole world had seen me try to turn into an animal, and it embarrassed the hell out of me.
“You have never tried to control anything?”
I had tried everything McGraw told me to try. He was always very specific about what to do, giving me clear instructions. I trusted him so I never strayed from what he told me to do. Stupid. I just shook my head, embarrassed by my own stupidity.
Then something occurred to me. I could feel the rain before it hit the ground. I could feel stones, even the ground sometimes. I could almost hear the air whisper. I’d never told anyone about that, not even McGraw from fear I’d sound like a looney. Now, I was glad I hadn’t.
“It’s okay,” the woman Aaron called Grandmother said. Seriously, why Grandmother? She didn’t look a day over fifty. But she did say that she’d been there from the beginning of time. I wondered how old she really was or what she was in the first place. Somehow, I didn’t think they’d appreciate it if I asked so I held myself, despite my curiosity.
“We have a month to train you,” she continued.
I stood up again.
“I don’t have a month. They gave me a week. I’m leaving tonight.”
“Star…” she tried to reason, but I didn’t want to hear it. I wouldn’t hear it. My family was in danger and time was already wasting.
“No. I know Lyndor like the palm of my hand. I am going to go there for my family, and I will destroy the potion, the formula, and the warlock who made it.”
That part I would do gladly. I was already looking forward to it.
“Or I will die trying. After I’ve sent my family to safety.”
My family came first, and I wanted to make it clear to them from the beginning.
“If I make it out of there alive, that will be it for me. I will take my family and walk away from this world and all its bullshit.”
“Don’t be silly, girl,” Grandmother said, her voice higher than usual. “You know you cannot walk away from what you are. This world you speak of with so much distaste needs you.”
“Listen, lady. I lost my family once. I’m not going to lose them again, no matter what anyone thinks. I will try my best to destroy the potion, like I said. And if I succeed, I will disappear. That’s that.”
I didn’t want to leave any room for arguing, because it would be pointless. Time-wasting. I wasn’t going to change my mind. They looked at me like I’d killed a freaking kitten. But surely they would understand? I’d been screwed up by all this crap before, and I would destroy the stupid mind-controlling potion. It was only fair to get to walk away after that. They could watch me with those desperate puppy eyes all they wanted. I wasn’t planning to back down.
“If you are sure that you can go ahead all by yourself with a dagger and some knives, and save your family, kill everyone, destroy the potion and disappear, by all means, go ahead. You are free to go,” the woman finally said.
She looked extremely disappointed. The air around her was no longer filled with darkness, but it crackled with electricity. What was she?
I nodded and turned around, no idea where I was headed or how to break out of the Fifth Dimension, when Aaron stood up and grabbed my arm again, turning me to face him. He was so close. Too close. My mouth went dry in a second. Damn him.
“This is stupid, and you know it. And you don’t strike me as the kind to do stupid things. You will get killed before you even reach Lyndor! Just wait.”
“Wait for what?” I shouted, a second after I composed myself. Thinking about how close his lips were was definitely not healthy for me.
“You said you had a week. Rest for a day, try to train your powers for a couple days more.” He looked down at my body as if to remind me how badly I was hurt.
“Rest?!” I asked incredulously, pushing his hands away, no matter how good they felt. “You think I can rest when I know that my father, my little sister is being tortured while I sit around and do nothing?” I cried in desperation, trying to understand which part wasn’t clear to him.
“You will not do nothing! You will practice your power!” he shouted right back at me.
“I have no power!” I’d finally come to terms with it, and this guy insisted that I’d been wrong. “And even if I did, that won’t work in Lyndor. Or have you forgotten that magic doesn’t work there?”
It was getting harder to control my twitching fists before they connected with his handsome face.
“Controlling is not magic,” Grandmother said, interrupting our little discussion. “It’s an elemental power. It connects with you, with your soul. It’s essence, not magic.”
I smiled bitterly. “I don’t have a soul.” I sold it to the devil a long time ago when I left my family. “And I don’t have any power,” I repeated for what I hoped would be the last time.
“Then prove it,” the man with the beer belly said.
He stood up and walked toward me. He looked so real, like if I wanted to kick him, I could. But then I saw his eyes. Man, they were scary. It was like a whole world of dark and evil things was hidden behind them. They held so much power that my knees shivered. I burned with curiosity to ask him what he was because I’d never felt anything like that before. And he was shielding his magic perfectly, but his eyes said more than anything I’d ever felt. I inhaled deeply, reminding myself that I wouldn’t be scared if I really believed I wasn’t. And I wasn’t. The only thing I was scared of was what they were doing to my family in Lyndor.
“What?” How could I prove that I did not have magic?
“Prove it. They’ve blocked your powers the best they could with potions until now, but if you let me, I will set you free.”
Blocked my powers? Suddenly, my mind went to that dream I’d had the last time I was in Lyndor. Of McGraw giving me something disgusting to drink…holy shit, the surprise and shocks just kept coming.
“Try here, now. Try to use your power, and if you do not feel or do anything, then you are free to go with all the weapons and men you need for Lyndor.”
The man’s voice was a rich, deep sound that somehow fit perfectly with his dark eyes. He sounded like a...secret. He was taller than me, and as I watched him from under my lashes, I tried hard not to let him intimidate me.
I closed my eyes to think. There she was, my Ella. Always there, whenever I closed my eyes. I pushed her image away for a second to concentrate. I could use weapons. A gun, maybe two, a katana and some more knives. Most of all,
I could use a couple of men. For distraction, if nothing else. Mean, I knew, but at that point I was ready to even make another bargain with the devil to get Ella and Dad out of there. Not sure what I’d give him, though.
“Fine,” I finally breathed. Then I remembered. “Wait, this is the Fifth Dimension. How are you going to free me if my powers were really blocked?”
Without a word, the man put his hand on my forehead. Pain sliced at my brain. I bit my tongue not to scream. I tried to grab his hand, to pull him off me, but I couldn’t touch him. My hand went right through him. So how could he touch me? What the hell was he? What were all the Elders?
My stomach rolled like thunder. Bile filled my mouth. I couldn’t even breathe as I felt something being pulled from what felt like my every cell. Air. I needed air, and my mouth opened and closed like a fish’s, but no air came through. I was choking. The pain was unbearable. It was like my skin was detaching from my flesh.
And then, it stopped.
My eyes popped open. Nothing about the view in front of me had changed. The beer belly man smiled half a smile, his eyes still holding all the secrets of the world.
“What…” How was that possible? I’d never met anyone with such strength. How come he never tried to go after Master Samayan himself?
“There you go,” he whispered. Suddenly, I had the urge to run and hide somewhere. He’d just touched me while in the Fifth Dimension. “Now you can try.”
I took a deep breath and shook my head in a lame attempt to clear my mind. Time was wasting. It didn’t matter what the man did to me. What mattered was that I tried to do whatever they wanted me to, so I could be on my way with weapons and men and free my family.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Try to control the air around you,” the man said.
I almost laughed. He must’ve really been high. All of them probably were. But if I didn’t at least look like I was trying, then I’d lose my weapons and the men. So I clamped my mouth shut and indulged them.”
Control the air, my ass. Freaks.
“Close your eyes, Star. Feel the air around you. Reach for it. Hear it whispering. Grab it. Bend it to your will,” Grandmother said in one breath. She didn’t know I already felt the air, and I wasn’t planning on sharing, so I continued to pretend for the sake of the benefits.
