Hidden Runes

by G. Bailey

  “How can I assist you?” she asks.

  “Find someone. Her name is Evie, and she is the deadly assassin, helper of demons—”

  “Salvatore. I have heard her name whispered everywhere recently. Many look up to her for the future,” she says, her tone serious. “Many say she is the lost royal child of the Protector and she will be queen. Queen of the Protectors and demons.”

  “Then help me find her,” I ask, thinking over her words. She is fucking what? I don’t even have a clue what happened while I was out, but clearly a lot did. The queen of the Protectors? How can that even be possible? Her mother or father couldn’t have been a royal. Lamia places her hands over her ears, and she nods to me. Her white eyes glow brightly for only a second. The light is dazzling and so pure, much like it is said her power is meant to be, pure and endless, though I don’t always believe all the rumours. I wait for her to lower her hands after she seems like she is back from wherever she was.

  “Salvatore cannot be found by me. I already know it, so will you. She has died in Hell,” Lamia informs me, her voice cold and unfeeling. The shock rolls through me when I sense the truth in her words. Evie is gone, that’s why I cannot feel her. That’s why everything feels wrong.

  “No,” I shake my head, stepping back and feeling my anger take over. The floor starts melting as fire drips off my body, and my inner demon takes over. I can’t even think, not wanting to fight him if she is gone.

  “You must go to the Protectors if you wish for answers. They hold the key,” Lamia says, snapping me out of it a little to look at her in confusion. My inner demon slides back into the mental cage I keep him in, and the fire slows down into little embers that drip off my skin onto the floor.

  “Why would I care for anything if she is gone?” I ask, but I remember Hali and know I have to save her before finding out what happened to Evie and destroying those responsible.

  “Death is not the end for us all, overlord. You know this. I believe the Salvatore needs to return for her revenge soon. The Protectors are the key,” she tells me, filling me with a little hope as she bows her head and whispers, “Sempiternum daemonum futurum oriri.”

  “Demons will rise,” I repeat her words, but in English. Lamia means them in a show of respect as that’s what they were always used for. Now demons only whisper the saying, not understanding where it came from. I bow my head before turning and walking down the street, where people are now walking around like nothing just happened. Time to find those annoying Protectors and Hali.

  Thirty-Four

  Evie

  “Come in, come in. I never see anyone these days, and never someone new!” Charmeine happily tells me, practically jumping on the spot as I walk into her house. Seems like falling out of the sky and spitting out grass has made her like me more. Go figure. Danike shuts the door behind me as I take in the simple room before me. There are two sofas, a fireplace much like Danike’s, and a white fluffy rug in the middle of them. There is a kitchen with what looks like white apples in a bowl on the side and a small table and chairs. There are white flowers in vases everywhere, and the whole place feels like a cosy home.

  “Why is everything white?” I ask.

  “We don’t actually know. See, I have only been up here for five hundred years and everything was white when I first came up. Not all the older angels like to talk, so it’s hard to find things out,” she says.

  “How long have some of you been here?” I ask.

  “Thousands of years,” Charmeine says, her voice tainted with sorrow. “Most of them left have been here that long. Danike, my sister and I are considered outsiders.”

  “How many are alive here?” I ask.

  “She asks a lot of questions, doesn’t she?” Charmeine asks Danike rather than answering me.

  “Unfortunately, yes,” he says, rubbing his jaw as he watches me. “There are thirty-two angels alive here.”

  “That isn’t a lot,” I muse, walking around the room.

  “Souls come…we cannot fight. We are not warriors like the angels that were on earth. We were sent to Hell to make peace with the demons…but we found only death instead,” Charmeine tells me, her silver eyes locking on mine. I’m sure there is far more to it than that, but I’m not sure if I want to know more right now. I came here to see my past, not deal with the past of the angels.

  “I want to see her past. That is why we are here,” Danike tells Charmeine who nods, looking me over.

  “Fine. It will hurt. Are you ready for that?” she asks carefully.

  “Pain is just pain, and this time the pain will be for something. I have never known who my parents are, which has always stuck with me. I only just found out about my mother…and I do not have the answers I need yet about my father,” I explain to her.

  “I never knew my parents either, and I only got trapped here when I heard rumour my sister was trapped in the stars of Hell,” she says sadly, somewhat making me like her a little bit more.

  “Was she here?” I ask.

  “Yes. My sister lives and will be back soon. She is much younger than us. Only a child when she was killed and came here. We age so very slow here that she is only a teenager now,” she tells me and looks over at Danike. “We should start, the memory will knock you out for the day and drain me. I do not want to still be under when it gets dark.”

  “Understood. Lie next to me, Evie,” Danike says, and walks into the lounge. He lies down on the fur rug, and Charmeine goes to kneel next to him. She looks up at me and pats the floor on her other side. I start to wonder if letting her put me to sleep is a good idea or not. I can’t fight when I’m not awake.

  “We will not hurt you. You are our kind, related to us in some way. We are the last of the angels, and we need to know who you are. You need to know who you are,” Charmeine says kindly, and I know she has a point. I don’t like the idea of being defenceless, but this is the only chance for the memories I need. I slowly walk across the room and lie on the floor next to her.

  “You may see some of Danike’s memories as his powers link you. It is normal,” she tells me, and I nod once. Charmeine places a hand on both Danike’s and my foreheads. Her touch is freezing cold as she starts chanting a language I do not understand. The room slowly fades away into a white light, a light that shines so bright that I cannot see anything but it as I can only hear Charmeine’s chanting. When the light fades a little and the chanting disappears, I pull myself up and sharply turn around, seeing nothing but a white room with nothing in it. The room spins rapidly, causing me to fall over even as I try to keep up. I close my eyes as the room spins and spins, a scream ripping out of my throat as my hands go to my head.

  “Open your eyes,” Danike’s voice comes to me, and as I do, the spinning suddenly stops. I see the gold fur rug I am seated upon first, spreading my fingers in it as everything stops blurring. I stand up quickly, pausing at the sight of a man leaning over a woman in her bed. The bed is huge, and the frame looks like it is made out of solid gold that is decorated in runes. There are gold coloured curtains, a solid gold dressing table and one beautiful painting on a wall. The painting is of a dark-haired woman kneeling on gold grass as a gold light blasts off her body.

  “Open your eyes. I miss seeing the beauty in them, Eella,” the man says softly, and I step closer, seeing that it is Danike, hidden in a white cloak. I don’t recognise the soft tone in which he speaks to the woman he looks down at. The woman in the bed sharply sits up, wrapping her small arms around Danike’s shoulders as they kiss, her long dark hair hiding her face from me. When she pulls back, I see her runes on her face, her blue eyes and her long black hair. Her large pregnant stomach comes into view, and I just know who she is. It is like finding someone you have always known is just there but never seen. She is my mother.

  Thirty-Five

  Evie

  The room spins rapidly as I stare at my mother. One minute, I am watching Danike kiss my mother once again, and then I am in the same room, but it is on
fire. A woman’s hand hangs off the bed, her hanging arm and shoulder is the only thing I can see. I slowly walk over, seeing the piles of blue dust on the floor. Dead demons. Dozens of them. I swallow the nervous feeling in my throat making me feel sick as I get to the bed. My whole body goes cold as I see my mother lying on the bed, holding a baby to her chest that is covered in a gold blanket. My mother’s back is covered in blood, and I look down to see a sword on the floor near my feet.

  “You did well. You are so powerful already, though it should be me defending you, my baby girl,” my mother whispers to the baby and moves the blanket covering the baby, revealing the baby’s blue hair. The baby cries loudly, and my mother cries too, pressing a kiss onto the baby’s head. I step back as tears stream down my face, as I know I’m watching the moment right after I used my holy fire rune to kill all these demons. I was a baby, a baby trying to defend my mother, and I failed to save her.

  “Eella!” someone desperately screams, and I sharply turn to see a woman running into the room, dropping a blood-covered sword on the floor. She looks a little like my mother, only her hair is short and her face covered in blood. The woman falls on the bed, taking in my mother’s injuries. “Oh sister, what have they done to you?”

  “They know who she is. Take her. Hide her. It is too late for me,” my mother pleads with her sister. My aunt.

  “I promise,” my aunt vows, harshly wiping her eyes as she picks up the baby—well, me—and holds her close to her chest as the baby cries loudly.

  “Go. Just go, they are coming, and they want her dead. She cannot die, not after her father…” my mum pleads desperately, pushing at her sister’s arm, but she doesn’t have the strength to even move her an inch. My aunt leans over my mum, kissing her forehead and moving some of the hair out of her eyes as my mum rolls onto her back.

  “Evelina will be safe. You will not have died for nothing. She will live and avenge you. I love you so much,” my aunt cries out as my mum places her hand on the baby’s head, on top of the blanket, leaving blood marks with her fingers.

  “I only want her to be happy and alive. Nothing else even matters. I love you, my baby girl. Now live,” my mother just about coughs out, and her hand falls away, her head falling to the side so her glazed-over eyes meet mine. I jump back, seeing my aunt crying in anger and running out of the room with me in her arms, but I do not look away from my mother.

  “I am sorry, and I will avenge you. We should have been together, mum, and maybe I will see you in death one day, and we can be together. I am alive, and there were moments I was happy. Even now, I am happy to have been able to see you once again,” I manage to say as I try not to break down with the anger and emotion that are trying to destroy me. I reach out to put my hand on my mother’s cheek, but the tips of my fingers turn into smoke and reappear when I move my hand away.

  “Guards! Call the guards!” a man shouts, and I turn to see a hooded man run into the room, lowering his cloak. It is keeper Cadean who doesn’t look one bit shocked at the sight of the dead queen. Two other keepers run into the room, gasping in shock and lowering their heads in respect.

  “The evil child she spawned has killed her, and her sister is protecting the baby. We must hunt the child! Now!” keeper Cadean shouts, and the two other keepers quickly run out of the room. Keeper Cadean walks over to my mother, leaning down so he is only a breath away from me as he whispers.

  “You deserved this, and I will find the child and dispose of her as well. Your other children will be brought up in my care, and one will be a much better queen than you ever were.”

  The room spins as I scream and try to attack keeper Cadean, and suddenly there is massive white light that blinds me.

  “She is coming around, any moment now,” Charmeine’s voice drifts over to me, the white light blinding me for only a few minutes before her face comes into view along with the whole room. I sharply sit up, looking over at Danike who is staring at the ground as he sits up.

  “You…” I can’t even say the words as anger fills me, and I jump at him, lifting my hand and punching him hard in the face. He falls to the ground as I stand over him. “Where were you when my mother died?! How could you let her die like that for having your child?! Where the hell were you?!” I scream at him, and Charmeine tries to wrap an arm around me, but I push her away. I wait until he finally looks up at me before trying to speak, but no words come out. Tears stream down his face, the emotion on his face so difficult to watch, but I can’t feel anything but anger. He left her alone, and me. She is dead, and he could have stopped that.

  “I loved your mother and never knew she was dead. I never knew the baby, you, survived. You shouldn’t have, and she shouldn’t have died saving you,” he spits out angrily, and I take a step back in shock. He sharply stands up, glaring at me once before storming out the house.

  “He didn’t mean that. You’re his daughter. It is just a shock,” Charmeine tries to comfort me. “He loved your mother more than his own life.”

  “Oh, he meant it, and I don’t care. Now, how do I get out of here? I have things I need to do,” I say, straightening my back and forgetting about the asshole outside. I have never needed my parents, and I’m not about to start now. But I do need revenge for many things. I think I should start making a list at this rate. My revenge list. I like the sound of it.

  “We can’t—” she starts off, and the door bangs open as Danike runs in.

  “The souls are attacking the angels! Your sister is there!” Danike shouts at us and runs back out.

  “No!” Charmeine screams in fear and runs out the door. I pause for a second, wondering if I should just leave them to it, but I know I can’t do that. I shake my head before I run after them, knowing they will need all the help they can get. I guess we are going to fight some souls then…without weapons. Awesome fucking plan.

  Thirty-Six

  Trex

  “What’s wrong with him? Is he hurt?” Hali asks from behind me as I drop my brother onto the sofa in the lounge. He doesn’t even stir, and I just rub the back of my neck as I look down at him as he starts lightly snoring. Getting as drunk as he can be is not fixing our problems. We need Nix on his game in case we are found, but getting him to listen to me is another thing altogether.

  “Don’t drink alcohol, kid, this is what happens,” I point at Nix as I turn around to face Hali. It’s clear she has been crying again, and I don’t know what to do or say to her. Fuck, she lost Evie, her only family, and she is stuck with us idiots. I don’t blame her for crying every day. I guess I could make her more chocolate cookies, that made her smile for a little bit. Or watch that show where they catch fake people online. She loves that too.

  “I will get him a blanket, it’s cold and I don’t want him cold,” she says, nodding to herself and running off towards the bedrooms at the back of the cabin. The girl is too nice for her own good. The dickhead deserves to be cold. I walk over to the kitchen and open the fridge, pulling out a bottle of water as I hear the front door open. I look back as Connor walks in, his cloak covered in snow and Star walking next to him. Star shakes all the snow off her back before running to me, pressing her head against my hip. The tiger has grown extremely quickly in the last month, and I think she may be some kind of magical creature. Normal tigers don’t triple in size like she has in such a short time, and she is far too intelligent.

  “Anything?” I ask Connor as he pulls his cloak off. Connor looks like shit, his hair is overgrown, sticking up in all directions, and he has grown a beard. We all don’t know what to do with ourselves now, and we all regret everything that happened in Hell. Some of us more than others.

  “The path is completely snowed in, and we can’t get to town until it clears. I would burn it down with the rune or portal, but I think it will attract too much attention to us. The whole idea of living on this stupid island at the top of Scotland is to be unseen,” Connor mutters, hanging his cloak on the hook next to our other ones.

  “We have e
nough food for a week. If it becomes urgent, we will use our powers,” I reply, undoing the bottle lid and drinking some of the water. I push my hair out of my eyes, knowing I need to cut it.

  “Where did you find him?” Connor asks, coming over to me as Hali comes out one of the rooms with a red blanket in her arms.

  “On the roof, surrounded by empty bottles of beer and god knows what else. He must have opened a portal to get them, risking us all,” I growl out, shaking my head at Nix. We need to hide because not only do the witches want Hali, the Protectors want us for breaking her out and running from them. Not that any of us want anything to do with the Protectors after what Erica did. Erica would kill us in a heartbeat if we came near them anyway.

  “Nix isn’t taking Evie’s death well, maybe we should give him a bit of a break,” Connor says, which is a big understatement, and we always seem to give my brother a break when we both lose people. I thought I had some of my brother back while we were in Hell, but Evie’s death has only destroyed him more. He doesn’t talk to us or do anything other than drink. The only one he ever replies to is Hali, only because she threw a bucket of ice water over him for ignoring her. That kid is just like Evie because I could imagine her doing that.

  “None of us are,” I reply coldly, watching Hali cover up Nix with a blanket and wondering if the kid will ever be able to have a normal life without Evie protecting her. There is only so much we can do to protect her when we don’t know the world of witches and demons like Evie did. Star unexpectedly starts growling low, a rumbling noise, as she runs over to Hali and Nix, pushing Hali behind her. Hali flashes me a worried look as I slide my sword off the counter, hearing Connor pick up a weapon too as he runs over to Hali. Hali stays behind Star as we stop on either side of her, listening out for anything. I pull my sleeve up my arm, getting ready to call my portal rune if we need an escape.