Alpha Goddess

by Amalie Howard

  “Hell on Earth, my dear. It is the demon’s way. They consume their young.” He watched her carefully. “So you decide. Fight me or save him. It’s your choice.”

  “What makes you think I care about him?” But Sera knew the words fell flat. As much as she felt the keen slice of Kyle’s betrayal, there was no way she would allow his sacrifice, especially to open Xibalba. Azrath winked as she spun around, gnashing her teeth.

  Spray flew against her face and she sped toward the shoreline where Ra’al stood surrounded by thousands of demons. A smaller ring of light pressed in upon them, other gods fighting to get to the Demon Lord before he did something irreversible. But what she saw from her vantage point made the odds seem slim. There were just too many of them. Ra’al was seconds away from opening the gates of hell.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Sera saw Micah and her mother flying at her from the side. “Where are the others?” she screamed. “The Yoddha?”

  “Surrounding the edges of the forest. We can’t risk any of the demons getting to where people are.”

  “And the Ne’feri?”

  Micah answered, his face lined and dirty. His deifyre armor was blackened with ash, soot, and blood. “They’re destroying the portals as fast as Azrath opens them. The portals don’t last, but enough demons come through each time that it’s harder and harder to keep them at bay.”

  “Ra’al is going to invoke the KaliYura,” Sera said to them. “Kyle’s the key. He’s the sacrifice—part mortal, part Azura, part demon. Azrath said his blood will unite the realms. He will call forth Kali, the worst rakshasa of Xibalba. We cannot let that happen, do you understand?”

  Eight more Yoddha joined them. Sera recognized the two from Beth’s house. They sped in a V formation with Sera at its head and Micah and her mother on either side, approaching where Ra’al stood.

  Kyle lay on a crude stone altar in front of Ra’al, Belphegar, and three other Demon Lords. Sera signaled for the others to wait and moved forward. Ra’al stepped closer to Kyle in warning, and Sera slowed.

  She alighted on the edge of the lake. The demons snarled and spat in her direction. “I cannot let you do this, Ra’al,” she said quietly. “The balance cannot be shifted between the realms.”

  “It’s too late,” he said. “Azrath has already completed the rites. This is the last of his part of the bargain.” He’d reverted to the red demon he’d been in Xibalba, muscled and grotesque. Smaller demons clustered around his cloven feet, groveling in supplication and adoration. He held Mordas loosely in one hand, near enough that if she took one step forward, it would be over. Kyle stared at her, his face empty.

  Sera let her deifyre fade. She saw that he was tied down, his hands and legs secured to the stone. “I don’t care about you or your son. You can return to Xibalba for all I care, but I cannot let you invoke the KaliYura.”

  “Why? It is a time when all demons will be kings,” Belphegar crowed. A raucous cheer burst from the crowd. “Do it, Ra’al,” he urged. “What are you waiting for?”

  Ra’al hefted the black sword. “Fulfill your destiny,” he said to Kyle.

  “I thought you said my destiny was in Xibalba,” Kyle said weakly. “That I was to take my place at your side.”

  “Azrath said that you were the link, the connection between the Mortal Realm and the Dark Realms. You are the one, the sacrifice.”

  “And you believe him?” Kyle coughed, a drip of dark blood running down the side of his face. Sera suddenly understood what he was trying to do. She slipped closer as Ra’al’s face creased.

  “Azrath is only looking out for himself,” she said, following Kyle’s lead. “What makes you think you can trust him? Not that I care one way or another about you or your seed.” She spat the last word. “But what if he wants you to kill the one thing you value most? Your first born?”

  Sera kept staring out to the lake, but she could feel Ra’al’s eyes settle on her. His indecision was clear. He didn’t trust Azrath. Sera pressed her advantage, her voice silky, deliberately insouciant.

  “Kill him, then. Spill your own progeny’s blood if it pleases you.”

  Ra’al’s hand dropped to his side. Belphegar pushed forward. “What are you waiting for Ra’al? Do it.”

  “No,” he said.

  “Then I will, you fool.” Belphegar rushed forward just as Ra’al spun to face him, Mordas inches from Belphegar’s throat.

  “Defy me again, and I will send you back from whence you came, Belphegar. Do not forget that I was the one to bring you here.” Sera could see the venom in Belphegar’s eyes but he didn’t respond, cowed by Ra’al’s rage.

  Then one of the Demon Lords she hadn’t seen before approached. Everything about him was black, but it was a black underscored by a glowing ember. His face was charred, his eyes two fiery orbs. Temlucus, the Demon Lord of Torment. The last dimension before Ra’al’s and the one of unending torture.

  “Lord Ra’al,” he said in a rich tone. “Belphegar is right. We need to open the portal. Otherwise, why are we here? Kill the boy and be done with it.”

  “He’s my son.”

  “You have another. Dekaias,” Belphegar’s female side reminded him.

  “Nothing that this boy could be. He is made in my image. Dekaias was but an afterthought.” Ra’al’s face hardened. “And don’t think I have forgotten Azrath’s last attempt to coerce you against me. This could be another ruse to kill us all and rule all three realms himself.”

  “Really, you are like a bunch of children,” a voice drawled. “You really think I want Xibalba? I’ve had enough of it to last me a thousand lifetimes. Kill the boy. Open the gates. The rites have been spoken, the sigils drawn.” Azrath paused as two demons trailed behind him, hauling someone bound and limping in their wake. “All I ask for is the girl.”

  He stared at Sera, and all she could feel was revulsion. “I told you once, and I will tell you again. I will never help you,” she spat.

  Azrath called the two demons forward with a flick of his wrist. They pulled their prisoner into plain view. Sera heard her mother’s soft gasp behind her.

  “It’s OK, Sera. I’m not hurt,” her father said.

  “For now,” Azrath added, his words soft. He turned his attention back to Ra’al and raised his eyebrows. “Well?” he said sarcastically.

  Ra’al raised Mordas high and even as the scream lodged in Sera’s throat, she felt the power of the ten gods behind her descending upon them. And then she was spinning toward Kyle, her deifyre blades meeting Temlucus’s own fiery weapons. Her eyes darted toward Kyle and the sword that still made its achingly long descent. Another warrior pulled Temlucus away and then she was running as fast as she could toward the altar.

  Mordas was right above Kyle’s chest when he ripped through his bonds, his arms coming up in an X. The blade stopped short, throwing Ra’al off balance. Kyle’s voice was cold. “You miscalculated, Father. Mordas will never hurt its master, and I have fed it more blood than you have these last few days.” He paused and sat up, his eyes glittering. “I am its master.”

  Kyle swung Mordas’s inverted edge back toward Ra’al. It embedded itself into his skull with sharp precision. Black blood spurted onto the altar as Ra’al collapsed, his eyes frozen in betrayed shock. Sera jerked Kyle out of the way and severed the ties on his feet. Ra’al crumbled to ash, but before he disappeared, Sera swore she’d seen a smile on his face. It chilled her.

  “That was easier than I thought,” Kyle said rubbing his wrists. “Is he dead?”

  “No, he has returned to the seventh hell where he belongs,” she answered automatically. “Demon Lords can’t be killed in the Mortal Realm.”

  “Sera, about—”

  Kyle’s words were cut off as he fell backward. Sera saw the red-handled blade protruding out of his shoulder.

  Singed flesh filled the air as she spun around. Temlucus. His grin was all hate even as her mother’s spear ripped through the center of him. A dozen demons attacked her then,
and Sophia spun in a blur. More and more warriors appeared around them, fighting off the last of the smaller demons. Temlucus stumbled forward, blackened fingers reaching for her. It took two more thrusts from Sophia’s spear to make him fall.

  “Too late,” he grunted with a terrible smile, his hands open in affirmation before he, too, faded to ashy embers, returning to the sixth.

  Sera spun to watch in horror as blood leaked down Kyle’s arm into the altar’s channel and fell in slow motion into the conduit that led to the lake.

  “No!” she screamed.

  But it was too late. The drop of blood rippled into the lake as if it were a boulder dropped from a great height. The ground shook beneath their feet and a huge crack spread from the edge of the water toward the middle. Sera grabbed Kyle’s collar, dragging him to the ground just as the altar fell into the seething fissure.

  All of Kyle’s blood would have broken open the gates to hell. A single drop would only open it for a mere second—just enough for the things raging beneath the surface to get out.

  Or perhaps just one.

  The lake bubbled, hotter than anything Sera had ever seen as a horrific beast reared its head. Rows and rows of distended fangs lay in its pointy snout. A crown of horns surrounded its head, green dinosaur-like vertical scales ran down its back. Two more heads came into view, smaller than the first but just as terrifying. The portal pressed against the bulk of its body as it slid further out, fighting the wards that bound it.

  The beast roared and even the gods clapped their hands over their ears. It surveyed them with six pairs of burning yellow eyes, steam pouring from its nostrils. Sera felt coldness invade her body.

  Kali.

  The apocalypse demon. The harbinger of KaliYura.

  The end of the world.

  RETURN OF THE AVATARA

  Force it back!” Micah screamed. The three-headed beast shrieked horribly as its bulk remained caught half in each world. The stench was sickening. The monster thrashed as if trying to heave itself completely through. Scores of smaller demons squeezed from beneath its body as it writhed madly.

  “It’s trapped between the realms,” someone shouted. “Watch out for the smaller demons slipping through.”

  The warrior gods surrounded the creature, deifyre shooting through the night until Sera was almost blinded by the light. She glanced up as a sliver of light shot past her head right into the giant demon’s eye. Its scream was horrendous, but it was a scream of rage, not of death. The Yoddha were trying to push the demon back into Xibalba, but it was too strong and gaining every second, hauling more of itself, inch by hideous inch, into the Mortal Realm.

  More warriors appeared from all parts of the forest and the sky, battling the smaller demons that seeped from beneath the monster in the lake. Sera wanted to help them, but she had something she had to do first. She shook Kyle, a little more roughly than she’d intended. He grimaced as her fingers dug into his injured shoulder. It was healing but not fast enough. Temlucus’s weapon had been extra powerful.

  “Did you see where Azrath went with my father?” Sera asked urgently. Kyle sputtered again and squinted toward her back just as Sera felt her senses tingle.

  “Looking for me?” a drawling voice asked.

  She turned. “Release my father, Azrath.”

  “That I cannot,” he said, but Sera didn’t miss the contempt in his tone.

  Her father gasped. Sera could see blood crusting along his hairline and raw scratches along his arm as if he’d been dragged across sharp rocks. “Sera,” he gritted. “Don’t worry about me. S … stop him.”

  “Shut up, brother,” Azrath snarled, a booted foot crunching into the back of Sam’s legs and causing him to fold over to the ground.

  “Dad!” Sera lurched and froze. Azrath held a silver dagger to her father’s throat.

  “Don’t forget that Samsar is human now, darling niece.” He slid the dagger in a line across Sam’s skin. “This is all it would take, just with a little pressure.”

  “What do you want?”

  “Open the portal to Illysia.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  A thin line of red welled at the point of the dagger. “Then Samsar dies. I must repay him for the wound he gave me seventeen years ago.” Sera saw the reddened scar along Azrath’s neck and understood just how much pleasure it would give him to hurt her father.

  “But he’s your brother,” Sera whispered.

  “Sera, don’t do it. I am not worth—” Sam gasped, receiving a kick this time in the ribs. Azrath bared his teeth, his eyes feral.

  “My brother was a powerful Demon Lord once. This,” he said, holding Sam by the scruff of his neck, “is but a shell of what my brother was. So you see, any brother I knew is dead.” he snarled. “This mortal means nothing to me.”

  Sam gurgled as the tip of the dagger dug into the corded muscle of his throat.

  “Fine, you win. I’ll open it!” Sera screamed at the blood welling at the point of the dagger.

  “Sera, no,” Kyle whispered from behind her. Her father could only shake his head, his eyes terrified.

  “Shut up, traitor,” she spat in Kyle’s direction. “Why don’t you go and murder someone else?”

  Shutters dropped over Kyle’s eyes. Wordlessly, he grabbed Mordas, which still lay on the ground beside him, and walked away.

  Azrath laughed. “Your words are just as effective as your blades, Serjana. Spoken like a true Azura.”

  “Don’t confuse me with someone like you, Azrath.”

  His eyes hardened. “Open the portal.”

  Sera closed her eyes and watched as the sigil on her right palm glowed white. Dev’s rune. Her fingers closed into a fist, the light from the sigil spilling between her fingers. She glanced back at the battle still raging in the middle of the lake. Kali was gaining ground. Despite the gods’ valiant efforts, she could see more and more of the demon’s scaled torso, and a dozen more of its forty-taloned limbs.

  They needed a miracle.

  She drew a sigil for a portal, watching Azrath’s covetous expression, and knew that there was no way she could ever let him set foot in Illysia. She met her father’s eyes. Samsar nodded.

  Sera summoned the power of the Illysia rune into her until her entire body glowed white. She could feel the sigil on her left hand burning like acid as the purity of the Light Realms filled her with iridescence. Azrath blinked for a second against it; it was the moment Sera had been waiting for. She flung everything she’d gathered toward him.

  The thunderbolt drove his body crashing into the forest, but he was on his feet in seconds, his face a mask of fury. His deifyre shot out and he flew at her. Sera met him halfway, their bodies crashing into each other as they spun upward into the sky and then plummeted back to Earth in an empty part of the wood. It was now just the two of them. The impact knocked the breath out of Sera. She thrust another bolt toward Azrath, which he deflected easily. He smiled coldly.

  “You won’t catch me unprepared again. Once is all you get.” He opened his arms wide and crossed his ankles, the picture of self-sacrifice. “Do your worst.”

  Sera rushed toward him swinging her blades with all her might. Azrath didn’t even flinch as the blades passed harmlessly through him. Sera’s jaw dropped.

  He bared his teeth in a grimacing smile. “Didn’t you get the memo? Weapons of light won’t hurt me. That’s why all the wards of my exile—the ones that took my deifyre—are gone.” He laughed. “We’re more alike now than you think, Sita.”

  “My name is Sera,” she said. “And you are nothing like me.”

  He flew fast at her, knocking her off her feet. A searing pain tore at her side and she stared blankly at the red blood that seeped into her shirt. Deifyre swarmed to the spot, healing it as quickly as it had come, but a dull ache remained. Azrath still wielded demon weapons, she realized.

  She deflected another attack, her own swords slamming into his. Something curled toward her head and she ducked just
as Azrath swung at her again, stumbling back as something heavy caught her in the back of the head. Dizzy, she fell to her knees as a black steel whip wrapped around her legs. She stared at it until a familiar greasy face swam into her vision.

  “Miss me?” Jude taunted. “I’ve been looking for you.”

  Three other Ifrit surrounded them, Marcus and two others she didn’t recognize. They transformed into their demon forms, leering at her. One jerked on the chain releasing Azura poison into her leg. Sera ripped it off, tearing chunks of flesh with it, and pulled herself to her feet. She flung deifyre arrows at two of the Ifrit, killing them both instantly and swung around only to feel her face crunch into a fist. She keeled backward, blood spurting from her nose and her eyes seeing stars. An Ifricaius curled around her ankles again and her body thumped to the ground just as two other chains swung around each of her arms. Jude kneeled over her.

  “Looks like you’re in a little bit of a mess, aren’t you, Miss High and Mighty?” he sneered. “I haven’t forgotten the last time we met and our unfinished business.”

  “Hold her down,” Azrath commanded. “All I need is her right hand to create the portal.”

  “Too bad we don’t have Ra’al’s black sword,” Jude said as they pulled on the chains. “I would have enjoyed peeling the deifyre from your skin inch by inch.”

  “It’s right here,” a silky voice said. “Why don’t you come and get it?”

  Jude’s eyes widened as he saw Kyle standing behind him, patting the blade of Mordas like a baseball bat into the palm of his hand. Sera felt an unwilling smile curl her lips at his stance. She still hated him for what he did. But she almost felt sorry for Jude and Marcus. They wouldn’t know what hit them.

  “I wouldn’t be smiling if I were you,” Azrath said, leaning over her.

  Sera seized the moment, white-gold fire spilling out of her right hand and red gold fire out of her left. They met in the center over her and wrapped around Azrath’s body, holding him immobile. His eyes widened.

  “You like deifyre?” Sera whispered. “Then have a taste of mine!”