by M. Street
The strange new form of discharge quaked the earth and air with metallic rolling thunder, backfiring gale-force winds. Dev formulated into his sabertooth self, snarling with swirls of deadly silver. Haruz exploded into a quadruple-sized wolf, growling and gleaming into fight.
The palace shook violently, causing cracks and dust. My Vampacoti love hunched in front of me while Raven’s Canite guard covered my back. I held my killer cast on Eli, giving everything I had into the force. Jets of reentry friction obscured my view of him, but I felt his position roll uncontrollably in the blazing wake.
The wave of distortion spread out, vaporizing dozens of Guardians around Eli, who was cocooned in defensive shells. Dev and Haruz discharged dense silver and copper spells, taking out Guardians knocked vulnerable from the tailspin. The discharge slammed into the first dome. The reconciliation of time and energy overloaded the dome, reversing the flow. The copious charge imploded the powerful Guardian, who had been maintaining the dome, like a vapory camera flash. The dome fizzled, fading like trillions of exploding platinum stars. Not only did I have the ability to safely pop a dome, but I couldn’t feel Eli anywhere in the smoldering space held by the remaining two domes.
Factoring in my new talent lifted me into full attack. I tasted the freedom from risking so much that I loved turn in my favor. Mom was right. My intuition could never fail me.
I felt Sabina and Jeremiah formulate, willing to sacrifice all in the face of our fate. The shared love and unity of our tattered resistance perfected, beautifying in the fires of finality. Without Eli, I could out power the remaining Arbitri. Before I could reload to take out the next dome, the remaining two squadrons of Guardians fired. Their combined numbers formed a ring of bolts radiating deadly coronas. The destructive blasts were not aimed at me; the life-ending bolts sliced toward Dev and Haruz.
I dove between the sabertooth and the wolf, flinging my arms wide open. I cast elliptical shields around Dev and Haruz. Thick, diamond walls of humming light arced around my beloved rearing Canite and Vampacoti. Grinding my teeth, I sank the heavy fire. The extended reach, coupled with the planet-sized impact, sent us flying. We ruptured downward through the palace rooms, walls, and floors like hot lead through fresh meat.
Drawing colossal charge from everything around me, including the crystal fireworks of priceless artwork laying tossed about, I stopped our forced descent. The sabertooth and wolf blitzed into attack before my eyes finished a first pass.
We were in the grand ballroom on the ground level, surprising the Guardian, Vampacoti, and Equuian troops holding Sabina and Jeremiah. The Avian queen, adorned in her falcon wings and slashing razor talons, was pinned execution-style to the ground. The Canite king howled, smashed immobile under a floor of light. His copper, scarlet rage blazed alarmingly bright. Raven and Ozwald stood statuesque despite the flying debris and exploding light. They were entranced under the caustic silver spells held by Junjari and Valbeth. Raven fought the spell so fiercely that blood and sweat ran down her face.
Eerily silent, Dev formulated human in a fiery flash, facing Valbeth. “I wish you had chosen differently,” he said. The blue stillness in his aura soaked the surroundings with a searing sadness. Despite his steady pulse, his glittering silver was fully raised.
“You are not fit to hold status! I am not weak like Junjari.” Valbeth spoke with violent nervousness, bordering on madness. “The Vampacoti will serve with Eli under my throne.”
“Is that what Eli promised you?” Dev asked turning beet red, slightly snickering.
“I will hold a place on the Arbitri court,” Valbeth hissed, extending her incisors, conjuring a noxious silver charge. The sharp woman flicked her head toward my belly of violet and green. A scarlet, bitter disdain spun from her sharp, narrowed eyes. “You’ve dirtied the purity of the Vampacoti line.”
As Valbeth conjured, Dev slammed her with a brain-stopping, high-caliber spell. The traitor shook before exploding into silver vapor and water. No feelings ran through him ending her life.
Free of Valbeth’s hideous incantation, Ozwald dropped to the ground.
Haruz clamped his iron jaws on Junjari’s face before she could fully formulate. Raven fell to the ground as skull-cracking screams splashed Junjari into silver water dripping from Haruz’s formidable fangs.
I was firing multiple game-changing shots from my swinging arms when an unusual twinge from behind me cut my power. My crafted sniper-shots took out the Guardians holding Sabina and Jeremiah, but my larger shotgun blasts at the incoming platinum fizzed. Something was really wrong.
Explosive bolts rained down, rupturing the palace into pieces. I turned around into an agonizing fall, feeling an unquenchable drain take control of my faculties. Eli stood victoriously behind me, masked into a ghost with a necklace of vibrant yellow topaz gems. The pain from his smarmy smile hurt worse than the needle injections in my upper arm.
Eli had stabbed a jet black, golf-ball-sized device into my arm. The high-tech contraption resembled the pumice stones Luja had used to draw samples of my light. An instant anesthesia cut my control of my entire body. I helplessly buckled to the ground. The more I willed my body to reject the weird device overtaking my light and flesh, the more it magnified the sedating effect. I was going under.
“The Avian scientist was right. She said the more you resisted the faster the diffuser would work.” Eli rested on his win. My eyes welled, feeling Luja’s rusted knife cut my throat. I scanned the horrific scene before my eyes excruciatingly began to close.
Ignoring the pain in my heart and body, I slowed my loss of consciousness by letting go of my rabid fight.
“I promised Luja I wouldn’t kill you. She wants to dissect you.” Eli laughed, pushing my jellyfish form with a painful poke of light. “Did you think you could challenge me?” he demanded sharply, floating above me.
“Just like Mother and Father, you fell before me. I am all that ever shall be, now and forever,” he spat, taking off his garish topaz necklace, scoring his grand platinum. Sickening suppression rained down on me. My heart bled, knowing I had been taken out. I had failed everyone, especially my moms.
My head rolled uncontrollably to the side, one eye staying open. I was forced to watch the downfall. Tears ran, but not for me. My sadness hemorrhaged for Dev, our twins, and all that I loved. Jeremiah and Sabina were knocked unconscious, formulating into their lifeless human forms. Haruz lay crumpled, smoldering from the excessive charge that left him flickering near death’s door.
My black-and-white love launched toward my fallen position, crazed out of his mind with loss. Dev was slammed to the ground with simultaneous hits. The embattled cat collapsed, immobile, involuntarily formulating human, excruciatingly facing me. Seeing my lover lifeless drew a loss that reverberated through me, forever stealing my sanity. His eyelids closed slowly, horrifically closing the violet ponds of comfort. His beautiful eyes were the last things I saw before I fell asleep and the first thing I saw when I awoke. Dev lay on his back with his mouth gaping open. My vision tunneled backward into empty blackness until only a pinprick of light remained. The finality of our run ushered in a thousand-year loss and a bleak future.
“Did they locate Sam and her infant brother?” Eli asked a now-present Theia, searing my last pain. Unwillingly going out, my heart held onto the twins, Charlie, and my love for Dev as my hearing faded into a maddening silence. I knew I wasn’t dying, but I didn’t know what was going to be left when I regained consciousness.
Epilogue
“T
heia, why are you still masked?” Eli asked me sharply, ever suspicious. This time, his aggravating neurosis was justified. My nephew floated from across the demolished room so he could avoid using his centuries-old legs. Even the all-powerful Eli bent to nature’s ways. Piper’s pregnancy had begun to draw on his light. My emerald bracelet mask was safely stowed, not touching my skin. It was Piper’s emeralds I hid under my diamond-embroidered corset against my ribs, making me appear lower on the ev
olutionally tree. Not surprisingly, her mask negated my platinum aura with the matching accuracy of heredity. I held my face relaxed despite the escalating stress from venturing so far across Eli’s bounds.
“I misplaced my bracelet,” I lied lousily, slipping further down a road obstructed by pensive doubts. Saving this mask was Piper’s only chance. My premeditated trespass made me nervous for the first time in a very long while. Flashbacks of Eli birthing my brother, Cal, tore through me. Despite the millennial age, the horrible act still stung with a fresh bite.
Underneath my gown, I tailored layers of silk around my niece’s mask. Not taking into consideration all the cards, I acted too quickly, flustered from my transgression against my nephew. I was doing something I didn’t dare dream. My nervous conflict went bare in my platinum aura, drawing attention in the rapid restorations of the battle site.
Eli was sparing no expense to making my home whole again. Lightning streaked in every direction, filling the dawn of a dark day. Arbitri Guardians robbed torrents of light from the forests surrounding the Palace of Pena with no regard, stunting the ecosystems for centuries. His architects transformed the confiscated energy into matter, reforming the wrecked walls, floors, and artwork to terra accuracy.
“Why are you so pensive?” Eli drifted in uncomfortably close.
“You know I don’t like my palace used for your business,” I diverted, tossing out the most obvious reason for my redness. “I told you I didn’t want to be involved in this matter.”
I gingerly picked up Piper in ribbons of light. She easily and painfully reminded me of Cal. I had mastered not feeling, but holding my niece caused a rebirth in the far reaches of what I thought was me. Her very existence raised questions of who I really am, giving me the chance to choose differently. Touching her so directly grounded my risk, giving me the confidence to lie. My aura settled cunningly clear, covering up my venturing convictions. Before I could stop a demonstration of my true side, I cleaned Piper with waves of vibrations.
“I’ll take her.” Eli spun congealed webs of light around Piper, outgunning me a thousand to one. With each breath Piper took, giving life to her heirs, Eli gave two. As long as my pregnant niece lived, my nephew moved closer to his birth.
I kept my weak hold on Piper. Her beautiful hair cascaded down, rosey and wavy. The diffuser device from Luja implanted in her arm kept her fully sedated. I was grateful she was not aware to see the people she thought she loved betray her, while her true friends got locked away. Even unconscious, her young heart was refreshingly open, naively trusting, and greenly brave. Opposite of her brother, she was full of love. I buried my tumultuous feelings for my niece far below where no one could go, not even my nephew.
“Are you capable of holding her without birthing her?” I asked sarcastically. I was shocked that the Avian scientist had turned informant, but convincing Eli not to kill Piper blew my mind. Although temporary, I had to find the reason behind the monumental feat. Eli’s hold around Piper dangerously twitched with smashing force.
“Oh yes. My sweet little sister has something I want.” Eli dismissed my hold, positioning Piper directly in front of him. “She looks like Cal,” he sneered nonchalantly before examining the twin auras in her belly.
“What did Luja promise you?” I stayed characteristically blunt. Eli had demanded Piper’s birth the second he discovered her existence. Luja was brilliant, but no one held reigns over Eli.
“Oh, Auntie. All will become clear, but you must be patient, as I am.” Eli loved wearing a fresh coat of gloat.
Eli spun around to face me. Taking from the swaths of energy whizzing by, he willed himself several decades younger. He wasn’t taking any chances. The drive in his cold platinum aura caused me to go rigid.
“The loss of Valbeth and Junjari is most unfortunate. They served me well,” he trumped without sympathy. Thinking bees buzzed around his head, assessing the fallen resistance. “I need you to take point until Luja is ready.”
“Ready for what?” I probed aggressively. I had to get alone with my niece.
“To make me even more powerful,” Eli answered excitedly, still not divulging any details. “Confine any mature or infant Piper holds dear,” he ordered pugnaciously.
I sighed, voicing my objection using colorful light.
“Separate Ozwald and Sabina, Raven and Jeremiah. Keep Ahnah from Malik. Keep all she holds dear separated!” my nephew demanded, rising victoriously into the air with a listless Piper in tow. “Once Piper’s infant brother is secured, hold him here with Olo. As much as I want to birth Dev, we need him alive. Keep him under a spell at the Aragonese Castle. We will render Piper fully compliant using their lives.”
“And after that?” I asked coolly.
“Meet me at the Château de Chambord when all parties are incarcerated.” Eli grimaced triumphantly. He rose into the sky before leaping away with Piper.
I let out a stuffy, hot breath with Eli’s departure. I didn’t have much time to figure out how to save my niece and overthrow an insatiable, intolerant god on an endless quest for more power.
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IV
Anaphase
The stage of mitosis when replicated chromosomes are split and the daughter chromatids are moved to opposite poles of the cell.
Coming Soon
Thank you for taking the time to read the second book in the Mitosis series, Metaphase.
I sincerely hope you enjoyed the continuation of the tale.
M. Street
About the Author:
Mitchel Street is an avid storyteller with an innate passion for fiction writing. He was raised in rural Wisconsin near the shores of Lake Michigan across from a small forest that became his second home. As an adult, M. Street has lived on the east coast in Boston, on the west coast in San Jose, and now resides south, in the great city of Austin, Texas. A love for nature, art, spirituality, and science has been his foundation. He is fortunate to have been adopted by cats, dogs, birds, frogs, turtles, and monarch butterflies. His professional background is rooted in engineering, having earned a graduate degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is technically published (under a different name). He is currently creating the final installation of the Mitosis series, Anaphase, the follow-on to Metaphase and Prophase.
