by Maya Daniels
A split second later the portal is gone and I can barely breathe because Derik and Meda are on top of me, but I couldn’t care less. I start laughing. Oh, what a glorious day it is to escape a certain death. I can hear the others joining in through the sound of my own laughter, and I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy in my life. Remi, Philip and Jezzinta help us all up. Everyone is hugging everyone, the guys slapping each other on the back for a job well done and the four of us are clutching each other in a group hug. Derik walks up, pulls me away from the others and kisses me like I’ve never been kissed before, like he wants to leave an imprint on my soul with that one kiss that left me breathless and yearning for more. We stand there in an embrace, just looking at each other.
“You came for me,” I tell him, trying to catch my breath.
“I will always come for you, Alexia. Not even death can stop me from reaching you.” He says it as a vow that shakes me to my bones.
He truly means it. I can see it in his eyes. I look around to finally see where we are, and I’m happy to see we’re at the clearing where we did the ritual. I guess that’s how they managed to open a new portal, because I see they’ve cast a circle and there are tools on our rock altar. I should’ve known they would never abandon me and would do everything they could to get me back. My legs hurt from all the running, so I sit down and start taking my sandals off. Everyone follows suit and we sprawl around on the grass just being, nothing else.
“Did you destroy the potions?” I have to know if it’s over.
“No, sister. We can’t destroy them, but you can, and we’ll tell you how when we get back in the house,” says Remi.
As much as I don’t like it that they still exist, I take a deep breath. I’ll do it as soon as I walk inside the house. Now we relax. Everyone is talking about something, we are laughing softly and there are smiles on everyone’s faces. “This is how it always should be, this is what I want,” I think as I look at the faces of the people that mean more than my life to me. Meda goes quiet and I look to see her staring at her hands.
“Are you okay, Meda?” I ask concerned. It takes her a minute to lift her head, and when she does, tears are running down her face.
“A vision. Remember, A-ma, in the circle, nothing is what it seems.” She grabs my hands, squeezing tight my fingers until they hurt. “Remember.” She’s begging.
I get chills down my back, but before I say anything, there’s a bright flash and there stands Zack in all his glory. He has fire in one hand and a flaming sword in the other. Everyone jumps up and starts spreading out until we all stand still, waiting to see who will start first. I make flame stand in my palm, too. If he wants to fight, we’ll all fight. He throws a flame ball towards Derik first, but Derik flicks it off with a sword that he apparently pulled off his back, and I see it glowing bright, a golden light. Where did he get that thing?
“I see you added a guardian to your little group of freaks,” Zack spits out and I look at him. I have no idea what he’s talking about and I don’t care. I flick my hand, sending a fireball at him that bounces off like a child’s toy, and he laughs. Asshole. I try gathering the water from the air and I send it at him, but it does nothing, so I give up that idea. I’ll fight fire with fire. I see Remi from the corner of my eye spread her arms wide like she is calling him to embrace her, and the strongest winds I have ever seen start from her and slam into him. She looks like an avenging goddess with her hair whipping around her face and her eyes spitting fire at him. It pushes him back one step, but he sends them back to her, making her body fly like a leaf in the wind and dropping her on the ground, twisted in an unnatural way.
“No!” I scream as loud as I can.
I can hear Philip scream too, and I see him running to her. It can’t be, she can’t be dead, but she’s not getting up. I have no time to run to her because the ground starts to shake and I’m trying not to fall down. I balance myself. I turn to Jezzinta and her arms are up, she’s chanting, and trees and rocks start flying towards Zack, smacking him everywhere. He sends some back, but some hit him and I’m praying it’ll send him back from where he came from. Jezzinta drops to her knees and slams both palms on the ground. The earth splits open, swallowing him in it. As suddenly as it opened, it closes again, and everything is still for a second. Then the ground starts shaking again.
“That’s enough, Jez.” I start saying, only to cover my head against the pieces of soil that come flying at me when the ground explodes, and Zack comes out from it, levitating a few inches from the ground. His perfect hair and face are dirty and his immaculate suit is ripped at places. He throws his arm out and fire flies out from him, hitting Jezzinta in the chest, and she looks at me before her body turns into ashes. I scream from the bottom of my soul. This is not happening. I’m not watching my sisters die, standing here like a moron. I start throwing ball after ball of fire towards him but he flicks them all off, laughing in my face.
Philip runs towards Zack, throwing his dagger at Zack’s chest, but the dagger bounces off and falls to the ground. Zack lifts Philip in the air and throws him to the tree line, where his body hits a tree trunk so hard it almost bends in half, then falls motionless to the ground not far from where Remi is. I believe only my screaming, swearing, and calling him every name under the sun can be heard.
“Derik! Grab Meda and get out of here!” I yell at him, but he stands like a silent sentinel next to me, with his sword in his hand, not moving an inch like I haven’t spoken, or he hasn’t seen the people I love being killed one by one. Zack reaches his hand towards Meda and starts pulling her towards him with an invisible rope. She digs in her heels and starts chanting, but nothing helps. I throw fire at him again to distract him, but it doesn’t work. She gets in front of him and grabbing her by the neck, with a flick of his wrist, he breaks it, letting her body drop at his feet. My screams get even louder, if that was even possible, and he turns to me, smiling like the snake he is.
“Your turn, treacherous witch.”
“Over my dead body,” Derik spits at him.
“That can be arranged.” Zack says like he is talking about a picnic date.
He throws fire at Derik, but that sword Derik is holding flicks it off again like it’s nothing. Maybe we can still kill him and make him pay for the people he took from me today. Zack starts walking towards us, and Derik walks up too, meeting him halfway. The swords start hitting each other, causing sparks and flames to fly everywhere. I throw more flames at Zack, hoping to distract him enough so that Derik can stab him, but it’s not helping much. It looks more like Zack is trying to entertain us than defend himself. After a while, I can see he is getting frustrated, but Derik doesn’t even look tired. He keeps on swinging his sword rhythmically, waiting for an opening. I was so concentrated on Derik that I didn’t see the flame coming at me. It hit me in the right shoulder and made me drop to the ground. I can smell the burning flesh and can hear my scream, like from a distance. I hear Derik roar and look up at where he is. My breath stops when I see him roaring in Zack’s face as two enormous white wings burst out of his back. My jaw drops and I watch him swinging his sword first and then turning his head to see if I’m still alive. My scream comes too late as Zack’s flaming sword goes through Derik’s chest and I watch the life exit his eyes while he is still looking at me. Zack pulls his sword out and Derik drops last to the ground, his unseeing eyes still looking my way. They are all gone, dead because of me. I hear Zack laughing and I feel like my soul is begging me to let it go, stop fighting and set it free. That’s exactly what I’m planning on doing, I’m going to set it free. I stand up slowly and start walking towards Zack. He’s watching me warily.
“You win, Zack. Here I am. You can do whatever you wish with me, I have no fight left. You took everything from me that I love.”
I walk slowly and steadily, like a zombie. I don’t know what he saw on my face and in my eyes, but it must’ve been what he wanted, because his smile is wide and victorious.
�
��I knew I would break you this time. I knew you’d come to your senses and obey so I wouldn’t have to kill you like in the other lifetimes,” he says, all excited.
That stops me in my tracks. He killed me many times in my other lifetimes? The memories come like a flood, one after another, and in each, his face is the last I see before my soul exits my body. In the middle of those memories, I hear Meda’s voice — “Remember, A-ma, in the circle nothing is as it seems” —I look up at him and see the calculating look he is giving me. I repeat his words in my head – ‘I knew I would break you this time.’ The anger starts building in me, slowly at first, but it’s becoming stronger with every breath I take. I feel my body vibrating so hard that it feels like any second, I’ll burst into a thousand pieces. In the middle of it all, Meda’s words are echoing like they are on repeat – ‘Nothing is as it seems, remember’ – over and over. It feels like a light breeze is lifting my hair away from my face softly, and I look at Zack, who looks a little worried at the moment, but I’m not in control of myself now, the anger is.
“Come now my love, time to go.”
He is reaching his hand towards me, but he doesn’t move or come closer. In the back of my mind, I’m wondering why that is, but it quickly vanishes because I feel my body is too hot, like my skin is burning and I feel the vibrations growing stronger and stronger. I can feel my lips moving into a smile and by the widening of Zack’s eyes, I can imagine it’s not a pleasant smile. Good! The breeze is turning into a wind that gets stronger and stronger, lifting my body in the air with my hair flying around me like hundreds of ravens and my arms are outstretched to the sides like I’m suspended on an invisible cross in front of him. The anger is still growing like wildfire inside me.
“You’re upset, my love, but it’ll pass. We will be happy together this time, I promise you.”
Zack says this, but I hear him faintly, like he’s very far away. There is a buzzing in my ears like a thousand bees are around me, and I still watch him like a predator watching its prey. This god, this creature that only wants to hurt or use me and hurt or use the people I love. This thing that thinks he is above the law of the universe and can take away a life that is not his for the taking. At least with evil creatures, you know what you get. With him? He sneaks up like a snake, all sweet words and deeds until he becomes the snake in your bed that ends your life. Obviously more than once, as is the case with me.
“Love?”
He says love calmly, but I can hear his worry now. I can hear his breath, his heartbeat, even the atoms of his body multiplying. I hear it all. I feel the anger in me reach a turning point and I think this is the end of my existence, but I will not go without making him pay. Oh, no.
“You may write the destiny, my love.” I spit the last words at him and I don’t recognize my own voice. It sounds like a million voices speaking at once. “But you will never write my destiny. Love is the only thing that has that power.”
As I finish the sentence, a stream of fiery water comes out from my heart, my mouth, my eyes, and my hands and shoots straight at him, turning him into ashes that are frozen in ice that is burning with violet flames. It’s as gruesome as it is beautiful, and I can’t take my eyes off of it. A portal opens and sucks him through it as I watch. There, it’s done. Now I can let go, I think as I feel the fire get hotter and hotter. Within a few seconds, the flames engulf my entire being and the ashes of what and who I was fall in a pile on the ground. All I see is darkness now. Maybe I’ll need to pay for the lives of those that have lost theirs to protect mine. It’s strange that I still feel like I have a body, arms, legs, and head. I try to move them and it feels like I’m covered in sand. I lift my head slowly, and as I open my eyes and look down, I see my body covered in ashes where I’m curled up in a fetal position. Slowly I sit, then stand up. I’m covered in the ashes and my legs are in the pile almost up to my knees. I look around and the clearing is empty. There are no bodies, nothing, just me standing naked in a pile of ash. I look down at myself again, remember what happened and wonder where are the bodies of the people I love?
“Ah! The phoenix rises from the ashes!” I hear a man’s voice, and look up straight into Lucifer’s face.
“What happened?” I ask him, confused.
“You were reborn, Alexia,” he says gently, smiling at me like a proud father. “Come, there is a lot to teach you so you can do what you want,” he says and offers me his hand.
“And what do I want to do, exactly?” I’m still confused. Is this an alternate reality?
“To go save the people you love, of course.”
Taking his hand, I let him lead me. That’s right! That is exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to save the people I love and burn to ashes whoever stands in my way.
Acknowledgments
I have a lot to be thankful for and it’s difficult to even think of where to start. Have you heard the saying, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’? It takes more than that to make your dream come true, or at least that’s how it felt to me. It has been a very long year with a lot of personal trials for which I’m grateful, because they made me who I am today and something beautiful came out from it all. I’m so overwhelmed and excited and I can’t stop saying thank you. I’ve been blessed with the support of many beautiful souls that believed in me and the story I’ve had in my heart for so long. Gratitude to Anthony J Kohler for making the manuscript what it is today. I am forever grateful to Angela Haworth, without whose advice, support, love, and patience, this book would be collecting dust in my hard drive. Terry A. Gordon, your quiet presence and guidance have made me a better person than I ever expected or dreamed of being. I will always look up to you as an older brother. Lisa Peart, thank you for your support, little sister, and your faith in me that pushed me past all the obstacles that were standing in my when writing this book. Arpi Galfayan, my friend, my sister, I wouldn’t even be where I am or who I am without you in my life. Carolee Samuda, you definitely are my creative genius and your designs are more than I imagined. Thank you for dealing with my perfectionism without trying to strangle me! Erwin Ubachs, there is so much that I would love to say, but here, all I can say is thank you. Thank you for all the love and inspiration through all the ups and downs that made this book what it is today. Tanya Baricevic, I’m grateful for all the love and support, your patient ears upon which my rants fell during this adventure and your advice on the crystals that kept me sane. Sabria Sarker, your peace and calm, as well as your trust in me, were much needed to endure the long days of writing. I may have written the book, but all of you are as big a part of it as I am. You are the village that it takes to make a dream come true!
About the Author
Multi award winning fiction author, Maya Daniels shares her skillful and creative storytelling with readers from around the world. Semiramis is her first published trilogy. Marrying her investigative journalism skills with her knowledge and passion of the esoteric, she spins compelling stories of magic, truth, romance, and adventure. She lives with her magick-sprinkled familiar, a cat named Odyssey, in Southern California. When not reading all about the arcane, eating chocolate, or writing her next novel, she is busy with her Reiki healing practice.
Also by Maya Daniels
Semiramis trilogy
“Who Am I” prequel to Semiramis - short story
“Semiramis-Awakened” Book 1
“Semiramis-Reborn” Book 2
“Semiramis-The Vessel” Book 3
Stand-alone novels
“The Cursed Kingdom” coming out Feb 2019
“Venus Trap” coming out Jan/Feb 2019
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