by B C Morgan
There was a huge two storey building situated on one side, with an Olympic size swimming pool sitting next door to it and a large square of dirt with a large mat sitting on the ground next to it, directly in front of us.
There was a large array of weapons of to the side, much larger that Lawson’s collection and I could feel my stomach begin to twist, just knowing that today was not going to be easy on my frazzled nerves, sickly stomach and achy body.
Off to another side was a beautiful waterfall that fell into a natural river and a wooded area on the opposite side of said river.
I could see figures beginning to emerge from those woods and they seemed to float over the water. Marcus informed me that those were water nymphs, but they had broken free of tradition and decided to become warriors and protect this realm from all who threatened to destroy it. Amongst them were wood, earth and fire nymphs, not that they were with them right then. He even hinted at a few light nymphs, but I found that rather hard to believe knowing how rare they were and even he said he had not seen one himself.
“So, this mystical army is solely built on nymphs?” I asked, making sure to hold the scepticism from my voice.
“No sweetie, there are centaurs, sorcerers and sorceresses, even some creatures you will want to call vampire, but it would only insult them, so please refrain from doing so. We also have a few shapeshifters and even a couple winged horses, though they haven’t shown trust for us yet, so they probably won’t be of much assistance to our cause.”
“Such pretty words, dear friend,” Said a ravenous beauty as she approached from the building. She had dark brown hair, with deep chocolate eyes and very strong Arabic features to her face and skin tone. She was wearing a leather top, that looked more like a piece of fabric was slung around her neck and held together around her waist by a piece of corded rope.
It was revealing, without revealing anything essential, add that to the brown leather pants and flat boots. With two scimitars strapped to her back and a dagger around her ankle, she looked thoroughly kick ass.
“My dear Nyakesh, the months have definitely been kind to you,” he stated with an appreciative smile, which she returned very easily.
She then pulled him into her arms and embraced him tightly, before pulling away, but keeping her arm firmly around his waist.
I couldn’t stop myself from staring at where her arm was placed and it made them both laugh heartily.
“Just because we are ex-lovers, does not mean we cannot be close, I am no threat to anyone who may have interest in my lovely Marcus,” she said with true affection in her voice and eyes and it made me wonder what could have possibly come between them.
“Nyakesh, I would like you to meet Unya, she’s the one I asked you about in regards to the Oracle’s true prophecy.”
Her eyes widened slightly but quickly returned to a complacent expression before she held out her hand for me to shake. I took it firmly before she placed her hand on my forearm and indicated for me to do the same, informing me, that this was how their group greeted one another.
“I am willing to train you Unya, any friend of Marcus is a friend of ours, but I cannot stress the importance of secrecy when it comes to us, especially in regards to that Lawson you occasionally associate with.”
I released her arms and stepped back, immediately going on the defence. “I would never betray Marcus; I value his friendship too much to ever do something as foolish as that. As for Lawson, he seems to have disappeared from my very small circle of associates which is why I am here.”
“I did not intend to insult you Unya, but if our existence should be revealed to Hades then we would all be in grave danger. We would fail in our mission before we even got a chance to get started.”
I told her I could understand that, but I had as much trust for her as she did for me, which appeared to be very little.
Marcus took hold of my hand and led me over to the training area, he helped me pick out a training sword before leading me to the middle of the dirt area.
A man came to stand before me with a similar weapon to my own, before charging at me and knocking the sword straight out of my grip with one swift hit.
“She has no training with a sword, look at her stance and her grip. How can you ask me to work with ‘this?’ He asked rather derogatorily, indicating towards myself.
“Jaxon stop whinging, if she is truly the one that Hades seeks, then we need her on our side. She could prove to be detrimental to our plans. So, train her until the sword becomes as natural to her as her own appendages are.”
He gave me a disapproving look, before taking a step back and then began his instructions on the correct stance for me to take. How I should hold the sword and how to parry and strike, we continued to practice for the next three hours, before he threw his sword down and marched over to where Nyakesh and Marcus stood.
I knew I wasn’t fluent in sword fighting, but I did not believe I deserved the attitude he was firing at me. Add his treatment to my hangover and I was growing thoroughly aggravated. I tried to calm myself down but couldn’t stop the flame that grew in my palm and spread up my arm across my shoulders and chest and travelled down my other arm.
The three stopped conversing when they noticed what was happening and Nyakesh started shouting for someone, panic clear in her voice.
The fire was dripping off my fingertips and striking the ground as it circled around me and started to grow and caress my legs. I stared straight at Marcus, who was trying not to smile, seeming to forget how dangerous this situation was becoming.
My body was now completely aflame when a figure of fire ran straight towards me. I couldn’t make out any tell-tale signs of who this creature was, but I knew it was female and had the most striking orange eyes I had ever seen. She reached for my hand and shielded me from the ever growing crowd’s view. The fire gradually began to dissipate as she drew the flame into herself, making her glow brighter and brighter with every passing second and Marcus was on hand to pass me a long jacket that would shield my now naked body from view.
Just because I did not burn, did not mean my clothes were as lucky.
The figure of fire smiled at me before retreating and returning to wherever she had come from.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Lawson
I had avoided everyone I ever associated with when I had come face to face with Lilianna, I couldn’t wipe her face from my mind or stop the anger from building within me.
Kat had tried unsuccessfully to get me to talk to her, but I refused to leave my room.
I could not come to grips with the fact that Lilianna had somehow survived but had not come for me. She allowed me to believe she had died that night, living in utter turmoil over her demise. Not once had she tried to get word to me of her miraculous recovery, all this time I had spent mourning her loss and never allowing myself to move on had apparently all been in vain.
I was still lost in my own thoughts when Kat decided to break one of the few rules we had ever placed when we decided to live together, and that was shifting into the other’s room.
“Enough is enough Lawson, I have been shielding calls from Unya on your behalf, and you don’t even have the decency to tell me why. Well no more, either you tell me what happened that night when you returned covered in first degree burns and soot or I’ll give her an all access pass into your life.”
“Do not threaten me Kat, it will not end well, that I can promise you.”
“This is my place, I have allowed you to stay here out of the kindness of my heart and obviously misplaced loyalty, now repay me the courtesy and tell me what happened.”
“Fine, a group attacked Venom which obviously you are aware of, and I was there when it happened. For some reason a fire nymph has decided to team up with a group of obvious renegades and it seems that they are going after anyone who is associated with Hades.
I got into a fight with two of them, I used my gift on one and just as I was about to finish him off a femal
e runs to his aid and begs me to let him die with his people.
I thought why the hell should I, I didn’t owe them anything until her hood fell down and I was met with the face of Lilianna. What a plot twist right, it turns she is very much alive and on the side of the group who seemed very eager to end my life.”
I fell back down onto my bed after I finished my rant and Kat slowly perched herself down on the edge, before pulling me to her and wrapping her arms around my neck.
“I can’t believe it; how could she have been alive for all this time and never come for you. You two were mindlessly in love with each other. It does not make any sense to me,” she stated as she slowly stroked my head, trying to offer me as much comfort as she could in that action.
“I keep thinking of all the time I have spent mourning her corpse and living with her ghost haunting my every action. All those times I could have possibly moved on and maybe found the happiness I felt I no longer deserved, all because I believed she had been killed because of me. Because I failed to save her, she has haunted my every waking and sleeping hour, yet she has been out there living her life and I have no idea why or how any of this even happened. Did she even spend a single minute thinking of me? Did she ever want to find me? And was I truly such a horrid partner that she could leave me existing without ever truly living?”
“You deserve to get the answers to your questions, I’m just not sure how you can. But I promise I will help you to try and get them, we will find her and make her answer you.” Kat was truly determined to fulfil her vow to me, but a part of me still wouldn’t allow any harm to come to Lilianna. I wasn’t deluded enough to believe there could still be a place for us, but she was still the greatest part of me and I wouldn’t throw that away for answers I probably wouldn’t want to hear anyway.
I realised in that moment I couldn’t put my life on hold any longer, and whether I would get the chance to ever move on from the memory of her or not, I could no longer shut Unya out. Knowing her birthday would soon be upon her and I would have to deliver her into Hades waiting grasp.
Z
I tried to call her, but either she didn’t have her phone or she was deliberately ignoring me, not that I could blame her, she was just returning the favour.
I decided to try and clear my head while I rode my bike in no particular direction, though I still wound up looking at the ruins of Venom. No one that had been inside that day had survived the inferno that occurred, but I did not feel the loss. Death rarely affected me, killing affected me even less, but I still wondered why they had targeted this location in the first place.
They only killed about three of four creatures that were loyal to Hades, no one important either, it just seemed pointless to me, there was no true gain in the venture, so why even bother.
I was pondering my thoughts when a shadow fell across me, I looked up into an unfamiliar face and wondered why they had approached me.
“I hear you have been asking after the Oracle, I need to know why,” said the mousy male, who couldn’t have stood any taller that five foot three, and was definitely no threat to me, being nothing more than a sin eater. Even if he tried to eat my sins, he would not have enough room within himself to even devour half of what I had committed.
“What’s it to you?” I asked, in no mood to play games.
“I may have the answers you are looking for, but I will not aid anyone who is looking to hurt the Oracle or return her to Hades,” He stated.
“Returning her to Hades would be a worse fate than what I could do to her, but no, I am not looking to do either of those, I just have some questions only she can answer.”
He handed me a slip of paper before disappearing before my very eyes, I unfolded it and read what had been scribbled across it.
The largest crypt within the Cemetery at Midnight. Do not be a single minute late If you are, you will miss the only opportunity you will ever be given.
The possibilities were streaming through my mind, this could be my one chance to decipher the true prophecy and to uncover whether or not it really was about Unya.
The inner voice inside myself kept telling me it was a pointless endeavour no matter the outcome. Hades made his stance crystal clear in regards to her, whether she was the one he was looking for or not, her fate was sealed to him and she would end up his slave no matter what.
It did not bare thinking about what he had planned for her if she was no different from the others where it truly mattered. Could I really just hand her over, lure her into a place where she would probably never escape from. I had killed many creatures in the name of Hades but they had never caused me any inner turmoil like this one was.
I still refused to admit to myself that she was more than just a target to me, but I couldn’t hide the fact I had missed her deeply the entire month I had shied away from her.
Maybe she had finally realised I was nothing more than a lost cause and she was better off without my assistance, and without the aid of Marcus I would have no way to uncover her location. This situation was already too messy to even contemplate bringing another into the fold.
I waited patiently, refusing to go back to my room until I had uncovered the secrets that were still haunting me and everyone else that had been made an accessory to my task. By the time midnight had drawn in I had already made my way to the largest crypt in attendance and watched the minute hand tick by as the sin eater failed to show.
I never considered the possibility that it may have been a trap orchestrated by Hades himself to test my loyalties and faith in him, the excitement had been too much for me to ever form that idea. Until that very moment where my self-preservation was starting to out-weigh my curiosity and I decided it was time for me to leave.
“So, the answers you seek are not important enough for you to wait a few extra minutes,” Shouted the sin eater, who was perched atop the crypt’s roof staring down at me.
“You told me not to be a minute late and I wasn’t, when you didn’t show I began to doubt you were ever able to put me into contact with the one I seek,” I replied much more calmly than I believed possible as my agitation with the weak little sin eater grew strong.
“I have been here the entire time, I saw when you arrived but I was told to see how long you would wait before giving up, so why did you give up? Answer truthfully because I will know if you try to deceive me.”
“Because I realised this whole thing could have been orchestrated by Him, and I wasn’t willing to risk my life on a pointless endeavour.”
“That is a pity, obviously your will is not strong enough to set the necessary pieces into motion. But you did show and I am a creature of my word, if you really wish for this to happen then you need only take my hand. But I warn you, where we must go, there will be no coming back until She wishes it. You will be nothing more than a well-treated prisoner.”
I measured his words carefully but knew I could not turn back now before I shifted next to his prone form, where I placed my palm into his outstretched hand. And just like that we were gone and my world was filled with darkness.
Chapter Forty
Unya
I was given a bed for the night before my training resumed at five o’clock the next morning.
I was not much of a morning person, but I accepted if I needed their help then I would have to follow their rules.
The same miserable sod was waiting for me when I made my way to the training area, he seemed even more displeased then before, which I had not believed possible.
He threw the sword at me, which I only just managed to catch, then was belittled for catching the blade instead of the handle.
I knew Marcus and Nyakesh were once again watching me, not that they were making themselves known.
I quickly adjusted my grip when the brute slammed the blade of his sword down upon my wrist, sending my own to the floor and pain reverberating up my arm.
This continued for the next few hours, with me barely able to stop him, the one time I did,
he quickly rectified it by slamming the hilt of his sword into my face and I felt the crunch of bone and tasted iron as it streamed out.
He then drove the hilt into my stomach which had me doubling over with the force of it, the next thing I felt was his arm crashing into my back as I was sent face down into the dirt. I just managed to roll onto my back in time to see him brandishing a dagger that was certainly not designed for the purpose of training as he tried to drive it down into my throat.
A second before he could make contact, he was thrown high into the air as Marcus held him suspended by using the wind to hold him in place. The next second the fire nymph from the day before arrived in a ball of flames as she held a flaming chain in her grip and a look of murder in her glowing eyes.
Nyakesh came running out to us and helped me get to my feet, before turning her attention to Jaxon.
“What the hell was you thinking? That is not how we train new comers,” She stated, clearly in a state of shock brought on by his actions.
“Give it a break Nya, obviously he was trying to kill the poor girl,” Stated the fire nymph as she swung the chain into the air, brandishing fire across his bare chest and making his skin sizzle with the heat.
“Ishira stop, he is one of us,” Stated Nyakesh, which was one of the most foolish things I had ever heard, if the last few minutes was anything to go by, he was obviously following someone else’s rules.
“She has to die Nyakesh, how can you not see that we are just training her to one day kill us. Open your eyes to the danger that lover boy has brought down on us,” he replied as blood poured from his mouth as Ishira continued to hit him repeatedly with the red-hot chain.
Nyakesh turned away from Jaxon as she nodded only once to Marcus, I had no idea what she was condoning, but it all became clear a second later.
Marcus sent him hurtling up into the air and then bought him crashing back down as his spine slammed into the ground and he screamed out in agony as the bone shattered under the impact.
