by N M Thorn
“Gwyn ap Nudd and I are the only people who know what happened. I remember the giant waves drenching me with the icy water. I remember gasping for air, drowning. And then I remember lying in a warm dry cave and Gwyn up Nudd stroking my feathers. He saved me, pulled me out of the stormy sea, and brought me to that cave. He told me that unfortunately, he had no power to break my stepmother’s curse, and we were doomed to spend nine hundred years as swans. He also said that in nine hundred years, when the curse would be broken, we would become humans, but age instantly and die.”
“Damn,” muttered Zane, biting his lip, “what an awful thing to do to innocent children. You didn’t get a chance to live; you suffered for nine hundred years and after all that she still killed you.”
“That’s right,” said Aidan. “Anyway, Gwyn promised that when I die, he’d find a way to get my spirit into his domain. And he promised that if at that time, I still would want vengeance, he would give me everything I needed to get my revenge.
“Everything he said that day came true. According to all three alternative endings of Children of Lir, the swans turned into humans, aged instantly and died. But what the legend didn’t say was that after we died, Gwyn ap Nudd took my spirit into his domain. He gave me the powers of a god of the Otherworld, trained me and raised me as his own son, and when I was ready, he set me free into this world. Gwyn wasn’t happy with my all-consuming desire to seek revenge, but he was true to his promise.
“Needless to say, Gwyn ap Nudd payed dearly for breaking the rules to help me and getting involved into the affairs of another pantheon. He was put through the Destiny Council trial and they stripped some of his godly powers. But he told me many times that he didn’t regret what he did and if he was presented with a second chance, he would do exactly the same thing again.
“For almost two thousand years, I could think of nothing but vengeance, searching this world and other worlds for Aoife, or Eve the way she likes to call herself nowadays. With her terrible powers of the air demon in combination with the ancient druids’ knowledge, she was illusive, invisible, and dangerous. I couldn’t find her anywhere. My unfulfilled desire for vengeance was killing me, burning me from the inside.
“Then about six years ago, I met Tessa. I found her in tears behind my martial arts school.” Aidan fell silent for a minute, reliving that day. “She was attacked by bullies, beat up brutally. I remember that moment when I scared the bullies away, and she hugged me… Just a twelve-year-old child. She was the same age as I was when Aoife cursed me. I held her in my arms and from that moment, she held my heart in her hands.
“I don’t know how it happened. I always had a soft spot for children. At the beginning, I just wanted to help her, you know? I wanted to teach her how to defend herself, how to be strong and confident. But she was the one who taught me. She took my life and flipped it upside down. I forgot about my thoughts of revenge. It didn’t seem important anymore. She was the only thing in my life that I deemed important. And I was happy, Zane… For the first time in over two millennia, I was actually happy.”
Aidan got up sharply and walked to the window. He stood there, watching the ocean rolling its waves. He wasn’t sure that Zane would understand everything, but he hoped that he was painting a clear enough picture for him to grasp why he had to comply with Eve’s demands.
“Aidan.”
Aidan heard Zane calling him and turned around.
“Aidan, why didn’t you tell Tessa how you felt about her?” Zane sat down inside the circle and crossed his legs. “Why did you not tell her what you were? If you didn’t conceal your true nature, possibly things would be different now.”
“How could I?” asked Aidan, throwing his hands in the air. “She was just a child and my feelings toward her hardly seemed appropriate. Besides, she always treated me like her brother.”
“She is not a child anymore, Aidan, and you’re not her brother,” objected Zane, chuckling. “She’s over eighteen now. Your relationship with her would be absolutely legal and appropriate.”
“Come on, Zane.” Aidan smiled reproachfully. “Maybe our relationship would be legal by human standards, but how can I forget that I’m older than the Son of the God she is praying to. I’m almost twenty-five-hundred years older than her.”
“So what? You don’t look a day over one thousand and hopefully all your body parts are still in working order,” objected Zane nonchalantly with a sly wink, but then got serious again. “And don’t you think you should at least give her a chance to decide? Tell her what you are and how you feel about her. She may surprise you.”
Aidan stared at Zane, doubts wrenching his soul. What if Zane was right?
“A big scary god afraid to talk to a little not-so-human girl?” Zane snickered, flicking his eyebrow at him. “Put your big girl panties on and deal with it, man. After you take Tessa home tonight, apologize to her, tell her what you are, and how you feel about her. Don’t you think over two thousand years of torment was enough? You deserve a little happiness.”
Aidan bowed his head to his chest, his shoulders sagged like he was carrying a heavy load. “Knowing what I am about to do to you, you still believe that I deserve happiness?” he asked, hardly able to pronounce the words, his whole body numb and heavy. “I believe that I deserve to be flogged until no skin is left on my back.”
“You medieval freaks. Why is it everything has to be about physical punishment and pain with you?” Zane tittered. “Yes, I believe that you deserve to be happy. No, I don’t agree with what you are doing and probably wouldn’t do it myself, but I’m not in your place. In reality, until I’m in the exact same situation as you are, I wouldn’t know what I would or wouldn’t do. So, I don’t judge you.”
Burning with shame, Aidan pivoted on his heels and walked away. He braced himself against the wall and stood there for a few seconds, guilt tormenting him. Then he grunted and slammed his hand against the wall.
“Aidan, don’t do it.” He heard Zane’s calm voice and turned around. “Don’t torture yourself, man. But if it’ll make you feel a little better, there is something you can do for me.”
“What is it?” asked Aidan.
“Besides Tessa, Eve kidnapped another young girl,” said Zane. “Tanya Karpenko, the only daughter of Anatoly Karpenko, the head of the Russian mob. A few days ago, Anatoly made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.” Zane smiled sadly. “He has my friends imprisoned. And just the way Eve blackmailed you, he blackmailed me, pushing me into the corner. Now, to save my friends’ lives, I must find and bring his daughter back to him.”
“Why would Eve take the daughter of a Russian mobster?” asked Aidan, incredulously. “I don’t get it.”
Zane laughed and lay down on the floor again. “Ahhh, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” He folded his arms under his head, a lopsided smile on his face. “Eve is afraid of you, Aidan. She wanted Anatoly and his ruthless gang to get you out of her way. I’m sure she wasn’t stupid enough to think that the Russian mob could fight a god, but my guess, she wanted him to keep you busy.
“Anatoly, on the other hand, was terrified of you more than he was afraid of Eve. He was so scared that he never gave me your name, calling you ‘a powerful and influential person’. And here comes the funny part—he wanted to hire me to kill Eve. And when I refused to deal with him, he held my friends’ lives over my head. I had no choice but to start working for him.
“So, when you take me to your darling stepmother, in exchange you must get both girls out. Once you are out of there, take Tanya to her father and make sure that Anatoly frees my friends. I don’t need to tell you that you can’t trust him. Get the proof of life, get something, but make sure that all three of them are alive, unharmed and free. Can you do it for me?”
“Yes, I can do it. I swear on my power that I’ll get your friends to safety,” replied Aidan firmly.
The shrill of the cell phone ripped through the heavy silence. Aidan flinched and pulled the vibrating device out of hi
s pocket. He stared at the screen, not recognizing the phone number but answered the call. As soon as he heard the voice of the caller, the small hairs rose on the back of his neck and he crushed his teeth together. It was Eve. She gave him the address of the place where he was supposed to meet with her and hung up the phone.
Aidan stored the address in his phone and sat down on the floor by the circle. Zane gave him a quick once-over and smirked.
“I guess it’s time?” he asked, his eyes glowing red, and Aidan nodded silently. “Okay, go for it. It’s not like I can change your mind or fight you. Just make it quick.”
“I’ll make it painless,” said Aidan flatly.
He put his hand on the circle and the circle exploded with a blazing white light. Aidan started chanting, his enchantment sounding like a song. As he was chanting, he kept his eyes on Zane, making sure that he wasn’t suffering. At first, Zane’s glowing red eyes started to change, returning to their normal gray color. Then his tensed body relaxed, his lips parted slightly, and his eyes rolled back.
Aidan touched the circle, and it disappeared. He gently tugged at Zane’s shoulder. He didn’t respond to his touch. The Salamander looked like he was asleep, but Aidan knew better. Zane wasn’t sleeping. He was drained to the point where he couldn’t move, couldn’t even talk, but he could hear and understand everything that was going on around him.
He gently lifted Zane’s body and placed him across his shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Zane,” he said, heartbroken. “God knows, I’ll make it up to you if we all survive this mess.”
He snapped his fingers and teleported out of his apartment.
Chapter 34
~ Aidan ~
Aidan materialized in his office inside the Elements Martial Arts school. He placed Zane’s body on top of his desk and closed his eyes, scanning the area around the school with the other sight that his magic provided. His car was parked in the back and he wanted to make sure that no one would see him walking around with an unconscious man in his arms.
Once he was sure that the parking lot was empty, and no one was watching, he took Zane to the car. Carefully, he put him in the passenger seat and strapped the seatbelt on. Since Aidan wasn’t familiar with the location that Eve gave him, he decided to drive instead of trying to teleport into an unfamiliar area. Besides, after the exchange was over, teleporting back with two young girls, one of whom was human, not accustomed to the world of magic, didn’t sound appealing.
The address Eve gave him was located in a rich residential area on A1A. The house, better to say an old mansion, was positioned deep in a wooded area and wasn’t visible from the main gate. Aidan didn’t stop and drove past the gate to see how far away the next house was. As he expected, the old mansion had a lot of acreage and the next residence on either side was a considerable distance away.
Aidan made a U-turn the first chance he got and returned to the gate. The gate was closed, and he stopped the car next to the entry intercom box. He glanced at Zane still debating with himself if he was doing the right thing. Zane’s eyelashes fluttered lightly, and Aidan thought it was becoming too tiresome to keep the Fire Salamander under his control. Maybe Zane was right and the right thing to do was to stand and fight.
“What are ye waitin’ for, lad? A special invitation?”
Eve’s Irish accent sounded exaggeratedly loud and clear through the intercom system. Possibly he was too shocked to notice the accent the last time he talked to her, but most likely she was mocking him. Aidan flinched at the sound of her voice, his hands gripping the steering wheel tighter.
With a metallic screech, the gate slid to the side. Aidan drove forward, following the main road that was curving left and right between the trees. The road circled around a large fountain with a sculpture of four beautiful swans, stretching their long elegant necks toward the sky, the replica of the Children of Lir statue in Dublin. Aidan shuddered, gaping at the fountain, all the painful memories of the past crowding his mind. He made an effort, tearing his eyes off the sculpture, and directed his car toward the building.
“Figures,” he mumbled parking his car in the circular driveway in front of the house. “Of course, Eve had to go and get herself a medieval castle for a home.”
It was a two-story house with many narrow windows that looked like embrasures in the thick walls. Each window was surrounded by a pair of shutters. The entrance was adorned with sienna limestone, covered in slithering ivy. The large window above the entrance had an iron balcony and the dark double door looked heavy and sinister.
Aidan walked around the car, opened the passenger door, and unlocked the seatbelt. He lifted Zane and walked toward the house holding him in his arms. He wasn’t surprised to see the front door opening in front of him. He stepped inside, fighting the burning desire to be as far away from this place as possible.
The house interior design was the polar opposite of its exterior style. It was as modern as it could be, with shining marble floors, tall vaulted ceilings and contemporary furniture that was chosen more for the look than for the comfort of use. Aidan spun around, wondering where to go next.
“Go straight forward, to the kitchen,” commanded his stepmother’s voice through the house intercom system.
Aidan crossed the spacious lobby and walked inside the kitchen. Everything here was done for the comfort and the efficiency of cooking—stainless steel refrigerator, ovens and ranges, the large middle island table with pots and pans hanging above it. But he doubted that all this was ever used.
“Do you see a small door on the left?” asked the voice in the intercom. “Go through this door and then downstairs into the basement.”
Aidan placed Zane over his shoulder to have his hands more or less free and opened the door into the basement. The long stairway was well lit, but Aidan walked down slowly. Through all his life, he never did anything he didn’t believe to be the right thing to do. Betrayal wasn’t in his nature and everything inside him was protesting against it.
Every step he took down the stairs was radiating in him with the acknowledgement that for the first time in his life he was deliberately doing something wrong. He knew it and he was still walking down, one step at a time getting closer to the irreversible disaster. Aidan halted. Holding Zane with one hand, he braced himself against the wall with the other.
“Aidan, don’t stop now…”
Aidan heard a soft whisper, realizing that because of his internal mayhem, Zane was slowly breaking out of his control.
“I can’t… Zane, I can’t do it,” he whispered hoarsely, everything inside him crumbling to dust.
“You have to, Aidan,” replied Zane faintly. “Maybe you were right, it is the right thing to do after all… Maybe this is the only way to find out what Eve is up to. Save the girls. Save my friends. I’ll be all right. She can’t kill me.”
“Oh, Zane, there are things that are so much worse than death,” muttered Aidan. “Trust me, I’ve been there. Death is just a transition into something new, unknown. Most of the people don’t realize it, but it’s not the actual death they’re scared of. It’s the unknown that terrifies them. And with Eve… God knows, she can do things that will send you into a perpetual torment where you’ll beg for death and it won’t come… I can’t do it… I can’t doom a good man to such a terrible fate.”
“Why are you standing there, boy! Lost your way?” Eve was standing at the bottom of the stairs, staring at him with icy contempt. “Move it! One foot at the time.”
“It’s too late now,” whispered Zane quietly. “Go! Save the girls.”
Aidan sighed and walked all the way down. He passed Eve without giving her as much as a quick look and ended up in a tiny room without any windows. There was hardly enough space there for him to turn around.
“Give me the Salamander,” demanded Eve, stretching her hand toward Zane, but Aidan shied away from her touch, pressing his back against the rough surface of the wall.
“Not so fast,” he objected coldl
y, getting ready to fight his way out if he had to. “First, I need to see Tessa. You’re getting nothing until Tessa is with me. Second, getting this Fire Salamander under my control took a lot more effort than I expected. So, I’m changing our initial agreement. Besides Tessa, there is something else I want.”
“Oh, yeah?” asked Eve, putting her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes at him. “Say one more word, boy, and you’ll get nothing at all.”
“Fine. Then you will get nothing either,” replied Aidan, raising his hand up like he was ready to snap his fingers and teleport out of here.
“You’re not going to abandon your little lover, Aidan. You’re bluffing,” said Eve, but there was no assurance in her voice.
Aidan didn’t reply, but arched his eyebrows, staring at her without blinking. Eve squirmed under his heavy gaze and then stomped her foot, irritably.
“Okay, we’ll do it your way,” she grumbled, frowning. “What else do you want?”
“Tanya Karpenko is coming with me,” replied Aidan frostily. “I’m giving you the Fire Salamander and I’m taking both girls home.”
Aidan expected Eve to bargain with him, but she just smirked coldly and shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, you can have both of them. As long as I get what I want.” She grabbed Aidan’s arm, her long sharp nails digging into his skin, and teleported out of the small room.
They materialized in another room—a large concrete box with no doors or windows—lit by the blue shimmering light of florescent lights. Aidan looked around, taking in his surroundings. He found Tessa right away and for a split-second, happiness expanded in his chest. She was sitting inside a large iron cage. As soon as she noticed him, she got up, his name slipping her lips.
Across the way from her, there was another cage with a teenage girl inside. Aidan didn’t have to guess. It was Tanya Karpenko. Besides two cages, there were nine glass boxes inside the room. Eight boxes had people locked inside, disabled and suspended in midair. Aidan knew right away that these eight people weren’t human, and he had no doubt about what they were. Their magical energy, even suppressed by Eve’s magic that controlled and shadowed them, was unmistakable. All eight people were the Reapers. The ninth, smaller box was empty.
