by Anna Rezes
He laughs. “Yeah right, you are capable of a lot, but—”
“Reach for him,” I interrupt. “You won’t feel him because he’s dead. If you want to work together then you should know, I do not take betrayal lightly.”
Trepidation radiates from the men in the room, but I feel only disbelief from Sky. Sometimes I’m able to feel a person’s mind when they are sleeping but being unconscious is entirely different. I can’t sense Patrick, and I hope this monster can’t either.
“You bluff well, my dear, but I can sense a lie.”
“Why would I lie just to be discounted?”
“Why, indeed?” He taps a finger to his chin.
“If you don’t believe me then let’s go check on him.” I stride toward the door. “Shall we?”
“You didn’t kill him because I don’t sense him in you,” he says, unmoving.
Ignoring him, I open the door. “I don’t need to consume souls for strength. I am strength. I’m my parent’s daughter, after all, half evil and half Valla,” I remark, gaining me his laughter.
“Do you want to know how I know you’re lying? Once you got a taste of Patrick, you would not be able to stop yourself from consuming his power!”
He is so wrong. I recall the boat ride when I didn’t even know what I was taking, and I stopped myself. “Shows how little you know about me, Daddy.” The door falls closed between us as I make my way into the hall.
“You are weak!” Sky demands, pushing open the door and striding through.
I turn to face him, crossing my arms over my chest. “Is that so?”
“You value things like love and loyalty, but you’re longing for things that are beneath you, darling. You are a born killer! You are not half evil, Emily. The devil herself lives in your veins; such is the nature of Valla blood! The sooner you accept this fact, the sooner we can plan our future!”
“Our future?”
“I built my strength up over the last two-hundred-years and now need only one life a year to maintain my youth. Becoming so powerful, I sought to build my legacy. Together we’ll make an army and become immortal,” Sky monologues like a cliché supervillain. “You’d be a fool to deny any power, especially Patrick’s. I lived two lifetimes feeding off the weak before I killed my first Valla. That’s when I felt true power. Lucky for me, Valla’s descendants kept breeding, and once I tasted that power, I had to have more. I consumed them mother and daughter—the last of which was your mother. Tragic, there was such potential if your mother and I had joined forces, but she escaped to hide from me. As you discovered, no one can hide from me for long.”
“You mean like my human father hid me for eighteen years.”
His fingers stroke my cheek. “I found you, didn’t I?”
I push his hand away. “Patrick found me and brought me here as a weapon to destroy you.”
“Tell me buttercup, is it just your love for him that is blinding you or are you always this naive? You’ve already allowed him to manipulate you once. And now look, you fell for his trickery again,” he coos. “It’s so like Patrick to get someone else to do his dirty work.”
“That sounds more like your style, but what can I say, I guess he learned from the best,” I say, staring him in the eye. “What do you think it says about you, that your second in command has betrayed you? If you believe any of your men are loyal to you, then you’re the one who is blind. Your men only comply because they’re afraid, but there are limits to fear. What happens when they find out I’m more powerful than you?”
He grips my upper arm and tows me alongside him like a disobedient child. “You don’t know who you’re talking to!”
I pull at his grip, but it’s unyielding. “I know exactly who I’m talking to and if you think you can control me, you must not know who you’re dealing with.”
“I can crush you!” he sneers, opening a door. He shoves me inside releasing me to stumble over my feet.
Before I right myself, I recognize the drain in the tile floor and realize he brought me to the white room of death.
“I will crush you,” he says, standing in the doorway.
“Apparently you don’t know who I am.” I right my stance. “I cannot be crushed.”
“Powerfully big words for such a little girl. But can you back them up?” he goads.
“I’m not fighting for power or immortality. You have two-hundred years on me, but you still don’t see what you’re fighting for is meaningless. You are alone even as you stand surrounded by your puppets. They don’t need you. To them, you are a virus.”
“I am omnipotent!” he shouts, prowling into the room. “You will bow before me!”
He throws his arms into the air with a flourish and his hair floats around him, standing on end like a thousand tiny bolts of lightning. We enter a new level of eerie as the door slams shut behind him without either of us moving. I struggle to remember who I am as I feel his mind fighting to penetrate my barriers.
“I have no desire to be immortal,” I say, while I mentally push him away, enjoying his frustration. “Live or die makes no difference, as long as I protect the world from you.”
His features twist with disgust. “Now you sound just like a human.”
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me, yet.”
“I’ve seen it time and again.” He shakes his head. “You deny it, but once you feel the power, the excitement, the pure ecstasy, I guarantee you will give in!”
“You are so wrong!”
A mysterious wind whips the back of my knees like a physical kick. My legs give way and I fall forward, landing on my knees. It’s unnerving. Olvasho have the ability to manipulate minds, but Sky is manipulating the air around us. His mental influences are manifesting into physical power. I didn’t know that was possible, but here I am on my knees in front of him. I immediately pull myself up, refusing to submit or show subservience of any kind.
Sky is infuriated and growls his frustration, “This is a waste of time!”
“You’re afraid of me.”
“You are wrong, child. I am afraid of no one! You are insignificant. The only reason I haven’t destroyed you is because you are my kin and the last of your bloodline. I’ve waited too long to end it by simply snapping that fragile little neck, but don’t tempt me.”
He’s conflicted. I would already be dead if he weren’t. I mean something to him. Not because we have a father-daughter bond, but because I’m his special pet project. He needs me alive to start building his army. My death would mean he would lose years of planning and an entire army of Valla blood.
“I’m all you have left,” I say with an air of nonchalance.
“You,” he jabs a finger toward me, “you fight for life and love because you don’t understand true power. I will kill everyone you love! Then we will see how you cooperate.”
Sky’s pride causes him to deny he has any flaws, but he has one critical flaw. He views love as a weakness. He is not wrong. Love opens us up to vulnerability and can end in tragedy, but love is also profound, giving courage to even the greatest of cowards. I have my moments, but I am not a coward, yet he’s incapable of understanding my courage as anything other than weakness. He will never comprehend who I am because he sees in shades of grey and my world is full of color. He may touch the surface of my emotions, but he’ll never comprehend the depth of my soul.
With that thought, I penetrate the walls of his mind for the first time and find it’s wide open. Too easy, it must be a trap, but I jump in anyway. This is war. I will do what needs to be done to stop this evil man.
There is a vast difference between Sky and Patrick. When I enter Patrick’s mind, I get the distinct feeling of water, like I’m diving into an ocean. This is not the case with Sky.
Sharp winds lash at me, disorienting my thoughts. I peer out at the barren desert landscape shielding my eyes from the sandy current whipping violently through the air. I’m standing at the precipice of a plateau hundreds of feet in the air. Unu
sual for a desert, the breeze is frigid against my bare arms and the wind whips at the long layers of my dress.
Fear sits heavily on my shoulders sending warning chills down my spine. I sense looming danger hovering all around me. The atmosphere darkens and something silky grazes my shoulder. Fear whirls me around to face the imminent threat, but when I turn, I find myself alone on the plateau. Moving away from the steep ledge, I search for Sky. The gentle graze tickles my shoulder once more, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. Catching a glimpse of a shadow above me, I look to the sky. Terror grips me, digging its nail-like claws deep into my skin. It clings to me, making something as natural as breathing next to it impossible.
There are hundreds! If I had to put a name to them, I’d call them phantoms. They are vague apparitions of the people they used to be. The disembodied shadows float around and above me in a swarm.
The wind ceases, and in the silence, Sky speaks, “Admiring my collection?”
Spinning to face him, I gasp at his distorted features. Inside Sky’s mind, he is easily eight feet tall making his already narrow frame painfully thin. Static in the air causes his straggly white hair to float haphazardly around his shoulders. His lips are pale in his elongated face. The whites of his eyes are black, contrasting the bright blue of his irises. Beneath cat-like pupils, dark streaks run like smudged mascara down to his chin. His skeletal structure protrudes beneath the pale skin of his naked chest and arms. White skin darkens to black at his elbows and extends down to taloned fingers. Below his waist, his legs are covered in fine black feathers resembling fur which fades into bony black ankles and taloned feet.
“You look . . . repulsive,” I say, unable to hide my disgust.
“Yes, isn’t it wonderful?” he says, revealing jagged teeth. He twirls in a circle to give me a full view of him.
His mind is not what I expected. It’s different from anything I have experienced in my training with Patrick. The control and connection I have with my physical body is weakening as the strain between my mind and body intensifies. I attempt to retreat back into my body, but I get stuck in the periphery of his psyche. Like a slingshot, the barrier around his mind snaps me right back to the plateau. I was right. It was a trap. Sky’s mind is not built to keep people out, but to hold them in.
“It’s a prison,” I breathe.
“Ding ding ding!” Sky mocks, gleefully. “You finally understand.”
The connection to my physical body is weakening the longer I’m in his head. I feel his mind consuming my own, and I shout, “You’re psychotic!”
“You have no idea,” Sky remarks, then peering up, he calls, “Selma, come say hello to our daughter.”
“No,” I cry. I don’t want to believe she’s here. When she died, I had hoped she found peace.
An apparition floats before me, the blurry shadow melting into beautiful features. The longing to wrap my arms around my mother is all-consuming. Her vacant eyes come alive with recognition and her transparent hand tingles as it touches my cheek. “Emily.” Her voice is an eerie sound, an echo of a memory.
“No touching!” Sky thunders, as he flicks his taloned fingers to knock her away.
I gasp, my emotions in my throat. Sky looks down, hearing my tell. A cunning smile plays on his lips showing off his sinister teeth. My mother hisses at Sky but keeps her distance.
“Meet my army.” He circles his hand toward the sky. “They will rip your soul from your body at my command. Now, let’s talk about your future since the only way back to your body is through me,” he says, hovering closer with his creepy malformed body.
He believes he can contain me here, but I can’t allow myself to fall for his deception. I search the sky, unable to find my mother amongst the sea of souls. And that’s just what they are, souls that Sky imprisoned after he murdered them. My fingers curl into fists at the injustice as I glare at Sky. He’s trying to manipulate me with fear and distract me with my own heartache.
“Delicate heart, wield your flames.” Turning my head, I follow the voice. “Use the fire from within.” My mother’s voice is a rushed whisper. I barely make out her words before the freezing blast of wind hits her like an explosion and she vanishes.
Sky sucks air through his wicked teeth as his straggly white hair whips around him. His extreme reaction indicates my mother’s words are important, but I don’t understand what they mean.
I look to the lost souls who have been withering here for so long they have forgotten who the real enemy is. Since my mother is willing to risk the wrath of Sky, perhaps the others will follow her lead. I just need to wake them up to see me through clear eyes, so they know their fate does not have to end here.
My mother has disappeared, so I call out to the mass of shadows. “Alessandra? Patrick grieves for you every day.”
“What do you think you’re doing, child?” Sky chides.
“This monster,” I point to Sky, “has destroyed enough lives! Patrick had lost all hope before he found me and brought me here to stop this evil man.” My eyes slide across the apparitions. “Destroying Sky is the only way Patrick or any of the people you love will stay free of your fate. I cannot do this alone. I need your help!”
“They will not help you.” With a wave of Sky’s hand, the shadows make a ring and whirl around like they’re caught in the stream of a tornado. “They are loyal only to me. Selma sometimes forgets her manners. I have yet to break your mother of her bad habits.”
Ignoring his mocking comments, I address the phantoms floating above. “The Valla bloodline dies with me!” I shout. “This evil man is my blood but will never be my father or my captor. I come here willingly and will not leave until you are all free!”
Sky’s atrocious laughter penetrates the air, as he shouts, “You are wasting your time!”
That’s when they strike. Alessandra’s translucent body dives through me, and splintering pain rakes my mind. Another spirit plunges through my torso. With the second impact, I fall to the ground in Sky’s mind, and though it’s distant, I feel my physical body react, falling to the floor in the white room.
At the sound of Sky’s cruel laughter, I lift my head, but I cannot stand as my body is paralyzed with pain. When the initial shock subsides, I feel new energy. What I thought were attacks were just the opposite. After the spirits traveled through my body, the power of wind and water linger within me increasing my strength.
A blue flame bursts from the ground and my mother’s features blur as she also dives through my body. Fire energy permeates my very being. I realize now, the spirits have come to my aid, awakening something within. Sky leaps toward us and I react on instinct. When I reach my hand out to stop Sky, white-hot flames burst from my palm.
Sky jumps away from my trajectory and the apparitions above halt their movement. Hundreds of misty transparent eyes peer down at me. Awakened by my flames, their eyes begin to focus.
“Darling, you are unsalvageable!” Sky spits with disdain, and then his eyes widen in shock as my mother’s translucent hand solidifies in mine. My body glows as she transfers her strength to me.
“Go after her now!” Sky orders his army of floating soldiers, but they remain stagnant. “I said, kill her!”
They don’t respond to his command.
My mother’s voice echoes, “We take no more orders from you!”
“I am your master! You will do as I say!”
“You are not our only master,” Alessandra attests, floating to my side. “She is your blood which gives her power over us.”
“She is nothing!” Sky shouts.
Another figure rises next to Alessandra. When his features solidify, I recognize him as the burly man from Patrick’s memory. Patrick’s father takes Alessandra’s hand as he speaks, “Two hundred souls and she still has more power than you.”
“Enough!” Sky commands. With exaggerated movements he throws his arms in the air, causing the wind to toss around us. “Emily, be gone from my mind! I grant you passage back to y
our body.”
I feel the restraints on his mind releasing me and feel my physical body calling to me like a beacon. It’s summoning me home, tempting me to return to my body, but I remember whose hand I’m holding. I remember my promise. I remember my mission.
I look at my mom. “Can I set you free?”
“We can become yours if you take us into your mind, into your body,” she responds.
“And then I can set you free?” I implore.
“That has never been done.”
Sky interrupts our conversation, howling, “You won’t be able to let them go! The power will consume you!” I feel an intense force as Sky attempts to push me out of his mind, but my mother’s presence keeps me anchored.
“But it can be done?” I ask my mom.
“The transfer, yes,” she nods, “but even if you can’t free us, we would rather be with you.”
“How do I do this?” I ask.
“Imbecile! It will destroy you!” Sky’s eyes glisten with rage and with a flick of his wrist, a cyclone roars up from the ground creating chaos as the apparitions above are tossed around like leaves in a windstorm.
Sky propels a second howling wind funnel in our direction. I launch flames that get caught up in the increasing speed of revolving air. Fire is drawn up into the cyclone, creating a massive flaming twister. My inferno devours the wind, consuming it until all that’s left is a hovering cloud of black smoke.
I don’t have time to relish in the small success, because Sky is a formidable opponent and is already launching his next attack. When I dodge the razor-like wind, his anger escalates. His advances grow increasingly haphazard. The temperature plummets as he continues lashing out with sharp currents.
“Mom, how do I get you out of here?” I shout to be heard through the pandemonium.
My mother’s celestial voice at my ear startles me. I hadn’t realized she was still so near. “Call to us and grant us passage through your mind into your physical body. Your mind will try to reject us, but hold strong and we can make it through.”
“Spirits!” I bellow. “Enter my mind and free yourself from Sky!”
