Arianna Rose: The Awakening (Part 2) (22 page)

Howard gestured to the men who lingered in the courtyard and each of them began igniting torches they held.  Then, one by one, they threw their torches into the kindling at her feet.  The kindling began to burn immediately, the flames growing and expanding.
  But Arianna did not feel the heat of the flames lapping at her ankles, and she did not feel sadness
or grief.  A new feeling had overtaken her, surging and coursing through her being.  It melted each of her emotions, the ache in her chest, her anger, and her need for vengeance, each seeped from her, until all that remained inside her was pure power.  Her entire body began to radiate red light.  It shone as if the power within her could no longer be contained by her
flesh, pulsing vi
brantly, harshly, hissing like
fiery snakes from her skin
.  In that moment, she realized she was no longer Arianna Rose.  She was the Sola.

***

Howard Kane stared in shock.  He began to feel fear for the first time in over twenty years
, since he was a boy being abused
.  The vision before him, Arianna Rose’s entire body alight in a scarlet halo, could not be happening.
She had transformed into the Sola, living and breathing.
The fire beneat
h her had climbed up her body
, yet she remained unscathed.  He watched in equal parts horror and disbelief as she lifted her glowing arms out to her sides, like a Phoenix defying its death pyre and spreading its wings.  The shackles around her wrists snapped then fell to the flames
a
s though they’d been constructed of chintzy material, not iron.

He wanted to run, to flee from the imminent destruction, but his legs refused to budge from where they stood.  Instead, he was forced to witness the Sola raising her arms, flames shooting out in every direction.  Each of his men at the perimeter of the circle that had surrounded her was suddenly ablaze.  He heard their tortured screams tear through the evening sky.  He clapped his hands to his
ears, trying futilely to muffle
their cries
, and saw that the rest of his men staggered from the surrounding woods, their flesh burning.  Everyone around him burned.  He was the only one who remained.  He became confident that God had spared him. 

That confidence buoyed him as the Sola stepped toward him.  She stopped directly in front of him and glared at him with eyes that blazed with the blood of those who’d martyred themselves.  She loomed near him then spoke with a voice so haunting, the hairs on his body rose like quills.

“You are a fool, Howard Kane,” she said and her voice echoed through him.  “A fool who believes God is directing him to murder.”

“God guides me to do His work,” he replied

“No!” she shouted silencing him
. 
“
You kill because you enjoy it, because you are evil,” she accused.

His insides began to trill, a sudden inexplicable phenomenon
.  “God has
chosen me to hunt witches, to protect mankind,” he said in a trembling voice. 

The Sola began to laugh, a mirthless sound that resonated through the courtyard.  “No, Howard.  You are one of us.  God is not drawing you to us.  Your own power is.”

Howard’s eyes widened and a breath of awareness raced across his skin.  He knew she’d spoken the truth, could feel it deep within him.  He was a warlock.  He was not going to heaven as a soldier of the Lord.  He would burn in hell for eternity alongside the rest of the evil beings he’d already sent there.

The Sola smiled at him as tho
ugh she’d read the recognition i
n his heart as plainly as she would have read a neon sign.  She swept her arm out to one side and he felt himself flying through the air.  It wasn’t until he felt his back collide with something slender and hard that he understood what was happening.  His wrists were suddenly immobilized behind him around the pole, though nothing tangible bound them.

“You have spent your life hunting and killing your own people,
my
people.  You convinced yourself you were doing noble work, God’s work, and now, you will burn here on Earth, and for eternity.
”
 

Howard cried out in terror, her words cutting through his very core.  She gestured again and brush at his feet blazed angrily.  She assumed a position in front of him and locked eyes with him.  He felt the weight of her judgment blister as painfully as the flames that traveled up his body.  He howled in
agony, the heat unbearable as darkness teased at his vision.

Fire lapped at him, torturously, excruciatingly.  But the Sola remained before him, unflinching. 

The last image Howard Kane
beheld
was a
pair of scarlet eyes glowing vengefully at him,
glowering
, judging his final moment on Earth, and casting him to hell.

Chapter 17

Arianna staggered from the courtyard
,
dragging
legs that felt leaden,
to the small doorway she’d come through and into the sacristy.  E
ach
part of her bo
dy
resisted movement and
ached
agonizingly.  S
he stumbled
after
every few
unsteady
steps she took.  Pain shot through her head and felt like someone had shoved a sharp blade into her brain and continued to twist it with every move she made.  Shock had not brought with it numbness
, or silence
.  To the contrary, every cell in her body screamed at once, a deafening
shriek from which there was no escape.  She covered one ear with her hand, a painstaking effort she immediately regretted,
and found
that the
shrill
sound
only
burrowed deeper inside
her head and shook her bones.  She dropped her hand immediately and nearly collapsed, but a familiar image flashed before her eyes.

Blue eyes, a brilliant shade that matched they sky on a clear day,
penetrated the dimness of the
church and watched Arianna.
  She was sure it was a hallucination, a wishful product of her fractured
brain, until she heard his voice. 

“Arianna!” Desmond called and took several strides toward her.

He
reached for her
as she was about to collapse and she crumpled into his arms.  He pulled her close
and she felt his warmth surround her
immediately.  Relief carried her on its current and t
he stabbing pain in her skull began to recede like a wave
,
taking with it
the sm
arting pain in her muscles
. 

“I felt what happened here,” he said solemnly.  “I got here as soon as I could.”

“They’re dead, Desmond.  They’re both dead,” Arianna whispered.  And with her admission, the floodgates that had held her emotions at bay faltered
.  Tears rained down her cheeks, a sudden deluge from a vast tempest of hurt.
  Her mother was dead.  Luke was dead.  Lily was dead.  Everyone she’d cared about had died, because of her.  Desmond
was the only one who remained
. 

Desmond tightened his arms around her.  Her cheek pressed against his solid chest.  She felt his lips touch the top of her head.  “You should have called on me,” he said softly.

Arianna brought her hands up and pushed them against his chest, forcing him back
.  She stood of her own volition now, the
physical
ache and heaviness nearly gone,
and
put
enough space between them so that she could look into his eyes. 

“No,” she said in a voice far stronger than she felt.  “I had to go alone.  We both know that.”

Had he fought alongside her, he, too, would be dead. 
He stared at her for several knowing moments, his luminous gaze wise.  He knew she
had
spoke
n
the truth
, she could see it in his face
.  He could not have helped her in her battle with Howard Kane.  She was the Sola.

“You felt it,” Desmond said as if intuiting her thoughts.

“Yes,” she breathed and brushed back tears.  “I felt nothing but power, like I wasn’t
me
anymore.  I was everywhere at once.  I was light and fire, I was,” she paused and closed her eyes.  “I was the Sola.”

Arianna opened her eyes
and met Desmond’s.  “I know,” he said.  “I felt your power.  We all did.  And now they know you’re here, that you live.”

The gravity of Desmond’s words sent a ripple of uncertainty through Arianna’s being.  The witches of the world had felt her power reach its fullest potential.  They
now
knew the prophecy had been fulfilled, that the Sola had come.  They would look to her for guidance, for support, for protection. 
She was supposed to unite all witches on Earth.  But she hadn’t the slightest idea what to do next.

“What do I do now?” she asked Desmond.  “I’m only eighteen.  I can’t live on my own, alone.”

She heard herself say the word, felt it punch through her core. 
Alone
. 
Her mother was dead, her only family member, murdered. 
She was all alone. 

Desmond stared into her eyes, his expression grave, and said, “You
a
re the Sola.  It is your destiny to walk alone.”

Arianna paused, repeating what Desmond had just said in her head a few times, sifting through them for sense, for meaning. 
Alone
.  It was her desti
ny to walk through life alone, a
s in
,
without him either
. 

“
I don’t want to be alone,” she
blurted out.  “Come with me,
please
.”

She knew she’d just begged him to stay with her, heard the words fall from her lips, but had not been able to stop herself from saying them.  She did not want Desmond to leave.  She needed him
, hated that she needed him, hated the vulnerability she swore she’d never feel
at the mercy of
a man, yet felt for Desmond
.  He wa
s the only person she had left. 
Everyone else was gone forever, leaving in their wake a
cavernous
,
aching
hole. 
H
e felt like home to her.
  And she needed him.

“
I cannot go with you,” he said and she saw it in his eyes, urgency, and a certainty.  His eyes were like matching oceans of tropical water, warm
, clear,
and bottomless.  She searched them, looked into them for miles and miles, yet nowhere in their fathomless depths did she see contradiction to the words he’d just spoken.  For reasons she was unaware of, perhaps it was destiny or something far more
mysterious
, he could not accompany her on her journey.

“Why?” she asked and saw an emotion flicker across his face.  She could not identify it.  It hadn’t lasted long enough.  He’
d composed his features
immediately
into his usual
mask of serenity
. 

“Your time has come, Arianna.  You will go off; your missions will be forever changing.  This,” he said and gestured to the church around him.  “This clash with Howard Kane, it was just the beginning.  There are more
people
like him,
people
who hunt witches.  Your help is needed in so many places.”

Arianna’s head swam, overwhelmed by a sense of duty she feared she could not fulfill.  “How will I know where to go, who to go to?”

“You just will,” he replied cryptically.

All of it was too much.  The tremendous losses she’d suffered, the responsibilities awaiting her, her condemnation to a life of solitude, it was too much.  She needed something, someone, to anchor her to sanity, to give her something to live for. 
Without thinking, she stood on her tiptoes and wrapped both arms around his neck
, clinging to him like a lifeline
.  She held on to him tightly, press
ing her body to his and savored
the feel of his warmth, of the safety she felt with him. 
She pressed her cheeks to his and whispered, “Please don’t leave me.”

Firm fingers gripped her upper arms suddenly and Desmond held her at arm’s length.
  “I want to stay,” he said.  “
I want to stay more than you’ll ever know. 
Please
understand
that.” 

His eyes, suddenly
molten, burned into hers with
intensity that was overwhelming.  She inhaled a trembling breath and waited for him to continue.  “I have been with you for so long
,
cared
for you
from a distance
.  You’ve been a part of my life, a part of
me
, for as long as I can remember.  I can’t imagine my life without you.  I’ve dreaded this moment,” he said
and looked away
.