Birthright - Book 2 of the Legacy Series (An Urban Fantasy Novel) (12 page)

I was looking at myself in the mirror, only I was younger. I clung to my younger self and just stayed there, until an older version of myself wrapped an arm around my shoulder and playfully mussed my hair.

It felt as if all that coalesced into one specter shrouded in deep crimson light. Something, maybe the power around me, wrapped around my shoulders and pressed against me. A hug. It was the confidence of a lover, the care of a parent, and the trust of a friend.

It was whispering something – something inaudible. I leaned closer, trying to understand and communicate back. I heard faint whispers, like words caught in the wind. I leaned closer, until I was literally inside the light. More than that, I
was
the light. I heard the whispers solidify into a language. I recognized a sentence, although I still couldn’t hear it. With all my strength, I willed myself to listen and managed to catch the last word of the sentence.

“… roots.”

The next thing I remembered was a rush of sensation — hot, wet and painful. I felt something pressing against my face and the whole of my body. But interestingly, it was only on my front. My back was… wet? I heard cracks and hisses.

I felt pain.

There is something about the human body that, no matter what you do, doesn’t allow you to forget the sensation of pain. I suppose that’s some sort of warning to avoid harmful situations.

The human body sucks.

I remember something pulling against every single muscle in my body. There was a light, comforting warmth against my bones, and I heard cracks that had no place being heard outside of a torture chamber. I realized that my body was bent and squashed unnaturally, and from one eye, I saw a blackened hand. It was charcoal-black, with the bones cracking through. The rest of my flesh was eaten away by the fire. I saw white return to the bone, and with more tingling and prickling, flesh began forming.

As it healed, my body unclenched and I stretched out further against the scorched ground. I twisted my head, involuntary, as muscles on one side repaired themselves faster than the other side.

From my position, I saw a figure with white hair and dark, dirty clothes, some of them scorched and torn. She held both hands up high and was screaming. Power visibly flowed through her.

A trickle of water rose, like a charmed serpent from a basket, and met the crystal in her hands. From her hands, a thin jet of water shot up at incredible speeds and met the top of the dome. Water spread like an umbrella, soaking everyone and everything with needles of highly pressurized water. Beyond her, I saw a lump of fire and ash, writhing in agony. Like me, it was healing and regenerating. But the water kept dousing the fire and clumping the ashes.

Strength coursed through me and suddenly I had mobility again. I pressed one hand against the ground and soon the other one joined it. My abdominal muscles strained as I tucked my knees beneath me. I rose from the ground, every millisecond taking as long as a year. I registered every muscle working and every nerve ending giving the appropriate signal.

And it felt great.

Like a zombie, I swayed on two legs, still not used to holding myself up with newly formed muscle and a half-crooked spine. Pressure built around my chest and I realized it was my breathing. It felt so good to be alive. I was taking note of each and every detail, appreciating the highly complex machine we call a body.

My brain was the last thing that went online.

This can’t be real,
I thought
. I was burned to death. I should be floating in an afterlife. Why am I here again?

Then, I looked at my hands, which were now covered in blotchy and blistering skin.

How am I healing? Is someone doing this?

I knew the answer deep down — it was me. This was my power, acting on its own volition, as if some sentience inside me took the reins and preserved my life.

I heard a cry and saw Gil buckle. Blood covered her from where the water bit into her. She swayed and fell face first onto the ground, groaning and moaning. The spell must have taken every last ounce of strength she had. I was supposed to shield her from the water, and I was supposed to deliver the final blow. Instead, I went ahead and died, leaving my sister to cast the spell on her own, unprotected. And now, she was out of the game, and the phoenix was stirring again. The flames slowly fanned and crawled over the rest of the ashes, giving life back to the bird. And all I remember thinking was,
No way in hell am I letting you crawl back up.

I found myself hobbling toward the phoenix, slowly dragging one foot after the other. The water spell had nearly dissipated now that its source was cut off. As I passed by Gil, I saw her trying to get back up, despite her obvious exhaustion. Her eyes widened as she saw me. I noticed the crystal on the ground beside her. It was cracked and completely useless.

“Erik? Is that you?” Gil’s voice was weak. I looked at her and managed a nod. Then, I kept on heading toward the bird.

And all that time, I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew that something had to be done, and it was in this direction. I looked at the wind dome and at the center that served as our makeshift sprinkler system. I looked at the water, still clumped in a large globule, and at the near invisible waves spreading out at the sides of the dome, at the wake of the wind. And in the back of my head, all I could think of was Gil’s speech about using her blood as a catalyst.

“The body is sixty percent water,” she had said.

What happened next is… well, I have no freakin’ idea how I pulled this off.

I remember collecting my power and amassing it into my feet. I still hadn’t regenerated skin properly yet. As I crouched down, I saw the muscles stretching and blood flowing out of me. No matter. I would have all the time in the world for regeneration and answers to my questions after I destroyed this stupid bird once and for all.

I released all my power and jumped. I remember the familiar sensation of weightlessness as I soared up nearly three stories in height. I crashed against the water globule and latched onto it. I planted my feet on the dome, so that I stood upside down. The wind cut through my feet and I screamed in pain. I channeled my agony into the spell and pressed the water globule against me.

“Sixty percent water.”

I channeled the wind and water into one single being – me. I felt the sharpness of the wind and the malleability of water. I combined them together and poured everything I had into the globule. And with a yell, I launched the water at the bird, which sat directly under me.

The water shot down like a giant balloon and exploded. Even the bird’s shriek was lost as water exploded in every direction, much like the phoenix’s fire did before. What’s more, it exploded
inside
the bird, completely dousing any fire within.

I saw a large clump of wet ash spark. The damn thing was reigniting itself – again.

With a frustrated yell, I focused the last of my power into my fist and jumped. I was hanging upside down, so I shot downward. As I rapidly descended, I let out a scream, pulled my fist back and punched. My fist met the sparking ashes and exploded. Ashes scattered around, the spark long lost. A large crater appeared on the ground, with cracks snaking all the way past the dome and into the forest. I was thrown against the dome and bounced back painfully on the ground. I felt pain everywhere, but my mind was dulled and so all that registered was a loud thumping sensation. I tried flexing my right hand and found nothing. When I twisted myself to look, all I saw was a pool of blood and gore. My right arm was gone, leaving only a bloody stump at the elbow.

I remember Gil slumping next to me, her face a mixture of nausea and relief. She came closer and closer, until she touched my face with her burned hands. The moment we touched, I saw a kaleidoscope of color, and a white world invaded my mind. It felt as if I were back in my own abyss, floating in the darkness, except this universe was a world of white, silver and ivory.

Reality soon snapped back and something heavy fell on my chest. Gil lay there, unconscious, her figure slumped over me. I felt dizzy and light-headed. I turned sideways and tucked my remaining hand under my head just in time to avoid cracking my skull open. Again.

From my peripheral vision, I saw the dome dissipate into nothing, and a pair of polished, black dress shoes stepped in my vision. They turned, and my eyes followed the direction they now pointed.

The ashes were slowly clumping again, forming an avian figure. A small spark kindled at the very center. I heard Mephisto’s sigh and the swish of his hand. The wind gathered and the ashes spread into a million dust particles. The clump exploded into nothingness, and I was fairly certain that the phoenix was gone. With a flick of his wrist, our demon butler destroyed a monster that had taken all our strength to bring down and had cost me my life.

I saw his shoes turn back to face me.

“Tut, tut. You children have such a long way to go,” I heard him say. Gil’s weight was lifted off of me and I saw her feet dangling over the demon’s shoulder. I then felt a pressure around the back of my neck, and found myself being hoisted in mid-air as well. Mephisto slumped me over his other shoulder, and for a bizarre second, his yellow eye was inches away from my bloody mess of a face.

“But you may yet achieve a power greater than anyone else on this plane,” I heard him say. “Yes, that I believe to be true.”

Present

There was utter silence in the restaurant. Sun Tzu absentmindedly circled his finger on the rim of his cup. Amaymon sat on the same spot as when I started the story. The cat had remained motionless and quiet this whole time.

“What’s up with you guys? Did I leave you speechless?” I said before taking a sip from my glass. If there was ever a time to chug down whiskey like it was happy hour, it was now.

“Merely acknowledging what I already suspected,” said Sun Tzu. “Although there is a chasm of difference between suspecting something and hearing it aloud. Even in my later years, I can still be surprised. We all come from a different past life.”

“Not so different, from my perspective,” I replied. “Sure, I don’t camp out at night in a forest filled with monsters anymore. But I do live here, and Eureka in now a nexus. No shortage of monsters for me.”

Sun Tzu shook his head. “That is not what I meant.” He sighed and clasped his hands together. “You were close to your sister. You lived in a house where you shared both good and bad memories. You learned all about the wonderful world that surrounds us, although you may not see it so at this stage of your life.”

“I had a house where I never felt at home, a father I never knew — who, when the time was right, chose to sacrifice us — and my magic teacher was not the kind-hearted Master Yoda. It was his brother,” I said pointing at the cat. “A sociopathic demon who got off on slowly torturing us.”

Sun Tzu motioned to speak, but the cat beat him to it.

“I’m more interested in the word itself,” Amaymon said. “Roots. That’s the second time you mentioned it, Erik.”

I got a flashback in my head. Mephisto picking up my sister from a tanker after we finally beat down Lilith and her Alpha. After I went all supercharged, after my death at Lilith’s hands. He looked at my new form with fear, something I didn’t know he could exhibit. I remember clearly what he said, that I finally grasped my own roots. At the time, I didn’t give it much thought. I mean, Mephisto loves speaking in riddles and twisting the truth. He wouldn’t lie, but you could never get a straight answer out of him.

I relayed the information to Sun Tzu, filling in the gaps I left out earlier.

“I see,” he said once I finished. “Not very helpful is it? But I suppose the answer to your power is already in front of you.” His expression turned pensive. I grabbed the nearly empty whiskey bottle and poured and divided the remaining liquid between us.

“The angel said that your power is Life magic, is it not?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“So, my next question is obvious. Why is a mortal using a type of magic which even deities are seldom able to employ?”

My eyebrows shot up. “Life magic is simple enough. I mean, back in the old days, Mephisto had us practice on Bonsai trees, tending to them using only magic. I killed mine in three days.”

“Typical,” muttered Amaymon.

“Hey, the last plants we had were destroyed by you. You ate the first one and crapped in the remaining two.”

“Serves you right for being too cheap to afford kitty litter.”

“Our neighbor has a perfectly good garden. Why not use that?”

“The asshole put cacti and roses everywhere.”

I scoffed at the cat and returned to the subject at hand. “Besides, every time someone summons a creature, it’s technically Life magic. That’s what anima particles are. Am I wrong?” I asked Sun Tzu.

“You are correct,” he replied gently, “but you miss the point. Summoning and growing trees are manipulations of Life magic. When summoning occurs, Life, in whatever form it may be, is transferred from one place into another. Anima particles are just accidental leaking, like using water to wash your car. Some of the water is wasted.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Shocker,” muttered Amaymon sarcastically.

“Shut up,” I immediately shot back. “What are you trying to say?” I asked Sun Tzu.

“I am trying to tell you that you use pure Life magic. Unlike normal practices, where magic is simply transferred, you create your own Life Magic. And this is something which has never happened before.”

He leaned forward. “The clue is how you integrated the anima particles. Those things are useless to anyone, even higher tier creatures like deities, avatars and Outsiders. It seems your power goes beyond that – to the next level. It’s the power that created nature, the solar system and all the planes of existence. My question is this: why do you, Erik Ashendale, a mere mortal warlock, have the power of a god?”

I blinked a couple of times, trying to digest what Tzu had told me.

Power of a god? Really? Me? Sounds unlikely. I mean, how do you measure the power of a god?