Villains (9 page)

Everything in that moment was quiet and harmless. She was only a girl, not an unnatural thing going to see a boy who’d stolen her heart.

She broke through the trees, the horizon an angry streak of fire, the sky roiling with the darkest gray clouds she’d ever seen. The water was black and choppy, nothing like the reflective deep green she was used to. She pitched forward, the crown scattering to the edge of the shores, threatening to fall in. She stopped herself, hands sinking into the grass as she grappled for the crown, catching it just before it fell off the ledge. She glared at the ocean, seeing her reflection. Impossibly long strands of whitish violet hair framed her round face, button nose, full pinkish lips, and deep liquid amethyst eyes outlined by black eyelashes. She was everything Tor named her—a songbird. She wanted to be free to fly, sing and live bliss. In that moment she didn’t look anything like a girl who brought death, but the mark pulsed and she felt her potential underneath the surface like a slick under current. She put a hand to her cheek while backing up and steeling herself against the chaos surrounding her. She didn’t care what she had to do; she would free the Ferryman from his master, from the Valtanyana and their silly wars in the Lands Across the Stars. She whispered the incantation under her breath and waited, and waited, and waited.

She waited so long she thought dawn would erupt over the horizon, and then something moved at the far line of the horizon. It moved slowly through the water as though injured, the boat chugging along in uneven spurts. It slid against the grass, sizzling the land. Aria took a sharp breath, reaching out to the Ferryman, but he shook his head imperceptibly, his bony hands braced on a long staff that dipped into the water.

“Kallow?”

He hung his head. “It’s Ferryman to you, why have you called me?”

Aria couldn’t believe his cold demeanor, his shockingly hard words. She took a step back, tears in her eyes. “You said you’d come for the wise man.”

The way his faceless gaze met hers made her feel hollow. She couldn’t see him, but she knew he was angry about something. “I didn’t say when I’d come. You don’t dictate my visits.”

“Why did you come? Why didn’t you ignore my call?” Aria squeezed the crown hard, part of her wanting to break it into little pieces, but it was fortified, and as strong as her little hands were, she couldn’t bring herself to destroy it. He deserved to have her gift, even if he denied her.

“I—”

The island shook almost throwing Aria off balance. Water sloshed into the boat and Kallow fought to gain his own balance. Rumbling underfoot continued as Aria’s eyes widened. “The Valtanyana are here,” she shrieked, unable to control her fear and resentment.

Kallow went to push off the shores, but Aria reached forward and grabbed him by the upper arm. “You have to show me how to release them from the trees. It’s only Tor against the Valtanyana.”

Kallow paused, and she could tell his expression was horrid. He let the long paddle go, and moved so that his hand was in hers as he stepped on land, the transformation taking hold instantly. “My master will not like this,” he whispered as he pushed the hood off his face, revealing the bronzed skin, hazel and golden eye, shoulder-length straight brown hair.

Aria turned the crown in her hand and glanced at the grass remembering the feeling of his lips against hers. She extended it towards him. “I made this for you.”

He took it, and she watched him inspect it, a grin spreading from ear to ear as he placed it on his head. “You enchanted it.”

Aria shrugged. “It exists where we exist.”

Kallow took her hand in his, tracing patterns on her palm. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Aria.”

“There’s never been anyone like me before,” she said, leading him through the break in the trees to the first one stuffed with cotton. She glanced up at the branches, reaching towards the cotton-like substance, but Kallow pulled her hand away.

“Let me do it,” he said gently, and in an instant his aura flared, black wisps cascading off his shoulders in droves. The black sparks hit the cotton-like substance and it turned to smoke, drifting to the ground. Aria watched in awe as Kallow’s aura snaked through the forest, releasing the ghosts until the ground was covered in a thick layer of fog.

“How did you?”

Kallow shot her a wan smile. “The Ferryman commands the dead.”

“I didn’t know.”

“You’re very young.”

Aria wanted to smack him on the arm for his comment but she couldn’t deny it was true. “You haven’t seen what I can do.” Kallow’s aura retracted, settling into his cloak as the wispy white smoke shifted, forming thousands of bodies through the trees. One moment they were nothing but moans on the wind, the next they were gruesome ghostly figures, raising their fists to the sky in triumph. Kallow seemed deep in thought; his eyebrows pinched together, his fingertips pressed against each other.

He peeked at her with one hazel eye. “I’m telling them to fight.”

“Will you take them to Hades after?”

Kallow laughed. “No, the boat isn’t big enough.”

Aria laughed so loud the sound echoed through the trees and she clamped her mouth shut. “All I want is—” her words were cut short by a screeching sound above them. Aria and Kallow glanced up, a bright red dragon flying above them. It huffed and blew fire across the tops of the trees, igniting them in a flash.

Aria grabbed Kallow. “Run!”

They raced through the burning forest, trees crackling and hissing as they sped past them. The ghost army followed, moving through the forest with ease. Aria slowed when they hit the cairn, the fire subsiding. Aria didn’t need to catch her breath but she didn’t want Kallow following her into the field. She didn’t want him to fight with her. She recalled what Klavotesi said about the Ferryman dying with them. She whipped around and Kallow crashed into her, stumbling over his two left feet. She buried her head in his chest as his arms fell around her.

“Go back to the boat.”

“I can’t, I have to guide the dead.”

Aria looked at him, her eyes imploring. “You’ll die if you go any further.”

He gripped her by the upper arms, anger flashing across his face. “And what about you?”

Aria didn’t know how to feel. On the one hand she was scared out of her mind and on the other she was so calm it was unnerving. “They can’t hurt me.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m the Amethyst Flame. And I’m not like anything they’ve ever known.”

Kallow crushed her to him, his lips meeting hers as her aura flared and amethyst sparks lit the trees around them with violet colored fire. She kissed him back with all the passion locked inside her form, tasting his unique mix of charcoal, dust and bone on her tongue. It wasn’t a pleasant taste, burning her insides until she could barely breathe, but she wanted more of it, as though if she let go, he would turn to bone and she’d lose him forever. The kiss lasted too long. By the time he pulled away the trees around them were burnt to a crisp, the violet fire skipping through the branches.

He rubbed his thumb on the corner of her lips. “I’m not leaving you.”

Aria felt guilt buried deep in her bones. “I didn’t tell you the name they marked me with.” Kallow frowned and she barreled on before he could speak. “Cassareece …” she touched her chest, the place where the mark burned her soul. “She named me Kali Elle.”

Kallow put his hand over hers where the mark was. “The girl who brings death.”

Tears escaped Aria’s eyes as she turned and hid her face from him. “Will you stay? Knowing all that I am?” She couldn’t bear to hear his response, expecting to hear footsteps retreating.

“How could I leave? They call me the man who brings death,” He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips to the nape of her neck. “I will fight with you, and if I die, then I will die with you, and we will find each other again.”

Aria let out the breath she had been holding in. “I hope you don’t regret it,” she said, breaking into a sprint. She raced over the hills and around the poisonous flowers and wended around the skinny trees. Kallow kept up, the ghost army on his heels. Aria fetched up beside a tree at the edge of the battlefield, her stomach lurching.

Artificial night hung over the sky as dragons swooped through the black clouds alive with lightning, their fire beating down on the Flames. She smiled as Laurelin, the Citrine Flame held up her shield, absorbing the fire and shooting it back at the dragon, striking it out of the air. More beasts charged towards the lake, dodging the glassy water and roughshoding the Ruby Flame. Her sword lit up with bright cherry red sparks, and lightning shot out of it, striking down the four legged beasts in their tracks. Aria could barely fathom what she was seeing, so many things she’d never seen before. The four-legged beasts had golden-feathered wings, and lion-like heads. Others had black wings and beaks but were as big as the villagers, yet others were like dragons without wings. There were too many to make out all the different types, but behind them were the eleven of them in all their glory. Four of them were like the beasts fighting, one of them resembled a kraken, another a dragon, another a spider, and another a griffin. Four of them were rather plain, dressed in regal colors, their physical attributes faded and sickly. One of them was nothing but a child that looked like she’d drowned in the swamp. One of them had red hair pulled into a bun, another had brown hair to her ankles, and the last had shorn brown hair, and a wicked grin on his face. The last three were bright, with pale pristine faces. Aria recognized Cassareece in her night blue dress and crackling blue-lightning eyes. The other two resembled her, dressed in clothes tapered to their tall billowy forms. The man on Cassareece’s left had white-lightning eyes where as the woman had green-lightning eyes. All eleven of them had their gaze fixed on the chaos surrounding them.

Aria watched in horror as the ghost army joined the other Flames, colliding against the droves of smaller black creatures dotting the field amidst the gargantuan creatures. Aria winced when one of the dragons swooped low, its talons reaching for Clamose, The Azurite Flame’s crown. He reached up, gripping the talon with one hand and swung onto the beast, covering it in a blue aura before turning it against the Valtanyana and breathing brimstone directly at the line of them against the edge of the field.

Aria felt someone behind her and remembered Kallow. She held him back with one hand. “You can’t go down there.”

He kissed the back of her hand and it almost undid her. She craned her neck back and forth, feeling lightning in her fingertips, in her heart, tasting it in the back of her throat. “They need our help.”

“This needs to stop.”

Kallow chuckled. “You can’t kill the Valtanyana, but you can fight until they’re satisfied.”

Aria tore her eyes from the battle, and everything deadly about her ricocheted to the surface, igniting a fire in her so passionately furious she couldn’t control it. “Stay close to me,” she said. It sounded like a threat because it was one. A deafening cry rang out and Aria whipped back to the battle, seeing Tor on his knees, silvery gray blood smeared across his tunic. He ripped it off in a single move, his rock-like body marred.

Aria couldn’t take it anymore. She gripped Kallow so hard she could crush the bones in his hand and strode into the field, her entire body burning with the force of the Amethyst Flame. The sky above her obeyed her every command, the clouds cleared and the dragons whined in protest as their hearts exploded one by one, dropping out of the sky. She glanced at Cassareece, hoping to catch the woman’s eye.

“No!” Tor’s strangled cry hit the air as the first meteor hit the ground, creating a crater half the size of the lake. Smaller meteors rained down, each of them encased in a violet tinged aura. Aria descended the sloping field, casting beasts out of her way with her telekinetic abilities, meteors hitting the land with so much force clumps of earth flew into the air.

She glanced at the other Flames, and commanded them into a line. They formed, each of them holding their weapon out in front of them. Tor didn’t move, she caught his gold-lightning eyes out of the corner of her peripheral vision as she reached the edge of the lake and turned to Kallow. She couldn’t watch what she was doing anymore; all she could focus on was him and her, and the fact that everyone was going to die if they didn’t find shelter or safety.

She felt the rumble of pounding hooves under her as the beasts retreated, and the slicing symphony as the Valtanyana descended into the field. She forced herself to concentrate on Kallow, her hand on his shoulder, the crown of snakes on his head, the feather crown on her head, the sky a maelstrom of falling stars, the violet colored fire hitting the ground in successions.

Something splashed into the lake but she didn’t flinch. She traced the patterns of caramel flecks inside Kallow’s hazel eye as the fire in the sky intensified. He brought a hand to her cheek as fear entered his eyes, but he didn’t move.

“The pursuit of perfection is over,” he whispered, brushing his thumb along her cheek. A second later it was on fire, everything about him was on fire, circling and cascading around him. It was encompassing her too but the orange flames fought against the violet flames and as hard as she tried to preserve him his face turned to bone, leaving only the bulb of his golden and hazel eyes.

“We’re free, my love.” His mouth moved but the words weren’t audible as the stars fell and the noise around them hit the sound barrier. Aria closed her eyes a high pitched sound hitting her like a thousand dawn horns ringing all at once. She let go, feeling the supernova in her bones as her energy expended, taking with her everything in the Lands of Immortals.

***