Chapter Fort-three
Evangeline skidded to a kneeling halt beside her mother’s body when two Kings lifted a chunk of wall from the ground and tossed it to the side, revealing Lilith’s fallen form. The woman Eva had once known as Katrielle was covered in blood from head to toe, but most of it pooled beneath her neck, where she seemed to have bled it from her nose or coughed it up.
She was so very pale, nearly blue, but in that pallor of death, Eva felt a glimmer yet of life. She took her mother’s face in her hands, closed her eyes again, and dove into her creator’s mind with all her might.
She was standing on a cliff. She recognized the cliff. It was the one she remembered wanting to dive off of when she was a child. The one she wanted to learn to fly from.
She turned slowly in place, taking in her surroundings. The village was there. The tents. The caves… it was all whole, unburned, not yet razed to the ground by murder and the chaos that came with Legendary death.
A sound drew Eva’s attention, and she turned, her gaze skirting the edges of the village until she realized the voices were coming from over the cliff’s edge. She hesitated. The cliff had always frightened her. She hadn’t yet learned to use her wings.
But now, in this world she knew was not real, not here – not now – Evangeline made her way to the cliff’s edge, stood at its precipice, and looked down. There was a hole in the side of the cliff that she’d never known was there. It was partially hidden by the rocks, disguised by an optical illusion of sorts.
Eva jumped off. In the dream-like state, she snapped out of one position only to snap into another, finding herself suddenly standing in the dark but warm space of a natural cavern. It was vast, and the walls were coated with the crystalline forms of precious and semi-precious minerals. They glittered in the light shed by the torches in sconces placed throughout.
“She’s here, isn’t she? Ban, don’t lie to me.”
The voice that spoke was instantly recognizable. It was Calidum. But here, in this time, in this memory, it was Korridum, the Great Gray.
Eva turned toward the voice and faced a dark tunnel that lead off of the main cavern. She followed the sounds into the darkness until a second light source was visible. The closer she drew, the brighter it became, until she was standing outside a doorway, looking into a large, intricately carved room.
The walls were embossed with bass relief symbols so beautiful and vast, she knew they must be magic. At the center of the room was a bed, also massive and intricately carved. Opposite the door Eva stood in was another doorway, this one closed off with a thick, luxurious tapestry.
Korridum was there in the room in his darkly human form with his black hair striped with white. But he wasn’t alone. Across from him stood another man of equal height and build.
Eva’s gaze narrowed thoughtfully upon him. Her memory of him was so terribly vague. But it was there – in flashes. She remembered occasionally catching sight of him in a shadow. She would see him somewhere to her side, turn to look, and he would be gone. He had been a figment of her young imagination, beautiful, bold, dark….
His hair was as black as her own, and his eyes were stark, blood red. They burned with unhindered passion, absolutely beautiful in his handsome face. He was bare chested, dressed only in leather from the waist down, and he was currently barefoot.
‘Father…’ Eva thought in wonder. This was Bantariax, the Great Black.
“Korr,” Bantariax said, raising his hand. His voice was the deep rumble she had heard in her mind. “Just leave. Please. This is no business of yours.”
“Ban, you need to listen to me,” Korridum pleaded softly. “Anharidan is on his way. He will expect to find Katrielle at once. She must leave here… or you risk everything.”
“I will go,” came another familiar voice, but one that Evangeline had not heard in thousands upon thousands of years. The mere sound of it nearly drew a sob from Eva’s chest. She hadn’t even realized she’d missed it that much.
She turned along with the men as a stunning red-haired woman came into the room through the tapestry. She was fully dressed, which frankly surprised Evangeline given the circumstances. And then she remembered that her mother was a witch, and that by this point in her life, she had learned a thing or two.
Katrielle met Bantariax’s gaze, and Eva watched Ban’s hands curl into fists. His teeth clenched, his body actually shaking with rage.
“I should not have come.”
“Ban, if she is found out, you must –”
“Tell him I took her against her will?” Ban said, turning on Korridum as his tone went ice-cold. His red eyes flashed, fracturing with crimson lightning.
Eva’s heart twinged in her chest… she wondered which of the three hearts it was. She watched Katrielle’s eyes cloud with pain as she left the room, and Korridum placed his hand to Ban’s chest to keep him from following after. For Eva, seeing her parents torn apart as they had been, knowing her own father had not been allowed in her life because of the Great White… it was so very difficult to process. It hurt.
She wanted to scream at her father – ‘I’m here! I’m so sorry!’ But just as her frustration reached an untenable state, Bantariax knocked Korridum’s hand to the side. Their eyes locked for a fraction of a knowing second.
And then Bantariax changed. He stepped back, and his body shifted as inch by inch, his sculpted form was covered in jet black, shimmering scales, all the way down to bad-ass draconic boots. Evangeline recognized the armor at once. She had a set of her own.
But Korridum stared at the other Legendary, eyes wide. He slowly shook his head, straightening with resolve. “If you do this… then do it right. One of you can’t walk away.”
“I know,” said Ban. And then he bared his teeth, flashing fangs. “He will never touch my mate or our daughter again.”
There was a terrible blast of wind, a flash of dark light, and Eva was knocked backward, once more snapping out of existence to snap back in somewhere new.