Chapter 10
Zandra fell headlong into an entirely different kind of nightmare. Before her were Anani, Cyprian, and two people she did not know.
Anani was shouting at them to stand back. “This one is mine!”
A tall, young man grabbed his arm, a look of fright on his face. “Anani, that is abyssal steel. If you do this, you will die.”
Anani shook off the young man. Next Cyprian tried to hold him back. Anani held out his arms and a wind with the force of a tornado slammed into Cyprian.
The voice hissed in her ear, “You see how he discards his friends to take the glory for himself. Cyprian and his charge, Ash. Quite the strapping young man, wouldn’t you agree?”
Zandra’s eyes couldn’t leave Anani’s face as he grabbed the hilt of the sword. Behind him, Cyprian charged the wall. As soon as he was in the air, Cyprian shifted into his dragon form, and he slammed head first into the wall. The woman stood by, her face unreadable as she watched Anani, as if she could not see anything else.
Anani drove the sword into his stomach. Blood spurted out, covering the altar that had held the sword.
A sinister voice whispered so that only Anani could hear, “More. I need more if your friend is going to live.”
The woman stepped forward. “It’s a trick, Anani! You can’t save him like this!”
Cyprian roared and rammed into the barrier. It shook, but held. Suddenly a second dragon appeared, much larger than Cyprian. It was green and beautiful. It shot a large stream of green flames against the barrier. Zandra rubbed her eyes as she imagined rose petals falling after the blast. The wind barrier cracked a little as Cyprian rammed into it again and again, and the green dragon continually shot fire at it. Every once in a while, the green dragon would do what looked like a little dance, moving his legs up and down in front of him before taking another breath and blasting the wall. If she hadn’t been so transfixed on Anani, the whole display would have made her laugh.
Anani drove the sword into himself again. Then again. His blood spurted all over the altar, making it look like it had been covered in vivid red and blue paints.
“Anani! NOOO!” The woman ran up to Anani, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him to her, the blood spilling over her.
Immediately, jealously flared up inside of Zandra. The image faded.
“Yes, while you were off suffering in Melzi, he found someone else.”
“No.” She couldn’t believe it.
“You just saw it. The way that woman held him close, calling his name. You were just a temporary reprieve while he tried to figure out how much more he loved her. Now that he has tasted you, Anani will be able to give his heart to Noely.”
Zandra blinked at the familiar sound of the name. “Noely?”
“Yes, his new love is named Noely.”
She burst out laughing, “Noely is the angelus. She will never love anyone beside Cyprian.”
The voice was shaken. “The angelus? The angelus has–”
In her excitement to prove the demon wrong, Zandra had given it a weapon that could upset the precarious balance that kept Letera together. “You are fighting me right now, demon. I may not be an angelus. I may not even be a sorceress, or a powerful witch, but I am more than enough to defeat you.”
“You are certainly something worth keeping around. I should keep you as a pet on the planet just for these kinds of tidbits of information. Yes, your obvious value lies in–”
Zandra dug through the memories and forced one of the most recent spots of pain to begin to play around them.
Cyprian was standing at the mouth of a volcano, his arms outstretched. The young man stood closest to him, his eyes darting between Cyprian and the rest of the party. Anani was barely standing, his arm around Noely’s neck, the blood still pooling around his feet. It was clear that he was barely able to stay awake as he begged his friend to stand back.
“Cyprian, there is no possibility of surviving this. If you jump in there, you will not be coming back. Noely will watch you die, and for what?”
“You are in no position to talk, Anani.” Cyprian’s voice was cold and hard, a tone that she had never heard before. It made her blood run cold to think that he was capable of such a calculating voice – it was every bit as compelling and edgy as the demon who tempted her now and the creature that had commanded more of Anani’s blood. “Noely.” His voice was a little softer as he addressed his love. “Please take Anani somewhere safe. There is still a chance that he may heal.”
Before Noely could reply, Anani pitched forward out of her arms, his own outstretched. From the ground, he pulled the air toward him, Cyprian’s beautiful hair swirling around his face. “Don’t worry, Anani, I will see you on the other side.” His eyes showed sorrow as he looked at his bloodied friend. Next he turned to Ash. “You will do just fine, so long as you remember that humans are never worth the effort you make for them.” It was pure Cyprian logic – his hatred for humanity appearing to have grown since they last talked.
The young man shook his head, “Everyone is worth saving. Augustin is worth saving. Humanity is worth saving. You are worth saving.” He stretched out a hand. “I am supposed to be the reckless, irresponsible one, but even I can tell this is the wrong answer. Come back.”
“Admit that humans are horrible.”
“I admit that some are, but not all of them. Let me introduce you to Ailey. She can teach you the value that humans bring to Letera.”
At the mention of the medic from Melzi, Zandra’s eyes widened. A few puzzle pieces fell into place. A presence had been protecting. A presence that seemed familiar. Though there were definitely different auras around each of the dragon shifter types, there was a commonality that was unmistakable. A small smiled spread across her lips.
A voice hissed in her ear as the drama unfolded in front of them, “What about this could possibly make you smile? Perhaps you begin to see the futility of everything.”
“No.” She shook her head, and in her mind, shiny locks bounced from side to side. “I was just thinking how incredibly lucky Ailey is.”
“What?” The demon was clearly lost as it tried to follow her logic.
Cyprian had just finished saying something to Noely. She began to run forward as he held his arms out and allowed gravity to pull him down into the volcano. Suddenly a large green dragon swooped across her vision and down into the volcano’s mouth. Noely ran to the edge and looked over. She placed a hand over her chest and another over her mouth as the picture faded out.
“That was when Anani passed out. It was the last thing he remembered from the encounter.”
Zandra smiled. “Thank you very much, demon. You were right. That was highly educational and has emphasized a number of things that Akeno and Anani have taught me over the years.”
“Did you miss the part where Anani’s friends left him there for dead?”
“No, they didn’t. Don’t be so pathetic that you think I would fall for that.”
“Then how do you explain the fact that he didn’t know that they weren’t dead?”
“I will explain that after I have a chance to talk to them. From what I saw, his friends were willing to sacrifice themselves for each other, and to be honest, they really should have been listening to Noely. Males.” She rolled her eyes for emphasis.
Suddenly she felt something warm and sticky start to flow down her throat. Initially, she tried to move her head away from whatever it was, her imagination returning to the nightmare of Sluagh and sewage.
A distant voice whispered in her ear, “Drink. Please just drink it. I don’t know what else to do. I can’t lose you, too.”
The voice hissed around her, “No! No! She’s mine! The witch is mine!”
Zandra kicked out as something reached up and grabbed her leg.
“I don’t belong to anyone, least of all a demon.”
Tentacles snaked up her legs and around her waist. Zandra focused and sent electrical discharges through her body. The voice screeched in pain, but continued to try to hold onto her. “Mine!” Its screech was like an earthquake that surrounded her. Closing her eyes, she focused and pushed back on the sensation.
“You are too weak. You cannot survive without me!” The demon was losing its grasp on her, as her mind began to rise out of the abyss. As she neared the surface, it howled defiantly at her, “When next you fall, I will be there to claim you! You are mine, and I will never let you go!”
Stretching out her hand, Zandra focused all of her magic. Channeling it into a single burst, she sent a blast of flame into the darkness. There was a shriek and the last thing that she could see was a pit aflame, and a small, pathetic-looking creature cowering in the shadows.
“I look forward to it. Knowing your best angles will make the next session a little less educational, but I look forward to besting you in a shorter time frame.”
There was a pathetic whimper as she burst through the surface.
Her eyes still closed, Zandra began to sip at the source of the warmth, her body beginning to feel lighter and more alive.
A sob shook her body, and a warmth spread along her entire frame. Zandra opened her eyes and stared at a mop of blackish-white hair. Something warm was pressed against her mouth, and her hands had taken hold of it. She pushed it away from her, trying to get her eyes to focus.
“You’re alive!” Anani pulled her into a hug that threatened to squeeze the air of out her. “You’re alive. Oh gods, I don’t know what I would have–” His eyes looked down at her, then he pressed his lips against hers.