“I love you!” Sverik snapped. “I will not apologize for that! I did what I did for love!”
“You don’t keep the one you love in a cage,” Draven shot back. “You truly are the worst of your kind, Sverik. And you will go on trial. You will be punished for your crimes. And you will never be remembered on the right side of history.”
“Listen, I know I’ve done some horrible things, but I did it all so I could be with Isla! But then I met you, Draven… I saw the strength in your alliance, and my entire mindset changed because I started envisioning a world without Azazel in it. I wasn’t happy with him in power to begin with, and I did what I could to keep myself and Isla safe, but I didn’t tell Azazel who you were, either. I told him there was a Druid, but I didn’t tell him whose son you were. I was aware of his issues with Almus and Genevieve and, that if he knew your identity, he’d come at you twice, if not thrice as hard! I kept my mouth shut on purpose, to give you a chance… You have to believe me! I’ve done some stupid, selfish, and horrible things because I thought there would never be a world without Azazel in it, until you came along… I tried to do one thing right. So, please, have mercy,” Sverik pleaded, his right eye swollen shut.
“Justice doesn’t know mercy.” Isla spat and kicked him in the ribs, making him grunt and curl up in a fetal position. “I never got to tell Kristos I loved him. You don’t deserve mercy!”
“His heart, as twisted as it may sound, was more or less in the right place,” Draven said as he gently pulled her away. “I do understand doing horrible things for those we love, and I also cannot overlook the fact that he’s telling the truth. Sverik withheld my identity from Azazel. While that does not grant him a pardon, it should at least guarantee him a fair trial. The Sluaghs were mindless and greedy beasts looking to cash in on all the corpses that Azazel’s war left behind. They do not deserve a trial; they’ve done nothing but harm. Rest assured, Isla, Sverik will pay for what he did. In full, after his sentence. Because he will be found guilty.”
I had a feeling that a few more kicks and punches would eventually rupture something, and we’d lose Sverik before he got to spend the rest of his long and miserable life in a cage downstairs, or worse, if he was to be sentenced to death.
“Take him away,” Bijarki said calmly. “Put him in the dungeon with the rest of the traitors.”
Isla and the other succubus nodded briefly and dragged Sverik out of the throne room. We heard him moaning and wailing as they carried him off to the basement, his voice echoing down the hallway.
I took a deep breath, feeling slightly relieved after punching Sverik’s lights out, and, judging by the looks on Vita and Bijarki’s faces, so did they. I’d never been one to condone violence against a creature that couldn’t really defend itself, but Sverik was truly a special case that deserved the exception. We’d nearly died because of him. The grief I’d felt after we’d lost Vita had left a permanent mark on my soul, and it was all thanks to Sverik.
He deserved whatever he had coming next.
A heavy silence weighed over us. The torch flames burst bigger and brighter, and a cold wind howled through the throne room, sending shivers down my spine. We looked at each other, concern etched on our faces as whispers circled us, riding the cool draft.
Wisps of pink dust gathered in the middle, and we all stepped back, making room for the Daughters of Eritopia who materialized before our very eyes. All nine of them, covered in fine silks and gemstone jewels, with long, reddish pink hair and golden masks.
Nine Daughters, including Viola and Nova.
Their eyes glowed violet as the wind settled and the fires dimmed, restoring the warm amber light that softened the harshness of the black marble walls and stone floor.
The Daughters of Eritopia had finally revealed themselves to the people of Calliope, not just Draven and our group. Hansa and Anjani held their breath, while Jax, Heron and the wards, Zeriel, Grezzi, Jasmine, the Bajang twins, and the Druids were left speechless, their eyes wide and their mouths gaping as they saw the Daughters for the very first time.
Phoenix
I could feel the awe of our alliance. I could see their wide eyes and parted lips. Some of them were looking at the Daughters of Eritopia for the first time. The rest of us, who’d already been acquainted with the powerful yet capricious demi-goddess-like creatures, were struggling with a feeling between angst and anger.
All this could have been avoided, had they been better Daughters.
I counted nine of them, recognizing Nova immediately as the shortest one. I worried that by covering her face with gold and wearing their layers of silk and jewels, Viola had officially become one of them. That I would, eventually, lose her to her sisters. My heart struggled to cope with that idea, and my stomach tied itself up in knots as the Daughters turned to face us all, in a smaller circle, their backs to one another.
I couldn’t help but worry about Viola at that point, my nerves stretched beyond their limits. One of the Daughters cocked her head to one side as her glowing violet eyes focused on me. I exhaled sharply as she took off her mask and I found Viola smiling at me.
“Don’t worry, Phoenix,” she said gently, and winked. “I’m not leaving you again.”
She broke rank and came to me. She took my face in her bejeweled hands and dropped a short, sweet kiss on my lips, setting my insides on fire. I wrapped my arms around her waist and kept her close, despite the dissatisfied glares that her sisters gave me. I gave them a smirk back, comfortable holding Viola there.
“What are you doing here?” Serena stole the words right out of my mouth when she spoke, her fists balling at her sides. She was visibly angry, and none of us who’d experienced the Daughters’ temperamental outbursts could blame her.
“Are you crazy? You can’t speak to the Daughters like that,” Rebel growled at her, then shifted her focus to the Daughters with an apologetic expression. “Please, forgive her. She’s had a long day…”
“She has every reason to be angry with us,” one of the Daughters replied.
The statement baffled both Serena and Rebel, who looked at each other, blinking rapidly, before gawking at the Daughters again.
“Perhaps it’s time you show your true faces to the people of Eritopia.” Viola lifted an eyebrow at her sisters. “It’s a good way to start an apology, I think.”
The Daughters didn’t immediately respond, but their shoulders gradually dropped. Nova was the first to remove her golden mask, smiling at Thadeus and Damion as she tucked a lock of reddish pink hair behind her ear.
“Nova!” a Daughter gasped with discontent.
“Drop it, Rubia,” Nova shot back. “They need to see us!”
The Daughter identified as Rubia shook her head, but then removed her mask, a gesture mirrored by the others. They truly were the most beautiful creatures I had ever seen.
Five had reddish pink hair in different hues, and the other two, besides Nova and Viola, had deep black manes, braided and covered in blue gems and gold. Their faces looked eerily similar, though. They were clearly sisters, with smooth features and alabaster skin much like Viola’s, and soft, pink lips.
“You’re beautiful,” Phoenix said on an exhale, his gaze darting between Viola and her sisters.
“Thank you… I suppose…” Rubia replied, her brow furrowed. “We are created by Eritopia. Our eggs emerge from the bottom of the hot pink waters of Mount Agrith. We are linked to this world, and we feel every blow, every birth, and every death in Eritopia. No one ever told us what we were meant to do or why we were created. We've just felt that it is a part of who we are to protect this world.”
“Bang up job you’ve done so far,” Aida muttered, her lips pursed.
She drew the attention of another Daughter, who watched her quietly for a few seconds before she let out a long, tortured sigh.
“I am Ruelle,” she announced. “These are Rubia, Safira, Effissa, Chana, Amassa and Nibel. No one gave us these names. We named each other. You already know No
va and Viola. You and Azazel have already given them names. Despite our shortcomings over the past few centuries, we’ve always had good intentions. But we never knew how to act on them. No one ever taught us how to react to certain situations.”
“We’ve been on our own for eons,” Safira added, her voice echoing through the throne room. “We learned together.”
“We helped shape the beautiful lands of Eritopia together,” Amassa chimed in. “We kept the kingdoms safe for a long time, and we rarely intervened in the affairs of their people.”
“Rarely as in almost never,” Effissa said. “Although we serve Eritopia, we’ve kept our distance from the Eritopians. We’ve always felt lonely on our own, but there weren’t any other creatures like us out there. We found comfort in each other’s company. We had a common goal in protecting the world. When Nova’s egg came to the surface of Mount Agrith, Azazel’s attack on Eritopia was taking a darker, more tragic turn. We were ready to intervene.”
“But somehow, he managed to steal Nova’s egg from us,” Chana continued. “We didn’t know what to do. She is our sister. Our bond is stronger and more important to us than anything else, and it hurt us deeply. We’d been so happy to get another sister…”
“When Nova was taken, we were faced with Azazel’s cruelty and pure evil,” Rubia said. “I’m ashamed to admit it now, but we were weak. We were terrified of losing our sister. We were desperate to keep one of our own safe and alive, and we were neither ready nor willing to accept our mistake. If we’d been more careful, Azazel would never have stolen her.”
“Nevertheless, he did,” Nibel continued, looking at us. “As the conflict between Azazel and Eritopia escalated, we couldn’t do anything against him because he’d forced Nova out of her egg and was keeping her hostage. We could not act against him directly, so we had to reach some sort of agreement with him.”
“An agreement?” Zeriel frowned, scrutinizing each Daughter carefully.
“Yes.” Rubia nodded. “We agreed to not take direct action against him, and, in exchange, he wouldn’t harm our sister. Because she’s been hatched prematurely, Nova doesn’t have our strength. She can be killed quite easily, and we simply couldn’t bring ourselves to risk losing her. The only thing we could do was take advantage of the vague terms of our agreement. We answered the Red Tribe’s prayer after the massacre. We gifted the survivors with a stone that has kept them alive throughout the war. You will find they are all still standing.”
Hansa and Anjani gasped, enlightened by the revelation, as did Aida, who had seen the Red Tribe succubi praying to the Daughters in an earlier vision, and had seen the gem emerge from the fire. So, that’s what that had all been about.
“Thank you,” Hansa said slowly. “Thank you all for keeping my sisters safe…”
“It was one of the few loopholes that we could take advantage of… We shrouded Eritopia in a mist that cut it off from the rest of the universe, from the other worlds,” Rubia added.
“It was mostly meant to stop his darkness from spilling out,” Ruelle said. “And to keep anyone else from accidentally stumbling into this disaster that had once been our most precious gem, our home.”
“Our mother.” Chana scoffed lightly. “We let Eritopia down, and Draven was the one to show us that there are more important things in this world than our feelings. We didn’t have his courage. We couldn’t bring ourselves to sacrifice our sister. And we couldn’t bear being reminded of our own cowardice.”
“We felt ashamed and frustrated because we’d allowed Azazel to get so far,” Effissa said. “But the greatest shame came upon us when Viola, our own sister, stood up for the Druid, for Phoenix and the rest of you. It was then that we truly understood that we’d made a very poor choice. It was then that we were reminded of our true purpose, as guardians of Eritopia.”
A moment of silence passed as we all looked at each other. I could feel Serena’s awe and genuine amazement, and I accurately mirrored it—neither of us had ever thought we’d see the day when the Daughters of Eritopia would stand before us and admit they were wrong. I thought I would’ve seen hell freeze over before they spoke out, and yet, I had to admit, it was comforting to see and hear them being apologetic and aware of their shortcomings.
“We were wrong to react the way we did toward Viola, as well.” Ruelle looked at me and Viola. “We weren’t ready to sacrifice Nova, but we constantly pushed Viola to end her own life in order to bring down Azazel. We overreacted when she influenced the shape-shifters that were trying to harm you all. She was only trying to protect the only family she ever knew, and for that, we are deeply sorry. We couldn’t see the forest because of the trees…”
“‘Overreacted’ doesn’t even begin to cover it,” I replied dryly, prompting Ruelle to lower her head in shame.
“While that may be true,” Draven interjected politely, “in hindsight, it did give us an unpleasant but necessary push to fight harder and destroy Azazel once and for all. While their methods were questionable, to say the least, the Daughters proved that we were all ready and perfectly capable to stand up for ourselves and for Eritopia.”
I had to admit, Draven had a point. As petty as the Daughters’ gesture had been at the time, it had brought the best out of us. We’d been forced out of the safety of the mansion and thrown into the heat of the battle. We’d fought hard, worked together, and made it to Stonewall in one piece.
“It’s all in the past now, Phoenix,” Viola said, then glanced at Aida, Field, Anjani, and the others. “We shouldn’t hold on to grudges. I think we’ve all learned something from this experience…”
“You’ve all managed to accomplish something we never could,” Rubia said. “You sacrificed your own to rid Eritopia of the darkness and poison that Azazel had cast upon it. In return, we would like to offer our apology, along with a promise that we will never put Eritopia second again.”
“We would also like to offer our assistance in helping to rebuild the kingdoms,” Safira added. “Balance must be restored.”
She looked at Draven, who gave her a half-smile and nodded his approval. She then raised her hand and, with the flick of her wrist, sent out an invisible pulse that knocked Azazel’s massive portrait off the wall. Its large, gold-brushed frame broke as it hit the floor, and the canvas came down loose.
We all stilled at the sight of what the painting had been covering – a large stone portal framed with polished and rounded blocks of obsidian. It was sealed shut with black marble blocks, but it reminded me of the portals I’d seen in my past visions of the Master Druids’ gathering between the kingdoms.
“A kingdom portal,” Draven gasped, staring at the sealed archway.
“Azazel sealed them shut,” Rubia explained. “He only opened this for his own purposes, moving between planets along with his armies.”
“The kingdom portals lead to the Hall Between Worlds, where the Master Druid Council convenes. It also takes you to the other portals of Eritopia,” Safira continued, placing her palm on the wall at the center of the archway.
The surface rippled as pink light spread through it. The stone dissolved, and the portal was opened, revealing a dark interior with starry reflections. Safira then turned to face us with a soft expression on her face.
“I’ve made it so this portal will also take you to The Shade,” she said. “A portal will form on the other side as soon as you step through this.”
My heart skipped a beat at the sound of home. Serena and I glanced at each other, and I could see the same sparkle in Aida, Vita, Jovi, and Field’s eyes. We could finally go home and see our families again. A silent joy washed over me, and I felt Serena’s exhilaration sizzling out of her like the sweet scent of freedom. She winked, then nodded at me, and I knew then that the time for us to see our parents and friends from The Shade had finally, finally come.
“However, before we go on, I feel like we must resolve one last issue regarding the kingdoms,” Safira said, her gaze moving between Serena and me. She’d
obviously sensed our excitement, and I had a feeling the wide grins plastered all over our faces had been a dead giveaway. “The planets need Master Druids in charge. Of those left standing, however, none have ever acquired the Hundredth Circle required for the nomination.”
“But these are special circumstances.” Rubia smiled, then moved toward Draven so smoothly, I wasn’t sure her feet were even touching the floor. “And Eritopia needs leaders who are capable of restoring its balance and order.”
“Leaders who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the wellbeing of others.” Safira joined her.
“Leaders who will stop at nothing to keep the people safe and thriving,” Chana added.
One by one, the Daughters gathered in a circle around Draven. Viola and Nova joined them, as the Druid stared, his eyes flickering black, apparently unsure of what to say or do next.
“Leaders who love this world and every single creature in it,” said Ruelle.
“Leaders who are righteous, kind, and patient,” Effissa chimed in.
“Leaders who are open to change, progress, and tolerance,” Nibel spoke, then looked at Nova.
“Leaders who are wise beyond their years, good beyond their means, and righteous beyond the very laws they swear to uphold,” the little Daughter said, her voice trembling with emotion.
I was surprised to see how quickly she’d come into her own, after just a few hours in the company of her sisters. My heart swelled with pride when Viola then took a step toward Draven, wearing her warm, signature smile.
“In other words, Eritopia needs leaders who can uphold its laws, both written and unwritten, and can also go beyond the boundary lines if needed to keep the people safe and happy,” she said gently. “For that, Draven, son of Almus and Genevieve and savior of Eritopia, we would like to offer you the Seal of Calliope, and allow you the freedom of nominating the nineteen Master Druids needed to rule Eritopia with you.”