“I think she can, but she’s not interested in responding. She’s interested in Phoenix,” Anjani concluded, her golden-green eyes scanning the creature from head to toe. A shadow of amusement passed over her face.
Phoenix looked down at the Daughter and shifted his weight on one arm, using the other to hold her. She pulled herself closer into him, and I couldn’t help but cock my head as I watched the scene unfold before me.
“You’re the one who gave her the blood sacrifice,” the Druid told Phoenix. “I think she may talk to you. Say something.”
“What am I supposed to say?”
My brother was a notorious charmer when it came to girls, making this entire situation even more intriguing. If he couldn’t find any words to say to the Daughter, then she must possess some great power. She looked at him with warmth, as if fully trusting him.
Anjani handed him the cloth in slow motion.
The Daughter looked over her shoulder and hissed at her.
The succubus raised her hands in a peaceful gesture. From what I could tell, even in her newborn nakedness, the Daughter instilled fear in Eritopians.
“Cover her up, and see how she reacts,” Anjani told Phoenix.
He nodded and moved to wrap the Daughter in the tablecloth. Much to our surprise, she allowed him to cover her. She carefully watched as he pulled the fabric over her shoulders.
“Are you okay?” he asked her gently.
She didn’t answer, but her violet eyes glimmered slightly, her gaze locked with his. He gave her a reassuring smile, and his hands rested on her arms.
“You’re safe here with us, you know. The Druid has been looking after you for a very long time,” Phoenix continued.
The Daughter’s gaze shifted to Draven again, who waited quietly on his knees.
“Does she have a name?” I asked and immediately regretted it as she moved her attention to me.
The gravity of my previous actions started to weigh heavily on me, slumping my shoulders and slowing my breath. I was in some kind of trouble. It felt like trouble. But then again, she seemed to be suspicious and aggressive toward anyone who wasn’t Phoenix, not just me.
“What’s your name?” Phoenix asked her.
A moment passed before she let a heavy sigh roll out of her chest.
“I don’t know,” she answered.
My jaw dropped. She could speak. I looked around and saw my expression mirrored on my friends’ faces. No one moved, except for Phoenix, who looked surprisingly comfortable so close to the Daughter.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know?”
She frowned, her lips tightened, and she seemed to struggle internally.
“Nothing,” she told Phoenix. “I don’t know my name. I don’t know what I’m doing here. I only know what I feel, and I feel you.”
“Does she know what she is?” Draven asked as he stood up.
“Do you know the Daughters of Eritopia?” Phoenix squeezed her shoulders gently.
She shook her head.
“What’s Eritopia?”
At that point, my weakened synapses were able to put two and two together. She’d been connected to the very nature of Eritopia through that egg. I’d broken her out of her sleep without letting whatever process she was going through end on its own.
Phoenix didn’t give up. “Do you know where you come from?”
She shook her head again.
“I don’t know anything. I don’t…I don’t even know your name,” the Daughter replied, tears glazing her eyes.
“I’m Phoenix,” he smiled softly and pointed at me. “That’s my sister, Serena.”
She looked at me again, and I wanted to disappear before she decided that I wasn’t worthy of life. But she didn’t say anything.
I took it as a positive sign that she didn’t hiss at me again.
I had no idea what she was thinking, and, given how confused she was, she probably didn’t know what power she held or how destructive she could be. How could I trust her not to smite me on a simple whim?
“This is what I meant, Serena.” Draven’s voice shot through me. “She was still in the egg. The process was supposed to end naturally. She was going to hatch in her own time. Because of her premature birth, she’s most likely confused, lacking crucial knowledge.”
Leave it to the Druid to make me feel like the worst person in Eritopia. Besides Azazel, of course. No one could top him.
I took a deep breath and held my chin up.
“I’m sorry, Draven,” I said. “As I told you, I reacted on instinct.”
“And you damaged the last Daughter of Eritopia,” came his reply, biting into my core.
But I was too tired to argue. Too weak to do anything, really. I had no choice but to let him reprimand me. I deserved it, after all.
“What do we do now?” I asked, trying to change the subject and move the focus from my misdemeanor to a solution.
“There isn’t much we can do right now, other than take care of her and hope her knowledge soon rises to the surface,” Draven replied.
I looked at the Daughter again and couldn’t help but notice how fragile she seemed in my brother’s arms.
She had incredible powers, and she could probably be as cruel and as terrifying as her sisters, yet in that moment she seemed so lost. No wonder she held on to Phoenix—he was the only creature she had ever been close to after all that time spent in an egg.
Aida
Time seemed to finally slow down for me. Judging by the dim lights in their eyes, it had slowed for Field and Vita as well. To say that we were exhausted was an understatement. My whole body ached, and my palms were sore from the insane amount of shoveling we’d attempted against an earth that didn’t want us anywhere near Phoenix.
Nevertheless, watching him alive and conscious on the grass and holding the last Daughter of Eritopia in his arms had made the previous horror and grief subside. After the ravaging adrenaline rush, after the crying and struggling to get him out of the ground, after hoping he might still be alive, it was good to see him intact, despite all the confusion.
My attention shifted to the Daughter, who didn’t strike me as the all-powerful creature previously described by Draven. She looked small and scared, not knowing where or who she was. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her—I could only imagine what it felt like for her to wake up for the first time surrounded by complete strangers and with no knowledge of her purpose in life.
“She is most likely as powerful as her sisters,” Draven said.
Phoenix stood up and brought her up with him. They both staggered but leaned into each other until they could hold their own.
“But without her knowledge, she might lack control and pretty much kill us all,” the Druid continued.
Leave it to the Druid to be the cold shower to my joy of seeing everyone alive and well. I suddenly became aware of exactly how dangerous the pale girl with reddish pink hair and violet eyes could be.
“Oh wow, way to bury the lead there!” I remarked sarcastically.
“I’m merely stating the facts. You can channel your discontent on your friend, Serena, since she’s the cause of this mess,” he replied.
I instantly looked at Serena and was surprised to see her quiet with her gaze on her brother. She didn’t seem to hear Draven, and I figured she was too busy feeling relief at the sight of Phoenix walking and talking.
In other circumstances, I would’ve agreed that she’d acted without thinking, but I couldn’t help but put myself in her shoes. If I’d known Jovi was inside that egg, I would have done the same. Blood was thicker than rational thought sometimes.
“Phoenix, what do you remember?” I asked, hoping to move the conversation along. I was in no mood to hear Serena get reprimanded for being a good sister.
Phoenix scratched the back of his head and looked down at the scar on his chest. The Daughter’s fingers brushed over it gently, traci
ng the short line up and down.
“I honestly don’t know how to explain it all,” he replied.
“Well, how about you try?” I felt a whiff of irritation tickling my spine. “If not for yourself, maybe for us, since we’ve been digging for hours, trying to get you out after you stabbed yourself. You know us, right? Your friends?”
An awkward silence ensued. Phoenix turned to face me, then looked at Field and Vita and the shovels at our feet. He frowned and bit his lower lip, then gave me his most genuine set of puppy eyes.
“I am so sorry, Aida. I’m sorry, guys,” he said. “I had no control over what I was doing. I felt like I was in a dream. A couple of nights ago, after we met the Daughters, I had a dream about them. They gave me a knife and told me that I was the only one who could awaken their sister. Thing is, when I woke up, I actually had that knife in my hand. It was old and made of stone. It was real. I carried it with me, trying to figure out what it was for and how to do whatever it was I had to do. I wanted to tell you guys, but I didn’t know how to. All I could think of was getting the Daughter out of the egg. I guess I felt some kind of connection to her.”
He looked at the Daughter and smiled, and she mirrored his expression with a violet glimmer in her eyes and rested her head against his chest.
Connection is the understatement of the day.
“Then we fought those shape-shifters to rescue a woman, and I think I got hurt, because I blacked out,” Phoenix continued.
Anjani bowed before him with gratitude.
He didn’t seem to recognize her, but that didn’t come as a surprise. He’d banged his head pretty hard.
“And for that, I am in your debt,” the succubus replied.
Phoenix’s face lit up as he looked at her, then at Jovi, and he smiled with delight. “Good to see we all made it out of there after all,” he said.
“Yeah, Field swooped in and saved your ass,” I shot back, still a little mad.
We’d all been through so much to protect Phoenix, save him, and keep him alive. To hear him sound so capricious about it… But in all fairness, he’d been a good friend, almost getting himself killed to save Jovi and a complete stranger. I had to push harder and get my emotions under control. I had to at least give Phoenix a chance to tell us the whole story.
He looked at Field, nodded his thank you, and glanced at the Daughter again.
“After that, it was all like a dream. I saw her down there in her egg. I kept hearing the Daughters telling me that I had to sacrifice my own blood to bring her to life. I couldn’t bear the thought of her stuck in that shell, shut off from everything. I don’t even remember waking up, really. I got out of bed, and I went to the garden, knife in hand. It was automatic, like my brain had no control over my body. I drove the knife into my chest, and I wanted to scream and shout, but I was powerless. Then it all faded away. And I woke up here, with you guys,” Phoenix concluded.
It took us all some time to process everything.
I connected the dots in my mind, wondering about the connection he said he’d felt with the Daughter. Looking at them now, it made sense. He’d basically sacrificed himself for her. And even in her slumber, she probably didn’t want him to die, so she’d sucked him into the shell with her.
My guess was that she’d kept him there and healed him, as if her consciousness had transcended her body. Her power seemed spectacular from that angle alone. What she was capable of, however, seemed like a distant idea compared to her current state.
She’d been pulled out of her shell instead of being allowed to hatch. No wonder she was confused. And yet, she seemed so affected by Phoenix, so tied to him, as if he was the only creature in the world. They’d shared an egg together, after all. It was a fascinating thing to observe—this unexpected relationship between them.
As I watched them, I noticed her affectionate gestures toward him, as if Phoenix were her protector and the only one she trusted.
The memory of last night crept back to me.
I sensed Field standing next to me for the first time in hours. We’d been so brutally broken out of our moment when Vita’s screams pierced through the mansion that we hadn’t had a chance to process everything.
Now that the tragedy had subsided, and we were all back together, I remembered everything. My stomach churned, recalling how close our faces had been, how his lips had parted, inches from mine. What had happened, really? What had he been thinking? What was he going to do?
I looked at Field and was surprised to find his gaze on me. Shadows fluttered over his turquoise eyes, his expression firm and unreadable. For the length of a lazy second I wished I’d had Serena’s sentry abilities, so I could look into his mind and understand what was going through his head.
I had a feeling he was thinking about the same thing. His gaze softened. I wanted to say something.
The back of his hand brushed against mine, and billions of little electrical currents ran through me, forcing me to take a deep breath in order to maintain some form of control over my senses.
I realized that whatever had happened between us in the basement had been real, but it was completely unexpected, and I didn’t know how to react—a predicament I’d been getting myself into quite frequently since we’d arrived in Eritopia.
He’d gotten so close to me that I could hear the wall I’d meticulously built around myself crumble piece by piece, as I stared into his greenish-blue eyes. Something had changed dramatically in our dynamic, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to deal with it, or where it would lead.
With all the madness around us, I wondered if I needed this one thing to stay the same. I wondered if I ought to keep the wall from crumbling.
But there was a trace of hope blossoming inside my heart, whispering ideas that I had abandoned long ago about Field. One by one, thoughts of something intense and incredibly meaningful started to bubble up to the surface—forgotten desires and feelings that only Field could untangle.
Jovi
The horror of losing Phoenix had finally dimmed to a mild ache in my stomach. Everything had happened so quickly and unexpectedly that I didn’t have time to process each moment properly. My internal systems were slowing down, signaling the need for food and rest so that I could wrap my head around it all.
I stood motionless next to Anjani, Vita, Field and Aida. I watched Draven, Bijarki, and Serena talk about what we were going to do next, giving Anjani the occasional sideways glance when she wasn’t looking. Her skin had this beautiful shimmer in the sunshine, and I had a hard time looking away.
My attention alternated between the succubus and the Daughter. I feared that the new Daughter would be as cruel as her sisters. Yet she seemed nothing like the goddesses we’d met the other day, with masks made of gold and no words of comfort for those in need of help.
This Daughter was fragile and confused, nestled in Phoenix’s arms, and wrapped up in an old tablecloth. I couldn’t imagine seeing her under one of those masks, killing a man with a simple touch, or robbing him of his eyesight.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
The wolf in me picked up Anjani’s spicy scent. Heat spread through my chest. I held on to her aroma as an anchor, keeping me on my feet. I only partially focused on our next steps. My mind preoccupied itself with getting closer to the inherently seductive creature next to me.
“The Oracles need to eat and rest for the day,” Draven replied. “They must recover and prepare for tomorrow.”
“What’s happening tomorrow?” Aida looked pale, leaning against Field.
“You need to tap into your visions. It’s our best chance to defeat Azazel. Kristos’s father has joined his ranks, and we’ve lost any potential support from the incubi at this point in time,” Draven explained.
My sister didn’t seem happy with the prospect of more visions, though I couldn’t blame her—she didn’t ask for this. She’d spent her whole life learning and training to join GASP to become a guardian of Earth and a maintainer of peace,
not to become a pawn in a bloody war in the In-Between.
Vita looked equally drained.
Phoenix focused on the Daughter. I wasn’t sure if he was even listening to Draven.
“The Red Tribe will fight with us. We’ve managed to secure that alliance,” the Druid continued. “They’re going to reach out to the Dearghs, the Lamias, and the Sluaghs, though I’m not crossing my fingers for the latter.”
“Why do you say that?” Serena asked him.
“The Sluaghs have been thriving with Azazel’s war. They’re generally wretched creatures, parasites who inhabit the bodies of the recently deceased. And there have been so many of them lately that the Sluagh population is increasing every day. On one hand, their numbers are useful, but I’m not sure they’d be interested in biting the hand that inadvertently feeds them.”
“What’s our end game here, though?” Field replied.
I noticed his arm wrapping around my sister’s shoulders. I wasn’t sure what to think of it, but knowing my sister, there probably was a little wolf-girl inside of her dancing around with glee. I decided I’d worry about them later. I had trouble focusing with the succubus just inches away from me.
“We can’t rely on the incubi to fight Azazel, which is a major problem since they represent the highest percentage of Eritopia’s population,” Draven explained. “But there are many other species that call this world home, and they all stand to lose everything if Azazel wins. We have to gather as many of them as we can and forge an alliance. Along with the Oracles and the Daughter. Despite her current condition, it’s our best shot to destroy him.”
“Speaking of which, I’d like to get her inside to rest, if you don’t mind,” Phoenix replied, while the Daughter stood motionless in his arms.
Draven nodded his approval, and Phoenix took her inside the mansion. It was so good to see him walking and talking again. I couldn’t help but smile. I caught a glimpse of Anjani out the corner of my eye; she’d been watching me but instantly looked away when my gaze met hers.
My sister wasn’t too steady on her feet, but Field held her up with concern etched into his sharp features.