Dancing With Monsters Read online

The angels couldn't penetrate the portal, and as each minute went by, our chance slipped away along with it. At least Malachi was with April, but I didn't know how long he could hold out with the demons. He hated them, not that we all didn't, but he barely escaped the massacre that took his whole village. I remembered how often he was questioned by not only the police-like Custodians of Iethia, but the angels as well. They came several times the first few years Malachi stayed with us. My mother hated them, but she had no choice but to let her adopted son go through what she called an angel-inquisition.

  It had always been me and my mother, and when Malachi came into our family, it was like getting a present-at least for me. Malachi kept to himself at first and was slow to be a part of our lives. His family was murdered before his young eyes, and he would have violent dreams that would not only wake him, but me as well. His fear for the darkness was so great; we had to leave a light on while we slept.

  Slowly, as all stories do, Malachi's faded out of the everyday talk of others, and to my mother's relief, it faded from the interests of angels. Malachi was resilient, and as he grew, the bad nightmares faded. He appeared like any normal monster, but I knew he had scars inside that would never heal and I hoped were not ripped open again.

  "I'm worried about Malachi," Nessa said, handing me her plate filled with different greens and topped with what looked like crumbled cheese. "I can't eat now, and you need your strength."

  "Here we'll split it because I know you're hungry too." I handed back her fork.

  "Malachi's strong and he'll protect April." I tried to sound positive, but I felt the same as Nessa-worried.

  She took several bites of the salad. "Seth, we have to do something because the angels aren't even able to work the portal. I heard them say something that it was webbing, and soon it would be permanently closed at our end. And to top it all off, Ayil said the stone, your stone the lightstone, is useless now. She called it contaminated." She had the salad nearly gone. "All they told me was to stay out of the way and watch over you." She looked at me. "I think you are better since you have that curious grin on your face-Seth?you have a plan don't you?"

  "Not fully ready, but I know the stone isn't useless, at least not yet."

  My wounds had nearly healed, but Nessa's bruised eye was beginning to turn different colors and she walked with a limp. I knew she would follow me wherever I went, but I knew she wouldn't be strong enough to battle demons, and I wasn't sure if I was strong enough to battle them and protect her at the same time.

  Ayil, Uncle Hes, and Rusul were working on the portal. Yolanda held the lightstone in her hand. Isaiah and Edan looked like they were trying to create another portal by use of an etch-another implement used by the Fae to make portals.

  "If we are going to save April and Malachi, I need that stone," I motioned towards Yolanda, "and go through that portal." Ezra had told me that the stone was not useless or corrupted as the angels thought. I felt something, a connection to it that I couldn't explain.

  "What are you going to do? Go and ask her for it or just take it from her?" Nessa and I stood behind a giant pillar. "They don't even want us in the room with them. Mostly it's those two archangels that don't, and they keep barking laws and regulations at everyone." She peeked at them as the morning sun filtered through the openness of the building. "They've sealed this area and are trying to get more archangels here. That's what their portal is for. Your uncle and his team ignored Isaiah and Edan, and are trying to use the portal Eveie used. But it's starting to web shut, and I know whatever exactly that is, isn't good."

  "I need you to go and talk to Isaiah and Edan while I get the stone from Yolanda." I gazed down at Nessa as the sun illuminated her nearly white hair. She'd look almost like an angel if her face wasn't scrunched up with confusion.

  "What?" She asked shaking her head. "What am I supposed to talk to them about? I suppose I could have them repeat a few laws I didn't understand or if there were anymore that might interest me in why I shouldn't be here, and the possibility of being put in confinement." She crossed her arms.

  "I need a diversion to get the stone away from Yoloanda, and use it to enter the portal. If you keep them busy, then all I have to worry about is getting the lightstone and going through the portal. And I'm fast enough to do it."

  "Rusul is like a brick wall," she said, glancing at him and then at me. "Can you bust through a brick wall?"

  I drew in a deep breath. "For Malachi and Ezra, and, April," I looked at him as my heart raced, "I can."

  Nessa assessed the room with me. "Well, if we're going to do this, we need to move." She walked out into the room, and towards the two archangels.

  She acted impressed with the portal and asked questions about it as Isaiah asked her several times to go away and stand back. Nessa had a charm to her, but I knew that charm would wear thin if I didn't act now.

  I focused on Yolanda. Delicately, she held the lightstone in her hand and in front of her as it caught the rays of light. Fragmented beams of light radiated from it. I watched her handle it as I gazed at it like a hungered beast waiting to take over another beast's fresh kill. The stone was meant for me, and I wasn't sure if it was destiny, fate, or instinct, but I felt drawn to it.

  I kept my eyes on the stone as I snatched it quickly from Yolanda. Too surprised, Yolanda didn't have time to react as I charged towards the portal with my outstretched arm that held the lightstone firmly clenched in my palm. The portal began to hum, and without warning, light exploded as if a dam holding back gallons of water gushed to the floor and filled the air. Uncle Hes, Rusul, and Ayil were knocked and pinned to the ground surrounded by the tendrils of light.

  I didn't look at their faces as I walked with unblinking eyes towards the portal and entered it.

  With my arm still taunt and held out in front of me, I walked through the blinding light. I felt the pull the stone had on my hand, and if I would've let it go, it would easily fly from my hand. I kept my grip on it until the tension faded and I was standing on a grassy hill with black mountains in the distance.

  "Let go of me!" demanded a voice behind me.

  I turned around, and sprawled out between the tall blades of grass was Edan and Nessa. My stomach dropped as now I knew I had to be responsible for not only Nessa, but Edan as well. This wasn't supposed to happen.

  "Ouch!" Nessa yelled as Edan got up and Nessa rubbed her ankle.

  "What in all the ages are you doing? You can't do what you just did without consequence." Edan, who was nearly as tall as me, stood with glaring eyes.

  I didn't have time to argue and shook my head at him as I helped Nessa to her feet.

  "Are you alright?" I asked her.

  "I would be if Archie-the-Angel here wouldn't have stepped on my foot." Gingerly she touched it. "I think it is worse."

  "I'm reporting this and keeping track of everything that you do." Edan pulled out a small notebook and a tiny pencil from the spiral binding that held it together.

  I grabbed it from his hand, and crumpled it in my fist as I glared at him.

  "We are in the Shadowlands with three demons here holding what could possibly be the demise of not only Iethia, but as many worlds as they want. You will listen to me, write nothing down, and do as you're told if you want to get out alive."

  "You don't understand, monster," Edan leaned closer to me and glared at me in all of his whiteness. "I'm an archangel, and-"

  I grabbed him by the neck and shoved him into the smooth, black granite portal frame that stood out like a half-buried picture frame in the ground. Glaring into Edan's surprised eyes; I slid his body against the cool stone until his feet were slightly off the ground.

  "I don't care if you are the head archangel," I said as Edan struggled to undo my grip around him. "You will listen to me if you want to get out alive or die-either by my hand or a demon. Understand?"

  Gasping for air, and with a slightly red face,
Edan agreed with a slight nod and a blink of his eyes. I let him down, and turned my attention to Nessa.

  "You and Edan will stay here next to the portal," I said as Nessa tried to stand on her slightly twisted ankle. "You will guard the portal and protect Nessa." I pointed at Edan and warned him with my glowing eyes.

  He nodded his head as he rubbed his neck that was beginning to bruise. His mouth twitched with words of protest, I'm sure, but never spoke them as he glared his warning.

  "The council will hear about this-don't think they won't," Edan finally said as I stood next to Nessa.

  "You have to be alive to tell them your version first," I replied as something materialized in the portal that caught my eye.

  I pushed Edan out of the way and looked at the portal that ghostly reflected the green landscape behind me and the room back at Shangri-La. The two places overlaid one another. I tried to see what was going on back in the portal room at Shangri-La, but the two images were slowly fading. Suddenly, an image formed through the swirling silver that was consuming it. It was Uncle Hes and he looked at me and smiled, then was gone.

  "Well, what are you waiting for?" Eden asked. "You're just staring into the portal. I thought you were going to be the hero-of-the-day."

  I pulled a sheathed dagger from pocket and tossed it towards Nessa. "If anyone comes besides me, or if Archie gets a little too annoying, kill them both." I turned and sped off not hearing whatever Edan had to say in protest.

  The landscape was beautiful, and I couldn't see how demons could have created something breathtaking. The gentle sloping hills were covered in a carpet of green grass, the delicate wildflowers that danced in the wind crowned the knolls in their colorful glory for miles. The black mountains glinted with silver as the sun bathed me in warmth.

  I stopped running, and caught my breath. This couldn't be created by demons, and I didn't know how vast the Shadowlands were since I've only seen fragments of it through Ezra. It was easy to get lost in the beauty that mesmerized me in this lands now controlled by demons. But where were they? They could be anywhere, and even had portaled to another area entirely.

  I stood on top a hill overlooking the vastness of the lands before me and I felt I was trying to find a needle in a haystack.

  "You shouldn't stay in the open," a voice of a young child said behind me.

  I turned to see a girl no older than nine or ten with black hair and pale skin looking up at me with blue eyes. She was dressed in a long, blue dress and had a number of necklaces of tiny shells around her neck. She nervously rolled the purple and blue shells on one of the necklaces between her fingers.

  I took a step towards her as she ran down the hill.

  "Wait!" I yelled as I followed her down the steep incline and towards a forest that suddenly sprouted with a groan from the ground it sprung from.

  Dirt and debris fell from the newly grown trees that shook and swayed into place. The girl ran into the forest that was like a giant, green curtain swallowing her whole. I ran in after her, and pushed back the whipping limbs that were like springs being released from the rich, black soil in this newly born forest.

  She was small, quick and darted through the trees like a tiny rabbit. I lost sight of her a few times, but could hear the rattling of her necklaces as she ran.

  "I'm not going to hurt you!" I yelled as the forest thickened with trees and grey rocks jetted out of the ground between the towering trees.

  She kept running as fast as she could until she crested over a small hill and disappeared. I followed her, and nearly fell into a rushing stream with colorful rocks protruding out of the sparkling water that caught the sun and glistened like jewels in a river of silver. The girl stood at the edge of the stream and looked at me over her shoulder.

  "I didn't want Eos to see me or see you," she said in a calm voice as I stood nearly winded from running after her. "My name is Ella, and I'm Eveie's daughter."

  Eveie's Daughter?

  She turned and extended her hand towards me. Confused and unsure if I should touch her or not, I nodded my head. "My name is Seth," I said as she took off one of her necklaces.

  "Here, you'll need this to walk in my lands." She handed me a string of blue shells that were pointed at one end and rounded at the other.

  "These are your lands?" I questioned not sure if I was talking to a demon, soul or something else.

  "My mother said I could play in them and make them however I wanted to them to be," Ella said proudly with a raise of her chin.

  "They're magnificent. However did you make them?" I asked trying to appease Ella and learn all I could from her.

  She looked around at them, and smiled with pride. "My mother gave me magic so I could make the lands I like. She likes them too and said she would walk in the gardens with me later." She smiled at me. "Put your necklace on and come play with me before Eos finds out." She stepped into the ankle-deep stream. "I like water." She gazed down at it as I put on the necklace.

  "Who's Eos?" I asked.

  Her eyes shot to me as she put a finger to her mouth. "Don't say her name too much or she'll come. They are busy with the girl and boy that I can't play with. I don't get to play with hardly anyone." Ella kicked at the water with crossed arms.

  It was April and Malachi. I wanted to ask her desperately if they were still alive and what was going on, but I knew she wouldn't be able to answer those questions, but she could lead me to them.

  "I'd love to meet your mother and maybe I can persuade her to let us all play together in the lands you made." I smiled at her as a flicker of agreement casted over her face, and she slipped her tiny hand in mine.

  Immediately, I could sense something familiar about her. Was she a human or monster? I couldn't tell.

  "You won't get to play with any of them, monster," a voice said behind me.

  I turned to see Eveie glaring at me with her blue eyes, scale-covered arms crossed and tapping her foot on the ground.

  "That is until I get done with you." She smiled as I reached for my dagger and threw it towards her as Ella screamed.

  April

  "Malachi," I whispered his name. "Malachi," I repeated with no response.

  Eveie and Eos had left suddenly leaving Malachi and me alone. They moved us to a cage with silver bars that reminded me of a fancy birdcage. The terrain was littered with grey rocks and surrounded in a lavender sky. It reminded me of pictures of the moon's surface with its barren, grey landscape.

  I had tried to loosen the lock on the door, and even bend the bars in hopes of slipping between them, but it was too strong even though it looked delicate and I should have been able to easily twist it with my fingers.

  "Malachi, we have to get out of here." I knelt beside him as he stared blankly in front of me.

  Eos had simply stared into his eyes rendering him into almost like a zombie. If we were going to escape, now was our chance. I tried the bars again. It was useless and I was just wasting time and energy.

  "You can wake him," said a voice-Ezra's voice-in my head.

  I knew she was with me, and just like a pretty knickknack sitting quietly on a shelf, so was Ezra inside of me. I felt her strength since I did my second Taking on her. Our thoughts, feelings and personalities were beginning to blend and bind as one. I wasn't scared of it or felt it wrong. In fact, for the first time in my life, I felt complete like I had suddenly grown another arm or leg that had been amputated and miraculously regrown.

  I turned to Malachi. Pushing back his dark hair, I tilted his face towards mine. His eyes were fixed and pupils dilated like two black dots. I wasn't sure how to bring him out of this demon-trance, but I didn't need to, Ezra did.

  With unblinking eyes, I burrowed my gaze into his expressionless stare. At first I thought I was doing a Taking, but before I stopped, Ezra reassured me.

  "You are giving him some of your energy," she said just before I started to release my hands from hi
s face.

  I let Ezra guide me like a blind person through traffic. I trusted her enough to let her share a body with me, and I trusted her with Malachi.

  I kept my eyes on Malachi's blue eyes that reminded me of a summer day, but not any summer's day, the first nice one that was the start of the season and a relief from the erratic winter that didn't want to end. I felt the air change around us-it became sweeter and blew gently across us and ruffled a few strands of my hair. The grey-purple light that surrounded us, transformed into a bright light releasing the different colors of our surroundings that the lavender light had shrouded.

  I let my connection to Malachi deepen and suddenly, it felt as though someone had taken a spoon and scooped out a part of me like ice cream out of a container. Grateful pain. That is the only way I could describe it. It was like pulling a thorn out of a sore finger-it made it worse at first, but when it was done, you felt no more pain. My energy slipped to Malachi like a summer's cloud drifting across the sky.

  Malachi drew in a deep breath and blinked his eyes.

  "Malachi," I said with relief as I sat on his lap with my hands still cupping his cheeks.

  He looked around then up at me with a smile. "Was it good for you?" He teased as he curled his hands around my wrists.

  The comment would have normally agitated me, but it didn't. "Yes, yes it was."

  I stood up and smiled at him as I helped him to his feet.

  "Then we should do that more often," he said, looking around at the bars of the cage.

  "Help me with the lock before those two demons get back." I went over and rattled the door again.

  "What about the third demon, dear?" asked a woman that suddenly stood in front of me.

  She was dressed in a white gown that draped across her body and trimmed in gold threads. Her hair, skin and the iris of her eyes were all the same shade of grey and looked like someone had created her out of clay. She was beautiful as if she had been shaped by an ancient artist in some distant land from another time with her hair piled high on her head and adorned with looping gold thread woven through her grey strands. Her skin was smooth, and showed no blemishes or any imperfections. Even when she smiled, it barely revealed any wrinkles.

  "I'm Ebony, and you shouldn't draw attention to yourself like this." She motioned around her.

  The grey landscape had changed into one filled with trees, grass and blue skies overhead.

  "I think Eos underestimated your power, and I'm beginning to question her ability to keep things on schedule." She slid her hand across the lock and it clicked open. "Both of you come." She shifted her grey eyes from me to Malachi, and then turned walking away.

  Malachi went out first and tucked me behind him as we followed Ebony.

  "Where are you taking us?" he asked.

  Ebony turned and glanced at us over her shoulder. "If you like dealing with Eos, then stay here, because she wants you as a pet, and you," she fixed her grey eyes on me. "She wants your energy. And the only way for her to get that is by killing you." Ebony turned and faced us as she crossed her arms across her chest. "I'm offering you something entirely different-decide your own fates here in the Shadowlands."

  "And what is that?" I asked stepping out behind Malachi and closer towards Ebony.

  She smiled. "We can both benefit here, and Eos isn't offering anything to you. If you don't come now, you won't have a choice, but will die instead. Eos's power is strong, but combining ours will be stronger."

  Ebony turned and walked towards the green landscape that I had unknowingly created. I looked up at Malachi, and then wrapped my hand in his.

  "We don't have a choice, let's follow her." I gently tugged on him.

  He took in a deep breath. "These are no ordinary demons," he warned in a low voice. "They are powerful, cunning, and by the sound of what Ebony said-fighting already amongst themselves over power of the Shadowlands."

  "I know, but this one is helping us. Eos wants to suck the life out of me when she gets back, and turn you into a zombie puppet," I said in a hushed voice. "This is our escape, and we need to take it."

  Ebony stopped, and gazed over her shoulder at us as if waiting for Malachi to decide. I looked at her too, and realized she wasn't forcing us to go with. She wanted us to go willingly. I didn't understand why since she was a demon and could have what she wanted right now and get rid of Eos when she came back.

  Malachi looked at her, and then at me. "Let's go, I don't want to be a zombie puppet and have the life sucked out of you."

  Ebony led us through the mini oasis that I had unknowingly made when I gave Malachi some of my power to a cavern with towering, jagged rocks. A narrow, sandy path wound its way through the yellowish colored cliffs. Ebony didn't say anything to us, and glanced back with her clay-colored eyes. A gentle breeze swooped down on us stirring up the sand that was the same yellow color as the cavern walls that jetted out in sharp angles. The lavender sky overhead was like a tiny ribbon of color that contrasted with the warm colors surrounding us.

  Malachi walked in front of me and held my hand tightly. He didn't say anything, but I could tell he was getting more and more nervous the farther we went. His hand was sweating in mine, and he repositioned it several times. I didn't feel threatened or scared at all, and really should have been, but I wasn't. Maybe it was Ezra calming me in her own way, but I knew Ebony wasn't going to hurt or lead us into a trap.

  "If she does something, run as fast as you can out of here," Malachi said without removing his eyes from Ebony who walked gracefully in front of us with her sheer dress curling around her feet like mist.

  She glanced back with a smirk and a raise of her left eyebrow. "We're here, lovelies."

  The slender pathway opened to a large crevasse of the same yellow rock, but open to the sky above. I stood in awe of the intricately designed buildings carved out of the rock. Arched window, doors and carvings of swirling designs graced the walls of the many structures that lined this large circular area.

  "It's beautiful," I said staring up at it.

  "It should be," Ebony said with crossed arms gazing up at it as well. "Ezikel designed and carved this for me. He's an amazing architect, and quite an accomplished demon with amazing ideas-that is until Eos sucked the life from him." Her voice filled with sourness. "But all isn't lost yet, come," she said walking up to the largest of the carved buildings.

  Inside was as magnificent as outside. The walls were scalloped in deep arching designs that reminded me of frozen waves, and the floor was smooth with pastel colored stone. Overhead were irregular, dimly glowing balls of light.

  "You have orillions?" Malachi questioned with surprise.

  Ebony turned with a gloating smile. "Yes, we demons do enjoy what others create, but not all demons respect and enjoy what others make. I have an appreciation for many things, my young Malachi." She stood in the center of the room that was a mix of many colors pale and some shining in this elaborate room.

  "It's really beautiful," I said with a glare from Malachi as he shoved me behind him.

  Ebony walked towards us with a smile. "Ah, you appreciate as well." She stopped in front of us as Malachi squared his shoulders.

  "If I wanted to kill you I could, but I don't. I'm tired of killing, taking and being ruthless, lawless, and without an ounce of humanity. That is the one trait we can all learn from the human race-being compassionate to others and having a sense of respect for others. Being a demon or angel, there is no in-between, there are only definite lines and from that spawns wars. Sometimes I think humans as well as monsters would be better off if they didn't have us looming over them." She switched her grey eyes from me to Malachi. "I wish to change that."

  "And how do you plan to do that?" Malachi asked.

  Ebony smiled. "By letting April Snow do what she does best-she will take my power and Eos's power as well." She stepped towards us. "She will do a Taking."

  Seth />
  Eveie twisted just as the dagger skidded past her and embedded itself into a tree behind her. She looked at it then at me with a smile.

  "You like to play with sharp things. We don't like to play with such things-they will hurt others." She plucked the dagger from the thick bark and crumpled it like it was made of paper.

  "Mother, this is Seth and he wants to play with us," Ella said with a whining-pleading voice. "He won't hurt us? he promises." She slid her eyes to me. "You won't hurt us, right Seth."

  I looked from Ella to Eveie. "I'm looking for my friends that you brought here."

  Eveie stepped closer. "You are powerful, this I can see since you opened a portal that I had quickly sealed so that no one-angel, monster or otherwise could pass. But you made it here." She stood gazing at me with her vivid blue eyes. "I don't want Eos to find him, understand Ella?" She looked down at the girl as she bobbed her head with enthusiasm.

  "You want me to keep him here in Ellaland?" She asked with an emphasis on Ellaland.

  "For just a little, and then I will be back." She set her icy, blue eyes on me. "Don't think of leaving, little monster. This land will be sealed from anyone leaving or entering."

  I knew I couldn't overpower Eveie, and kept my eyes steady on her. She turned and faded into the green foliage with a slight ruffling of the low hanging limbs.

  "Great, she's gone, now we can play," Ella said joyfully as she threw off her shoes and jumped into the rock-bottom stream.

  The water swirled around her feet as she laughed and told me to join her. If I was to get anywhere, Ella would be my way out. Eveie, I knew, had to have stolen this little girl from somewhere and someone-just who she was I didn't know, but would try to find out.

  I joined her in the water, amusing her in play as we looked at the rocks she designed then something struck me about this place. It wasn't just a concoction of something Ella created; it was a memory of a place that was not only remembered by Ella, but me as well.

  "High Cliffs," I whispered to myself as I looked up at the jagged rocks that looked like had been sliced by a hot knife leaving reds, yellows, oranges and streaks of black staining the rock that allowed a waterfall to cascade down it like hair.

  It was an unmistakable landmark of the Borderlands-where Malachi was from.

  "I like the waterfall," I said, pointing to it.

  Ella looked up at it as if she had suddenly come across something she wished she didn't. Looking up at it in a slightly fear-filled awe, Ella swallowed and then looked at me. "It's the place Eveie found me," she said, calling the demon by her name rather than mother. "I don't remember anything about it, but Eveie told me that is where I was born and she is my mother." She looked at me with her blue eyes. "My mother told me to never call her by her name, but?"

  "She isn't here, and has sealed us in here." I stood beside her and looked up at the waterfall. "I know this place too." Her eyes shot up at me as her mouth gaped open. "It's called the High Cliffs, and is found in the Borderlands of Iethia where my race lives-the race of monsters." I knelt next to her, rolled up my sleeve, and showed her my hexmark.

  She looked at it, and then slowly and cautiously, she touched it with her finger.

  "I-I have one too," she whispered.

  It was a tribal hexmark just like mine. I held my arm out next to hers, and let her just look at them, comparing them. She would touch hers, then mine. She was a monster being raised by a demon, and now my way out of here.

  "You know what this means?" I asked.

  "I'm like you?" She questioned.

  "You are a monster, like me and like many of us living in Iethia." I stood up and rolled my sleeve back down as she looked from her hexmark to the waterfall and then closed her eyes.

  She stood for a few minutes with her eyes closed. I wasn't sure what she was doing and scanned the area for anything threatening. But nothing came as she slowly opened her eyes and gazed up at me.

  "I remember screaming, yelling, feet pounding on the ground, and fire. My mother tried to erase my memories, but I kept them-hidden-even from myself." Her demeanor began to change before my eyes. "I nearly had forgotten my first memory and even my hexmark, that is, until you came." Her blue eyes flickered to me and had seemed to age in the matter of seconds. Even though she still looked the same, something in her aura or covering it, crumbled.

  "We need to get out of here, Ella," I said taking her by the arm that had her hexmark on it. "You don't belong here."

  She looked at her hexmark then at me. "I have the ability to break through my mother-I mean Eveie's barriers she makes. Eos is another story."

  "If you want to get out of here, tell me what demons we are up against."

  Ella told me that the three demons were sisters and Eos was the oldest followed by Ebony and then Eveie. They controlled the shadows and other demons there as well. Ella was kept away from most of their doings, but remembered a man that came and bought some of the flowers Ella created with her gifted magic. She said she cried when he took the white flowers that glowed and smelled like perfume.

  "He took them all with the promise of a gift in return. When I asked Eveie what that was, she said it was coming soon and if I was patient enough, I could have as much room to run and play in as I wanted."

  Ella also said Eos never liked her, and would often destroy what she had created. Eveie would get scolded by Eos for letting Ella play and run around like she did. Eos never did anything to Ella, but she knew one day that patience would run out.

  As for the third demon, she mostly kept to herself and watched Ella from a distance.

  "Ebony is beautiful," Ella said, with her eyes on the waterfall. "She never really talked to me, but I can remember when I was first allowed to play with magic, Ebony came and played with me in the lands I created. That was the only time she ever acknowledged me." She shrugged her shoulders. "After that, she stayed in the shadows, but I could always feel her eyes on me."

  Ella looked away wrapping her arms around stomach and gently stroking her arms as if trying to comfort herself.

  I touched her on the shoulder. "Ella, do you think you can break Eveie's barrier on us?"

  Ella smiled with confidence.

  We ran through Ella's enchanted land that mimicked the Borderlands in a haunting way to me. The forests and streams that forked the land divided the grassy landscape into pie shapes. If the stream was too wide, Ella simply made a bridge so we could cross. When we reached the barrier, it wasn't what I expected. The barrier was actually an invisible shield, kind of like a bubble that was flexible. Grey, rocky landscape could be seen through it, but was blurry.

  "Watch," Ella said with a half-smile and a twinkle in her eye.

  Sliding her finger along the waving shield, a thin line was cut from her glowing fingertip. A rush of the hot air from outside rushed in as we slipped through the small opening and into barren landscape. Ella resealed our escape hatch with a quick swipe of her finger.

  "Eveie uses the element of air too much and too often that I know how to work with it as well. I wished she'd use something else. I would like to learn how to use the other elements as well."

  I looked down at Ella with her dark hair and blue eyes. She looked too innocent to have the knowledge of demon magic.

  "You mean you can bend the element of air?" I asked with a confused look from her.

  "Bend? I don't bend it. I kind of swirl it around like leaves on the surface of water."

  "No, I mean you can make it do what you want."

  She smiled a sly smile with a nod of her head. "Yeah, I can make it do what I want."

  Though I had just met Ella, I could see that something had sparked in her-the demon spell, or whatever Eveie had put on her, was gone.

  "Now, what way to go," I said gazing at the vast and monotone landscape surrounding us. "We have got to get away from here before Eveie come back." Ella stood beside me. "Any suggestions as
to where they would be keeping my friends?"

  She peered into the distance, and then off to our right, she pointed. "There," she looked at me. "They had another demon make them a palace. If they'd be anywhere, that's where they'd be." Ella was already walking in the direction she had pointed. I could see nothing but grey rocks and lavender sky.

  "Wait, another demon?" I questioned catching up with her.

  "Yeah, they had another demon-an architect designed it. Eos ate him though, so he isn't around anymore." Ella walked very fast for a little person. "Come on, Seth, or we'll be too late!"