Dancing With Monsters Read online

Seth

  "Isaiah is behind us," I said, trying to close the portal by waving my hands.

  "What are you trying to do?" Ella asked. "Why don't you just yell at them too?" She quickly traced the portal with the etch. "It won't stop them, but should slow them down." Ella stood back and admired the portal for a moment.

  "So where is this Sothis?" Edan asked.

  "It's close, about a fifteen minute walk." Ella looked around with a satisfied look on her face. "I got us pretty close, and in such a short amount of time." She motioned with her hand. "Come on, this way."

  Ella took off dashing through the green hills with her black hair bouncing as she raced down the knolls that were dotted with jagged rocks embedded in the ground. I followed her with Edan and Nessa behind me as the blue sky and puffy clouds rolled overhead. Sunrays pierced through the clouds like illuminated daggers stabbing at the countryside as light spilled over the green landscape like pooling blood. Even under the dire circumstances, I found The Isle of Stars to be a beautiful place-especially for a demon to live here.

  "Just over the next hill!" Ella shouted as she glanced over her shoulder at me with her hair nearly covering her face.

  As promised, just as we crowned the next hill, sat a house or more like a cottage nestled beside a stream and flowers surrounding it like colorful guards. There were three people outside: Eveie, with all of her silver and white gleaming in the sunlight, to my relief, Malachi, and another-a girl with something glowing on her back. She slipped behind Malachi when we made our presence.

  "Is that April?" Nessa whispered to me.

  I looked at her as she gazed back at me with a familiar smile-Ezra's warm smile.

  "Yes, it's April," I replied.

  "Mother!" Ella yelled breaking our gazing trance at each other. It was the first time I heard her call Eveie that since the Shadowlands. She ran to Eveie's waiting arms.

  If I didn't know Eveie was a demon, I'd guess her another enchanted creature. It was like she had become a different creature, but I still remained cautious.

  "What do we do now?" Nessa asked.

  "Come on," I replied as I headed towards them.

  "Come on?" I heard Edan scoff. "That's your plan?"

  "Do you have a better one?" Nessa asked following behind me.

  Eveie embraced Ella as Malachi greeted me. "What is going on at Shangri-La?" He asked as I looked at him and grabbed him by the arms. "What are you doing?"

  "Are you alright?" I asked switching my gaze between him and April.

  "Yes, believe it or not, we are well here and Eveie cured not only me, but turned April into a demon-bit-Fae-monster girl. It turns out our little spell-struck is part Fae and part monster." Malachi stepped aside as Nessa, Edan, Malachi and I looked at April as if she was a sideshow spectacle at a circus. She looked uncomfortable.

  "April, you?" I started to say as she let out a huff and turned around fluttering her transparent and glowing wings.

  "Are those wings?" Edan asked as Nessa elbowed him and gave him a stern look. "I'm just asking."

  "I've got wings, and like Malachi said-I'm a Fae."

  "You are Fae, are you sure?" Edan asked tipping his chin down as if to make sure he heard her right. "I've seen a few Fae before, but not with wings. Are you sure this isn't just some monster deformity?"

  "She is Fae-not deformed." Malachi stepped closer to Edan, looking at him as if insulted. "Her father is the crowned prince of The Isle of Stars and the Fae here have wings. You know, archangels don't know everything."

  "Well?" Edan cocked his head and shrugged his shoulders as if going to elaborate on why that wasn't true, when Ella cut between them.

  "And you are my brother," Ella said, gazing up at Malachi's confused face.

  She smiled at him and slightly bounced up and down as she waited for him to reply. Malachi's face paled as his eyes slipped from Edan, and focused on the girl in front of him.

  "What?" He asked with disbelief.

  "It's true, Malachi," Eveie said, stepping towards us, but far enough away as if she sensed his uncomfortableness. "Your sister never died that horrible day. I kept her for you, for us?"

  Malachi didn't reply, but just looked down at the girl who smiled back at him. Ella took him by the hand and examined his fingers.

  "I used to hold onto your index finger all the time when we went somewhere because your hand was too big for mine, but not your finger." She lifted her eyes to him searching his as if he remembered too. "I couldn't say Malachi, so I called you Mal, instead."

  I stood beside Malachi as everyone watched.

  He looked at the girl as if he wanted to believe her, but at the same time didn't want to. I knew years had passed since then, and he spent most of them trying to move on and bury the massacre that took his family and way of life. Ella stood patiently gazing up at him. She was the reflection of Malachi, even down to her steady stare that always reminded me of a hawk searching the vast fields in hopes of finding a mouse for dinner.

  I didn't say anything as I watched Malachi's doubt fade.

  "If you still don't believe me then," Ella rolled up her sleeve and showed him her hexmark. "Incomplete-it's incomplete, and you used to tease me about it."

  Ella's hexmark was faded in places like someone had erased parts of it randomly. She kept her eyes on Malachi as she rolled her sleeve back down, and Malachi stopped her. He looked at her hexmark and ran his fingers over it.

  How much more evidence do you need? I wanted to say to him.

  "I told you that two Stelhollow hearts still remained in this world." April stepped beside Ella, but instead of April's eyes gazing at him, it was Ezra who was speaking. "This is Myra, your sister, and she is alive." Ezra glanced over her shoulder at Eveie. "The demons that took your village were not all evil. She has healed you, protected Myra, and April as well. Trust lies were least expected and suspicion sits in the most unexpected places that we'd never guess. Judge by actions rather than what you perceive." Ezra gazed at all of us. "There will be disturbances in the future-find your alliances now, or you will perish in the outcome." She let her eyes rest on me before she faded.

  "Ezra," I said as I stepped in front of her just as April's head dropped then lifted.

  She looked at me with confusion as I gently touched her cheek. She looked at me with bewilderment at first, then with understanding.

  "Ezra," she confirmed, and I nodded.

  "But your name was Myra, not Ella." Malachi gazed down at his sister.

  "She picked that name since I didn't know her true name," Eveie said, still standing a slight distance away as a servant would do waiting on her employer.

  "It's true, I did." Ella confirmed with a smile. "Eveie told me about you, and said this day would come, and it has." She wrapped her arms around Malachi with a giant, content smile on her face.

  Malachi was taken by surprise by her gesture, and stood with arms out, frozen as if contemplating to hug Ella or not. He looked down at her as she continued to embrace him, eyes closed.

  "She's your sister," I said, as if he was waiting to be formally told.

  Malachi glanced at me, and then back at Ella. Slowly, and almost like a rusted gate, Malachi's arms curled around Ella.

  "Myra, I dreamed of this day, but never thought it possible. And your hexmark is beautiful."

  Ella smiled u at him. "I know,"

  Malachi lifted his eyes to Eveie, and nodded. "I have you to thank."

  Eveie's eyes filled with shock, and I'm sure being a demon, no one had probably ever thanked her for anything she did. Her surprised expression faded into a smile.

  Suddenly, April ran past me with her translucent, glowing wings behind her.

  "April?" Nessa ran after her as they both stopped at the crest of hill.

  April turned and looked over her shoulder at me. The blue sky framed her and the wind gently blew through her hair as Nessa gazed into the distan
ce trying to see what April had noticed.

  "What are you looking at?" Nessa asked.

  I joined them along with Malachi, Ella and Eveie. We looked into the green-scape that surrounded us.

  "You don't have dragons or gargoyles around here, do you?" Edan asked Eveie.

  "No," she said, not removing her eyes from the horizon. "But this is the Isle of Stars. Many creatures live here, and could be any number of them."

  I touched April on the shoulder, and was going to ask her what alerted her to dash up the hill as if someone had called to her. She quickly placed her hand on mine and turned to me with Ezra's indigo eyes.

  "The archangels are here," she said, trembling. "But so are demons."

  April

  "How can you see them?" Nessa asked.

  "I sense them." I replied, with my hand still on Seth's. I felt Ezra surface inside of me like a fishing bobber floating on water. We were one, but yet a small piece remained of her, and it still reached out for Seth. "They travel quickly-both of them."

  "Can demons withstand being here?" Malachi asked no one in particular. "They aren't strong enough to leave the shadows, unless?" He turned to Eveie. "The serum?"

  His eyes narrowed as he looked at Eveie who stood expressionless at first, and then started to shake her head.

  Even though Eveie had done nothing but prove herself as a good demon, Malachi still held a piece of suspicion for her. Having Ezra to guide me, I honed her ability to see into and past things, and seeing things for what they are.

  "It isn't the serum-it's something else." I cut in front of Eveie as she opened her mouth to defend herself. "The serum can't be made without this." I raised my hand showing the engagement ring Ben had given me. I felt it had been years since he had proposed to me, and looking at it made my heart ache. "It's something else that is making them materialize."

  "I still don't see anything." Nessa reported as she kept her eyes focused on the peaceful looking landscape.

  "Even if I did have the serum, I would never give it to any of the demons in the shadows." Eveie stepped towards Malachi with chin raised. "You have no idea what sort of things exist there, and I never want them to leave that horrible place."

  Malachi's eyes softened as a sudden whooshing sound passed over our heads. We ducked and frantically surveyed into the bright sky.

  "Please tell me that was just the wind," Nessa said, as a cawing sound gave her reply.

  I stood up as Malachi pressed himself next to me and grasped onto my wrist as you would a small child so they don't get lost. I closed my eyes, and reached out to the invisible creature that flew over our heads.

  It was by itself-a scout, maybe. It had no intentions of hurting us, but it did try to send a message. Without thinking, I blocked the message. It tried again, and I blocked it again.

  I felt the air around me stir as if a large fan had been placed over our heads.

  "Fine, if you overpower me, then I will take a sample with me." A voice, female, said as I opened my eyes and scanned the skies overhead.

  "Where did that come from? I can't see anything!" Edan yelled over the wind and the sound of wings flapping overhead.

  I looked up at the empty sky knowing something was there, but was invisible. Malachi, Seth and Edan stood in front of me with Nessa beside me gazing up at the sky as well.

  "Who are you?" I demanded worming my way between Seth and Malachi.

  Malachi grabbed my arm, but I jerked it away as I glared into the blue sky. "I said, make yourself known! Who are you?" I repeated.

  Suddenly, right over my head, the sky started to ripple like water. Slowly, a shape began to take form as I watched it pull the colors from the sky making it almost translucent, but solid enough to see it. If I had to guess what it was, I'd call it a dragon. It had a long neck, oval head, glistening, iridescent scales, and webbed wings that gracefully flapped behind it. Its eyes reflected the clouds surrounding us as it made eye contact with me.

  I should be scared out of my mind, but I wasn't. The creature had a majestic appearance to her, and from what I sensed, she wasn't here to hurt us-at least that wasn't her duty right now.

  "It's a sky serpent!" Edan yelled as he grabbed Nessa.

  Malachi pulled me back, and started to run towards the cottage along with everyone else. I didn't think the structure would protect us from whatever a sky serpent could do.

  "Fine," the serpent huffed as her shadow glided over us and then landed right in front of Eveie's home, gracefully.

  We stopped dead in our tracks as the ghost-like sky serpent blocked the entryway. She towered over us as she gazed down with dark eyes that were like two sponges that soaked up what color she had to her. Her skin slowly reflected the color of the flowers, the grey stones, and blue sky that made her look like a watery cutout of the space before us.

  "Stay back!" Edan commanded to us as he held out his arm like a traffic cop stopping vehicles. "I've training with sky serpents before."

  The serpent cocked her head, and looked bemused even through her translucent appearance.

  "I'm impressed, little angel." Her voice was pleasant, and very human-like. "Most don't claim experience with us, and lived to tell others about it-yes, very impressed." Her voice rang with amusement.

  "You serve the Fae here, don't you?" I asked, stepping forward as Malachi pulled me back, and gave me an are you crazy look.

  I kept my eyes on the sky serpent as Malachi grasped onto my wrist. With eyes that looked like two organs, a heart maybe, that had tiny veins and capillaries trailing to it, she glanced between Malachi and me.

  "He protects you, young Fae." She sounded pleased. "My time here isn't supposed to be long as others are treading on our ground." She glanced in the distance. "I bring no resistance with me, and come in peace as that is the way of the sky serpent on The Isle of Stars." She looked at Edan who held a dagger in front of him. "You would know this, Edan, son of Isaiah Tollwick, if your experience was correct." She still had an amused tone to her voice as Edan lowered his blade slightly.

  "How do you know my name?" He asked.

  "I can see through all of you, and that's why the Fae employ me and others like me as their watchguards. My name is Rowain, and I'm the personal guard of Eldon." Rowain set her eyes, feathered with color, on me and slightly bowed. "He sensed you, April Snow, but didn't know who you were exactly, but I can tell you are Fae mixed with other creatures. You bring an un-pure presence to our lands." Her eyes pulsated with color as they narrowed.

  Seth, Malachi and Edan, acting on her threating looks and words, stepped closer to the serpent with daggers toward her. Nessa slipped in between them as Edan gave her a discouraging look that she ignored. Eveie, who stood a few steps behind me, clutched her arms protectively around Ella. Rowain glanced at all of us as if she was studying our movements, and summing us up.

  "Sky serpents are not immune to the blades of angels." Edan threatened.

  "No, they are not, little angel." Rowain didn't appear impressed or worried at the three of them. "But I am not here to hurt you-I'm a messenger, guard, and scout. What you should be frightened of is the feet that trample closer to you. They come after the April Snow for her nectar that runs through her. Demons have struck, a deal and found their father that they've been searching for. Angels with their power chase them, and if not stopped, both will be obliterated. We don't like war on our lands, and will eliminate all who try. We are strong, we are numberless, and we will not discriminate."

  "Why are you telling us this?" I asked unafraid of Rowain, even though her appearance should have made me scared, and a few weeks ago would have. "You could kill them all, including us, but you don't. Why?"

  Her eyes fluxed with color and understanding. "You have ties to these creatures, and as a single flower that belongs to a larger plant, you, April Snow, are part of this world and we've waited a long time for you to come. We are giving you a ch
ance to save the ones you love-a rare opportunity from a sky serpent and the Fae." She turned her attention to Edan. "And you, Edan Tollwick, you should know this from your experience with sky serpents." With those words, Rowain's image liquefied, and she disappeared with a whoosh of her wings.