P. Cast - Destined

If it was going to be stopped he had to act now.

He stood, warring with himself.

I was created to serve Neferet. She serves Darkness.

Before him the elemental Light of the Goddess glistened and expanded, so clean and bright, especially compared to what had been soiled by Darkness and destruction.

I should not stop this! Deep within him his spirit was crying out for him not to hinder. Instead to wait, to bear witness, to—

Pain exploded through Aurox as tendrils of Darkness whipped around him. Thick and sticky they spread, web-like, across his body. Aurox gasped as his skin began absorbing things, melting into the creature that rested within him, and awakening it. Helpless to stop himself, Aurox felt the bull emerge. The creature took control of his body. I knew only one thing, Neferet’s last command: attack Rephaim. Head lowered, glistening, deadly horns fully formed, Aurox charged Rephaim.

Thanatos and I moved slowly and carefully to stand before Grandma, who was sitting, unharmed, in the center of the elemental tumult. Her face was pale, but her hands were completely steady as she lifted the purple candle.

Thanatos began the spirit invocation:

“Come spirit, faithful, eternal and wise

Sealed with salt we ask the truth to reveal

Lost years, wasted tears you felt Linda’s cries

Darkness be gone! Spirit’s strength we shall feel.”

I was striking the match to light the purple candle when Stevie Rae’s shout disrupted everything.

“Rephaim! Look out!”

I glanced up in time to see Dragon Lankford burst out of the shadows. Sword upraised, he was sprinting toward Rephaim.

“Trust me!” Dragon yelled. “Get down!”

“No!” Stevie Rae screamed.

Rephaim didn’t hesitate. Not even for an instant. He dropped to his knees as if he was sacrificing himself to Dragon’s sword. I wanted to puke. I heard Aphrodite shriek something about I told you so! but I couldn’t look at her. I was absolutely sure the Sword Master was going to cut the boy in two. I couldn’t stop staring at the train wreck that was happening to Rephaim.

Dragon leaped over Rephaim’s kneeling body and with a terrible screeching sound his sword collided with the razor edge of the bull-like creature’s horns. At the last moment he managed to deflect the deathblow from Rephaim, but the creature’s momentum was too much—his body was too powerful. Not even Dragon could stop the impact. Rephaim disappeared, not gored but knocked aside with such force that he was airborne for what seemed like ages, and when he finally landed it was far from our circle and he did not move.

“Oh, Goddess, no!” Stevie Rae sobbed. “Rephaim!”

I saw that she was turning, moving to step out of the circle and go to Rephaim.

“ Do not break the circle! It is what Darkness wants; do that and any sacrifice here is made for nothing!” I couldn’t see Aphrodite, but in her voice echoed a majesty that I knew Stevie Rae recognized because instead of breaking the circle she dropped to her knees, exactly as Rephaim had only moments before. Stevie Rae bowed her head and, in a broken voice said, “Nyx, I trust in your mercy. Please, protect my Rephaim.”

The bull-thing turned and, tearing the earth with his hooves, he charged Rephaim again.

Dragon Lankford moved almost as preternaturally fast as the creature. He was there in time, standing between death and Rephaim. Lifting his sword he said, “A Sword Master of Nyx is here. I will protect Rephaim.”

Dragon clashed with the beast again. It battered him back, but in doing so Dragon was moving him away from Rephaim’s unconscious body. Then, snarling a frightening sound, the creature turned its head so that I could see its bestial face—and I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut. The creature’s eyes glowed with moonstones. I knew the thing was Aurox—fully changed and absolutely, totally, no longer human.

“Warriors, rally to me!” Dragon shouted as he faced Aurox’s next attack.

“Zoey, you must summon spirit and light the candle!” Thanatos grabbed my shoulders, turned me to face her and shook me. Hard. “Dragon will battle the beast. We must hold true to the circle and complete the spell or there is no hope for any of them.”

Any of them? Where was Stark? Where was Darius? I looked wildly around. My gaze passed over and through them before I actually understood what I saw. They were there, both of them, standing in the positions they had taken before we’d begun casting the circle, but they couldn’t help Dragon. They couldn’t even help themselves. Darius and Stark, my Warrior, my Guardian, were frozen zombies. Mouths open in silent screams of agony their eyes stared sightlessly at nothing.

“Threads of Darkness encase them,” Thanatos said, still gripping my shoulders. “Open the circle so that I may complete the spell. We need the power of Death and all five elements to battle this evil.”

“Zoeybird, do as she says.” Grandma lifted the purple candle.

With shaking hands I lit the match and yelled, “Spirit, join our circle!”

Thanatos raised her arms. Flinging salt around us she spoke the final words of the spell:

“Death’s dark door I command open to me

The truth Darkness has hidden we shall see!”

The scarlet rope expanded and with a deafening roar it funneled up and up, creating a chaos of glowing red that illuminated the bruised storm clouds filling the swollen sky above us.

“Keep control of your elements! Remember our intent!” Thanatos yelled. “Begin with air!”

Damien lifted both of his hands and in a strong, sure voice called, “Air, blow from this place concealing shadows past!”

A gale blew from Damien. It captured the chaotic red glow and changed it into a cone of swirling, concentrated energy.

“Fire!” Thanatos commanded.

Shaunee lifted her hands, shouting, “Fire, strike, burn, destroy what would prevent our sight!”

Lightning sizzled, magnet-like, drawn to the center of the glowing cone.

“Water!”

Erin’s arms weren’t lifted. Instead she was pointing to the spot where Grandma had found Mom’s body. “Water, with tide of truth wash clear sight-stealing time!”

Crack! A bolt spiked from the sky, striking the ground. As the earth opened, water rushed up from it, rippling in the red earth like a pool of blood.

“Earth!”

Stevie Rae, still on her knees, was staring at the battle Dragon waged with Aurox, watching it circle ever closer and closer to Rephaim’s still body. She was crying and her voice shook, but her words rang across the circle, carried by the power of her heartache. “Earth, your bosom nurtures and keeps this spell’s key.”

The water rippled. Images lifted from the pool’s depths as if the earth was vomiting them, but they wavered and were unclear, just unrecognizable glimpses of faces and vaguely human forms.

“Spirit!” Thanatos called.

My mouth opened and through me, spirit recited the correct words from the revealing spell. “Lost years, wasted tears you felt my mom’s cries. Spirit, release the truth before our eyes!”

Instantly, everything outside the circle—Aurox and Dragon, Darius and Stark and Aphrodite—ceased to exist for me. The only thing that was real was what was being revealed within the pool. The water cleared and, as if it was happening before my eyes I saw my mom on Grandma’s front porch. She answered the door, smiling but looking kinda confused. Then the scene expanded and the point of view changed and I could see Neferet, naked, standing on the other side of the open door, asking if Sylvia Redbird was home. I heard Grandma sob and I wanted to run to the pool of water, to stand between it and Grandma—to try and shield her from the grisly, unbearable vision I knew it was going to expose.