Page 52 of Wings of The Wraith
I felt like my old self again.
Like the day before my birthday, before everything changed, and turned my world upside down.
I was about to sit down when I heard laughter I wasn’t likely to forget the sound of, ever.
Balmora’s cackle worked its way into me like poison.
I straightened up as my heart stopped in my chest. She came down the same path I’d come holding a torch, which she placed in the crevice of the cave wall.
“Nice to catch up again. Alyssa.” Balmora looked like a human woman. She looked like a person, instead of the hideous creature I saw when I first met her. “So, this is what I looked like when I was human. I was beautiful, wasn’t I?”
“How did you become the other way? Ugly and evil.”
“Naughty girl. You know it’s not nice to call another woman ugly. My demonic state is not ugly. It is an emblem of the gods I represent. All the powers they gave me to save me from the horrible life I had as this...” She pulled at her black robes. “I was nothing, and the man I loved treated me as such.”
“You turned to evil because a guy treated you like nothing?”
What would life be like if we all did that?
“Watch your tongue, you don’t know what I speak, or what happened to me. I was a Spartan princess. My so-called husband betrayed not just me, but his country when he joined forces with the Persians. And all for what? A pretty face. A woman younger than me was worth risking everything. When the Persians came to our village, they desecrated everything and killed my one-month old son and five-year-old daughter. They killed everyone I loved. There is no pain greater than that. And only revenge can heal you.”
I almost felt bad for her. I felt bad for the human side of her. She walked over to the river of mercury and stopped.
“So, you chose vengeance with evil?”
“God and his angels would not help me, so I turned to those who could. It was a long time ago. Now I will return what the necromancer so effortlessly gave me. With Razul here we’ll have every realm at our fingertips. Power, power,power. Who can resist power?”
“I won’t allow it.” I declared trying to be brave.
It was foolish because I knew I had no say. I had no say in this matter. I’d never even had a fight at school. How was I supposed to fight her?
“You, are so silly.” She giggled. “You must know the Spartan way of life. Right?”
I nodded. Honestly, I’d enjoyed learning about them at school. I never factored in meeting one in my life time though.
“Good,” she cooed. “So, you know the women were just as strong as their men.”
“You can’t do anything with me here.”
“Actually, I can. The good thing about you being a syphon is that we don’t need you to be alive, you could be dead. We just need you to carry the powers of the star. That’s all really. You could have come willingly –alive – but I’m pissed and I’m already sick of the live version of you. I’ve decided I’m going to kill you.”
I dropped the candle as she whipped out her leg and kicked me straight across my face.
I cried out and tumbled backwards, falling to the ground.
She jumped on top of me and held me down, so she could punch my face and my chest.
Her blows to me hurt me to my soul.
“I think I’ll kill you slowly, beat you to fucking death for all the trouble you and your angel caused.”
She laughed and, in that moment, I knew I was going to die.
***
Dante
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