“They are still far away, and outside your boundaries. Hunting them is futile…even more than when they are inside…”
“But Kieron…he’s after them right now. And he’s going to save them.” I picture his beautiful, chiseled face. Then I picture myself kicking it with an especially pointy steel-tipped boot.
“He has a much wider jurisdiction than you. Besides, he is working under official orders, something you are not.”
“I don’t care if he’s under the orders of Lucifer himself. Find them and tell me where they are. I cannot let him get to them first and save them…”
“Maybe it’s you he is saving,” she says.
“Do not, Tatiana. You do not know that I will be defeated; I don’t care what your freaky floating flowers tell you. I have the element of surprise. I can kill from a distance. No one goes after them…they think they are invincible. Untouchable. I have the advantage…”
I can’t stand the boiling feeling in my blood any longer, so I stomp into Tatiana’s room for my emergency stash.
“And even if you do succeed, what do you think will happen?” she calls out. I grab the freshly-refilled green bottle off Tatiana’s nightstand and stalk back into the living room.
“What do I think will happen? It will be over. I can finally live…that’s what will happen. I can stop being a prisoner of the night, and someone else during the day. I can live the rest of my life knowing that I didn’t let the creatures who killed four of my friends just get away with it.”
I take several swigs, not caring that it’s later than I should be drinking. I glare at Tatiana, my eyes daring her to reprimand me.
“And you just assume that you’ll be magically reunified and your life will go on like nothing has happened? What about consequences from the Legionary? They will know you acted illegally and you’ll be severely punished. What good would it do if you are banished to the Wasteland, or, at the very least, stripped of your powers and demoted to lower demon status?”
She rises to her feet and walks towards me. “…I must say, Lucky, while your emotion and passion make you stronger than many other demions, they will also be your downfall if you don’t use your common sense as well.”
I refuse to let Tatiana’s words sink in; I’ve heard it all before. She’s made it perfectly clear over the years that she’s not as convinced as I am that killing the Amazèa will make me whole again…blend Liora and me the way we were before—a pure demion.
But reunifying my soul isn’t my only motivation; it’s getting justice for Michael and Kayla…and now, Cody and Ivy. I must have my revenge on the monsters who murdered them…I can’t live without it. I need to do what I should have done that night five years ago, instead of what I did do—freeze in terror and run away.
I acted like a stupid, weak Sapie.
I need to make it right; undo what I did…do what I didn’t do. I’ve replayed the scenario over and over in my head so many times, there are times when I believe I actually did fight back—that I was able to save Michael and Kayla—that the split never happened, and we’re all still best friends who love each other and share everything with each other. Sometimes, I’m able to trick myself into thinking that Michael and Kayla are just around the corner, waiting for me to come outside and play—not buried under six feet of dirt a mile and a half away, under the circle of stones I’d placed to mark their grave.
It was I who found the scattered pieces of their corpses and lovingly put them back together again after I returned to see what the Amazèa had done to them. It was I who buried them next to the tree where Kayla had happily given me the nickname “Lucky”, and Michael had given me my first kiss…the same place Tatiana had later found me, catatonic, as the police combed the woods with Michael and Kayla’s frantic parents.
Of course, the bodies were never found; I couldn’t bring myself to tell their parents the truth—that their beloved children were dead, and it was all my fault. Tatiana had ushered me away and later placed a spell on the parents, removing any traces of Michael and Kayla from their memory. But she could not do the same for me.
And I will never forget.
Chapter 21. Liora
I fumble through my locker in a trance. I’m not the only one; it seems most of the students are still dazed by what happened. It’s been a few weeks since the murders, but the students have yet to regain their jovial and boisterous attitudes from before. The hallways are much quieter, and the sound of laughter is rare. Grief and tension are palpable.