She shakes her head. “I can’t. My powers don’t work that way. They are fickle and unstable. I can tap into them on a minimal level but anything more than that is dangerous, dangerous until they settle.”
“Then what happens?” Goosebumps line my arms.
“Then they mature and I can be used for good or evil. Create and destroy worlds. Nobody knows what the other side are planning but my powers were given in sacrifice to hold the realms together.”
Two gods of old sacrificed themselves after the war in heaven nearly ended all existence. They sacrificed themselves to seal the veil that separates realms and hell from breaking loose. In doing so, they gave their natural powers. I’ve grown up on the story. Everyone has. It only surfaced recently when a necromancer and the sorceress Balmora tried to break the hell god Razul out of the prison holding him in the darkest corners of hell. It did something, something that signified the world was in trouble and the whispers have it that that something unlocked her powers. The powers of the gods.
“I need your help Selene. You must assure me I can trust you. Help me and you will not have to worry about your family,” She promises.
I gaze into her eyes and believe her. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want to awaken your power, taken it to its full potential. I need you to tell Victor that he needs to take this to The Hallowed.” She takes a vial out of her pocket and holds it out to me. It’s filled with the purple light.
“What is it?”
“The key. The key to unlock me. When I give this to you I will be weak, but with this away from me my powers are safe until they stabilize. After they stabilize it won’t matter that the keys aren’t with me. This is all I can do now to protect them from Roth and others who want to use me for evil. Give this to Victor.”
“He won’t believe me.”
She nods her head at me. “He will, show this to him. He will believe you then.” She steps forward and touches the side of my face. As she does I see myself in a meadow like this and I’m with Victor. I look different. I’m human. My eyes are brown, the same color as my hair. Victor looks the same. Three little girls run up to him. two look just like me, one like him with white blond hair. My mouth drops as I realize they’re our kids.
They run down to the stream to play with our dog and Victor turns to me and takes me into his arms.
When he touches me the vision fades and Leora is standing before me as she was.
“What? Was that?”
“A possible future you could have. That is why you must do this. Show the vision to him and he will help you. Victor will believe you and forgive you.”
She would never know how much it means to me to hear her say that. “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“I know, and he will know too. Victor, Heath and Phoebe are all here to rescue me, but I have to stay here. You must tell them to leave this place by tonight, before midnight. Do not stay a minute longer because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. The Hallowed must get the key. Take the key and give it to the leader. Whatever happens , whatever anyone says, I’m staying here in Galatia. You are all to leave me here.”
“That makes no sense, you should be leaving too,” I protest, my voice quivers with a rasp.
Again she shakes her head. “No, I have to stay. There’s someone else destined to come here and I have to stay to meet them. They will need my help to defeat Roth. I have to be here to help them do that. Please do this. Time is going.”
I put out my hand to take the vial and when I touch it a blast of energy washes over me. it sweeps over my body and I feel awakened. I feel alive for the first time.
Everything fades around us as I slip it into my pocket and the scene returns to the way it was before, as if it unfroze. Leora is sitting before Roth and his energy blast hits her.
It hits her and she glances over to me before she faints.
“Awwww what a pity. I’m going to enjoy this game,” Roth laughs. “Guards,” he calls out.
The door opens behind me and the guards come in.
“Take her down to the dungeon. There’s more than one way to get her to talk, there’s more than a million ways to test and probe to see what she can do. Let her suppress her powers all she wants,” Roth chants.
I stare horrified. The guards take her, take her limp body and a shudder runs through me.
“What are you going to do to her?” I ask him.
“That is none of your concern. I allowed you to see that to shake you up. The portents are never wrong. She is The Chosen. I will do what I will with her. You will obey me. Go to Victor and seduce the fuck out of him if you must. There’s something going on here and I will find out what it is. Or, I’ll feed you to the hollows myself.” He laughs and his spindly teeth frighten me.
“Okay…” I answer.
I leave him and walk out.
This is going to be one hard task, but I know what Leora awakened in me. I know what I can do. It’s what I could always do it’s just more enhanced.
She trusted me and I won’t let her down. That means I have to come clean
