Riven (13 page)

Jerking my shoulder, I tried to snap free from her growingly painful grasp. Her hands held firm, nails digging into my shirt, pinching my soft skin. “I don’t understand.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” she threw her head back and laughed, the weight of her movement pulling me back against her chest. “You’re just a stupid little girl with some shiny magic gift. You wouldn’t even know the first thing about real magic.”

I shook my shoulders hard and winced, her nails scratching through the fabric as I broke free from her hands. Turning to meet her face-to-face, I glared at her surprised, subtle smug attitude. “And you would? You’re in my head, you’re not even real.”

“Oh? Did you tell that to the Siren who saw me, who saw us?” Ebony countered, grinning devilishly. She closed the distance between us, bringing her face close enough until our noses brushed. “Newsflash, Essallie. I’m very real, I’m here to stay, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I couldn’t believe it; my own mind was fracturing me, running with my delusion. Hands her her chest, I shoved Ebony back, watching her stumble in an angered shock. “Look, I get it. Obviously my mind went out the window when I was captured, but enough is enough-”

“You don’t get a damn thing,” she growled. “It looks like I have to show you.” Reaching her hand out in front of her, a small brass hand-held mirror materialized in her grasp. She turned the mirror to face me. “Tell me, Essallie, what do you see?”

Scoffing, I leaned forward, staring at the tiny sheet of glass. It displayed an arial view of dome, Kayden and Ari relentlessly fighting droves of weapon-clad Siren while I sat motionless on the staircase. With each kill, Ari shouted my name, racing for me when more enemies would appear, forcing him to help Kayden or both would die.

“Okay, fine, so you’re showing me the fight. You act as if I didn’t know it was going on,” I rolled my eyes, unfazed by her actions.

Turning the mirror back toward her, Ebony shook her head. “You’re missing the point, stupid girl. Did you not see yourself, lifeless, unmoving?” She held up her free hand, examining the nails with mild interest before plunging it into the mirror. My gut contracted, white hot fire searing in my abdomen. A malevolent grin tilted her lips, and she reached in further, pushing her arm deeper into the mirror. “With you in here, I can control your every move in your place, and all you can do is watch.”

The fire spread from my stomach to my chest, boiling like lava erupting from an agitated volcano. “You... you... you can’t-”

Her second arm plunged in, pain splicing up the back of my spine, rocketing to the base of my neck. I buckled onto the pitch black ground, screaming. It felt as if I were being flayed alive, my skull pulled back for her to poke and prod as she wished, only to pour ink over my vulnerable brain.

“Oh, but see, I can,” she assured over my moans of pain, her sickeningly cheerful demeanor revealing her inner monster. Ebony was actually
enjoying
watching me squirm in pain. “See, you’re no longer alone in your mind. That’s the beauty of the spell that birthed me; eventually I will take over completely, and you will cease to exist.”

I opened my mouth to shout back, but arched in agony as she stretched the tiny mirror, diving through until she vanished completely. A pain far worse than anything I could have ever dreamt of made home in my skin, slipping and sliding underneath me like a moving parasite. I could feel Ebony stretching into my physical body outside, wiggling her-
my fingers
-experimentally. Pushing against the pain flowing within, I dragged myself to the tiny mirror, forced to watch through the tiny narrow glass as she played dress up in my skin.

Looking past her, I could see we were in trouble. Ari and Kayden stood nearly back-to-back, spinning about the ground and taking out who they could. Part of me wanted to laugh; of course, the one time they chose to fight side-by-side, and I wasn’t there to help them, forced to watch like a prisoner behind bars.

Kayden exploded into smoke, coating the room in a thick sheet of black. Bursts of white flared inside, screams of various Sirens filling the air as they were flung outward, fire burning them alive. He took on his physical form once more, black eyes smoldering with murderous delight as he tore through flesh and bone like a child with tissue paper.

A shout cut through the fight, and I angled the mirror to see Ari calling to Kayden, warning him. He turned around, but not fast enough. A blade sailed through the air from up above, striking Kayden in the chest. Giving the mirror another turn, I spotted Arielle high on the staircase, triumph at hitting her mark written on her face. Zeevna stirred at her feet, body faintly twitching.

“No!”
The scream tore from my throat, wild and raw. As she posed as me, Ebony blazed fire over my hands, rage coloring her vision a dark, bloody red. “You can’t kill him!”

Leaping up onto my feet, Ebony surged my body forward, back down the steps and further from Arielle. Fire sparked on my hands as she fashioned it like a whip, snapping it around the wrist of a Siren who had taken aim at him with a golden blade. The whip seared off his hand as if it were nothing, and in seconds she stood before Kayden, yanking out the blade from his chest.

Smoke poured from the wound, but the skin had already begun to heal. He paid little attention to my body, craning his neck to spot his true mark above. “You didn’t think that would actually kill me, did you?” He taunted, puffing out his chest to show her the healed mark. “Tsk-tsk. Silly mermaid.”

Arielle let out a wild screech, her tail splitting into two, long scale coated limbs. She sprinted down the steps, abandoning her barely conscious daughter to grab a set of spears left behind on the ground.

Ebony was faster. Quickly sparing a darting glance between a nearby Siren and Arielle, she grabbed the Siren, breaking his neck with a single twist. His weapon became hers, and as she maneuvered towards Arielle, the blade in her hand ignited in a display of wild, damning black fire.

The Queen Siren sprinted, hands outstretched for her weapons, when Ebony sliced at her arms, watching Arielle stumble backward with a howl of rage. Flinging the blade, Ebony closed the gap between the two, wrapping her hands around the Siren’s throat, and squeezing.

Arielle fought to breathe, gasping in greedy, shallow gulps of air. “R-r-release me.”

“I don’t think so,” Ebony mused, tilting her head to the side, watching Arielle’s lips begin to color purple like her eyes. “See, I think you need a little reality check. Kayden, bless his vacant heart, came here for
your
help, and you try and kill him?” Pressing her face against Arielle’s, Ebony’s lips curled into a bile-churning snarl. “Apologize.”

The Siren twisted her head left and right, eyes rolling up into the back of her head as lack of oxygen starved her organs. Ebony squeezed tighter, digging her nails into the scales on her neck. The pain was barely enough to shock Arielle back to focus, dragging a thin breath between her pruple-blue lips.

Around them, the fighting had stopped. Siren guards watched in horror as their leader struggled to stay alive, unsure if attacking would help or hinder the situation. Kayden and Ari looked from one to the other, confusion and fear written on their faces. They must have thought I had walked off the deep end, after all.

Out of the two, Kayden was the one who dared approach. Gently, he placed a hand on Ebony’s shoulder. “Let her go, Essallie, it’s over. She’ll help us.”

“I don’t think so,” Ebony replied, a frown on her face. I wondered if she was disappointed he didn’t call her by her real name, but then again, how could he know it wasn’t me? Her hands tightened around Arielle’s neck, the sound of tearing flesh making me uneasy. “The minute I let her go, they’ll leap into the fight again.” She turned to face him. “I won’t let them hurt you, Kayden.”

Hurt him? Kayden’s shock couldn’t be contained. His eyebrows rose high into the tangled mess of curls covering most of his forehead. “Put her down, Essallie.” Ebony shook her head, prompting Kayden to repeat. “Please, put her down. She won’t do us any good dead.”

For a minute, Ebony seemed to have ignored him. She looked back at the Siren nearly unconscious in her hands, then opened them and stepped back. Arielle fell to the floor, gasping and coughing, dark purple bruises covering her neck like a handprinted tattooed choker.

Instantly, Ebony played up on her cuteness of impersonating me. “I was only trying to help you,” she pouted, shoulders slumped in defeat like a child caught in the act of doing something naughty. “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do? You know, you and me, together?”

“When did I become a third wheel?” Ari muttered under his breath.

Ebony’s gaze snapped to him, eyes narrowed to thin slits. The insult shot from her mouth like a shotgun blast to the chest. “Because you linger like aftereffects of nuclear fallout and can’t take the hint that you’re never going to get laid.”

In the far back of the room, someone snickered. Ari opened his mouth to argue, when Kayden stepped in front of Ebony’s view, blocking out all the rest. Leaning close, I nearly did a victory shout when the question formed on his lips.

“Where is she?”

Ebony tilted her head to the side, like a bird drawn to a new treat. “Who do you mean?”

“Don’t play games with me,” Kayden smiled, but it didn’t touch his eyes. “Essallie, where is Essallie?”

“But I, I’m right here,” Ebony tried in vain to persuade him. But Kayden was no fool to her tricks, not any more. For a girl who had brewed to life in my head, she didn’t have the slightest clue how I behaved. “If I’m not Essallie, who am I?”

A voice, shaky and warbling, came from high on the stairs. Zeevna stood proud and tall, a finger pointed down directly at my body. Fear danced in her eyes, manifesting in her skin like a tremor under the superficial layers. “You are
dimi-ani
, the other half holding the Nephilim hostage inside of you.”

Gasps ran amongst the remaining guard, a noticeable fear crossing their faces. Arielle raised a hand, covering her mouth. Ebony spun around, what precious control she had rapidly slipping through her false fingertips. From the other side of the mirror, I cheered Zeevna and Kayden on.

Emotions flickered past Ebony’s face like tiny flashes of light. Anger, hurt, defiance, bitterness, sadness, defeat, rotating and changing her from the inside out. Finally it stopped, all emotion wiping clean from her face to replace with a lazy, drawling smirk that fluttered her eyes.

“Oh, Kayden,” she purred, sauntering forward, tantalizingly swaying her hips. Her hands found Kayden’s chest, running up and down in slow, teasing strokes. “It’s been so long, I had almost forgotten what this feels like.” She gave a thoughtful, time-tested pause, hands still moving. “Tell me, how’s Juliet? Nice and dead, I take it?”

Kayden visibly flinched, but made no attempt to move away from the wolf in my sheep’s clothing. “What have you done with Essallie?”

“Don’t worry about her, my love,” she said breathily, batting her eyelashes at his impatient gaze. Her hands rested on his upper chest, subtly inching downward. “Worry about what is to come. We’re finally going to have each other, it’s all falling into place.”

Ari took a step forward, but Kayden shot him a glance, freezing him in place. “What is falling into place, angel?”

Her nose wrinkled at the term of endearment. “Poor choice of pet name, but I can forgive it. I can forgive anything you do, unlike that fledgling
Essallie.
” Venom laced her words, strong enough to feel their sting. Ebony’s tone became calm again as she addressed Kayden. “I’ve wanted you since the day we met, but the world keeps getting in our way. For example,” her hands moved off his lower chest, cupping his chin tenderly. “You were so infatuated with that pesky little mortal, Juliet, that I had to do something to get you to notice me.”

Kayden’s eyes widened frightfully. “You... you...”

“Didn’t take much persuasion for that vampire to turn her,” Ebony continued, picking at the memory with a fond grin. “I knew with her out of the way, you’d finally see the real love of your life. But you’re doing it again, falling in love with someone other than me.” Her expression turned dark, her grin souring and twisting. “I’m not worried, though, because I’m so close to finally being here, finally loving you.” Pulling his face down to her level, her lips pressed against his, forcing the kiss. She trailed a line of them, running along his jaw and cheek as he stood there, shell-shocked by her words. “It won’t be long now. Her body is almost mine.”

Overhead, Zeevna laughed. Ebony turned to snarl at the sea-foam colored woman, only to pause upon seeing the tiny, glass vial filled with grey water in the Siren’s hand. “Not if I have anything to say about it,” she challenged Ebony, flinging the vial with alarming speed. I watched as it shattered against Ebony’s head, shards of glass and droplets of water raining over her face.

Ebony screeched in agony, pushing back from Kayden and pressing her hands to her head. Grey smoke blew off her skin in waves where the water made contact. Inside my blackened prison, the mirror shook, exploding jagged chunks of glass as Ebony was tossed back inside. She had barely begun to open her mouth when the grey smoke enveloped her, and she vanished completely.

The shards of glass quickly reformed, showing me the picture outside. My body had frozen in mid-scream, face contorted in a mask of pain. I felt a pull in my chest, tugging at me closer to the mirror until I pressed my chest against it, sucking me through the hole and tossing me back into my body. It was like a spirit returning to its home, or in my case, my soul finding my shell of a body to inhabit again.