Empress of the Gods

Myrah

She couldn’t stop the tears that were falling on her cheeks as she looked at Atarah in the bed stone barely conscious. Myrah tried to fight to get to her, but the fae guard doubled her strength. She could barely move an inch.

“Why did you stop me?” Demir asked to Melione. “I was not done yet.”

“You are done when I say so,” Melione said with a calm fury, but it was clear Demir annoyed her. “I need her alive to get her gifts,” she added, moving the pages of the grimoire. “Now, night flame, show me your power.”

With a few movements of Melione’s hand, she lifted her sister in the air with her arms open. She used the language of spells as Demir did, making the flames on the firepit increase like the ones on the torches of the gazebo. The tore cloth of the blouse on Atarah’s back moved in the air. She was still covered in the front. Suddenly, white cracks formed in her sister’s face as if she was going to break into a million pieces. Then, a white light covered her while a huge bird came out of her formed by light. It looked like the bird and Atarah were one. Her sister’s eyes were turned completely white when she opened them, and a couple of veins marked under her eyes, but not as they always did every time she used her gifts.

The bird instantly opened its wings, changing from white to orange to a dark red—the same color as the flames—until she felt the heat that almost reached where she was, making her realize that it was fire. As a reflection of her own body, she placed her hand near her face to protect her eyes from the flames despite of knowing that they would not reach her.

Atarah’s face and exposed skin parts had fissures that changed from white to red, letting the fire inside her be seen through those cracks as if her power were peeking out. Her sister appeared to be an erupting volcano that was waiting for the slightest provocation to unleash all its power.

Myrah couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what her sister meant when she told her she felt a beast slept inside her. In the same way, she wondered if her mother, Rhiannon, and not Arethusa, knew what dwelled inside her sister.

The fire increased and covered Atarah while the phoenix flapped its wings, letting the wind intimidate everything in front of it. Power. That was what the phoenix was demonstrating. The amount of power that dwelled inside its host.

Driadaes possessed elemental magic and some more than others. That was the reason why they said driadaes were dangerous. The reason why other creatures were afraid of them and the power that everyone wanted. It seemed that it had no limitations. It seemed as if you didn’t sacrifice anything to have a balance, but they couldn’t be more wrong. That power demanded more than what was seen with the naked eye.

Myrah knew that by deploying that amount of power, her sister’s body would resent it and she was afraid to even think that it could kill her.

The eyes of the exiled witch of Lhrastsha and half-driadae glowed for a moment as she understood what she was seeing. Myrah could imagine all the plans she had in mind with Atarah’s gifts. The amount of power she would gather if she managed to snatch it from her. What she didn’t seem to understand was that the night flame power was forged in the firepit of the gods, which meant the Asteria’s castle was not going to allow someone to snatch it away so easily.

Myrah looked around them and realized William and the guards that seized them were nowhere to be found. The only fae soldiers in there were the ones watching Robbie and her. Melione and Demir were concentrating so hard on what was in front of them that they didn’t notice their guards had left them.

As soon as Melione began to recite a few words she’d once heard in Khrysaor, Myrah realized what she had to do. She might not have been blessed with the amount of power her sister had, but if she learned anything while she was in Ekkirah was to use her gift. Plus, she knew how to fight. The most respected coven of the witches’ kingdoms made sure she knew how to defend herself.

Robbie moved swiftly that his fae guard didn’t notice until it was too late. He had the fae strength so he could easily let go. Atarah told her Robbie was a spy from a fae kingdom, only she didn’t say which one. At first, it was hard to believe it, but at that moment, she was witnessing how a good fighter he was.

Her guard was so compelled by what was happening in front of his eyes he didn’t realize he was alone. That was her chance, so she tried to free herself when the guard looked around them and instead of fighting her, he let her go and ran away from there.

“Time to go, Myrah,” Robbie said next to her, only that she was not going anywhere.

Where did everyone go?

It was weird how everyone left them, as if they knew something they didn’t know was about to happen.

With a simple movement of Myrah’s hands, a ball of water began to form on her palms.

“What are you doing, Myrah?” Robbie whispered to her, taking her by the arm to start running, breaking the concentration she had and letting the water escape between her fingers.

Atarah had come for her to Ekkirah. Her sister would go to hell for her if she needed to, so she was not going to let her sister fight alone in that place. Not when she was the only family she had left. They didn’t share the same father, but they shared the same mother who abandoned them and shared the same mother who raised them. They hadn’t been close in Khrysaor, but she knew Atarah would always take care of her no matter what happened, and she would also do the same for her.

“We need to help her,” she said, turning her gaze to Robbie. “I’m not going to leave her here.”

“She’s doing it so we can escape,” Robbie said, trying to make her come to her senses.

“What?”

“She made a plan so we could escape,” he confessed.

“That’s not a plan. That’s a sacrifice.”

Myrah was not going to give it a thought at that moment. It was something she would discuss with Atarah later because she was making decisions for her as if she were a child.

“Screw it. I’m not going to leave the only family I have left.” She walked away from Robbie and ran towards Melione, throwing a ball of water that turned into ice to make her lose concentration. Melione let out a growl, losing concentration and creating a wall of ice to shield herself from her ice ball, but for a moment, it worked, making her turn around.

Myrah took a sword from the ground without taking her eyes from Melione, who clenched her teeth and her fists. The ground started freezing as if it was snowing. Myrah prepared another ball of water when Melione moved one of her hands reciting words in the language of spells that she barely understood, knowing that it was not good what she was trying to do. Melione used the wind in her favor, throwing her far from her sister with incredible strength. She felt as if someone had kicked her in the stomach.

Demir laid on the ground thanks to Robbie, but the moment Robbie saw her on the ground he ran towards Melione to stop her, only Demir recovered fast and caught him halfway while Melione used her gift, leaving a trail of ice from which Myrah tried to escape by moving backwards like a crab, only her feet got trapped in it, making it impossible for her to move. Myrah put a hand on the part of her head that hurt and the moment she saw her fingers painted in crimson color everything turned dark.