Pretty Spelled by K.A Knight

Lilith

I’m floating in nothing.

No sounds, no feelings. Nothing. I don’t even remember my own name or where or who I am. Am I dead? What’s happening?

Time passes strangely. I’m here but not here. I don’t know if it’s been minutes or hours. I don’t know anything…I just am. But suddenly, I’m not there anymore and I remember everything. I’m curled in a ball, in my usual space inside me. Going from being warm, happy, and loved to this has tears tracking down my face. What is left of my heart is breaking, and my soul fractures into a million pieces, unable to keep up with all this pain and mental torture. Her laugh echoes as I curl around myself.

“I killed your mate,” she begins.

I ignore her, reaching inside myself to that one place she can’t touch because she doesn’t understand and isn’t capable of love—my mate bond. It’s there, but it’s weak. It stretches into the distance, but it’s enough to let me know she’s lying. Although, she genuinely believes it, I feel it in her gloating. She thinks he’s dead.

That means he survived whatever she did. If anyone could, it’s my Attie. I can’t give away that he’s alive. They will need all the help they can get to defeat her. After all, I don’t think I’ll be much assistance. Not trapped inside myself. I thought I had power, that I was strong, that I could defeat her, but I was wrong. So wrong.

I’m nothing.

But my family, my gods, stand a chance. If anyone can stop her, it’s them.

I have to believe in them, I have to, because I know she will never stop. She allows me to see what she is doing. She’s back in her temple, but this time, her army is around her like she is waiting for something, or worse yet, preparing her final plans.

“Now watch and learn, little human, as I make this world mine. Your family is ruined, dead, and like them, the world will be too. Only after they are all enslaved, after they are all dead, ruined, and broken, and this earth is mine, will I finally let you rest. I’ll toss you back into Hell.” She grins, waving her hand in front of her where she is standing at the top of the temple steps.

A circle of mist, big enough for at least ten people to walk side by side through, appears. It’s dark black on the outside, fading to grey in the middle like a thin layer of smoke waiting to be torn apart, ready to take her wherever she needs. She’s using my power, because I know now…I remember.

She’s stealing my powers.

She may be strong, may be evil, but she has taken my own magic inside her, using it against us. She’s conquered what I could not, what I was too weak to control. Maybe if I had survived, if I had learned to control it, this wouldn’t be happening. But a pity party won’t solve anything now.

If these powers are mine, surely I can call them?

I just don’t know how.

“Go, my armies. Destroy, kill, ruin. Burn this world to the ground in my name. Let the darkness sweep across our lands once again. Let us conquer and take what is ours!” she screams and lifts her hands, her soldiers move forward in sync as they step through the portal without a worry, spreading out across the world to do her bidding.

To destroy.

I have to stop her.

I sit up, and something takes hold of me. I have nothing else to lose. I know I will die, my family too if I don’t stop her. When you hit rock bottom, the only place to go is up, and it gives you strength those at the top will never understand. In fragility, in breaking, there is such power, such understanding, that anything can be broken if only you know how.

This strangely beautiful power fills me, and I throw it at her. She staggers back, not expecting it. She anticipates attacks from everyone else, but never me. She thinks me too weak, too bound by her. It rips through her, leaving her vulnerable. The portal collapses as she falls back, and instead of sucking me into my own memories, this time, we tumble into hers.

We are standing in the same temple, only now the rainforest around it is taller, and the birds caw and the sun shines high. The air smells different, even the earth feels altered, and the men and women milling around are in long, flowing dresses unlike today’s fashion. She stands at the top of the stairs, watching them, staring at them, until a voice sounds next to her. “Lover, come, you do not need to watch over them, our people know your laws by now. Come and relax with me,” the deep masculine voice calls.

Her head turns, and she sees the man reclining on pillows and throws to the right. The term ‘man’ would be too inconsequential. He looks like my family, like a god, with all golden, supple skin. He’s tall and muscular with big, bright blue eyes and smirking plump lips. His hair is as golden as the sun, flowing to his shoulders. In nothing but a gold and black skirt, he sits with his thigh propped up and his hand resting on it. There are sleeping, naked females draped around him, yet no jealousy fills us. He was feeding, that is all, the same as we do. We use the humans, and nothing could steal my love from her. Not even the red-haired female currently asleep on his lap, his hand idly running through her hair, petting her as one would an animal.

For a moment, something akin to jealousy flares through her before she squashes it and saunters his way. She nudges the woman from his lap with her toe before draping herself there. He sighs and leans back, allowing her to but not touching her. Not the way he did the human.

Interesting.

“I know.” She sighs. Her voice is different, softer, unguarded with him. Is this the man who betrayed her?

“I cannot wait to rule this world with you.”

He doesn’t answer for a moment, and when she lifts her head, the redhead is staring at him with loving eyes and a smile on her lips. Anger flashes through her and power crackles around us, throwing the redhead back. The man under her leaps to his feet, crashing her to the pillows. She sits with a snarl as he rushes to the redhead, checking on her. He crouches before her, touching her softly.

Lovingly.

“You worry over a human?” she snarls, getting to her feet, and a second later the redhead floats into the air with a scream, her back arching abnormally.

“Stop this!” he roars, standing and glaring at us, his hands curled into fists.

“Never! Maybe if I stop her from distracting you—”

“l’ll what? Love you?” He laughs bitterly.

She flinches and flicks her fingers and the redhead screams.

“You go too far!” he roars.

“And you forget your place! At my side and under me!” she yells back.

“Hating every moment of it!” he finally shouts and then freezes, horror entering his eyes when he realises what he has done.

The memory fades and flickers to another.

The same man is before her, but behind him are a mixture of humans and supernaturals. I feel their power, anger, and hatred as they back her into a corner, my magic rising to protect me. Hiding slightly behind him is the same redhead. Their bond is obvious. He has betrayed her for the human.

“How could you do this to me? We were supposed to rule this world together!”

“I don’t want to rule it. I want to live in it and enjoy it,” he spits. “You couldn’t understand that, couldn’t comprehend love because you are an evil fucking bitch without a heart.”

If only he knew, because I feel her heart cracking right now. This is the man who betrayed her, the one who entombed her…her love.

We fade back to normal. She’s panting on the stone steps with her hands out as if she’s warding off the memories. So that’s it, huh? One man hurts you, betrays you, and leaves you for someone he loves, and everyone deserves to die? Come on, men are like that, and you cannot hate him for finding the one meant for him. How can you begrudge true love?

She doesn’t answer, but I know her thoughts, because she thought he was her true love.

It doesn’t always work out, but you can’t give up on life because one person hurt you. If you never heal from their cuts, you end up bleeding all over everyone else, including those simply trying to love and help you. I try to reach her, to pierce that darkness now that I know her biggest secret. She has a heart, it’s just broken.

Silence!she roars.

You would doom the world over one man? One single man? And you call me foolish, you call me human and emotional,I snarl. The world is a beautiful place, filled with love and possibilities, and you are letting one man control you.

I am doing what I always intended to do!she yells. To make this world mine, to make them worship me.

Worship isn’t love. They may want you, may listen to you…but it will never be enough. It will never be the love you sought back then, I argue, and she pushes me further back, but it’s too late, because I’ve seen inside of her now. It also makes it impossible to hate her, because even though she is evil, even though she is bad, she’s hurt. Knowing someone’s pain and seeing their true self makes it impossible to hate them, even when you should.

You would doom others to live a life of pain like you, pain and darkness. How can you do that? You weren’t always evil.

You know nothing. One memory does not mean you know me, human. Watch your mouth. He was a fool to betray me, but it only made me stronger, and I know now to never let another close again. I do not need a king to rule at my side. I am the queen of darkness.

I let her rant, knowing she won’t listen right now, but I have everything I need to reach her. I just hope I can do it in time to stop this.

To save this world.