Pretty Spelled by K.A Knight
Lilith
Over the next twenty-four hours, I’m subjected to more mental torture simply for calling out my mate’s name. She enjoyed hurting him. I could feel his betrayal and anger, and I couldn’t let her hurt my Attie like that. I had to let him know I was here and that it wasn’t me. Only now, I’m having to watch as she kills her way through a village to fill her army, and my guilt has grown so much that I’m vibrating with it. I am sick to my stomach, tears drip down my face, and the walls of my once bright heart are cracking away, floating like the ashes of the burning huts.
It’s only a few hours of trekking through the jungle from her temple. This peaceful tribe wasn’t hurting anybody until she turned up in the middle of the night like evil incarnate knocking on their doors. They were sleeping serenely, the goats baaing as they ran through the small village. Some of the huts are in treetops, and as we stand in the middle of the dirt road leading in and out, I have to watch her guards toss people out of the huts from the trees above. They scream on their way down, landing before me in the mud, shrieking in pain from their broken bones and terror. All around us, their homes burn. One of the guards sets them alight to chase the people out as the zombies keep them herded into a pen for their animals.
Ready to be made into one of her soldiers.
Kneeling before a man, she wraps her clawed hand around his throat as she tilts his head back before leaning down and kissing him. She allows me to taste the fear and confusion on his lips, and then she starts to inject her magic, forcing it down his throat until his lips are locked around hers. He is helpless as he flails, trying to escape. It pumps through him, changing him. She may be a necromancer, able to raise people from the dead and change armies…but she is also the evil in this world. She can infect the living, making them mindless slaves, which is something, up until recently, I didn’t know she could do.
It seems that as I weaken, she grows stronger.
I watch in horror as she pulls away and that darkness creeps across his once brown and orange flecked eyes, obscuring them until nothing but empty evil exists. It shows on his skin, crawling across it like roots of a tree claiming a source of life. She stands with a laugh, and he waits for instructions.
Just another one for her army.
Curling into a ball, I observe as she goes through the people one by one, infecting them, making them hers until the village is burned to a crisp and the fire spreads to the local jungle. Then she turns, her new servants in tow, and starts to lead them back to her temple. She’s building it for a reason, getting stronger and stronger… There has to be a way to stop her. I can’t rely on my family, it could get them hurt. I’ve been here, trapped for years. Surely there has to be a way for me to stop her?
Nothing has worked so far, what else could I try?
Back at the temple, she lies around on the furs at the top of the steps, watching as her new army gathers below, standing in neat little rows. All eyes turn to her, waiting and watching. There’s something familiar about it, as if she has done this before many times.
I have. You humans forget so easily. Even the gods do not remember. Before them, there was only me. This world has been mine far longer than it was yours. Every war starts with a spark of evil, of darkness, and throughout the ages, I was there, reaping, sowing. These steps ran red with blood, the fires burning with souls. My people at my side—
What people?I ask, trying to get as much out of her as I can while she’s feeling talkative.
Darkness comes in many forms, little human. I am merely one entity, the goddess of darkness, but I was lonely…so lonely, so I made my own creations. Power stealers, demons… They come from me. The magic was diluted through the years, tainted by humanity and light, but once, we were so strong. Four of us ruled this world side by side. Not even the gods themselves could stop us.
So what happened?I query, trying not to sound too eager as I attempt to learn how they were stopped before.
What happens to any? I was betrayed. My people were killed, and my temple was buried to make them forget. I was locked away, trapped in an undying body, never to be released. It was the only way they knew how to stop me.
I remember that vaguely. I was more me then, less her…I think. She pulled me from those flames, but by doing so, she tainted me with her darkness, which only grew. She changed me, forced me to do her bidding, even across time and distance, until I broke into a long-forgotten tomb and—
Released me, she finishes with a laugh, trailing her hand down my side.Your soul is now interwoven with mine, little human. You freed me. I had been dormant for so long, the world became unbalanced. I could spread seeds of evil, of course, but it wasn’t enough. Then there you were, so filled with regret, pain, and longing. It called to me, and I used the last of my energy to pull you free, to bring you back to life, to make you mine…and now you will do the same for me. You will be the catalyst that rebirths my people and my reign. I will once again rule this world, the temples will run red with the traitors’ blood, darkness will cover this earth, and nothing or no one will stop me this time. Fool me once, gods, shame on me…fool me twice…never.
Some people are just evil. She wasn’t born good, and then life changed her. She wasn’t hurt, betrayed, or made this way. She was created, born out of necessity, but she’s wrong. Yes, the world is unbalanced, but too much darkness is leaking into the soil and corrupting our people, not light. The gods and Fates have to correct it in the only way they can.
She doesn’t love, she doesn’t fear…she simply eats.
To eat.
To corrupt.
To destroy.
Fates? Child, you are foolish if you still believe in those who have abandoned you. What have they ever done for you? Did they stop you from being killed? Did they give you an easy life? What about now? They have left you to me, to the darkness, sacrificed your soul to it. You suffer and they ignore you, and yet you still believe in them, in the light, even when you are surrounded by evil.
You don’t have to see to believe, I argue, just because it’s hard now, just because it feels hopeless, doesn’t mean I can just give up. Otherwise, what kind of person would I be? To only trust in them, in the purpose of this world, when it was easy?
She sits up, tilting her head, her nails clicking against the stone. But when have you ever had it easy?she purrs.Your mate didn’t want you. His parents hated and tortured you your whole life. Your birth family died in pain, and you were there to experience it with them, while your mate fought a war that wasn’t his. You suffered in secret for so long. Oh yes, I saw it in your memories. The pain, the power they experimented on you with. It ripped you apart and changed you. And yet you live. Don’t worry, I will break the life from you soon and consume your soul. I may even miss you a little when you’re gone. No other talks back to me or dares to question me but you. You brave, foolish little human. Always thinking you can change the world. The world doesn’t need changing, it needs saving, and no one can do that.
And your hubris will be your pride,I spit, sitting up taller inside myself, refusing to be cowed. You cannot see past your own power to that of others, to the beauty in suffering, to the forgiveness in healing and leaving. Yes, I suffered, and I would do it all over again, because I got to spend years with my birth family. I experienced things I never would have if I had given up. I got to see my mate grow and change into the god he is, to see my family become stronger. Smarter. Maturing into incredible people. Yes, sometimes it hurt, but without the lows, how can you appreciate the highs? Anything is better than feeling nothing. Without love, pain, and loss, we are nothing but mindless zombies wandering through life—no thanks to you. I will take it all, everything you can throw at me, because it means I got to be with him for eighteen amazing years, and if that is all I’ll ever have, it was worth it.
Ignoring me, or uncaring, she stands and looks at her guards near the small temple entrance. The fires burn low as the moon grows in the sky. “I do miss my little demon pet, maybe we should make another,” she coos at them.
“Whatever you wish, mistress,” the wolf shifter replies instantly. They may still have their own minds and free will, but they are little more than intelligent zombies, obeying her every whim and desire.
Unable to say no.
She snaps, lashing out and hitting him. “I didn’t ask for your opinion!” she yells and then softens her voice. “Go, find me a demon. Bring him back.”
Two of them break away, instantly moving to do her bidding as she strides back into the darkness of the temple. “Soon, little human, you will watch as I make this world mine and torture and kill that mate of yours.”
Not in my body, bitch.
