Chapter 22
Aukkarari island
Ash
Four months had now passed since the ball and I avoided Sofya as much as possible. She didn't seem to want to talk anyway, which was good because I didn't ever want to see that terrified look on her face again. Especially since I had caused it.
About a month ago, we started making plans to escape the island and kill Alek, everyone agreed that the sooner we do it the better. Ivanna would probably freak out if she knew what we wanted to do. She'd completely disagree with us and we'd have to wait probably up to another year. We could not afford to wait that long. So we planned it behind her back.
Today was the day we were leaving. I was sooooo excited, not. Maxon, Nico, and Lucy were already over at my place. Sofya wasn't here yet. We still had three hours to wait though. We all had small packs full of necessities and weapons ready to go. Now we were just lounging on the couch thinking about what could happen and making plans, attempting to, you know, be prepared.
A few minutes later there was a light knock on the door. Lucy got up and answered it, it was Sofya. Her gaze slid over everyone and landed on me, I looked away. Once I was sure she wasn't looking at me I looked back over. Lucy and Sofya were sitting on one of the couches braiding each other's hair.
"When are we leaving again?" Maxon asked softly, breaking the silence.
"In about three hours," Sofya answered, her voice wavering.
At about 11:30 I went to go change. I put on a simple black T-shirt with a leather jacket covered in dragon scaled over, black leather pants, black combat boots with daggers hidden in them, and put my onyx blade in the sheath on my waist and slipped my twin silver katana's into the sheaths on my back.
When I came back in everyone was gathering their things and the neria had come back in from wherever they had wandered off to. Stella hopped onto my shoulder, chittering into my ear excitedly. Sofya walked over to me with Ezmia on her shoulder, she looked ready for battle as well, and pretty damn hot.
"Are you ready for this?" She asked, narrowing her eyes. I looked at her expression, it was hilarious.
"Yeah," I said, trying not to laugh. She nodded then marched towards the door, swinging it wide open and stepping into the night. I followed her out. It was pitch black with only the moon providing a stream light.
We walked down the dirt road down to the north side of the beach. Sofya had already put up a shielded dome of magic up and was in the water up to her waist. I conjured up my own and joined it with hers and made it big enough for everyone. Once everyone was inside, we started walking. As we walked through the ocean various fish darted around observing us.
About two hours later we stopped for a break. Lucy, Nico, and Maxon were all passed out. I was still awake keeping the shield up, Sofya and I were supposed to be taking turns but she was up, right now as well. I wondered what she was thinking.
"Do you want to sleep? I could take over now." She said, coming over and sitting next to me. I shook my head. I had to push her away but it was hard to do that since we were supposed to be working together.
"No it's fine I don't think I could sleep," I said. I had way too much on my mind.
"Okay," Sofya said. She looked out the bubble, into the vast dark ocean. Her eyes narrowed and she stood. What was she doing? Then she stepped out. I swear to the gods what was wrong with her? I looked closer, a blob was nearing. I stood up and went out. I looked closer. What was that? It looked like a creature of some sort and Sofya was attacking it. Before something bad could happen I quickly rushed over and grabbed Sofya and we smashed back through the bubble, collapsing in a heap. I put a hand behind her head before it hit the ground. I kneeled over her.
"Are you ok?" I asked frantically, hoping she wasn't hurt.
"Yeah." She said softly. I got up, then pulled her up and grabbed her shoulders, and looked into her eyes.
"Are you hurt?" Sofya shook her head. I sat down on one of the rocks and placed her on my lap, drying her off with my magic.
"Why did you go out there?" I asked her. But before she could answer, someone came through the bubble. Sofya stood up. I quickly got up and stood in front of her. "Who are you?" I growled at the blonde-haired blue-eyed guy. I raised my hands conjuring my magic. I blinked, wait a minute, it was that dufus from school, Enzo, or whatever the heck his dumb name was. Sofya jumped in front of me.
"Ash he's a friend, remember," she said quickly before I could do anything, then turned to Enzo. "You have a lot of explaining to do." She said to Enzo with a sharp gaze. I was still wary and glared at Enzo, what was he doing down here? More importantly, how was he down here? "Um, let's sit down and talk this out," Sofya said sitting down on one of the rocks, I went and sat next to her.
Enzo sat across from us and everyone else sat around, looking at Enzo with confusion. Maxon had scooted as far away as possible without looking like he was completely outside of the circle his hand shaking in a slight tremor. "Everyone, this is Enzo." Sofya started saying. "He's a friend from back home and I have no clue why he's here," Sofya said, her voice getting louder and angrier. She was clearly pissed, she had known Enzo for a long time and clearly trusted him. "Mind explaining Enzo." She said with a raised eyebrow. Now, I was not the only person glaring at Enzo. Enzo cleared his throat and surveyed all of us before looking back to Sofya.
"I'm a coralia, which is like what you would call a mermaid/merman, but we don't generally appreciate being called that. We have two forms, similar to demons and angels, to appear human." Enzo explained.
After he explained his whole life story, he left. I haven't paid much attention but it was mostly about his human life involving Sofya anyway. I was still a little suspicious though, it seemed like he was hiding something, and I don't think Sofya could tell. She was too blinded by her love for him. I could tell.
Once he left, everyone went back to sleep but me and Sofya, she came over and sat by me, laying her head on my shoulder, she looked like she was about to drop dead from exhaustion. I noticed she felt more comfortable near me though, so I let her have it. I'd do anything for her.
"You know, about what you told me after the ball. I realized that even though you killed all those people, I don't care. Because I know who you are, Ash. One moment does not define a person. And as I saw just right now, you are still trying to protect me. Just as you did the day I first met you. I trust you with my life, please stop pushing me away. I can't take it anymore." She whispered in my ear. My eyes widened. I didn't think she remembered, how could she, I took the memory away. I noticed her absently rubbing something on her neck, it was the necklace I had given her long ago, a promise that we would see each other again. I looked down at my wrist, the silver chain with a dark red gem, matching Sofya's.
...
Walking down the beach on the way back to my house I saw a little girl, maybe seven or eight standing in the water up to her waist, her long wavy dark brown hair flowing down her back just grazing the water, she was wearing a simple blue sundress, the bottom half soaked. Big violet eyes stared mindlessly at the ocean before her. What was she doing? A huge wave, about twenty feet or more was rushing straight at her. I realized she wasn't going to move.
Without thinking, I broke into a sprint, rushing towards the girl before the monstrous wave toppled her and she drowned. I looked around quickly, there was no one, I shifted. Ah, it felt good to stretch my wings. I spread them out and took flight drifting with the wind. I dove down and snatched the girl, just as the wave toppled over right where she used to be standing.
We descended and fell in a messy pile onto the beach. Sand flew as we rolled down the dune. I wasn't too great at my fight control, yet. I sat up brushing the sand out of my hair. The girl was just about to sit up, spitting sand out of her mouth as I quickly shifted back to my human form before the girl could see, or at least I tried to.
The girl looked at me with her wide violet eyes in awe, I wondered if she would still be in awe if she saw the real me. Of course not, she would be terrified just like every other human, well even if she wasn't human she still would be, everyone was, even my own mother and father. I had never met anyone immune to my aura, this foolish human would be no different.
"Thank you." The girl said, walking up to me and embracing me tightly then quickly let go, surprising me, normally humans were cruel and wasteful from when I had observed them. They weren't nice or grateful. This was one strange human.
"Your welcome," I said quietly. "What were you doing? Where are your parents?" I asked. Seriously though, what was this human child doing all alone? Human children were always supposed to be with an adult, right? A frown appeared on her face.
"I don't know." She said, biting the bottom of her lip. "One minute I was walking with them, then I was in the water and everything went black. Once you saved me I woke up, but I don't think I was sleeping. Also, what are you? You had wings." She asked a smile spreading across her face, not the reaction I had expected, at least she hadn't seen all of me. I was going to have to erase her memories anyway since she saw some of me, so I guess I could tell her.
"I'm an aemon, half-angel, half-demon," I said studying her reaction. Her grin widened.
"That's so cool. My mum always told me stories about demons and angels, they're so fascinating. I wish I was one." She said, sighing. What a strange human, but she was oddly pleasing, it was nice to know there was some hope for humanity. "I'm Sofyalisia, bye the way." She said holding out a hand.
"Ash," I said shaking it. At the contact, a wave of heat spread through me. I quickly let go. What the heck! The feeling had dulled but was still there, pulsing through me. I looked back at the girl and her mouth hung open. Did she feel that too? Was she? No, she couldn't. I would be able to sense her, in a different way, like how I did with my parents and brother.
"Did you feel that?" she asked, her eyes still widened. I nodded. "What was that?" she asked, eyes full of wonder.
"I don't know." She didn't question my response, just nodded. "How old are you by the way? I mean, my mom told me that angels and demons live forever, so do you? But you don't really look old at all, sometimes you can tell by the person's eyes if they don't look old, they just have that wisdom in them, but you don't." Jeez she rambled a lot, and apparently I didn't have "wisdom in my eyes.
"I'm seven, and they do live forever, but they stop aging at twenty-five," I said, but I didn't know how long I would live, not one aemon had made it past twenty, but I wasn't about to tell her that.
"Cool, I'm six almost seven, when's your birthday? Mines July 10th," she said happily.
"June 10th, I just turned seven," I answered. "I think we need to find your parents," I said abruptly.
"Yeah." She said, pondering the thought as if it was no big deal she was left alone.
"Come I'll take you back to my place, then we can call someone, my dad will know what to do."
"Ok," she said then skipped over to me. It took five minutes to get to my house, my dad was standing with his arms crossed on the porch. Oh darn, I was in trouble. His expression slightly softened when he saw who had come with me. We went inside and sat on the couch. My father kneeled down in front of us. I could tell he was pissed but didn't let it show in front of Sofyalisia.
"Hello there dear, did you get lost?" he asked Sofyalisia softly.
"Um, I guess so." She said with a worried expression. Oh, now she was worried. I shook my head in disbelief.
"Ok I'm going to call the authorities and we'll find your parents." Then he exited the room but before he did, he whispered in my ear, "You know what to do." I sighed and faced Sofyalisia. I didn't want to erase her memories. It didn't feel right. For some weird reason, I wanted this strange little human to remember me.
I dug my hand into my pocket and pulled out a necklace, it was a simple gold chain with a sparkling dark red gemstone attached, I had found it on the beach today, just laying in the wet sand washed up on the shore. I unclasped it then put it around her neck. Silently, I promised one day we would find each other again. Her wide violet eyes gazed into mine.
"What's that for?" She asked. Very quietly I whispered so not even she could hear me.
"So you can remember me." I touched her cheek and cleaned her memory of the past two hours and replaced it with happy fake ones of her building a sandcastle on the beach. I guided her to my dad. "Goodbye Sofyalisia," I said, a frown on my face. Then I headed to my room. I couldn't help but glimpse back and found her violet eyes gazing into mine.
...
Gently I touched the back of her head and put a sleep spell on her so she could rest. I guess my plan for making her hate me had backfired. Although under no circumstances could I allow her to give her heart to me. Even when she had captured mine.