IN ANOTHER LIFE , josie saltzman ✔️

45. Sanctuary

Astoria laughed. "You want to follow me, miss Amaya?" I stood up and picked up the basket. I couldn't quite understand what could be so funny about my words. "You? Amaya? First of your kind? Want to follow me? The leader of the Fae? Of the bloody underworld?" They asked and continued laughing. It echoed through the woods. "Do you even know what I'm capable of? What I want to change on this planet?" I nodded and they stopped laughing. "I want to abolish the king's and queen's rule! I want them to form a circle, like the one they used to have, a circle of shadows... who make all the decisions together and unite the landings instead of splitting them up by borders and guards. Is that so wrong of me?" They asked and stood up, the green coat flowing behind them.

"This rule, their rule... it's dangerous, Amaya. It's killing people." They chuckled darkly, followed by a sigh and stepped forward until they stood at my feet. "It killed your aunt, killed your mom and it will kill you. And everyone you care about." They said and I got on my feet. Our faces were inches away from eachother. I scoffed, "You killed my granddaughter Selina Williams, my son is nowhere to be found, you infiltrated my home with a clone! You're as much as killer as they are. At least, admit it." I spat and opened a portal a few feet behind them. "So I can go back to my family." I added in a low tone. "What are you talking about? I have never killed anyone! I have a strict rule against it." I turned around and looked at Astoria. "Selina Williams, half-revilas, half-earthwalker was found dead in a street in Savannah, Georgia. On Earth. Her father, my son, James Holt, can't be found. He's likely dead, too, and that's all because of you." I said slowly, to make them understand. "Amaya," they said and looked sympathetically upon me, "I was not responsible for that. I'll prove that to you."

They closed my portal and opened another. I hesitated to walk through but in the end, I did it. We were back on Earth, where exactly I couldn't make out. "We're in Charlottesville, Virginia. Not far from Mystic Falls. This is where I first built a laboratory for research purposes that was out of the hands of the elders." Astoria stated and I chuckled, "You realize, that the elders are able to reach out to Earth, right?" I asked and they rolled their eyes, "You'll see that I couldn't have been me." They said in a more serious tone. "Wait, I remember this." I said as I looked upon the building. "This is where they brought me."  I told Astoria and they tried to hold me back when I began to walk towards the building.

As soon as I had entered, an alarm blared throughout the building, "ALARM, UNKNOWN REVILAS PRESENCE DETECTED AT THE MAIN ENTRANCE!" A shrill voice blared and I was quickly met with with labcoats directing guns towards me. "Silly humans. I'm a revilas, and a vampire, and a werewolf. No ordinary bullet-" A shot was fired and it grazed my arm, ripping off a bit of my blue, long-arm shirt. "Ow!" I hissed as I began to bleed and a blue substance formed around the scratch. "ASTORIA CHAMBERLAIN, FAE." The same voice blared as Astoria walked up behind me. "Stand down!" I looked up to them and chuckled, "Yeah, right, as if they're gonna listen to-" Another shot was fired and Astoria held up their hand quickly as a golden transparent force field formed around them and the bullet hit the wall next to me instead. "I've had it." I told the lot of them and crouched down, my hand flat on the marble ground as a wave of magical energy blasted the labcoats infront of me into the air, disintegrating them in the process. "Ground magic?" Astoria asked, but I ignored them and stood up.

I walked up to the reception and grinned. Another man in a labcoat cowered on the floor. He was old, seemed to be in 50's. "Hi. You're gonna give me access to your laboratories, okay?" I growled quietly and a shivering hand handed me a laminated access card with a white band. I wrapped the band around my neck and let the card hang down carelessly. "Thank you." I smiled at the middle aged man. I turned to the side and walked the hallway down. "Amaya!" Astoria shouted but I ignored them. "You can't just obliterate these people." I rolled my eyes and used the card to open the double doors infront of me. "Well, as you just saw, I can." I smiled at them sweetly in a fake manner and took a left. "How do you know these halls?" They asked. "They carded me around every hour on a operating table, through every single door while I was half-conscious." I said, suppressing the memories best I could as I could see the flashing over-head lights of the halls before my inner eye.