The Rise

Chapter Nine

I stiffened as the words left her lips. She was supposed to give me this? Was it from Aeron? Was he trying to taunt me now?

Valerio gripped the woman tighter. His lips formed a tight line. "Why?"

She crossed her arms again, glared at Valerio, and said, "Like I said before, it's none of your business."

After I gave Valerio a stern nod, he released her. I knew she wouldn't going to give us any answers by us just demanding them. She huffed and dusted herself off. When she turned to me, I gave her the skull.

"Mae," Valerio started. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

I held up my hand. I didn't know if it was a smart idea or not. This woman wasn't kind at all. There was no reason for me to be kind back to her. But I didn't know who she was or why she was up here. I needed answers.

And, to get those answers, I wanted to be kinder than how my mother would've been. I was being very careful to not step into the same footsteps as her. I didn't want to let everyone's deaths make me a monster.

The woman snatched the skull from my hands.

"What's your name?" I asked softly.

"Mariella. What's it to you?"

I gazed at her for a few moments, watching her silver hair blow in her face. "My name is Mae. I'm the Moon Goddess."

Mariella scoffed. "Yeah, right." She looked me up and down, pausing at the glowing white mark on my chest. Her eyes widened. "Oh, my goodness," she whispered. Dropping to her knees, she held out the skull to me. "Oh, please, forgive me. I didn't know. Don't-don't hurt me." Fear shone in her eyes.

I smiled sweetly down at her. She probably thought I was my mother. Mother's reputation was obviously not a good one. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She held out the skull a bit farther. "Take this, please."

I took it from her and helped her up. "Mariella, can you tell me who this is?"

"The first Moon Goddess. It's her skull. My family saved it – was asked to save it by her before she died."

My brows furrowed. "Why?"

She looked at the skull for a moment. "I'm not sure. Everything has gotten a bit fuzzy throughout the generations. But my mother told me that this skull wielded the power of dark and light before that terrible, terrible man took it from her and became the darkness himself."

I swallowed hard. "Aeron." I should've known he took the power from her, probably stole it right under her nose, and then killed her.

She shook her head in disgust. "That bastard."

"Why is he a bastard?" I asked. Of course, I could list a hundred and one reasons why he was a bastard, but I needed to know exactly why he was one to her. After all, she lived atop the mountain that he had lived upon.

She pinched her lips together. "When the original Moon Goddess died, he left a woman in my family here to guard this skull. Told her he'd be back to help her out, told her she couldn't leave. He even cursed her to live on this mountain and this mountain alone. My whole family bares this curse now."

"You can't leave the mountain?"

She shook her head. "I have tried to leave, but he's cursed me to the spot. If I try to pass a certain barrier, my body aches with an inescapable pain, and my lungs fill with – they fill with a darkness – and I can't breathe. Oh, dear, it's so bad – too bad." She trembled, as if she was reliving the experience many times over.