Queens of Darkness

Chapter Four

"Zaynah," I repeated, rolling the taste of it around on my tongue. Zaynah made a face.

"That was the name of a weak, naïeve girl who was subject to her father's wrath. She's dead."

"Where is your father now?" I asked.

"Dead. I killed him."

Somehow that didn't shock me. "I killed my mother—my father was more valuable to me than life. My mother was a whining, incompetent mortal."

"It was my mother whom I held dear," Zaynah said, her voice softening. "My abusive father abandoned us, abandoned her to die of her sickness for another woman."

"That's harsh. I know what you went through."

"Yeah, well... aahhh." Zaynah pressed her fingertips against her temple, sucking in through her teeth. When her invisible pain had passed, she looked up at me, her expression unreadable. "He ordered me to kill you."

"Who is this guy?"

"My Mas—I mean, Alexander... The Great."

~~~ (End of Revisions) ~~~

"What?! I thought that guy was dead!" I exclaimed.

"He is."

"Then why is he- oh..." I realized. "That's who your... friend is?" She nodded. "Like in your head?" She nodded, then let out a heavy sigh.

"The power wasn't a mistake, but I've succumbed to a new man: Alexander. I don't like submitting to men. You understand what it's like, don't you?"

"Yes. I submitted to the pull of Morthdu, to the lull of the dark powers of the Netherworld. But I resisted. My last act was to renounce the darkness in me and choose family over power." I hesitated. "You still have a chance; you can still resist Alexander's power."

"No, you don't understand what he's like," she said, worry Chris her brow. "He's also the source of my power. I will never again be left defenseless. You have a sister, but my family is dead. My father killed my mother, and I killed my father. My family is gone. I have no one left to fight for."

"Except yourself."

Zaynah sighed. "I suppose so."

"You have me," I said firmly, looking her squarely in her eyes. She shook her head.

"It's not like that; I barely even know you."

"You do now, I replied. "We were both queens of some dark force at one point in our lives. We've both killed one parent and had the other killed by someone else-"

"Wait, your father was killed?" Zaynah asked, sounding surprised. "By whom?"

"Kara."

"But she's your sister!"

"Asmodeus, my demon father, is my connection to Kara."

"And not your mother? Where are you staying?" She asked vexed.

"With Kara's mother," I replied.

"But I thought-"

"We're half-sisters."

"So she killed her own- your own father?" Zaynah gasped incredulously. "How could you forgive her?"

"She didn't know he was our father at the time until I showed up and told her," I said. "I didn't forgive her for a long time. I spent most of the next year bent on revenge. It wasn't until the last minute of my life I forgot my anger and chose to save her. Even then I hadn't forgiven her quite yet, but at least I understood why she did it. He was threatening her loved ones."

"I have no loved ones left," Zaynah stated. My heart throbbed with pity briefly, but if she was anything like me, she wouldn't appreciate it. "My parents are dead, I accidentally killed my boyfriend..."

It took a second to process, but when I did, my eyebrows raised. Frowning, I asked, "Accidentally?"

Zaynah grinned sheepishly, looking almost as confused as I did.

"I... The night I got my power, before I knew what it was, before I knew how to control it, I lashed out and killed him before I knew who he was. I saw him as a threat while I was snooping around the archaeological dig site looking for some artifacts to sell. My mother was quite sick at the time; I needed to find a way to afford the medicine. I found the base and opened it, letting the pump still into me. And... and I killed him..." She choked back a small sob before collecting herself again, hardening her mask into a powerful confident aura.

I looked into her eyes, letting my guard down for just enough time to let a sliver of sympathy escape. Her eyes widened questioningly, then her brow furrowed.

"I don't need your- agh!" she started to spit, but was interrupted by something. Zaynah pressed her  fingers to her head and gasped out, "It's... Alexander. H-he's forcing me to kill you... now..." Flashes of green lightning sparked around her.

She straightened, a brief moment of clarity entering her eyes. She thrust her hand out towards Kara, who was still trapped, and a green, vaporous mist coiled out from her outstretched palm and around Kara, melting the wax. Kara looked around wildly.

"Take... take your s-sister and get out of here!" Zaynah managed to force out. "I'll try to hold him off as long as I can, but I don't know how long I can manage. Prepare.. for a battle!" She fell to her knees in agony.

"What's going on?" Kara asked, panicked. "Where am I? What-"

"I'll explain later; no time to talk- RUN! If we get split up again, just get back to the apartment!"

"Gotcha!" She took off running with me following close behind. At some point the demons had vanished, but I'd worry about that later.

Behind us, Zaynah gave one last, high-pitched shriek. I glanced back in time to see the green frog roll over. Then I turned and sprinted for home.

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Sorry for the delayed updates guys! I know I've probably been losing audience, and I feel really bad for keeping you guys hanging, but with a ton of homework, musical scenes, musical auditions, 2 projects, winger training for crew, etc. I've been really busy. I feel awful for not updating anything big, so my Christmas present to y'all will be a bunch of big updates (hopefully). It makes me feel worse that I read a rant recently (genie_us) about how annoying it is when authors don't update for weeks then update w/ a big apology saying how sorry they are and that they won't do it again even though they do anyways, so that makes me feel even guiltier. I can't promise I won't do it again, but I'll try to prevent it as best I can with my busy high school life and whatnot at a high-performing school (a "college-prep" school as my teacher says). Also, with this book, I didn't even realize I already had another chapter done, so I was writing another chapter lol. Well anyways, I hope you understand, and happy holidays!

-Misty out (at 2:10 a.m. on a school-night...)