Heart of Darkness

Chapter 31

Admittedly, that had not been the smartest thing that she could have done. There was putting your life in danger, and then there was knowingly stepping out unshielded directly into the unwavering path of an amplified Dragon Slave.

She wasn’t sure who was more surprised.

The emotions in the room were swirling, an invisible miasma that had swelled like a concerto in a rising crescendo of string and brass in a powerful wall of sound. It hit Xellos just as strongly as the sudden kiss had, racing through him, as if it were his life’s blood.

It was his life’s blood.

He wasn’t aware of anything but the power, the weakness gone as if it never had been. He felt almost as good as he had when he was cutting down the Golden Dragons so very long ago. This was It. This was that rush of power that most Mazoku spent their entire existences seeking, the pure and unadulterated impact of Good touching Evil.

Better yet, it was reflected by not one, not two, but three sources.

The only one not cringing was Amelia.

She sat back, those blue eyes glittering with that power that he couldn’t touch, could only gaze at and wonder at it. Here and there, he saw a hint of gold in the glitter and he boggled at the thought that Amelia had called Chaos to aid her. The little Princess certainly was coming into her own.

“Um,” Naga managed to say after a beat. “Ew.” She blinked at her little sister, uncertain. What could have possessed Amelia to do something like that? Was it a remnant of whatever Xellos had used once upon a time to control Amelia?

Xellos wanted to reach out and take Amelia by the chin, to push her away in a visual rejection of her, just to squeeze a bit more emotion out of the moment, but he knew that Amelia wouldn’t allow that to pass. Instead, he rose to his feet and moved to look down to her.

He never made it.

Before Xellos was fully on his feet, he was thrown clear across the room by a very, very angry Jedah who hadn’t even entered the room proper yet. If it hadn’t been for Amelia’s actions a few moments ago, Xellos would probably have been more than half-dead on the spot. He really needed to stop getting involved with Lina and her group. It was dangerous to his health.

“What are you doing, Xellos?” Several quick strides brought him into the room, a swift and powerful figure caught somewhere half between the impression of mortal and the shielding of power.

He was impressive, even like that.

Xellos didn’t even bother to fight, to risk that which Amelia had given him. Instead, he remained still, allowing the pain from Jedah’s attack to take him. It held him in place so that Jedah could sweep across the room and lift him by the robes with one hand.

“I told you to get them to safety. This isn’t safe, Xellos.” There was a dangerous edge to Jedah’s voice, a harsh tone that spoke volumes of displeasure… and the inevitable desire and ability to correct the source of the displeasure. Those crystal blue eyes flashed, a warning surge of power glinting within them.

Xellos knew that this place wasn’t safe, knew that he’d not had the energy to do anything more, knew that he had disappointed Jedah, and that any punishment that Jedah deemed necessary was the proper way of it.

And then, the random element acted again.

“Put him down, Jedah.” The voice was sharp, imperious, absolute in its command. A mere mortal or a lesser Mazoku might have acted reflexively to her words. Jedah simply turned his head to cast that chill blue-eyed gaze on her. She was standing there, a proud figure that maybe wasn’t so tall, but she carried herself with the hint of being so in her bearing. When her gaze locked with his, she didn’t flinch.

Reality warped. The world twisted, perception changing and settling on a mist-shrouded area. Shades of grey swirled everywhere; giving wherever she was a strangely uniform appearance.

But still, she didn’t flinch. Instead, she folded her arms and looked at Jedah, that same look that he’d been given by his mother when he’d misbehaved and managed to only injure his pet and not kill it. “I said to put him down, not slip us sideways into an offshoot of the Astral Plane to discuss it.” The words were neatly snapped, and Amelia turned her back on him, looking out over the mists. “Zelgadis, if that was Zelgadis, nearly killed Xellos, Jedah. He did what he could. This situation will rapidly spiral out of control if you let it, and I don’t intend to allow you to do that.”

“Amelia, you don’t know who… what I am,” Jedah countered, no small amount of surprise in his voice. She seemed to be taking a great deal of things in stride, but then he didn’t know that she had invoked the chaos that was Woman.

“Yes, I do, Jedah,” Amelia sighed as she turned back to look at him. Quiet steps brought her to him, and she looked at him with steady eyes. “You are brother to the man that my best friend married, and loathe as you may be to admit it, you need Xellos at your side in this. Just as you need myself, Lina, my sister and everyone else.”

Was she really that innocent? No, Jedah decided, she knew precisely what he was. She’d seen him, after all, screamed near bloody murder at his appearance as a Mazoku. Oh, Amelia knew, and she was telling him so. She was also telling him something else, if he’d cared to have listened.

She didn’t hate him for what he was, and she wasn’t afraid of him.

“You do know,” he said quietly, allowing his appearance to settle as the Mazoku that he was, allowing the illusion to dissipate into the mist.

She smiled and touched his cheek. “Let’s go, Jedah. Time enough for this discussion later.”

When the world resettled around them, they were as if they’d not moved. Jedah put Xellos on his feet, and turned to look to the three within the room who were watching him. “It’s time to talk.”