“Okay, baby. It’s okay.” Roan drags the blanket up around me as I fight to push up to my feet and pace and can’t.
“Deep breath,” Lukan urges, helping his brother swaddle me.
“I can’t...” I gulp air like it’s running out. “What is happening? Just tell me...” A sob escapes. “What is happening!”
“Roan, make her tea.” Kellen orders, never taking his attention off my face. “Rina, easy breaths. You know you’re safe.”
“I don’t know!” I scream, terror melting into fury. “I don’t know anything. Everything I thought I knew is a lie. I thought you were you, but you’re a ... a soul? A fragment? I thought my aunt was dead, but she’s upstairs with shit all over her walls and her eyeballs in a bowl. I thought fairies and women with snake for legs were a myth.” I’m getting louder with every word, practically screaming as I shove Lukan’s hands off me. “And you’re lying. That snake woman said you were taking me back to be some ... some demiurge’s sacrifice. Tell me she was wrong.”
No one stops me when I clumsily drag my torso off Lukan’s lap and into the cushion next to him. It takes a lot of work. A lot of clawing and using upper body strength that I don’t have, but I find myself half reclined with my feet on his thighs. He doesn’t touch me, for which I am grateful, but lets me stay there while I bunch the blanket up to my neck.
“Tell me she lied.” I fix them with hard eyes wet with tears I can’t stop. “Tell me you’re not taking me to whatever the hell a demiurge is who killed thousands of humans and wants to kill me, too.”
Only the crack of my heartbeat echoes through the room. Tangles with the snap and pop of the fire. The shriek of the wind slamming against the windows. The silence is a screaming confirmation that grips my throat.
“It’s more complicated than that, Rina,” Kellen says at long last, every word tight like he has to physically pry them from his chest. “We can explain everything.”
I wiggle myself further against the cushions. Adding more distance.
“Then explain!” I snap.
My attention fixes on the hands he rubs together anxiously between his knees. The stain on them is no more than shadows, but I know they are still marked with blood.
He killed that snake creature.
I’m not angry about it. I don’t blame him for it. She was going to eat me. But the fact that I witnessed a murder...
Of a monster,I remind myself. She was a monster.
So, what are they then? What makes them any different?
At long last, Kellen sighs and shifts back. His hands fall flat against his thighs as he meets my eyes.
“In order for you to understand, we have to tell you how it all started.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“The world was a different place before humans,” Kellen begins, a low murmur as deep as the ocean whispering in my ear. “Before monsters. It was a hollow space of endless darkness crafted by the hands of the demiurge for their own amusement.
“The lump of sand, dirt and water held no purpose so they created smaller, less powerful versions of themselves. They shaped them and gave them a singular drop of their blood and released them upon the earth.”
The flames snap in the grate.
“These beings took advantage of the darkness to commit deeds that the demiurge had not permitted. They gave birth to all manners of creatures. Monsters that only knew the shadows. They were told to hide from the demiurge, but the demiurge saw everything and as punishment, created the sun. a relentless ball of light there was no hiding from in a wasteland of sand.
“The creatures the demiurge created begged for forgiveness. Begged for their children to be spared. The demiurge took pity on the monsters and created night. They filled the sky with the moon and the stars. But in the day, the sun would return, and all the creatures would run and hide.
“It was during this phase that the demiurge saw how empty the earth was in the day and made a different kind of creature. One that stalked on two legs and began to hunt and kill the others. This creature was vicious. Scared. Hungry. It didn’t understand the importance of balance. But the demiurge favored them. They gave them knowledge, the ability to create fire. To hunt. They also gave them rules.
“The day was theirs, but the night belonged to the monsters. And at first, the two seldom crossed paths. They lived in a tenuous understanding. Some even began to coexist andintermingle. They learned to work together. With them, Day built homes. Built grand structures and thrived into great civilizations. Some began to worship the Night. Bowed to them as though they were the demiurge.”
I shift, trying to get off my side, to pull higher so I can sit up.
Roan pushes off the floor and moves to guide me. With gentle hands, I’m drawn back against the center cushion. Close enough that I slump a little against Lukan.
He doesn’t right me, nor does he pull away.
Kellen continues. “Seeing this, the real demiurge grew resentful. Angry. They created chaos and discord, pitting Day against Night until the resentment tore them apart. Not all of them. There were those who continued to stand shoulder to shoulder during the Divide. Monsters and humans. Brothers and sisters in battle against those who only saw hate. Father...” He meets my gaze squarely. “Father is the demiurge of the wild. The wilderness and darkness. He created the shade that protected the humans. He gave them plants and fruits. He made the earth fertile so humans never had to worry about taking care of themselves. He created animals for companionship and food.
