“My sister?” I asked.
“She is the sun. Not you,” Akil said as he leaned back on the couch. Stunned, my ears went numb, and my mind became blank.
“I…I do not understand…”
“Your sister is what they think you are…She is the original life source itself. You are only what you are because of her. In the womb you two shared, you became her first creation …” He said as he leaned his head to one side, watching the smoke slowly dissipate into a winged serpent with bright blue eyes. “She has the ability to restore and heal magic the way Gaia has a way of creating life and death to it. My guess is he was trying to protect you so you can take his place and be the first queen, but if they’re trying to kill or overthrow him, what makes you think you’re safe?”
I stared at him, attempting to understand everything told to me. It’s not…possible. I looked at my hands, the hands that are able to produce a flame so bright, so blue…and so rare… Nobody can do what I do. I am special. I am the sun. There is no other like me.
“Crazy that you met Maggie the way you did,” he went on as he brought the blunt to his lips. “Your people created the magic to move through time and space… She broke that magic and has the ability to change day into night…woopty woopty woo…Now it’s about to happen all over again.”
“My people?” I repeated as if I had never heard of the term. Akil tilted his chin up to shoot a cloud of smoke pummeling into the air before using his hand to wave it around. The white smoke dissipated as bodies of winged creatures formed and stretched until they began to circle around itself.
“The Solhari people, some of you are–––”
I waved him off, annoyed.
“Yes, yes, born of the scales. I know of my ancestry. We are the first descendants of the sun!” I argued. Akil took a sharp inhale, sucking in the smoke before releasing it through his nose as it curled up his nostrils.
“Dragons, princess… They are the first to be created by the sun. You are not the reincarnation of the sun itself. You never were. I told you; your sister is the reason you are what you are, but your purpose, and the path you’re on is the right one. Never question that, Princess. You sitting here talking to me, being at that school, none of this is a coincidence. This is your story as much as it's hers and it can always change at any given moment.”
Before I could ask whoherreferred to, the lights suddenly began to flicker as Akil looked up at the ceiling. “About damn time…”
He stood up from his seat and waited for a moment until the front door burst open with a blood-stained Maggie Grey falling into the small space. Her white hair was stained with blood when it suddenly began to darken from the roots all the way down to the ends until it was a deep mahogany brown.
“Maggie?!” I shouted, jumping from my own seat as she looked up with wild red eyes that sunk back into its natural dark brown. There was blood around her mouth and arms and her…fangs were still out.
“Gaia,” Akil nodded. “About damn time!”
“What…what is this?” Maggie asked as she slowly stood up. As soon as her eyes settled on mine, I stepped back, unsure of what I was looking at because this was not the same woman as before. “Where am I now? Where…Who are you?”
“Anansi. I’m responsible for half the shit people say about you,” he said with a nod. “Y'all got less than an hour to get back–––”
“Ayira?” Maggie called out as I shook my head. She was not the same woman as before. I couldn’t get past the blood staining her chin and neck. “Are you okay? Did he hurt––”
“Areyouokay?” I asked instead. “You have blood! All over you!”
She looked down at herself before looking at her hands as if realizing what she looked like.
“Aye, like I said, there’s no time. Y'all got to get back to your own story,” Akil said as he walked towards the kitchen. “I’ma make this quick and simple. You–––”
“This is where I used to live…” Maggie looked around with a smile. “This is the apartment complex I used to live at when I was little! My dad would sit right there in that chair…My granny would–––”
“Aye!?” Akil clapped with his hands. “We don’t have time for that fuck shit! You know the part in the movies where shit is about to get real and the star of the whole thing,” waving his finger around in a circle, “has to save the world before it’s too late? That would be you two!”
“Me!?” I croaked. “You just said I am nobody–––”
“Baby, you got a role to play, you just not tryna take the part. Listen…”
He held his hands up and focused squarely on us even with the lights flickering around us. He tried not to look up, but I could see the nerves play on his face, he was becoming anxious.
“It’s two ways this story can go. You get back to the school, stop the witches from opening the second door… You opened thefirst one. How many knocks does it take for a door to open?” He asked. When we didn’t respond in time, he became dramatic. “How many CLAPS does it take for that bitch to OPEN?”
He looked at me as I looked at Maggie, both of us sharing the same expression.
“The games are happening now and everyone in that dome will be a part of the second door–––”
“Are you accusing me of opening the first at the funeral?!” Maggie blurted out. “I didn’t–––”
