Page 52 of The Void

“You’re sure you’re going to want to go home?” he asked. A crease between his eyebrows appeared.

“Very,” she assured him. “But for tonight, let’s be royalty.”

He nodded as they climbed the stairs and took their chairs.

After that, a huge celebration kept everyone busy until after the suns sank and the three moons once again rose in the sky.

He’d almost forgotten about his cell phone, but thankfully it had enough power that he could snap a few photos of him, Mia, and Lei, along with the crowd of people dancing and celebrating.

He wished he’d gotten one of Moros in his dragon form.

“What happened to Feng?” he asked as he and Mia made their way back to their rooms. They had just walked Lei to his rooms a few floors below theirs. She’d told him during dinner about Feng attacking her and how the sword she’d conjured up had struck her down.

“I didn’t actually watch her die. I believe that this sword”—she tapped the thin metal blade strapped to her side—“was hers. Nothing else I did to her scratched her, but this… did the trick. Before we go back home, I’d like to leave it in the cave.”

He nodded in agreement. “Do you think there’s anything in your family archives about it? Where it came from? Why it has the power to hurt her?” he asked her as he let them into their rooms.

The lights weren’t working and, he spent a second trying to figure out why they were off. Normally, they came on automatically when they stepped into the room and turned off when they stopped moving. He’d figured it was a sensor of some sort.

“I’m far too tired to think about it,” she said as she set the sword and her crown down on the table just inside the door.

“These were once my rooms,” a voice said from inside the darkened room.

Lucas tensed and shoved Mia behind him, as a bolt of lightning shot towards him. Suddenly, he couldn’t move. Every fiber of his body was frozen.

Mia screamed and rushed towards Feng, who was sitting in the chair across the room.

“Enough!” Feng screamed as a burst of smoke engulfed the entire room. Suddenly, they were standing in Feng’s hidden cave again. Mia was once more floating a few feet off the ground, frozen in space.

When Lucas tried to jerk himself free to help Mia, Feng turned her eyes towards him.

“Don’t bother,” Feng said with a chuckle. “You won’t move unless I release you.”

“Let him go,” Mia said.

“You defeated Moros,” Feng said in a strained voice, turning back to Mia.

Feng sat slumped on what remained of her gold statue in the corner of the room. Dark blood oozed from her chest. Her hair was tangled and messy, and her dress was torn in several places. She appeared as if she was dying.

“We’re just going to have a talk,” Feng said, motioning towards Mia.

Mia jerked in the air and then was lowered to the ground until she was kneeling in the dirt across from Feng.

“You defeated me,” Feng said with a slight cough. “How? You can’t be more powerful than the all-destroying god or the mother of all djinns. I transformed Moros myself into Ismenian Dracon, the greatest destroyer of all realms. Even though you didn’t manage to kill Moros himself, you did break through the powerful spell I cast.” Feng shifted slightly. Her eyes shot in Lucas’s direction. “I now see you for what and who you are, Helios, but it wasn’t you who defeated us.” Her eyes moved back to Mia. “How is it you’re so strong?”

Mia smiled. “You’ve been slumbering for a long time.”

“I built this place, built the city, each glass tower rose up from the sand with a flick of my fingers. Every being within the walls came from my willpower.” Feng’s voice rose. “The rooms you slumber in were mine!” She waved her blood-soaked hand around, splattering droplets everywhere. “I even created the Kri.” Her eyes narrowed. “An eternal test to keep out the vermin and allow only those who are truly worthy to enter my great city. ” She added with a laugh, “How many have died trying?” She sighed and then leaned back. “When Malik died by my hand, Fa Li rose up against me and tricked me into my golden prison, but not before she somehow sucked all my powers dry. I watched her leave this realm with the beings that she and Malik had created. They escaped the world I had made specifically for them. It took centuries, millennia, for my powers to build back up so that I could summon the djinn in hopes of gaining my powers back. Imagine my luck when the fates dropped you in my lap. Blocking you from leaving was easy enough with what little power I had. Each time you or another djinn visited over the millennia, I grew stronger. What was hard was removing his powers when I felt him arrive.” She motioned towards Lucas. “It was so easy to convince you that your brother was the darkness.” She chuckled, then coughed. “That brat has been trying to find and break back into the cave his entire life. This time, he came with an army of darklings. Creatures I had created to keep the back side of this world clean of the foul creatures that were here before. The darklings eat… everything.” She smiled and Lucas could see blood dripping from her mouth at this point.

Why wouldn’t she just die?

“Why do you want to destroy this place?” Mia asked in a calm voice. He suspected she was thinking the same thing he was. Feng was dying. All they had to do was wait her out at this point.

Feng looked down at her hands before answering.

“I need the power. The energy I used to make this world must once more be mine, even if I have to destroy it all. Since the time has passed to drain you of the power that was stolen from me all those years ago, I must retake it from what I built, if I’m going to join my lover. Soon, he’ll be strong enough to devour all worlds and every last realm.”

“Why?” Mia shook her head. “I’ve believed my whole life that djinn were good beings. Created to help those in need. Every one of my djinn ancestors has been good.”