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Lily
“So, Belesh. What did you want to discuss with me?”
We had finished eating, and I had helped Xotchi clean up afterwards. Belesh was lounging on several blankets near the fire, staring out over the water. She turned her head to gaze at me, her eyes gleaming in the firelight.
“I was wondering if you had ran into my brother, who should still be on that planet. His name was Shalen and he had only carried two gate stones—one to take him to Earth, and another to take him to Inferno. I know he didn't go to Inferno, so if he is still alive, he would be there on Earth.”
I squinted. “Inferno is…?”
She chuckled. “Exactly like its name implies. Think of it as your Hell. Scorching hot and just unlivable. No one goes to that place by their own free will. They are only sent there if they are given a death sentence.”
I shivered. “Sounds lovely.”
Belesh barked out a laugh. "I have no idea why Malen gave him that gate stone, but she had. I guess if our enemies had caught up with him, it would be better than being torn apart by one of their hounds."
Xotchi moved closer to the fire, having taken a quick bath in the water. She dragged her fingers through her tangled wet hair, stopping to grab a comb to tackle the snarls in it. “Hot, eh? So, I couldn't go there?”
The older woman shrugged, one thin shoulder rising up before dropping. “Don’t know. Don’t think anyone wants to try it, though. If you can’t stand it, you won’t survive long enough to return from there. If you can, well, kudos. You now can go to a dead planet. What good is that?”
Xotchi nodded, pensive. “Agreed. Okay, so knowing you, I am assuming there are other reasons why you want to go to Earth, outside of hoping to find your family?”
Belesh’s expression grew a bit sly. “What other reason do I need, Xotchi? Don’t you have people you care about? Whom you want to meet?”
All emotion drained from the woman’s face. “No.” She picked up a brush and started brushing her now semi-dried hair, the muted red strands crackling with static electricity.
Ah! To be a fire dragon! She could use her internal temperature to dry her clothes and body with a thought. That trick must save a considerable amount of time and effort. Not to say being useful in cold climates.
Belesh’s face twisted with sympathy before she turned back to study me. “If my brother successfully made it to that planet, there is another reason for going there. I would like to discover what happened with one of my mother’s experiments he had been carrying with him. She had taken the information in the Korchamen and had devised a wafer that might have changed a person's genetics enough to create what is needed for the prophecy.”
Genetic manipulation? By aliens? I wondered if anyone on my planet understood something like this was possible to this degree.
“How long ago did he go to Earth?” Studying her, I tried to determine if she would tell me the truth.
“It depends on the planet, wouldn’t it?” Belesh chuckled, standing up to move back behind her desk, tapping one finger on a high-tech but alien-looking tablet. After a moment, she stared up at me. “Maybe around 22 of your years? It might have been 23 or 21. I am not sure.”
Twenty-two.
She watched me, concern and curiosity on her face now. “What’s wrong? What did you think of?”
Peering down at the ground, I answered her. “I'm twenty-one. My mother was a witch and my father was a lycanthrope, which meant it was close to impossible for her to conceive. Yet they had triplets—Marcus, who now goes by Lark, Konner, and me. Lark is The Gatekeeper.” I said this in such a way that she had to have heard the capitalization in the title because her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. Before she said anything more, I continued. “My other brother, Konner, died, but fate decided he was to become an angel. He is not only The Protector but he also took over from Tellus, the old Earth dragon, who was the living symbol of the planet.”
Belesh flopped down into her seat, her face going pale. “And you are The Oracle, are you not?”
Nodding, I wondered what she was thinking.
The woman stared off into the distance, her face looking troubled for a few minutes. She then turned to study me. I wasn’t able to read her emotions, but something caused me to tense.
“So Shalen made it there. He was successful.” The words were no more than a sigh in the silence surrounding us.
“What?”
Xotchi moved over to stand near us, listening to our conversation.
Belesh glanced at her and then back at me. “My Malen sent my brother to Earth to balance the scales. Earth is a nexus point. Humans needed to survive what was coming. I only have my suspicions about what my mother had done and why. But given three of the most potent beings were born within one family on that planet—well, the chances of this happening are astronomical.”
I agreed that my siblings and I were unique, but I wasn’t sure we were the ones that had been genetically created by alien science. Then again, how had my mother been able to conceive us, given she was human? I frowned, as another thought hit me.
Thinking out loud, I stated, “My foster mother is some sort of lycanthrope hybrid. Their friend, James—who is a spirit dragon—has mated with our nanny, who is an Omega who can detect the colors of people’s spirits. And my mate’s sister is a Gaterunner, whose mate is a peace guardian demon, and—”
