Page 82 of In the Dark

“This isn’t you!” Aisanna held out a hand toward Karsia, pleading. “Remember who you are. You’re good and kind, full of love and joy, young and vibrant with the whole world ahead of you. Don’t go down this path.” She advanced slowly, one step at a time. “Reconsider. Think about who you really are.”

“Karsia, please.” Tears shone in Astix’s eyes. “Please. I know you’re still in there somewhere—”

Karsia laughed. Her fingertips glowed and she tried to plunge them into her chest, searching for the gemstones that had failed to protect her heart. “Don’t you get it? I want this! I’ve always wanted this. It’s my destiny. Do you really believe I care what you think?” She scoffed at them. “This world is dying. I am forever.”

Morgan quickly dispatched his true form, uncaring whether the others finally saw him for his true self. Wings surged from between his shoulder blades. Great horns rose with ebony spikes. He ignored the shocked gasps from Aisanna and Astix and focused on the woman in front of him. Heavy footsteps shook the walls of the cave as he approached her.

She crouched warily, keeping her eyes on him. Her pupils shifted, darkened, became reptilian.

“Enough of this.” Morgan scowled as they faced off, and he stretched his wings to their full length. The tips of his feathers grazed the walls and blotted out the light from the moon through the hole at the top of the cavern. “If you won’t listen to your sisters, then listen to me.”

“Listen to you? Why would I? I see you now. Morpheus.” Karsia spat the word. “God of sweet dreams. You think you can stop me?”

He stood motionless, hearing a whisper in his ear like the brush of an insect, an insidious and insistent buzz.

She’s mine.

“I’m going to try,” he said, tuning the rest out.

“Send me your brother Phobetor and then we will talk.”

“I refuse to let you cavort with the creator of nightmares.”

The skin on her face darkened, which in normal circumstances may have been a play of the light. The rest of them knew better. “I’d say he and I make a good team, but I work alone. There is only one keeper. You’re looking at her.” Karsia shuddered from the ferocious pleasure of her gift, the acceptance of what she could be.

Oh, yes. That was it. That was what she’d been waiting for her whole life.

How could she think being a good little witch was worth giving up raw command? She could reach out mentally to every dark deed and evil thought in the surrounding states. They were there, untapped wells ready for her. One small word and a tsunami of pain would wash over the world and turn it to ashes.

She floated like a ghost around the perimeter of the cave, her form growing less substantial by the second. “Do you know how long I’ve stood in the shadow of the rest of you? Poor little Karsia, there’s nothing special about her. Can’t find a job. She mooches off of everyone else. Now there is nothing standing in my way.”

“I beg to differ,” Morgan stated dryly. His wings ached from holding them in a flared upright position after many centuries of disuse. “There are three someones standing in your way right now.”

Astix and Aisanna both nodded.

“I would laugh if I didn’t find this pathetic.” Karsia dusted off her jacket and lowered her lids. Unconcerned.

“I’ll send you so deep into sleep you will never wake up again. Don’t force my hand, Karsia.” Morgan postured, but they all knew it was an empty threat. “Come back to me.”

He could see it was too late. The scrap of humanity left inside of her had disappeared, replaced with a yawning chasm of emptiness.

She snarled. “I am The One Who Walks in Darkness. And you don’t scare me, half-breed.”

The ground at her feet turned black. She raised her arms overhead and willed pain on them, willed them to understand the depths of what they stood before. The stone walls of the cavern vibrated and moaned under the pressure, the sound like the wailing of banshees.

“Reconsider,” Astix yelled above the noise, jolted out of her stupor and calling on her magic. Her chest felt ready to explode. The sensation was so real she clutched at her chest and expected to see physical evidence. “Stop before it’s too late!”

Karsia rebutted. “It’s already too late.”

“I’m not talking to you, you evil seed. I’m talking to my sister who is still inside there somewhere.”

Slowly Karsia’s face changed, color on her cheeks deepening to a rosy glow. Her eyes faded from black to blue and darted around crazily.

“Astix?” a small voice asked. “Aisanna?”

“We’re here. Be strong!”

“I’m scared. It’s dark in here, and I’m tired of fighting.”

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