Page 133 of Fratelli: Eternal Bloodlines

Papa Legba emerged. He walked upright, but his hand held tight to the top of his cane. His painted face split into a grin of dark delight. Trailing behind him, like a shadow, was Darlene’s soul—a hollow, pale version of her, expressionless and empty.

Domencio’s stomach twisted with betrayal, his chest tightened in disbelief. “Darlene?” he growled. “What have you done now?”

She didn’t turn. Her gaze was locked on Papa Legba.

“Shut up, Domencio. I’m the boss. Let me handle this.”

Papa Legba chuckled. His cane tapped the ground with rhythmic finality. “Oh, I know what you’re thinking,” he said and stepped closer. “You thought we had a deal? You thought handing over Vittorio’s wayward son, the prodigy, the grand prize for the Supreme Draquria, would pay for your soul.”

He grinned wider, and the twisted features of his face shifted into a grotesque mask. “That’s what Julia Brown thought, too. And now she’s my pet.”

“I’m not Julia Brown,” Darlene spat. “And Domencio isn’t the favorite dummy. Lucio is!” Darlene smirked in triumph.

Legba frowned.

“I didn’t give him to you. I brought him here for me.”

Papa Legba’s laughter filled the air again like a rising, swirling storm cloud. His laughter rumbled. A wind stirred the dark fog swirling around them. The heavens opened up into a glacial nebula. Darlene didn’t laugh or react to Legba’s display of power. However, Domencio did. He feared for her the most as he looked up at what the deity could summon. Why would she play games with this beast? As much as he loved her wit, her logic was almost childlike. She stood fearless and proud. He had to smile secretly at her display of strength.

“You don’t have my soul,” Darlene said, her voice deadly calm.

Legba’s laughter faltered. He slammed his cane into the ground, and the marble flooring cracked in several directions, some of it falling away and dropped to an abyss beneath them. The earthquake spread and rocked Domencio. He had to think of something or they would both be sent into the darkness.

“Enough of this bitch!” yelled Legba.

The words had barely left his lips before Darlene’s power surged through her. A blinding wave of dark energy shot toward Legba. It threw him onto his back. The sheer force of it seared Domencio’s eyes, sending him stumbling back across the splintering flooring beneath him.

Legba groaned. He and Domencio both struggled to sit upright as Darlene’s power blew a heatwave of supernatural energy through them.

“Don’t you ever call me a bitch!” Darlene stepped forward, her form smoking with the dark energy she had unleashed. “That isnotmy soul, you maggot. You big dummy!”

Domencio blinked, his vision returning just in time to witness something incredible. The figure that looked like Darlene—her doppelgänger—moved at last. It wasn’t Darlene. It was a shapeshifter, an indigenous woman with tribal markings across her bare skin.

Darlene beamed with triumph. “Those cult people thought they could bind me, break me, fool me into becoming something for them. I played them. I played you. I told you I was smart!” she shouted, and another energy blasted through Domencio and Legba. Both men hollered in pain.

“I don’t belong to this world, Legba. I’m not here for your games. I’m here for Domencio. He ismine. And I need your dark power to defeat the Draquria and free Lucio. BecauseHeis mine!”

Legba scrambled to his feet, but Darlene was faster. She hit him again with another blast of energy, not to destroy him, but to drain him. Domencio watched, helpless, as the great deity dropped to his knees. His bones crunched and twisted in awkward angles. He writhed and rotted before his eyes, his body breaking down, eroding like crumbling ash.

As Legba’s power funneled into her, Darlene rose, glowing with an eerie brilliance. Her hand shot out, grabbing her doppelgänger, and with a terrifying force, she absorbed the shapeshifter back into herself. The darkness that surrounded them lifted, revealing the bones and ashes of what remained of Papa Legba.

Domencio stood on what remained of the surrounding flooring. Most had crumbled and dropped away, except for the elevated pieces that held him and the remains of Legba. The black void was back. Beneath them, the underworld growled andhowled with beasts that reminded Domencio of the feral. He was terrified to look down. He stared up at Darlene.

“Release me, Domencio!” Darlene’s voice rang out in his mind.

“I... I can’t. I came to save you,” he stammered aloud, confused.

She laughed softly. “I know. You came to release me. Just as I knew you would. I’m taking his power, freeing the souls trapped here. But if I don’t escape soon, I will become him. You have to release me!”

“I don’t know how!” he shouted, panic rising in his chest.

“Yes, you do,” she whispered telepathically, her voice calm. “You’re my savior, Domencio. You proved it when you rescued me before, when you were trapped with your dragon and I was trying to defeat it. Remember Domencio. You became the superhero. Save me again. And let me go.”

His gaze dropped to his hand. The gem glowed. It pulsated with energy. The same energy that had brought him here.

Without thinking, Domencio launched himself toward her, grabbing her by the waist, holding her tight, and withstanding the pain of contact with her boiling-hot powers. Darlene grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck as light exploded from the gem. Together, they shot upward into the nebula, ripping through the dark realm, leaving nothing behind but the bones and ashes of Papa Legba.

Chapter 54

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