Page 32 of Curse of Immortality
The enormous pressure Maeve had undergone from James’ betrayal, her night alone in the forest, and now Rose’s execution took away her last shred of empathy for humans. In that moment, as she stood stiff in the marketplace with her nostrils flaring and her sister pulling at her, Maeve became someone else. The naïve and pure part of her that James had once loved withered and died, and so did her hope and faith in the good of life. Everything inside of Maeve’s heart turned dark and angry and in a booming voice full of hatred, she shouted, “If you want fire,that’s what I’ll give you!”
Raising both her hands, Maeve sent fireballs flying toward the townspeople. Panicked screams were heard as houses and people caught on fire. Everything was chaos with people running around like headless chickens trying to escape while their homes blazed into flames.
“No, Maeve. Stop!” Althea yelled through her tears. “You’re not a murderer.”
Maeve turned to her sister and let the screams of the townspeople turn into meaningless noise. “But they are, Althea. Don’t you see that we have to stand up for ourselves?”
Wiping her tears from her face, Althea grabbed her sister’s hands and looked deep into her eyes. “Not like this. What would Rose say? She taught us to love all and rise above the ignorant.”
Maeve pulled her hands back. “That was before they killed her. I’m not letting these evil humans take any more from me.”
“Killing them isn’t the answer. Can’t you see that you are doing the same thing to them as they’ve done to us? We’re better than this,” Althea pleaded, and it made Maeve bark out in anger.
“It has to be done.”
“We Earthens don’t harm humans. We heal and protect,” Althea insisted with tears running down her face.
“And who is going to protectyou,me, and all other Earthens if I don’t do it!” Maeve exclaimed and looked around at the burning houses.
“That’s not how it works, Maeve. Please can we just leave?”
Maeve looked at her sister and a large part of her wanted to flee back to their cottage and never leave the woods again, but too much had been taken from her and she couldn’t rest with her broken heart.
“I can’t live in the same world as humans. I can’t find peace while they rule the world. Help me, Althea. Together we can avenge Rose and make this a world where we don’t have to hide.”
The light from the flames lit up Althea’s face and made the tears in her eyes glisten. “I won’t harm them. I can’t…”
Maeve found it unfair that Althea was making her feel like a villain when really Maeve was the only one with common sense. Her tone hardened. “Your softness and kindness are your biggest weaknesses, Althea. I should have listened when Zosia warned me that you aren’t strong like me. If you won’t help me, I’ll do it alone.”
Turning her back to her sister Maeve looked at the people screaming and crying all around her. All their pain and misery were justified in her mind. They did this to themselves and only got what they deserved. With Maeve continuing to send small balls of fire through the air, the entire town soon stood aflame.
By then Althea had long realized that the crystal had done more than give them strength. It had advanced their abilities to a level she hadn’t thought possible. And though Althea loved her twin sister dearly and would’ve done nearly anything for her, she wouldn’t tolerate murdering a town full of people. Using her hands, she killed the fires, strangling the flames until most had disappeared.
With annoyance, Maeve accused her, “You would rather protect the people who killed our aunt than stand by my side?”
“I wouldn’t be standing by your side if I let you do something I know you’ll regret. This isn’t you, Maeve, and I won’t let you make this mistake.”
Maeve’s eyes were crazed when she raised her chin and sneered, “My only mistake was pretending to be someone who I’m not. I was never soft and quiet like you, Althea. I am angry and I am hurt, and I’m done playing nice.”
Althea ran after Maeve when she began walking. “So, then what?” Althea shouted over the screams around them. “You’ll kill all humans? Is that it?”
Narrowing her eyes, Maeve repeated her words, “I told you that I can’t live in the same world as humans.”
Althea had put out most of the fires, but the humans still ran around in confusion and panic, with most of them trying to flee.
A small boy who couldn’t be more than five was crying and calling out for his mother as he ran past Althea and Maeve. Both twin sisters looked at him but saw something very different. Althea saw a young boy with fright-filled eyes, who was lost and scared in a flock of taller and stronger adults. They pushed him around as they ran through the streets trying to get away. In frightened sobs, he yelled, “Mummy, mummy, mummy.”
But Maeve didn’t see a small, scared boy, she saw a young version of James. A human that would grow up to lie, betray, and kill harmless women like Rose.
When she set the boy on fire, in her mind Maeve set a part of James on fire, and that felt satisfying to her.
“Nooo!” Althea shouted in shock that her sister would do something so cruel. The small boy, who had flames running down his arm, clothes, and legs, screamed at the top of his high-pitched lungs. He wasn’t on fire for long before Althea absorbed the flames, but they had already left burn marks that would likely scar his skin for the rest of his life. Running to his side, Althea tried to ease his pain, but she had never tended a burn mark on a human before, and she didn’t know where to start, so instead, she shouted out to the crowd trying to find his mother.
The small boy’s face was wet from sobbing, and he had snot running from his nose down into his mouth when a man came running with a baby in his arms and picked up the small boy.
“Maeve, stop this insanity.” Althea turned to her sister, who was starting fires all around them. When Maeve ignored her, Althea put out the fires once again, only this time Maeve didn’t feel like arguing with her sister. She felt utterly betrayed by Althea, and to her, that moment was a breaking point. James had chosen Elizabeth over her and now Althea choosing the townspeople over her felt like the ultimate betrayal. Broken-hearted, Maeve turned cynical with a taste for destruction. She had lost her parents, her aunt, her future with James, and now her twin sister as well. Ignoring the rejection that she felt, Maeve convinced herself she was stronger than any Earthen before her, and she didn’t need anyone.
“Stop!” Althea ordered before Maeve reacted in fury by sending a gush of strong wind at Althea, so powerful that it hurled her from one end of the square to the other. Colliding with a wall headfirst, Althea fell to the ground with her skull cracked open and passed out.
