Page 24 of Veil of Monsters

I look up at the skirts of the goddess’s long dress of stone. “I’ve come to speak to her.”

The male looks me over and steps aside. “Finding the dragon goddess at this time is wise. Be quick, we will lock this island down with our gifts of water soon.”

“Thank you!” I shout back at him as I run to the temple. The screams echo from outside, along with the roars of monsters as they flood the city and destroy everything. They are going to win. There is no fight in these people. Emerson was right. This is an easy win for Louie, but Louie doesn’t want to win—he just wants to destroy until there is nothing left of this world. He has killed so, so many.

My heart hurts as I look around the temple for some sign of what I’m meant to do. The temple itself is nearly bare, except for a stone staircase that circles up inside the goddess, going up to her head. I quickly run up them, panting by the time I get to the top and open the door, which leads out onto the crown of the goddess’s head that looks over the sword. It glistens, water pouring and streaming down to the lake that spreads to the sea with loud crashing. Even the sound of the falling water on the lake below doesn’t outweigh the sound of a city being destroyed. I saw paintings where the water fell straight into the sea, but they must have been the artist’s imagination.

I almost don’t want to look, but I do. At least three quarters of the once stunning city is smothered in destruction. Thick fires burn across the city, heavy smoke blackening out parts. Another part of it is smothered in water that has clearly been sent from the sea. I close my eyes and focus. “I don’t know if you can hear me, goddess, and I don’t even know if you’re, well, if you weren’t a monster like the other gods told me you were.” I gulp. “But I’m your descendant and I want to know the truth. They say you talk to people here. You sent me that dream and asked me to come to you. I’m here.”

The wind blows strands of my pink hair around my cheeks. “Why am I here?” Nothing but the wind answers me, and I rub my face. I risked so much to come here. I must just have been sick and none of it was real.

I put my hand on her crown, and I’m hit hard with a flash of light across my eyes, and my stomach turns as I vaguely feel like I’m falling. The light slowly fades until things come into view, but it’s a vision and it’s not mine. This power feels old, different, but familiar all at the same time.

“This is a time you never existed, blood of mine, but let the lies be shown.” The dragon goddess’s voice fills my mind as I watch the past. The memory begins in the Rift itself, so many years ago as it’s a city full of life. “I was born to help my world, but life there was full of desperate cruelty. The people were terrible and greedy, and there was little good to them.” I see it all before me. The goddess herself stumbles out of a house in the middle of the night, walking down the street. Her black silk dress is torn, her hair pulled out in several places, and bite marks line her neck, arms and even her face. Her lipstick is smudged across her face. She falls in a heap on the ground, touching the floor.

“I was the princess of this Rift, destined to save them, but they did not wish to be saved. They took my power from me in a ritual and poured it into two weapons. Two swords. I was left on the streets to die.” With anger burning in her eyes, she stands up once more and makes her way back to the castle in the distance. “My parents were long gone, and I had a child they kept alive only to have a ruler. I was not allowed to see her. I hated these cruel, terrible people.” Her pink eyes flash in the reflection in the mirror as she stands in the castle now, her white hair marked with blood. “I killed them all and took the swords in the night. They did not think I had the strength to seek revenge.” The vision changes to her, holding two swords, a crown on her head, and the room full of dead bodies. “They took my child and hid her. I never saw her again. I wanted to leave this world, so I did.”

The goddess makes the first cut between the worlds before stepping into our world, a place of seeming peace until she searched. I watch in horror as she shows me the world before, ruled by the four elemental gods. No part of the world was safe while they ruled… and used the people. The fae, mortals and Wyern worshipped the four gods, who took anything they wished. The gods took the dragon goddess in as one of them, but she wasn’t evil, and she could not kill like they did. They eventually realized that they could control the goddess’s power to remake the world. They used her to destroy with the swords, to remake everything how they wished and stop anyone from opposing them.

It wasn’t her. The goddess never remade this world and killed millions. The four gods did. The air goddess is evil. If I give her Paxton, she will drain his power for herself and kill him. She isn’t a good person like Posy and I believed. I would be trading Emerson’s memories for Paxton’s life. Goddess, no.

“I’m sorry, child. I wished they were different, but they were not. For years at their side, I hated the cruelty towards mortals and fae alike. I made a plan to lock them away, with my own blood and power, even if it took my life. The people helped me.” She shows me them helping her make a spell so powerful that even she feared it. It was written in markings that they drew onto the goddess’s body, one by one, until there was little of her pale skin left unmarked with black ink.

The goddess cast the spell, and she died locking them away. Even the Flames helped her. Every creature and being did what they could so their future generations could live in peace. The goddess appears before me one more time, glowing as brightly as a star in the night. “The power is needed once more, and I will show you where to find the sword. You are of my blood, and only you can wield the power. Beware the crown of the old god. It is what is left of the maker of the sword. You will find it in the veil.”

She shows me quickly, in flashes, where to find the veil and how to enter before one more vision fills my mind. “This is your beginning, what you have searched for. There will be a great price in your future, and this is my gift to you.”

In a creaky hut, a female with long white hair sits holding a newborn baby to her breast. A male enters the hut, kissing the female’s head once and whispering words of love to them both. He is mortal, but she is something more than that. When the female lifts her eyes, looking in my direction, I can’t breathe. She looks exactly like me, my face, my eyes. This is my mother, and he is my father. I know it in my soul. “We have to take her to the other world. They are hunting us, and he can’t know she exists. We pack to leave tonight.”

“She won’t remember us,” the female whispers as the baby—me—finishes feeding. She cradles me in her arms. “I know it’s the only way she will be safe from him, from this world, but—”

“Calliophe will know we love her, and nothing else matters,” my father states, his voice firm in his belief. “Love transcends all else, even across worlds. We will love her forever until she returns to us. One day, she will find us in the Rift.”

When the vision flashes out of my head, I fall back with a gasp. My parents are alive. I’m really a descendant of the goddess. I know where to find the sword. These parts make my heart soar with hope and joy and everything I’ve wanted for a long time. Until everything else flashes into my mind. I have to tell Posy everything about her mother. I have to find another way to get Emerson’s memories back.

I cough as the thick smoke fills the air around me as I rise from the floor. “The sword gives me power, and I could stop Louie. I have to focus on that.” I quickly make my way back down the stairs so I can get to Posy and leave this city. I wish we could take more people with us, but I have to hope Emerson gets my message. Running fast, I skid past the fae, who nod their head to me. I’m halfway across the bridge when the lake water rises into the air and makes a shield of protection around the temple from below. It’s incredible to see, even if it’s sad to know it won’t stop Louie for long.

“Just in time!” Posy shouts as three monsters run out of the city houses, blood dripping from their mangled faces. Their limbs are stretched, long and rotten. It makes them quick. Posy lifts her hands, but I step in front of her. With all the anger burning in my chest, I scream, a wave of fire slamming out of my body and straight into them. They scream like some part of them is still human as I burn them to death, and I flinch at the noise. “I was about to come and get you. Please say we can leave now?”

“We are leaving,” I tightly answer.

She lifts her hands, and I wait. And wait. Posy gets frustrated, sweat prickling at her head before she lowers her hands. “My power doesn’t work here. I feel… blocked by something.” We both look at the temple. “Fuck.”

Panic seizes my heart. “We need to get away from it, but the only way is towards the monsters. Towards Louie.”

Posy looks at her hands. “I didn’t notice when my power stopped… but we know it worked near the orphanage. We fight our way back and hope to the goddess that Louie doesn’t find us first.”

We run towards the city, right into the chaos of monsters and Rift warriors. They chase people down like animals, ripping them apart with monster claws or violent shadow-like power. The power reminds me of Emerson’s fae gift, only his is pure darkness. This magic is more grey, lighter than anything I’ve seen Emerson use.

We slide down an alleyway, Posy focusing on trying to reach her power again and again, only for me to freeze. I grab Posy to stop her as three Rift warriors wait at the end. Black veins crawl all over their skin, and their eyes are empty of life, of feeling. They are puppets that fight, and they smell like death, like rot. They’re from the Rift, but whatever they did to become Louie’s army has destroyed their souls. They don’t have the spiky ears like fae but still have that unusual beauty. I watch cautiously, knowing they are going to attack us with shadows or the weapons they have that we don’t. I get my power ready and make sure Posy is behind me, even as she fights to move in front. Posy still can’t use her power, and she can’t fight, I’d bet.

They attack like trained dogs, rushing and quick, all claws and teeth and pure power. I turn the ground to ice with one sway of my hand and leap to meet the one closest with a handful of flames that I crash into his face. He roars and the other one grabs my hair, pulling me off and slamming me hard into the wall. I cry out, everything spinning as I rise to my feet, only to be kicked hard in the chest. Posy is fighting the other one, badly by the sounds of her screams, and I push up on my feet. Fury builds in my chest, and I reach for my ice, freezing his feet, but it doesn’t stop him grabbing me and lifting me against the wall. His awful scent slams hard into me, and I gag on it.

Instantaneously, the Rift warrior’s head rolls off and I’m released, slumping down the wall as I’m left facing Merrick Night. My old boss. My old fiancé. The other Rift warrior roars as Posy stabs him in the chest with a dagger. She must have gotten it off him, and Merrick is there. Merrick, of all people, fights the Rift warrior until he wins and rips him apart with a slash of air magic.

He looks back at me, brushing his dark brown hair to the side and resting a hand on his bloody sword. His dark grey eyes find mine. “You okay, Calli?”

“I’m—”

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