My eyes opened and was met with a blinding light that instantly had me shutting my eyes again. I held my head when it started throbbing and tried to sit up to see if I could figure out where I was and what was happening.
I opened my eyes slowly again and was able to see that I was in some kind of magical garden with majestic snow-white birds flying around. The entire place was filled with flowers ranging from my favorite, sunflowers, to roses and well…everything flowery. There was no way I could describe the beauty of what I was seeing. Words just weren’t enough.
“Am I in Heaven?” I asked no one in particular.
The white bird closest to me said, in a feminine voice, “To be in Heaven, you’d have to be dead first and as far as I’m concerned, you aren’t dead yet.”
My eyes widened. “D-Did you just talk?”
The voice was feminine and soft. It felt like someone had just dropped a bag of marshmallows or something on me given the calming effect the bird’s voice had on me. It was surreal but I didn’t find it too much like I should have.
“I’m communicating through your mind so I guess in some ways, I am talking. I don’t remember you being this inquisitive as a child though.”
“What?”
“Come with me.”
I didn’t know why I was following a mind-talking bird to only God knows where but I did it anyway. In the past days, nothing I’d seen was normal so I decided to just go with the flow and we got to a particular cottage that was the cutest and homeliest place I had ever been in.
The bird led to me to a rocking chair as it flew to sit on the other chair opposite mine.
“I never got to really thank you for saving my life. It was an innocent act that holds a lot of sentiment to us.”
I tried to remember what the bird was talking about and then it all clicked. I was just a child then. “I thought it was a dream.”
“That was kind of the plan.”
“So, the whole thing was real and you blessed me with healing powers?” I asked with a raised brow finally connecting it to what Amara had been saying.
“Yes, that is a gift we agreed on giving to you for your kind heart. Nevertheless, that is just by the way. I want to help you and that was why I had to bring you to our scared mountain.”
“I’m not dead,” I said but it was more like I was reassuring myself than talking to the bird.
I didn’t know how I knew it was smiling but I felt it had smiled at me. “You are not. Only souls can come to our mountain and I had to bring you here before you would return.”
“Why?”
“Like I said, I want to help you. First, you need to know that your plan didn’t exactly work. Val placed the amulet around her neck but it did nothing to calm the anger inside her.
Everything that was happening was as a result of her desire for vengeance.”
I frowned and looked down. “So, I failed? She killed Leon?”
“In her bid to mourn you, she got captured by them. I believe she let herself be captured and they plan to kill her. If they don’t, she’ll kill them. Either way, someone must die to quench her thirst for vengeance.”
I sighed. “That means I still failed. I can’t believe I failed. I was so sure it would work. I just know she needs help. Maybe this was far beyond me than I could understand.”
“It is an impossible feat to live without failing at something. I mean, the only way you can achieve that is by living so cautiously that you end up not living your life to the fullest. In a weird way, you still failed by defeating the purpose of life.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I said with a slight nod. “What happens to her now? Must someone always die? Can’t there be a happy ending without losing someone?’
“Listen to me carefully. Your sister has a greater destiny than you can possibly imagine. It was her fate that led her to be taken away. Her spirit is that of the first Opinicus and that is why its powers accepted her becoming one in the process. Her thirst for vengeance is borne out of a millennial rage against Evander.”
I sat up straighter interested in all there was to know about Leon’s father that I had never liked. “What did he do?”
“His family does not know who he really is. Evander has been alive for thousands of years even around the time the first humans were created. He has always been there, power hungry and vicious. Keahilani, the first Opinicus, used to be Evander’s best friend. They were more like brothers but, in Keahilani’s opinion, Evander betrayed and killed him in a bid to take over his powers.
“Unfortunately, Keahilani’s powers died with him and could only be gotten back if his powers were transferred to a young human. Before Keahilani died, he called out to the universe for a final chance to get even with the one who had betrayed him. After so many years, the universe answered his prayers with Evander’s never-ending greed and the birth of your sister.”
I sighed feeling bad for Leon that he had to have such a horrible father. “Was Evander always like that?”
“Evander was a good man and as there are two sides to a coin, there are two sides to a story. None of that mattered when he met Ophelia, Leonidas’s mother. She changed him and died during the birth of Stefanos, the one chosen by the gods to rule the griffins after Evander’s foreseen death.”
“That’s why he hates Stefanos,” I said with a sigh feeling a bit sorry for Stefanos too. “What will happen to my sister?”
“I’m afraid that isn’t the right question. You need to know who your sister really is before you ask any other question.”
“Oh, okay. Who is she, then?”
“Your sister is red. She is the blood dripping down a lioness’s chin after a kill. She is the dress that catches your eyes in a crowded room. She is fire, all-consuming and great. She is hate, and she is love at the same time. She is the lust for power that all evil men have. She is smeared lipstick after a fight. She is red and she destroys.
“She will stop at nothing until there is no one left in the lineage of Evander and no power on earth can stop her.”
“How do I defeat her then?”
“You don’t.”
“So, we just let her kill even the innocent? Can’t she be satisfied with the damage she has already caused?”
“She can never be satisfied until Keahilani’s desires are fulfilled but there is another way to win her and stop her madness. To do that, you have to become real and Keahilani will stop his rage himself.”
It was really that easy?
“Well, I am real so there is no problem,” I said with a wide grin.
“I’m afraid you haven’t gotten there yet.”
I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“You become real. It takes a long time and that is why it doesn’t happen to people who break easily or who are weak hearted or need to be treated like eggs. Generally, by the time you become real, most of your hair is gone, your eyes lose their vibrancy, and you are a different person.
“Your emotions are not borne out of sympathy or pity but because you feel it. There is a lot of power in being real and all the sacrifices would never matter because once you are real, you can’t be ugly unless you’re dealing with people who don’t understand. Havana and Keahilani understand.”
“That doesn’t sound very helpful. If you haven’t noticed, I do not have the time to make myself look ugly or something.”
The bird laughed. It actually laughed. “It seems you have gotten nothing from all I have said.”
I crossed my arms. “Obviously. Do I look to you like some kind of mind reader who knows what goes on in your mind and hides behind the words you say?”
“Even a fool can read minds,” was its smartass reply. “Remember I said there are two sides to a story? Never be too quick to judge from one.”
My brows furrowed in confusion. “How the hell is that supposed to help me now?”
“There are a lot of things you want to know, and I could be a good person and tell you all but the real pleasure is in finding out yourself rather than being told.”
“Come on, you have to give me something to work with. I can’t lose either of them because I wasn’t smart enough to decode your parables.”
It was silent for a while. “I’ll tell you only one thing that I’m sure you will understand. At the bottom of every frozen heart, there is a drop or two of love. That drop is reserved for you alone.”
“At this rate, it might become impossible to do anything when I don’t understand what you are trying to say.”
“The reason I can fly and you cannot, is simply that I have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings. In having faith, nothing is impossible.”
“Faith. You make it sound like I will just make a wish and everything will be fine.”
“You never know until you try,” it said and I could have sworn that the creature winked at me. It actually did. “I have to send you back before it’s too late.”
“Wait, you can’t…”
“I may have been wrong about you for the first time in all my years. You are real, Paris Boudoir, simply for the fact that there is love in your eyes and nothing can be more real than love.”
“Okay?”
“Maybe I have one more thing that can help you. Other things may have influence in our lives but we start and end with family. Never forget that.” I didn’t understand as always and didn’t bother to say anything. The bird flew to my thighs and looked into my eyes with its enchanted violet orbs then said, “Sleep.”
“I’ll see you on the other side of the stars,” I whispered and welcomed the sleep that followed the bird’s command.