This time, she awoke with an ache in her heart and tears in her eyes. Joseph. Jaison? Did he remember everything that had happened? Then she remembered Lilith’s features and how different while still similar she looked compared to now. Thinking of them now, she remembered Zack and Lilith's battle. Opening her eyes, she scanned her garden only to find the situation worse than she expected. Zack was crouched low, a weeze escaping from his chest. He was terribly injured, large gashes open along his arms and legs where she can only assume he had blocked close blows from Lilith. The fight was still going on. She fought running to him so she could assess the situation before she moved. She turned left and right, where was Jaison? Snow seemed to be littering the ground in some areas with various large chunks of ice jutting out of the ground. What had she missed?
Worried for Jaison, she searched all around not finding him. A few feet in front of her there was a strange massive ball. The ball was grey and gave her the impression of smoke. It’s surface appeared to be moving, getting up, she stepped closer only to hear a high pitched whistling and an echoed banging. With each step, a gust of wind zipped past her, giving her a small cut along her arm. Ayalet jerked back. What the hell was this?
Suddenly, a large form collided with the side before getting thrown back. Jaison? Frantically worried about what would happen to him inside, Ayalet again took a step toward the ball. Wait, it had been wind that cut her. Could she stop this? But how? Looking at the ball of wind, it reminded her of the continuous air moving in her lungs. Maybe if she held her breath it would cut off the supply? In her chest she felt her heart rate increase, she had to get him out.
The second she stopped breathing, the gusts increased in power causing her to lose her footing. Okay, that didn’t work.
Worried Lilith would attack while she wasn’t paying attention, she turned her head in the direction she heard heavy breathing. Lilith had plenty of scratches and wounds of her own but not as many severe ones. Her hair was disheveled while her face was warped into an animalistic snarl. Her claws were dripping blood. Ayalet would be willing to bet it was Zacks blood coating her dagger like nails as she continued to hover in the air.
Lilith attempted to fly toward Ayalet but hit a wall of water and hissed in frustration, “I see sleeping beauty has joined us. How was your nap?” It’s then Lilith spat in Ayalet’s direction. She missed and the blob of goo splattered a foot in front of her outstretched legs. Instantly, the ground started to sizzle as a small indent remained where the spit landed. Was Lilith's spit acidic? Holy shit! What on earth did she eat that her spit would turn acidic?!
Getting a better look at her, she noticed that she’d slightly changed in the thousand years since she last saw her. Her hair was the same color; although the length was shorter, her eyes were a dull strange green; no doubt wearing contacts and her wings were hidden behind her back. Apparently she’d been keeping up with the style, because her hair was styled around her shoulders while her outfit consisted of a dark red spaghetti strap shirt, a cut off burgundy leather jacket, tan short shorts and strappy leather sandals. She’d never really looked at what clothes she wore until she realized how differently she dressed from during Yelena’s time.
“Ayalet?! Let me out of here!” Jaison! She turned to find a shadow standing on the other side of the ball. What could she do to help him?
Before she even had a chance to take a step toward him, she felt what she was beginning to recognize as the memories slipping into her consciousness again. She just barely finished a memory, why was she being bombarded with another? The scratch on her cheek from before her last memory throbbed. What had Lilith done to her? How could she free Jaison? Would she even be able to free him? Was the ball something she had created?
Her vision was blurry as she fought off the edges of unconsciousness. Her head throbbed, her eyes stung and the entire area seemed to be pulsating as she fought the urge to pass out again. Fear for Zack and Jaison helped her focus enough to avoid slipping into her dreamlike memories.
Their fighting was much slower than before. For the most part, Zack was trying to keep most of the fighting at a distance while Lilith fought to get past his defenses. Looking at Liliths face, she was pissed. Ayalet blinked and when she opened her eyes again, Lilith had flown around Zack's wall of water to the opposite side of the clearing. Had her eyes been closed long enough for Lilith to move that far?
She felt so dizzy. As Ayalet took a step toward the ball Jaison was in, she stumbled but managed to re-establish her footing before falling. The world felt like it was spinning all around her. Closing her eyes only made the spinning worse. . .
A loud crash caused her to look in the direction Zack and Lilith had been. At that moment, Zack threw his arm out and with it a thin layer of water splashed past and over Lilith, soaking her to the bone. What good would getting her wet do? If anything, Lilith just looked more angry. Then Lilith started screaming in pain as her skin brightened and burned. All around her steam was coming off her body in waves. Zack was boiling the water on her skin. She didn’t even know Zack was capable of such a thing! As the burns visibly healed she flew all around Zack's wall of water, attacking his barrier without success.
Still unable to get closer, Lilith’s face contorted still further with rage, one of her contacts must have fallen out. She looked demonic with one eye fiery red the other dull green. Hunching her shoulders, she threw her arms downward before throwing them upward. With the motion, razor blades of air slid through the wall and sliced his clothes and open skin. Some bounced off his wall and flew at Ayalet herself. Where they sliced, her skin burned where she had been cut. The pain felt like small paper cuts with acid poured into the cuts. Looking down, her skin was already healing over and mending the small wounds. It looked as if the air itself was sewing her cuts back together with iridescent thread. Zack however didn’t heal as quickly. Instead, tendrils of water slithered up his legs and healed the wounds as the water found its way up his body.
The pain from getting cut helped to clear her mind a bit. Facing Jaison's encasement, she raised her hands hoping there would be a response. Nothing. She tried closing her eyes to think of some solution; anything. The whirling sound of air seemed to be less loud. Opening her eyes she found she could look through the ball of wind to see a fuzzy image of Jaison. Again, she closed her eyes and tried to calm her heart, imagining the ball dissipating.
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A pop sounded and she opened her eyes to find Jaison tackling her. “Ayalet, I was so worried about you. I couldn’t see what was happening outside because of whatever was surrounding me.”
A sigh of relief to find he was okay overwhelmed her and her knees gave out as a wave of dizziness again overtook her senses, making her feel sick. “ZACK!” Jaison’s voice rang out across the field.
Instantly, Zack was at their side, his wall of water surrounding them. Zack’s worried face slipped in front of hers, “Are you okay?”
She nodded her head but couldn’t get words to form. Jaison answered, “I don’t know, her face is white. She doesn’t look okay.” His voice lulled her into a state of comfort and she felt the string of unconsciousness pulled at her again. She wanted to sleep so badly. She could feel Yelena’s mind pulling at her own.
Between heavy breaths she managed to get out, “Another memory is coming on, I don't know how long I can hold it off though. I think Lilith did something to me.” Both boys next to her cursed.
Outside the wall, she could hear Lilith’s screech of frustration as she kept attacking. All around them there were scratch marks, some a darker color than others.
To her side, Jaison asked, “How long will this wall hold?”
She went to turn her head to look at Zack and found the movement made her stomach jump. Closing her eyes, she found the pull to sleep was stronger and figured keeping them open was better for the moment. Zack’s worried face was looking back at her before he looked back up to Jaison, “Not much longer.”
At that moment, Lilith’s hand slid through the wall. Lilith slowly pulled it out and peaked her eye through the hole, “I see you.”
Fear filled her stomach and kept rising to her throat. She was more worried for the two people standing next to her than for herself. Lilith obviously wanted them dead… did Lilith want to kill for them for fun or to torture Ayalet? …. It seemed as if Lilith wanted her to suffer like she had suffered. She had to get them away from Lilith. Next thing she knew she had upchucked on the ground next to her. Her head was pounding. She felt useless, god she hated feeling useless. If they lived through this, she vowed to herself that she would do everything she could to avoid feeling like this again. What point was it to have powers and not be able to use them? A warm familiar hand rested on her mid back. Looking over, Jaison was looking away, down at the ground. His eyes were wide and full of disbelief and fear. She wasn’t sure if his hand was on her back for her sake or for his own. Zack was looking around scanning; he looked like a bird about to take off. His body was tense, his breath was heavy from exhaustion.
Suddenly Zack was gone, sprinting away. A look of fear and determination on this face.
A loud crashing sound reverberated across the open field around them before a small wave of water washed past her ankles. Zack met Lilith head on in hand to hand combat. His movements were sluggish; unfortunately giving Lilith the upper hand.
What could she do to help him? As she got up toward Zack, Lilith’s hand shot outward and Ayalet was shoved back to the ground. “I’ll play with you next, after I’ve dealt with him.”
While Lilith was briefly distracted, Zack twisted his arms in a circle around himself and next thing she saw looked almost like a water snake slithering its way around his body. In its wake, the wounds slowly stopped bleeding and seemed to turn a light pink color.
While the water snake slowly healed Zack, Lilith kept attacking him faster than he could heal. Ayalet could tell the battle was wearing heavy on Zack and she wondered how long he could keep up. She needed to get him to a hospital, the amount of blood he had to have lost couldn’t be good. No, no no no no.
Ayalet felt anger well up in her belly, her voice coming out as a scream, “Why are you doing this?!” A wave of wind pushed Lilith back a step before Lilith waved it away like an annoying fly.
“You stole so much from me that it's only right I return the favor. Eternity is not enough to repay you.”
Thinking back to her previous memory, Ayalet attempted to lower her voice, “For Daniel?”
Lilith’s eyes lit up a vibrant, otherworldly red, “For Daniel and for me! For forcing me to live with nothing and no one. You fucking, self righteous bitch. In every life you act as if you have done nothing wrong, while I have to live on. It is ALL YOUR FAULT. And you have no right to speak his name!” With the last few words, Lilith dove for Ayalet.
In reaction, Ayalet used the wind to form a barrier around her and Jaison. While Lilith was busy, it gave Zack a chance to continue healing. Lilith reached her and stopped dead in her tracks. Reaching out her hand, Lilith held her palm flat against the outer casing of the barrier when a shot of lighting shot out in every direction from Lilith’s fingertips. Instantly the barrier fell away as Lilith laughed. “It’s too easy, I’d say you are by far the least powerful of all your past selves. I’m constantly disappointed in comparison to Yelena. You by far are the worst, such a waste of power.”
She was so done; done with Lilith tormenting her and tired of being worried that her or her friends would get hurt. “Just leave Zack alone and do whatever it is you are planning already! I'm done with you toying with me.”
Lilith’s eyes crinkled at the edges as her head tilted downward, a small smile lifting upward. “That's part of the fun, you'll never feel safe, always on guard and worried I'll be around the corner. It's when you least expect it that I'll kill you, after I’ve left you alone… with no one."
Worried for Zack, Ayalet threw up an arm. Hoping, praying that the wind would respond to what she wanted. Her worry faded away as Lilith got shoved backward 12 feet or so. Lilith's face was filled with shock as her eyes met Ayalet’s. Zack turned to her for a moment, his face was also filled with shock as well as pride. He was proud of her for the control and strength of her power.. As if Zack and Ayalet had planned it, he created a thick icicle cage around Lilith. Now was their chance to get away!
Zack ran for her while Jaison reached for her outstretched arm. Behind the ice cage walls, Lilith screamed as her hands raked criss-cross lines across the inner lining of the wall in an attempt to get out. They wouldn’t have long before she succeeded. As his fingers grazed her own, she felt herself run into a wall as the memory pulled at her consciousness. No, she needed to fight it to help Zack, so the three of them could get to safety.
She wanted to call out for Zack or Jaison, someone. Before she had the chance to form words in her mouth, she was being pulled under again. Deep into a dark void of memories and emotions. Her own self slipping away to make way for Yelena. What would she see this time? She was starting to feel nauseous with the dizzying visions and memories overriding her senses. She had never fought them before, on top of that three back to back memories was too much. She felt her nose start to drip and when she went to rub it away, she found blood. Well, that couldn’t be good. . .
A crash from behind them refocused her thoughts away from the oncoming memory. Turning her head she heard the shrill scream as Lilith rushed at them again.
**If we get enough interest, we will post Chapters 21 and 22. Until then, we'll be working on book 2. :]
In the meantime, please leave comments to better help us get an understanding of what we could do to improve the first book and what we did well.