Zaphyra stares her younger sister down. “Why?”
Megara looks to Percy avoiding the wrath of her sisters again. “Because I can. You no longer need her anyways.”
I claw the ground leaving deep marks in the withered cement flooring.
Percy’s eyes cut to me wordlessly warning me to stop.
I wait. I have to follow Percy’s lead.
“Your precious zoana is getting exactly what all zoanas deserve. As such you all get something you don’t deserve, but will receive anyways. She is stone. And by us making her stone, you are all now free. You will not go to sleep when she dies, you are free from that part of the gypsy curse put on you so long ago. She is now cursed,” he holds up a dark vial, “with this. Drink this and you too will walk again in the daylight, you will be allowed to be any form as long as you wish. Completely free. If you drink this though, you will belong with us. You will denounce everything you’ve done these last centuries, and you will once again become the great gargoyles we were.”
They all look to each other in shock. I don’t understand what all of them are feeling, but Abraxas is lying about something or everything. His eyes are alight with hunger, his body pulsing in a dark glow. Megara was telling some truth; she won’t hurt Violet. I don’t fully understand why, but she was speaking truth when she said it. Abraxas has no truth to what he’s saying. I am unable to tell the others with him staring all of us down and his clan surrounding us that I know without a doubt he is lying. I can only hope they see it too. Their glows are shivering.
Percy speaks first, glancing at Violet only a moment before asking, “How?”
“With the magic of their people. It’s taken many long years to discover a cure, and for that,” he waves at Megara, “you can thank the eloquent gargoyle standing before you. She worked tirelessly for years. She searched far and wide and discovered the best and brightest in science and magic. Gargoyle and human alike until she found that to curse one’s zoana with their own magic, to curse yourselves twice with this, should free you.”
“Should?” Zemira counters.
“It hasn’t been tested,” Megara speaks up, lowering her eyes under her oldest sister’s stare.
“As you can see, the results speak for themselves. Of all the gypsies, this one has the closest direct lineage to the zoana who cursed you. We couldn’t know for sure until we tested it on her. And now if you wish to join our clan, to be truly free, drink now, for we have plenty,” Abraxas booms as if he is welcoming us back. His voice says one thing, but his eyes say another.
Megara grabs two vials and holds them out in front of her sisters. Abraxas grabs her wrist pausing her.
“First, we will require something from you though.”
“What is that?” Percy puffs his chest like the leader that he is.
“You did spend the last few centuries in willful shackles, and I would like proof you are willing to relinquish all of your years of betrayal.” Abraxas smiles with all the fires of hell glimmering in his soul. “Once you have taken the curse...you must smash your zoana.”
“What?!” my family speaks simultaneously. I howl and gnash my teeth. Even Megara looks surprised. After all she said about not hurting Violet, her words were pointless.
Abraxas holds up his hands as if he’s calming a rowdy crowd, not planning the murder of one of our family, “Now, now, think of it as a release. Shedding the old to create the new. I know this must be hard, you have become so attached to your master,” he smirks at Megara who for once doesn’t smirk back, “but this is for the best. This will finally truly let you be free. No more zoanas, no more curses. You just have to prove you are worthy of it, by destroying every tie you had.”
I shake. I writhe inside. A memory of toddler Violet flashes in my mind. “Want some tea, Broccoli?” her tiny voice lisps at me. The memory of moments ago... “Achilles,” she had whispered. More memories: her laugh, her innocence, the way she strives to always be the best. In a world of lonely darkness and endless days, she is the kind of light this world will not survive without. And Abraxas and his clan just threatened to take her out of it. Something deep and buried for decades erupts. A flaming darkness held at bay by years of me focusing on good. I thought the flame had died out years ago. I was wrong and though I hoped to never face my flames again, I know I need them. I don’t care what Percy does or what the rest of my family chooses. I will not allow them to hurt Violet, not while there is still a monstrous breath in me. I don’t care if I die, I will die fighting for this love. She is mine to protect and protect her I will. My wings unleash and the green and black fire lights up down the ridge of my back, igniting in my tail, pulsating in my eyes. Hellfire. Hellfire that once accompanied me whenever I prowled the earth looking for a kill, but I tucked it away once I chose to change for good. I haven’t felt the warmth in so long. Old feelings come back, the urge to maim, to kill, to torture until they beg for death. Only this time the urge is directed solely at the gargoyles who just threatened my light. My Violet.
My family jumps as my flames ignite, but the message is clear to them. We look to each other and I finally see what I was searching for. Their answers. In our unspoken communication, we seal our fate.
Percy turns his face from my flames slowly. As he does, I see his old flame ignite too. “I think not,” his words a final homage to Violet.
I howl. As one, our family attacks.
Chapter Twenty
Violet
Smoke swirls around me as I sleep. I’m aware of it. I’m not awake, not conscious. I remember it all. Dreams and memories drift through my mind. Memories long forgotten snapping open like fortune cookies revealing their secrets inside. Days of spending time with the gargoyles in stone. Playing with Achilles. Nights in Great Uncle Eugene’s house and my mother - my mother younger than I remember, training alongside Eugene and the gargoyles. My mother’s smile, her laughter, and her anger. Another memory pops open. My mother furious as she tossed her uncle’s books off of his desk. I had never seen her so angry. Through a slit in a doorway, I watch.
“She can’t do it, she’s just a child, a baby!” she screams.
“She is a Kai, Nepoata, she will learn. As we all did.” Her uncle ignores the fit.
“Achilles told us—” Zaphyra speaks up.
“Achilles is an animal! What does he know! It should be me; I’ve trained for this. She’s my baby. I can’t— I won’t let this happen!”
Achilles huffs, indignant at my mother’s jab.
“She will train too, and with your help—” Alex starts, but my mother cuts a glare at him that would freeze ice water.
“What, Alexandros? She will become a warrior, a true gypsy as you once said I was? She will fight monsters and demons and put her life in danger like all of the Kai have? Not my child! You cannot have her.”
I feel something wet slide down my cheek and I sniffle. I don’t like seeing Mommy like this. Eight pairs of eyes lock on to me. Achilles grins in a very monstrous way. It makes me feel a little better.
“Oh baby,” my mother croons, “come here.” I walk into the room obeying her. She picks me up and kisses my tears away. “It’s alright now, Mommy was just talking,” she says. “Zemira.” The name is an unspoken command, not a call for attention.