Eevie
How do you tell someone of the evils of your past? How do you tell someone your biggest nightmare? You start from the beginning and go slow. I took several deep breaths before I turned down a long, winding path in our family's gardens. The gardens were always my favorite place of the entire estate. It was so serene here.
Okay, here it goes, I released the breath I was holding and dived right in. My father comes from a very old, traditional demon family. His family can be traced back centuries and centuries. He comes from a very old line. And once upon a time, his family was very wealthy and very influential. They were hard, merciless leaders. So they ruled their land with an iron fist. Needless to say it wasn't a very happy land. And as the ages went forward, other noble families started figuring out compassion and how it related to their demon people more, so the old ways were thrown out as they tend to do throughout history. Unfortunately for my father's family, they didn't do away with their traditions, and there was a coup that basically left the family penniless and broke. My father's family was in ruins. Embarrassed and in disarray, the family disappeared for awhile to recoup their losses. Eventually they came back into the demon political world, but none of the nobles family forgot their tyrant rule, so they weren't granted their station back so easily. It took my father's father to finally get them a noble position back. My father's father was kind, compassionate, and the other noble families saw that in him, and when my father petitioned for a small land and a noble title, they granted it to him, never thinking he'd come up from as low as a noble as he was.
I'm surprised you're not more violent considering your history, Elena mused.
Just you wait. Wait until you really know what I'm capable of. My father thought his father was weak, and vowed to be more like his ancestors, but not enough so that they would lose their title. My father worked hard and managed to secure a marriage with my mother, who was the daughter of the ruling clan at the time. And when my mother's father died, my father and her took over and became the new rulers. But my father's father didn't approve of the way my father ruled and fought him at every turn, so my father had him killed. Publicly and in front of the entire town. He had somehow ribbed his father enough to provoke him to strike my father. The penalty for striking a ruling noble is death, and my father was eager to do the beheading himself. I think he took pleasure in killing his own father.
I barely hear Elena's intake of breath, but it was there. But I forged on undeterred. Now, my mother bore 4 children. My two brothers, Samuel and Tristain, me, and my little sister Josephine. I smiled sadly at the thought of them. I tried to bring their faces to the forefront of my mind, but I could no longer remember what they looked like. Tradition in my father's family is that after all the children reach a certain age, they fight each other to the deaths for right of succession. Whoever won would be the sole inheritor. My baby sister didn't stand a chance. She was barely at the cusp of demon adulthood, and my two older brothers were decades older than me and half a century older than her. She didn't even want it, begged them to just let her leave and promised she wouldn't oppose the winner. She wanted to live a peaceful life, a normal, demon life. But my father wanted none of it. I tried to run away the night before the fight, but my father caught me and locked me in the basement with a heavy guard. I didn't want to kill my siblings. I loved them. We had all always gotten along so well. Not typical in a family such as ours.
At least you have good memories before... Elena ventured, trying to find the good in this terrible story.
Yes, there's that. Our match was to be fought in the basement of our manor where only my parents watched. They weren't about to have the whole village find out what we were up to. They'd come up with some sort of cover story for the losers later. It was quite evident my father thought our older brother would be the victor. My father had been priming him for the role for years. But when my father came to release me from the room he had trapped me in, he told me he had always thought I was the most worthless child he had had. He wanted me to die. I know now he was goading me to get me to prove him wrong. AT the time, I didn't see it that way, and I decided I wanted to win. I wanted to prove him wrong.
Now you must understand at this time in my life, I knew violence in the village was wrong, but within the family I only ever knew violence. SO the thought of killing wasn't appalling to me. The thought of slaughtering my siblings, however was. But when my brother Samuel came at me with his sword, and stabbed me in the shoulder, my flight or fight instinct kicked in, and after a grueling fight, I managed to disarm him and used my powers to snap his neck. Tristain was standing over Josie's body, tears streaming down his face. He wanted no more part of this than I did. And as I came to his side, he begged me to kill him, that he didn't want to live with the guilt of killing our baby sister. So I did him a mercy and ran him through with our brother's sword. I stopped and had to wipe a tear off of my cheek.
I'm so sorry, Eev...
When it was all done and I was sitting in a circle of their blood, I watched as their souls departed their bodies and were drawn into my own. Where I was given the strength of my eldest brother Samuel, the water abilities my brother Tristain possessed, and the ability to cast spells from my sister, Josie. I gained each of their gifts, and as my father came to my side, he informed me that to keep their powers as my own, I would need to devour the souls of demons every so often as my body now needs the souls of demons to stay healthy. If I go too long without, I will die. Thankfully, there is always a supply of terrible demons to suck the souls out of.
How often do you need souls? And how many? Elena asked.
Over the years, I've trained my body to need less and less. When I was young and new, I needed either a couple really powerful demons or a handful of easy to kill ones. But I tired of the hunt and slowly trained myself to only need to soul every few months to survive. Before the bonding, I went and got a high level demon to tide me over for a couple more months before I need another one. But I figured with all the demons we'll be fighting, it'd be easy to access when needed.
Elena was quiet as she let all of this sink in.
As I'm sure you know, my father wasn't too pleased I was the winner. And I fought him at every turn.
How was your mother okay with losing three of her children? Elena finally asked.
She wasn't okay with it, but there wasn't much she could do. She grieved for a couple years, but my father basically told her to get over herself or he would make her.
In this family, you learn to adapt to shit like this. I plopped down on the bench beside the rose garden.
How did your father explain away your siblings' deaths?
He threw their bodies in a shed and set it on fire and told the village an assassination attempt had been made and that I had barely survived the onslaught.
"Eevelyn, how much longer will you be gracing us with your presence?" my mother's voice broke Elena and I's conversation.
I glanced up and turned to look over at her. I frowned and looked away. The story I had just told made me emotional and I wasn't in the mood for another fight.
"I know you are cross with your father and I, but I was hoping you and I could part on good terms before you left." She came to sit at my side, and I slid over to accommodate her.
"When have you ever cared what terms we left on?" I spat at her.
"Just because I don't always say anything doesn't mean that I don't care," she told me. When she realized I wasn't about to acknowledge her statement, she continued, "I know what your father has done has rattled you, but I implore you not to make a hasty mistake."
I glared at her, "I'll hold up my end of the bargain. I meant every word I said in the library, and I don't wish to discuss the topic any further."
"I can only assume you were filling in Elena on the events of your past, so while I understand you are emotional and upset even more now than you were when you stormed out of the library, I hope that you will listen to what I have to say with an open mind. I know I haven't always been the best mother, but I hate seeing us at odds. I want us to be okay. We used to be once."
"That was a very long time ago." Over three hundred years ago. She had been my hero. The best mother in the world. But when she watched me murder my brothers and did nothing to stop my father, I could never look at her the same way. I turned and looked at her. "How can I trust you? You just let father have his way with me. He made me kill my siblings and you just stood there. That is something I cannot forgive." I stood up and made to walk back into the manor, but she caught my wrist, and when I looked back at her, she had an expression on her face I hadn't seen in a very long time.
"Please, Evelyn, please understand the position I was in. You know who your father is. You know what he was capable of. I just want you to know the deal you made with your father. I will help make sure he abides by it." She looked at me with pleading eyes, begging me to understand.
"I don't want any favors from you." I wanted to end it there, but I knew I needed all the help I could get to keep my father in line, so I relented, "But I would thank you nonetheless. However, that does not mean that I trust you." With that, I turned and headed back inside and right out the front door.
Elena
Eevie found Alistair in his home, and he introduced me to his family, all of whom told me I was welcome there anytime. Alistair took us home, and I plopped onto my bed, burying my face into my pillows. The events of the entire day was a lot to take in. I was glad Alexa wasn't back from wherever it was that she had scurried of to. I wanted to be alone to process everything.
I wasn't mad at Eevie. She had been forced to do what she did by her father. She hadn't really had a choice. I couldn't imagine what it felt like to be reminded of what she did every time she used one of the abilities she gained from her siblings. I hadn't seen her really use her water abilities, and I wondered if that was because she was closest to Tristain and didn't like the reminder.
And her mother! She had been forced to keep her mouth shut to her husband's atrocious crimes lest she be killed to shut her up. To lose three of your children at the hands of your fourth. TO have to sleep in the same bed as the man who had them killed. I wondered how much the other noble families new of the Montiliyet clan. Would Eevie's betrothed rescind their arrangement if they knew?
Eevie? You really don't know anything about the guy you are supposed to marry? I asked.
Nope. It's a pretty hush hush deal. No one has heard anything about an alliances being made. There a rumors of an alliance being made, but my father and the other family is being so secretive, no one knows who the other side is.
Maybe it's a really old guy? I tried to tease her, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.
It's not that unlikely, actually. Another reason I don't want to marry someone from the other clans. What if he's like my father and that's why my father picked him? Or what if he's not and my father decides to have him killed on one of his whims? I don't want an innocent person to die again on my watch because of my father.
I understand what you're saying, but I hope he's a nice man so you can be happy- even if only for a little while.
As long as I'm married to him because of my family's alliance, I can never be happy with it.
I sighed, At least you can enjoy being with Nori for now. Shall we see if the boys are back? Maybe Noel and I can set the two of you up together again so Nori can cheer you up better than I have.
Nori and I are supposed to be the matchmakers here! she protested good naturedly. I could tell she really did want to see Nori.
I grabbed my phone and saw I had a missed call from Grandma and a couple texts, one of which was from Noel. They were back and wanted to see us.
I sent him a quick reply back that we had made it back and were in need of cheering up.
I went to the mirror and fluffed up my hair a bit while I waited to hear back from Noel. When my phone finally chimed that I had a new message, I hurried over to read what it said: On my way.
