The vessel—that’s me.
I, Saydi, am the vessel who holds what the Pyre needs...the key. The key is precious, it is my soul, my spirit light.
Words like catacomb took on a whole new meaning—the catacomb referenced in the book is the place the Tovs hid the Rondure and can only be opened with my strength and truth.
And the Rondure...
Okay, the Rondure is an actual creation of the demons, created to steal the Spirit Light of humans...in other words, their souls and all Spirit Lights are kept in the Spirit Chamber until each human is born.
Ugh! It was like learning a foreign language, one that just so happened to stem from my own ancestry.
Pure strength.
Mom, Dad and Tovs believe I need pure strength and pure truth to open the Catacomb and it, in turn, will release the Rondure—for the Rondure to be destroyed, my Spirit Light must be strong enough within me for it to feed off the evil inside it. Eww...that’s a pretty detestable diet!
Free will.
In essence, if the Pyre don’t have to tempt humans and can simply take their souls to do their bidding, then mortals have lost their free will to make good decisions. In fact, they will have lost the right to make any decisions at all about their lives—their lives would be forfeit. I can’t let that happen.
Temptations.
How weak we are, that we can be controlled by temptations, never quite being able to overcome our urges, our greed, our relentless quest for more. The Pyre manipulate through those temptations...which is actually fairly typical for their type of species.
Mom came and went with my grilled cheese and chips, and since I generally wasn’t allowed to eat in my room, Mom obviously felt the occasion trumped our usual house rules. She knew the revelations were important—yet more important than that, I had to grasp it all and embrace it. The bottom line: My soul could either destroy or save all of humanity.
~ * ~
With a full tummy, I must have dozed off, because when my eyes fluttered open, my life was finalized—there was a clear set, unknown path I was to follow. Instead of my decision being: Should I buy that red sweater or the blue one? It was: Do I give up my soul to save souls and in the process quite possibly destroy them? Or do I simply remain greedy and keep it all to myself?
At that moment, the demons encompassed my mind and an earlier day’s event took on a whole new meaning—Nathanael’s blood-red eyes pierced my soul, again. With my own self-indulgent worries engulfed in fear, I threw off my comforter—the pillows went flying and I bolted straight up.
“Nathanael! Mom, they were doing some kind of ritual on Nathanael! You have to help him! We have to get him away from there!”
There was no shuffling when they heard my shrill scream, for it sent a stampede of footsteps down the hall and straight into my room. The door burst open and the sight they saw must have been spectacular—plate upside down on the floor, Doritos strewn all about, hair in an upheaval. I must have looked like a crazy person. My tears were instant. He was being hurt.
My parents simply stared at me. André nervously touched a perfume bottle on my dresser.
My eyes darted along the line of faces, surely pleading for a much more frantic response to such horrible news. “What is wrong with you? We have to do something! Nathanael is being tortured!” I insisted.
As they stood at attention, mute. I looked to Dad again, beginning to feel completely helpless. It made me mad and again I attempted to get some kind of caring for Nathanael out of them. “What can we do? He needs help!” I yelled, persisting despite their lack of reaction.
They didn’t seem to comprehend the gravity of the situation. They weren’t getting how horrible it looked.
No one even glimpsed at me.
Finally, Dad licked his lips, and it was the first time that whole night that he actually didn’t look at me while he spoke.
“Saydi, Nathanael is a Half Night. All the Braxton boys are.”
With all the information of who I was and that my reality wasn’t reality at all, the only thing that finally snapped me was the fact that Nathanael was a Half Night.
Slumping into a pile on my purple rug, I recalled Nathanael’s eyes blazing, the deadness of them...he was part of it. My chest heaved as hysterics took hold. The boy that I loved—yes, loved—was a monster.
The emptiness returned with a vengeance, literally taking my breath away. The voices around me were distant and my mind floated away to a place that would keep me safe from the horror of it all.
It will be okay, Saydi, I promise.
The voice soothed from the farthest reaches of my mind.
Everything faded to black.
The wind against my window extracted me farther and farther away from my peaceful place, bringing with it the light from the morning sun. It was something that used to make me happy, but that day it only brought the hollowness back, proving that none of the night before was a dream. The only thing to stop me from screaming was to curl up in a ball under my blankets and cry.
The things that were happening couldn’t be real, and yet they were. My whole life was a farce and I was the puppet. My reality was never my reality. It felt like my life was snatched away from me in one night, shattering everything I ever believed in.
“Saydi,” Mom called from behind my bedroom door.
There wouldn’t be an answer. The disclosure of who Nathanael truly was hurt too much.
She knocked and I heard my door open. “Saydi, honey, its eleven o’clock. Did you want some breakfast?”
I shook my head.
She came over and rubbed my back. “How are you feeling?”
Again, no answer.
She sighed. “I know it’s all been very difficult. I know how you feel. You should have seen me when your dad told me he was a god.” She giggled at the memory. “I flipped. Well, at first I thought this wonderful man whom I loved was crazy, and that I would have to give him up or put him in a loony bin.”
That made me giggle. I turned around and put my head on her knees, cuddling around her.
“Hmm, it’s been a long time since you’ve done this,” she said, stroking my hair.
“Mm-hm.”
“How is she?” I heard Dad ask.
“She’s good,” Mom said.
I peeked up just as he sat behind her and put his chin on her shoulder. Looking down at me, he smiled. “You gave us a little scare last night.”
“I’m sorry, it was just too much,” I confessed.
He tweaked my nose. “I can understand that. How are you feeling about everything this morning?”
I shrugged. “It hurts.”
“What about the rest of it?” Dad asked.
“It is what it is, I’ll try and take it day by day. I just don’t...” I buried my face in Mom’s lap.
“Oh Saydi, we know how you feel about Nathanael. It was written all over your face the first day,” she consoled.
Wiping my eyes, I responded, “You knew who he was, and that’s why you freaked out about the book.”
She shook head. “Honey, I didn’t know until that moment who they were. Numerous families had moved into the neighboring towns and until you brought the book home, it was impossible for me to decipher who, if any, were the ones looking for you.”
“You didn’t know they were demons?” The question was directed to Dad.
“We did, but your mother didn’t. It was best she not know, it would be too difficult for her to act normally and keep her daily routine. It was bad enough she knew they were near. Unfortunately, she figured it out when you brought the book home. That we did not anticipate.”
“Why did it have to be him?” Again, thinking out loud.
Dad wiped away my tears. “Well, as you said, it is what it is.”
They were both smiling at me like they knew something I didn’t.
I stared at the wall. “If we’re gods...” I sniffled. “Then how could I fall in love with the wrong person?...Er, man...I mean, Pyre.” Throwing my arm up, I concluded, “Eww! Whatever he is!”
“Because you didn’t,” Mom said coyly.
Twisting my head to look at her, I asked, “What do you mean?”
They had a grin clear across their faces and their eyes were sparkling.
Pushing myself up, I knelt on the bed. I felt the emptiness lifting in anticipation of what they were going to tell me. “What?”
“Well, you fainted last night before we could tell you the rest,” Dad said. “We’ve been watching the Braxton clan since the triplets’ birth. Since before you were born, numerous informants told us that they’d be the ones sent to fetch the Spirit Light, when it was time.”
Wow! It was all so espionage-ish.
“The boys have been well-trained physically and mentally. They are masters of their abilities and experts at breaking even the healthiest of Spirit Lights. Their whole upbringing has been geared to one thing: Find the vessel and deliver its Spirit Light.”
“You mean,
her
Spirit Light,” I corrected.
The way he looked told me he didn’t like that reference, and when you thought about it, saying it out loud confirmed the Pyre were after me, his daughter.
He whispered, “Indeed,
your
light.”
I touched his face. “I’m sorry, Dad.”
The strength the man had was insurmountable. He turned and smiled, being strong for all of us. “I am too, sweetheart.” Then brushed his finger down my cheek and continued, “If they can’t deliver your Spirit Light, then the battle will be inevitable. Now, Nathanael has never been like his brothers or father, but he has always done Andrew’s bidding to prove he’s a good son. He does despise doing it, but he obeys,” he warned.
“He’s good, isn’t he?” Nathanael had to be, there was no way I could fall for a guy who wasn’t.
Mom smiled. “Yes, but honey, remember Nathanael’s loyalty is to his dad.”
I didn’t know what to feel. Nathanael was brought up to take my soul and was a demon, but a good one. Yet, he’d still do demonic things to show loyalty to his father...oh, my insides were a garbled mess! I began fidgeting with my fingers.
Dad continued, “Something else came to light with the information given to us yesterday.”
“What?”
“We knew Nathanael and Mr. Braxton left the country. However, it wasn’t work-related as you and the rest of the world were told. We didn’t know why they were performing the Iniquitous Ritual on Nathanael...”
“The what?”
Dad chuckled at my ignorance. “It’s a one to three week ritual they perform on Half Nights if they start to stray more to their human side. For instance, if they become a little too kind to others, fail to do their master’s or father’s bidding...that type of thing.”
“Oh.” I glanced at Mom. “Does it hurt him?” Immediately worried.
“Yes, honey, it does. But don’t worry. Nathanael has an amazing healing donum. He heals very quickly.”
Somehow, that information didn’t really make me feel better and it also didn’t stop the choking sobs that sat on the cusp.
“Do you want to stop for now?” Dad asked.
“No. I just don’t like the fact that he was hurt.”
Dad narrowed his eyes, not certain if he should go on. “If you’re sure...” he lulled.
“Mm-hm.” I nodded, bracing myself.
He scrutinized me for a second, then continued, “Very well... We assumed they took him because they discovered Nathanael had done some exceptionally amazing good deeds to save some people from his father and other Pyre...but that wasn’t it. The fact is, Nathanael refused to take your Spirit Light, outright defying his father.”
Nathanael’s life was geared for one thing—to find me and take what they needed. It made no sense. “Why would he refuse?” I asked.
Dad and Mom grinned at each other—they both shifted back to me and Dad professed, “Nathanael’s in love with you.”
I froze, trying to comprehend the words he said.
Is it possible Nathanael could feel the same way about me?
At first I was skeptical. “Really?” A smile slowly crept onto my face as each beat of my heart confirmed that reality for me. “Really?!!!” I bounced on my knees, as the never-ending hole closed up.
“Calm down, honey,” Mom giggled, putting her hand on my shoulder to stop me. “There’s more, so listen.”
Dad shook his head, and ran his fingers through his hair. “Boy, I get to come into your life during the love-struck teenager time... I’m not sure I want to,” he played with me.
Mom patted his hand. “Oh, you’ll survive, Dad.”
I sat perched, waiting for the rest and was about to get very impatient.
Dad kissed Mom’s cheek, then finally continued. “Well, because of his love for you, he refused his father.”
Really?!!
The idea that Nathanael did that for me was wonderful...but then again, he suffered for it. “What did they do to him?”
There was a bit of hesitation before Dad went on, leading me to believe it wasn’t something very nice. He shook his head. “I’m not sure...” He was wavering.