Lavender (2) : Sons of the Deveaux

Chapter 9

LILLITH

She was floating away. The pain had oddly subsided, everything inside her felt so quiet as grappling hands and branches passed her through the scramble.

The noise had faded and the thoughts in her head were replaced with cotton between her ears to muffle everything. The edges of her sight were blackening, blurring, encroaching on the starless sky above her as her head lolled. There was no more strength in her body. No more ability to lift her arm and command the earth around her to protect. To keep her family safe.

Logically, Lilly was aware she had lost too much blood now. The warm spread down the side of her dress was her life leaving her. Everything had simplified to slow motion as creatures raged around her and debris flung into the air.

Dragging in a wheezed breath through her throat, the fairy lifted her head as best she could. Her foggy eyes were looking for them. For the only two faces, she wanted to see right now, her hand trying to stretch out for them, to will them closer, to will them to save her.

Orian was almost unrecognisable in his rage, swinging and reforming his fogged creations to do as much damage as he could, fighting against a tidal wave of ghouls that were determined to keep the distance between them. His scarred face was marred with blood and destruction, while an inferno blazed not far from him.

Lennox was burning everything and anything he could, his flames changing in colour as some sizzled like a whip across a range of ghouls and monsters the Life Tree had conjured. For a split second, she swore those golden eyes that blazed so brightly, connected with hers. His face was drawn in panic like the realisation was dawning on him as well. His mouth opened in a scream that never reached her.

There was no saving her from this. There was no coming back from this. A shaky smile twisted her mouth, an attempt at reassurance. Its okay. Everything was okay.

All that training she had done, all those attempts at getting stronger, had gone to waste in a moment of panic. If she had been strong like they had taught her to be, this never would have happened. Her boys never would have had to endure this. A sob stuck at the back of her throat as she felt a wave of exhaustion run through her small body. The scraps of her remaining wing no longer moved.

The hope of a life she had dreamed about slipped away from her fingertips as the ghouls brought her to the base of the tree, slumping her body against the dead wood. En masse, they took several steps from the small fairy, their warped faces and twisted bodies shuffling away from her as though expecting something. 

Waiting.

A low hum started to fill the air leaving Lilly to think she was hallucinating. Small patches of grass began to grow where she was sat, slow and lethargic in bloom until the small blades subtly sank beneath her skin with a sting.

Vines formed and drew her up to her feet like a puppet then higher. The fairy's feet left the ground as she was dragged up, like a sacrifice for everyone to see. Tears streaked down her face as her head fell forward. The ghouls had stopped moving, all heads turned to her as if she were their goddess to worship. Blood steadily dripped from her wounds and the darkness was just beyond the corner.

Slowly, like poison in her veins, the blades of grass slithered through her and injected themselves into her body and sank down to the bone. Her limbs twitched and twisted at odd angles in a sudden rush and her mouth opened in a lung-destroying scream. Pain became the only thing she knew. The only thing that tore through her before something else.

Something overwhelming and mind-numbing.

White noise took over her mind and overtook everything in her entire being as Lilly simply left her own reality. Blinding light surrounded her, wrapped around her like a blanket of soft warmth and comfort.

Gradually, like her eyes adjusting to sunlight, the world came into view. A huge field of endless flowers, all kinds of varieties. Creations she had never seen before, colours she had no words for. Rubbing her eyes a little more, Lilly twisted and turned, trying to find somebody before a figure shimmered into view.

It was herself - but not herself? The eyes were wrong. The expression on her face was wrong. Cornflower blue and a gentle smile that held secrets. That made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in warning.

"You're afraid. I understand."

"What are you?" She wasn't going to be tricked. Not this time. "This isn't real." Lilly shook her head, looking in all directions as if an escape would appear. "I can't be here, I have to... My boys, they're still fighting."

"And they'll fight no matter what. Until bodies pile high and they find yours. Part of the tree. Part of life. A deity in skin and bones."

"I'm not a goddess. I'm just a fairy. If that." Her wings were no more. Her body had been exhausted of everything it had.

"You can still fight, Lillith. Don't let the power overwhelm you. Don't let your loved ones die." Horrified, Lilly watched a gaping wound begin to open at the apparition's throat slowly, like an invisible knife cutting across to spill rivulets of blood down the white dress she wore. "Don't make the mistake I did."

Lillith felt her stomach drop to her knees like a weighted stone. "Avani." The smile on the other female's face turned sad as more blood flowed from her throat.

"If you let it take root, the tree will never let go. Breathe through it." The other female coughed, a burst of vibrant red spilling from her mouth but she still managed to look serene despite the bubbling blood at the corners of her mouth.. It was horrific yet Lilly couldn't look away. "Your power is a seed of life itself. Direct the roots. Unfurl the leaves and .. well, I'm sure you know the last part."

The fairy shook her head, unable to look away. She was filled with panic and worry for her mates and the fight they were struggling against. Heartbreak for the family she had lost and what her new one now faced. "I don't! I don't know the last part!"

"Wither-", the gash at her throat peeled open more, tendons and sinue ripping as she tilted her head. "-or bloom. Only you can decide. Save our sisters, Lilly. Roots need water to grow."

Feeling something latch onto her limbs, wrapping around her arms and legs, Lillith tried her best to reach for the other female. To help her somehow only to be wrenched away so hard, her limbs felt like they were nearly ripped from their sockets, Avani's figure becoming a tiny spec in the field of flowers as she was thrown through time and space.

The core of her being was yanked in opposite directions as for a mere moment, Lilly became nothing more than something created by light and broken emotions. One way was peace. One way was the direction to where her mother might rest, to where she could let go of her fear and her worry.

The other was pain. The unknown. A war that was only starting and a heartbreaking betrayal. But there was also love. A future with her mates beside her, a life she had never expected to have and a family that had adored her. Had given her a place to really call home.

The choice, ultimately, was an easy one. She just had to reach out towards it.

A flicker of memories invaded her, flashes of tiny moments both meaningless and others that would stay with her forever.

Sisters, laughing together. 

A flower blooming in the palm of her hand. 

Orian laughed at a silly conclusion she had drawn. Lennox turning pink at her compliments. Shopping trips. Art room experiences. 

Shared beds and soft sheets. 

Gentle fingers through her hair and warm hands exploring her body.

It was always going to happen this way. It was always going to come back to them. The beat of wings and wrath of the earth itself.