My Inner Demons S2 Continued

How Was I There?

Marcos slumped over himself like a rock. Ava gasped. A large, bloody wound had opened on the back of his head. How did Ava do so much damage using such little strength?
She saw Marcos' magic dissolve like water, the fake ones melting back into the ground and the smoke dispersing. Someone, Ava couldn't see who, spotted her, bedraggled and weary, standing over Marcos with a bloody rock. They shouted, but the words fell upon deaf ears, as if Ava were underwater. Not until she felt warm arms circle around her and push her face into their chest, forcing her eyes away from Marcos' unmoving body. She felt something wet pool in her eyes and drip down down down...
"Tie him up." Asch snarled. Ava realized that he was the one who had ensnared her in his arms. She looked into his eyes and he looked back with a crestfallen gaze.
"We'll wait for him to wake up. Then we can ask him questions." Leif said, his hand crushing the hilt of one of his daggers.
          "Oh..." Rhys said, his finger on the inside of Marcos' wrist and his eyes darting to Ava.
          Ava turned her body away from Asch and started toward Marcos, "He's okay, right? He's not... he's not..."
          She ran the last few steps and collapsed next to Rhys, her hands tangling with Marcos'. She was not a killer. Her hands were clean. That was not Marcos' blood staining the snow. His eyes were not open, unseeing. It wasn't his pretty head that had a large gash in the side. Not Marcos, not Marcos, not Marcos, no, no, no no no no.
She didn't realize she had screamed it until arms hauled her to her feet and she was dragged away from him.
"Ava! Ava!" Leif shouted past the blood pounding through Ava's ears, "I can heal him. I can. But you need to calm down and let me concentrate!"
Ava grabbed Leif's arm, holding him back, "No! You used almost all your magic breaking me out of the palace! You'll die if you use any more!"
Assured that Leif would stay put and not do anything stupid, Ava ran back to Marcos and shooed Rhys away from the boy, "None of you guys can heal him! It's too much of a risk!We can't waste your magic, your lives depend on it and so does mine!"
Looking at all the blood oozing from Marcos' head, Ava felt nauseous. She hesitantly crouched down and felt his pulse again. When she didn't feel anything, she began to panic. Blackness swarmed at the edge of her vision and her breathing quickened.
But there.
Like a ray of sunshine, Marcos' slow, faint pulse banished the shadows threatening to consume Ava, leaving in their wake a strange sense of peace.
Ava did not fear the blood. She did not fear the wound. She did not fear blood on her hands. She only, in that moment, feared that Marcos, who loved desperately and with everything he had, would die.
As her mind thought this, her hands cupped Marcos' head, her dirty fingers brushing his wound. His eyelashes fluttered, but Ava couldn't tell if it was from the wind or if he was blinking.
          Before she knew what she was doing, a torrent of words marched out of Ava's mouth, weaving together beautifully to create an ancient, powerful chant.
          "Curar! Curar! Volve aos vivos! Xa non sufras dentro dos pozos ardentes do inferno!"
          Light poured from Ava's hands, encasing Marcos' head like wings. Ava couldn't see through it, but somehow, deep in her bones, she could feel Marcos' wound stitching itself back together, tissue and skin patching themselves up.
          "What the hell...?" Asch said, shielding his eyes against the light.
          The light dimmed to a faint glow, and everyone blinked to clear their eyes. When Ava opened hers, she saw Leif murderously standing over Marcos, holding him at knifepoint. Marcos was gasping, trembling in fear.
          "What the... Marcos, are you alright?! I thought I killed you!" Ava cried out, staring at her hands in wonder.
          Marcos winced, rubbing his head, "So did I. You hit my hit my head really hard. How the hell am I alive?"
          "Ava... healed you." Rhys said, "I've never seen anything like it. The magic you just did takes years to learn, and decades to perfect. How- when- how?"
Ava shook her head, her hands still buzzing with energy, "I-"
"She's Daemos." Marcos said, "And Daemos blood is dominant. Lord Tramy is an unimaginably powerful telepath- it's why he was kept so close to the royal family. And he's your father. His magic... some of it, if not most of it, had to have been inherited by you, his daughter."
          Ava shifted, her eyes darting away uncomfortably.
          "Why're you so eager to talk now, bastard?" Leif snarled, pushing his dagger hard enough against his victim's neck that it drew blood. Ava tracked the ruby red path as it wound down Marcos' neck like a trail of snakes.
          The man sniffed, "You're going to get information from me either way. I figured I might as well spare myself the torture."
          Leif let his knife fall slacker ever so slightly.
          "Marcos... are you- are you saying I may have Daemon powers?" Ava whispered, staring at her hands in equal parts wonder and horror.

          "I know you do. Lady Bish warned be that you might, and that I should be prepared. But you never showed any signs of possessing powers until now."

          Ava stared at her hands and began to tremble. Suddenly, with ferocious desire, she longed for her dads. She wanted to sweep all this complicated nonsense under the rug and go back to living her normal, boring, Daemos-less life.

          "Tie him up." Asch snarled toward Leif, "and let's begin to make our way to a safe place. Too many people know a human is in Mersedith now."

          Three hours later, the group was comfortably on the road, although they stopped at frustratingly frequent pace because everyone continued to fuss over Ava, despite her continued assurance that she was fine.

          The fifth time they stopped, Ava refused the salve Rhys offered her for her rope burns, "I'm not ungrateful that you guys are taking care of me, but seriously, my red wrists are the least of your concerns! We're in the wide open and anyone passing by could be one of Lady Bish's lackeys, and then we're in even more trouble!"
Rhys rubbed his temples, "Okay, okay. Sorry, you're right. We- I guess we got scared when you were kidnapped. The thought that you were dead..."
Shaking off all the awkwardness from their kiss, Ava rose to her feet and hugged him, trying to squeeze all her appreciation for him into the hug.
"But shouldn't we- I mean, I think we should talk about what Marcos told us." Ava said, stepping away from Rhys to address the whole group.
"Yeah, I've never seen anything like what you did." Asch said, his voice part awe and part caution.
"But I didn't- I mean, well, how did I do that?" Ava asked, staring at her hands. It might have been her imagination, but she could've sworn she saw a slight sheen of glitter coating them.
          Leif shrugged, "I don't see why we're ignoring the obvious. Marcos literally told us that your dad is Lord Tramy. That makes you have Daemon, half human."
          "How is that even possible?" Ava whispered, "I thought that all the humans on Daemos were dead."
         All the boys shifted uncomfortably, until finally Pierce said, "We did not tell you the whole truth."
          Ava glanced between the five of them, "Okay... so, tell me."
          Asch ran a hand down his face, "The truth is... by the time we were ready to travel to Earth in search for a magic source, we were all very drained of magic. There... there was actually one human left, and that human was literally holding up the entirety of Daemos. But- but we needed the human's life force to refuel our magic, so we-" he took a deep breath, "We killed the human and took his soul. That's how we managed to get to Earth."
          Ava felt sick, "How could you do that? What is wrong with you people? That was an innocent man trying to survive on a planet infested by demons!"
          "Well..." Noi said, looking away from her in shame, "It makes sense that Lord Tramy is your father, is what we're trying to say. The female humans on Daemos were... treated terribly. Unspeakable things were said and done to them. There was a crazy rumor that went around, though, that Lord Tramy wasn't like that. That the lord fell in love with a human by the name of Adela or something. Back then, I thought that was impossible- every lord I knew was snobby and awful- and that Lord Tramy couldn't possibly love a human, but now... I see that that isn't impossible at all." Noi finished, finally meeting Ava's eyes with an emotion she couldn't decipher.
          "So... Lord Tramy could have had a child with this Adela woman. He could have had me. But that doesn't at all explain what activated my powers, or why the heck I was on Earth and had two dads!"
          Rhys shook his head, "Daemos powers have often been triggered by powerful, sudden surges of emotion. In your case, the fear that you had killed Marcos and the dread of what effect that would have on you is what triggered your manifestation. As for your strange Earthly appearance, I... am not sure. But there is a way for us to find out."
          Ava almost grabbed his forearm, but refrained from doing so, remembering their horrible, bloody confessions, "How?"
          "By taking a trip through your memories, and your past" was all Rhys said before heading into the woods, beckoning Ava to follow him.
          Looking back at the others and seeing their nods, Ava hurried to follow him, unsure of the answers she would get and if she wanted them at all.