The Pure One -✔- Book Two of the Phoenix Trilogy

Chapter 34 🔥 The Amulet

"What are we waiting here for, Agnus?" Rufus immediately changed their previous topic. He didn't want to drag Amelia into it. Even if he doubts his loyalty now, he's still his friend. He didn't want the others to look at him differently.

"When I came out of the portal. Before the Amulet disappeared, it glowed and it spoke to me. It said that I will find what I seek at the flowery fields beneath my dream." Agnus informed them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Amelia asked.

"A-Aqua?" A man's voice spoke from behind them.

Daphne turned around fast only to find someone she thought was long dead. Her first love was standing just a few feet away from her, "Zander!" She leaped towards him and hugged him.

"Aqua, I'm so sorry but I betrayed you." Zander started to say but Daphne pressed her forefinger to his lips to shush him.

"Y-you're alive." The Siren whispered in disbelief.

Their audience were standing still in shock realising what was happening. Who could forget the story of Daphne's first love.

"I'm not human, not even close to one. I was the last survivor of the Shokodo clan." Zander started to explain himself straight to the point. He talked like he was in a hurry.

"N-no, you're lying. I refuse to believe that mother was right." Daphne insisted even though deep inside she felt otherwise. There was just something totally off about her Zander since before. A feeling she blindedly disregarded because she loved him.

"I'm so sorry, Aqua. I never betrayed you. I lied about who I am but I only want my clan to start all over again. And you being the mother of all." Zander was outright begging for her understanding.

"W-why me? My b-baby was like you?" Daphne asked sadly.

"Yes. Should be the first. I chose you for my revenge, to consume all your power. But instead I fell inlove with you. That night, I was gonna confess to you and make everything right. But, your mother beats me to it. I'm so sorry, Aqua. I swear I never faked my love for you." He told her in a voice full of remorse. He kneeled while his hands enveloped her waist tightly, holding on as if his life depended on it.

Daphne unclasped his hands and stepped backwards in utter disbelief. "D-did you know how long I mourned for you and my child? H-how I lived my life hating my own mother?" She fell to her knees and sobbed on her hands.

Amelia ran to her side and consoled her. She rocked her body, whispering,"Let it go, D. I'm here. Shhh, Shhh. "

"You're that green humanoid monster that guarded the Amulet. You tried to kill us." Agnus shouted at him in anger.

"T-that was my body. It was cursed to guard the amulet forever. When you took the Amulet. My body came out after with you. So the Amulet lured it towards here, inside your subconscious. It's the only way it could be trapped again. Without me inside that body, it would be a living shell. A heartless and powerful monster." Zander told them cautiously.

"W-why are you here Zander?" Daphne asked after she was able to compose herself.

"Your mother sent me as prisoner of the island then Pearl took my body as the protector of the Amulet saying that it was my duty and my only way of redemption."

"So how do we fight you? Your body, I mean." Rufus asked.

"You won't but I will. I need your demon blood to weaken it." Zander replied.

"Won't it weaken you too?" Amelia supplied.

"No, I'm only a manifestation of myself. My weakness remained on my solid form but I'm the only one that could defeat it. The very reason why my clan was wiped out on the face of the whole ocean in the first place." Zander said sadly.

"Y-you're indestructible. Only you could kill yourself. That's why mother said that she didn't kill you. S-she couldn't." Daphne said softly but more to herself.

"Then how your clan was wiped out then?" Agnus asked out of curiosity.

"Sirenians. Our people love deeply, too deep that they will kill themselves if the love of their life betrays them. Slowly, one by one, my people disappeared. I was the only one spared since I was raised among the humans. If the Sirenians are all women, my clan were all men. My human birthmother escaped my father before she gave birth." Zander answered while keeping an eye contact with Daphne.

"Why would you fight yourself, won't you recognize you?" Amelia was itching to ask the question unable to grasp the sensibility of fighting oneself. Like why would she fight herself?

"My body without me is a pure monster and the monster would want to fight to stay as a monster."

Roooaaar. . .

Like on cue, they were all startled to hear the loud roar of the inevitable. Daphne hopped on to her feet and threw herself to Zander. She enveloped her into a warm embrace, her tears flowed like an endless waterfalls.

"I just want to say proper goodbye this time and to let you know that I forgive you. On behalf of my heritage, I sincerely ask for forgiveness too." She whispered in a quaking voice.

"Thank you. I will never stop loving you, Aqua. What happened in the past should remain in the past." Zander whispered back in a hoarse voice as he lets go of her. He held her face in both of his hands and said, "be careful, my inamorata."

His message was mysterious and full of warning. He closed the gap and kissed her for the first time in years and for the last time in forever.

"Z-zander," Daphne was choking on her tears as she surrender herself into the arms of Amelia. The shifter rubs her back in circular motion to somehow help her ease the pain.

"Here demon, can you fill this with your blood?" Zander handed Rufus a small vial and a dagger.

After Rufus gave Zander what he needed, the man ran towards the location where the roar was heard.

"Now what?" Rufus asked to Amelia, totally ignoring Agnus on his left.

"I don't know, we wait more?" The shifter answered him with uncertainty.

It was half an hour after Zander left and yet they heard or saw nothing. They were starting to feel agitated and worried about the whole thing. Was it wise for them to trust him?

"D-daphne!" Zander's voice bellowed from not so far away.

The Siren automatically sprang to her feet and headed to that direction with her friends tailing behind her.

"Princess, wait!" Rufus called out.

They saw Daphne stopped and so they followed suit. Shock was an understatement when they saw what was unfolding in front. Zander was sitting on the ground, all bloodied and without. . . A heart. He was gripping the Amulet in his bloody hands as he tried to reach and give it to Daphne. His hand was shaking uncontrollably.

"A-all I ask is for you to b-bring my body back t-to the Island." He requested while sputtering blood as he spoke.

"W-where's the monster?" Daphne asked, reaching out to him. Her eyes were full of sympathy and unspoken love.

"I am the monster. Me and him are one again. I love you, Aqua." Zander spoke with great difficulty.

How he was able to still talk and be alive with his heart ripped out of his chest was totally unbelievable and unimaginable. He lived up to the word described to his clan---Indestructible.

Daphne clasped his hand on both of hers with the Amulet in the middle when it suddenly glowed brightly and enveloped all of them.