"I got angry," I admit, "but I didn't lose control."
Good, Onyx says. I need you to be strong, Lily.
"Stronger than everyone before me was."
Onyx bristles. If you are not up to this, if you want to let this planet fall prey to the demon in the orb, then do as you please. You will only have your own conscience to answer to.
"I didn't say that," I snap. "I'll thank you not to put words in my mouth."
Good. Because Scion is not going to have the demon turn cartwheels on his lawn. He's angry, and he has something to prove. He wants to see this world smoulder. He wants to want it.
"He's angry? He killed his own mentor, the only man who had ever taken an interest in him. He doesn't have a right to be angry."
You do not hold a monopoly over anger.
I turn on Onyx. "You sound like you're sticking up for him. Poor bullied Scion, had to betray his friends to prove his worth as a warrior. Just spare me."
It is not Scion who concerns me. Onyx fixes hard eyes on me. It is your anger which threatens our plan, and the future of this planet. You need to forget the past.
"Forget the past?" I'm stunned. "It's my past, Onyx. Whether I like it or not, it makes up part of who I am."
That is what I worry about.
I put my hands on my hips. "I controlled my anger this time, even when I was provoked. I can do this."
You will have to do more than that in the end.
"What do you mean?"
Onyx stretches and curls up into a ball. It is not enough to disperse the demon's energy throughout the atmosphere. We must make sure it can never come together again. We must destroy it for good.
I grunt. "And how are we supposed to do that?"
The same way Scion did.
I go cold. "You know how to do...that?"
We all know how to do it. But only a rare few can muster up the hatred it requires. One must reach for the darkness at the core of their soul. The hatred, anger, jealousy, pain. This is our sickness. When it takes physical form it is fatal.
I feel like I can't move. He can't be saying this. What happened to Lazarus was a blasphemy.
The Phaedreans have known about this power for millennia. Its practice is forbidden, but the archives in Prometheus held all the information one needed to tap into it. How do you think Scion learned how to do it?
I shake my head, numb. The power Scion used on Lazarus was something sick and twisted. The First Witch felt its wrongness emanating from Lazarus's body that night. It was the power to actually destroy energy. It was like a disease that rotted his particles until they withered into nothing. If Onyx was asking me to use this power, he was out of his mind.
"No," I tell him. "Never."
That demon is a threat to millions of innocents. If it is set free there will be slaughter. You must learn to use the power and remain unscathed.
"Remain unscathed?" I laugh in disbelief. "It's my fate to succumb to darkness, and you want me to harness every dark, hateful thought buried in me?"
I want you to be strong. I want you to persevere.
I drop my voice. "Is that what you said to all the other reincarnations, Onyx?" I say quietly. "Is that how you failed them all?"
His tail stiffens. Slowly, he turns his face to meet mine. His eyes are like black ice.
Without a word, he turns back around and walks out the door.
*