Knight of Converse
Chapter nineteen
There was no way that I was going to let Misty sleep on her own tonight, so I took both her and Duran back home. Mom and dad were asleep by the time we got back, much to our luck. Misty and I somehow found the strength to help Duran up the stairs. Though the poison was out of his system, he still had a gash on his shoulder. We set him into the bathroom before I lead Misty to my bedroom to get changed into my spare pyjamas. She was clearly still shaken about the whole ordeal, and frankly I was in a way too. To be honest I was in shock. Duran and Misty were almost killed in the same night, I couldn’t properly process it.
“I’m fine, really,” Misty insisted quietly, as she put on one of my old baggy t-shirts. “I swear.”
“No, you’re not,” I inspected her still trembling body. “You don’t have to lie to me, I was there.”
She looked away from me and sat on the bed. “What were those things?”
“Monsters,” I whispered harshly. “They were real life monsters.”
Her eyes were wide with fright when she looked back up at me. “They could speak a—a—and they... They…” she squeezed her eyes shut to repress the thought. “They said terrible things…”
I rushed to her side. “They will never hurt you again, ever,” my voice portrayed my fierce desire and promise to protect her.
She gave me a haunting look. “I don’t ever want to lose you Sol,” she swallowed. “Remember when we first met?”
I groaned and rubbed my eyes. “I egged your house…”
She grinned. “And then I came out and said—”
“‘This is attempted murder!’” We both chorused, and laughed.
“You clarified that you were allergic to eggs and that my behaviour was an act of homicide.” I laughed quietly at the memory. The way that Misty’s brain worked never did fail to amuse me. I looked into her brown eyes and smiled, but her expression was still somewhat serious.
“That’s the last thing I had running through my head when I thought I was going to…” she paused to swallow her tears, “Above memories of my family, because Sol, you are my family too.” Her lip trembled.
A tear escaped my eye, and I quickly wiped it away. “Wow… this is such a sentimental moment…”
“Sol,” she groaned.
“I feel like I should fart or something to level the atmosphere…”
She turned away to lay down on the bed, “Goodnight Sol,”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” I insisted, then sobered up. “You know how I get in…lovey dovey moments… okay…” I sighed. “I love you Mist, I really do… don’t say it much but—”
The sound of her snoring cut me off. I shook my head and covered her with the blanket. Trust her to fall asleep when I was finally pouring out my heart and soul to her. Okay, perhaps that was a little dramatic. I stood up and took a deep breath. I was beyond exhausted this night, but I didn’t feel like I could sleep. I bit my lip as I turned to walk towards the door so that I could get a medical kit downstairs. Duran was finishing up in the shower by the sound of it as I treaded carefully downstairs. I rushed over into the kitchen, and into the first aid cabinet where I grabbed the box. By the time I got back upstairs, Duran was inside his room. I walked over to the door and knocked carefully.
“Can I come in?” I asked quietly.
“Yes,” I heard his reply.
I opened the door to find that he was in nothing but shorts. His dark wavy hair still glimmered with moisture, as he sat down with a pained expression on his face.
“Hey,” I started and walked over to him. The slash was pretty deep, it would have to be sutured. I figured that I would have to use magic to fix it up a little.
He looked up at me, with deep circles under his eyes. “Sol,” he breathed.
“It’s deep,” I said matter-of-factly, “It needs stiches. I can try to fix it myself, I think I can do something about it.”
“I do not care about the wound,” he put his good arm around my hips and pulled me closer. I used the opportunity to dig into the medical box and pull out antiseptics.
“I need to clean it,” I fiddled around for the gauze. “You could get an infection or something…”
“Stop,”
I continued, “I do pay some attention in health to know that this is not hygienic,”
“Stop for a moment and look at me,” he demanded.
“I can’t,” I whispered. My body began to tremor. “I can’t,”
“You do not have to be brave with me,” his voice was soft, “you’re shaken.”
I roughly wiped at another tear that escaped. “The antiseptic might sting a little,” my voice trembled quietly.
His comforting arm tightened around me as he sighed. “Will you say something else?”
“Like what?” I harshly responded. “What do you want me to say? That I’m okay with everything right now? Because I’m not. And I can’t help that, so just back off!”
I wasn’t gentle about cleaning his wound, he hissed and let go of me. “Ouch!”
Duran grabbed both of my hands and pulled them to his chest. “I haven’t the strength to fight you,”
“Do you think I wanna fight?!” I demanded.
He smiled slightly. “You are fighting me now,”
My mouth formed a scowl, and then instantly I sighed, defeated. “I don’t know what to say,”
“I’m ashamed that you had to see me that way,” he admitted carefully.
“What?”
“You… witness me… quite violently torture that thing,”
I looked at him then, incredulous. “You think that’s what I care about?”
“I thought—”
“I almost lost you tonight! Both you and Misty!” I exclaimed, and then suddenly, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I cried. “Do you know how scared I was? I was terrified! I don’t care about that thing, it could have killed Misty, and then I would have really lost it—”
“Shhh,” he cut me off, and pulled me back towards him, placing his head against my chest and holding me as I cried. I wiped my tears a few moments later, and placed my hands on his wound. I let the magic flow out into him, my thoughts were a mess but all I could do was concentrate on healing him. My palms glowed gold, and he watched my hands in astonishment. After a few moments, I lifted my hands and all that was left of the injury was a thin red line.
“You’re welcome,”
His eyes were still filled with wonder, “I felt you, I felt the magic, so intense…” he murmured. Something in his bright aqua eyes glinted, an expression that made me feel warm inside. Both his hands grabbed my waist. I placed my hands on his strong shoulders and moved in closer. My hands slid down his arms to feel his muscular biceps, and then back up to his shoulders and his neck. There seemed to be a magic energy flowing between us. It was connecting us to each other, I could feel it pulling me in, and I couldn’t stop it.
My hands trailed up to the nape of his neck and travelled into the thick dark locks of his hair. Zaps of static electric tingled at the touch, he sighed and closed his eyes. But as though he couldn’t bear to not be looking at me, he opened them again, and they flashed something powerful. A little harshly, he pulled me down to his lap, then softly took hold of my left hand and brought it to his lips.
“I,” I whispered, “I—”
“Why must you speak?” he murmured quietly and looked down at my lips. “Always defiant,” He let go of my hand and brought his up to my cheek. He traced my scar with the back of his finger and then my bottom lip, softly with his thumb.
My breathing stopped. This couldn’t be right, I couldn’t let myself be like this with him. It was me that was going to send him back to Camelot. And if I did, how would I bare… how would I be able to move on know that I would never see him ever again? This wasn’t about be anymore, I reminded myself. It was about everyone, everyone that I loved. I couldn’t trust myself with him. But I couldn’t stop. All the emotions that I had been repressing seemed to be bursting inside of me. My fear of losing him changed everything, because I had seen it right in front of my eyes. Had him in my arms when I thought he had died. There was nothing that could take that memory away.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I should have been there to protect you,”
“But you were,”
“Almost too late,” I bit my lip. “I… what happened?”
He didn’t look away for a second, completely unabashed. “I had a… what is the word… hunch?”
I laughed a little. “Yeah,”
His expression turned slightly serious. “I felt that connection with the portal again, and knew something wasn’t right. I took Excalibur with me, and followed my gut. I heard her screams by the back of the library, and ran as quickly as I could to find her. That thing was…”
I nodded quickly. “I get it,”
“Enough speak of this night,” Duran insisted.
“You should sleep,” I agreed.
His hand reached up to stroke my cheek again. “There is something about you that is different…”
My hands rested on his warm chest. I felt the speeding of his heart, and my hands began to tingle again. Magic slowly surged into him.
“Look upon me,”
I looked up at him. His bright clear eyes glowed in the darkness around us, my pulse quickened. He hooked my chin in his hand, and leaned down, not once taking his eyes off of me. His lips just about grazed mine with a shock of static. I gasped and he moved back a little in surprise. Magic was bursting inside of me. I felt it humming, and anchoring me towards Duran.
“I am bewitched by you,” he whispered, and leaned down again.
The creaking of the door stopped us, and I turned to look at Misty’s surprised reaction. My conscience came back then and I jumped backwards and fell onto the floor. What was I thinking? I wasn’t, that was the problem.
“Urm, am I interrupting…?”
“No!” I blurted out, and stood up. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”
I walked out of the room without looking back.
Back in my own room, my heart was still racing. I felt like I had just run a marathon, but I didn’t know whether it was good or bad. I didn’t want to think. Misty followed in after me, and had a knowing expression on her face.
“How long has that been going on?” she asked.
I gave her an incredulous look. “Nothing is going on, what are you suggesting?”
“That’s not what it looked like to me.”
“I’m not lying to you!” I exclaimed. “That was… I don’t even know what happened in there, okay?”
She crossed her arms as she walked over to sit on the bed. “There’s chemistry between you, you can’t deny that to my face. What about Danny? Does he kno—”
“Know what!” I argued. “There is nothing between Duran and me, nothing. Will you drop it? I can’t even think for all the accusations!”
Footsteps receded back into the spare bedroom, and I felt like hitting myself. He had heard everything. I didn’t know what was going on. Was I the only one that felt this confused? Conflicting emotions threatened to spill over as my anger rose. I felt a tinkling of something dark begin to come over me, and I clenched my fist to keep the magic at bay. Was I losing my mind?
“Sorry…” Misty looked me as though I had grown three heads, and then laid on the bed facing the wall. “I’m your best friend, not your damn conscience.” She muttered harshly, and then said nothing.
I walked out of the room fuming, and went downstairs. I was unreasonably furious at everybody, and I couldn’t control the mounting need to break something. What was with Misty and all the accusations? And Duran spying on us? I sank down at the breakfast table, feeling exhausted from all the anger. Slowly, it began to diffuse, and my senses came back. What was that? I had never felt so pissed off at Misty before.
Whatever the feeling was, I hoped that it didn’t come back again.
Morning came quickly, and though I had slept little, I was still willing to make it up to Misty by agreeing to go shopping for the Fire and Ice dance. I hated shopping, but Misty loved it, and insisted it would take out minds off of things if we could just both have a normal day.
Normal?
Did that even exist?
“Trust me, it’s going to be an easy breezy day. We’ll look at dresses and it will be fun!” Misty singsonged in the passenger seat. I rolled my eyes and scowled.
“I hate shopping.”
“You love it or I won’t forgive you.”
“Like oh-em-gee I am so like freaking like excited to like shop oh-my-gad blah blah blah,”
“Stop it!” Misty snorted laughter. “I’m gonna pee!”
We both laughed as I pulled up to the mall, and parked my car. Before I knew it I was inside some random dress shop, trying to stop Misty from buying a flaming neon orange dress that was all but smothered to the brim with rhinestones.
“Misty it’s hideous. If you buy it I will renounce our friendship and disown you.”
Her eyes were wide with wonder. “But it’s so pretty look at all the pretty stones and the pretty fluffy skirt!”
“Please, no,” I fake puked.
“Fine!” She huffed, and put it back on the rack.
I flipped through another rack, completely bored with this already. Recreational shopping was seriously one of the most boring activities ever created. I hoped the person who invented the idea was hit by a truck.
“Sol!” Misty yelled at a few feet away. “Whaddya think of me and my hawt date,” she winked, and molested the male mannequin.
I crinkled my nose. “Ew that is so gross! Get your hand off its crotch!”
She laughed evilly and skipped over to me. “This store is great!”
“Uh-huh,”
“That mannequin is probably the only thing that would date you, so I’d totally go for it.” The putrid voice of Kellie Hannagan wafted over from behind us. I groaned internally, I did not have the strength to refrain from punching her in the boob.
I turned around and gave her a nasty look. As expected, she was wearing a top so tight it looked like second skin. She was disgusting. “You’re just mad that it ain’t got a penis, otherwise you’d be all on that.”
She laughed and rolled her eyes. “Per-lease. Don’t tell me that you’re shopping for the dance too? Who the fuck would ask you?”
“I think the question is, who did you blow for a date?”
“Unlike some,” she said rudely, and flipped her blonde hair. “I don’t have a dick repelling fugly scar on my face.”
My body tensed.
“What did you just say?” My voice was slow and careful.
“Uh-oh,” I heard Misty mutter behind me.
“I said, unlike some I don’t have a dick repelling fugly scar on my face,” she spat, rudely.
I felt reasonably calm. Somehow I felt this was probably more like the calm before the storm. To be quite frank though, I’d had enough. “One more time,” I asked her.
She smirked, “You have a fugly ass mother fuc—”
My eye twitched and the electrical wires on the lights above her began to spark and flicker. Kellie yelped, and the wires fell down and sparked on her dress.
I set her on fire.
Just at that moment, Duran walked into the store, and ran over to a screaming Kellie.
“OhmyGodOhmyGodputitout!” she screeched. Attendants came rushing, but Duran was fast, and used another item of fire to put the fire out. I stood laughing at her distress. It wasn’t a big fire, but it was funny as hell. After a few swats, the fire was out and Kellie stood screaming still. I laughed even more, feeling a dark sense of satisfaction. She deserved it. I couldn’t help it. She deserved it.
Duran turned to give me a sharp look, that would have been scary if I didn’t know him. As assistants swarmed over Kellie, Duran dragged me aside and cornered me. “What the hell was that?” he damned.
“She deserved it!” I sneered.
“Have you lost your senses?!” he gripped my shoulders.
I stopped, and looked between him and her. “Are you here—with her?”
His eyes viciously narrowed. “You are in the wrong, Soleils that was cruel.”
I couldn’t believe it. After everything, he was here with her? My temper thrashed. How could he? How could he betray me like this?
“I’m gonna kill her!” Kellie screamed.
I walked over near her and obnoxiously laughed. “Karma bitch!” I shouted.
“This isn’t funny I could have died!”
“Oh don’t be so dramatic!”
She kept screaming that she was going to kill me as the attendants tried to calm her down. Duran yanked me back, but I smacked his hands.
“Don’t touch me!” I sneered at him in a craze. “Don’t you dare touch me!”
“You stupid bitch!” Kellie shouted as she struggled in an assistant’s arms. Duran walked over to her to calm her down, and hold her in an embrace. “I’ll kill her!” she shrieked.
“You’re all talk!” I shouted back, and felt Misty behind me trying to calm me down. She knew about my temper. She knew once I lost it, shit was going to go down.
“Sol,” she tried slowly.
I spun around, “Don’t!” I warned her, and she looked at me as though I had gone crazy.
And then I felt a hard yank on my hair and realised it was Kellie screaming at me and pulling my hair with an iron grip. “You jealous Duran chose me to take to the dance?” she sneered.
I elbowed her and turned around to shove her. “Why the hell would I care?” I yelled back at her, and shoved her to the ground. She pulled on my arm and brought me down with her, wrestling on the ground. She rolled on top of me and slapped me in the face. I rolled us over again and yanked her hair so hard some of her roots came out, I got up and swung her up with me by the hair and into a clothes rack.
“You wanna fight?”
She looked like a psycho as she got up and ran towards me to push me. I stumbled and she smacked me again.
All I could do was burst out into hysteric laughter. “You smack like a bitch.”
Then I sent a fast right hook right into her nose.
Blood spurted down and she burst out into tears. I screeched viciously, and tried to attack her again, but I felt a guard restrain me. Everything happened so fast, I couldn’t even process it. But I couldn’t stop laughing from the adrenaline. A guard came up fast behind her and like me, took her by the arms and wrenched them behind her back.
“Enough!” The guard yelled. “You both have the right to remain silent!” he began.
“Why are you arresting me?!” Kellie screamed. “She’s the crazy one! She started this!”
“I don’t start fights, I finish them.” I spat at her.
“Both of you shut up!” The guard shouted at us.
We were both dragged into the back of the store, with customers staring at us with open mouths. Some people I recognised from school, and realised that this was probably social media news. I rolled my eyes and sat down where the guard directed, with Kellie on the other side of me.
“Your parents numbers—now.”
I groaned.
Fifteen minutes later both mom and dad burst into the room, and Kellie was taken to another.
“What the hell do you think ye doing?” Mom shouted. “Starting fights in stores? You sure as hell better have a good explanation or God help me,” she fumed. I couldn’t help the slight fear. Mom barely ever lost her temper, but when she did, it was beyond scary.
“I didn’t start it! I finished it!” I defened myself.
“Excuse me little girl? Are you talking when your mother’s talking?” Dad warned seriously.
I shut my mouth.
Dad went off to discuss my fate with the guard.
“I can’t believe you’d do something this crazy Soleils! I have warned you about that temper! Now you’ve gotten yourself arrested. Do you know how this makes us look?”
“How this make you look?” I exclaimed angrily. “As though I asked to come into this store and be attacked by a crazy bitch!”
Mom gave me a terrifying look. I was going to get it so bad when we got home. “Use that language in front of me again, and I swear to God,” her Irish accent was stronger than I had ever heard it.
“We’ll take it from here Officer, thank you,” Dad finished.
“Keep her in check, she’s a wild one.” He told dad, then turned to look at me. “You’re banned from this store.”
Shit store anyway, I thought.
We drove home in silence, mom was furious, I caught it in waves. But I still felt overwhelmed with a deep dark angry energy that was threatening to explode over. My body temperature burned with my anger. As soon as we stepped through the door, the shouting began.
“You are grounded for the rest of your life!” Mom yelled.
I looked at her, astounded. “Don’t you even want to hear my side of the story?”
“What side?” her voice was furious. “What side Soleils Ambrosius? You fought in a store!”
“Ide, breathe, calm down a little,” dad tried, “this isn’t healthy for you,”
“Calm down?” Mom exclaimed disbelievingly. “I have every right to be livid!”
“All you care about is your reputation, how bad you look—” I spat.
Dad gave me a stern look. “That is enough mouth from you young lady,”
“But—”
Dad shook his head, and the conversation was over. “I’m disappointed in you.”
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you. It’s like you’ve completely changed. Where on earth is ma daughter?” Mom started to cry.
He took mom upstairs to rest. I felt terrible, but exhilarated. My pulse was climbing I felt hot and overwhelmed with energy. The anger wouldn’t fade. My eyes met the mirror in the hallway and I saw that they began to glow a magnificent shade of jade. I looked terrifying. Duran then entered the house, and I spun around to face him.
“Made sure she got home well?” I spat at him.
“What the hell has gotten into you, Sol? You should know better!”
I screeched angrily. “Oh don’t you start too! I’ve had enough from mom and dad!”
He inspected me peculiarly. “You are still angry,”
“Still angry?” I breathed heavily and used dramatic arm gestures. “I am livid! Everyone is against me!”
“I’m not against you, just what you did!”
“You saw her attack me! You saw! You’re on her side! Have her for all I care!” I retorted.
“Sol,”
“You’re a lying nasty sonofabitch!” I screeched. And felt the energy rising and rising, my vision blurred for a moment, and then came back again. I could see red.
Duran took a step towards me and I flipped out and used my magic to fling him back against the wall. He smacked his head and fell down. I felt like the dark had erupted, and began to eat me up and claw at my skin. I gasped, and a sharp vision smacked into me. Merlin was hunched over, a look of evil upon his eyes as a dark shadow wrapped around his feet. The vision shimmered away and I ran.
I ran out of the door and didn’t look back.
The next thing I knew I was nearing Fran Hughes’s house, I was sweating profusely, and the anger wouldn’t stop. The dark wouldn’t leave me, I hunched over in pain as she threw the door open and ran towards me with her eyes wide.
“What is happening to me?” I gasped and fell to my knees.
“Up,” Fran ordered. “Get up stairs right now!” She hauled my up and got me into the circular attic room. I tripped to the middle and fell hard to my knees and screamed. The dark was clawing me inside and out.
For the first time ever, Fran looked genuinely frightened. “Breathe,” she said in a shaky voice, “look at me,”
“I am,” I gasped. “If I wasn’t I would be dead you imbecile!” I roared in pain.
“No, no, no, no,” she whispered “This can’t be,”
“What?” I shouted. “What is happening to me?” My head screams pain and I feel the darkness whispering to me. Calling to me.
My head drops as I’m kneeled, and I completely dissipate.
Slowly, my head rises, but it isn’t me that stares right at Fran. It is Merlin.
Fran gasps, and falls to her knees. “What have you done?” she asks him in a horrified whisper.
“I’m sorry,” Merlin croaks in my voice. “I did what... I...must...p-p-protect…”
“The Pendragon?” Fran asks with slow tears streaming down her face,
“Sol,” he creaks, “the darkness,”
“No!” Fran shrieks, “I cannot, I cannot allow it,”
“Destiny,” Merlin’s essence fades back away.
“Merlin!” Fran screams. “Tell me the spell was not tainted! What have you doomed this child to? Merlin!” she shakes me. Slowly, I gather consciousness and am back intact with my own body.
“Miarnostenta,” Imutter and in my hands, the grimoire appears. I sloppily turn to the third to last page, barely aware of what I’m doing. I spell a dagger to appear and slowly cut my hand. Down drips the blood, and on the page, it turns into molten gold. It spirals like a cobweb, ancient Celtic patterns boil on the page. I place my hand on it, and it sears through my skin, branding me. I don’t utter a sound, but the page corners glow blue and fall apart.
A hidden entry reveals itself on the page.
“The key,” I whisper. “The Time key.”
And I fall into darkness.
A/N: THIS IS NOT PROOF READ OR READ OVER SO THERE WILL BE TYPOS. I'M LAZY SORRY. I'm also sorry for the delay, but here you are, chapter nineteen. As you may or may not already know, the story is drawing to it's climatic end. I may need some time to process this, so I can't assure you that the next update will be this week. Enjoy, vote, comment and support this story if you like it.
Love you all,
Saraxxx