The Reveal

The Reveal
Sera's POV

With my sword already an inch from her neck, I swung it further to slice down her head. She drew back with a speed that was as fast as a blur, and she floated into the air. Her feet were hidden by her long, flowing dark coat.
She looked a little younger now. Her cheeks were chubbier, her face young—like a fifteen-year-old’s—innocent and juvenile. Yet even that couldn't mask the cloak of evil that wrapped around her existence.
She grinned down on me, her lip rising in a tentative, triumphant smirk.
Hot heat sizzled through my veins, biting into my bones. Adrenaline pumped into my veins like my own blood. I must make her pay for all the lives she took, I grunted, watching the triumphant smirk play along her lips. My fingers tightened on the sword.
I should have known. I should have fucking known she was fake and not ignored all the signs. Now Silas and Nix were dead because of all that.
“Why did you kill Nix? She was a witch. She was one of your kind.”
The goddess scoffed. “The little witch was too sentimental. She wouldn't do as I told her. She wouldn't give you up.” She floated to a higher elevation as she spoke.
Now I wished the room had a ceiling fan. It could have helped slice off her damn evil head. I could have asked her why she killed Silas too. But I knew the answer already, my mind already fitting many pieces of the puzzle together. Silas had killed Silas because Silas had gotten too close to the truth, the truth that she was the witch that attacked our home that night. The fucking witch that made us an orphan.
Though while my mind could already fit much of the puzzle together. Some pieces were still loose. I clenched my teeth so hard, my jaw ached, and I glared up at her, my gaze intense, feeding her every hate in my soul through my eyes. “Why did you kill my parents? What did they ever do to you?”
“Nothing.” She answered, her tone crisp and casual. She floated around the place like a piece of paper carried by the wind. “Your parents crimes and yours also are just the mere fact that you all bothered to exist as you all are. Your mother is the last of her kind, a Kitsune (fox spirit), and as her offspring, you and your brother possess half her spirit. And you see,” she paused, her chubby face brightening with a radiance like that of an excited kid. “Kitsunes have delicious spirits, and unlike the other immortals, they tend to grow younger physically as they age…”
Her voice trailed off in my ears as the puzzle pieces began to come together in my head, fitting into each other, and everything became clearer. I stared at her, scanning her young, vibrant skin slowly, her chubby, juvenile face. And that confirmed my everything. She had killed and sucked my parents’ and Harriet's souls just to get at their Kitsune spirits, to make herself look younger.
She was an immortal. Why should she fucking care about looking young when she couldn't grow older physically than how she looked in her late twenties or thirties and when she could live as long as she fucking wanted? She was a greedy bastard, sacrificing my family's life just to satisfy her needless greed.
I jumped onto the bed, lifting myself into the air. I swung my sword at Goddess Freya. She melted into space fast in a trail of smoke, my sword slicing the air rather than her body.
“You can't kill me, Seraphina. No one can. Even if you were able to awaken and hone your kitsune spirit as your brother nearly did before he died, you still can't defeat me. I am undefeatable.” She boasted behind me.
I held tighter to my sword, adrenaline surging through me, about to tear my veins to shreds inside of me. “No one is fucking undefeatable.” I returned. I swung fast for her again, throwing myself into the air to reach her. This time I would fucking get her and slice her little bloody head off her damn neck.
But once again, she dissolved into the air, my sword cutting through the trail of black smoke while they melted into space after her.
“Come with me willingly, Seraphina. I won't kill you soon. I still have some plans for you.”
“Just like I have for you, you evil witch.” I retorted, and I threw myself again, doing a backlift on the bed to turn myself to my back. I raised my sword fast into the air, grinning at her miserable teenage face. I swung fast for her neck.
She dissolved into space again, and I landed on the floor, almost slipping on the smooth tile. “I don't want to hurt you yet, Seraphina. Don't make me. I need you in one piece so I can summon your vampire grooms through their bonds with you.”
“Summon them so you can fucking steal their souls like you stole my family's. Never.” I yelled. “I’d fucking kill you before you get your evil claws on them.”
She scoffed as I charged for her again, another jump on the bed propping me to the air, and I aimed for her neck again. I grated a grunt with the whole of my lungs, trembling with fury, as she disappeared again in a trail of smoke. Why the hell could she disappear so bloody fast?
“I don't need the vampires' bloody souls. Unlike yours, they are worthless for me to suck into my body. I need them for another reason. I need them to become my slaves.” She paused, staring at me, smiling, as if enjoying my situation. “Just when I had thought I had lost you and your brother that night, you came back to me. You came bearing gifts—the two most powerful vampires in the world. Who am I to refuse?” She said, sounding almost hysterical.
I spun around to see her face light up with so much excitement. I wished her chubby face would explode. She dropped her head and gave me a rather cocky smile. “Think of how powerful I would be if I had to add the most powerful vampires to my arsenal. I would be unbeatable. I could rule the world. Every immortal and mortal being would bow at my feet. I would be God.” She declared.
“No. You won't be God. Because you can't control them. Adrian and Cassian would slice you down before you get an inch of your miserable claws on them. But they won't…” I was saying, grabbing onto my sword, while I slowly catch my breath.
She scoffed, her louder, younger voice cutting me off. “Why did you think I asked you to mate with them? Mating with them tightens your bond to each other, and through you I can summon, control, and even kill them. You will be the controller with which I command them to my wishes. I made my plans the moment Nix told me your grooms were the princes themselves, and my plans never fail. But don't worry, I would keep you alive until I have a new way to control your grooms to my bidding, but until then, you get to live unlike the rest of your family. And for the reason…” She paused, her eyes blinking in a sly wink at me, the triumphant grin spreading to much of her chubby face. “The bond was never going to be broken. It was impossible to break. No one can change fate, not even a goddess like me.”
“That makes sense, and that fucking means you were never a god.” I snarled. I jumped onto the bed again, lifting myself into the air. This time, I summoned every strength in me, every piece of my existence, and I charged fast at her, swinging my sword for her heart.
“I never said I was God. I said I would become one.” She grinned before she faded in a trail of black smoke again. I grunted, grinding my clenched teeth. I unfolded and folded my fingers on my sword again, and I turned around slowly, watching for where she would reappear next.
I raised my sword to the air, charging fast for her as she reappeared before me. “Perhaps we get serious now.” She grinned again, unmoving, waiting for me to approach her with my sword.
I was lowering my sword to slice down her neck when my arms suddenly froze in the air. I tried to move them, but I couldn't. I tried to move my feet and move the rest of my limbs too, and nothing happened. No inch of me responded to my command to move, not even my head or my eyelids. I was frozen to a spot like a statue. Only my heart could move inside of me, and it beat so hard against the thin walls of my chest that it became painful, filling my ears, constricting my lungs, and soon I was breathless. My nostrils hung in the air, unable to drag in air for my aching lungs.
I watched her lean her hand forward and make a fast pull towards herself. Instantly, I was ferried off the floor to her by an invisible but strong magical force. I tried to shake myself out of her spell, willing every ounce of my mental energy into just that task. I gasped when I couldn’t. When I couldn't break out of her magic no matter how hard I tried.
Her fingers laced on my neck, tightening harder, squeezing off my neck. Blood raced to my brain, my head heating up like I had a damn oven in it instead of just my brain. Pain jarred through every inch of my head. I groaned. Gradually, her grip on my neck tightened harder and harder, her small fingers squeezing life out of me, my eyes closing shut quietly like a curtain.