Fire Rises

Charmed

After trying to sleep with no success, I had decided to get out of bed and hopefully out of my head by attempting to piece together the perfect outfit. How was I supposed to know what nice looked like if I had only grown up in this extremely not nice place? All of my clothes were now thrown about the room from my many failed attempts.

I checked myself in the mirror, again for the hundredth time. All things considered, I thought the final product was fairly decent. I had landed on my leather black pants and a fitted blood red top. The pants may have been too tight and the neckline of my shirt likely swooped a little too low, but I’d been told that I had a nice body by too many creeps to count, so hopefully everyone meant the right kind of nice. 

I had every intention of escaping that night and I wasn’t sure what the weather would be like on the outside, so I tugged on my leather jacket that didn’t have any spikes and wasn’t even blood stained. The coat also hid the colorful proof of my many misdeeds which had been tattooed onto my left arm. I pulled the sleeve as far down as possible to hide the flames that were trying to peak out from above my wrist. 

I painted my nails to match my shirt and curled my long jet-black hair. No one down here ever curled their hair intentionally, so I assume that must be a nice thing to do. I didn’t usually add any makeup to my unnaturally perfect face, but for this special occasion I applied some eyeliner and red lipstick. I had absolutely gone too heavy on the eyeliner, but the wings were precise so the attention to detail seemed like a pretty good thing to me.

The eyeliner will distract from your glowing eyes, too, you freak. I checked my eyes in the mirror again, noting that my harsh words to myself had, in fact, made my eyes glow. Maybe the prince will think they’re cool? Like a beautiful glow worm. The positive turn in my thoughts dimmed the glow, until it finally completely subsided.

I chose my choker necklace with the cross on it (okay, fine, the cross was upside down, but it’s the thought that counts, right?). The necklace covered a few of the bruises Hades’ hand had left on my throat, but there wasn’t much else I could do about the still growing marks. 

I slid my hoop earrings in before pulling on my black combat boots. I took another look at myself in the mirror.

Damn, girl! You should dress nice more often! I did another little spin in front of the mirror, pleased with my work. My outfit was exactly what I needed. Something nice, but also allowed for a lot of mobility. I wasn’t 100% sure what kind of physical maneuvers would be necessary to follow the prince out of the Dark Place, so I needed to be ready for anything. And if that fails, you’ve got plan B. Which was plan A, so a solid option. Goodbye boring ass room. See ya never!

“Sister!” My brother entered my room immediately looking up and down at my outfit. I did the same. He had dressed in all black; black pants, black t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. “Well don’t we look nice. Maeve will be pleased.” I wasn’t so sure that he looked as good as he thought he did, but it really wasn’t my place to say. “Let’s go find out just how charming this prince really is. The beasts will fly us down.”

Are gargoyles nice? The thought was supposed to stay in my head, but I heard my voice echoing the words aloud.

“They fly! Of course they are nice! Besides, we need to show the prince that we hold power here, even if we don’t literally have our powers.” I scoffed and then shrugged, because I wasn’t in the mood to argue anymore. Especially about something I truthfully wasn’t sure about.

We stepped onto the balcony as two giant gargoyles with bat-like wings landed in front of us with a thud. 

“Your highnessss,” the smaller of the monsters hissed as he lowered himself for me to climb aboard.

I gripped tightly and prepared for the descent. Riding these demons was not my favorite thing. The flight was never smooth, their fur was hard to grasp, and I often questioned whether they were purposefully trying to knock me off or if they were just really that oblivious to their passengers. As we launched into the air, I began daydreaming about other less revolting creatures that I could fly on once I escaped this prison.

We landed in the center of the Atrium, forcing about 50 people to run in any direction to avoid being crushed. That was probably not nice.

I looked to the small stage to see that my mother agreed with my assessment. If looks could kill, she’d have me knocked out before I could fully dismount my beast.

Still nicer than you, b***h.

I continued to scan the stage where a small assembly of the Dark Place’s most heinous creatures gathered in front of the crowd. 

Hades was next to my mother wearing an equally violent expression. The sea witch was in an oversized bird bath slightly behind them with her daughter, Ari, beside her. Ari had lucked out, to an extent, that she had inherited her bottom half from her father and could stand on two legs instead of eight. The sea witch looked pleased at how royally- no pun intended- I had already f****d up. Her daughter gave me a knowing half smile before quickly straightening out her face and hiding behind her electric blue dreads. That poor girl had tried so hard to be my friend, but there were no friends in the Dark Place. After many failed attempts at forging a friendship, she resorted to becoming mostly terrified of me. Oops.

There were a few other wicked beasts prowling in the front, never straying too far from their wannabe king of dark shifters. I’d heard stories of the half human, half beasts he led in the mortal realm, but now his following was primarily composed of regular human assholes. The irony of his cronies not even being shifters was not lost on me. I could never quite figure out if it was fear or stupidity that fueled their loyalty. Probably both.

I took in a few more faces whose familiarity was far from comforting, before my eyes landed on a new face. But this was not just a new face. This was the single most beautiful, most flawless, most anjelic, most (actually, only) nice face I had ever seen. This face had been carved by the gods. Not evil gods like Hades, though. No. The gods that created that face had to be good. Very, very good.

Hot damn! I couldn’t stop myself from licking my lips as my eyes raked across his pristine face.

His square jawline could smooth the wrinkles in even the most tattered clothes found in the Dark Place. He had a pronounced dimple right in the middle of his chin that made me want to sink my thumb into it to test its depths. His perfect sandy blond hair swept just across the top of his forward before falling neatly behind his ears. His nose… 

Oh my god, listen to yourself! His nose? Really? You’re pining after this man’s nose right now! I was shocked at even myself for how awestruck I was by this man’s every feature. Despite my self-scolding, I quickly decided that a nose that perfect deserved admiration.

… his beautiful nose led down to the most perfect pair of plump pink lips. Just as I started to think there was nothing more inviting in the world than those perfect lips, I finally found myself glued to his eyes.

His eyes were such a lovely shade of light blue and even from this distance I could see the depth within them. They were swirling with something, maybe an emotion or clue into his inner workings, that I couldn’t quite decipher. I wanted to dive into those pools and learn all of their secrets. I was staring for entirely too long before realizing those eyes were looking right back at me.

I tried to divert my attention anywhere else, but my attempt was cut short when I noticed his perfect long, tan neck. I immediately was sucked back into my trance-like state, completely forgetting where I was. I could have continued to just look at him for the rest of forever and been totally and completely satisfied with my life, but my brother grabbed my elbow shaking me out of my stupor.

“You got a little drool there, sis.” Lucian smirked. This behavior was completely out of character for me and Lucian seemed to be enjoying the novelty of it.

Or is it out of character? I’ve been deprived of anything this drool-worthy up to this point of my life, so who's to say? Before I had a chance to get lost on that train of thought, Lucian straightened out his smile and began pushing me forward.

“Come on, we need to join the others on stage.” I let him continue pushing me forward, not fully trusting myself to make it on my own before swan diving back into my quickly developing fantasies about Mr. Perfect.

Once we took our places, the prince looked at my mother and with a smooth, melodic voice asked, “Is everyone here now?” 

Okay, that’s just not fair. Really? Even his voice is perfect! Too perfect… hold up... I scanned the room again, suddenly feeling like this has been the most evil set up of all. Potential conspiracies began flooding my mind. Could my mother have developed this elaborate punishment so quickly? Did she have the ability to fabricate this unfathomably perfect man just to tear him away from me? I nervously scanned the faces in the crowd. Everyone’s equally mesmerized expressions gave me confidence that this was no ploy. No, this man was undeniably beautiful and real. Hundreds of starry-eyed villains were unable- or maybe just unwilling- to look away from the prince. 

On stage, Ari looked like she was about to pee her pants. The sea witch looked like she wanted to eat him. Even my mother looked like she was lost in her own fantasies.

Hades clearly had taken notice and looked like he wanted to chop that beautiful head right off the flawless man’s body. 

I gave Hades the most intense glare I could muster. 

Touch him and die, old man. 

Hades scoffed at my silent threat, but seemed to suppress his violent ideas for the time being. He roughly took my mom’s hand, jerking her attention momentarily away from Prince Charming before answering the prince’s question, “Yes, your highness. Please proceed.” It almost sounded polite, but I’ve grown entirely too familiar with his trickery to be fooled out of noticing the venom that coated his words.

The prince smiled and my knees went weak. “Thank you, Hades. And thank you, all of you, for allowing me to meet with you on such short notice. It has been a long time since someone from the outside has come to the Dark Place, and for that I apologize…” He went on and on and on. What he was saying, I hadn’t the foggiest idea, but I did know that I never wanted him to stop talking. After about 45 minutes- just around the time I was imagining pushing out this man’s first born child- he said something that dragged me out of my fantasies, which had seriously taken a very not nice turn. 

“... I have realized there are many individuals down here that are being unjustly punished; their only crime having been born to the wrong parents.” The sea witch hissed at the shade the prince spewed, but I perked up at his recognition of my unfortunate circumstances.

Well s**t, the man has me pegged. Okay, hot stuff, I see you.

My new escape plan to follow closely on the prince’s heals was sounding much more appealing by the minute. I would follow that man to the ends of the earth if it meant I got to bask in his presence just one more second. Following him out of this hell would be a piece of cake.

“So,” the prince continued in that sultry voice that had me fighting with my imagination to stay in the present, “I have decided to begin integrating some of the children back into the realm beyond the Dark Place; the mortal realm.” He continued explaining the process of integrating the children, but I had checked out again. Would I be considered a child? I was definitely NOT a child, but I hadn’t done anything to belong here. Well… I mean I had at this point, but who could blame me? It's a kill or be killed world. Would this uneartheral man see it that way?

Damnit Eve! Focus! 

“... I understand there may be some apprehension about entrusting me with your children so I will be taking one of your older descendants with me first. I want to bring someone that can vouch for the safety of the outside world. I can only imagine that separating children from their parents might be traumatizing,” I scoffed. Staying with these demons was the traumatizing part. No one here had ‘parents.’ We only had keepers who solely reproduced to ensure they had someone to do their evil bidding. 

I had never wanted to be a ‘pick-me’ type of girl… but for the love of the gods PICK ME! I needed to be the first to go beyond the Dark Place with the prince. 

The prince continued, “After asking around this afternoon, the choice of the first to test the waters, so to speak, is clear. Eve, daughter of Maeve, will accompany me to the mortal realm.” My mouth was open and gasps rang out across the Atrium as he gave me a reassuring smile. He continued, “She will…”

Well that was easy. Holy. s**t. He chose me! But more importantly, HE JUST SAID MY FREAKING NAME. AND he smiled at me! ME! I had completely tuned out as he pressed on, summarizing my role and responsibilities in the outside world. I was busy replaying his sinfully nice voice saying my name for the hundredth time, when I realized he was saying it in real life… again.

He cleared his throat (as if there was anything wrong with the way the word came out) and repeated himself, “Eve,” he cast his eyes down pointing my attention to his outstretched hand. I glanced around, suddenly, a little skeptical of the beautiful man. This all seemed too easy. My brother’s ruby red eyes were murderously glowing with jealousy. His reaction seemed to match most of the others crowded into the assembly. My mother seemed to be the only one with a genuine smile on her face.

Odd, definitely circling back to that later... I didn’t have time to analyze my mom’s newfound happiness for me. The prince’s hand was still extended towards me, but I had yet to make a move for it. 

Grab his hand you i***t. I tried my best to stop my shaking as I reached for his perfectly tanned hand. When our hands connected, I felt a million jolts of electricity flow through my body and I was sure that I was dying the sweetest death. The colors around me swirled as I tried to decide if I was finally living out my Ghandi-esque metaphysical path and reaching enlightenment or if I was dying. 

As our bodies started to fade from the Atrium I caught a glimpse of my mother’s face again. I realized all at once that her genuine smile was not for me. It was for her. 

Ah, there she is! That’s the selfish mother I know… She’s probably just stoked to be rid of me… probably. I couldn’t unpack her convoluted look just yet though. I was spinning and spiraling through a cacophony of colors. I looked to the prince who smiled back down at me. I wasn’t sure if I was going to vomit from nervousness, motion-sickness, or because his smile was that enchanting.

No matter what the cause, I was surely going to vomit.

I tried to push my puke and thoughts away. There was something else I wanted to turn all my attention to: his hand was in mine and I was definitely not going to let go.