Katy looked around at the dusk as it glowed on the rundown ancient cemetery. Katy saw the name Solomon on a lot of stones, and other stones had Solomon crossed out. Still others were treated like gold. Such as with the new stone in the cemetery, one there because of greed, and evil, it simply stated Wesley M. Solomon and gave the dates of his birth and death, 02/02/1835-12/16/2012. Katy looked around and she knew that Raven would be here. “EBONY! Come face me!” Katy screamed. “Deen, stay back please, promise me you won’t try to interfere.” Katy whispered to Deen. “Swear it!”
“I swear Katy, but if you are going to die, I will teleport us out of here.” Deen stated and let go over hand.
“Fine, stay back.” Katy stated and went out in search of Raven Ebony. Katy walked the cemetery; she felt Deen as he hid in a spot, behind a large ancient tombstone and she knew he could see everything. “Raven Ebony!” Katy called out every so often.
“Give me the dagger!” Raven yelled; she floated in the air, like she could fly.
“You want the dagger?” Katy would try to play dumb; she knew that had to be what Raven was after. After all it was a source of great power.
“Don’t play dumb! It doesn’t suit you! After all you are a Solomon.” Raven said with a sneer.
“My name is Katherine Lillian Fitz!” Katy yelled at her, Katy pulled out the dagger. “You want the dagger come and get it!”
That prompted Ebony to come down from the sky. She attacked. Katy was quick; she dodged and avoided her spells and her physical attempts. Katy throw back some of her own spells. But Katy knew that Raven also had someone else on her side, and that person feed Raven power. She could feel it. It was the same being that had been inside her mind with her, the white being; she helped Ebony as she tried to kill Katy. “Give it to me!” Raven yelled and threw yet another curse Katy’s way.
“Who is behind your power? TELL ME!” Katy wanted answers. “What is her name?” Katy threw up shields, and threw everything she could think of to counterattack the deadly spells that Raven Ebony threw at her.
“One you would never guess. She has you fooled. She was the true power of this family. Give me the dagger and I will let him live!” All of a sudden Raven had Deen around the throat, Katy could feel him, as he started to die.
Fear entered Katy’s mind. She could not believe Ebony would kill a child. “You want it here!” Katy didn’t know what came over her, but she thought of a way to save Deen. Katy took everything she had in her, every bit of pain, every bit of happiness, every tear, every joy, and threw that into a spell, to make the dagger fly straight and hit its target. And Katy threw it; she aimed right for Raven’s core, her heart.
Time seemed to slow down, it was like everybody and everything moved in slow motion. Katy, Deen and Raven all watched as the dagger hit its target. The dagger seemed to suck the power and life out of Raven Ebony and her hand opened, she dropped Deen. Deen moved away as he dropped on the ground, he gasped as he tried to catch his breath. As he watched Raven Ebony died.
“Noooo…” Raven stated weekly as her body fell to the ground, Raven now looked like nothing more than a mummified corpse; it was if the dagger sucked all the magic, all of her life source out of her body and absorbed it into the knife.
“Nobody hurts my family.” Katy stated as she grabbed the dagger from her chest, it hummed from the power it drained form Ebony. Katy didn’t know why she did it, why she thought the best way to deal with Ebony was to kill her. But the dark part of her mind rejoiced that she used her power. Katy shook off the feeling, she was not evil, and she then grabbed Deen’s hand and teleported back to in front of the school.
Katy and Deen said nothing to each other. Until they got in front of the hospital ward, “Deen, get checked out and check on Riley. I must talk to the headmaster.” Katy didn’t wait for a response. She walked away and straight up to the headmaster’s office and walked in, she found at his desk, deep in thought.
“Katherine Lillian, what a shock!” He stated as he stood up.
“Raven Ebony is dead. By this. By my hand.” She stated and dropped the dagger on his desk. “She attacked, threatened Deen. I threw it, with everything I had behind it. What are you hiding from me?”
“She said something, didn’t she?” Headmaster O’Cuinn asked as he knelt in front of Katy and looked her straight in the eye.
“Yes, she said the person behind her, behind the evil in my family, has me fooled. That I would never believe who it is. Who is it?” Katy had tears in her eyes, she took another life, and she was afraid it would not be the last. And worst of all she was afraid of how easy it was to take that life. How she didn’t have any second thoughts, how she knew she would kill Raven Ebony before she even left this school, even before she had attacked Riley.
“I am not the person to tell you. I should, but I can’t. I can’t believe it myself. Please, wait. Edgar will tell you. He has wanted to since we found out you again. He wanted to go get you himself, but I convinced him that Tony would be a better candidate. I don’t know how you two are connected but a connection has been made, and of course I think it worked out well. But you have had some of the worst times of your life in this world. I should have told you. I should have let Edgar tell you. You have heard bits of the arguments. You are very powerful. Please wait, all will come to light. I promise.” Headmaster O’Cuinn hung his head and a tear fell from his eye.
“Okay.” Katy said softly and left. She went straight for her dorm to pack. She knew there would be one stop at least on this break. And that was to the Hepburn house. She may not be welcomed elsewhere but Edgar would have to give her the answers she craved.
That night the white being made her nightly visit, this time she started with the scene where Katy’s eyes glowed red, from her power. “Very good Katy. You made a move towards your true destiny.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No. I don’t know why, but I don’t think what I did was wrong.”
“That is your power showing.”
“Why does it seem wrong?” Katy was confused. She knew she took a life. Murder was wrong. But something in her told her it was the right thing to do. Maybe she was evil.
“Because people that have a lesser power, fear those with great powers, like myself. Like you.”
“I am not evil.”
“Maybe yes. You have power. What is the word evil? It is just a word that people use towards something they fear.”
“My family does not fear me.”
“Are you sure? Maybe they hide things from you to prevent you from seeking out your true destiny to rule over them.”
“No.” Katy watched the world created by this white being. The temptation to give in was so great. Katy felt a moment of weakness. That is what started this conversation but it was time to end it. She knew what she had to say.
“Well my dear are you ready to join me?”
“Never. I may have chosen to take Ebony’s life, but the world is better without her. I will never join you. My family is right. You just want to tempt me. You show me that I can have my family, but only on the condition that I turn dark. No, that will not happen. Look at the image you show me. Though it may be a lie, even the truth seeps into the lie. Look at my family the pain they are in, this future would be worse than death. No. I am not evil. I am not good. But I am definitely not evil.”
“Then watch as your family dies over and over again!”
“No. I don’t think so. You are not welcomed in my mind anymore. Now you leave.” Katy used all the power she had and forced the white being to leave. She woke up with a start. She looked down and saw Starlight as she watched her. “Well are you going to get Deen again?”
Starlight smiled and shook her head no and jumped off the bed, and walked out of the room.
Katy looked at the clock. Dawn. She got up and went to get ready for the day. She only had this week of finals, and then it would be time for break. She left the room to go down for breakfast; she had just left her dorm when the person Starlight did go tell came out of the shadows.
“Katherine.”
“Professor Notte-Preto.”
“Come with me, please.”
“Okay.” Katy followed the assistant headmistress to her office. When Katy walked it in reminded her of a very lived in home. She had never been in the office before. Over in the corner was a very large book. Katy was sure that was the book of shadows for the assistant headmistress. Katy was curious about the book but more curious about why Professor Notte-Preto called her to her office.
“Please sit. Pineapple juice?”
“Please.” Katy said and sat down in the arm chair next to the desk.
“I had to talk to you.” Professor Notte-Preto stated as she handed Katy the glass of juice and sat down at her desk. “I know you have questions and I don’t have all the answers. I promised Oeric I would not tell you. We will let Edgar tell you. But I do want you to know I thought you were dead. They lied to me. I wanted to come get you the second the trace picked you up. But my brother had other thoughts. He has the best of intentions at heart, but not always logical in his ways. He made a mistake a long time ago, and he has never forgiven himself. So as a punishment he is preventing you from getting close to him. I stay back because I only ever see you here at school. But it kills me to do so.”
“Professor…” Katy started but was cut off.
“Call me Lua when we are not in class. I am your aunt and I am going to start acting like it.”
“Lua, they have told you what I have done?”
“About Ebony? Yes, of course.”
“Am I evil?” Katy asked.
“What?” Lua was shocked at the question.
“You teach us to protect ourselves against dark magic, against evil, yet in the cemetery, with Ebony’s hand killing Deen, the only action I thought of to stop it was to kill her.”
“That does not make you evil. That makes you human.”
“But it was so easy. I have had dark thoughts all year. With the white being, whoever she is, tempting me, and thinking of destroying Ebony. My thoughts have been dark.”
“Every human has dark thoughts. It is the way life is. You just must overcome them. You didn’t give into the… white being… and you killed Ebony as a last resort. You didn’t hunt her down; seek her out to kill her.”
“I did. I left here knowing she would die.”
“She pushed your hand. She attacked Riley; she kept trying to take your family from you. She brought about her own death.”
“So I am not Darkness?”
“No.”
“Was it you who gave me my broom?”
Lua smiled. “Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you.” Lua stood up. “I think it is time we get to our classes.” Lua smiled and showed her out the door.
Kris Charles - Author 