Becoming

I dropped him to the ground where he belongs, but I’m hungry for it. All of that power I took, it fed me and I need more of it.

I look around to see the fight is continuing, no-one has noticed he’s dead. No one seems to care but at this point neither do i. I’m focused on one thing, finding that power and draining it from every source.

I head to Salvi who's still lying on the floor, there is a new faint glow around her telling me she has more to give. Kicking her onto her back forcing her to face me, she blinks a few times staring wide eyes at me.

“Hmm, so you're not dead after all. What a shame.” I crouch to her height, I want to see her when I drain her of life.

*” You know, this is what happens”*

“Aahh so not only is it alive, but it speaks. What is it that you think is happening exactly” I tip her chin to meet my eyes?

She looks pathetic, she looks weak, she looks nothing like the powerful sister she claimed to be. She whacks my hand away from her face and tries forces herself to stand, I take a step back and just watch her.

*” You don’t even hear yourself Sekreta. You and Marel are not so different, you have taken the power from him but what will you do with it?”*

“What will I do with it?... I will take it, I will take all of it so no one else can have it ?”

*” but you didn’t hear me Sekreta. What will you do with it and where will you stop?”*
She motions towards the sisters, each of whom were locked in a fight.

*” After you are done with me, will you kill them?”*

I can feel their power radiating and she is right, I am drawn to, desperate for actually. My eyes lock onto Artemis, she moves so fast fighting to protect what she loves and I feel that pang of guilt and I snap my head back to Salvi.

“I won’t hurt them, you’re being ridiculous. The only person I want to hurt now is you. You lied to me, you made me think that I had found everything and then you tore it away from me”

I can feel the sting of tears but I try to hold them back, I don’t want her to see me cry.

*” I did what I had too”*

“What do you mean what you had too? You mean you had to make me feel pathetic. You had to plant false memories in my head and you just had to bewitch my mate into thinking he was yours .”

*” You put yourself so high on a pedestal, you think you're the only one who suffered growing up, Sekreta. Do you think I had a happy childhood? My father only had me in the hopes id have power and then he every day he took it from me, he bled me dry and made me do horrible things”*

“You could have said no at any point Salvi, you could have said no this is not what I want to do”

*” Oh you are so Naive. Like you, I thought I had no family would you have abandoned him, would you have abandoned your mother and left Arlo of the opportunity arose”*

I stop, would I ? would I have left my mother to escape Arlo?.

“No, I wouldn't”

*” Then why would you expect me to do the same. My Father asked something of me and I did it. I did take your mate and make him think he was mine, I did manipulate him and feed him lies and you know what I would do again because it was the only time in my life when I have felt valued and appreciated even if it was all pretend.”*

The fight around us seems to dull and I can feel the presents of others around us now, I can even feel my mate near me but I don't break my gaze from hers.

*” You have a choice right now Sekreta, you can take my power and kill me but I'm telling you, you will end up like Marel, Like Arlo like everyone who came before them who wanted nothing in power. This a road you cannot come back from I’ve seen it “*

Their presents draw nearer still and I can feel my power trying to reach out to them, it's calling to theirs begging me to bring it all home.

**” Sekreta”**

The soft sound of Artemis' voice is enough to break me.

**” Sekreta. You need to stop. Look at what you are doing to yourself”**

She steps between Salvi and I forcing me to look at her and then she drops her head to my arms. My veins are lit up, moving under my skin like coiling snakes.

The earth around me is dead, looking a little further the trees have sunken in on themselves, nothing but hollow husks left.

**” You have been so brave but you have to stop this now, you are going to kill yourself if you don’t calm down”**

I feel calm, I don't understand what she's talking about but as if a mirror has been placed in front of me I see myself in her eyes.

My whole body is burning blue like the centre of a flame, I'm drawing power up from the ground and through me, taking its life to sustain everything I now hold.

**” Sekreta, you have to let the power go, no one was made to hold this much”**

She is pleading with me. I can see it in her eyes and I want it too, but Savea keeps repeating over and over in the back of my mind.

**It was made for me **

Behind Artemis, I notice that Cynthia and Selene have taken a place either side of Salvi, their bodies covering their own.

**She wants it. She is like the rest Sekreta, she wants you to give it up so she can take it. So she can have power over us but we are not weak anymore. Kill her**

I act before I even realise what I'm doing. Gripping my hand around Artemis’s throat. She does not move and when her sisters lean in she raises a hand to stop them.

“You are lying. You want this power like everyone else, you want me to be weak so you can take it “

**” I don't, I do not care about the power. All I care about is you so if this is what you need to feel strong then kill me and take it “**

Shouting erupts from all sides of us, the sisters, Ryan, Calder and Sigi all protesting at what she is saying but she remains defiant.

Do I want to kill her?
Do I want her power?

Yes, I do, I want everything from her and then my sisters will be next. I call my light to the surface, willing it to reach out and connect to her so I can drain her of power.

She still does not move, she does not try to break my hold or struggle away, instead she watches me.

“Why won't you fight back ?”


**” Because you do not fight with the ones you love, you fight to save them and this is what you want, this is what you feel you need to I will gladly give my life to save you.”**

My face feels wet and sticky and I realise that tears are streaming down my face, I wipe them with my other hand and loosen my grip on her neck.

I feel myself pulling back to the surface, suppressing the rage that's fueling my every word, willing it to go back inside the box.

I let go of her completely and topple over in pain as I push with everything I have, I don't want this power, I don't want my family dead.

I had dealt with Marel and that was enough, that was always supposed to be enough. Savea fights me at every turn begging me to carry on, to take all of their power, to reign over them.

I can't do it, the internal conflict makes me again drop to the ground the dead grass and blood-soaked dirt sinking between my fingers as I claw at it.

“It is not mine to take” I scream words over and over still trying to contain this power, to put it in a box in my mind and lock it away.

I hear talking around me, the familiar voices sound so far away. There is growling and then someone lands in front of me.
I'm too weak to lift my head, too tired to try and fight them, the fight with myself is enough.

**” Let me share in your pain, let me help you”**

The person grips my hand and the connection is made only this time they are drawing it out of me. It gets easier to push the power down, the heat lessens but I am still in pain.

Another soft hand grips my own and again the burden eases, my chest doesn't feel so tight, Savea begins to cower. I focus again on the box, on grabbing the power and locking it away.

There is another sound of knees hitting the ground and it lessens still, it's almost bearable now. The power in me spreads outreaching to the new connections.

Finally, I look up to see the three of them, their eyes glowing, their faces full of pain.

“You all have to let go you are going to get hurt”
I try to warn them over and over between my ragged breaths but they stay put, each of them focused.

Salvi drops to her knees, watching all of us in awe. She does not touch us, whatever power she has left I know she wants to keep. I watch her, waiting for her to stand back up and walk away leaving us to suffer the consequences of a mess she helped to make.

But she does not, instead, she lifts Selene and Artemis hands and entwines her fingers with theirs. Like a light switch her eyes glow, it's dim at first as though the bulb has been used for too long and then she shines brighter than any of us.

The power in me draws away, it stops fighting to get into the box, to be locked away instead it travels through us and back to her. The snake-like coiling in my veins spreads through us all until it reaches her and she takes in every part of it.
The skin on her face begins to darken in spots like it's burning her. For some reason I cannot stand by and watch her come to harm, her words before had affected me, she was truly alone just like I was.

“You have to stop this. What are you doing ?”

*” It is what's best for all of us. If I take it and fight with it my life will end and this power will be no more”*

I open my mouth to say no but at the same time so do the sisters, all of their heads snapping to her speaking the word NO in unison.

Like a chorus, they repeat the same thing over and over.

*This power. It was made for him, the true heir. We will restore the first the light*

Salvi studies me and I wonder what she is looking at. I realise at that moment that I am saying the same thing. I pull away from it for a moment realizing what all of this means.

“You have to give into it, let it take you, let I take you”

I see the panic on her face and I nod at her to follow, if I'm right we don't have much time, if she does not give in she is going to die.

She squeezes her eyes shut and moments later she is repeating the same sentence too, I follow suit. Gripping their hands tighter as the light and the power flow through all of us, Cynthia’s warmth, Selene’s determination, Artemis’s power and Salvi’s corruption.

We chant over and over.

*It was made for him, the true heir. We will restore the first the light*