Chapter 39: Chapter 39

I crouched and hugged the wall, slowly sliding past the windows. Voices and the shuffling of feet grew louder. I broke into a dash as the voices became clear behind me.

“She’s over here!” a voice shouted.

I kept running, slipping and sliding around corners and upstairs until finally reaching the rooftops. The darkened skies and clouds of black ash greeted me.

My lungs were burning and my legs ached but I couldn’t resist spacing out at the vastness of a strange world. Flaming trees, gold paths and nests on trees, diamonds everywhere; an enchanting world. What the hell was Qethen made of?

A hand wrapped around my arm and I turned to see an extremely large man so I did the first thing I could think of and kneed him in his crotch. He groaned and let go of my hand so I could easily run away from him. It would have been a successful mission if I didn’t run into someone.

“Paris?” I looked up and saw that it was Avyanna then heaved a sigh of relief. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to find Leon and these guys are chasing me around,” I muttered turning back to point at the horrible men who hadn’t stopped chasing me since I came into Qethen.

I felt slightly mad at Tobias because he hadn’t warned me and I was tired of running since the men didn’t like to listen to anyone talk. I didn’t even have the courage to try to call them because they kept growling every chance they could and their canines looked ready to dig it into my skin.

“She’s not an intruder,” Avyanna said and the moment the men saw her, they fled. She rolled her eyes and turned to me. “They hate intruders and since you don’t have our scent on you, you’re considered a threat.”

I nodded and thanked God I’d run into her. “Why are they scared of you?”

She chuckled. “One drop of my blood can kill them. It’s safe to say they are scared of what I can do to them if they make me angry.”

“That’s…nice? Anyway, do you know where I can find Leon? I really need to talk to him. It’s kind of urgent.”

“What’s wrong?”

“That she you kept talking about is actually my sister and she wants to kill Leon so I have to warn him before she gets to him.”

She stared at me for a while then said, “You might be the last person Leon wants to see but I think we can try. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll need to go back to my house and figure out another way to stop her.”

I smiled to let her know that I was grateful. “How can we get there fast?” Avyanna’s eyes twinkled as she smiled and said, “I know a way.”

I didn’t get what she meant by that until she closed her eyes and I literally watched hair take over her entire body. In a matter of seconds, her body was replaced with that of a griffin. It was the first time I’d ever seen one in my life and she was beautiful.

Her fur was as black as the night sky that you could have easily missed it. I noticed that under the moon, it looked like she was glowing and it was an entrancing sight to behold. I wondered why I had never seen one before in my life.

“I don’t have wings but I can run fast. Hop on and hold on tight.”

I gulped as I sat on her back hoping that I wouldn’t fall off. She seemed to noticed that and growled in a way that seemed like an animal’s way of laughing then took off. When she said she could run fast, I didn’t think she meant faster than any car could possibly go and I found myself so taken aback by the force of her quick movement that I had to wrap my arms around her neck or I was sure to fall off.

I knew it was too tight though and I could tell when she shook her head slightly so I adjusted my grip on her. I shut my eyes because the wind made my eyes blur and water, and I could have sworn that I felt particles get into my eyes. That didn’t stop me from feeling bad because I’d really wanted to explore the place, they called Qethen.

In a few minutes, we were at the stone castle and Avyanna laid so I could get off easily. She nudged me with her beak towards the massive doors.

“I have gotten you past the gates. You have to get in yourself. I’ll be waiting for you here.”

I took a deep breath and nodded then took slow steps in the direction of the doors. When I got there, I didn’t think knocking would be a good idea so I opened it and walked through. A guard was right there staring at me like I was the cause of all his miseries and I began to wonder how to get through to him. It seemed like the universe was on my side because there was no need for that.

“Paris? What are you doing here?” Evelina asked me with wide eyes as she took in my appearance and stared at me like there was no way I could be there.

I sheepishly smiled and rubbed the back of my neck. “Actually, I’m here to see Leon.” “That may be a bad idea. You know…”

“It’s urgent,” I said cutting her off with a curt tone.

She stared at me for a while then gestured for me to follow her. I thanked God for being on my side before running after her like a child afraid of being left by her mother. I guess I was also afraid but for other reasons.

We stopped at a golden door with the most gorgeous designs I’d ever seen. “This is Leon’s room. He won’t be nice to you so don’t get your hopes up for nothing.”

“Thank you. You don’t know how much…”

“I’m not doing it for you,” she said with a sigh. “Leon needs to get out of here and you may be the only person capable of doing that.”

I didn’t get to ask her what she meant by that because she had already vanished. I didn’t understand why all of them did that like it was the most normal thing. I mean, I got it. They were fast. They didn’t have to rub it in my face.

I sighed and knocked on the door.

“You can’t be here,” he said with a frown on his face as soon as he opened the doors and saw that it was me.

Leon looked worse than he had the last time I saw him. He had dark circles under his eyes and his eyes were void of the light they had once held. I was sure it had something to do with why his sister wanted him gone.

“Well, I had to see you and you didn’t visit so…”

“I didn’t visit because I didn’t want to see you.,” he said, rudely interrupting me as he crossed his arms.

“That’s just hurtful. I left everything I have just to be here. It’s not fair that you’ll be like this towards me.”

“Why in God’s name are you here?”

“Can I come in so we can talk without people eavesdropping?” I asked trying my luck for the last time and he shook his head so I sighed. “I don’t get why you’re being so cold. What the hell is your problem?”

He uncrossed his arms and glared at me. “My problem? My problem? You have got to be kidding me. I have no problem and the sooner you get that into your head, better for both of us.”

I didn’t have the energy to fight with him so I said, “Havana is back and she’s threatening your life.”

“Havana? Your dead sister?” I nodded. “If you really want my attention, you should try the regular instead of trying to fabricate stories.”

My eyes widened. “But I’m not lying. You know I don’t lie.” “Do I? Do I, really?”

“This is unbelievable. You’re just going to destroy our friendship over something so little?”

He was quiet for a while then he gave me a rueful smile. “How many times do you think a heart can break?”

I wasn’t sure if it was a trick question or not because it contradicted the smile, he had given me showing he was sorry. Leon was on a whole new level of complicated and I’d never been stressed by it until that moment.

“I-I don’t know,” I said, honestly since the truth was all I could manage.

“My heart has been broken more than the required amount of times.” With those words, he shut the door and I knew it meant he shut me out of his life.

If only this had perfect timing.

I raked my hands through my hair and heaved a defeated sigh. My brain began storming for other ways to help Leon as I walked down the stairs and out of the castle. When I got out, Avyanna was standing there, in her human form waiting for me. At least I assumed she was waiting for me when I saw her flirting with one of the guards.

She noticed me and studied me for a while then said, “He doesn’t want to see you, right?”

“That obvious, huh?” She pursed her lips then came to me and pulled me into a hug. “It’s almost like he wants nothing to do with me. Like if someone tries to kill me, he wouldn’t even care.”

She shook her head as she pulled away. “No, if they try to take you from him, he would rip the world apart with his bare hands. You know that. He just needs time.”

“I’ve given him enough time.” “That’s what you think.

I looked back at the castle still frowning and the sight of it caused my frown to deepen. “Can I please burn this place to the ground?”

She chuckled. “Seeing as it’s a castle made of stone, I don’t think fire is going to do much damage.”

“But trying will make me feel better,” I said with a whiny voice and she laughed again. “Let’s just go see what we can do as a team. You’re literally all I have here.”

“Let’s go then. Paris say bye to my new friend, Julia,” Avyanna said pointing in the direction of the guard I’d seen her flirting with.

“Wait, are you the one who tried to kill Prince Leon’s girlfriend?” Julia asked Avyanna after looking at me.

I had a feeling she was referring to me as Leon’s girlfriend so I let the urge to correct her and let her down. “I’m not…”

Avyanna shrugged and cut me off by saying, “I liked him. She needed to be out of the picture.”

I raised a brow. “I thought you’re a lesbian.”

She winked at me. “I’m bisexual. There’s a difference.” “Oh, right. I keep forgetting. Can we go now?”

She said something to Julia then transformed and soon we were on our way to destiny if your idea of destiny was Avyanna’s house to form a plan.

***

Avyanna’s house wasn’t too far from the castle and compared to the other houses I’d seen in Qethen, Avyanna’s just had to be the least impressive. I was even surprised that she was

living in Leon’s side of Qethen since she said the kingdom was divided according to the various types of weregriffins.

“Why are you living here?” I asked her hoping I didn’t sound offensive with the way I’d put my question.

She chuckled. “When all my kind mysteriously died, which I think has a lot to do with the king, Evander took over our portion of Qethen and subjected me to living like a pauper in his castle under the guise that he was keeping an eye on me. The only reason he even wanted me to marry his son was to make sure that I didn’t have a reason to kill anyone. Either that or I’d be closer for him to kill me.”

“You know, Evander sounds like the utmost bad guy here. The reason my sister is even doing this is to get revenge.”

“I know how it feels. I used to be obsessed with getting justice for everything Evander had done to me until I realized that it wasn’t worth losing my soul. If not for me, for Hiro.”

I shook my head and sighed. “I wish Havana would see it this way.”

“I’d ask why you are named Paris and your sister is named Havana, but it sounds like it could take a lot of time that we don’t have so I’ll let it pass,” Avyanna said and I chuckled as we walked downstairs to the basement.

We got in there and her basement was more like a lair than an actual basement. She had turned it into her own artillery store considering the number of blades and guns I saw neatly organized in various sections. There were also bottled mists that looked like potions to me if the part about her being a witch was correct.

“You know, normal people don’t have a basement full of weapons,” I said as I used my right hand to run on the blades.

“I think we already covered that no one here is normal. Besides, I’ll have you know that every single one of these blades have saved my life at least once.”

“Interesting,” I said with an impressed nod. “What about the guns over there?” “Oh, those? They are just for decoration.”

I nodded as I went to another section and began to observe the potions. They were all pretty and no two bottles had the same color. I wasn’t surprised when I saw that she had put up a warning sign that said, in bold letters, “DO NOT TOUCH!”

“Stop touching the potions!”

I was about to give her a snarky reply but I felt something soft on my toes and made to scream until I saw that it was a mini wingless weregriffin that looked a lot like Avyanna’s. I bent down and began to stroke her back as she gave a strange sound that was a cross between a purr and a grunt.

“Minnie, what are you doing down here?” Avyanna asked, picking up the weregriffin in her hands and the creature transformed into the cutest girl I’d ever seen. “I told you not to come down here. I thought you were with Karina.”

She smiled sheepishly. “I ran away.”

Avyanna sighed. “Just go back to her. I’ll come and get you first thing tomorrow.”

The child, Minnie, nodded then gave me a cute smile and vanished like all of them did. I was going to have a talk with the head council of Qethen about their inability to move like normal people did.

“She’s so cute,” I said and Avyanna just nodded as she began to cut herself to get her blood out for some strange reason. “I always wanted a pet.”

Avyanna stopped and gave me a blank stare. “You realize you can’t keep her, right?” I frowned and pouted. “Why not?”

“Her mother will kill you.”

“Well, who is she? I’m sure we can come to an arrangement. I’ll give her a good life.”

Avyanna smacked her forehead. “First, you’re looking at her mother. Second, we are not coming to any arrangement. Third, STOP TOUCHING THE POTIONS!”

“Okay, okay, jeez what has got your panties in a twist?”

Avyanna banged her head on her desk and groaned. “This is what I get for being a good person who wants to be a hero.”

“I’m also a hero.”

She didn’t say anything so I went back to ogling the potions thinking that she wasn’t watching me. I stopped when I came in front of the first one with an indescribable color and had the words, “Love and Death”, written on it.

“Oh, this one’s pretty!” I exclaimed, clapping my hands with excitement as I made to touch it.

“For the hundredth time, Paris, stop touching the potions!”

I crossed my arms and pouted. “I’m not talking to you anymore.”

Her eyes suddenly became glazed and she stood up slowly. “Can you hear that?” “I’m not talking to you,” I said even though I was getting pretty scared.

“Shit! We have to get out of here now,” Avyanna said and without any further explanation, she took my arm and dragged me out of the basement. “I hope Minnie’s safe.”

I tried to ask her what was going on but she didn’t give me any valid answer. We ran outside and found Havana standing there, waiting for us. We exchanged looks and tried to run back inside but we were already surrounded.

“Not so fast, Paris. You and your friend are coming with me.”