Daeva: Black Diamond Chrysalis - Danielle Bolger (essential reading txt) 📗

get hurt anymore. I want to get stronger, protect them and protect the light of this world." Rising into a sitting position Ariel backed away. "You said I was a potential so let me realise it then. Please, make me one of you!"

Ariel raised her eyebrows then nodded slowly. "I see, you're exactly like I was back then. Though I knew far less than you do now I had the same reason, to protect the ones I loved." There a bitter-sweet smile broke through. "I'll arrange it if you insist, but before you take the plunge there's a few things that you must absolutely comprehend without going forward. One is that if you enter the contract and become an daeva you won't be purely human anymore but instead a hybrid between the two worlds. That is where your power will come from but also your greatest weakness. Secondly that you will be risking a lot, not just your life but also your very soul and sense of self. Daevas fight a dangerous battlefield and the weak ones do not survive long. And lastly, the transformation is irreversible, become one of us and you'll never fully reintegrate into the world of light again. So think, Bethanie, think very hard before you accept this contract."

I remained silent for a while, balancing the hate from the truths I learned but also my fear. Being a hero is noble and all, but dying is always tragic and losing one's soul, that's a fate beyond contemplation. Suddenly I was not so sure that this destiny was really for me.

"I tell you what." She smirked. "Think it over for a day, then if you decide you want this go to the clearing back there." She pointed down the path in the direction I had fled from. "I promise you won't encounter any more shades, I cleared the area and with him around any newcomers will be running for even higher hills! But don't answer now and you don't even have to answer tomorrow if you don't want. If you don't turn up that's fine, you're a potential so you'll always have the opportunity to enter the contract at a later time. Just think hard and if you do decide that you want to be a protector of this world then I'd be most willing to take you under my wing. If you decide come just before sunset and there you'll witness the world reveal new wonders as your eyes transform into those of a daeva's." She was looking up through the trees here as if remembering a serene moment. This was washed away by a later thought, one I thought she was about to share until a murmur was expressed from my sleeping friend.

"Abigail!" I cried happily.

Ariel hovered back over the top of her and nodded happily. When Abigail opened her eyes Ariel greeted her with excitement. "You're recovering quicker than I would have given you credit for after all those shades sapped your aura, maybe..." She stated thoughtfully, "you have a bit of potential too."

Abigail merely squinted at her, as if she was seeing an illusion which incapacitated my speech since I tried so hard not to laugh at her amusing expression.

Ariel rose and readdressed me. "Just remember what I said." She winked noticing my indulgent expression. "See you around!" Then she waved before running up the path toward the street we had come from.

"Bethanie?" Abigail probed. "What happened back there?"

I opened my mouth to explain the fantastic story of the shades, daevas and soul energy that displayed itself as auras but then found I could not formulate the words. That was because that explanation led to the tragedy that created them. That led to pain and despair as well as a sense of obligation. All those things I did not want my friend to understand, especially as I remembered one of Ariel's last comments where she inferred that Abigail could have been a potential too. With the terrible consequences that Ariel imparted I could not allow Abigail to ever learn what I had because I could not allow her to become a daeva.

Me however, that was another matter entirely. I wasn't sweet and delicate like Abigail. I was tomboyish, coarse and a fighter. Or at least, the latter was what I promised myself. Two years prior I made an internal declaration that I would never allow the ones I loved to suffer ever again, no matter the cost.

Still, I never imagined just how great that cost would be.

I had walked down that same dirt path that very morning and as I did I felt an immense amount of apprehension but true to Ariel's assurances no monsters jumped out to eat me. Still, it was too scary too soon so the whole time I had chills running along every aspect of my body despite not feeling cold in the least.

Before the sun was even in the centre of the sky I found the clearing, surprisingly taking a little longer than I had expected, and with nothing else to do I sat and waited.

Between my revisited episodes of the prior night my mind wandered to other unhappy thoughts, like how my older brother would react if he found out I was truanting and the guilt ensued from there. I didn't really mean to skip school, well, in all reality I did but I had a good reason to, only that I couldn't explain that to anybody else. I needed the time to think and weigh up the situation. I had messaged Abigail's mobile in the morning so that her mother wouldn't come to pick me up and then, after my brothers had left home I just kept on walking from my waiting point. I felt kind of lame wearing my school uniform and insanely embarrassed as I passed people on the street that seemed to bore me knowing looks, but still that was just not what important then. Sure those facts concerned me but their masses were all at once minor in contrast to the behemoth weight of the other thing.

Would I accept the contract?

Contract. I thought. What did that even mean? How on earth did signing a document lead to a transformation?

Then I remembered Ariel shrugging off my thanks with a simple statement: just doing my job.

So in that case, I questioned internally, does that mean we get paid?

I sighed already knowing the answer before I contemplated it, I had seen too many heroic shows and movies to know that monetary gain never came into play.

Still, I thought sullenly, a couple of dollars for risking both one's life and soul wouldn't be too much to ask for when saving lives is considered, surely. I mean, doctors get paid pretty well, don't they?

Then I realised what money really was - the currency of power and power was all that I ever wanted to obtain. In order to help the ones I love.

I had come to this place not out of initial decision, but because I needed to think on my dilemma and since I was skipping school whilst wearing my uniform a secluded place seemed appealing. I had rationalised that I would just come here, think and if I decided no then I would leave before the designated time. But even so, even if I was still here when this contract was going to be proposed, I could still always say no and then walk straight home. Ariel had said that I was free to refuse for as long as I wanted and then accept when it suited me. I had the choice, but that was the one consolation for the fact that once I said yes I could never turn back.

I had been there in the clearing, surprisingly stiff as I received new tan-lines. It had transformed into afternoon, my predicament still unresolved and so I sat there longer still, thinking and reflecting continuously.

The proposition hung there between the emerald blades of glass. As the wind pushed them gently it was as if I sensed them asking, are you ready to sacrifice yourself to save the ones you love?

The hours continued by. I sensed their shifting as the sun overhead moved from east to west and began to disappear back behind deeper mountain land. Then, when the sun was out of sight but twilight was still awhile off I was finally greeted by company.

"I wasn't sure whether you would have come. I had thought that if you did it would have been on the brink of sunset but honestly I thought not at all. But to see you here early, that is quite a surprise."

I turned to the direction of the voice. Walking through the thick part of the forest a young man entered the clearing and as he did he was in the opposite direction to the lowering sun so I saw his features clearly. He was tall, toned but slender. He was dressed casually in faded blue jeans and a black top that made his porcelain unblemished skin stand out triumphantly. But more awing than anything else were his hair and eyes which were both silver, commanding the strange self-sufficient glow that Ariel bore. And, just like Ariel, no one could call this man ugly, he was perfect. And as he neared he became even more perfect as I realised that he must have been either seventeen or eighteen years old and the age gap not too distant. Despite everything I grinned at the sight of him, watching indulgently as he trod the grass to greet just me.

As he neared he looked me up and down and smiled. "Ariel was right, you are quite an attractive girl. But there's one part to that I think she's wrong about, you're obviously not a girl but a young woman."

My cheeks instantly became on fire. What the hell?! This was not what I expected!

"Ah..." I replied with the most adept response I could think of. Then another fumbled thought followed. "Where is Ariel?"

"I'm afraid she is busy, it is not easy being a daeva on top of a high-schooler. You can imagine that she has very little free time."

"Oh, I see." I murmured keeping my surprise quiet. Even though she appeared my age with her abilities I never really thought of her as a high school girl struggling to get good grades along with the rest of us. Stupid on reflection, I realised, even though she had changed she was still a person and probably had a family and bucket-load of other things to deal with.

The young man kept walking until we were just a few feet apart. When he stopped he smirked. "So, Bethanie, your being here, does that mean you've decided to become a daeva?"

A beautiful being proposed a question of such great importance that I had to turn away. His face, his gentle smile, his brilliant eyes, were all just too distracting and before I replied I knew I had to be sure. But even turned away his perfect image still shone in my mind as well as a newfound burning curiosity.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

"My name is Raziel, but that's not the question you're really asking, is it?"

"Are you one of them, are you a daeva?"

"Not quite, but similarly I am a being of both of the worlds of Gaia and Noein, the first in fact which is how I came to claim the ability to gift others with this power. By binding in an agreement with me then you too can have the same amazing strength you saw in Ariel yesterday."

The power, I remembered. Her bow of light and arrows that destroyed each embodiment of darkness with one shot alone. The power that saved Abigail's and my own lives.

"You're still not sure." Raziel analysed. "I know that Ariel has told you all the dangers and she is not wrong there, it is incredibly dangerous, but advantageous to this world. This power cannot be forced on just anyone, only people with