Page 35 of The Void

The man was nothing like the boy she remembered. If it wasn’t for the eyes, she wouldn’t have known it was Lei. He’d been born with heterochromia, a rare condition. Especially rare in people with Asian heritage.

How many years had she stared into those eyes from all the family photos? She could only vaguely remember the real boy since she’d been so young. But those still images she had memorized.

The sliver of bright blue in Lei’s right eye had, at one point, been the sign the elders had needed that he was to be the next djinn.

What had caused them to change their minds? Why was he now… her enemy? Erebus. She remembered learning about all the old stories. After all, her family was one of those myths.

It was strange how history rewrote factual events and twisted them. Most of the Li family history had at one point been rewritten by others. Now, instead of one of her djinn ancestors accidently not hiding their powers from someone else, there were stories of various gods from different cultures with the same powers.

Everyone knew of Zeus and his great bolts of lightning instead of Zhi with the ability to shoot fire from his fingertips.

Then there was Harue, with the ability to fly, who became Hermes, who wore shoes with little wings on them.

Vishnu, the Indian god of preservation with her many arms, was Viu, a Li family djinn with the ability to create many copies of herself. She had lent a hand during a great flood in her village.

The list went on and on.

Each culture had stories of the Li family djinn’s that had been turned and twisted over time as they had been passed on.

Apparently, even the story of Atlantis. Someone, sometime, had talked about the place where her family had escaped. The lost city. Most of what they had said about the place was true. It appeared to be very advanced, even though they didn’t have elevators or flying machines.

There was power and the buildings were much like those in modern-day cities.

Mia wondered if thousands of years from now she would be a myth that would be passed on through generations, the truth twisted and morphed. Would someone spread half-truths about her life?

She glanced up at Lucas, who was blissfully sleeping, and wondered just what role he would have in her future. She would have never picked someone like him to be with. He was too… powerful. Too strong. Far too alpha for her liking.

Then again, she’d only dated a couple of men before. None of them would have gone as far as he had to save her.

She felt her heart kick in her chest and tried to deny just how much it meant to her that he had come this far. Traveling to a different world. A whole other plane of existence.

Rolling over, she gently climbed out of bed and walked over to the window. Looking out, she could just make out the dying lights from the fires in the hills.

Touching the glass, she called out in her mind to her brother.

“Lei?” she said silently, wishing he could hear her. “Why?”

Chapter Ten

The following morning after they showered, Lucas followed Mia down to the large dining room.

“Until we know more, let’s keep the bit about my brother being alive and, well, evil, to ourselves,” she whispered.

He nodded and then stepped inside the large room beside her.

He could tell instantly that something was off. The room was practically empty. Only about half of the normal crowd sat around the room and when they entered, everyone stopped talking and turned to watch them walk up to their table and sit down.

“What’s going on?” Mia whispered.

“I have no idea,” he replied.

“There you are.” Beth rushed up to them. “There was an attack moments ago.”

“There was?” Both of them went on guard.

“It was at the outer wall. Thankfully, it wasn’t breached but…” Beth started just as the general stormed into the room with a handful of guards on his heels.

“Do you care to tell us the meaning of this?” The general tossed a folded piece of paper in front of Mia. “It was shot over our wall moments ago.”