Symphony of Death
Chapter 16

Anastasia’s POV

I looked at the tall bookshelves in wonderment. I couldn’t get used to their height and the massive size of this library.

I sneaked in here at last.

I was not forbidden from entering it but I was warned not to reach for the gigantic double doors towards the north end.

Cain wasn’t back yet and Shae left suddenly as well. The servants were busy with their chores and Sibyl looked extra occupied today to notice my spying.

It was the perfect opportunity to start the search.

Angie’s diary made me realize something. Laurel’s basement room. She used to have a strange-looking diary as well and she opened it alone in her basement room.

I was prohibited from entering it. It made me curious but I never tried to go there because of the darkness. I was going to look into it. I was sure I would replace something there.

But before that, I needed to look here.

I looked up and then once I was standing in front of the heavy-looking oak doors. I was fearing to be found out and I didn’t want to imagine what would become of me after that.

I breathed deeply and grabbed the knobs with both hands.

The design and carvings of these doors looked ancient. This [art of the library looked part of the old structure.

“You can do this,” I encouraged myself and turned the knobs. The door opened without a sound and I entered Cain’s personal library.

It was barely lit and so dark.

My jaw dropped when I saw the ceiling and the walls. They were sky-high with gigantic windows and skylights.

Though Cain upgraded it like the rest of the estate, there were still torchlights on the columns, candle stands everywhere, and a giant candle chandelier was hanging from the ceiling in the middle.

I walked further inside while looking around in awe. Everything looked straight out of a dark storybook. Everything felt surreal.

Especially the murals. The walls and ceiling were full of them. They didn’t look like ordinary paintings.

I stopped when I felt something move on my left side. I breathed in relief when it turned out to be just a curtain. There was an archway across it, leading to another part.

I couldn’t see clearly across it because of the curtain and the scarcity of light.

I was debating on this and that. I was already risking enough by coming here. I didn’t want my head rolling on the floor by doing something I shouldn’t.

I was already doing it.

I crossed the archway and came inside another dark room. It was smaller and bare except for a red chaise lounge near the fireplace and a full mirror embedded in an intricate gold frame across it on the opposite end.

Their positioning intrigued me.

The person sitting on the chaise lounge would have a direct and full view in the mirror.

“What?” My brows creased further when I felt something move inside the mirror. I walked toward it reluctantly and stopped a foot away from it.

The mirror turned out to be a portrait of a woman in a beautiful white dress.

She was breathtakingly beautiful. Her eyes were closed and she looked like she was dreaming. Her red lips seemed to be smiling and her long hair looked silky. They shone against the darkness.

The same hair color.

I staggered back when the still woman in the portrait opened her icy blue eyes and looked straight at me.

They had the same eyes.

I was frozen in place while looking at her. There was something sad about her eyes and smile. Her ethereal beauty looked haunted by something unknown.

She seemed to be in pain.

“What did I tell you about not wandering to places?” My heart was beating so painfully that I was fearing for it to burst out of my chest. “So, you came across it.” His dark voice whispered from behind me.

“Who is she?” I looked away from the live portrait when Cain came in front of me. “What kind of sick magic is this? There is an alive person inside the mirror.” I pointed to the portrait without looking.

Truth be told, she freaked me out.

“It’s not a living person,” A dark look took over his eyes and expressions. “It’s a fragment of a memory.”

“Whose?” I couldn’t understand why my heart was thundering in anticipation of his answer.

“Mine,” Cain looked me dead in the eye. “She is Omisha.”

My left wrist began to hurt. I looked at Cain in utter confusion but all I met was the coldness blended into malice and hatred.

“Aren’t you curious to know who she is?” There was a hint of dark sarcasm in his tone.

“Harold mentioned her name,” I grunted through pain. “You have some history with this woman-” The anguish only increased with my words. “Forget it, I am not interested.”

Cain grabbed my left wrist to prevent me from leaving.

“Don’t you want to know who put the curse?” He pulled me to him roughly. “Don’t you want to know who is responsible for this?” He raised my left hand.

The pain was becoming excruciating and I highly doubted that he was unaware.

“She was a Blue Blood.” Cain moved closer to me. “She was my lover but she stabbed me in the back.”

“What?” His smirk baffled me even more.

“I should have known better but she duped me well. She was so meticulous in making me believe her treacherous affection.” Cain scoffed bitterly. “She never loved me for a moment. It was a grand scheme put forth by her kind and she was the perfect piece to execute it.”

“Omisha was nothing but bait.” His burning gaze seared into mine. “She was stunning and beautiful unlike any other immortal creature so they thought she could do the trick by seducing me.”

“She was sent to entice me so they could get their filthy hands on my power. My wings.” His thumb rubbed my wrist roughly. “My wings with the eternal flame.”

“She didn’t love you?” I was shocked by the appalling disclosure.

“Not for a moment,” Cain replied darkly. “My family warned me but I didn’t listen to them. They knew she was betraying me but I trusted her. And you know what that trust cost me, Anastasia?” My whole body shook visibly. “Everything.”

“She brought demise to my kin. I brought her here and she fetched her kind later. She watched them slaughter my parents. In our own home. Because we were evil and they were good.” Cain chuckled darkly. “We didn’t deserve to live and it was their spiritual obligation to rid the world of a hazard like me.”

I could only look at Cain because my brain refused to work.

“So, I returned the favor a hundred fold.” His voice turned to a murmur. “I killed every single one of her kind. Brutally. I made her watch and suffer every second of it.”

So, she was the one whom he fought.

“She lost everything just like I did and then I killed her with my hands. I plunged my sword here,” he touched my abdomen. “I watched her die in front of me. I counted her last breaths.”

Cain raised his free hand and a black dagger appeared in it.

“This,” He grabbed my waist and pulled me into him. “She severed my wing with this.” I gasped when he embraced me suddenly. “She asked me to hold her like this for the last time and then she stabbed me.”

I looked at his face when he pulled back.

“This bound us with the curse. The Black Phoenix.” Cain pressed the tip of the blade against my neck.

“But why did she doom you along?” He mused darkly. “She wasn’t even aware of your existence a thousand years ago, so why did she do such a cruel thing to you?”

“I don’t know,” I shook my head furiously. “I don’t want to know.” I struggled in his death grip. “Let me go.”

Cain turned me roughly and forced me to face Omisha’s portrait again.

“Leave me.” I pleaded when he locked my head in his elbow and pulled me back in his hard frame.

“I wonder why Laurel kept her identity from you?” Cain whispered in my ear. “You poor little soul,” I closed my eyes when he mocked me coldly.

I didn’t want to look in those cold eyes again. I didn’t want to see her face again. She doomed innocent lives in their war. She was the reason my parents and Laurel died. She ruined my life.

I felt absolute disgust and hatred towards her.

I pushed free of Cain and ran out of there. My head was pounding.

I shouldn’t have gone there.

I knew nothing good was going to come out of knowing about that woman. She was the cause of every bad thing that happened in my life.

I wish she had never existed.

A shield of bluish black flames appeared in front of me. I couldn’t even blink because of what happened.

The gigantic vipers were dangling midair in a frozen state with their mouths wide open. Their eyes were red and glowing and something lava-like was dripping off their fangs.

Had they not been caught, their fangs would have engulfed my whole head.

Cain pulled me back and the black vipers turned to ashes just like that.

“You insolent fool!” He boomed at the woman.

She was raging and every ounce of it was directed toward me. Aeron and Xic came after her a second later. The two brothers surrounded the woman from behind while she faced Cain.

“Step out of my way, Cain.” She yelled at him. “I am not going to leave this bitch alive.” Cain stepped forward intimidatingly. “You want a repeat of the past?”

“Clarissa!” I was deterred by the authority in his powerful voice.

“Cool down, Clary” Aeron held her shoulder firmly. “Listen before jumping the gun, sis.” “Clary!” His gaze hardened when she shrugged him off roughly.

She was their sister?

I couldn’t replace her resemblance to Cain but her hair and eye color were similar to Xic’s.

“You weren’t even planning on telling me.” She looked at them accusingly. “And why are you with her?” She pointed a finger at me. “She killed our parents, Cain. She tried to take your life and cursed you when she couldn’t succeed in taking your power. You should kill her and take back your wing.”

“Wh-what?” My brain stopped working altogether. “When did I-”

“Oh, stop pretending, Omisha.” Clarissa spat venomously.

I felt like a hundred buckets of cold water were dumped on me simultaneously.

“Playing innocent won’t work in this life.” My body turned numb and cold. “What? You don’t know or are you just too good at putting up a face?”

Omisha? Me?

“Clary, stop” Xic and Aeron stepped in front of her.

“Get off me.” She pushed past them.

I could only look at her mutely when she invaded my personal space.

“Strange,” She scrutinized me closely. “You aren’t born with the same face. I can’t even smell your disgusting Blue Blood scent.” She jeered at me.

“But at least you came back with this.” She held my left hand forcefully and tapped at the wrist. “It’s time to return what you took from my brother, you fucking Blue Blood.”

Cain pulled her away from me and shoved her towards Aeron and Xic.

“Take her away.” his voice thundered around. “Right now.”

“Cain!” Clarissa shouted angrily. Her eyes switched and so did Aeron’s and Xic’s. Everything began to rattle and shatter when their inhuman traits surfaced.

She called me Omisha!

I palmed the wall when everything spun before my eyes. My chest hurt and I struggled to breathe. I grabbed my head with both hands and ran from there without thinking of the consequences.

****

Everything was how I left all those years ago. Nothing changed. But I couldn’t feel anything while looking at what used to be my home.

Our home.

I was so numb right now.

When I ran from Cain’s estate, I had no idea where I was going. I only wanted to get away from there.

So, I took his car and left.

The brothers didn’t chase after me and here I was, back in Medford after seven straight hours of driving.

I had to come. I had to replace out right now.

I was not ready to accept such a hideous accusation. They couldn’t be true. There was no way that was the truth.

“Laurel would have told me. She wouldn’t have kept this from me.” I steeled my resolve. “I will replace the truth myself.”

I unlocked the door and went inside. I switched on the lights and looked around with misty eyes. Everything was the same.

The way Laurel left.

The memory brought a stingy feeling.

“You don’t have time to fall weak, Ana. Not now.” I hurried towards the basement.

I was not here to reminisce about the past. I was not at liberty anymore.

I stopped outside the door and looked at the ring on my index finger.

Cain was right. Anima didn’t bother me ever since I wore it.

It gave me enough courage and I went into the basement. The air was damp and cold down here. There was only a single light to illuminate the entire basement.

I looked at the locked door in the corner. It gave me a heavy feeling. It screamed at me to turn and run away.

I couldn’t.

I opened it and went inside. It was pitch black until I found the switch and turned on the light. The room looked like a laboratory of some sort. There were so many jars with herbs, odd looking roots, powders, and strange stuff and lots of shelves with unusual books.

Laurel told me she was an Enchantress but I never knew what Enchantress was capable of doing.

I went to her table and began looking through everything. There were so many papers and notebooks but nothing made sense to me.

Everything was written in an unknown language and symbols.

I grabbed my hair and looked around in exasperation. Not a single thing hinted at anything. I gave up after another round of exploration and decided to leave.

My feet stopped near the door.

I looked back to one of the paintings. For a few seconds, I tried to make sense of what caught my eyes. I hurried toward it when I realized what was inside it.

“What?” I whispered in disbelief when my hand went into the painting and touched the diary. “Unbelievable.” I pulled it out and looked at it incredulously.

It was the same diary.

I took it back upstairs and sat down on the couch in our living room.

I traced the cover with my fingers. Its leather was tattered and falling off. The pages were yellow and worn out as well. I skimmed through them. I couldn’t make sense of a single word out of it.

It was in the same strange language.

Something bizarre happened when I crossed the middle of the diary. The words rose out of the pages and rearranged themselves right before my eyes.

“What?” I dropped the diary on the floor when it started burning. “No, no, no.” I palmed my head while watching the last of my hope turn into dust.

I screamed in frustration and ran out. My blind sprint came to a stalemate across the patio and I fell on my butt when I saw Cain in the driveway.

“Will your screams change anything?” His heavy steps neared me slowly. “It wasn’t my plan to make you come across your horrible truth like this.” Cain crouched in front of me. “You doomed yourself with this fate.”

“I refuse to believe it” Cain stayed impassive to my outburst. “Fuck the curse and fuck you.”

“I replace your attitude pitiful rather than infuriating.” Cain pulled me up roughly. I jerked his hands away and stepped back. “For how long do you think you can act ignorant?” he stepped toward me menacingly. “Omisha.”

I clutched my wrist when it started burning.

“Anastasia,” I shrieked. “My name is Anastasia.”

“You won’t learn it the easy way,” Cain growled. “You will suffer every moment until you realize your sins.” His voice sounded like a sunken echo. “You will burn under the burdens of your actions over and again until you drown in the terror of your screams.”

I was paralyzed by the very sight of him.

His hair grew longer and few strands fell in his ashen blue face and his right eye. The flesh shrunk and disappeared into a hollow socket. Blue flames rose out of it and the sclera of the left eye drowned into blackness.

His ears became long and pointy and poked out of his long hair.

The flesh and skin from the lower half of his face on the left side also disappeared and turned bony. His bluish left jaw and teeth scared the shit out of me.

Part of his neck changed in the same way and his right arm became like a strange-looking glove of twisted bones until his elbow.

His bones and their color were not normal. They were thick, shiny, speared, and extremely bluish.

Cain was every bit of what he was claimed and feared to be.

I fell on the ground when a giant black wing popped out of his back. I could only look at it in bewilderment. I had never seen or heard of a wing like that before.

And the flame burning in his wing was no ordinary flame.

It was a mix of seven shades and felt very much alive. It burnt along the entire length of his wing in the middle.

This was the eternal flame?

A symbol of immense power in their world. And it was just one wing for now.

What will happen when he will have both wings?

“Stay-” I crawled away from him. “Don’t-” I heard crackling from behind me.

My home. Our home.

It was ablaze.

“I will take everything from you.” I cried out in pain when my wrist burnt physically this time. The symbol of his wing carved out on my skin. “Just like you took everything from me” His gaze burnt with hatred. “How much do you owe me, Omisha? You don’t even know that yourself.”

The air stirred with bone-chilling howls.

My eyes switched and stung like that night. Every little hair on my body rose when I sensed their presence.

Thousands of them.

The peaceful night of my city suddenly rumbled with screams of pain and agony. The thick smoke rose higher in the sky from every direction and the air turned pungent.

“This is merely the beginning,” Cain muttered darkly. I pushed myself up and ran out of my place.

Everything was burning.

People were running and screaming. The fire was eating away at everything. Anima were everywhere, feeding on young, old, and children. They were sucking them until they were reduced to nothing but a bunch of dry bones.

I looked around helplessly. The entire city was being wiped out before my eyes and I could do nothing.

My hands were grabbed from behind and his back came in contact with mine. My vision was becoming blurry. Cain was purposely giving me this excruciating pain and I knew this won’t be the only time.

The malice and vengeance were seeping out of him.

I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. I couldn’t decide what was the right emotion to feel right now.

My city, my home was reduced to ashes by Cain and his wrath.

****

I woke up with a massive headache. My eyes were burning and felt so heavy like the rest of my body. I wanted to sleep but my phone was buzzing nonstop in my pocket.

I sat up groggily and answered the call after seeing Angie’s number flashing on the screen.

“Ana, are you okay?” Angie sounded panicky. “Did you see the news?”

“What news?” I massaged my temples.

“News about Medford.” My eyes flew open. “The entire city burnt to the ground, Ana. There is nothing left. Not a single person has been found alive until now.”

I raised my left wrist. It was there. The symbol was still on my skin.

“Ana? Are you listening to me? Ana?”

The phone fell from my hand and I looked around frantically. I was in Cain’s room. A shudder ran through my body and I jumped out of his bed.

“It was not a dream,” I mumbled incoherently and grabbed my phone from the bed. My hands shook violently when I opened the link Angie shared with me. “It was not-”

My phone slipped out of my hands for the second time.

He burnt my home.

I ran out of his room, crashing into things on my way but I paid no heed. I was blind to everything but I didn’t care.

I wanted to simmer the fire in my chest. I wanted to get rid of the misery.

I found myself in front of her portrait again. My eyes stung when her eyes opened and pierced me with their cold gaze. I could see the mock in her gaze.

She was laughing at my misery.

I grabbed my hair when the pain slipped past my lips in the form of a crushed whimper.

I didn’t think twice when my wandering eyes landed on the stoker near the fireplace.

I smashed the portrait with it while shrieking. It shattered and scattered around me on the floor. I kept smashing the pieces like a madwoman.

“Go away,” I fell on top of the broken shards. “Go away, go away, just go away.” I pounded my fists on the chunks. “Just go. GO.”

“Anastasia!” Cain pulled my hands back and held them firmly.

“No!” I thrashed violently to break free. “NO!” I was in utter despair. “It’s not true. It’s not true. I am not her. I can never be her. I am not. I AM NOT.” I scratched and clawed at him. “How can I be her?”

I laughed hysterically and then wailed loudly.

“I didn’t kill anyone. I cannot kill anyone. I can never.” I grabbed his shirt and tugged at it pleadingly. “It’s a sick joke. It’s disgusting. I hate it. I hate it.”

I tried to hit the shards again but Cain pulled me up roughly and caged me in his arms.

“Never,” I screamed in his passive face. “I will never be her. I refuse this lie. I refuse to believe it.” I punched his chest nonstop. “I am not her.” I sobbed. “I am not her. I am not.” I fell limp in his hold. “I am-”

I could feel the void intensifying in my heart.

Where did I stand now?

I was punched in the abyss of my identity.