The Darkness

Serafina was just putting on her underwear when Lorenzo came bursting through her bedroom door saying, “Rise and Shine big sis! Training starts today.”

She froze and didn’t even turn towards the frozen boy, “Get out. Like now.”

She let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding when she heard the door close and continued to get dressed.

“Hey was that the Light King?” Aviry asked from the closet where he was rummaging through Serafina’s diaries.

“Yep.” She confirmed zipping up her leather shirt.

“He’s hot.”

“Gross, Ave. That’s my brother.” She shuttered.

“So? He’s not mine.” He threw the diary back into the box. Serafina gave a tiny nod as if to say he was right and finished zipping up her boots.

“Okay, I’m off.” She told him, watching as he grabbed a cup of ben & jerry from her mini-fridge.

“Bye bitch.” He told her with a mouthful of Brownie Batter ice cream. She shook her head and left the suite, throwing a punch when she realised someone was standing outside her door.

Lorenzo caught her fist before she gave him a broken nose, “Whoa, are you always this violent in the mornings.”

She untensed and snatched her hand back, “It’s natural for me to punch idiots who like to sneak up on me.” She left it at that and walked in the direction of the training room that Lorenzo showed her earlier with Lorenzo in tow.

When she was about to walk into the training room she was met with a wall of fire. Her instincts kicked in and she went into autopilot mode. She raised her hand and turned it counterclockwise and the fire died out into nothing. As soon as the fire died out a fireball flew towards her and she grabbed it, throwing it at its creator.

When nothing else came at her she snapped out of it and glared at Thanatos, “What the hell.”

“Before you were reborn, you had already mastered every element. Just because you were reborn doesn’t mean you lost that ability.” He said sitting atop the boxing ring that sat in the middle of the training room. She glared at him and grabbed the throwing dagger she had strapped to her left leg, throwing it in his direction. He leaned to the right and the dagger missed him by a millimetre.

“Soif I didn’t know how to unlock that ability? That fireball could have killed me, asshole,” She growled at him. He hopped off the post and grabbed her dagger that had lodged itself in the wall. He examined the steel stiletto weapon before holding it out to her.

“I would have stopped it before it hurt you.” He said before saying, “Your brother and I will be your trainers. I will teach you Blood, Spirit, and Darkness while Lykos will teach you Water and Light. We both will help you use fire without relying directly on your instincts like you did today.”

She looked at the weapon and grabbed it, sliding it back into its sheath, “Okay, teach, where do we start?”

“You are going to melt this,” He tossed her a red rock and she examined it.

“This is Anhyotime.” She told him, looking back up at him, “This is almost impossible to melt. You would need something as close to the temperature of the earth’s mantle to melt it.”

“Nerd,” Lorenzo whispered, passing by her.

“I’m still angry about you walking in my room without knocking. One more word and you will become my throw rug, understood?” She threatened him before returning to her talk with Thanatos, “I can’t do this.”

She tossed the rock back at him and he caught it, tossing it back at her, “Just try it.”

She looked at him sceptically before cupping the rock in both hands and closing her eyes. She imagined the molecules that made up the rock and imagined them rubbing together at a high frequency.

“This isn’t working.” She announced when she couldn’t feel anything happening.

“That’s because you aren’t trying hard enough. If you put the same effort you do into combat training you would be able to do this.” She heard Lorenzo call from the other side of the room.

She took a deep breath and imagined them rubbing faster together. She felt the rock hat up and pool in her hands. When she opened her eyes, the rock was nothing but a red crystal.

“Whoa. I did that.” She whispered to herself.

“Just like riding a bike.” Lorenzo took the crystal out of her hands and then they continued to practise fire magic.

By the end of her training session she had learned Prytokinesis, Hell-fire manipulation, Holy-fire manipulation, and Pyroportation and she was completely worn out. Thanatos told her that fire was one of the easiest elements to master and gods normally master it within a week. She slugged back to her room and showered and threw herself onto her bed where Aviry was watching her tv.

“How was training?”

She groaned into her pillow before lifting her head up and saying, “I’m sore, I set my hair on fire twice, I have a headache and I’m this close to turning Lorenzo into a freaking panther throw rug.” She let her head fall back on her pillow.

“So... Ninth grade chemistry,” He laughed at her.

“Shut up.” She turned her head towards him and glared daggers at him for bringing that one incident up. Her lab partner set her hair on fire and it caused this whole ordeal that Serafina would rather not remember.

“Here. Have some Brownie Batter and watch lost girl with me.” He handed her a cup and a spoon. She eyed it, debating if she should or if she should read her dairies. She grabbed the cup and spoon and flipped over as he went back to where they last left off.

“Ewww,” Serafina gagged as she watched Bo kiss Persephone.

“Why are you saying ew?”

“Persephone is Hades’s wife. She’s kissing her step-mom.” She explained.

“Well, she’s not kissing her for pleasure she’s kissing her to heal. And isn’t Persephone technically Hades’s niece.” He pointed out.

“True,” She shrugged and put another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth.

A few minutes Aviry fell asleep on her shoulder with a spoon in his mouth. She couldn’t help laughing and grabbed her phone, taking a picture for her to blackmail him with later.

A knock sounded at her door and she yelled that it was open because she didn’t feel like opening it.

Lorenzo came in and noticed that she wasn’t alone.

“Who’s that?”

“Aviry, my best friend from when I was Dark. Don’t worry he’s been claimed.” She added on so that she wouldn’t have to hear him lecture her about how humans shouldn’t be here

“By you?” Lorenzo’s face showed confusion as she told him that, pointing at her.

She shook her head, “I made Thanatos claim him.” Made was a stretch but technically he wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t backed down from making him stay there.

“Luck bastard,” She heard him whisper underneath his breath and he cleared his throat, “I got something for you.”

“Oh, a present? Gimmie,” She giggled like a child on Christmas.

He showed his hand that was hidden from behind his back and held out a dagger. He could have sworn he saw her eyes light up as she examined the sliver dagger.

“Look on the hilt.” He told her and watched as her eyes widened when she realised there was a crystal on the hilt of the blade, “I saw how happy you were when you made that so I added it onto the blade.”

She looked up at him with confused eyes and he explained, “Before you were cast down, I was making you a dagger and I hadn’t figured out what I gem I wanted to put in the centre.”

She smiled at him and climbed out of her bed and gave him a hug, “Thank you, Lykos. It’s beautiful, I’ll treasure it forever.”

He stood in shock because that was the first time she called him by his birth name and not his earth name. He smiled and wrapped his arms around his sister, “Your welcome.”

Unknown to both was the evil glow in her eyes.