Arianna Rose: The Gathering (Part 3) (20 page)

“Has everyone been treating you well?” he asked and looked sternly at Scott
, George and the others.  She couldn’t help but notice that in Agnon’s presence, they behaved differently.  They’d assumed a more mature, more respectful demeanor.

“Huh, that’s a loaded question,” Arianna answered acidly.  “Define what you consider
well
for me.”

Agnon shot a look of warning their way and she swore she saw Scott
and George cower.  Agnon clearly held some kind of clout among them.  He did have an air of regality about him that was undeniable.  Still, something about him repelled her.

“Let us eat,” Agnon said to everyone.  “I don’t know about you, Arianna, but I am famished,” he said and took
her elbow in his hand gently. 

She allowed herself to be le
d to the spacious dining area where a lavish meal had been prepared for them.  Platters overflowed with beautifully garnished meats and vegetables and several bottles of wine had been uncorked, breathing and waiting to be poured.

“What is this for?  What are you celebrating?” Arianna asked.

“You,” Agnon whispered, his lips so close they brushed her ear.

She pulled back from him and looked directly into his eyes, her brow
creased in confusion.  He raised his index finger to his lips as if to silence her.  His gesture worked, surprisingly, as she did not feel the need to say another word.  She would have believed him to be a crazy old man were it not for his aura.  His aura commanded authority. 

Agnon slid a chair out from the long cherry wood table and waited for her to sit.  Once she was seated, he assumed a seat to her right.  He nodded and the others, who’d waited beside their chairs, sat as well. 

He began reaching for plates and offering her food from them.  She wondered what the hell was going on, and more importantly, if anything she was being served was safe to eat.  Was the meal tainted?  Had they intended to poison her?  Her head spun with questions.

“Don’t worry, Arianna, everything here is safe.  No poison, I promise,” Agnon said quietly
and smiled, as if he’d read her mind.  He then piled a generous scoop of scalloped potatoes onto her plate.

“We should poison her for running from us at the party last night,” Jess mumbled.

As soon as the words left Jess’ lips, Agnon raised one of his large hands and brought it down hard so that it crashed down upon the table.  “That’s enough!” he thundered and the group collectively recoiled.  “I will not have you disrespect our guest and disgrace yourselves in the process.”

They have no idea who is sitting among them
.  She heard Agnon’s voice whisper through her mind with the weight of a feather, faint and fleeting.

She snapped her head toward him, but he did not look directly at her.  Instead, he smirked as he slipped a forkful of meat between his lips. 

Arianna was tempted to stand up and demand answers from the first person willing to speak.  All the cloak-and-dagger mystery was starting to piss her off.  Who was he and why was everyone acting like children in church around him?  They were obviously on their best behavior, but
why,
the question of the moment, remained.

As if he sensed her mounting frustration, Agnon reached out his hand and patted her shoulder. “Eat,” he said.  “Please, enjoy this delicious food.”

Her stomach growled and she obliged its calling, eating until she thought her skinny jeans would burst.  When coffee and dessert was offered to her, she declined and Agnon leaned in and spoke.

“My I speak with you, privately?” he asked.

She eyed him suspiciously and hoped with every part of her that he did not intend to try to put the moves on her.  She had daddy issues, but not so many that she was interested in bedding grandpa. 

Agnon chuck
led softly and shook his head and she grew increasingly convinced that he was a mind reader.  After all she’d seen and heard, all the bizarre situations she’d been placed in, present moment included, him being able to read her mind would not surprise her in the least.

He stood and began walking.  She followed suit and was led to a library.  Floor-to-c
eiling shelves lined the walls and held more books than she ever dreamed possible.  She folded her arms across her chest and leaned against one of the book-lined walls.

“Okay, let’s talk.  Who are you?” she did not waste time asking.

“Dear Arianna, you know who I am,” he said smoothly.  “Think about it.  Search you mind, your heart.”

And with his words, the familiarity he possessed ge
lled.  “Desmond,” she breathed.  “You’re Desmond’s father.”

“Very good,”
he said and clasped his hands in front of him.  He began wringing them slowly, deliberately.  “I know who you are, too.  You are the Sola.”

She probably should have been more surprised than she was that he knew who or what, rather, she was, but the fact that he was re
lated to Desmond took precedence over all other facts.

“How is he, Desmond, I mean?  I tried calling on him last night, but he did not come.  Have you seen him?”

Agnon lowered his eyes.  “I have seen him,” he said somberly.

“Why didn’t he come then?”
she asked and searched his eyes, but they revealed nothing.

“He couldn’t.”

Arianna threw her arms in the air. “Jeez, not you, too,” she huffed.  “Let me guess, the prophecy, right?  The prophecy says he and I can’t be together.  I’m so sick of that damned prophecy!”

Agnon shook his head.  “No, it wasn’t the prophecy
that kept him away last night,” he said and lowered his eyes briefly.  “But you should not speak ill of it, of the prophecy.  It is your destiny.”

She rolled her eyes at him and rested her hands on her hips.  “Then explain why he did not come to me,” she said arrogantly.
  “He is my protector, right?  But he did not come to me.  Why is that?”

“Arianna, he did not come to you because he is gone.”

“Gone?  What do you mean
gone
?  Where is he, on vacation or something?  Did he get a break from babysitting me, like time off for good behavior?” she fumed.

“Arianna stop.  Calm down,” Agnon said softly.

“No! I will not calm down.  All of this is total bullshit!  First he tells me he’s been with me my whole life and that he’ll always be with me.  Then when I need him, he’s nowhere to be found!  What the hell?”

“Arianna hush!” Agnon roared.

She narrowed her eyes at him.  “What, you don’t like me talking about your son, your son who flaked on me?” she hissed.

“Desmond is dead, Arianna!
” Agnon said and leveled his azure gaze at her.

“W-what?  What did you just say?” she asked, her voice trembling with emotion.

“Desmond is dead,” he repeated and Arianna felt her legs threaten to give way beneath her.

“No, no, no!  That can’t be!
  You’re wrong.  Desmond is strong.  He’s a powerful warlock,” she argued.

“I am not wrong.”

“You have to be.  It’s not possible!  Who did you hear it from?”

“Myself,” he said and she did not understand what he was saying.

“What?  What do you mean you heard it from yourself?   What does that even mean?”

“I ordered his death
, Arianna.  I sent one of my people to kill him,” Agnon said with the same calm a normal person would have said they’d picked up their dry-cleaning with. 

Her heart froze, along with every other function in her body.

“You what?” she breathed and watched as her world was bathed in blood red.  “You killed him?  You killed your son?  You killed my Desmond?”

“I had no choice,” Agnon boomed.  “He told me he had feeling
s for you, that he loved you.”

Her breaths came in short, shallow pants and her
entire body started to tremble.  A thousand daggers pierced her heart at once.  He had loved her.  And now, he was dead.  Rage filled her, roiling and bubbling like molten lava.  Agnon had taken Desmond from her, murdered him, and he would pay dearly for it.

She lifted her wrist, felt the current of fire sting her fingertips as it surged forward,
exploding toward Agnon in a scalding flood of flames.  He lifted his hand in expectancy of it, and she watched as the blazing torrent split and branched in two different directions, avoiding him.

“Oh Arianna, don’t even bother,” he said and raised both hands.

She felt her powers drain from her with such immediacy, she reeled backward.

“What the,” she started, but Agnon interrupted her.

“Someday you will have the power to destroy me if you so choose, but you are nowhere near that point now; soon, but not now.  Not today,” he said calmly then added, “I only hope that when that time comes, we will be on the same side.”

“Never,” she spat
and felt the anger being suppressed inside her soar dangerously.  It needed to be freed.  She needed to end the man who’d ordered Desmond’s death.

Consumed by bloodlust, she struggled to concentrate.  She heard his voice and forced herself to listen, though she did not care what he had to say.  He’d said all he needed to say already.  The only sound she wished to hear escape his lips was his final breath.

“A very important moment in time is coming,” he preached with an air of self-importance so condescending, the desire to tear his throat open made her fingers throb and burn with need.  “And you will be an important part of it, the most important part of it, in fact.”

Kill
.  All she could think about was killing him.  She would not be part of a moment in time.  Especially not one he supported, he and his flunkies in the living room.

“
You’re delusional!” she hissed. “Maybe you and those dirtbags,
your dirtbags
out in the living room will be, but not me.  I don’t stand beside murderers.”

Every part of her quivered and shook, demanding that she release the mighty beast inside of her.  She guessed the old man was strong, for he kept the beast at bay, for now.  But she felt it, felt the strength of her power stretching and spreading slowly, achingly, between her ribcage, scratching and clawing with abrasive awareness, begging for release.  But Agnon held it prisoner.

“Those dirtbags are just being kids,” he defended Scott and the others.  “They don’t know who you are.  I haven’t told them.  They think you’re one of them.”

Arianna laughed bitterly.

“Considering that you killed your son, I’m not surprised you think slaughtering innocent people is them
just being kids
.  And why exactly haven’t you told them who I am?” she asked and wondered whether they would have been so inclined to threaten her if they’d known who she was.  Not that it mattered, their days were numbered whether they knew it or not.

“They will find out when the rest of the world finds out.”

Yes, yes they will
, Arianna thought. 
And so will you, Agnon
.  But she did not dare speak those words.  She would not give him or the others advance warning.  She would strike, and soon, when they least expected it.  But she did wonder what he referred to when he’d said the world would know who she was.

“What the hell are you talking about?
  How will the world find out who I am?  I have no plan to tell anyone who does not need to know.”

“I think you need to go home.  You’re in shock.  I can see it in your eyes.  Go home.  Take time to process every
thing.  We will talk again soon,” he said and did not answer her questions.  And answers were exactly what she needed.  He had them, but refused to share them.  Perhaps she’d have the privilege of torturing those answers out of him.  Someday soon, perhaps. 

Agnon twisted his wrist and Arianna winced.  Every ounce of her hatred, her ire, the deadly power that writhed like a predator inside of her, suddenly seeped from her veins as if a drain stopper had been pulled.  It chafed as it left her, felt as though her insides were being ripped from her. 

She shook her head, trying desperately to remain conscious while unimaginable loss swirled with mind-boggling pain as it circled the drain of her being. 

“I will never understand this,” she
managed in a weak voice then turned on unsteady legs to run out of the room, out of Scott’s house.

She pushed past Agnon
and stumbled out to the living-room area where Jess sat, perched on the arm of the couch, hovering over Scott.  She took one look at them, all of them, and felt the dinner she’d just eaten threaten to spew.  Without pause, she dashed past them to the front door.

“Good-bye and you’re welcome,” Jess called sarcastically. 

“What the hell is her problem?” she heard Josh ask.

But she did not care what they thought, or
what anyone else thought for that matter.  Her heart had stopped beating in her chest.  She was dead inside.

***