Excerpt from Flame’s Past

I had danced with the devil my entire life. Literally. Phenex's favorite dance is the Viennese Waltz; though we are much better, in my opinion, at the Foxtrot. All that spinning makes me dizzy. 

I had expressed this to Phenex the first time we met in the form of vomit, and continuously have ever since. Yet, he loves to spin me around the marble dance floor. The Waltz makes him happy, and I do love to see my demon happy. Even now, he smiles down at me as we twirl around the gilded ballroom. Inevitably dizzy, I glare up at him, making throw back his head and laugh.

He flashes his dimples at me and asks, “Do you remember the first time I spun you across this floor?”

I cock an eyebrow at him, “Vaguely. I was what? Three? Four years old?” I chuckle and turn my head away from him, watching our shadows dance in the warm light. Amusement wells up inside of me; “What I do remember is swearing out vengeance against The Widows.” I smile as I whisper, “I got that vengeance, and a demon too.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a look of anger pass over his handsome face. 

He slows our dance down to simply rocking from side to side. He pulls me into his arms, and tightens them to steel bands around me. I turn back to him, and lay my head onto his warm, wide chest. I wrap my arms around his waist, and he rests his chin on the top of my head. “I’m fine Phenex. We’re fine. It’s over with now.”

We sway.

I feel my platinum hair catch onto his bristly beard, as he nuzzles me. I fist his rose red hair in one hand, and clasp the back of his blue, velvet dinner jacket in the other.

You see, in the outside world, we would never be able to do this. There are daily demands from dragons, witches, and wolves. Fairies call on me for protection spells. I have to make charms and potions to sell to plebs. Demon hunters seek me out to dispose of Phenex. 

Unaware that he is a Marquis of Hell, and that I am the Monarch of the Witches. Unaware that our collective title is “The Phenomena”.

Yet, here we stand. Swaying.

I feel that here, inside my head, there is only Finny and Phen. No outside disturbances. No reality. No need for our titles. It’s just a demon and the girl whose body he inhabits.

I close my eyes and think of the fateful day that had brought us together. Now that I think back on it, I was actually five. A little girl seeking love in anyone, only to be shunned by everyone. 

***

I dimly remember my parents. After all, they had gifted me to their mothers, and never looked back. I don’t blame them for never looking back. I just blame them for everything else.

Although, they had as much control over their lives as I did over mine. Conceived to conceive “The Phenomena”. Their childhoods were rough, as well. At an early age, they were forced to learn spells and to fight in the war witches were waging on wolves. Until they were eighteen. As soon as they turned that magical age, they had to mate and create me- a being prophesied to be blessed by Hekate, and kissed by Madame Laveau themselves.

After I was born and well into my second year of living, they voluntarily went back to war. They deposited me at their mother’s feet and disappeared; I haven’t seen them since.

In their stead, I was raised by the “Black Widows”; Nonna and Nanna. My mother’s Italian mother, and my father’s Scottish mother. Two of the most fearsome witches of all time. Witches were so afraid of them, they never said their names- as if the mention of them would conjure them up. Those two had even started The War on Wolves. It was a war that would go down in our history as “the most needless, blood filled disagreement that has, or ever will, happen again”.

I don’t think I have never hated anyone as much as I hate those two. They saw me as a blank canvas for them to paint on- short, whitish blonde hair, wide, pale gray eyes, and skin the same shade as alabaster- I was a blank page for them to fill. The only color I had, was the smattering of brown freckles across the middle of my face. But, that wasn’t enough for them.

I was to be their best novel ever written. 

I wasn’t even in their house, yet, when they began teaching me spells. As a matter of fact, they slammed closed the front door and told me to think of a spell to get it open, or I would sleep outside that night. And it only got worse from there. 

Soon, I would have to know spells to counteract mother nature. I would have to make charms to protect witches in battle. I would have to know spells in six languages, know the ingredients for them, and be able to recite them verbatim. I would have to take down witches, seven times my senior, in pit fights.

In spite of it all, I was adjusting well to my new life. That is, until they did the unthinkable. 

As we at dinner on the eve of my fifth birthday, I began to feel dizzy. It would be later in life, when I would figure out I was drugged, heavily. When I awoke, I came to the startling realization that I was chained up in the dungeon. My wrists to the wall behind me, and my feet to the floor. Witches, wizards, and warlocks alike, surrounded me. Candles flickered eerily, casting wavering shadows against the walls. Runes were drawn all over my body, and I sat slumped against the wall, with a circle underneath me.

Then they began chanting. Still woozy from the drugs, their words bounced around my foggy head, until it finally dawned on me. They were summoning a demon. 

I didn’t even freak out. I knew it was far too late in the game for that. Instead, I searched out the eyes of my grandmothers. I found them just as the circle began to glow, and smoke began to climb out of it. I held their gazes, as the smoke began to whirl around me. As my sight began to dim, I made sure to smirk at them both. Right before my world went dark, I heard a dark chuckle in my ear in response.

***

I awoke with Phenex- a Marquis of Hell with twenty legions at his command- in my body, and dark magic so strong, Witches of the Light crossed themselves when someone breathed my name.

 He and I have been together ever since. He taught me how to kill, and I taught him the value of life. He taught me how to dance, and I taught him the importance of rest.

It’s actually kind of funny. In the end, Phenex is the only one that filled in this blank canvas. In the real world, my once white hair, is now a deep red. My ivory skin has turned light copper. Alas, I do have to say that the biggest change has been in my personality.

 Where there was once a cold, timid child, that followed the rules and never made a fuss, there is now a rambunctious adult. One that doesn’t care about what others think, or say. One that has learned to feel a whole spectrum of emotions. 

I lean my head back, and stare up into Phenex’s teal eyes. I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him into a tight hug. “I love you, Phenex.” I say, softly, “With every cell in my body, I love you.”

I feel him grin against my shoulder

“And I love you, Fienyx. With every soul I have devoured; every lifetime I have lived.” 

I smile. I know that no matter how long he and I have on Earth, no matter what we go through, and no matter if I forget to stock up on his favorite cookie, it will always be me and him. Phenex and Fienyx against the world.

-Fienyx Strega is the 21 year old best friend to Rowan Boucher, a girl more mysterious than the ocean. What secrets will the two uncover about each other as they go through life together? And who keeps trying to kill them? Find out in the ELEMENT'S ENDING series.