Kissed by Shadows (Kissed by Shadows Series, Book 1)

by Lola StVil

  “Certainly.”

  ***

  She sits across from my bed and looks the room over. She tells me she likes the way it turned out and that she hopes I’m happy with the décor.

  “It’s great, but Sadie, I don’t know what’s going on. I mean…I do but I have questions,” I reply.

  “Why did I choose Kane to help you knowing he was a demon?” she says.

  “Yes! And he’s the Keysu. Did you know that at the time?” I ask.

  “I knew he had been approached. But I didn’t know he had accepted.”

  “Sadie, why him?”

  “I’ve known Kane his whole life. He’s impulsive, angry, and at times, vicious. But his desire to find out who killed Ella is stronger than all of the above. I knew he would protect you if he knew that I would help him find answers. Also, Kane is very much a being of his word.”

  “But you left me with a demon,” I remind her.

  “And yet here you are, safe and sound,” she points out.

  “Maybe before, but now his mission is to kill me.”

  “Yes, it is,” she says.

  “So this whole time he was helping for his own reasons. And now that he’s officially the Keysu, he’s going to come after me,” I reply.

  “Yes, I think Kane will come after you,” she says with a mini smile on her face.

  What does that mean? Why is she smiling?

  “This thing about going to the afterlife…” I remark, not sure what I want to say.

  “The team will be there with you. It will be dangerous, but the angels out there and Quinn…they are the very best. You follow their lead. You’ll make it back. I believe in you.”

  “What is it with you and Quinn? Why didn’t you tell me about her?” I ask.

  “I love my daughter. But you can love someone and not like them. It’s a sad but very real fact of life.”

  “Why don’t you like her?”

  “Atlas, that’s not for you to know. Or even concern yourself with.”

  “She hates me because she thinks you like me better. She thinks I stole you from her. You have to talk to her.”

  “Look, I’ve done things for her that I would never do for anyone else. Things that make it hard for me to look in the mirror. But I did them and I would do them again. That’s what motherhood is—kids before yourself. It’s an endless stretch of sacrifice. But it changes you along the way. And when something happens that shakes your very faith in the child that you raised…”

  “Sadie, what happened with you and Quinn? What did—”

  “Shh! Something’s wrong. There’s a presence in the loft. I created the charm that protects this place. I can feel when someone is trying to break it,” Sadie says, standing up and looking around the room suspiciously.

  “I don’t see anything,” I reply, scanning the room.

  “No, but I feel it. It’s somewhere around…here!” Sadie says as she jumps in front of the closet door. She shouts a single phrase: “Montre tèt ou!” Suddenly, a man nearly seven feet tall appears in the room. He’s lanky and has sharp features. His long black nails look more like fangs. He wears a long black cloak with a high collar and black feather lining. His face is twisted with malice.

  “Idris! I knew I smelled warlock trash!” Sadie says.

  “I go where I’m needed. And I’m needed right here. Hello, sweetheart,” he says, looking over at me.

  “Stay away from her!” Sadie shouts as she waves her hand and sends Idris flying to the other side of the room. I hear the team running up the steps, coming to help us.

  “Not gonna happen!” Idris says as he twists his hand in the air and creates a seal around the door, barring the team from entering. I can hear them shout out to Sadie and me.

  “You know the humans are innocent in all this,” Sadie says.

  “They had their chance. They’ve lived long enough!” Idris rages as he sends a black ball of plasma in Sadie’s direction. Sadie ducks just in time. He strikes her again and again. She manages to duck each time but he has her cornered. I grab a piece of the lamp that smashed in the chaos and I jab it right into Idris’s kneecap. He cries out, but it’s only a minor annoyance to him.

  “Human, you and I are gonna have a lot of fun!” he says as he yanks me off the bed and summons a whirlwind around him and pulls me inside of it.

  “Atlas, hold on!” Sadie shouts as she leaps into the whirlwind with Idris and me. I reach out and latch on to her. Within the whirling maelstrom of spinning winds and dust, Sadie begins to chant and gesture as if to order the winds to reverse. It works; the whirlwind spins in the opposite direction. Before Idris can shift it back to its original direction, the wind throws us down to the ground. We are on a large circular plateau made up of rocks and sparse vegetation. It’s over eight hundred feet in the air and below is an endless stretch of trees and dry land.

  Idris’s voice comes from the maelstrom. “You brought us here to Devil’s Tower? You don’t want anyone around when we battle, but you don’t need to worry. There’s only one human I will kill today.” With that, he sends a surge of blue electrified energy my way.

  I don’t have time to do anything but watch as death comes for me yet again. It turns out, Sadie’s quicker than death. She raises both of her arms in a wide upward motion and creates a force field around me. She shoves me away from her, towards the edge. I’m glad to be out of Idris’s way, but one look over the edge tells me I’m far from being safe. “Be careful!” Sadie yells from the center, near an outcropping of boulder-sized rocks covered with lichen; a few yards away, hikers have erected a flagpole.

  A powerful gust of wind almost knocks me over, but the shield holds against the raging wind and debris—so far. Below, Devil’s Tower casts a shadow like a giant’s thumb pressed against the countryside. Way down, past the immense grooves combed into the rock, the tower levels out at a base covered with trees and smaller rocks.

  I look back and see that Idris’s fists are glowing in a silvery light as his eyes dart around, scouting the area.

  Sadie calls out, “You’re going to die, Idris. You chose the wrong side.”

  “Not me, dear. And if I recall, I’m not the only one who ever strayed onto the dark path.”

  Ignoring his taunt, Sadie focuses on the huge boulders under the flag and completes whispering her incantation.

  Idris cocks his head, reading her lips, and his eyes go wide as the giant pile of boulders suddenly rips free of the earth and assembles itself into something…humanoid. The flagpole falls away as rocks pile upon each other, forming massive legs, disjointed powerful arms, and a triangular-shaped head crowned with green lichen. Two eyes hollow themselves out inside the stone face, and the pockets start to glow with crimson light.

  A huge arm swings down and pounds the earth where Idris was just standing. Barely in time, he rolls to one side, sits up, and points both fists at the stone golem. Waves of silvery energy blast out, and it’s like a sonic drill pummels the stone, cracking pieces off here and there.

  The stone golem lumbers towards Idris, taking huge steps that shake the plateau. A rumbling comes from its mouth, but its legs are losing solidity as Idris focuses on the knees. The sonic waves chisel through the rocky sinews, and in two more steps, just before the golem is within striking distance of Idris, the legs below the knees shatter and the whole rock-body just smashes facedown in a ground-shaking thump.

  Idris backs up just as the thing rears its head and starts to lift its fist—but after another motion from Idris’s hands, the vegetation under the golem grows exponentially. Vines and roots collect and strengthen and form massively thick ropes that encircle the stone wrists and bind its arms tight around the golem’s body.

  It roars and rumbles, but is effectively caught, bound by layer after layer of the vegetation under the witch’s control. Now Idris turns to Sadie, who has been trying to guide her creation.

  “What else you got?” Idris mocks.

  Sadie crosses her hands in front of her
eyes, preparing something. “You’ll find I’m full of surprises.”

  Idris takes a step back, then looks up, finding something in the sky. He smiles.

  “So am I.”

  Something catches my eye, something in the air above me. A lot of things actually, black and fluttering and…

  I hear them now—the horrid screeching of a whole flock of ravens arcing around, leveling out, then soaring straight for me. No, I realize. Not me…

  “Watch out!” I yell to Sadie, even as a few of the birds smack into my shield and burst into electrical flames. The rest, screeching in mad fury, converge on my friend. Sadie can’t fight them all off, and in seconds, she’s surrounded by feathers and beaks. Viciously pecking and snapping at her, gouging at her exposed skin. She’s covering her eyes the best she can.

  I don’t know how she can hold on in such pain. Sadie’s trying to free up a hand for some kind of spell, but then those awful wings beat harder, and Sadie’s feet suddenly leave the ground.

  “No!” she screams, legs kicking. She struggles in midair as dozens of birds, acting as one, lift her up, fly her a short distance, right over my head, then over the edge…

  “Goodbye, Sadie!” Idris calls gleefully, and taunts Sadie once more. “Maybe now, at the end, you’ll realize how silly it was to help these humans.”

  I scramble to the edge, reaching for Sadie even though she’s way too far out. As I watch in horror, the birds open their talons, scatter and fly off, leaving Sadie to plummet. She falls. And falls… Down the striated side of the tower, arms flailing.

  I can’t watch. Turning away, I cringe as a blow rips into my shield. I pray the shield holds, but it starts to buckle with a red tint after Idris hurls blue electrical bolts at it, one after another. Idris steps closer and his eyes are flashing with hunger.

  “Not long now, Seeker!” Another swing, this time two handed—and the rippling electrical attack caves in the shield barrier; it stretches with fizzling pulses, then shatters.

  I scream and try to scamper away as Idris advances, arms outstretched. I have nowhere to go, nearing the edge of the plateau. Nowhere but down…

  “Hey!” someone yells.

  Idris backs up, disbelief in his eyes, as Sadie soars right back over the ridge. In the dying rays of the sun, it looks like she’s sprouted wings! Only, these are smaller than angels’ wings but larger than ravens’.

  Eagles! Two huge eagles, one of them carrying her on its back.

  Idris curses, but as Sadie is released he rips an energy bolt at her, and a massive red gash appears in her left side. She cries out from the attack and staggers on the ground. She’s losing a lot of blood—very quickly.

  “Are you ready to die now?” Idris shouts.

  Worn out and weakened, Sadie looks like she’s about to submit, then her eyes dart to something over his shoulder, and she smiles.

  “Death will come for me one day. But today, it’s here for you.”

  I see the newcomer at the same time, and a surge of hope rises in my heart. With a graceful but powerful landing that sends vibrations up my spine, Kane tucks in his wings—formerly a golden hue, but now a deep, majestic black—and draws his sword.

  Kane’s great sword—no longer on fire, but now seething with a black, shadowy energy—comes whipping down at the warlock’s head. Idris just manages to roll away from being cut in half.

  “Kane!” I shout his name in surprise and relief. He makes quick eye contact with me as he advances on Idris, who recovers and faces the demon.

  “You called on the Keysu? Did you forget whose side he’s on? He’s Arken’s second-in-command.”

  “He may surprise you, Warlock,” Sadie replies.

  On cue, Kane’s great sword swings down hard, and Idris again dodges—but this time Kane anticipates it, and he follows the first half-hearted slice with a rapid side-swing that tracks Idris’s roll. The sword bites deep into the warlock’s side and hacks through several ribs.

  Idris shrieks in agony, but manages to call out a command to the skies. And before Kane can close the distance and take another whack at the warlock, the ravens are back. Swarming Kane, they’re more a distraction than anything else. Annoyed, his free hand bursts into flame, which he uses to smack and incinerate one ball of feathers after another. His sword zips through the air, cutting through others.

  Idris, meanwhile, reaches out his hand and calls the wooden flagpole to him; he catches it and his eyes glow white. The pole cracks in half, forming a jagged point at one end, and then the whole stick promptly turns to ice. Frozen lance in hand, he rushes at Kane, who’s still busy with the birds.

  Idris raises his lance, scatters the birds with a shout, and leaps on the disoriented Kane. He knocks him to the ground and almost plunges the icy spear-point through Kane’s heart before the Keysu can grip the flagpole and hold it back. Kane shouts and his hands flare up and melt the lance. Grimacing and suddenly holding melting ice shards, Idris leaps back off Kane.

  But he’s not out of options, and just as Kane gets up, the earth sprouts those deadly vines again, encircling his wrists and ankles, holding him fast—and defenseless. Idris pulls one more thick barbed root out of the ground, and it’s making a noose, about to slip over Kane’s head…

  Sadie, however, has been busy. She casts her spell, points directly at the bonds securing the stone golem, and watches the vines decay rapidly, turning to dust.

  In the next second, the stone golem rumbles up on its broken-off legs, shakes off the dust, and swings its great boulder-arm around, sideswiping Idris from behind with a massive smack. Ribs shatter, and Idris crumbles into a heap twenty feet away. But he still gets up, making a horrible groaning sound. His right side from his head to his waist is all bloody and caved in. Hand to his ribs, it looks like he’s trying to heal himself, but he quickly gives up as he sees the golem dragging itself towards him and Kane burning through his bonds.

  “Not going to die alone,” Idris says in a gurgling, pain-filled voice. He aims his palm at me, and a wave of silvery energy blasts through my shield and crunches into me. I’m lifted off my feet and thrown over the edge.

  I hear Sadie’s voice calling out as I plummet, my stomach lurching and my scream trailing. It feels like any second I’m going to hit bottom, when suddenly my breath leaves my lungs as something catches me from the side. I see trees and the rocky bottom, and then I’m rising. Feathers rustle and great wings beat.

  Kane has him in the air; one hand gripping his throat as the warlock limply tries to kick and squirm free. It looks like he’s trying to cast one more spell, call another vine or something, when Kane just shakes his head and runs him through with the sword. Plunges it into his heart and then skewers him through. Lifting the sword now with both hands, Kane looks at me, then pivots and swings the sword—with Idris still impaled on it—in a great arc. The warlock’s dying body slides free at the height of the swing and sails over the edge of Devil’s Tower.

  Released by the eagle, I watch the whole thing, grinning with satisfaction as the warlock’s broken body falls like a discarded marionette, legs and arms careening. Nearly nine hundred feet, bouncing off the rocky side until finally what’s left of his bones shatter at the base.

  As my rescuing eagle flies off, Kane points his sword at the rumbling stone golem before him, then looks at Sadie.

  “This going to be a problem?”

  Smiling, Sadie shakes her head, then makes a loopy crossing sign with her fingers, pointing at the stone golem—which promptly breaks apart, the rocks rolling back to rest. I retreat from the edge, then run to Sadie, helping her stand.

  “Kane, thank you,” Sadie says.

  “Yeah, well. I need you alive. You owe me a spell,” he says in a stern voice, never taking his eyes off me.

  “That’s why you came to my rescue?” Sadie says.

  “Why else would I come?” he says as we continue to lock eyes.

  “Your wings—they’re black,” I remark as I study the large midnight-
colored extensions flapping against the air.

  “It comes with being a demon,” he says in a serious tone.

  “Is that why you joined up with evil? You like the uniform?” I ask against my better judgment.

  “Yeah, Disney. That’s exactly why,” he mocks.

  “Whatever. Thanks for helping. I have to get Sadie back to the house to be healed,” I reply, turning away from him.

  “No. I know a healer not far from here. You need to get back to the loft. I don’t want you out in the open,” Sadie says. I’m about to argue, but she looks at Kane and he nods in agreement.

  “Kane, take her straight home.”

  “Yeah, got it,” he says.

  “Atlas, only the members of the Alliance knew I’d be coming by to see you today.”

  “What are you saying?” I ask.

  “Trust no one.”

  Sadie disappears, leaving us alone on top of the tower. Kane takes out a mixture and pours it on his wounds. Before I get the chance to ask, he tells me it would not have healed Sadie because that particular tonic only works on demons.

  “My, so many added bonuses to being evil,” I mutter.

  “You got something to say?” he dares me.

  “Yeah, I do. I don’t care what Sadie says. I’m not going back to the loft. You and I need to talk,” I inform him.

  “Damn right we do. Let’s go,” he says. I expect him to swoop me up in his arms and fly away with me, but he doesn’t. Instead he places both hands on my shoulders and we are instantly teleported to the back alley of some dive bar. He opens the door for me to go inside. Instead, I scour the area to try and figure out where I am.

  “You’re in Chicago, near the river. That’s the Willis Tower across from us. It’s over one hundred stories high and was completed in 1973. Would you like to hear more about the city or go inside?” he says impatiently. I roll my eyes at him and follow him inside.

  The bar is filled with rowdy, drunk Shadows. They drink their Sum and use their powers out in the open. A succubus in the corner is sucking the life force from her boyfriend. She’s inhaling the red smoke straight out of his mouth. When she’s done, she thanks him and they toast.