A Tune of Demons Box Set: The Complete Fantasy Series

by J E Mueller

  “I can believe that,” Jason agreed. “And I hate that you’re likely right.”

  We stood there in silence for a moment as the Cursed man rolled his eyes at us and glanced over his shoulder. He was likely looking at the demon I couldn’t see.

  “Can we even kill a demon?” Conner asked.

  “No,” I replied honestly. “Gods can, but we are of the mortal realm.”

  Mara shook her head and whispered, “You’re not. You’ve got cursed blood. While they don’t have your soul, the same blood runs through you. You’re different than us, and in a very good way.”

  “That really doesn’t mean I can kill them.” I shook my head, “It just means I can’t be killed by curse fire. And they have curse fire so I can’t kill them with mine either.”

  “This is a headache worthy problem. Where the hell is our leader?” Jason grumbled.

  “Hopefully safely away from here,” I pleaded to whatever gods might hear me.

  “Can we just back the hell out of here and make a run for it?” Conner asked.

  It was a reasonable question. “If we can remove the swords, we have a shot.”

  “Can we outrun a demon?” Conner added to his question.

  “No,” Jason replied. “The tale of the most recent mad king’s last victory speaks much of that. One or more of us would be dead, and I’m betting at this point Key can’t hide.”

  “I would be the easiest to find,” I admitted, saddened by the fact. “They say demons can pick up on curses to try and lure out the soul. I’m not interested in that game.”

  “But it would save your friends.” The Cursed man in front of us smiled wickedly. It was clear he was greatly enjoying the turn in conversation. “There’s no other way out for you. Eventually, your power will run out and you will die. But I have to make you suffer the most. No hard feelings.”

  “Not going to lie, I think he’s right,” Mara said, hope depleting.

  “Well, fuck this,” I complained loudly. “If calling for demons can get me cursed, the opposite has got to be true.”

  “Are you saying if we pray loud enough we’ll get help from a god?” Jason asked, eyebrow raised.

  It did sound crazy.

  But I was betting on crazy tonight.

  “I’m saying if we pray deeply enough and loudly enough with every fiber of our beings for a god to smite this ungrateful demon, we will have a heck of a lot better chance of surviving this than if we gave up.” I went for it, pulling everything I had learned about religion from the Order to memory. Why not?

  “I believe if we can summon demons we can summon help too,” Conner agreed. He was ready to take this to the next level. Carefully he kneeled, bowed his head, and closed his eyes.

  “They’re summoning help,” Mara said, eyes wide with magic as she watched our nameless villain speak softly to nothing.

  “Guess we need to believe,” Jason closed his eyes, giving in to the idea. “My magic won’t save us now.”

  Taking a deep and steadying breath, Mara blinked away the magic. “I believe in the lady blessed, true are her words to bring us joy and rest…” She continued her prayer silently, closing her eyes.

  I felt the fire burn strongly around us. The magic was not my own. While they couldn’t kill me with curse fire, it was possible to break my shield. Without the shield, the magic would kill everyone else.

  Closing my eyes, I concentrated on bringing all the remaining energy I could summon to strengthen it. Making it as solid as possible I cut myself away from it, letting the magic hang around me, but not attached to me.

  It was a move I had talked out with Jamie but had never practiced. Hopefully, it would last.

  How could one summon a god? Was it even possible? It was said they didn’t interfere with our lives the way demons did, but that wasn’t to say they didn’t interfere at all. How did they affect the lives of mortals?

  Pushing the thoughts away, I brought my biggest source of goodness and joy to mind. Lee. Where was he? I had no reason to believe that he or the others were dead. There were no traces that they could be, at least from what we saw.

  If there was any time I wished he was here, it was now.

  Opening my eyes, I saw that my shield was still standing strong. The others remained silent in their prayers, pleading, eyes closed, lost in their own world. I stepped through my shield, the flame caressing my skin but leaving no marks.

  The Cursed man looked at me in surprise as I ducked under the swords and walked towards him.

  “What foolish move is this?” He turned the swords to point at me.

  “Your fire can’t kill me,” I replied simply.

  “The swords can,” he said, confused and surprised by my boldness.

  “Obviously,” I responded without stopping until I was in front of him. Before he could say another word I punched him in the face as hard as I could.

  Not ready for it, he fell backward. The swords clattered to the ground and I encased them in a smaller flame shield. The strain from the extra magic usage was instantaneous. I could only hope it didn’t show in my expression. My years of bluffing were finally coming into play.

  Regaining his feet and composure, he glared at me. His nose was now bleeding and likely broken.

  Holding up my fists I got into a defensive stance. “Wanna dance?” I asked, ready to go. My plan was very limited. I was making it up on the fly.

  Using his magic, he flung a chair at me. Dodging just in time, I threw another punch at him. He backed up just enough to avoid it.

  “This won’t work forever. You’re overusing your magic,” he said knowingly.

  “I don’t need forever. I’m living on a prayer,” I said, throwing a fake punch and landing a kick to his gut.

  Doubling over in pain, he coughed up blood.

  Ignoring the cheers I could hear from my friends, I went for another kick and he grabbed my leg, sending me to the floor with a thud. I knew better than this. Zarek would have my head if I lost now.

  He went to kick me again and I rolled away before jumping to my feet. The magic was draining me quickly. A few specks of black marked my vision for a moment, and I had to take a deep breath to regain my composure.

  “You don’t even have five minutes.” He laughed at me. “I’d be surprised if it was more than two.”

  My head was starting to spin. “Guess I wasn’t meant to dance with you,” I replied sarcastically, “Tough luck. I’ll save it for someone else instead.”

  “You’ll be dead,” he said, taking a step towards me.

  My vision blurred and my knees buckled. Damn. He was right. I looked up just in time to see a sword piercing through his chest. I released my shields quickly and hoped whatever was happening would be for the best for my friends. The black dots swarmed in my vision once more, and my ears started ringing. Exhaustion embraced me, and I collapsed.

  30

  Darkness greeted me when I awoke. The pitch blackness was momentarily overwhelming. My body hurt and my head ached as I became aware that I was being held somewhere. Hay stuck to me from where I was laying. Carefully, I got up and tried to feel around.

  A wall quickly greeted me and I followed it around until I hit a locked door. Moving on, I found nothing else. I was trapped in a room with some hay and a locked door. This blacking out thing was making me useless, and I hated myself for a moment for overusing my magic. I just hoped it had given everyone else the edge they needed to make it out alive.

  Trying the door again was useless. Banging on it with all my rage got no answer. After a while, I was forced to give in to the fact I was at the moment trapped.

  I sat and waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  Sleep took over for a while, but soon I awoke with no new answers.

  I waited again.

  And some more.

  My stomach growled. My head pounded. I tried to sleep once more, but it did no good.

  Finally, the door opened. The light was
so bright I shielded my face. I couldn’t see the figure before I heard something being set down on the floor. The door closed and I was alone again. The bright sunlight had caught me by surprise, and I was frantically upset that I had missed a chance to escape.

  Carefully crawling forward on the dirt floor, I found a tray with a bowl of what smelled like soup and a wet skin filled with water.

  Not worrying whether or not it was poison I helped myself. If they had wanted me dead, I’d be dead by now.

  The biggest questions were who had taken me and why. The who was hard to guess. The nameless enemy had been stabbed before I blacked out. At least that was a small victory. But how did I become a hostage? Did they grab me to bait the others or just to get me out of the way in general?

  After finishing my small meal a plan came to mind. I now had a bowl and tray so I started to dig under the door.

  Slowly, I was met by rays of light. There was no way to know if someone waited on the other side or not so I kept going. I was unsure how much progress I was making, with no way to tell the time, but eventually, I made enough room to slip under the door. The sun was high in the sky, and I was thrilled to see I had plenty of light left.

  I was stuck in a hut in the middle of the forest. Slowly, I took note of my surroundings and the position of the setting sun. I couldn’t stay here, but which way was I to go? They could have taken me in any direction.

  Thinking for a moment, I realized I had gotten a tray with hot soup. Hot soup. Whoever was holding me was close. Carefully I stomped out a path heading right before I doubled back around to the left and hid. It would be more helpful to know where my captor was and who they were. Leaving without answers wasn’t going to do me much good in the long run, and may become deadly. Demons were already involved with whatever was going on.

  Surprisingly, I didn’t have to wait much longer.

  A lone figure dressed in a dark hooded cloak approached not far from where my trail was, and I was glad I picked the spot I was in. My view of their trail was perfect. The person who was checking on the hut cursed loudly when they saw the footprints leading into the woods. They ran to the door, unlocked it, and opened it. I heard more cursing, and off they went to follow the prints.

  Waiting for a few moments, I heard yelling coming from that direction. Three people total came to the hut and peered inside. They spoke loud enough that I could hear them. Anger clearly marked their voices.

  “How in the eight hells did she escape?” person one asked.

  The returning person, who I mentally dubbed one, threw their hands up in defeat. “If I knew, do you think I would have let that happen? We’re screwed.”

  “Not if we find her,” person two pointed out.

  Person one shook their head, “Look at those footprints.”

  “Exactly! She made a trail, she’ll be easy to follow!” person three exclaimed.

  “We ran here, idiot. Where are our footprints?” person one said.

  “Well, fuck,” person two said understanding. “Even if we can track her, she can lay false trails.”

  “Exactly,” Person one said. “We’ll be dead sooner or later. If we fess up we’re more likely to get a chance to redeem ourselves.”

  A dark figure came into view.

  “Speaking of,” One of them muttered, and then said more clearly, “I’m sure you can see that the unthinkable has occurred.”

  “Not unthinkable,” the person said in a gritty voice. “No, not at all.”

  Person two and three looked at each other nervously while person one kept their cool. “My apologies. Of course, you are much more prepared than us. We fumbled in your absence and need guidance to repent for our errors.”

  The person nodded and removed his hood. I didn’t know the face or voice. “All right. Use your training and bring her back. Do it together or alone. I don’t care. You have five hours.”

  “Thank you!” person two and three said as they scrambled to study the footprints.

  Person one gave a nod. “I will find her in that time.”

  The person who had just appeared gave a firm glance at the other two and returned from where he came. Person one headed in my direction. When they were about a yard away from me, they crouched in the woods and waited.

  Person two and three began to freak out more and decided to head into the woods behind the hut. Person one slowly stood up and looked in my direction. “We’ve got five hours. Let’s move.”

  I didn’t move at first, silently calling their bluff.

  “Dammit, I know where you are and didn’t give you that tray by accident. Let’s move.”

  Slowly standing I met her eyes.

  “Yes, yes, I’ll explain everything as we move.” She waved off my concern and headed off into the slowly gathering darkness.

  “You don’t seem concerned that you’re going against whomever this leader of yours is. The others are terrified.” Following her anyway, I let her explain.

  “Your boyfriend made a compelling argument,” she replied, removing her hood. Her nut-brown hair was a mess. Part of it was still tied back, but the curls were springing out at will. “I think his plan would work on more of the misguided people, but we’d need to get rid of our leader first. I’d give you his name, but I swear it summons him so we’ll just call him Lord Evil.”

  “I love the dramatic title, but how do you know Lee?” I didn’t bother to correct her. If we survived this, we could worry about trivial things like my relationship status later.

  “You split up into teams. I was in charge of watching Prince Zarek while Lord Evil decided to go ‘put an end’ to the rescue party. Apparently he had trouble.” She glanced my way and I nodded happily. “Anyway, there was a fight and Lee convinced me there was a lot better use for my magic and that non-cursed magic users didn’t actually hate Cursed magic users. My bad experience was not the standard.”

  She paused, thinking for a moment before going on. “Anyway, long and short, they leave and the boss arrives with his second. I make up a story about being knocked out and explain about the magic wielder with elemental abilities that can counter my curse fire. Somehow that’s not unheard of and he buys it. Wish I had known about it sooner myself….

  “Anyway, he senses you coming and tells his second to handle it. His second creates an illusion while I am sent to hunt them down. No idea what Lord Evil did at this point, but I did my part and found them. I then warned Lee and we got back to you just in time. The boss returns and sees that there’s a chance of defeat and nabs you, but thankfully he didn’t notice me. I chose to retreat and went back with him to give you a chance. Hopefully, Lee figured that out. Your other friends were fine when your shield dropped.”

  “Oh good.” I didn’t realize how much of a relief it would be to hear that everyone was still safe. “And Lee should know. He’s able to see a short distance into the future.”

  “Heh. More than that.” She laughed. “Cassandra by the way. Ria for short.”

  “Key,” I supplied. “But what do you mean more than that?”

  “Oh, yeah you completely blacked out and have no idea.” She stopped walking for a moment and I nearly bumped into her. “In that moment, when he stabbed the demon, Lee figured out he isn’t completely human. He is of god blood.”

  “Wait, what?” I stared at her more in disbelief than confusion. It sounded so fake and unreal.

  “Yeah…” She started walking again and I rushed to catch back up to her. “Not only did he spear the second man through the gut, but he killed the second’s lingering demon-buddy. Can’t do that without god blood.” Ria paused for a moment. “He was equally surprised, so that is what gave Lord Evil time to grab you and escape.”

  “What did he want to do with me?” I asked. “Clearly, I was not the biggest threat.” I didn’t want to buy into the god-blood thing, but there was truth to the idea. Normal people can’t kill demons.

  “I think that’s part of it. You’re bait and he’s done a grand job of round
ing up a whole lot of us cursed borns. There are eight curse born in his group. Well seven now, since the second died. You’ve got to admit, it’s tough growing up. Being promised acceptance and power… You can lose yourself before you know it. Never having a moment where you thought you were safe, where you can be you…” Ria let out a long sigh. “Let’s just find Lee.”

  “Are you sure this is the right direction?” I asked, unsure where we were. There was too much to suddenly figure out.

  “No. But this is the direction where the camp was. I figure it’s our best bet. Either way, we’ve got to keep moving. Lord Evil can move very quickly. Soulless bastard. Literally. His soul is sold. He can move quicker, use his magic longer, and doesn't seem to need much sleep. If we don’t find Lee soon, it’s likely we’ll be dead. Or at least I will be. He may still decide to use you.”

  “You didn’t have to take this big of a risk,” I said. “I could have gone on my own. Actually, I still can. You can say you caught sight of me but I gave you the slip.”

  “No, my lack of fear will give me away. He probably already suspects something and will likely be on my tail sooner rather than later. This is my only chance to live.” Ria gave me a sad smile. “Whatever hinders this jerk’s plans I’m down for. We Cursed born… we don’t need more lies and anger in our lives.”

  “Well, what’s the likelihood that the other two are following us?” I asked.

  “Zero.” She glanced back to be sure. “I’ve known their magic for months and sense none of it. Why?”

  “Then we’ve no reason to worry about making noise. Let’s run as far as we can. We need to make as much distance between us and them as possible.”

  Ria smiled tiredly. “Let’s go.” She sounded reluctant, but she didn’t offer any alternatives.

  We ran for as long as we could, and switched back to walking, repeating this cycle for as long as we could. Finally, we had to pause and rest.

  “Why couldn’t our curse powers include visions? Why is it only destructive?” I complained.

  “Right?” Ria huffed, agreeing with me as we caught our breath. “We’ve got to be nearly out of time.”