by Coco Ma
Once downstairs, he followed her into the dining room. Quinlan was in the middle of a story about some girl abandoning him in a hedge maze. Asterin stifled a laugh. Rose and Luna looked up when Harry and Asterin joined them at the table, and Asterin tipped her chin almost imperceptibly. The girls’ shoulders relaxed.
Orion came out of the kitchen balancing the huge pot of stew Harry had smelled earlier. The Guardian served Harry first with a wink, spooning stew onto the bed of rice on his plate until it nearly flowed off the edges.
After everyone had been served, Harry let himself dig in. Quinlan finished his story and Luna launched into a loving account of how Eadric had begun courting her. Between bites, Harry tried to imagine their blood on his hands. Tried to imagine their bodies slumped across the dining table among shattered plates and cups, their eyes glazed over and forever unseeing. No one could see Harry’s legs tremble beneath the table as he took a sip of water.
Orion’s knee brushed Harry’s. He glanced up to find the Guardian with his head tilted in concern. “Everything okay?”
Self-hatred washed over Harry. He hated being forced to hide and lie to these people. Whatever torment he put himself through for them wasn’t their fault, and he could never—would never resent them for that.
“I’m fine,” Harry whispered, staring into Orion’s ice-chip eyes. And he was fine. Orion’s hand brushed the new skin of Harry’s palm, and he shivered, remembering the pain. Yet at that moment, he knew with certainty that he would do it all over again to keep these good people safe. Surrounded by their smiles, and with Orion’s hand in his, he could believe that everything would turn out all right.
That night, the Woman summoned him once more.
“Demon,” the Woman said from the dark depths of the mirror.
He bowed his head. As usual, he could hear Eadric snoring in the other room. “Milady.”
“Get it done by the end of the week.”
Harry’s breath caught in his chest. “End of this week?”
“Yes. And I want you to bring some sort of evidence to me.”
Harry’s entire body went cold. “Evidence?”
“Perhaps her heart in a velvet case,” she said with a chuckle, amused by her own ingenuity.
“Yes, milady,” he managed, even as the desire to rip her throat out—whoever she was—threatened to overpower every other rational thought in his mind.
“Fairfest Eve is soon. Bring it to me then, when everyone will be distracted by all the festivities. When you arrive in the capital, do try to be … discreet. If you’re caught,” the Woman warned, “you’ll be as good as dead.”
How dead can an immortal demon get? he wondered.
“Do not fail me,” she warned just before the black void rippled and faded.
Harry exhaled and sank onto the bed, picking at a speck of dried blood on the sheets. The Woman’s words rang in his head as he eased himself back onto the pillows and stared at the patterns in the ceiling, his fingers steepled beneath his chin.
Once, a long, long time ago, Harry had been mortal. Then, there came a day when the moon had swallowed the sun, casting the land in a darkness as black as night, and the God of Shadow had come for him. Had claimed him.
With the powers Eoin had given Harry as an anygné—including shifting, healing, and shadow jumping—he could also identify others with shadow magic running through their veins. Dark magic left a unique signature, and when wielded, that signature could linger behind on a person for years. Then there were those who Eoin lovingly called shadow-kissed. The shadow-kissed had the god’s sigil hovering above their heads, which meant that one day Eoin would come to claim them as his own.
Harry had been the debt his parents owed to Eoin in exchange for the power of the tenth element. And once Eoin claimed him, the God of Shadow had presented him with the contract. Harry learned that he had two options—sign or die. By signing, he would not only be granted immortality, but also the power of the tenth element to use as he pleased, so long as he followed the king’s orders.
Not yet twenty years old, he thought the choice had seemed easy at the time. And so he had signed away an eternity, not caring much for the consequences. Not caring for time. Time didn’t matter when you could have as much of it as you wanted.
But now, it did.
It mattered for Asterin, whose forehead burned with faded dark spells she knew not of. Spells that had set her down a path that could lead to her undoing. It mattered for Luna, whose veins coursed with suppressed power—and whose head was crowned with the shadow sigil, marking her as the debt someone owed to King Eoin. Marking her as shadow-kissed, just like Harry had once been.
Dark secrets and an unknown past were hidden within the blood and bones of the Princess of Axaria and her loyal friend. Harry just needed to figure out what those secrets were. But how could he reveal their truths without revealing himself?
Obey the Woman. Her assets are of great importance to me.
He could do that. In fact, the Woman’s vague command to “get it done” worked perfectly to his advantage.
An idea finally formed in the back of his mind. He had always wondered why the Woman wanted to kill the princess, and maybe now, by helping Asterin, he could find an answer for himself, too.
As the early morning light crept past his curtains, the idea grew, pushing its way past the other thoughts crowding his head.
Harry’s eyes flew open.
I need the lake.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The dappled sunlight warmed her face as Rose took a much-needed swig from her waterskin and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. It was always hottest during the afternoon in the Aswiyre Forest, when the air sweltered from the midday sun—but luckily the tangles of branches high above provided ample shade. Still, it seemed that spring had no place in Axaria. Summer was already well on its way.
A muffled, eerie quiet filled her head. Usually, birds searching for mates flitted above, their keening chirps accompanied by the soft rustle of leaves and the distant flap of wings. But not today. Rose tried to enjoy the silence, but she should have known it was more of a menacing omen than anything comforting.
Their little hunting party shuddered to a halt before the trunk of a towering fir tree.
“Are those …” Eadric trailed off.
“Claw marks,” said Harry. “Though never in my life have I seen markings from an animal so big.”
“Might not have been an animal, then,” Rose murmured.
“Big marks mean big claws,” said Orion, brushing two fingers across the shredded bark.
Rose’s heart skipped a beat. She pointed past the fir. “Look over there.”
Not more than fifty paces ahead, the ground dipped deep into a wide ravine. She could just make out the entrance to a yawning cave hidden in the gloom of three uprooted trees propped atop it like matchsticks. The waterlogged loam leading up to the cave mouth was scattered with a trail of white twigs. Rose squinted. With a sickening lurch, she realized they weren’t twigs at all, but bones, picked clean.
They all froze as a guttural growl ripped from the inside of the cave.
“Demon,” Eadric breathed. “Let’s go.”
“Wait, we should go back and get the others,” Orion whispered. “That thing is probably massive.”
“We outnumber it four to one,” Eadric argued, even while staring at the trail of bones. “What if it moves somewhere else? We’ll have lost our only lead.”
“It’s clearly been camped here for at least a little while. I think it’s worth—”
Harry held up a hand, silencing them. His nostrils twitched as he sniffed the air, eyebrows furrowed. Then the blood drained from his face. “We have to get out of here. Now.” Despite his hushed voice, the command was sharp and unyielding. “Orion’s right. We’re not facing this thing with just the four of us.”
“I get that you want its head,” Harry hissed. “But if you wish to keep yours, we need the others.”
Rose tightened her grip on her bow, an arrow nocked on the drawstring. The fletching was coarse and comforting between her fingers, ready to fly into the inky black depths of the cave the moment she drew the bow taut. “The faster we can round them up, the faster we can come back here and put an end to all of this.”
“But—”
The creature in the cave growled again.
“Asterin put me in charge of this team, Eadric,” Orion snapped. “And I am not going to disappoint her.” Quieter, he added, “Not again.”
A tense beat passed before the captain gave in at last. “Homeward bound, then.”
When Orion burst into the clearing with the others right on his heels, it only took Asterin a single look at their faces for her ice, weaving intricate patterns between Quinlan’s flames, to disintegrate.
Training was over.
“You found the demon,” said Asterin. Her stomach leaped at the glimmer in Orion’s eyes as he nodded, a sharp exhale tearing through her. She sprinted for the front door and pounded on it with both fists.
Luna opened it, a book in hand and one eyebrow arched. “It’s unlocked, you know.”
“Demon,” said Asterin.
The book slipped from Luna’s hand. “They found it?”
“Hurry.” Asterin strode toward the trees, hearing Luna scrabble with the door behind her. Blood buzzing, she nodded at Orion. “Lead us there.”
Quinlan’s fingers snagged her wrist. “Asterin, let’s not be hasty.” He turned to his cousin. “What did the demon look like?”
“Well, we found these huge claw marks, larger than those of any predator,” said Rose. “And a trail of bones leading to their owner’s cave.”
“So you didn’t actually see the demon itself?” asked Quinlan.
Rose shook her head. “But demon or not, we need to investigate.”
Harry led the way westward, more familiar with the forest’s sprawl. Asterin’s palms itched with the craving for long-anticipated vengeance. She could almost feel Amoux’s thirst, waiting for blood. She kept herself occupied by running through the list of ways she had dreamt of since Corinthe to make the demon suffer, ignoring Quinlan’s warnings that it might not even be the demon, but rather just some lesser creature, like the wyvern.
“All I’m saying is, don’t get your hopes up,” he said.
“I heard you the first dozen times,” she bit out, her pace quickening.
Quinlan easily caught up to her. “Just don’t do anything rash, brat.”
She scowled, struggling to fight down the animosity she knew he didn’t deserve. “Quinlan, how would you feel if some beast invaded your kingdom, massacring everything in sight?” Her voice wavered. “Corinthe has been wiped off the map.”
“I would be desperate for revenge,” Quinlan said, raising an eyebrow. “And rightly so. But please, if only for my sake, remember that your mother sent legions of trained guards to take down this thing … and they all failed.”
At last arriving at the fir tree, Asterin struggled to keep her jaw from dropping. The bark on the trunk had been mauled to ribbons—each claw mark at least the length of her torso and two fingers thick.
Quinlan let out a low whistle. “I’m still not convinced it’s the demon, but I admit that whatever made these could do some serious damage.”
Rose pointed up ahead into the dip of a ravine. “That’s it. That’s the cave.” And just as the Eradorian had described, a trail of bones, leading to the entrance.
“We can’t go down there,” said Quinlan, scrutinizing the steep walls of the ravine. “If it corners us while we’re trying to scramble back up out of the sides …”
“Then we’ll draw it out from here,” Asterin replied, the omnistone warm in her hand. She kept Amoux sheathed. To get close enough to land a hit on the demon would likely be suicide. She glanced at the others, flanking her on both sides with their affinity stones and their weapons brandished. “Ready?”
Quinlan, at her right, gave her a firm nod.
Asterin took a deep breath, determination heating her blood. She thought of the endless hours she had spent training with him and released a ragged exhale.
She summoned her magic and sent a torrent of razor-sharp fragments of ice into the darkness of the cave.
A second passed, and then—
A mighty, enraged bellow exploded forth, scattering the birds from the treetops above. Dull booms rocked the ground, as loud as cannon blasts. Asterin’s heart kicked into a gallop when she realized that they were footsteps.
She counted to five in her head as a dark shadow loomed within the cave, growing closer and closer to the light. Fluorescent eyes glared at her from the darkness.
The breath rushed out of her lungs in one long whoosh as the creature finally emerged.
In all honesty, Luna felt a little disappointed.
She had imagined that the demon would be a lot … bigger.
It was certainly ugly, though. Matted gray fur covered the top half of its sinewy, four-legged body. Silver scales ran down its torso, ending in a thick, reptilian tail. Its paws were monstrous things, with claws matching the size of the markings they had discovered on the fir tree. Among a row of needlelike teeth were two elongated fangs, dripping a bright fuchsia. Its eyes fixated on each of them in turn, brimming with purple hatred.
“Hold … hold on,” Asterin stammered as the creature lumbered out of the cave. “That man, that witness—Crawson. Crawson said … red eyes.” The creature’s steps grew louder, and Luna had to fight the urge to cover her ears. “And black fur. And wings.”
It took the others a long moment to process Asterin’s words.
Luna’s voice squeaked. “So … that’s not the demon.”
Harry clapped a hand to his mouth. “No, that’s a dybrulé.”
“Impossible,” Orion said. “Dybrulés went extinct centuries ago.”
Luna gulped as they all began backing away. “Apparently not so extinct.”
The creature roared at them, clawing up the sides of the ravine. Quinlan held up a hand and the dirt walls loosened, causing the creature to slip back to the bottom.
“Somebody kill it,” said Orion.
“We can’t kill a supposedly extinct creature!” Asterin exclaimed.
“Then it’s going to kill us!” Quinlan yelled.
Asterin shook her head. “We are not killing it.”
“Then we run?” Luna asked anxiously. “Can we run now?”
“Running sounds quite good to me,” Eadric agreed.
“We cannot outrun a dybrulé,” Harry told them.
Quinlan nodded. “We stay and fight it, then.”
Asterin glared at him. “No. We came to defeat the demon, not kill innocent beasts living peacefully in the forest.”
“An innocent beast that’s about to eat us alive!”
“Wait!” Harry cried. “I read somewhere … a long time ago. Dybrulés are fire spirits.”
“So we could douse it in water?” Orion asked. They all turned to Rose—except for Harry.
“No,” he said, “we would need a much larger body of water.” His eyes lit up just as the dybrulé let out another roar, the tip of its gigantic, ridged head just appearing over the crest of the ravine. Luna caught sight of its frothing maw, pulled back in a snarl, and gulped. “A lake. There’s a lake nearby. Follow me, and run as if your life depends on it.”
“Won’t be too difficult,” Quinlan said, thrusting out an arm. Chunks of earth tumbled down the lip of the ravine, burying the dybrulé up to its neck.
Together, they broke into a wild sprint, trusting Harry to lead them through the unfamiliar terrain of the forest. Not a min
ute later, an earth-shattering bellow exploded behind them. Luna stumbled and nearly lost her balance, only just recovering as heavy thumps shook the ground.
“Do dybrulés eat humans?” Quinlan yelled.
“I’m not sure, and I’d rather not find out,” Harry gasped. He surged forward in a burst of speed, leaving the rest of them no choice but to press on faster.
They thundered through the forest, whipping past a blur of branches and leaves. Luna’s blood pounded in her ears, louder than a drum. She didn’t dare look back, petrified of what she might find behind her.
Despite its size, the dybrulé was definitely fast. It trumpeted another roar at their backs. Definitely fast, and definitely gaining on them.
“Almost there,” Harry shouted. “When I say jump, jump!”
“Why are we jumping?” Rose shrilled.
They suddenly broke through the trees, the soil beneath Luna’s feet giving way to loose shale and wet pebbles. A sparkling expanse of water stretched out before her.
“Jump!”
She only noticed the strange, greenish tinge to the water after her feet had left the ground, her heart plummeting to her stomach as she plunged into the icy lake. The water closed over her head, bubbles swarming to the surface. In a frenzy, she paddled so deep that her ears popped, terrified that the dybrulé might leap in after them. Spots of light flashed across her vision as her hands hit the bottom of the lake, stirring up clouds of sediment. Panic seized her. Was she running out of air already?
Trying to right herself only dredged up more muck, until she was totally blind and disoriented. Had the dybrulé retreated yet? Were the banks in front of her? Which way was the surface?
Finally, the sediment settled. But as her legs scissored through the water, her movements grew sluggish. Eyes wide, she craned her neck, heart jolting as she took in just how far the surface was. In her panic, she realized too late that she had forgotten to conserve air and watched helplessly as a stream of precious air bubbles escaped her lips.
Her skin began to tingle, intensifying into a needling sensation that spread all over her body. She writhed, pressing her palms into her temples as a hot stab of pain raced up her spine and into her skull.
