by Sarah Noffke
Suddenly, while staring at the transparent figure of the Deathly Shadow, something occurred to Paris. She was part-magician. Part-fairy. Still, she couldn’t forget that regardless of what a genie did, she had demon blood in her. She was more like the Deathly Shadow than she had ever wanted to admit…until then.
Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing, Paris thought.
What would it take to overpower the Deathly Shadow? He was a demon who had gone farther than any other, who had ingested his own, who had lost his body, unable to survive the acts he’d done in his immortal form. He was seemingly unstoppable.
The Deathly Shadow had believed the prophecy. What he needed was the power from the only magical halfling to ever exist to regain his body and strength. The foretelling had said that was a half-magician, half-fairy, and it wasn’t wrong. It only left out one part.
Guinevere Paris Beaufont wasn’t only a halfling.
She had the blood of a demon.
That was what would end the Deathly Shadow. Because sometimes what you needed to get rid of evil was a little evil mixed with good.
As the Deathly Shadow took form, using all of its reserves to have a shape, Paris balled up her fists, remembering the part of her Uncle Clark’s notes that had been the most helpful:
“You are good at your essence,” Clark had written. “My sister Liv had ensured that with her wish to the genie. However, it couldn’t entirely erase your blood. You will always carry the blood of a demon passed onto you from your father. It didn’t corrupt Stefan as many feared. Instead, when he fought evil, he was unrelenting, fueled by his demon blood to crush that which was inside him.
“I don’t know this to be true, but my gut tells me that what you need to defeat the Deathly Shadow is that darker part of you. The Deathly Shadow will try and draw out the power connected to you as a magician and a fairy. Let it. Then hit it with the part it never knew about. Hit the Deathly Shadow with what it is, swallowing that demon whole. No matter what, I believe in you.”
Paris gulped while looking at the semi-transparent figure in front of her. The Deathly Shadow didn’t have a body, but for this showdown, he’d given himself a form. That was for the best because she wanted to look at the man she was about to erase from this planet forever.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Nearly doubled over from laughing, Amelia pulled her long brown hair out of her ponytail holder, knowing that it was a mess after all the time she’d run her hands through it.
She shook out the strands and saw Grayson straighten across the table, his laughter freezing.
“What is it?” She looked at him quite seriously, wondering if she’d done something wrong.
They’d had some wine. However, she didn’t think that’s why the conversation had been so easy or the laughter overflowing. Sometimes, with some people, things flowed. You didn’t have to force it, and the clock didn’t tick. It was as if magic had taken over and replaced all the things that made other relationships before so difficult.
Grayson shook his head, seeming to try and shake off the magical spell he was under. “I was thinking of the first time we met.”
Her smile faltered. “Oh, that was…”
“I was a jerk,” Grayson said at once, cutting her off.
“I was nervous,” she added quickly. “I had the job interview.”
“Which you didn’t get to,” he added.
“And we both missed our train,” she replied.
“Then you hated me,” he supplied.
Amelia couldn’t argue with that. She did, and it had fueled her to build Rose Industries. “Now, here we are. Two unlikely adversaries, having wine and stuck together for the night.”
Grayson swirled his wine in his glass while regarding her. “I never hated you.”
“No?” she asked coyly.
“Not at all.” He shook his head. “I had too much ego and you—”
“I was what?” she challenged him.
“I wasn’t ready for someone like you yet,” he admitted, suddenly quite serious.
“What does that mean?” She suddenly realized that they were both leaning across the table in each other’s direction. Closer than ever before. His hand was inches from hers. His face a breath away.
“That means I think I realize now, after everything—after McGregor Industries and failed relationships—what I was searching for.”
“What?” Amelia’s mouth hung open, wondering what was happening so suddenly on that strange night.
“It feels,” he began slowly, his eyes flicking to her lips, then her eyes, and back to her lips. “It feels like I’ve been searching for someone like you.”
“Someone like me?”
“You,” he repeated more fervently. “I feel as if, looking back, and being here and knowing what I know, and feeling everything that you’ve made me feel tonight, that I’ve been searching for you, Amelia Rose.”
Chapter Sixty-Six
“I’ve waited a long time for this, halfling,” the Deathly Shadow said in a hoarse voice that sounded as if it sought to cut Paris in two.
She remained standing tall, not allowing the monster’s haunting tone or his wiggling, smoky form to unnerve her. The Deathly Shadow’s image was primarily black but resembled the shape of a man. Details filled in moment by moment, making him almost look human, although he couldn’t fool her. He was undoubtedly a monster.
Paris faked a yawn. “I didn’t brush my hair for this meeting so I think one of us cares more about this than the other.”
“You don’t stand a chance against me,” the Deathly Shadow stated, his face materializing for the first time. It was that of a demon, red-skinned with horns—as she had expected.
“Well, then I should have stayed home,” she continued to joke, knowing that was keeping her calm and hopefully unnerving him with her semblance of being unafraid of him. In truth, she was terrified, but hopefully, that didn’t show.
“Others have claimed you can defeat me,” the Deathly Shadow rasped, standing in the dark Death Valley before her, only a few feet away. “You’ve been counseled. However, I deceived your parents, and those you trusted don’t know how powerful I am—how powerful I’ve always been.”
Paris shook her head, pretending that he was wrong and trying to convince herself he wasn’t right and telling the truth.
“This was always fated,” the Deathly Shadow stated. “Nothing is more powerful than me. Nothing could stop me from what I want. I’ve only been waiting for this moment. To absorb your power. Now is the time. Get ready to die but know that it’s for a good purpose.”
“Why?” Paris challenged. “So you can take over the world?”
He laughed, his black mouth and white teeth a strange contrast to his red face. “No, I never wanted to take over this world. I’m not from this world, haven’t you heard? How else did I know how to survive and break all the rules? How else did my body die when I survived? It couldn’t withstand your atmosphere here. But I did survive.”
Paris blinked at him, trying to understand. “So you’re not from Earth? Where are you from?”
“How else could I open a vortex to another world if I wasn’t from another place?” he asked.
Paris knew that Ren had, but he was an exception. “I don’t know,” she finally said.
“Obviously, you don’t,” he stated with conviction. “No, I never desired to conquer this world. My goal has always been simple. To destroy it.” The Deathly Shadow extended his hand in her direction. “All I need to do that is you, halfling.”
Chapter Sixty-Seven
“Daddy! Where have you been? I’m late for my tanning appointment,” Captain Morgan complained when King Rudolf and Lee barged into the locked room.
Finding the half-mortal, half-fae hadn’t been difficult. The Deathly Shadow hadn’t left guards or traps, apparently not worried about keeping her secured if he wasn’t there and Paris wasn’t the one trying to release her. The locks in the warehouse had been easy enough to by
pass with magic and Lee’s sword.
The room that the Deathly Shadow had kept Captain Morgan in wasn’t too bad. It was dark, cold, and minimalist, but there was a bed, a toilet, and water. King Rudolf had spent a week in a place much worse…that place had plaid bed sheets.
“Are you okay, Captain Morgan?” As soon as he and Lee unlocked it, King Rudolf rushed over to his daughter, sitting in the corner of her cell.
She glanced up, her face smudged with dirt and her lip quivering. “I’m cold, Daddy.”
He nodded, took off his coat, and wrapped it around his daughter’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry, my love. You’re safe now.”
“And the darkness,” Captain Morgan continued, her teeth chattering. “It made me feel so alone.”
King Rudolf hugged his daughter tightly as Lee stayed by the door, guarding it and staying out of the way of the reunion.
“You’re safe now,” the king of the fae consoled. “I’m going to take you home. You’re safe, and I will take care of you.”
“Thank you, Daddy.” Captain Morgan peeled away from her father. “There is a positive in all this.”
“Yeah?” King Rudolf continued to look his daughter over.
She nodded. “I haven’t eaten in a few days and think I can fit into that dress I got, making my other sisters look like bloated slobs.”
He grinned down at his daughter. “I love that you always see the positive.”
King Rudolf hauled his daughter to her feet, led her past Lee, and through the warehouse to safety.
The assassin baker shook her head.
Lee knew that King Rudolf and his family were dimwits, but they were also full of love and goodness. If the world were full of more people like that, she wouldn’t have to kill so many.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Now, this all made sense. The Deathly Shadow had confessed the one secret that Paris didn’t think anyone else knew…not even Papa Creola.
The Deathly Shadow wasn’t from Earth—from this world. That’s how he’d been able to sell his soul and exist with such power. It somehow, someway, made sense why the Deathly Shadow wanted to destroy their world. However, Paris wasn’t going to allow it, and thankfully she had one secret left to reveal that he didn’t know.
“Oh, well.” She kept her voice ultra-casual. “I guess if some alien from another world comes here, we better let him take control. Should I lay down and give you my power or what?”
He narrowed his black eyes at her. “Don’t play with me, little girl. I know you think you believe you can overpower me. I’m not stupid.”
“You look stupid with those horns,” she insulted. “Like, think about the clearance issues. I hope if you get a body, you pick something with small ears to make up for all that overcompensating you probably had to do.”
“I know what those who have advised you have said,” the Deathly Shadow exclaimed, ignoring her words. “You believe you can overpower me, but let’s save ourselves the banter and tiresome chatter and get on with things. I’m here for you, Guinevere Paris Beaufont. Give me your unique power, and I’ll be on with things.”
“To destroy the planet I love so much,” she stated.
“The one that I need to overpower, after taking you, to rule my planet,” he countered.
She nodded. “Now we’ve boiled down to your final motivation. Well, why didn’t you tell me this was about conquering one planet so you could rule your home? I would have rolled over then.”
He narrowed his soulless eyes at her. “Don’t play with me, girl. It’s sad that you’ve been what’s stopped me for so long. But I’m patient, and here we are. Now make this easy and submit, or I will overpower you. All those who advised you were wrong. A half-magician, half-fairy can’t win against me.”
She nodded. “You’re right. You can win against a halfling.”
The Deathly Shadow grinned, his pointy white teeth contrasting with his red face. “Good girl. Now do not make this harder than it has to be by resisting.”
“However,” she tilted her head back and forth, pretending that she hadn’t heard him. “I’m more than a halfling. Good thing no one mentioned that when you were spying. You must have missed it when Papa Creola told me.”
“What?” he asked, his eyes wide and teeth clenched.
“I’m half-fairy and half-magician with a tiny bit of demon.” For the first time, Paris’ eyes flashed red as she threw her hand into the air, attempting to harness the power of the Deathly Shadow before her using the strength that had flowed in her all her life, but she’d never felt until then.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
The tiny bit of demon inside Paris hadn’t surfaced before now, and it didn’t scare her presently. She could feel it coursing through her, separate but part of her. Instinctively she knew that she could control it as her father could and used it to fuel him against evil.
Also at that exact moment, she realized that her father’s demon blood couldn’t be erased entirely but rather only diluted with fairy blood, which was the perfect way to overpower it. There was nothing more opposite from a demon than a fairy, which was all about love and goodness. So Paris wasn’t only a halfling. She was something much more than she ever conceived. Now she knew why Papa Creola couldn’t tell her how to overpower the Deathly Shadow. She would have freaked if she knew that she was still part-demon. Discovering it like this, well, it made her feel powerful. Paris had all the power of the demon, like her father, without all the corruption.
She held up her right hand and with it, the Deathly Shadow’s form raised into the air, writhing as he screamed, suddenly seeming to beg. She wasn’t going to bow to pleading, though. This was her fight, and she would win it on her terms.
Decisively and with a power that she’d never known, Paris knelt and slammed her hand down on the desert ground, and with it the Deathly Shadow flew to the crusty sand while crumbling to bits, his form breaking to smoke again.
She’d activated the demon inside her though, and she hadn’t finished with the Deathly Shadow. This entity had destroyed her family for all her life. He would pay before she contained him. Then she would bring back her parents.
Paris thrust her hands in front of her, holding her palms out. With a power unlike she knew she possessed, the bits and pieces of smoke that were the Deathly Shadow were sucked into her hands, rolling into a ball—circling one another. A mass of pure energy.
She gathered it up, trying to decide how best to make this beast pay, feeling the power building in her like a volcano about to erupt. Feeling victorious against the one monster who had dictated her life, Paris flung her hands out. Smoke and bits of black sprayed out in all directions, and with them, screams of pain from a bodiless voice.
Paris would have taken that moment to gather her strength. To rejoice, but a blaring noise in her pocket caught her attention. She grabbed her phone and looked at it. The message was from Aunt Sophia. It simply said,
That’s enough. Heroes put the bad guy out of the misery they were born into.
Paris slid her phone into her pocket. From her leather jacket, she gathered the container that Rory had created for her. It was time to contain the beast and bring back her parents.
She pulled the metal container from her jacket and held it out, ready to lock up the Deathly Shadow now that she’d overpowered him, but then fire erupted in a circle around her making her suddenly hot. Very hot.
Something had suddenly gone wrong…really wrong.
Chapter Seventy
Something strong and violent yanked Paris’ feet out from under her, straight down to her back, knocking the air out of her. Her head hit the ground, which was harder than she expected.
She looked up, disoriented for a moment at the blackish sky around her, trying to remember where she was.
Death Valley.
What had gone wrong that there was a circle of flames licking at her now? Why was she lying on her back, feeling as if a force was about to push her into the earth? Had she been unab
le to control the demon part of her? She didn’t know.
She felt the cold metal of the container in her hand, but she didn’t know where the Deathly Shadow was. Then, as if cued by her thoughts, streaks of black darker than the sky circled overhead, creating wind and a roaring sound so loud her eardrums felt close to bursting.
“Thanks for breaking me back apart,” the Deathly Shadow said, his voice all around her, making the ground under her back rumble. “I wasn’t sure how to defeat someone with demon blood as well as a halfling in my cumulative form. You helped me out. I needed to be spread apart for this last bit to work. Shall we commence?”
Paris writhed in pain as she tried to fight the invisible bonds holding her down. Her face felt on fire from the flames all around her. She tried to sit up but couldn’t move too much, as if chained to the earth.
The black swirling bits in the sky twirled until they became one. The Deathly Shadow was growing more powerful. He was close to overpowering her. Paris had lost her chance. She had him using her demon blood but let it corrupt her, thinking she was conquering him—making him pay.
She reached for something, anything, looking all around but only seeing the flames encircling her. Desperate and scorned by her failure, she pulled her hands into her, and one instinctively went to the locket around her neck. She often grabbed it when she felt desperate or alone. Right then, she’d never felt more of those two emotions.
To her surprise, the locket was cold although she felt on fire. Stranger still, she heard a voice in her head that didn’t sound like hers.
