AetherBlood

by Alexis N Sage

  Copyright © 2019 Alexis N. Sage

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

  ISBN 978-1-9990198-8-4 (Hardcover Edition)

  ISBN 978-1-9990198-6-0 (Paperback Edition)

  ISBN 978-1-9990198-7-7 (Electronic Edition)

  Some characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Editing by: Brenda Williams

  Published by Cauldron Press

  info@cauldronpress.online

  Visit www.alexisnsage.com

  AetherBlood

  The Enuma Legacies, Book 3

  Alexis N. Sage

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Ash or something

  2. A couple on a train

  3. Twisted army of doom

  4. His wrath is that much greater

  5. Forgive me

  6. Manifest a dragon

  7. Ren Barba’s brother

  8. Bet my life on it

  9. Hard to get to know

  10. Unprepared

  11. We might die

  12. Pretty easy

  13. A happy ending of sorts

  14. Fight

  15. Dalhurst

  16. With all my love

  17. One more time

  18. Live down a heartache

  19. Breadcrumbs

  20. Sherfield

  21. You’re going to kill her

  22. Brother

  23. One by one

  24. Never-ending train of crow feathers

  25. Wishful thinking

  26. We’re just toys

  27. No opinions

  28. The mail never rests

  29. One of us

  30. It’s my job to protect

  31. Darkness and plasma

  32. Est. 1926

  33. A friend

  34. Coalfell

  35. Every single one I passed

  36. Zag and his map

  37. Charred to a crisp

  38. You need to heal

  39. Marlton

  40. It’s not real

  41. Doorway

  42. The light she saw before

  43. Decide

  44. One by one

  45. Falkirk

  46. The games and the toys and the fun

  47. A chance

  48. One way to end

  49. Why not kill us?

  50. The gates

  51. Lobster traps

  52. On board

  53. On the wrong end

  54. Ready

  55. Some will die

  56. Why?

  57. Time to go

  58. Remember every part

  59. Back home

  Epilogue

  Thanks for Reading!

  About the Author

  “It was night, and the rain fell; and falling, it was rain, but, having fallen, it was blood.”

  -Edgar Allen Poe

  Prologue

  Demas watched the boy’s body wriggle and twist, trying to escape from the grasp of the smoke that threatened to crush his lungs. Tears streaked his face in dirty lines that might have resembled war paint if they weren’t so pathetic. He twirled a black curl around his finger before looking away. “How much longer is this going to take?”

  “What’s wrong?” His sister asked, “Not having fun anymore?” The boy cried louder as her fingers danced.

  “If you keep this up, he’ll wake up the whole neighborhood.”

  “This was your plan, brother. Don’t blame me for trying to bring some joy into our lives while we work.” She grinned, “What is it the humans say? If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life?”

  Another grin as she straightened her fingers allowing the boy to take a gulp of air. His eyes watered, and he clasped at his throat as if he was trying to decide between screaming and breathing. His mouth opened but before he could let out a sob, she clenched her fist, yanking the air from his lungs.

  His knees shook and he beat at his chest, his body drooping over itself with heaving, shallow breaths. She let go and the boy screamed. A desperate cry to no one in particular. His eyes darted around, looking for a way out despite knowing full well that escape was futile.

  “Just hurry up with it already, we have to move on.”

  There was another flick of the hand, followed by more screaming, and then a loud thud. The boy’s body dropped to the ground like an anvil hitting water. His open eyes made Demas groan with disgust. There was really nothing beautiful about these creatures. Nothing poetic. They lived, they died, and that was the end of it. How blasé.

  Not having fun anymore, he repeated in his head. He tried to remember the last time he’d truly had fun. Eirene’s twentieth birthday snapped to mind. He had brought her to a clearing, away from the elders and covered the entire thing in shadow. Their own private oasis. She was so happy, twirling and singing in the grass. Her eyes never leaving him. That was the last time he remembered smiling, the day that turned into night then into morning again. The day their daughter was conceived.

  He shook the thought away and walked to the boy’s body. “You’re sure it’s done?”

  “Do you really need to ask, brother?”

  “I suppose not.”

  Demas stepped over the body and leaned on the wall in front of him. His hand pressed against the brick as he looked down, patting the stone lightly.

  “Is everything quite alright?” he heard his sister ask from what seemed like miles away.

  Eirene’s face flashed before him. Her smile, eager and innocent, melting away in the darkness of the night. He straightened his back, twirling to face his sister.

  “Everything is splendid. Time to go.”

  Chapter 1

  Ash or something

  “Fish! You gotta see this!” Shaylah’s voice rang through the apartment with a tone that resembled a dolphin’s mating call, “Hurry up!”

  The morning light had just started to coat the ceiling of Ruby’s bedroom in twirling slivers of pink and turquoise. Reflections bounced off her vanity mirror, and she lazily studied the patterns while stroking Liam’s heavy arm on her stomach. She looked at him, slowly roaming her eyes over his bare chest, only to catch him staring back at her. Ruby could read his current state of mind without pause; his expression caught between amusement and annoyance.

  Since Liam had officially moved his things into her apartment, they had spent most of their time trying to find moments of privacy; but her roommate made it difficult, if not entirely impossible, for them to have any semblance of a personal life. It wasn’t that she disliked having Shaylah around, more that she missed the silence of spending quiet evenings with her boyfriend. Her theatrical friend was many wonderful things but quiet had never been her strong suit.

  Liam nudged her side with his shoulder as if to wake her up from her thoughts, “Think she’ll give up if we pretend to be asleep?”

  “Fish! Come on!” Shaylah yelled, as if on cue.

  “Guess not. Nice try though.” Ruby bounced up to sit, leaning over to give him a quick kiss before making her way to the living room. “I’m coming! Calm down!”

  She tugged at the strings of her robe, tightening it around her waist, and sluggishly dragged her feet out of the bedroom to find Shaylah cross-legged on the couch, her hair a giant mess of slept-in curls. The television was on, and she was fumbling with the remote to get the sound louder. If this girl got me out of bed for another cat video, I’ll kill her, she thought and sat down on the
edge of an armchair. The sleeve of her robe rolled up as she settled in, and she pulled it back down quickly to hide the rough scars on her arms. Despite her ability to heal, the cuts on her arms had not disappeared entirely, and she hated the constant reminder of her last fight with Demas. A little gift from Tartarus himself to make sure she never forgot him or his final warning when they met in the Aether Plane that night.

  War is coming.

  She turned the words around in her mouth, tasting their bitter and spiteful remnants. Why couldn’t he just leave them alone? Her and Liam were finally in a good place in their relationship, the AetherBorns had settled in nicely at the center, even Jake had started to come around more– though his attitude towards Liam bordered on toxic. They were so close to living a normal life, as normal a life as half-deities can have at least. Why was Demas so intent on ruining it for them? On ruining her?

  “Are you seeing this?” Shaylah asked, tugging her attention back to the television.

  “Sorry. Still waking up, I guess. What’s this now?”

  Shaylah’s hand clicked the remote rapidly, blaring the volume even louder. “They found that guy that disappeared last week!” She yelled over the television, “The one in Dalhurst! Remember?”

  “Yeah! So that’s good, no?” Ruby yelled back and grabbed the remote from her hand. “Can we turn it down a little?”

  “Oops. Sorry. But look!” Shaylah’s freshly painted red nail pointed at the television as if accusing it of a crime, “He’s dead!”

  Ruby’s eyes blinked rapidly, fully awake now and concentrated on the news coverage. Shaylah had been obsessing over this case lately and had taken any excuse to bring it up in conversation. She wasn’t sure why her friend was so interested in the disappearance of someone on the other side of the country that she’d never met but was glad for the distraction. The more time she spent talking about this with Shaylah, the less time she had to worry about what Demas might be planning next.

  “You guys want some coffee for this screening or what?” Liam walked out of the bedroom, flashing his teeth in his usual charming smile.

  “Yeah, sure!” Shaylah’s eyes only briefly glanced in his direction, “And maybe put a shirt on. Like we get it, you’re hot.” She rolled her eyes at Ruby then turned her attention back to the news.

  “I’d love a cup. Thanks, babe.” She shook her head at him, smiling, completely fine with his undressed state. “So, do they know who killed him?”

  “Nope. They have no clue. The idiots. It’s been like a week; you’d think they’d have something by now. I mean, what have they been doing?”

  “I’m sure they’re working on it, Shay. Why are you so obsessed with this anyways?”

  “Are you kidding me? It’s the only thing everyone is talking about! Have you been living under a rock?”

  Ruby raised her robe sleeve slightly and pointed at her scars.

  “Oh, right.” Shaylah smiled, “I forgot.”

  “So, the cops actually have nothing?”

  “Well, not nothing. Just nothing useful. It looks like they found a bunch of ash or something around the body. But like who cares? They should spend more time figuring out who killed this guy and less time worrying about the housekeeping.” Shaylah huffed, the air billowing tendrils of curls off her face. “Morons.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh at Shaylah’s frustration. If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought her roommate knew the victim personally. Shaylah had a tendency of getting much too attached to murder and mystery cases. More often than not, she would act like she could do a better job at solving crimes than the entire police force combined. The excitement usually lasted for a few weeks before she would get bored and move on to the next flashy case plastered all over the news. Regrettably for Ruby and Liam, they were caught in the middle of this latest obsession.

  “Hey, you think this might be one of your little thingamajigs?” Shaylah asked.

  “My what?”

  “You know, your AetherBorn stuff.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. Ash, Fog– Never mind, I’m probably reaching.”

  Was she reaching? They still had not seen any hint of Demas, and she’d been going crazy wondering when he would strike next and what he would do. If he came back at all. Ruby wasn’t entirely convinced that the murder in Dalhurst had anything to do with her or the Elementals, but she couldn’t rule it out. Nothing was out of scope for Demas, and it was highly possible that Shaylah’s assumptions, out of context as they may be, were in fact correct. I should run this by Liam.

  Before she could try to think of some excuse to get away, Liam appeared at her side. “Hey, can I steal you away for a sec?” He asked, shoving a steaming cup of coffee in her face.

  “Definitely!” She said a little too eagerly and followed him back into their room. She perched next to him on the mattress, her mouth twisting to whisper a quick thank you when he looked up at her. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing huge, just wanted to give you this.” His hand extended to hold out a black, velvet box. “Thought it might cheer you up.”

  Ruby slowly opened the lid, her heart leapt into her throat as she peered inside to see a large Onyx stone intricately carved into a beveled hemisphere. The stone sat in the center of a silver frame that connected on either side to a delicate chain. She ran her fingers over the Onyx carefully, feeling every ridge as her lips parted into a smile. “Liam! This is amazing!” She yelped, “It looks just like it!”

  She couldn’t believe how closely it resembled the necklace she’d had made from her piece of the Sword of Enuma. It didn’t have any of the power the original necklace possessed but just seeing it again made her feel stronger. It was a nice reminder of the unyielding energy she had pulled from the sword just a few weeks back. Her gaze met Liam’s and she leaned in slowly to touch her lips to his,, grateful for his thoughtfulness. “Thank you,” she smiled and unbuckled the chain lock. “I love it.”

  “I figured you might need a little reminder of how amazing you are.”

  She slipped on the necklace and straightened her back, feeling the weight of it press down on her shoulders. “So how do I look?” She teased and shifted her shoulders around to pose.

  Liam’s arm reached for her. He pushed a few loose hairs off her face, resting his other hand on her cheek. “Absolutely beautiful.” He whispered.

  “You think Shay might be onto something?”

  “About how gorgeous you are? What did she say? I’ll kill her!” He joked.

  “No. About the Dalhurst murder. She mentioned something about the ash being connected to– “

  “Demas?”

  “Well, yeah.” She bit the inside of her cheek, “I’m kinda shocked he hasn’t come back yet.”

  “Rue, he might never come back. You’re going to lose your mind thinking about it every day.”

  “So, what do you suggest? We just pretend everything is fine and peachy until he strikes?”

  “If he strikes.”

  “When.” Ruby huffed a trapped breath of air out, “We both know he’s coming back. You don’t just leave behind a plan you’ve been working on for ages over one lost battle.”

  Liam’s face beamed, a sly smile tugging the edges of his lips. “You do when you know you’ll lose.”

  “Either way, I think we should ask the rest of the elders what they think.”

  “Oh, I see,” his hand reached around her waist. “One elder isn’t enough for you?”

  “Trust me, you’re plenty enough,” she said just as his arm tightened and he swung her around to his lap.

  Her breathing faltered and she could feel her legs begin to tingle, eager for his touch. She wrapped them around his waist, pressing her hips down to pin him to the mattress. Her right hand raised, she reached inside of herself, pooling her powers into a concentrated ball of energy. The palm of her hand flicked slightly as she shot a gust of wind toward the door, slamming it closed on command. Liam’s full lips tur
ned at the corners into a sly smile, the same smile that drove her mad with wanting. There was nothing else in that moment that mattered more to her than the man in her bed. The man that she would follow to the end of time if she could.

  Liam’s hands traveled from her waist to the now loosely tied belt of her robe. She watched him with the hunger of a predator as he undid the ties and pulled the fabric off her shoulders. He dropped it on the floor in one swift motion and flipped them to lie down on the bed in another. Her legs still wrapped around him, she pulled him in, erasing any space between them.

  Ruby would do anything for more mornings like this. Mornings without her twisted worries about the future. Without thoughts of Elementals or AetherBorns and the responsibility she carried for their safety. Mornings without fear.

  She wriggled under his weight, using her toes to push his joggers off. Surrendering to the freedom his body offered.

  Freedom if only for the moment.

  Chapter 2

  A couple on a train