Beyond The Darkness: The Shadow Demons Saga, Book 9

by Sarra Cannon

  I had studied her note to me, and there was no doubt it sounded like her. And I had no doubt that she was locked away in the past.

  Eloise said she could feel a difference now, so that proved the emerald priestess was truly dead. I was probably worrying for nothing, but as we all made our way out to the ritual room’s entrance in the woods at the edge of town, I thought of the collar made of amethysts. Why had it been in the emerald priestess’s house? And what did it have to do with Harper?

  I couldn't shake the feeling there was still something I was missing.

  But what?

  The Door

  Harper

  It took a moment for me to find my voice.

  Ever since my memories had returned at the hospital, I’d noticed that it was taking my brain some time to catch up with the events around me. I wasn’t reacting as quickly as normal, which was bound to get me killed if I wasn’t careful.

  But I didn’t have time to worry about whether my brain had been permanently damaged by the emerald priestess. I needed to come up with a quick answer that would keep Azure from driving that dagger into my heart.

  “My name is Harper,” I said. “I’ve known both you and Rend for a long time, but we just haven’t met yet. We won’t actually meet each other for several decades. I know how crazy that sounds, but I have a story I need to tell you both. I just need you to trust me.”

  Azure scoffed, her shoulders shaking with laughter. “Trust? I don’t trust anyone. Least of all witches dumb enough to walk down this alley in the middle of the night actually looking for the most powerful vampire in town.”

  “The Rend I know doesn’t drink the blood of witches,” I said. “I was here looking for the entrance to his club. Venom.”

  Her eyes flashed with surprise, but she was careful to try to hide it.

  “Who sent you here?” she asked, pointing her dagger at me and taking several steps forward. “No one but our closest friends know about Rend’s plans for Venom.”

  “No one sent me,” I said, holding my hands up. “I know about Venom because where I’m from, it already exists and has for more than half a century. I could describe it to you down to the last detail. I’ve been in Rend’s home hidden away in the Alps, and I could describe that for you, too. I told you. I know Rend, and I know you, too, Azure.”

  Her lips opened at the sound of her name. “How do you know all these things?” she asked. “I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

  “Yes, you have,” I said. “Just not yet. I don’t belong here in the fifties. I belong in the twenty-first century, but the emerald priestess of the Order of Shadows brought me here so she could torture me and try to steal my memories. I killed her, and now I’m trapped here. I need your help, and I need Rend’s help. I know it sounds crazy, but I’m kind of short on time here. I need you to at least hear me out, and I’d rather we find a safe, warm place to discuss this, if you don’t mind.”

  Azure shook her head. “Twenty-first century, huh? And I’m still alive?” she asked. “And Rend? He’s good? He doesn’t drink from witches, anymore? At all?”

  “Never,” I said. “And yes, you’re both alive and well. Both working at Venom. In the future, there’s an entrance here in this alley. A doorway that appears when someone whose blood contains magic gets close enough to sense it.”

  “It hasn’t been built yet,” she said. “The doorway, I mean. But you’re right. We were here scoping out this alley as a potential entrance when Rend just took off. He moved so fast, I couldn’t stop him. He must have sensed your power. You’re a witch from the Order?”

  “Not exactly,” I said. “I’m half-demon, half-witch. Descendant of a Prima and a demon king.”

  Her hand fluttered to her mouth. “Holy shit,” she said. “No wonder he was so out of control. That’s a damn powerful combination. I would venture to say you are the only one who exists.”

  “I’ve known others who are half-demon, half-witch,” I said, “but no, I’ve never met another with my exact lineage.”

  I glanced around the dark alley.

  “Don’t worry,” Azure said. “No one else is going to come running at you from the shadows. The vampires around here know this is Rend’s territory, so they steer clear unless they have business with him.”

  I nodded toward Rend. “Is he going to be okay?” I asked. “I can’t believe you actually stabbed him.”

  She shrugged, as if it wasn’t the first time. “He’ll have a headache until he can create one of his potions to counteract the poison I used, but he’ll be fine,” she said. “He just needs to sleep for a little while.”

  “You’re not just going to leave him here, are you?”

  “It’s tempting after the way he acted just now,” she said, laughing. “But no, I’ll move him inside. Guess there’s no time like the present to make that door. You said in the future it’s located somewhere around here?”

  I nodded and put my hand on the brick wall. “Close to this point, as far as I can remember,” I said.

  She shrugged and made a motion for me to move back.

  “Make sure he doesn’t wake up or anything,” she said. “He should be out for a few hours, but you never know. He’s even stronger than he looks sometimes.”

  I stepped back toward where Rend lay on the pavement, his body completely unmoving. Still, I kept an eye on him. I didn’t want a replay of that terrifying event.

  A dark blue glow emanated from the area in front of me, though, drawing my eye. Azure was consumed with the light, and I could swear I saw the flutter of wings against her back. They were iridescent; translucent and shining.

  Since when did Azure have wings? And come to think of it, how was she still just as young and beautiful sixty plus years from now as she was today?

  I watched in awe as she crouched near the bottom of the wall and pushed the light into the brick, transforming it with a single touch. She moved slowly up the wall, and a door materialized out of nowhere.

  The sheer power radiating from her nearly knocked me to my knees. I had always assumed Azure was a witch. A human. I’d heard someone once say that she had been with Rend since the creation of Venom, and I wondered if he’d created some kind of potion to elongate her life. I never dreamed she was something more, but seeing her now, I had no doubt that Azure was some kind of hybrid, like me.

  But a hybrid of what?

  When the door was complete, she stepped back, admiring her work. I caught sight of her wings again as the light faded.

  When the light was gone, so were the wings.

  “How does that look?” she asked, crossing her arms and staring at it with a critical look on her face. “I feel like it’s pretty plain. Should I make it fancier, you think?”

  “It’s perfect,” I said, my voice nearly a whisper. “Um, Azure?”

  She turned to face me. “Yes?”

  “What are you?” I asked. “I always assumed you were a human witch, but—”

  She laughed. “I take it you’ve never seen a fae before?” she asked. “Didn’t the wings give it away?”

  I smiled, despite the fear and awe flowing through me. “No, I never have,” I said. “But I have to admit, that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Your wings are breathtaking.”

  “Thank you,” she said, offering me a rare, genuine smile. The Azure I knew didn’t smile often, but she wouldn’t be the first person in my life who had been hardened by time and heartbreak.

  “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get him inside the club. I’m afraid there isn’t much to it yet. It’s practically bare at this point. But someday, it’s going to be great. A safe haven for everyone like us.”

  She said it as if it were nothing more than a dream, but I knew better.

  “It will be,” I said. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes. It’s an amazing place.”

  Her eyes widened, and she stared at me, as if not quite sure she should believe me.

  “Come on, let’s get him inside,” she
said.

  I stared at Rend’s motionless body and shook my head. I wasn’t sure how Azure planned to lift him. He was a giant compared to us, but if I needed to, I could probably lift him with my magic.

  Azure beat me to it, though. She simply gathered her magic in her hands and nodded toward the door.

  “Open that, will you?” she asked.

  I ran over to open the door to Venom, almost laughing as I realized that I was the very first person to ever open this door. Jackson would get a kick out of that when he found out.

  Azure’s blue light surrounded Rend’s body. She lifted him without a thought, throwing his body over her shoulder and carrying him inside.

  I laughed and shook my head. This was turning out to be a very interesting adventure.

  I followed them through the entrance to Venom and closed the door behind me.

  A Very Interesting Gift

  Harper

  The inside of Venom was nothing like it would someday become. Now, it was nothing more than a bare warehouse of a room with a couple long tables in the middle.

  Azure dropped Rend on a pile of folded curtains in the corner and met me in the center of the room.

  “I don’t suppose there’s any way to wake him up early, is there?” I asked. “I don’t mean to be a pain, but I’m kind of on a tight deadline here.”

  “Why is that?” she asked, sitting down at the table and pulling over a stack of folders.

  “It’s a long story.”

  I sat down next to her, glancing at the contents of the folders as she opened them. It looked like construction plans. Blueprints for Venom.

  “We’ve got some time,” she said, glancing at Rend. “And no, there’s no good way to wake him up early. Not without making him angry. Well, angrier.”

  She smiled as she said it, and I wondered again what their history really was all about.

  “Tell me what you’re really doing here,” she said. “We’ll fill him in when he wakes up.”

  I glanced over at Rend and sighed. This wasn’t exactly what I had been hoping for, but at least I was alive. And as far as I knew, Azure was just as likely to be near Jackson right now in the future as Rend was.

  “You guys are obviously familiar with the Order of Shadows, right?” I asked.

  She gave me a look like I was stupid.

  “Okay, then,” I muttered. “You’re familiar. Well, the emerald priestess kidnapped me and tortured me. She brought me to this hospital here in the past, and she kept me there for months. I didn’t remember who I was for the most part, but no matter what she did, I kept having flashbacks and memories of my real life. Anyway, long story short, she couldn’t break me, so she tried to lobotomize me.”

  Azure stopped thumbing through her plans. “She what?”

  “She tried to basically put an icepick-shaped instrument through my brain,” I said, making a stabbing motion toward my eye.

  “I know what it is,” she said. “I just can’t believe she would do that to you. Why even keep you alive if she hates you that much?”

  “I don’t know, honestly,” I said. “She seemed to have a thing for turning girls into a living doll collection. That or convincing them they were her daughters.”

  “Good Lord,” she said, cringing. “How did you get out of that?”

  “I killed her,” I said.

  Azure laughed and leaned back in her chair. “You killed a priestess of the Order of Shadows?” she asked. “I have to admit, I was starting to believe you there for a second. No one can kill those witches. Besides, one dies, and her oldest daughter takes over. The next priestess is probably already being initiated as we speak.”

  I sat back in my chair. Oh, right. They didn’t yet understand how the Order and its five main priestesses worked.

  As far as Azure knew, a new priestess came into power when her mother died. No one back in this time understood that the reigning priestesses were over two hundred years old and living off the power stolen from those they had killed or consumed.

  I wasn’t sure how much I should tell her. In the end, I needed to be sure that nothing I said or did here in the past would change the future, but I was planning on asking them to forget all of this before I left, anyway.

  I decided to err on the side of caution for now. I may have already said too much by telling her a priestess was dead, but I needed for her to believe me.

  “I can’t tell you everything, but just know that she’s dead,” I said. “That’s part of why I’m here. She was the only one who could get me home. I didn’t realize I was stuck in the past until after I’d killed her.”

  “Well, if you’re looking for someone to cast a portal to send you home, you’re out of luck,” she said. “I can manipulate time and space to some degree, like I did with that doorway, but I don’t know anyone powerful enough to open a portal into the future.”

  “I didn’t come for that,” I said. “There are two things I need from Rend. One is help creating a potion that will restore the memories of the other girls who were trapped in that hospital with me. Most of them come from the future, like me, and most of them have no idea who they really are.”

  “How many girls?” Azure asked.

  “Eighty or so,” I said.

  She shook her head, but she didn’t speak. I could tell from the expression on her face that she was sad for those girls. And so was I. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to get them all home at this point. The least I could do was try to restore their memories and help them move on.

  “Listen,” I started, but someone opened a door on the far side of the room and floated in, her wings shimmering behind her. This woman’s wings were much brighter than Azure’s had been, and I stood when I saw her, amazed at her strange beauty.

  “I think I’m finished for the day,” the fairy said, stopping as soon as she saw Rend lying on the floor, unconscious. She glanced from him to Azure, and finally, to me. She gave me a very curious look. “Well, what have we here?”

  “Sabine, leave her alone,” Azure said.

  But the fairy didn’t look as though she had any intention of leaving me alone. She circled me, as if studying every inch of my body. She ran her pale fingers down my arms, touching the scars the priestess had left.

  “You have great love in your life,” she said. She placed her hand near my forehead. “May I?”

  I had no idea what she was asking, so I looked to Azure, who shrugged.

  “I don’t understand what you want to do,” I said.

  Sabine laughed, and the sound seemed to disperse through the room as if it had come from a hundred voices, rather than just one. “I just want to see,” she said.

  “You might as well let her do it,” Azure said. “Otherwise, she’ll never leave you alone. But just this one thing, Sabine. Then you go. We have business here.”

  Sabine smiled at me, her eyes wide and child-like as she asked again. “May I?”

  “Okay,” I said, my heart racing.

  She placed her hand on my head, and my eyes immediately fell closed. Memories passed through my mind like pictures. The fire that killed my step-father. Being brought to Shadowford. My tattoo. It all passed by so quickly, it made me dizzy.

  But all of a sudden, the image stopped on Jackson. He sat at the table in my chambers, drawing. I smiled. I’d spent many nights watching him from the balcony as he drew, some of the visions pleasant. Others horrifying.

  God, I missed him.

  Sabine held me there for a long moment before she pulled away, something sparkling deep in her opal eyes.

  “This love of yours,” she said. “He sees visions of the future?”

  I nodded. “Sometimes.”

  “A very interesting gift,” she said. “Very interesting, indeed.”

  “Aunt Sabine is very interested in all things relating to time,” Azure said.

  “Aunt?” I asked, laughing.

  “Great-great-aunt,” Sabine said, smiling. “But we don’t need to get into all of tha
t.”

  My eyes widened. I wasn’t sure how old Azure was since she hadn’t seemed to change at all over the decades, but I could only guess that meant Sabine was ancient. I could certainly feel the power radiating from her. She was no hybrid. Sabine was pure fae, and a strong one.

  “You’re interested in time?” I asked. “Do you know anyone who could open a portal into the future?”

  Sabine shook her head. “No, I’m afraid that is not an ability anyone seems to possess, though it would be quite fun to see the future,” she said. “If you’ll excuse me, I do need to get going. Please give my regards to poor Rend over there when he wakes up.”

  Sabine blew kisses toward Azure, then closed her palm tightly. When she opened it again, a bright, white light appeared. Sabine threw the light into the air, and a portal opened. It was too bright for me to see where it led, but I could see lush-green grass and red roses growing in the distance.

  “Goodbye, Harper,” she said, and I was surprised she knew my name. Had she seen it when she’d reached into my mind? “I hope I’ll see you again someday. And Azure? You should trust her. In her mind, I have seen more of the future than I ever dreamed.”

  She giggled and stepped into the portal. A moment later, the light blinked out.

  Thank You For Not Killing Me

  Harper

  “What was that all about?” I asked when the fairy was gone. “Why did she want to see my memories?”

  Azure sighed. “Sabine is complicated,” she said. “I gave up trying to figure out why she wants what she wants a long time ago. All I know for sure is that when she decides she wants something, she won’t give up until she has it.”

  “What was she doing here? She mentioned working on the doors?”

  “Sabine did a favor for the Order of Shadows almost a century ago, putting a system in place that allows the witches to travel to each other’s houses by using these doors,” Azure said.