Dark World (Book I in the Dark World Trilogy)

by Q. Lee, Danielle

  Over the course of millenniums, the humans evolved, mastering the arts of fire and technology. They populated the planet in epic proportions—but they weren’t alone.

  While modern humans believed the earth to be a solid chunk of rock, portions of the mantle had fallen away eons ago, leaving a cavern the size of a large continent. Life not only grew within the subversive realm—it flourished. Alongside the evolution of the humans on the surface, a powerful underground race spawned from the seeds of magic and elemental gods—demons. The source of their immortal power, a Crystal Pyramid, magically reflected light from the sun above.

  Led by an all powerful demon, Lucifer, the Legion of demons ruled Dark World for thousands of years.

  Amidst their reign, a cataclysmic earthquake shook the earth to its core, opening an abyss and swallowing a small portion of the surface. Thousands of humans and mystical creatures were stolen from the world with a sky and brought down to dwell in the underground kingdom. Weak and frail, the humans naturally became the demons’ slaves. Forced to mine precious bloodstone, they were all but bound to an eternity of hell.

  To free themselves, they did the unthinkable—they sold their souls to a demon—Malus, Queen of Dark World.

  Empowered and desiring to overthrow her husband, Malus sent scouts to the surface to recruit more souls. The scouts learned that the humans were willing to sacrifice their youth in exchange for supernatural powers.

  It was then that a ritual steeped in the dark arts was born.

  By the time King Lucifer discovered the plot to overthrow him, it was too late. Malus, his wife, had become untouchably powerful and the underworld was overrun with a dominant new race: shades.

  Determined to right the wrong, the King removed six pages from the Devil’s Bible and hid them. Using the last of his powers, he sealed the abyss to prevent further communication with the humans. However, dividing the power of the Bible came with a terrible consequence—the Crystal Pyramid ceased to light Dark World, leaving the demons weakened—and mortal.

  Today, the demons have become the slaves—their extinction imminent.

  Black Chrysalis

  Kane’s seven foot frame stood poised atop an obsidian boulder. He held his large body motionless, thigh muscles flexing beneath his black skin. Horns the shade of midnight adorned either side of his head, drawing to a whorl at his temples whilst dark blue dreadlocks fell between his folded wings, stretching the length of his back.

  With his ebony hooves balanced precariously at the edge of the rock, the demon’s arm muscles twitched in anticipation. His glowing sapphire eyes focused, angular ears twitching with his prey’s slightest movements.

  His black skin reflected the crimson hue emanating from the outlying magma rivers, other than the bioluminescent creatures around him, his only source of light.

  To his right, a distant range of volcanoes roared and blustered, spewing angry streams of hot lava from their gaping mouths. Ahead, the arid sands of the Crimson Desert lie flat and unyielding. A sprinkling of ash snowed over the landscape in attempts to blanket the dry, cracked terrain, but was blown away by consistently zealous gusts of air.

  The searing wind blew across his arms, raising the tiny hairs. Though heat was always welcome upon demon skin, he wondered how a cool ocean breeze might feel against his face.

  A streak of envy tainted his concentration and his dark brow furled.

  Humans, he brooded.

  He ground his sharp teeth together, forcing himself to focus on the task at hand. Wielding a smooth, silver dagger with bended arm, the demon awaited the perfect moment to strike. Before him, scoring a wavy pattern in the red sands, a lava snake inadvertently glided towards his death. With scales the color of fresh magma, the snake tasted the environment with a thin, forked tongue. Its lithe body no longer than two feet, it sashayed ever closer to the waiting demon.

  After taking a final aim and snapping his arm straight, Kane speared the snake in the back of the head. Climbing down from the boulder, he bent over and retrieved both his knife and his meal. He then sat on the slab of obsidian and worked quickly to strip the creature of its casing. He cradled the reptile within his large palm as he made an incision, piercing the coral skin with a razor-sharp talon. With his pointer finger, he carefully sliced the creature open, cautious not to spill the organs and entrails.

  When he tossed the scaly hide aside, he heard the inevitable scuffle of meegles emerging from their burrows beneath the rocks. The hairless rodents sniffed the air guardedly, skittering towards the discarded flesh. Their rounded eyes, disproportionately large for their tiny bodies, blazed yellow against the pitch background. Marked with two sapphire bioluminescent stripes running down their backs, they quivered as they surrounded the remains. After a great deal of snarling and gnashing of teeth amongst them, one of the tiny beasts snatched the carcass and dragged it into his den. A rare feast, no doubt.

  Pleased he could feed another, Kane focused on his own meal. Placing an ebony hand over the meat, he whispered a magical incantation, “Lucem ferre.”

  Within seconds, a pulsation of orange ignited in the center of his palm. He controlled the flame, searing the tender flesh to medium-rare. His mouth salivated with the scent of his impending dinner. Meager as it was, it would be his first meal in nearly two days.

  For almost a week, he’d been on the hunt for a rogue shade spotted near the hidden city. Two days ago, he discovered the body of a young female demon, her soul missing. The calling card of a shade. Kane’s indigo eyes flared with the thought of his kind being murdered. A population once flourishing with demons now dwindled within a dying world.

  Deep bitterness shrouded his heart.

  It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

  His gaze wandered over the darkened wasteland, eyes shining with internal illumination. Enhanced with infrared receptors, his sight pierced the veil of darkness to expose a broken landscape. A realm once rich with power and black magic now lay in ruin, war-torn and desolate. Overtaken by shades, the world he’d been born into no longer existed.

  He flicked his long, thick tail in frustration, taking a bite of his humble feast. The warm, tender flesh slid over his tongue and he felt an iota of his strength return. As he scanned the distant mountain range, their reddish hue painting a panoramic scene, he remembered a time when the Legion of demons ruled. Food was plentiful. Demons lived free amongst a crystalline wilderness.

  And flying.

  He flexed his large bat-like wings as much as the shackles would allow, wincing as the barbs cut into his flesh. Hidden beneath his sheathed sword, two circlets of unbreakable steel, forged within the earth’s core, were bound where his wings met his back. Adorned with needle-sharp spikes, the cuffs pierced his flesh with any endeavor at flight. Many failed attempts to remove them merely proved what he already knew: only the Devil could remove the enchantment put upon them. The shackles were placed on the demons after the Apocalypse. The ones that survived, anyways.

  The Devil. His eyes narrowed to slits. Malus.

  He wondered if his world could ever be the same. Would it ever be the way it was before the Queen’s vicious takeover?

  He finished the last bit of the snake and wiped his hands on his leather loincloth. It was then that an ominous song rang out from above. As he looked up, he observed a wraith phoenix soaring overhead. Cloaked in ebon mist, the large bird drifted upon the sweltering breeze. Careful to navigate around the massive stalactites dangling like fangs in an open mouth, it dove and paraded hundreds of feet above Kane’s head.

  He looked away from the bird. It reminded him of two painful aspects of his existence: One, he could no longer fly, and two, few creatures in Dark World still possessed their souls. Only a handful of beings existed with their essence intact. The rest were victims of the shades’ lustful greed for power and soul satiation. Once a shade devoured the spirit of another, the victim was destined to wander the world as nothing more than a phantom. The ghostly phoenix was but the shell of its
former self, an apparition.

  His gaze panned the length of the rocky skyline. Through the haze of ash and darkness, the demon dreamed of a place he’d never been: the Surface. Before the great chasm was sealed, his ancestors could travel to the Surface at leisure, but now, there was simply no access.

  No escape.

  Just as he’d done a thousand times before, the demon wondered what the sky looked like. A bitterness wound tight around his heart as he again reflected on the humans.

  Their freedom, their open sky, and especially their stars…do they realize what treasures they possess?

  An entire world existed beneath their feet—and they had no idea. A land of magic, power and darkness all dwelt within the heart of a hollow earth.

  Kane’s sight blurred in the midst of his embittered loathing.

  Now we are the slaves.

  He glanced again at the soulless phoenix weaving below the sky of solid rock and around an enormous column of stone that stretched from ground to ceiling. Scattered throughout Dark World, the gargantuan pillars seemed to bear the load of the Surface upon their backs. Like selfless giants balancing the weight of the world on their shoulders.

  Kane’s eyes shifted from the bird and frowned when he recognized something emerging from between the icicles of stone.

  Is that, he wondered, narrowing his gaze, a black cocoon?

  That could only mean one thing: a shade was being born.

  Where are the others? His eyes darted over the width of the forever night sky. Shades are always born in threes!

  Searching for the other two cocoons, he fought back a gasp when they were nowhere to be found.

  “If it’s a female and she’s born alone, that means she’s the…good gods!” he uttered with disbelief.

  Quickly gathering his pack, he jumped from the rock and began sprinting across the fractured landscape. Ferocity pulsed through his blood. His hooves pounded upon the barren terrain in rhythm with his angry heart.

  I must get to it before it hatches!!

  He also needed to kill it before it was retrieved by the guards. Dutifully patrolling the borders, the Queen’s guards were to collect any newborn shades—and destroy any free-roaming demons.

  He locked his sights on the writhing black pod forming between the rocky stalactites and pushed himself to run harder. With his wings disabled by the shackles, they flailed uselessly behind him.

  I could get there so much faster if I could fly!

  He wasn’t convinced his wings would even work considering how long he’d been imprisoned within the shackles. An unwelcome pain seared in his chest. He wished he couldn’t remember how it felt to fly. It would be so much easier to endure the inability if he didn’t remember soaring through the atmosphere.

  He grunted, pushing his large body to run faster. Kane glanced around to ensure no guards were manning the area. If he were caught, if Malus knew he was still alive, the entire realm would suffer for it, even worse than they already were.

  The cocoon was nearly ripe, ready to birth its evil offspring. A female figure writhed within, the silken black shell thin enough to be translucent. Kane reached back and slid his sword from its sheath. The scarlet light from remote tributaries of molten rock reflected off the black diamond blade, making it look angry and ready to fight.

  As he arrived at the rocks just beneath the pod, he scanned the terrain. Thankfully, the cocoon was forming at a low point on the sky’s roof. He could scale the large rocks just beneath it and slay her as she dropped. If she made it to the surface, he might not be able to kill her before she killed him.

  She’s going to be hungry…very hungry.

  He shuddered, shrugging off the notion of being the shade’s first meal. Kane squinted, estimating how high the cocoon was.

  A hundred feet or so.

  Most often, shade cocoons nestled into nooks within the rock canopy, several hundreds of feet above ground, and could barely be seen with the naked eye.

  I must be crazy attempting this alone.

  A knot twisted in his stomach as he realized the gravity of the situation. A male shade against a demon was a pretty even fight. A female shade was different. Granted, shades usually didn’t develop their powers until they were a few weeks old, but a female was superior, both physically and magically.

  This is not a good idea.

  Determined, he raced to the top of the rocks and watched with disgusted fascination as the pod cracked open, discharging glossy, white pus. Slowly unfolding its onyx petals, the cocoon bloomed like a flowering lotus, preparing to unveil its dark butterfly. Now fully open, it released its hold on the rocks and began to fall. The black star spun gently as though dancing with the breeze, cradling its deadly cargo upon it.

  Kane bared his fangs, declaring war on the newborn shade. So many demons had been slaughtered or forced into slavery. He was going to make the shades pay—and he was going to start with this one.

  Untamed

  A hot, dry wind licked her bare skin. Stray tendrils of her long hair tickled her face and shoulders. Free from the earthy tomb, she lay in the open air, sensing herself falling like a feather rocking on a breeze.

  She tensed the muscles in her arms and legs, smiling as she realized the paralysis had worn off. Though she was certain she could open her eyes now, she was hesitant. The atmosphere was hot—very hot.

  Have I gone to Hell?

  Not knowing how or why, she recalled being physically harmed, but upon bringing her hand to her chest and slowly caressing the spot where she’d been stabbed, she discovered that the hole was gone. The emblem carved into her forehead had also vanished. She had been healed somehow.

  Was it just a dream? Is this all a dream?

  She struggled to retain the memories of her former self. She even fought to remember her name. Everything was different. She was different. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once.

  Her body hummed with energy, a powerful source of something she couldn’t identify—but enjoyed. It was the hunger that frightened her, an aching need that started at her lips and snaked its way to the pit of her stomach. She’d tried to name it, this excruciating desire.

  Is it…blood?

  The vision of a stereotypical vampire flashed through her mind, a pale, bloodthirsty fiend with red eyes, fangs, and a black cape. She shook off the image knowing it wasn’t blood she lusted for—it was something far more precious.

  Balanced atop a rocky mound, Kane eyed the descending pod with revulsion. He gripped his sword with both hands, muscles rippling beneath his ebony skin, and waited.

  Just a little closer…

  Indigo eyes blazing, he prepared to bring the wrath. He raised his weapon. The pod only inches from the ground.

  “Kane!” a voice shouted from behind him.

  He turned to see who had summoned him. As he recognized Legion’s tracker, Deme, his emotion shifted from rage—to one of concern. Chest heaving and sweat glistening as it ran over her ruby skin, her yellow eyes were fierce with urgency.

  He gave a longing look to the falling pod and quickly made the decision to tend to Deme first. She had to have tracked him for many days and would only do so if it were imperative.

  “What is it?” he asked, keeping his Baritone voice hushed as he clamored down the stony slope.

  She held back the sides of her long, black cloak and knelt, bowing her head. “We had a breach of security, sir. A shade.”

  Kane fell back onto a rock and sat heavily. A breach? There hadn’t been an intruder within the palace since Legion occupied it. How could a shade have even entered, let alone discovered its secret location?

  The newborn shade momentarily forgotten, he held his head in his hands and quietly asked, “The scroll?”

  Deme stiffened. “It’s gone—the banshees have reported theirs stolen as well.”

  A shadow of hopelessness cast over him.

  “Malus must have discovered that only shades can touch the pages of the Devil’s Bible,” he s
urmised, cringing at his father’s lack of foresight. “Did anyone see this shade?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Was anyone hurt?”

  She shook her head.

  He must be very good, Kane thought, to break through our enchantments and sneak by security.

  His heart suddenly weighed a ton. Kane wished his father was still alive, he’d know what to do. He tried to think like his father. He tried to think like the King.

  “If Malus acquires all six scrolls, she will gain access to the Surface and turn all the humans to shades,” he uttered.

  Not that he cared much for the demise of the human race, but having over seven billion shades roaming the world left his meager city of five thousand demons at an even lesser advantage than they already were.

  She nodded, pushing her long, black hair off her shoulders as she stood. “Yes, the demons will be extinct—unless you believe in miracles.”

  An epiphany graced his thoughts, his gaze drifting to the descending dark angel. “I just might.”

  She smelled it before her back even touched the ground. A delicious overwhelming scent that lit a fire within. Though the atmosphere was saturated with the stench of charcoal and ash, her mouth watered and body ached for a taste of this unknown desire.

  Her eyes flew open to reveal a completely new world.

  Where the hell is the sky?

  Above her, a rocky roof extended as far as the eye could see. As though snarling at her, the entirety of the sky was a ceiling of pointed rocks. It reminded her of an enormous cave with no walls. She shifted her eyes from left to right, taking note of the hazy red atmosphere and cringed as she realized she may have indeed descended into the realm described by religion. Strangely, she wasn’t frightened. She expected to be afraid. This was what everyone in the world feared? Wasn’t this the place no one wanted to go?