Runes of Truth (A Demon's Fall series Book 1)

by G. Bailey

  “My brother died shortly after telling me that. He pretty much brought me up, and these stars remind me of him,” he tells us, and I look over, getting lost in his eyes for a second. You would think the redness of his eyes, the unnatural glow they always have and the deepness of them would be scary, but I can’t look away. His eyes are so different, and they suit him. They are him.

  “Where are we heading, then?” Connor asks, snapping me out of it. Azi lifts his hand, pointing at the white building in the far distance, right in the middle of a big open grass field.

  “There. My old home.”

  Evie

  We walk across the empty field, with Star in my bag, and both of my daggers out in my hands. I don’t trust the quietness of the place or the lack of guards surrounding the lands. There should have been someone here to stop us. I glance at Trex, who has both of his axes in his hands, and his eyes drift around us every few seconds. He doesn’t trust this, either. The house slowly comes into view, and it’s less of a house, and more of a stadium you’d expect to find in Greece. It’s completely white, with dozens of pillars on the walls outside, and only one large door as an entrance.

  “This is too easy,” I say quietly. “Nothing should be this easy.”

  “I know.” That’s all Azi replies to me, and the others are silent. Connor looks over at me, pulling his sword out, and stepping closer. I look to my right to see Nix has done the same thing as Connor, all of us are on high alert now. We walk faster up to the door, and Azi walks in first, with us all following him inside the dusty room.

  “What is that smell?” I ask, holding my hand over my nose at the awful smell of rotting that is filling the room.

  “I have a torch, one sec,” I hear Connor say, and hear him shuffling around in his bag.

  “I’m sorry,” I hear Azi say in clear sympathy, as Connor flashes the light on, and the sight of two bodies on the floor greet us. Connor’s flashlight falls to the floor, as I hear him step back, but I don’t take my eyes off the dead women.

  “No,” Nix says, his voice full of grief and horror. Azi throws a ball of fire up to the ceiling, lighting up the entire room after a brief silence. The women both have black hair, pretty faces, and long black cloaks on that cover all of their body except their faces and arms. Their arms are spread wide, both the arms are burnt but you can see where their runes used to be. They stare up at the ceiling with dead, empty eyes and I know straight away that they are the princesses from the reaction I see on the Protector’s faces when I look at them. I stand still as Connor walks to the side of one of the women, kneeling down, and closing her eyes with his fingers. Trex walks to the other woman’s side, doing the same, and unclipping his cloak. He covers her face and bows his head, whispering some words. Connor covers the other woman as I look around at the wall, seeing the writing in blood on the wall.

  “Come to me, the last one is where the sun touches hell,” I read out loud. I feel Azi come to my side, looking at the wall with me.

  “I know where that is, it’s not far from here. We should go if we have a chance of saving the last princess,” he says, and Trex looks at us as we turn around.

  “No. We bury Emily and Esther. We can’t take their bodies with us, but I will not leave them here in hell. We will have a fire built,” Trex demands, his angry eyes watching me. I don’t think he is angry at me, but he needs to bury them before doing anything else.

  “That could take all day and well into the night, and the last–” Azi starts off.

  “Will keep her alive. Roth is playing a game and wants us to come to him. He won’t kill the last of his bait,” I interrupt Azi, who looks at the Protectors, and finally back to me with a long sigh.

  “I will go and get wood,” Azi finally says, walking out of the room without looking back.

  “I’m going as well,” Nix says, and steps close to Connor. “You should come, too. We must bury our royals because they deserve that.” Connor stands up silently, and follows Nix and Azi out of the room. We are silent for a long time, and I only move to put my bag down near the corner of the room, looking in to see Star fast asleep inside. I don’t want to wake her as she walked for at least two hours today, and she must be tired. I turn when I hear Trex speak.

  “I grew up with Emily and Esther. They used to make me come to their tea parties in their treehouse when I all I wanted was to be fighting. When my parents were gone, Nix and I were sent to live with the royals. Erica didn’t want us there, but Emily and Esther did. They were like sisters to me and Nix,” he stops, his voice turning into a growl. “And I failed to protect them.”

  “You didn’t fail. This isn’t on you, Trex,” I say.

  “Does it take two of my friends being murdered to get you to be nice to me?” he asks, and I know he is changing the subject. He doesn’t look at me as he speaks, but I imagine I could see the guilt in his eyes. I can certainly hear the guilt in his voice.

  “I may not like you, but I know what it’s like to blame yourself for your friend’s death. I might as well have killed my guardian, my best friend,” I admit, my voice echoing around the dusty room.

  “What happened?” he asks quietly. I only tell him because I think he needs the distraction. Because even if he is an asshole, he shouldn’t live with this guilt.

  “When Hali was born, everyone wanted her dead straight away. She is a death-marked witch, after all. My friend, well she wouldn’t let her daughter die, so she ran away, and I helped her. It was eight years later that my friend came to see me, like she did every year, and that was her mistake. I told her not to come, but she wouldn’t listen. The witches found her, and I had to watch as I held Hali, as they drained her magic, slowly and painfully killing her. I couldn’t stop it, I couldn’t help her without risking Hali’s life,” I say, rushing the last of the words out. The only one that knows this is Hali, because she watched, too. I couldn’t make her look away, and she knows we couldn’t move to help her mother. We were lucky to be outside, walking back from the pizza place with food when they attacked.

  “I am sorry,” he says, and I know he means it from his voice.

  “When they thought she was dead, they left, and I ran to her, holding her as she died. She begged me to help her, to finish her off because of the pain. It killed me to do as she asked, but I told Hali to turn around, and I did. I couldn’t let her suffer, and that has haunted me for as long as I can remember. Don’t let this haunt you, get revenge instead,” I tell him. I look at the women, seeing how pretty they are, and how innocent they look. They didn’t deserve this.

  “Did you ever get revenge for your friend?” he asks, finally pulling his eyes away from the princesses, and to me. I pause for a second, deciding if I should tell him, but something in his green eyes makes me want to.

  “I get revenge every day that Hali lives. She is destined to kill a royal witch, and there is only one queen of the witches left, the woman who killed my friend. That is Hali’s destiny, and I will help her get to it. That is my revenge, even if it will take time, now think of yours,” I tell him, and walk out the building to get some wood for the fire. I turn back once and see haunted dark-green eyes watching me until I can’t be seen.

  Evie

  “That won’t burn, it’s too damp. The ones over here are better,” Connor tells me, stepping out of the shadows with three big logs in his arms. I drop the branch I picked up, following him over to branches that are hidden under the trees instead. He is right, they look drier than the ones I was picking up. Connor watches me silently, and he seems to be thinking about something.

  “I used to date Esther, when we were young,” Connor suddenly tells me, putting his logs down, and sitting with his back against the tree as he pulls his bottle of water out. I go to the tree opposite him, sitting down after putting my branches down next to me. I could do with a rest, anyway. We have been building the pyre for the last five hours, and I’m shattered. Star has enjoyed the rest, she has been running around after Azi and Nix most of t
he time as they built the main parts of the pyre.

  “How long did you date for?” I ask.

  “Not long, we were only sixteen, and when Erica found out, she told everyone. It wasn’t worth risking us being together after that,” he tells me.

  “Why wasn’t it worth it?” I ask.

  “The royals aren’t allowed to date until they are married, and I would never have been able to marry a royal because in the Protectors, I’m considered low-class,” he says, laughing. “Esther and I were never that serious, just kids messing about, really.”

  “I’m sorry she is dead, and you had to see her like that,” I say. It’s not a nice way to see anyone dead. Rotting, and their arms all burnt like the princesses’ were.

  “I’m sorry she didn’t survive this; the world needs people like her in it. She was a good woman. She has three farms she bought with her inheritance, and she used to rehome animals in them. The keepers didn’t like her helping others, but she did anyway,” he says.

  “She sounds like a good person,” I reply.

  “She might have made a good queen, Emily would have, too,” he says quietly and there’s a long silence between us as I stare over at him. His gold hair is messy now, no more of the nice style it had when we came here, but I think it brings out his gold eyes more. I like the relaxed look on him. I can’t imagine him in the suits the Protectors usually wear.

  “So . . . Protectors have low and high classes? Like humans? Rich and poor?” I ask, and he nods, resting his head back.

  “Yes, it’s like how humans used to class themselves, but worse in some ways. Blood means everything to Protectors, it determines how strong you are and most of the time you are as strong as your parents,” he says.

  “Why did they choose you to come here then? I would have thought they would have sent their strongest,” I say, and wince. “No offense.”

  “None taken, because I am one of their strongest,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders, but he doesn’t say it a cocky way. More just stating a fact.

  “Then, I’m confused,” I say, making him laugh.

  “I’m not one-hundred percent Protector, my father was a reaper,” he says, shocking me.

  “Reapers don’t breed outside their race, and no one knows much about them. It’s crazy that you’re half of one,” I say, and he nods with a smirk. I try to think about anything I’ve heard about reapers as I look at Connor, and don’t come up with much. Human rumours are all I can think of. Reapers are meant to take souls and demons to hell, but who knows if they do? Protectors take a lot of the demons to hell these days, so how useful could the reapers be?

  “Yeah, I don’t know much about my father or my reaper side. I only know I have boosted strength, heighten senses, and I can see some souls on earth if I’m really close to them. Usually, I can see their souls if I watch them die, also,” he explains. “It made me jump up the ranks in Protector academy and leave as one of the top students. Nix, Trex, and the three princesses were the others. We all got pretty close scores.”

  “Then, maybe the rumours that reapers take lost souls to hell is true,” I say.

  “Yeah. I mean, I know some things my mother told me. I don’t get to see her for long, and we don’t talk of my father much of the little time we have once a week,” he smiles sadly. “She told me that my father takes the worst kind of demons back to hell and manages souls. That’s the job of a reaper apparently.”

  “What do you mean about your mother?” I ask, and he looks away, tightening his jaw.

  “She is imprisoned for the rest of her life. She has been in there since I was born, and I was placed in an adoptive home to be watched. Once they realised I wasn’t a danger, they let me see her once a week,” he tells me, still not looking my way.

  “What was she imprisoned for?” I ask.

  “Loving my father and keeping me a secret until she was in labour. Mixing Protector’s blood with other kinds is illegal to the Protectors. Blood above all else is one of our most important laws,” he explains to me.

  “Then the Protectors are as evil as I thought they were. Your mother did not deserve that sentence for falling in love,” I say as I shake my head in disgust.

  “Our kind doesn’t make the right decisions all the time, but they make the decisions that keep us safe,” he says firmly, and I can tell he believes in the Protectors, their rules, and there isn’t much point in arguing with him. I look away, picking up some of the branches, and spotting a small, red bunch of flowers.

  “Can I ask you something?” Connor asks, and I look away from the flowers for a second to nod at him. “Who taught you to fight?”

  “A demon,” I say, not wanting to explain anything more. I pull two of the red flowers out of the ground, and walk over to Connor, placing them in his hand.

  “I watched a lot of people being buried in the demon underground. Every weekend, there would be burials of demons or some random person. Every time, they put a plant or flower in their hands. They said the dead should take a little bit of the earth with them in death as their souls leave their bodies,” I say, and he closes his hand over mine on the flowers.

  “For a woman people fear, you are kindest woman I’ve met in years,” he says, staring down at me with those addictive to look at, striking, gold eyes. I know I can’t look away, not as he draws me into him. If this was any other place, any other time, and any other person, I’d have his clothes off by now. The simple fact he is off-limits to me, is annoyingly as well. Everything is gorgeous about him.

  “I’m not kind, not usually, anyway. I’m downright evil when I’m pissed off,” I warn him, and his eyes gleam with humour.

  “I’ll remember not to piss you off, then,” he replies.

  “Who says we will even see each other again when all this is over?” I counter.

  “We will, because there is no way I’m letting you walk out my life, blue,” he says, letting go of my hand and keeping the flowers. I don’t move as he picks up his logs before walking away, leaving me a little speechless and fearing that Azi might be right. These Protectors are good at getting my defences down, and that is dangerous for someone like me.

  Evie

  “It’s time to start,” Connor says, gently touching Trex’s and Nix’s shoulders as they stand in front of the wood platform. The princesses are resting on top of it, side by side and holding hands. I watched as the protectors placed them on there, and Connor slid the red flowers into their hands on their chests. Azi stands close to my side, watching silently as Connor steps to my other side. I don’t know these people, and it feels wrong to be at their funeral. They should have people who loved them here. At least they have Trex, Nix, and Connor. Azi and I are just witnesses.

  “Emily Ravenwood and Esther Ravenwood, today we say goodbye to you, and free your souls,” Trex says, his voice seeming like it’s louder than it is, and it echoes around us. “As royal princesses, this is not the death you deserved, and I will forever be sorry that I couldn’t save you. As my friends, people who were like sisters to me, I will never forget you. I will never forget your laughs, your kindness, and your beauty. The world never deserved either of you, but we will miss you greatly.” Trex looks at Nix, nodding once before looking down before he starts to talk.

  “As children, you used to chase me around, telling me my hair was so soft that it could be plaited easily. I never did let you catch me, but I remember the night you snuck into my room and plaited it all in my sleep,” he holds up a piece of his hair he must have cut off, and plaited. He places it on top of the platform, holding his hand over it as he looks up. “You finally got what you wanted. I will miss you both and you will always be remembered. Rest in peace Emily and Esther.” With those final words, Trex and Nix step back, and Azi walks over to them, holding a ball of fire in his hand.

  “Tell me when,” he says quietly, respectfully.

  “May death guide you on your way, may angels save your soul, and may you be reborn true. We bless your death in the
light of the Protectors who fell before you,” Trex says, bowing his head. I’ve never heard the words before, but for some reason, they feel familiar. I can feel they have some great meaning, something that I didn’t quite expect to recognise or connect to, but I do. I know I have Protector blood, I have their runes, but I have never thought of myself as a Protector before. Never had connection to the people I share my blood with, and for a brief second as Trex speaks, I felt a connection. Nix and Connor repeat the sentence, and I find myself doing the same, quietly but I know they can hear me. Trex lifts his hand to Azi, signalling him to go ahead, and he holds the ball of fire on the wood, walking around it and setting every bit on fire. We stand still, watching the fire burn, none of us wanting to be the first one to move. Trex is the first one to move in the end, picking his bag up off the floor, and looking over at Azi.

  “Where are we heading then?” Trex asks.

  “It’s underground, and nowhere I should take you. Only overlords are meant to go there, but if Roth took your princess there, the rules have already been broken,” Azi says, picking his own bag up and walking around the fire to the building. I pull my bag up on my back, hearing Star’s light snoring as I follow him. Azi stops, throwing up another fireball into air as he kneels down to the spot where the princesses where left for us. He places his hand on the ground, into their blood and a red-light flashes once. The floor shakes as Azi stands up, walking back and part of the floor slides away to reveal a staircase. Azi goes to walk down them, but I grab his arm, stopping him.

  “What is down there?” I ask.

  “Do you trust me?” he asks, and I pause, staring at him.

  “Not with everything, not yet but are we safe?” I ask quietly, and I let go of his arm.

  “Nothing here is safe, but I will never let anything happen to you, Vi,” he says gently. I don’t reply as Azi walks down the steps, with Connor following first, and I go next, hoping I’m not making a mistake by trusting a demon. The steps go down for what seems like forever, and I slowly pull a dagger out as we walk down them. Azi keeps throwing balls of fire into the air around the staircase, lighting our way. I do spot the walls on the way down, seeing drawings and what looks like runes written all over them. I feel a little shake of the staircase under my feet, and then it shakes harshly, knocking me to the floor. The shaking gets worse, and I look down at the cracks in the stone under my hands, just moments before the floor falls in.