Page 1 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)

Two Thousand and Forty Years Ago: Post Blood Wars

“Oh my chickadee, what have you done?” My mother’s sorrowful tone was like poison in my veins, burning and searing, and the disapproval on her regal face was the bitter aftertaste of that poison.

Standing behind her, in shadows that flickered in and out, my brother Kade’s disappointment was more direct—it’s sharp sting stealing my breath from my lungs, leaving behind nothing but a sickening ache.

Opening and closing my mouth, I was momentarily lost for words before the anger set in.

Gritting my teeth, I raised my chin. “I have done nothing wrong. You said yourself that I needed to come here, the sight saw me here. Maybe this was what it was for.” My shadows wrapped around me, their darkness soothing the gaping wound of my family's reproach.

I knew what my mother was thinking, I was young, just barely past my centum—fully recognized as an adult fae and no longer a faeling, I was also untried.

Except now that I was fresh out of my final stages of training, I was tired of being locked away from the Blood Wars.

I wanted to heal this land, banish the haunting ghosts the Blood Wars had created within the souls of all our people, and restore us back to our former glory.

But more importantly, I wanted to protect the remaining shreds of my family and court.

Staying in the City of Light allowed that and my oath finalized it.

“You would align yourself with her …abandon your own court,” Kade spat, his face full of dark anger.

Kade would never understand my decision.

He was still a baby in the fae’s eyes. My brother loved the City of Night and all of the shadow fae court.

He would be an excellent leader to our people one day and I was immensely proud of him, but there was nothing for me in our homeland, nothing that I could add by staying.

Ever since I was born, I had either been admired or feared for the shadows I wielded.

My power was isolating just as much as it was revered, and so an outsider I became.

It did not take my mother’s seer ability to know that this great power, unknown in its origin, was meant for something more, and if using it to protect my family was one way of achieving this then so be it.

Biting back the words I wanted to say, knowing they would not be accepted, I steeled myself against Kade’s anger and glared back. Play the game Rem . “I have given my oath already and accepted the position as the Queen’s War General.”

“Your oath—your oath was to our own court!” Kade hissed. He took a threatening step forward but my mother’s hand reached out, stopping him, her green ringed sapphire eyes never leaving mine.

I held her gaze. I would not be made to feel less. I knew what I was goddess damn doing.

Pursing her lips she shook her head, her long dark hair falling around her delicate and petite frame, moving like the shadows that rolled off her in the moonlight of the City of Light. “This path you take, it is a dark one.”

Bristling and hurt that my mother could not see my true intentions, I snapped.

“Your sight has been wrong before. You saw that I should have been in Atlantis, to save it, and look how that turned out. I couldn’t even save them all, let alone the city, and I barely escaped with my own life doing it. All because your sight said so. ”

My mother didn’t often flinch at biting words, she never showed weakness, and she never ever revealed her sadness even though Kade and I both knew she suffered. Unable to remember the fae she loved but knowing that a huge piece of her soul was somewhere out there, lost.

But this time she did, her face paling and her shadows sucking into her as the breath left her lungs, never exhaling.

Kade snarled, pulling her into his warm embrace and glaring at me through sudden hate filled eyes.

Eyes that spoke of abandonment and betrayal.

How could they not understand?

And just like that, the poison was quick, killing and severing the relationship between me and my remaining family. A sacrifice I was willing to make if it meant they were safe.

“So be it,” my mother whispered in the cocoon of my brother’s arms, a broken look on her face that I knew would haunt me for years to come. “We will always be here for you and we love you, my little chickadee.”

Then they were gone, shifting through the shadows.

I watched silently as the shadows settled, revealing the moonlit glow of the city’s splendor, and my hands fisted at my sides. Finally, releasing the words I had refrained from saying.

“I am doing this for you because I love you too,” I whispered brokenly into the night.

For my mother was not the same, the shadow court was not the same, and I was one of the few fae left that was not constantly haunted by the ghosts of a war. Being in the crown's favor was the best way to ensure their survival, I was sure of it.

***

“Mother?”

I watched the low sun sparkle over my mother’s bronze skin as she stood on the newly built balcony my father and I had constructed for her.

Following her gaze eastward, I could see that evening's darkness was spreading across the valley as the day surrendered to the night.

There was something so peacefully calm yet foreboding about it tonight.

As if the night was here to stay, blanketing us in armor for what would come next.

Queen Skylar of the shifters turned towards me, her light brown hair swept to the side in an intricate braid falling over her exposed shoulder, her stunning caramel eyes softening with happiness, replacing the worry I had seen there moments before.

“Daemon.” She held her arms out to me and I took them. I had grown much since the aftermath of the Blood Wars, now a fae in my centum years, I towered over my mother, forcing her to tilt her head high in order to meet my eyes.

“When did my cub become so handsome and so tall I wonder?” She reached up on her tiptoes and swept my hair back from my face.

Grinning cheekily, I took the queen’s hand and kissed it softly in greeting.

“I have you to thank for that, mother.” I gave her a shrewd look.

“But all mothers would say that to their sons I believe. Flattery won’t change what I just saw no matter how much you attempt to mask it.

What ails you? The blood wars are over, our people are happy again, hopeful with the building of Finlandia, and yet I find you standing here as if death is upon our doors. ”

She sniffed, her brows drawn. “I should rephrase. When did my cub become more like his father?”

I wrinkled my crooked nose. “Now that’s just insulting, mother.”

“You should be so lucky, fairy boy.” My cat retorted.

I growled.

“Whatever that nuisance of a panther is saying to you, ignore it my son,” she said, reading my irritation.

Sighing, she dropped my hand and turned back to the east. “You must learn to school your thoughts better and shield your anger at your beast Daemon. You both are stuck with each other. The more you learn to tolerate one another the better off you will be, especially as you enter the courts of the fae.”

I stepped next to her tilting my head in thought. “You don’t like the panther either, why?”

Baring her teeth, she hissed, “Of course I don’t. He took my son from me for weeks before you shifted back. A being of his power should have better control.”

The beast inside of me growled but he did not speak, staying blessedly quiet.

We were both silent for a moment as the night finally shrouded over us and the three moons lit the valley in a soft glow.

“Why am I so different?” I whispered, watching the shadows ripple as the grasses blew in the soft night wind. Something about them intrigued me…almost called to me.

My mother shook her head, leaning against my shoulder. “I wish I could answer that for you my cub but I cannot. Perhaps it is time we look at this as a blessing. The goddess knew you would need each other one day.”

“If only she would come back so that I could ask her. Why would she help us and then abandon us?”

“We are but mere pawns in the hands of the goddess, Daemon, but Faerie would not abandon us in our need. I fear…I fear it is more than that. Something we are missing, something we have forgotten.”

I exhaled harshly and looked down to see the worried wrinkles return on her beautiful face. “You don’t think it is over with, do you?”

She pursed her lips. “The other courts have relinquished their rule. Faerie crowns a new queen to rule over all…only we stand apart, only we have not bowed to Deirdre Seelie and she is not a fae to be refused nor ignored, Daemon Ash Strider.”

I scoffed. “Father would never put our people in unnecessary harm and there is an entire sea that separates us from her reaches. Not to mention Shen’s wall.”

My mother took a deep breath and stretched her hand out to the approaching glow of a violet wisp.

It snuggled into her palm, humming and pulsing with pleasure at her gentle touch.

“Never underestimate a fae that has not taken a moment to grieve, my cub.

A heart that does not grieve never loved, and if a heart does not love it only has one purpose.

Hate." She shook her head. "Deirdre suffered the most out of us all during the blood wars, events that would have brought even your father to his knees and yet…not a single tear has she shed. Instead, she celebrates by attaining power and a crown. A dangerous and dark path to take.”

Reaching out, I scooped the wisp from my mothers hand, and released it back into the night. “Love, hate, it matters not, I won’t allow any harm to befall us, mother. We will not bow down to her darkness should she walk that path.”

She grew quiet then while we watched the wisp disappear into the hills of the valley.

When its glow finally twinkled out of sight, she turned towards me, standing on her tiptoes again to kiss my cheek.

“I hope you are right Daemon.” She whispered softly, then walked away, back into our new home.

Pausing, she peered back over me, her caramel eyes softening.

“But know this my cub, sometimes—sometimes you can’t always stop the darkness from spreading.

Like the night…sometimes you just have to submit and unleash it in order to fight against it. "