Page 14 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)

"He is a death god for Faerie sake!" she turned her fury on the solemn Shea, his lips thinning and his face darkening the more Remnant raged. "You! You are a death god with unlimited power! Surely you could have found another way!"

He narrowed his eyes at his daughter and all my claws extended slowly, preparing to fight the god of death, I knew the vest was the right choice.

"I am bound by rules just as all gods are.

My power, while mostly unlimited, cannot be abused without serious repercussions.

If it were not so, I would have saved us all from this misery thousands of years ago.

" Shadows spread across the table. "I knew of you the exact moment you were born and I paid the price by watching you grow up without a father.

Then I watched my son have to do the same as the price for my involvement in the wars, but it was even more than that, all memory of me was wiped from the mind of my soulmate, while I remembered our love, she did not.

" The night sky lowered down upon us as his anger built.

"Then I was forced to watch as she raised two children on her own, forced to watch and wait while you suffered because I was terrified of what the cost would be should I interfere again.

You think my power great but it is a prison, a prison of the worst kind of torture.

A prison of no power over what really matters. "

Remnant jumped to her feet, shadows flickering around her and dying out.

It was the first time I saw them respond to her since we came here.

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you then, death god… father ?” she snarled.

“You brought us here in deceit, forcing us to make the same sacrifices as you.

Does that make you feel better somehow knowing that we shall all suffer the same as you? "

The night sky lurched and the death god glanced up with his eyes shifting to gleaming pride and it was then that I realized he no longer controlled the night, Remnant did.

Ignoring her accusations, but fascinated by Remnant’s power he encouraged her. "That's it daughter…show me," he said, still watching the night, "show me how you can pull down the night, just like you did when you first came here."

Glancing back at my soulmate, my brows drew together.

Remnant usually commanded her shadows with ease, vast amounts of shadows, without strain, but watching her now—her body shaking, her chest rattling with quick breaths, sweat pouring down her brow and the shadows flickering in and out, I knew… knew something was horribly wrong.

Shea's dark look while he watched her also narrowed with concern and confirming that I wasn’t delusional.

Remnant truly no longer had control over her powers.

"You were already coming here daughter," Shea continued, his voice gentling, to ease the strain and her anger, the night swirling dangerously over us without control, "your shadow sphere made it possible for me to finally come to you, a way to hide from the universal laws that would punish us more had I stepped a single foot in Faerie.

Your mother and I have been waiting for an opening to retrieve you for years. But after the loss of your lilin—"

"Lilin?" Remnant staggered, the darkness wobbling towards us. "Is that what they are called? What does that mean?"

The death god growled, glancing upwards. "Sit down Remnant and release the night slowly, you are not ready for this power and it is putting us all in danger—your daughter in danger."

Startled Remnant glanced up at the sky. "I—I don't know how," she whispered shakily.

But I did.

Purring softly, I pulled my soulmate into my embrace, her legs straddling my lap as she fell into me, her face imploring me desperately for help.

Gripping her hands and turning them over, I rubbed my thumbs into her palms. "Breathe with me, my love," I whispered.

"Inhale." She inhaled and I smiled encouragingly at her.

Kissing her lips softly, "Exhale," I breathed against them.

Her eyes fluttered closed, her dark lashes brushing against her pale cheeks while she exhaled.

"It's just you and me, in a bed of clouds, rainbow crystals dance across our skin, you're listening to my heart beat, the way my chest rises and falls where your head rests, fitting perfectly into me.

" I kissed her again and her eyes snapped open, blazing with resolve, her fear gone.

"Now, little umbra. Release it, release the night. "

She blew out a shaky breath before the sky slowly receded back into the cosmos.

I grinned at her, nuzzling her nose with mine. "Well done, my fierce shadow savage. Pulling the night sky on your father…I am in awe of you."

She relaxed in my hold, her hands splaying across my chest beneath my rainbow furred vest, brushing her lips conspiratorially against mine. "Barely Emon, he was right. I didn’t have control."

“But you did in the end.”

She sniffed, “I really don’t like him.”

I chuckled darkly seeing Shea’s gaze flicker with hurt before smiling against her lips, "Sometimes we have to play nice to get what we want.

" Leaning away, I swept her hair aside, before brushing my lips against the shell of her ear.

"But you can play dirty with me later if that is what you still need, my little umbra. "

Remnant blushed but it was the intensity of the look she leveled on me that had me holding my breath.

"You're not giving him your soul, shifter.

There will be no Sheol for you in the afterlife if you do this, Emon.

That is what my mother gave up. An eternal life if she dies.

Your life will just come to an end and you will leave me here.

Alone. Always searching for my other half but never finding it.

Selfishly, I will not let you do this, we will have to find another way. "

"I know," I sighed.

Tilting forward, I gave her one last lingering kiss, one that promised of whispered worship, and watched as her eyes fluttered closed in sweetness. Exhaling softly, I forced my limbs to move, pulling away and determinedly placing her back on her cloud perch.

Her eyes opened, studying me, a small smile playing on her lips when I pulled her seat closer, grunting irritably, unable to tolerate not even an inch of air between us. Our thighs brushed, my hand searched for hers, holding it in tenderness, resuming my tracing on her soft pure skin.

Giving me one last assessing look, that pulled a smirk from my lips, Remnant turned back to her parents, squeezing my hand gently. “I will be okay now,” she said softly.

I squeezed her hand back, my other reaching for my own tall glass of ambrosia, delicately pinching the thin stemware between my fingers, annoyed with the worry that I may break the damn thing before it even reached my lips.

“Let’s start over, can someone please explain to me what the lilin are?”

I arched a brow over the rim of the glass, my lips smirking against the cool surface. “Did you just say please?”

“I am attempting diplomacy,” she snapped back.

I snickered, my laughter rumbling along our bond before slugging back the sweet ambrosia liquid, confident that I was not going to turn into a rutting animal this time like I had back in The Under.

"The lilin are not shadows like you believe, daughter. They are souls. Vengeful female souls that serve only one being. The God or Goddess of The Well."

I frowned, setting the glass down, tapping it lighty with a singular claw. "What is The Well?"

The death god's eyes gleamed hard as they fell on me.

"The Well of Souls is where all of us go upon death.

There we are judged and if deemed worthy, given permission to live our afterlife however we like.

Some remain in The Well along with the soulless, having never truly died.

Others choose the Eithne, and some…some choose vengeance, they pledge themselves to the God or Goddess of the Wells, waiting for him or her to collect them.

Those are the lilin." He paused and looked at us thoughtfully.

"I was once that God, conquering the lilin nearly a millennium ago…but then you were born daughter,” his gaze shifted to her with a soft smile, “I passed the lilin down the moment your eyes opened, ready to champion your world. Thus crowning you Goddess of The Well of Souls.”

"The Goddess of The Well of Souls. That is what you called me when I came here," Remnant murmured.

I squeezed her hand and purred proudly, “Your fan club just became so much more interesting, little umbra. At this rate I am going to have to fight off your admirers when they come sniffing around.”

She snorted and I chuckled again, refraining from adding that it didn’t matter who the fuck came around. I was the one and only in this fan club, and anyone who challenged me on it would meet a swift defeat.

“So the lilin are vengeful souls but for what purpose?” Remnant continued.

The death god nodded. "To rectify the wrongs of the past by preventing it in the future. Their power is vast, in all my years of godhood, I have yet to see anything else like it. Because of this, they can only be conquered by overpowering The Well itself, and only then, can their master abdicate them to others—like I did for you.” He leaned in gravely, “I must warn you The Well is treacherous, it does not give up its own easily.”

“Neither do we,” I snarled.

The death god glanced at me, before his eyes fell back on Remnant. “Only a few things can destroy the lilin. One of them is to obtain more lilin inside The Well to defeat the original.”

“And the other?” Remnant asked, her head tilted to the side, her hair falling silkily over my arm, studying her father with calculated calmness.

My fingers twitched on my glass, wanting nothing at that moment then to run my hands deeply through it.

Shea leaned back in his chair, “It's a myth only.”

"The choice to travel to The Well is yours,” Eve added quickly, her eyes flickering briefly at me, before gravely settling on Remnant, “but I have seen both paths, with and without the lilin.

And when the time comes to face Deirdre, as I know you plan to do, without the lilin—you will not defeat her, daughter. "

I swirled my glass, noticing that it had refilled itself. "Yet, your visions could be interpreted in many ways, Eve."

Eve turned her gaze on me. "Yes, King Strider," Eve said solemnly.

I drank deep into my glass before setting it down. “But you believe this is not one of those cases.”

“I do,” she pragmatically replied.

I licked at my fang glancing at Remnant, her eyes flashing at me like fierce emeralds before turning back to the death god, her body tensing as she spoke, “Is this why you orchestrated my arrival here? Why not leave the others out of it? Why bring them here if you knew the cost?”

Shea picked up his glass, his expression unreadable, “I did not intend for your friends to get involved but they refused to give your daughter to me and it was imperative for her to come to Sheol—as it was for your soulmate as well. You will need them both should you choose this path. Although, I hadn’t anticipated that your mate would no longer have my nephew inside him, leaving him vulnerable.

” Tilting his drink at me he took a long swallow, before shaking his head, “I simply did not see that one fucking coming.”