Page 24 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)

" A pologies, there was something I had to arrange in preparation for your departure," the death god sighed behind us, appearing just as he left, in a violent swarm of shadow.

I released my soulmate, before Shea started to glare murderously at me again, and relished in the way Remnant’s eyes were blown with desire—desire that honestly was driving me fucking crazy.

I hadn't planned on seducing her. Most of the time I never did, but it was fucking impossible not to respond to her without impulsive need.

My shifter nature was a fucking beast with the early stages of our mating bond and I barely controlled the craving to possess her thoroughly, fully, extensively.

Even now, with but seconds since I released her, I ached to feel the softness of her skin again, to make it burn with the same passion that was a furious inferno inside.

“And what exactly would that be?” Remnant crossed her arms in front of her chest, pushing up her breasts high and tight in her leather corset and I fisted my hands at my sides.

“You shall see soon enough, daughter.”

His response made Remnant snarl. “Tell me more about the Vagari. What of the climate, the terrain, beasts we may encounter?”

I held back a groan at her vicious side. I fucking meant it when I said sometimes she acted more shifter than shadow fae. Her most recent reaction was the perfect example and the reason why I struggled to keep my hands off her.

Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair. I would overcome this.

I was a full grown shifter fae, I should be able to control these urges…except my soulmate was no mere fae female. To resist her was like holding my breath since she was the air I fucking breathed and without it I could not function either.

So I chose to breathe—only her, always her, till she could no longer supply me more air. But even then, I would find a way to make sure that fate never happened.

Unfortunately, true to her character, my soulmate did not make my lusting need for her any easier.

The shorts she wore were the same she had on when we ran my city’s parapets.

They wreaked havoc on me then and they were wreaking havoc on me now.

She knew it too—with every passing look she gave me.

Each time, her gaze trailed over my body, she set it ablaze, making me want to rip this damn shirt right off of me and fall straight into her trap.

I sniffed, my soulmate was clever, already sensing that I was hiding something but I was still a predator, never prey. She would not get what she wanted from me so easily. At least not until I decided to become trapped. Which was going to be a problem of fucking epic proportions.

"You must keep it hidden for as long as you are able to, Emon, or you both will fail." Eve’s words from last night perseverate in my mind, altering the entire course of what I had hoped Remnant and I’s future would be.

I ground my teeth at the word fail. As a shifter fae, I had never been afraid to fail. Our experiences were what made us formidable and failure was part of that. If I had succeeded at everything in my goddess damn life the first time, it would have never made me the fae I was today.

Except now there was too much at stake to even fathom the possibility and I would do everything in my power to make sure we got it right the first time.

We were not going to… fail .

Normally, this would be the time I’d rely on at least a snide comment from Ethereal but there was only silence and I hated that more than I ever thought possible.

Shea studied Remnant briefly as if he was considering his answer before he spoke.

“The environment and terrain changes based on the location you enter. A location that changes constantly, just as much as the beasts there. As I said before, souls in the Vagari torture themselves, and morph into many grotesque creatures. There is no telling where or what daughter, but what I can tell you is that there is not a single area within that side of Sheol that is not highly dangerous.”

"Typical, always the vague answer, you’d be better off going in blind Rem Rem for all the help he is giving you.

" Kade's voice sounded from behind us, having shadow shifted back with a heavy leather sack strapped to his chest. "Here," he said, lifting it from his back and hurling it at me without warning.

If Kade Dark was trying to get a jump on me he would have to try much harder. Easily catching the pack with my own speed and strength, I swung it over my shoulder, marveling at its lightness for a party of three traveling, and gave him a smirk.

He sniffed and rolled his eyes.

“So I noticed,” Remnant replied dryly.

The death god growled at his son, completely ignoring my soulmate, but the dark look he had now had me moving subtly closer to her. “Every day, Kade. Every fucking day, I have to listen to you bitch—”

“Shea,” Eve warned off in the distance. Remnant’s mother never looked his way, she didn’t have to but we all did.

Her tone, commanding and stern, said more than enough and I couldn’t stop my lips from twitching at the hideous contorsion the death god’s face took on.

If Eve noticed, she did not react. She just simply continued to entertain our unaware daughter with the shadows.

Her hands moving like a puppeteer, morphing the darkness to dance enchantingly and completely enthralling my cub with her silent picture stories.

Breathing deeply, Shea plucked at the silk sleeves of his shirt, rolling the cuffs higher up on his arms, revealing the same tattoos as my soulmate.

“Despite your brother’s belief, I do not purposefully mean to be vague,” his eyes bore into us both, “if the Vagari was meant to be understood then it would not be much of a realm for the damned, now would it?”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest, “yet still you are willing to send us there.”

His brows arched high on his head, “I have no qualms with you falling into the soulless sleep if you are too afraid to venture into the wandering.”

I could practically hear Remnant’s teeth grind.

I chuckled darkly, pulling my soulmate into my side should she attack her father with her bare hands. “Is it really me that is afraid, death god? Because I haven’t once heard you sacrifice your time to assist us in getting to The Well.”

“You dare?” his hissed voice was sharp.

My claws unsheathed and rapped on my folded arms. “Oh I fucking do.”

After listening to the tragic love story of Remnant's parents last night I realized that there was one major difference between me and the god of death.

I glanced down at the stern warrior face of my soulmate, taking in the way the cosmos shimmered off every part of her exposed pale skin and the way the white sands rose around her in silent beckoning—every part of this realm silently whispered its devotion to her.

Just like my fucking heart and for that alone, I would have burned down every world to get to her—I still would.

Rules be damned.

But not Shea, his dedicated love for his soulmate was obvious but his ultimate immortal self had no concept of time. For him, thousands of years was a blink, barely worth sacrificing a world for—obviously I fucking disagreed.

Eve was goddess damn virtuous for accepting it.

The death god’s nostrils flared and I could hear Kade laugh darkly behind us.

“I should not have to explain myself to you, shifter king.” He looked at Remnant imploringly, “but I will for you daughter. I cannot enter the Vagari because it will put your mother’s soul at risk if I were to linger too long.

It will change her and I will not allow that to happen. ”

Glancing over at his mate, his eyes softened when she looked up at him with a sad smile while the shadows swirled around her and Riella in a dazzling display of fireworks, butterflies, and pixies.

The control of Eve’s power was simply beautiful and gentle. It was hard to believe that she was once the hardened warrior leader of the shadow fae…one of the heroines of the Blood Wars that delivered the god of death on the doors of the Sanguine.

“But I can assist you…” his eyes narrowed on me, “all of you.” Then turning sharply, he whistled into the swirling galactic sky.

“Oh this is going to be good,” Kade snickered and Remnant glanced at me sharply before setting her eyes on the horizon.

Like fucking bait we waited and my fangs slowly descended, to prepare for whatever fucked up way Shea was using to earn his daughter's graces in own his favor.

I snorted inwardly, as if that would ever happen.

The haunting white sands rose slowly, arching over the widening silver path without a granule dropping on its reflective surface.

From it descended two flickering lights, floating down from the sands like hot ash sparking from a fire, burning bright before darkening and sizzling upon the silver surface.

Smoke rose from the burned embers, swirling and morphing into the outline of two very large beasts.

My nostrils flared at the scent and instinctively I edged even closer to my soulmate,

“Oooo what is that!” Riella’s excited voice reached me before her running legs did, and I swooped down, catching her before she ran straight into danger.

“You must be more cautious my cub, not everything here is safe or kind. You must be more aware, Riella,” I growled down at her.

When her lip trembled up at me from behind my leg where I placed her I immediately regretted my scolding. “I just wanted to see.” Those big swirling green and gold eyes undid me.

Fuck.

“I know,” I said gently, “and you can, from here, where I can protect you. Understand?”

She sniffed and nodded, “Okay. But what are they?”

I didn’t need to look back up to see the beasts walking towards us, their scent was strong enough. “They are called cù sìth.”

"It cannot be," Remnant whispered.