Page 4 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)
I stole the night from the death god—the darkened twilight sky, one massive shadow, and I bent it to my will.
Barely .
I could feel the strain, the threads slipping between my fingers, the shadows rebelling against my command, and the harder I held them the weaker the darkness became.
And Shea knew it.
His emerald eyes watched me, glittering with mocking amusement and a flicker of pride.
“Go on then, little chickadee, bend them, use them against me,” his deep otherworldly voice taunted, rings flashing as he waved at me to continue.
Baring my teeth, I hissed through them, ignoring the bead of sweat on my temple.
“I will not stoop to your level, death god. If you had ever been the father you claim to be, you would have known that I am no faeling, and I play by my own set of rules now. So you can take back your darkness.” Flinging the shadows back into the cosmos, I withheld the sigh and ignored the fact that I had truly lost all my power, “I never needed it anyway and I definitely don’t now. ”
Stepping backwards, I allowed my friends to converge on him, taking Riella off of the back of Asher’s wolf in my retreat—something I had never done before, but my daughter was the most important thing now, not my ego.
Emon slid in front of us and I caught his flickering worry for me before his fangs descended and claws bared in a protective stance. Growling, he commanded Penina’s leopard and Tyr’s tiger with that singular sound to prowl around the death god.
“Xi.” I did not need to evoke a command, we had battled together long enough that I valued her quick decision making and keen strategy.
She was a cunning earth elemental and that would hold true today when with just a flick of her hand, the white sand warriors threatening us shattered, their tiny granules of sand suspended high in the air.
Bane grinned, his teeth flashing brightly as he cracked his knuckles, sparks sputtering in his eager ice blue gaze.
“I can work with this.” Instantly, lightning crackled all over his body, and ignited brightly in a dazzling spider webbed explosion, targeting every single sandy grain and turning them into suspended glass.
Riley winked at me, latching onto the glassy shards with his air before they fell. “I do so love playing by your rules Rem.”
My lips twitched with amusement, revealing the pride I felt for him and all of them as the glass shards spun in a whirling cyclone around the death god and the shifters followed.
Glaring at Shea through the dark strands of my wind blown hair, I snarled. “Your move, death god .”
Emon flashed me a feral grin. “Savage,” he cooed and I grinned back.
I had never sought the approval of others but for some reason hearing it from the deep growling tones of my soulmate made me want to seek it more.
Through a mask of indifference that I reluctantly had to admit must be a family trait, the death god stared back, past the threat, past Emon, and straight into my own gaze. The look itself was powerful enough to seize my chest, viciously hooking into me from across the white sands unmercifully.
“So be it,” he finally said, crossing his arms in front of his chest, straining the black silk of his shirt while the intensity of his godly gaze still held me hostage.
Perhaps it was the dim light, or the reflection of the glass spinning around him but I could have sworn I saw sadness flicker in his emerald eyes and I snarled, he had no fucking right to play victim here.
“Eve, my love, please help our daughter see reason.”
Inhaling sharply, I froze, this time not from the death god’s fierce gaze but from the gorgeous splendor of my mother with her black hair flowing around her like the shadowy past she appeared from.
Fear, guilt, elation, joy. I felt it all in a span of seconds and it was enough to send me crumbling just like the last time I had seen her, in the City of Light, when I cut ties with my family to save them.
“Breathe, little umbra,” Emon commanded softly in my mind, sensing the panic before it even began. “Just keep breathing, I am here. We are here.”
I released the breath I had been holding, seeking Emon’s spiced chocolate scent and allowed it wash over me, a warm blanket in the cold cruelty of this world.
Elegantly poised, even her tears looked regal as they flooded her eyes. “Hello my little chickadee.”
A strong hand settled on her shoulder in silent support and I followed that swirling tattooed arm up to the green eyes of my brother smiling at me through ringlets of curly blue hair.
“Kadey Kins,” I breathed.
“Hey Rem Rem.” He sent me a tentative smile before turning a darkened gaze on Shea. “If you need additional help, I’d be more than happy to oblige.”
The death god sighed exasperatedly. “Eve, my love, this is not helping. Our children. Reason. Now.”
My mother sniffed, smiling softly at me. “Shea, my love , I do believe our daughter looks perfectly reasonable to me.” Her head tilted towards my brother at her side. “What say you Kade?”
“I’d love a piece of him myself,” he snickered darkly, and I frowned inwardly. What had happened here that made my brother hate our newfound father just as much as I did?
I shook my head, coming to Sheol was just as goddess damn backwards as the lands of Faerie, everyone wanted a piece of each other, masking the true lurking problems beneath the surface.
Lowering Riella slowly, I motioned for her to stay behind me as I stepped forward, my hands fisting at my sides, “I want answers, why have you brought us here?”
My mother looked back at Shea and shrugged a delicate pale shoulder. “Sounds perfectly reasonable.”
The death god glanced over at her with amused shock, ignoring my question. “Are you not worried for my safety, my love? Our daughter and her friends are threatening to kill me.”
Signaling to Asher to fall back to Riella, I strode forward, a brief flash was the only indication that Bane had thrown his sword to me. Without looking, I caught it with graceful ease, twirling it in my hand, getting a feel for its weight before adjusting my grip.
Nodding, I signaled to Riley to part the winds, while Emon slowly followed me at my back, Tyr and Penina snarling their support as they continued to circle around the three of us.
The entire action only took moments to execute, so when Shea looked back towards me and the three moons light glinting off my raised blade, he blinked slowly.
“I’ll only ask one more time, father. ” I spat the word like one would vomit from their mouth. “Why are we here?” The coldness in my voice seemed to chill the entire air around us.
My brother barked out a laugh that was just as cold as my words, snarling at the death god. “I fucking told you.”
Shea’s infinite gaze regarded me with sudden sorrow. “You have lost control of the shadows daughter, and without them, you will never defeat the evil that threatens your world.”
I felt everyone still, as if we all stood on the precipice of fucking fate, and if we stepped forward we would find ourselves falling into its devious clutches.
Shaking his head, a lock of dark hair fell across his brow. “I am sorry for this next part though, daughter, just know it was the only way.”
I hissed and Emon snarled behind me, a steady strong presence at my back as I laid my sword horizontally across my fathers throat, standing on my tip toes due to his towering height.
“What do you mean you are sorry?” I narrowed my eyes on his, searching for the answers somewhere in the deep depths of this god.
Then the glass shards still hovering around us split back into grains of sand right before Xi’s gasping voice called out to me. "General…Rem."
Alarmed, I turned away from Shea, knowing Emon stepped into my place, and caught the sight of my friend crumpling to the glimmering silver path.
"Xi!" I cried out stepping towards her, but sudden lightning and winds rushed by me, Bane and Riley immediately at her side.
Riley’s panicked gaze looked up. “Her heart beats but I cannot feel her.”
Tyr’s tiger snarled behind me and Bane’s face turned grim watching him. “Her light is gone.”
At the swordmaster’s words, Emon hissed, lunging for the death god, his claws tearing into the gentle silk of Shea’s shirt. “What the fuck is this? What have you fucking done?” he roared.
Disgusted, the death god peered down at my soulmate and waved his hand sending him sprawling backwards.
“I have done what I must,” not even reacting when Penina’s leopard and Tyr’s tiger lunged for him, fangs and claws bared, he smoothed his shirt.
As if knowing they would never reach him, he did not seem surprised when they fell mid attack, shifting back into their fae forms, deadly still in the white sands.
Blurring to Penina’s side, Emon pulled her limp body into his arms. Leaning forward when her lips moved, he bent his ear down to catch the barely audible whisper before her head slumped back and her eyes closed.
Stilling, Emon reared back, his bronze coloring turning an awful shade of gray as our eyes met.
Dread. Pure dread, seeped into my soul, we had fallen off the cliff playing right into fate’s hands and for the first time in my life…I didn’t know what to do.
"They are still alive, barely," Emon growled.
Then all at once our family crumbled.
First Asher’s wolf fell, a soft whimper escaping his snout before he shifted back into his fae form with Riella clutching at his chest. “No! Papa Asher! Wake up. Wake up!"
Running to Riella, I pulled her into my arms when Bane’s voice barked out.
"Dark.”
I spun back around to see him catching the unconscious Riley in his arms with a grunt, sweat pouring down his face as he blinked at me, fighting whatever was taking them down.
"Make him pay for this girl," he half slurred, half growled before falling, still managing to hold Riley protectively in his embrace, his eyes falling on Penina before they closed.
Looking up at the death god and shielding Riella, I attempted to call the shadows to me, to find a way to stop this…I needed to stop this. But they did not respond, not even when I attempted to pull them from the sky, or the soft shifting sands.
Frustrated, I screamed at the death god.
"Why! Why are you doing this? Stop this now…” Heaving with tears of betrayal, I looked past the death god to see the dark anger on my brother’s face directed straight at our father and the sad eyes of my mother watching—just fucking watching.
“How can you let him do this?” I whispered brokenly.
It was clear, I did not know them. The mother and brother I once knew would have never allowed this,
Riella sobbed into my chest, her tiny body trembling with fear and the death god shook his head sadly, but I didn’t believe his sympathy for a second. "There is no way to stop what comes next, your mother and brother couldn’t have prevented this."
"Little umbra," Emon gasped, crawling towards me, his chest heavy with panting breaths, his gold eyes shining with a fear I had never seen from him before.
Stumbling with Riella still tightly in my arms, I collapsed next to him, cradling his face with my free hand.
"Father!" Riella sobbed, falling from my hold into his chest.
Purring, his arms wrapped around her. "It's okay my cub. I'll find my way back to you." His blazing gaze burned up at me. "This isn't death. I'll find you my soulmate," he growled before his dark lashes fluttered closed.
I felt the world tilt the moment his eyes shut and I forced myself to look up at the bright emerald gaze of the god of death watching me. “Please,” I whispered brokenly, the cosmos swirling in my vision, a harsh array of neon and moonlight as I fell to the white sands beside my soulmate.
Before I met the ground, strong arms enveloped me. The furious gaze of my brother staring back at the dark looming god.
"Fuck you and your fucking plans! This wasn't the way! She will never trust you or us ever again. Never! Just like I never will," he roared.
I whimpered and his furious face snapped down to me, softening slightly but still full of so much anger—just like the last time I saw him when he disappeared from my life in shadow.
"Don't worry Rem, Rem. I got you. Always."