Page 42 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)

Then when those thoughts were too much, I'd talk with no ears to listen but for the unwilling beast inside of me.

I'd paint tales of new adventures I'd take her on, the beasts I'd impress her with, the nights I would lovingly cherish every ounce of her darkness, and the beautiful vision of her ruling my court alongside me…

the Finlandia sun highlighting her beauty down to her very soul—a soul I knew was just as searing as the heat of the lands we ruled.

"I am ready, faedere," Riella whispered, my ears twitching at the soft lilting sound of her voice.

"Can you hear me, my cub?”

"I can hear you, just like the last time, " she whispered, her small arms wrapped barely a quarter around my neck as she leaned low, her heart starting to beat wildly in her chest again as her hands embedded into my sleek black fur. "I can hear all things that wish to speak to me."

I purred, proud of the fae she was becoming. “Keep low and hang tight. I do not know what lurks in this forest and the needles on these trees are rough.”

I rumbled when she pressed even tighter into me and then stalked the branch gathering my strength to leap across the next wide limb, hearing Riella gasp as I landed softly upon roughened bark, the black foliage brushing against us with yearning.

"It is a true gift you know. Your secondary power to hear all living things,” I spoke to distract her, feeling her heart rate pound against my body.

“A fae is lucky if they are given one. Only the most powerful are able to evolve this way. "

I could practically hear her mind whirling with questions. "What is mother’s?" her warm breath whispered along my fur.

"Hold on," I growled low, sliding down a massive trunk only to spring sideways towards another large needled tree.

Something rustled in the brush. Lunging, my teeth sunk into the feathered neck of a large bird, a small tiny squawk the only sound it was able to make before its neck made a sickening crack and the strong metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.

The hunger roared to life inside of me but I was ready for it this time, shoving it back beyond the deep mental barriers I trained myself to build for Ethereal.

Riella stiffened on top of me.

"Apologies, my cub but I cannot have it revealing us, we are still being followed." Slowly, I lowered the feathered creature to the wide branch, praying that it would at least feed whatever else that lurked in here that may be hankering for a snack instead of us.

"I understand," her voice quivered.

My body rumbled with a purr to soothe her, feeling her sadness like a sharp stab in my gut.

Unlike all the fae I had ever known, Riella expressed her emotions outwardly.

Both joy and sadness were always so innocently naked on her face, a trait worth honoring and protecting…

even if our courts saw it as a weakness.

"Your mother has aura sight," I said, hoping to change her current sadness as my senses constantly analyzed and cataloged the world around me at a heightened speed, carefully dictating my route.

Something slithered and hissed above. The black imposing trees we traveled seemed much too conscious of our presence and brushed against us when I knew there had been more clearance just moments before.

It forced me to alter my direction often, and I just barely avoided a strange looking group of spiny flowers that grew on thick vines.

Their petals mouthed the air, reminding me too much of the ball biting dragon plants of Faerie.

"Faedere…what is my aura?"

I paused. My clawed paw suspended in the air while I searched my memories. "I…I do not know."

Her body wilted against my back and I realized then, that Remnant had never actually told me mine either.

"Aura power is not always reliable, like the sight it has its limitations.

What I do know is that your mother has never read another's aura for them and spoke of it.

They are like peering into the essence of one's soul and revealing the truths that could very well change someone's fate if they knew.

" I shot her a toothy grin over my shoulder.

"But we can still ask your mother when we see her again. Deal?"

Riella nodded against me. "Deal." Her mind was loudly racing again. "What is your secondary power, faedere?"

I hummed, avoiding dark drips from above that smelled of blood. "This is a secret I have not told anyone before, not even your mother knows. Do you think you can keep it for me?"

Riella nodded eagerly and I chuffed, launching higher up into a cluster of dense trees to avoid the drip of whatever poor creature was bleeding out from above us.

"Iron does not affect me the way it does most," I confessed. " Yes, it prevents me from shifting but the longer I am chained to it…the stronger my shifter strength becomes. My power feeds on it."

"Iron does not weaken you?"

I chuckled bitterly. "O h it weakens me plenty…initially but over time I can overcome it as long as I am not injured."

After that, Riella grew silent and so did I. The stark crisp scent of water hit me before the sound did…sniffing at the air I quickly realized while the waterway gave us guidance, it also drowned out the scent of our stalkers.

My hackles rose.

"Keep quiet and duck low," I hissed in my daughter's mind before I clawed us quietly into the deeper coverage of another heavily needled branch.

Its brush raked against us and my underbelly scraped against its rough bark.

Pausing, I lowered my head, my shoulders rising where Riella gripped me tightly.

Her breath increased quietly against my neck as we both peered down through the thick trees.

If the forest was ominously quiet before, it stopped breathing the moment the massive red demon, the same one that had identified us as fae, appeared along the river’s bank.

Bare from the chest up, his heavily muscular body rippled with agitation, as did his sharp whip of a tail, and wide thick leathered wings.

Growling, he ran his clawed hands over his curling black horns and flowing dark hair before snapping his wings wide and shooting himself back up into the deep red sky. Disappearing into it.

Riella's heart raced against my back.

"I am going to descend. He is looking for us from the air now," I called to her and then sniffed again.

"I can sense a demon camp nearby…" And that wasn't the only thing…

clenching my jaw, I held back the snarl of frustration.

We were quickly becoming surrounded by enemies, the opposite of what I had hoped for my cub.

Quietly, without a single sound, I dropped us from branch to branch in rapid descent. Registering the demon's scent deep in my memory, a unique smell of firewood, ash, and marshmallow…I quirked a brow at that. Surely a threatening demon wouldn't smell like a baking campfire?

Landing softly on the forest floor, I felt the dry needles prick the underside of my rough paws before I started to slink my way along the dense trees. Keeping to their main trunks that blended perfectly with my coat and far enough from the water’s edge to not be exposed from the sky.

I grinned when we started to lose the demon, but I should have known destiny was a bitch that had it out for me.

Stumbling, an abrupt wave of weakness blurred my vision and my front legs caved—the sound of my head crashing into the forest floor was practically deafening as it echoed through the woods.

Panting, the rest of my feline body involuntarily followed, slumping down as my mind warred to get back up.

Slipping from me, Riella cried out, her hands frantically attempting to pull me back to my feet.

When she failed to do that, she cradled my head begging me to get back up.

Unable to move, my eyes frantically searched up towards the sky, squinting through my blurred vision, my breath labored, but my scent—my scent worked just fine and the smell was one I knew all too well. Terror froze my blood.

Fearfully, I swung my gaze to my daughter, her swirling green and gold eyes a blur, my head heavy in her shaking hands. I could feel her tears dripping on my fur as she continued to plead with me.

"Run," I managed to growl inwardly, before another wave of weakness took me, a painful lurch hit my chest, and I felt my consciousness leave me briefly, hovering outside of my body like a spectator before slamming back inside of myself.

Fucking goddess, this was the effects of the soulless sleep. My time was running out.

"King Daemon…you will be mine soon…" Whispers and sadistic laughter filled my senses but so did that smell, the overwhelming stench of death and decay, of disease and rot…blood wraiths.

"No!" I roared, clawing my way back, blinking hard to clear my sight from the looming darkness only to stare up at a dark hood and blood dripping rags.

Snarling, I shoved Riella behind me with my last remaining strength, right before a blue blaze of fire from the blood wraith rained down where she once sat.

Its heat seared the edges of my fur while numerous shrieks suddenly filled the forest…

where there was one abomination there were hundreds more.

Hissing and spitting like a cornered beast, I dragged myself to shield Riella as the wraiths filled in through the gaps of the trees, the lush black needles upon the forest floor curling up and graying with the unnatural mist that snuffed out life itself.

"Run," I whispered to her again, feeling the blood wraiths descend, their horrid decaying stench filling the last of my senses.

Suddenly, a ferocious roar filled the air, sending wraiths scattering as the ground thundered from the landing of a great beast. Squinting through my tired vision, I stared at the back of the demon that had been tracking us, his wings spread wide, shielding us from the blood wraiths as fire ignited in his hands, lighting up the woods that I now realized was more than black.

It was an array of deeply saturated color, just as vibrant as the fluorescent life of The Under but in the opposite way.

"You're trespassing on the Prince of Greed's territory and I don't take kindly to uninvited guests.

" The demon's voice whispered promises of death and violence as he faced the wraiths single handedly.

Then with one powerful blast, a fire unlike anything I had seen wielded before, roared around him like the breath of a dragon, incinerating every single wraith within seconds.

The remains of their rags floating to the ground like black snowy ash, blending in with the dark saturated colors of Hell's forest.

It was as if they had never existed at all.

When he turned on us, his black demon eyes settled on mine. His fangs dipped over lips that were thinning with displeasure, and his wings snapped behind his back again, tight and rigid. A long lethal tipped tail curled around the black silk of his trousers like an irritated hand on a hip.

My head raised weakly in the challenge and I held his who the fuck are you really stare for a solid five seconds before my head hit the ground with a heavy thud. Riella's tiny voice frantic in the darkness of my subconscious.

"Faedere!"