Page 50 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)

T he last time I watched my soulmate and daughter sleep, I was awestruck by their very presence, but now—now it felt like I was desperately clinging onto each breath, each heartbeat, feeling the seconds stripping away our future.

My time was running out, that much I knew, but the rest was needed. Hell was not for the tame, and we did not know what The Well would bring.

I stared at the letters stacked and bound neatly by a leather cord before me, the firelight highlighting the fine script lovingly marked on each thick sheet by my cramped ink stained hands.

I had run out of paper.

There were over a hundred letters and it still wasn't enough…not even fucking close.

No letter, no poem, no fucking story could ever come close to what I felt for the shadow fae laying beside the warmth of a fire with our daughter wrapped protectively in her arms. My soulmate was a warrior, a protector of beasts, a fiercely loyal friend, a cunning strategist, a sensual lover, and now a doting mother ready to sacrifice herself to the world.

I fucking loved every broken piece of her, honored to stand by her side, and yet I wrote letters. ..like a goddess damn coward.

Disgusted, I swiped up the stack, and growling at the perfectly folded pieces of paper, I placed them with great care back into the pack—knowing they would be safe until the time came.

Time.

Fuck whoever invented time. They were torturous bastards who must have savored its painfully slow passage and yet—relished accelerating its sadistic torment into having one beg for just a few more seconds of its cruel passing.

I did not enjoy falling prey to its ruthless schemes and I could feel the slightest changes in my body begin. The soulless sleep would not be much longer now.

Snarling silently, I rose and started to quietly pace, picking my way along the rocky interior of the cave. I was a fucking mess of emotions with the physical charged intensity of a beast…I needed to feel the same strain on my body that I now felt weighing heavily on every fabric of my soul.

Keeping enough distance to not wake my daughter and mate but close enough to still see them in the fire glow, I dropped into the shadows of the cave, and began to move.

Silently, I shifted in and out of forms, physically exerting my body to erase the deep ache that was festering inside of me and then—releasing it.

Finally able to breathe deeper, clearer, and calmer.

I could smell my soulmate's natural floral perfume steadying my heart, the cinnamon spices still left on my daughter's soft breath was the best air in my lungs, and the warmth from the scent of ash easing the knots in my body.

But there was also something else.

I sniffed again, noticing an odd underlying smell within the moment of tranquility.

The scent of waterlogged decaying meat.

Eyes snapping to the darkness, I dropped into a crouch, slowly backing towards the firelight, each step quiet and soft as I concentrated on the new unwelcome scent.

"Wake, little umbra," I jolted her with the sharp internal command.

Emerald eyes flew open instantly, the shadows snapping over our daughter and out in front of me as she sprang from the bed roll. Searching the cave, she went back towards the pack, slinging it over her shoulder, while at the same time drawing a blade from its depths.

"Friend or foe?" she whispered to me.

My claws lengthened, inhaling deeply, I shook my head, "What is the difference in these lands?" I whispered back to her, tilting my head as the scent grew closer.

"Time?" Her calmness a balm to the rising predator thrashing inside of me wanting to protect.

"None. It's already here. It watches and it waits." I scanned the darkness tracking its almost silent movement, and then I turned with it.

It was circling us.

Remnant crouched and I could see her waking Riella, pressing her hand softly over our daughter's mouth as she woke with a small squeak. Blinking up at her mother, confusion lined her perfect petite brow.

Suddenly the scent of putrid meat and salty water was everywhere—behind us, in front of us, above us.

"Run!" I bellowed to my soulmate and daughter as I lunged into the path of a gigantic fin framed head, mouth open wide and dripping with snake-like fangs.

Its strike was aimed to devour my mate and child in one swallow.

I grunted when my shoulder met its massive skull, pounding it straight into the unforgiving cave wall.

Pinning it there, I roared over my shoulder to Remnant, "follow the caves into the deep! "

Jumping away from the fall of crumbling slate the massive creature shrieked, its cries bellowing loudly within the cave causing a cataclysmic rain of more rock and the snuffing out the fire's glow, draping us all in darkness.

Snarling, I shifted with ease and my panther eyes adjusting perfectly to the sudden depth of black and highlighting the color of smells, movements, and sounds.

In the distance, I could hear the lightest footfalls of my soulmate and the whisper of shadow that could only be my daughter blurring alongside her.

I grinned inwardly. Jar had been right, her power was manifesting itself just when she needed it the most and it was growing stronger with each passing day, as was her scent.

Prowling back and forth, I assessed the beast thrashing its great finned head back and forth—a head attached to a long scaly snake-like body.

Stunned, the massive creature shook off the momentary blow and turned back towards me.

Mouth opened wide, it sent me a violent hiss, full of fangs that spat poisonous venom in my direction.

Sidestepping the spray, I watched the deathly liquid burn deep holes into our bedding and through the rock underneath it while serpentine white eyes glared with deadly retribution.

Dipping my head low, I bared my teeth in challenge, hissing ferally back, my tail flicking back and forth with each slow prowl. I just needed the damned thing to keep its attention on me—only on me.

Pleased that my daughter and soulmate’s hearts were becoming fainter with the growing distance, I snarled again, watching the creature’s serpentine body curl at the threat while my mind searched to categorize this new beast of Hell.

Sharp teeth, fanged venom, wide flaring fins upon its snake-like head, vertical white eyes, iridescent scales shifting in color, a long coiling body with a powerful finned tail meant to propel within something much different than dry land.

My eyes widened. An oilliphéist.

It had been a long time since I had come across the great worms of the water, natural enemy of the water dragons and much more primitive in their insatiable appetites, they once overtook the seas like parasites, breeding much quicker and faster than the dragons, and robbing the sea of its resources.

When the time came for intervention the courts hunted them to the brink of extinction—the great solstice hunt of the lakes and seas.

My father once came home with the head of one. He dragged its bloody carcass inside and was nearly murdered himself by my mother for it.

I eyed the massive scaled body of the worm serpent in front of me. It had to be three times bigger than the one my father had proudly mounted on a wall in our home.

"I smell my youngs’ blood on your hands, shifter fae," a feminine hiss caressed the inside of my skull.

I tilted my head with sudden understanding…this wasn't just any oilliphéist, it was the mother of them all. "caoránach," I growled back.

A forked tongue flickered in the air. "Smart little shifter king but not smart enough not to enter my lair. I will savor the taste of your young in payment of the ones I smell staining your claws," the demon mother of worms hissed.

Fuck Zazion, he wasn’t lying when he said his protection would be lifted once we entered the cave but he certainly played his omission card well.

Feeling darkness brush against my fur, I glanced down to see the shadows shifting around me.

I chuckled, slinking into them. "We will pass on your midnight snack, mother of worms." Fully camouflaged and hidden both in scent and sight, I watched its panicked forked tongue flicker frantically for my presence.

I grinned. The caoránach was blinded without her senses to rely on .

It shrieked, lunging and snapping its jaws mindlessly into the darkness.

Slowly, I backed away towards the deep recesses of the cave where I could feel the pulsing bond of my soulmate.

My trust in the demon prince of greed was becoming less and less as I quickly picked across bones of recent and long dead demon remains.

" Emon?" Remnant whispered in my head and my gaze scanned the room quickly, frowning. " Up here shifter ."

Narrowing my panther eyes, I looked up to see Remnant and my daughter perched on a rocky ledge.

Dropping low, every muscle of my body coiled before springing my massive cat body upwards, landing softly on top of the outcropping in a silent crouch.

Remnant’s lips pursed as she looked up into my feline eyes. " It's a dead end…unless." She waved towards a deep pit at the center of the cave I had moved around in search of them.

I shifted back, holding back a grunt when our daughter silently jumped towards me, gripping my leg tightly. I patted her head affectionately and then sniffed at the air towards the pit. "Water?" I shivered, peering down at its never ending depths.

Remnant nodded.

I shook my head. "Too risky. There has to be another way."

There was a large snapping of bone and all three of us looked up suddenly. I flinched at the soft hiss that echoed off the cave walls stirring the decaying stench.

Remnants eyes widened. "Please tell me that it is not what I think it is?"

"A caoránach, mother of demon water worms? Sorry to disappoint."

Riella shivered next to us, backing away suddenly from the terrifying beast and tripping back against the rocky wall, setting off a waterfall of slated rock downwards.

Reacting quickly, Remnant weaved her shadows, concentrating on muffling the sound so that not a single one clattered downward.

The only proof was a plume of dust billowing around us, and then—Riella sneezed.

The three of us froze. The sound so horrifyingly loud in the silence of the cave that it seemed the entire world stopped to listen to it.

A cackling cross between a hiss and a roar followed quickly after and the large serpent crashed into the room. Her scaled body bouncing off the inner walls of the cave coiling higher and higher the more it infiltrated the space.

Riella’s lip quivered at her innocent mistake, looking up at me with fear in her eyes. Quickly, I pulled her into my arms as Remnant weaved more shadow to mask us from the caoránach's senses.

Its finned head swiveled around the room, white eyes glowing brighter in the pure dark with only the disturbed water sloshing out of the pit echoing off the walls. "No where to hidesssss," it cooed into the dark, this time for all of us to hear.

I glanced down at the pit and then back to my soulmate, her lips thinning while she pulled out the cú sith fang, reweaving the shadow shaft for the deadly tooth before passing it to our daughter, bending to kiss the top of her head in solidarity.

Looking back up at me, she nodded sharply, jerking the straps tightly across her petite frame, the muscles in her arms making her brands ripple.

I resisted the urge to rub at my own arms, instead I did the opposite and pulled the dirtied pink sleeves of my shirt further down, stooping to my crestfallen daughter, whispering into her mind.

"We are going to jump in for a swim, little warrior cub.

Any part of that worm even comes close to you, you stab it with your weapon, understand? "

My daughter's eyes lowered down to the exposed pit then back up to me, biting at her trembling lip, she nodded. "I am afraid, faedere," her tiny voice whispered back.

I grunted softly, brushing back the strands of her hair that had escaped her braid. "Fear is good Riella. I am afraid too. But it won't stop us, will it?"

Her eyes flashed a solid gold while she listened. Her grip tightening. "No." Her voice strong once more.

Glancing over to Remnant, I nodded, "We are ready, little umbra."

Licking her lips she wove a halo of shadow around her head, forming it into a bubble around her before doing the same for Riella and I.

“ We will have about thirty minutes of air, shifter. Swim swiftly and hard."

Hissing loudly the caoránach slammed its fangs into the wall only a few feet away, sending crumbling stones cascading around us. I lifted Riella into my arms. "Count down for me, my cub."

Riella's voice was but a whispered breath inside my mind. "Three," I stepped us both towards the edge. "Two," she breathed, peering down at the pit as I aimed our jump, her hand trembling around the spear and my shoulder. "One."

I jumped, the decaying stench of fish hitting my nostrils full force as I clutched my daughter tightly into my chest, looking up to see my soulmate watching grimly onward.

A shriek slammed into the cave walls and echoed around us in a chaotic symphony of the grotesque.

The demon worm's coiled body unwound swiftly, blindly lashing outwards for our location, nearly catching us mid-fall but the shadows were there, punching it forcibly away, causing more wailing that sent my teeth clenching.

My eyes never left my mate when she jumped down from the ledge only to slide down the looped body of the caoránach. I watched in fucking awe as she launched herself off the demon worm, twisting in a head long dive away from a venomous strike and punching her shadows straight into its jaw.

"Savage little umbra, you aren't falling for me all over again are you?"

Breaking into the deep water, her hair swarmed around her in a dark halo like a fallen gorgeous angel of death, fitting for being in Hell.

"Whatever do you mean, shifter? I have never stopped."