Page 75 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)

D espite having fallen into thousands of death memories today, experiencing the physical pain of their last moments, the feeling was still utterly strange and disconcerting.

I felt a heartbeat that was not mine, breathed air into my lungs that were not mine, heard the thoughts and felt the actions that were not mine—and yet they were. I was the bystander, feeling everything and knowing nothing at the same time.

So when the icy cold air hit Lova, I gasped inwardly, all while her shifter lynx form puffed the frigid air with very little discomfort.

This cold was different, it was a void, empty, and barren.

It soaked through the bones and left a deathly chill that seemed to never end.

But despite its bleakness, her world was still awash with color while she scented the air.

I marveled at the way her predator saw it—more than transfixed by the blood splattering the frozen ground, barely crunching beneath her wide paws as she stalked the battle around her.

"Welcome to the Sanguine, a barren cold that leaves you feeling nothing but endless despair," Lova whispered in my mind dryly.

I snorted back my response, continuing to be enamored by the way she moved. She was small, unnoticeable in this climate until suddenly she was not.

Her attack was quick, swift, and the metallic taste of blood became strong on my palette as she pulled down target after target of the blood fae she stalked while a battle raged on around her. Her recent victim gurgled their last breath when Lova’s fangs ripped her throat out without remorse.

“I enjoyed killing them with my own teeth, just like how they killed so many of my kin, my friends in kind,” Lova commented, watching herself proudly.

Bodies became a blur around her, as she continued to utilize her shifter speed to take down more blood fae, but her tactics were soon noticed and Lova found herself encircled by powerful blood fae warriors, their eyes glowing red and their skin youthful from their most recent feed.

Hissing, Lova’s head swiveled side to side, licking at the blood that stained her lips and fur, assessing their heartbeats to read who would attack first. Her claws crunched as they dug into the frozen earth when her body coiled, ready for the blood fae’s first move.

But before a single one of them even shifted their feet from the ground, lightning blasted them all from above. Fierce bright blue and white, it sizzled hot, striking them all dead, leaving behind piles of ash.

I wrinkled my nose at the stench, as did Lova. Looking up, her yellow eyes narrowed on Bane "the bloodied" Steelhead sliding across the frozen tundra, coming to her rescue, blood pouring down his face and a grim look in his bright blue eyes.

"They captured Calliope!" he hollered over the sound of the battle that roared with growls, screeches, and screams. Weapons and claws clashing together, drowning out his words quickly even with him only a few paces away.

A bright light had Lova shifting into her fae form, instantly drawing her sword, she faced the fear wrought on the swordmaster's face. Bane never showed his fear but this was different…

"She was pregnant," Lova whispered to me. "She should have never been out here this day."

"Where is she?" Lova screamed at the swordmaster, punching him hard in the gut to shake the shock glazing over his eyes.

Bane grunted, glaring at her through his anger and despair. I watched as Lova breathed a sigh of relief, recognizing it for what it was. She needed Bane “the bloody” right now, not ‘the friend” who was on the verge of panic.

Snapping his head over his shoulder, he glared out into the distance, his fist clenched as he directed fierce lightning across the tundra, striking down another dozen blood fae his comrades were struggling to defeat. "South, I have been tracking them south!"

Hissing, Lova turned, sniffing at the air and narrowing her eyes on the barely there tracks in the cold earth. "I hope you can run swordmaster."

Bane grunted, "Let us see who hunts the best, shifter."

Lova grinned, flashing back into her lynx form and taking off with a long leap across the snowy ground. The swordmaster huffed behind her, his feet surprisingly light for a fae his size, a version of him I knew well. I had, after all, trained with him during my early faeling years.

Easily beating Bane from the start, Lova spied the disgusting metallic trail of blood the arrogant sloppy blood fae left behind and with it, Calliope's scent, cedar, warm and trustworthy.

"Who is Calliope?" I whispered inside her mind, watching the world blur by her in an array of color again, her slight puff of breath in the extreme cold showing her incredible endurance at the speed at which she hunted.

"She was a fierce shifter fae, pregnant with twins during the wars," Lova answered me as we watched her hunt.

"Like I said, she was not supposed to be here, her mate had just fallen in battle days before and she was wracked with grief.

Revenge had clouded her judgment and instead of keeping her and her mate's legacy alive, she chose to make the blood fae pay. "

Twins. My mind whirled hearing Penina's angry voice from the night we stayed at the summit of the Red Cap Mountains. "You always love to remind me of how old I am, you fucking fossil. But you know my very birth had everything to do with that goddess forbidden land since you were the one who cut me and my twin out of our mother’s dead drained body.”

"Calliope is Penina's mother."

Lova hummed, "Yes, but even more so, one of her unborn children had been prophesied by Talgira before her death as the next great seer of our time.

Calliope was more than just Penina's mother, for us she held the hope of us all and perhaps that was our mistake.

You see, at this time, Eve had not returned yet from Sheol, and our goddess was fading quickly, her energy drained by keeping our lands flourishing but also fighting her brother, the blood God Ichor. "

"Having another powerful seer born would have been a great threat to the blood fae," I whispered, seeing the scent growing more intense the further Lova ran, dark figures appearing on the bright icy horizon.

A distant high pitched cry that had to be Calliope had Lova bursting with additional speed, launching viciously at the first blood fae she saw.

The sharp taste of blood this time was even more satisfying than her last kill but it also mingled with the strong scent of Calliope—her friend, and Lova’s heart stuttered.

It was a deafening sound, one that had my chest tightening with grief. The same grief coursing through Lova.

She was too late. The blood fae had already started to feed.

Faster than her and now high on their nourishment of the shifter fae, they blurred, knocking her like a pinball from one to another, their cruel laughter rising as they taunted Lova with their strength while one took a turn feeding from her friend.

Her blood burned, and she dived, slashing out with her claws and severing the achilles of the blood fae nearby, sending him stumbling into his pack. She wasted no time then, attacking him as he fell and ripping out his throat, but again she was not fast enough.

Gasping and rearing back, a sharp blade plunged deep into Lova’s side and I screamed, feeling it as if it sawed into my own torso.

Lova roared, dropping onto her back and using her weight to crush the blood fae’s neck in a perfect twist. The plunging grip on the blade in her side released immediately just as the final sound of her enemy’s spine snapping echoed.

Shifting back to her fae form, Lova stumbled, shuddering with pain, holding the knife firmly inside of her. To pull it out now would mean immediate death. She backed up towards Calliope, her shifter hearing sensing only two heartbeats left, not three.

Lova faltered whether from the numbness of grief or the damage of the knife, it was obvious it took her great effort to stay upright, my own legs trembling with her. "Stay back, blood whores," she hissed, guarding what remained of her friend.

Grinning with confidence, the blood fae licked at their fangs, stepping closer and twirling their own blades in either hand. "You're going to be our sweet treat, little ancient." His accent thick with the hissing sneer in which he spoke.

Lova snarled, baring her teeth. "You'll be tasting nothing when I rip out your fangs bloodsucker. Your kind are a disgrace to everything that is fae."

The remaining blood fae laughed and their leader narrowed his red eyes. My own narrowed on the blood crystal tied around his neck, knowing first hand what it felt like to be drained by the horrifying stone from Bay’s death. "Typical shifter, overconfidence will not prevent your death this day."

She winked, seeing Bane run grimly towards her, "It's not confidence, it's a fact.

" Dropping low, Lova relished in the roaring sound of fire bursting into life just before it ignited several of the blood fae, killing them instantly.

The heat of the blaze was searing and I attempted to rear away from it, but Lova simply stared deep into its infernal depths, full of smug triumph.

There was nothing left behind, no bone, no metal, just scorched earth, the leader of the blood fae on the run, and a furious swordmaster who was closing the distance with more fire licking up and down his body.

Ignoring the blaze of heat the knife was ripping through her side, Lova rose slowly watching the deserters with Bane. "Leave them to me, swordmaster," she hissed and pointed towards where Calliope lay slain. "The babies, Bane. You must save the faelings."

Bane's blue eyes darted to the prone form of their fallen comrade, his fire snuffing out immediately, then back to us. "She is dead, you are alive," he argued, stepping closer to her, his eyes widening on the knife.

Lova shook her head, panting between her breaths. "There are two heartbeats, I can hear them."

Bane hesitated.