Page 80 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)

T he breath rushed out of us as we unceremoniously slid across the blurred silver path of the Eithne.

Zaki struggled to hang onto my daughter's shoulder, his body flailing like a windblown flag before he simply gave up trying and disappeared from existence.

Riella giggled as her slide sent her into a pile of white sand that rose to enfold her into its haunting waves, while my entire body slumped with exhaustion, stopping with a squeaky halt.

Flopping over, I breathed it in—the glory of the rainbow hues of Sheol's twilight.

The three moons glow, the sparkling stardust, and the cosmos beyond.

I let it all drape its peaceful presence over my tired body.

Screeching its greeting high above us and setting the sky alight, an fire phoenix streamed across it, embers raining down before turning into rejuvenating ash that kissed my face.

Shadows encroached my view, twirling shamelessly as if they were asking for praise in getting us back here alive.

I arched a brow at them. "You're not serious are you, you dumped us on our asses, how is that deserving of praise?"

Riella giggled, clapping for them despite my admonishment. "I think the umbras dida great job and it was fun!" She frowned then, looking around her, “I don't think Zaki had fun through, he is gone again.”

The shadows' antics intensified, banishing Riella’s frown, and I watched with a smile of my own as they lifted Riella into the air, tossing her into the star-filled twilight. Their boastful pride knew no boundaries, so similar to the shadows before and yet young in their experience.

My amusement was short-lived when I sensed the death god slithering his way across the lands, stopping in front of me.

Polished black shoes blocked my vision and I glanced upward, seeing the full powerful smile of Shea looking down.

His silver and gold adorned hand reached outward, offering it to me.

I sighed. I wanted to rage at him, to scream, punch, and kick his arrogant smile right off his face.

He sent us to literal Hell without a single word of the trials he knew we would face and it had cost us time we did not have.

Perhaps if we had been sooner, maybe Emon’s eternal soul could have been saved, maybe he would still have an afterlife.

Instead, I reached up and took it, blinking when I felt myself swiftly pulled to my feet as if I was his darkness to command with ease.

Still dressed in his well fitted black silk shirt and tailored pants, his bejeweled emerald eyes glowed intensely with admiration before I looked at the being gracinghis arm.

“Tell me you didn’t foresee this, mother.” I summoned the shadows to bring forth Emon’s body encased in gold and glass. The stars shimmered reflectively across the case almost as if honoring the incredible fae inside.

Silently asking the shadows to entertain Riella so that she did not become part of what came next, they rushed towards her in a flurry of dark waves. She laughed excitedly, shifting with them and flying through the air.

My mother smiled at my daughter and then looked back to me, sadness etched in her beautiful features. “Even if I had known, Remnant, you would not have wanted to listen, there was only one way for you both to survive this and the future to come.”

“Why?” I said, angry tears sprouting in my eyes,“Why then have Emon become a soul wraith if bartering his soul was the end result.”

She took a step towards me, her elegant hand outstretched to sooth my pain but I flinched back, my arms wrapping around myself and digging into my sides. Unable to stand looking at her, I turned away to focus on Riella playing with the shadows.

“I know you do not trust the sight, Remnant, but there has never been one more clear in my lifetime. Daemon knew this.”

I shook my head, swallowing back the bitter tears.

"Daughter, I know you are worried but what matters most now is that you accomplished what you set out to do and now you have what you need to defeat Deirdre.

" Shea's voice echoed with fatherly pride but I felt anything but.

I was beaten and battered, bereft, as if the trophy won held no meaning anymore.

This feeling—I recognized it, it was the same one Bane had the day he returned from the blood wars and like the swordmaster, I latched onto my anger to drive away the emptiness.

“You mean I now have the ability to save the Goddess, your sister. How long have you suspected that Faerie has been trapped in The Sanguine?” I seethed.

A cold smile formed on Shea’s lips but his eyes lit even brighter with pride. I goddess damn hated it. If this was what it was like to be a god, scheming without a single pulse on the feelings of others then it could go to the pits of Avalon’s Hell.

“Faerie has always done her own thing but to abandon her world…that is much unlike her,” he drawled, “So how long have I known? Since the Blood Wars ended actually.”

“And you have done nothing about it?” I snapped.

“Instead you brought me here to go in your stead. That was your end game? Not the lilin, not the souls of our people, not the souls of my friends or my soulmate. None of that mattered to you. It has always been about your failure to save your own sister.”

The death god’s arms folded, stretching the silk shirt over broad shoulders, his green eyes turning to narrow slits.

“You shouldn’t be surprised, my daughter, that we share the same loathing for those who have wronged us.

” He gave me a pointed look and I scowled back, “My involvement in Faerie’s conflict with our brother, Ichor, the God of Blood, cost me my family and a future life with your mother.

For the first few hundred years after the wars, I simply didn’t give two shits about what happened to my sister and before you go raising your judgmental head, a few hundred years is nothing for a God.

It may as well be days for us and yes, Faerie is part of the end game.

I know your healer explained this to you about the balance of your world.

Ichor gifts life through his blood, Faerie nourishes it, and I—I have the power to take it.

Without Faerie’s powers, your world cannot be nourished…

the lands will continue to die, lands my granddaughter will someday grow up in but—she is not the true end game.

Deirdre crossed a fucking line when she chose my family to manipulate, my family to destroy, and I will relish the moment you stop her heart.

” The sky darkened threateningly, the death god’s bejeweled eyes lighting up with fire, “And when at last, she arrives in Sheol,” he continued, “I will personally torture her putrid soul for all the years she has been gifted living breath. My plans for her after that…well, even Hell would fucking squirm at it.” He grinned, a pure evil smile, the sinister side of my father blatantly revealed behind his cultured poise.

“So were my intentions of bringing you here selfish? Perhaps, daughter, if you choose to look at it this way. It still does not change the truth. Without your powers you would not have any chance to defeat Deirdre, and without Faerie, the world you think you are saving would still die. Bringing you here, ensured your survival, your family’s survival, and the dreams you have of a hopeful future with them.

I can see it in your eyes every time you look at your shifter, every time you hear your daughter’s laughter, every time you dream at night…

a future you never thought you could have but now want with every fiber of your being.

I know what that feels like, and I will do everything I can to make sure you never have to live a second longer without that hope.

You may not like all my choices, you may not agree with my approach but know this—I will do anything for you, my little chickadee. ”

My jaw clenched, our blazing gazes dueling with each other.

My mother stepped between us, her gaze just as hardened.

“Remnant, there was a time where you implored me to trust you and I failed to understand—” my eyes cut to hers, seeing that moment clearly.

Her, Kade and I standing on the palace balcony in the City of Light, where I had declared my vows to serve the queen as her general.

“I am sorry I did not trust you and your decisions, I realized too late that you were protecting your court even while serving another,” she reached out to me, but I flinched away.

Her hand fell, “Do not make the same mistake I did Remnant, trust in our words even if you can no longer trust our motives.”

I moved further away, my fingernails digging even deeper into my sides.

I did not have the luxury to break now nor did I have Emon to put the pieces back into place.

Instead, I willed my heart to turn to ice again, it was the glue I needed to keep it together for the sake of my daughter, to save my new family, to free Emon…

“So be it.” My tone was cold and unfeeling but I could see that my mother understood while Shea’s growling revealed that he did not.

She stepped back into her mate and placed a soothing hand on his chest. He looked down at her hand, placing his own over hers, and I could see the painful look they shared between each other.

I did not have time to feel guilt for them, nor could I carry on this conversation further. Not without crumbling.

I searched the dim twilight, "Where is Kade?"

"I am here, sister," Kade’s strong voice called out from behind me.

Pivoting on my heel, my eyes drifted over his tall athletic form, the formal leathers of the shadow forces covering the tattoos we shared, but that did not hide the rest of the similarities between us.