Page 2

Chapter

Two

Liv

“ G reat, you just provoked a godsdamned Guard of the Aspis.”

I couldn’t keep up with the blue woman as we ran away from the burning field and into the black night ahead. I focused on her high leather boots. The world around me was a blur of smoke and ash.

I had lost everything. And he … he was gone. This cursed world had ripped a hole in me again . A whirling storm of emotions threatened to tear me to pieces. Or was that the evil magic I carried inside me?

“Slow down. I can’t keep up.” I panted.

The purple casings of my twin swords bounced against my legs, tugging my belt lower, catching on my cloak as I hopped over rocks and brushed past trees.

Kazhi had tied my blades to my waist, telling me to escape with the strange Aethar girl knowing it was my safest way out. She had also lied about who she was. An Aethar—my enemy and the enemy of the Guard she was pretending to be.

“We need to get to my racer.” The Aethar’s delicate hand gripped a tree as she maneuvered around it, her movements effortless compared to mine.

Her skin, barely visible in the dark under her long flowing cloak, was a pale blue with navy markings.

“It’s not far. But I doubt we’ll outrun the beast if you keep going this slow. ”

“I just lost the man I cared for.” My voice shook, the words barely discernible. “You living through this is not my focus.” I had to concentrate to avoid stumbling over every rock I passed. I was fumbling over pain … and anger—both equal to the other.

Why did it have to be him ?

Up ahead, the Aethar disappeared behind the few trees in the field. I wiped my tears, trying to clear my vision before I tripped over something. Although the sky was dark, the slight changes in the silhouettes told me the morning light was approaching.

“Don’t be rude to me,” she spat over her shoulder. “I’m risking my ass right now,” she disappeared again, “… knee-deep in Guardian filth for weeks.” Her dark cloak was all I saw slipping between trees. “… before they killed you.”

Every step I took pulsated with pain, although it was nothing compared to my chest.

I should put an end to my escape and turn back to my friends.

They’re not your friends anymore. You’re the enemy now, I reminded myself.

I grabbed onto a tree and pulled myself forward with a trembling hand.

The path ahead was on an incline, making it harder to avoid tripping.

We were cresting a rocky hill when the skies above us vibrated with the roar of the beast. Its thunderous cry pounded against my chest until my heart threatened to stop beating.

It invoked such fear I had no comparison.

The Aspis. The great black beast, foretold to return every millennium and save the people. It would hunt and kill its enemy, the Ikhor, and that was where my situation came in.

I was the great evil . The Ikhor. And the beast? It had been … no.

By some divine curse, I was possessed by evil magic—magic stolen an era ago and corrupted by every man and woman who had ever been its host.

The only problem with the whole “destined to be evil” thing was I didn’t feel evil. But the events from tonight triggered emotions I had repressed for years—they had been the catalyst in letting the magic loose.

The blue woman stopped, and I finally caught up with her. She stared ahead, past the single tall tree next to her. We stood under a pale purple sky atop a hill that dropped into an open plain.

“What are you looking for?” I asked when she didn’t move.

“A way forward. My racer is down this hill.”

I saw nothing in the gloom. “What’s holding you back?”

She tilted her hood up. “The open skies.”

I couldn’t distinguish the look on her face from the shadows cast by the night, but she was tall, and being looked down upon by a dark hooded figure made her appear like the evil one, not me.

“We are going to have to risk being spotted. I don’t know how well that thing sees in the dark.”

“I do,” I said quietly. “The man whose body it stole was a pure-blooded legacy of Night. He would miss nothing in the dark.”

“We must hope the traits don’t pass to the beast. We make a run for it. Jump on behind me and hold on tight.”

“Wait.” I grabbed her arm as she moved to run. “What is a racer?”

“Please tell me you’re joking.” She whipped her hood back so I could make out the disbelief on her face. Her skin was smooth, though naturally marked by many navy blue lines and dashes. Straight, pale blue hair flowed over her shoulders and down to her waist. She was young like me.

I shook my head.

“Gods help me. Just sit behind me and hold on tight.”

She didn’t wait for my reply, sprinting down the side of a hill. Her pace was reckless, but the roar in the sky, louder than before, had me running as fast as she did.

“How do we escape a dragon that can fly?” I stumbled down the hill behind her, trying to outrun my death. My flowing green pants swished around my legs, threatening to trip me.

“I don’t know what a dragon is, but my plan of escape relies mostly on hope at the moment. Also, you are the Ikhor. I assume your magic will come in handy when we need it.”

The Aethar assumed too much. She thought the evil possessed me and that I understood what I was.

“Once we get to my ship, I’m taking you to safety. And right now, that means leaving Guardian lands.”

“Aren’t we in the Median? It’s neutral territory.”

An uneven laugh came from her. “Nowhere in Veydes is neutral. It’s all under the Council’s thumb. We are heading to my home, where people want to help you.”

“Won’t the Aspis follow us?”

“I’m hoping that it will stick close to the Guards and that they will hold the Aspis back from crossing the borders. But, again, my plan is based on hope and your magic.”

Her home would be in Aethar lands. The Aethars I had met before were horrifying, nothing like the woman ahead of me.

They disfigured themselves from head to toe, hoping the self-inflicted pain would make them a suitable host for the magic of the Ikhor, because the magic always chose a host strong enough to contain the evil that it was.

Yet, the magic chose me.

The dark outline of what I assumed to be her racer grew closer as we neared the bottom of the hill. Pink tinged the horizon, increasing my hopes of escape. If crystals powered the thing, it would be our best chance of getting out of here alive.

As the Aethar reached the racer, she ripped off the weapon strapped to her back—the same one she had used to fire at Falizha, the Governor’s daughter, almost killing the horrible woman.

She strapped the weapon to the side of the racer before hopping on.

The racer was the size of a small, thin cart, not as tall as a horse, but she sat atop it as if it was.

I maneuvered around the racer, pulling myself onto a cold seat, and wrapped my hands around her waist. The unease of touching a stranger would have stopped me in the past. The fact that she was my enemy made it worse.

“What now?” I asked as we sat there, unmoving.

“Give me a second to start it,” she scolded, before a faint green-blue glow surrounded the Aethar. Something was lit between her hands at the front, but questions about the machine were wiped from my mind as the ground shook beneath us.

I sunk my fingers into her side. “What is that?” I asked, but I already knew.

“That is bad luck.” She looked over her shoulder behind me, her face paling in the dark, so I followed her line of sight. “Don’t look!” she yelled. “Hold tight to me!”

I barely had enough time to hold on before the force of the racer slammed my body back into the seat.

I pressed my legs against the hard metal to keep from falling.

The racer was silent as the wind whooshed past me, and the landscape tore away.

Rocks passed underneath like shooting stars, blurring further as tears formed when I didn’t blink.

Terror constricted my muscles, and I worried I would lose my grip.

A shadow passed over us, and the wind carried away my scream.

High in the sky, the beast snaked its way through the waking morning. The black belly of the Aspis glowed a rose gold as the first rays of sunlight hit its smooth scales. It was flying ahead of us now. Had it not noticed us below?

My shoulders trembled as I bowed forward, hiding like a coward behind the Aethar.

The beast roared again, curling its body to descend and cut off our path. It dove for us like a bird of prey, and I clamped my eyes shut.

Once more, it roared, and my eyes snapped back open to find it landing on the ground before us, blocking the rising sun. Its black horns curled away from its snake-like face, its hungry appraisal glowing with murderous intent.

The woman skidded the racer to a halt, trying to spin us in the opposite direction. My knees were so tightly locked in place that I managed to stay on the racer but lost sight of the Aspis as we turned back around.

Out of the corner of my eye, the beast moved like liquid over the field, parting the grassy plain with an invisible force as it advanced, and in no time it blocked us once more, its head larger than the two of us and the racer combined.

In the short time since it took his body, the thing had grown half as long as an airship.

Brekt.

To even think his name caused sharp pains of shock and sorrow to pierce my chest. My grip on the woman loosened as I held back the sob stuck in my throat.

In our short time together, I had grown closer to him than anyone—save my mother, whom I lost long ago.

He had been the closest thing I had known to love since I was a child.

Then destiny was called due. I became the Ikhor, which triggered the Aspis to wake, killing him in order to transform into the beast the gods had created to save the people.

The Aspis circled us, blocking any way of escape. Smoke curled around its body like a churning and shifting black inferno, and its yellow stare burned like the brightest fire. Its teeth—would those sharp fangs be how it killed me?

I couldn’t tear my gaze away, rooted to the spot. My breath burned in my lungs as it continued to glide on an invisible wind. There was no recognition in its eyes. Nothing human. Another sharp pain tore at my chest.

He was truly gone.

I had been angry—so angry—when the magic took over, taking away my choices. Now, a current of pain washed the anger away, drowning me. A fog settled over my thoughts—my body’s attempt to shut down from the anguish.

The beast’s tail, shadowed in smoke, whipped around, taking the racer out from under us, and a scream came from the Aethar as we were thrown to the ground, rolling to a stop.

I spit grass from my mouth, my legs shaking as I got to my feet, bracing myself for the beast’s next move, but everything was moving too quickly, the colours too bright.

I couldn’t see the Aethar through my panicked state, but I could see the black death before me, so I retreated, my knees buckling.

The sun highlighted every scale, every sharp tooth. My death was bathed in golden light as I shivered in fear before it, and I fumbled for one of my swords, my last defence. My sweaty palms slipped over the handle.

“Do something! Burn it,” the Aethar yelled.

I paused, forgetting I could wield fire. How did I make it work? I shook, too cold to understand how to conjure the flames as I had before.

The woman reached for the weapon strapped to the side of the racer—the weapon that could shoot thick arrows.

Everything slowed down and sped up all at once.

In a blur, the beast lunged for her weapon, splintering it in its teeth before the Aethar could even touch it.

She screamed, backing away again. The Aspis spat the weapon out, facing us, tensed to strike.

Its thin, blade-like pupils darting back and forth between us, deciding.

This time, it chose me. Its teeth came together in a loud crack as it gave a warning shot mere feet away, showing me exactly how it planned to kill me. It shifted to the woman again, and I panicked. I didn’t want the woman to get hurt, even if she was an Aethar.

“S-stop!” I screamed. Then, to the woman, I whispered, “You have to g-get out of here, once I di-distract it.”

She gave no response.

The fear that froze me in place turned into a biting cold that claimed my body, crawling down my arms to my hands. My teeth chattered as I stared into my enemy’s eyes.

I was no hero, but I hadn’t thought I would be such a coward.

After another violent shake, a terrible itch clung to my palms.

“What is that?”

I didn’t need to look at the woman to know what she was seeing. Icicles had formed in my hand, and my sudden amazement when I held them up made them disappear.

The Ikhor could wield more than fire.

The beast shifted, preparing to strike again—this time, I didn’t think it would be a warning. I lifted my hands, pushing them toward the beast. Nothing happened. I pushed them toward it again, holding them high in the air. Why wasn’t the magic working?

The beast opened its mouth, and saliva dripped from its fangs onto the grass below. It coiled, its attention landing on the Aethar. Anticipating its movement, I stepped forward with my hands still raised.

Sharp, cold magic burst forth like blades seeking the roaring Aspis.

Icicles, sharp and deadly, tore its face, and its roar turned into one of pain. The beast’s body curled around itself like a wounded animal, blood seeping from a gash that sliced through its left eye.

The woman ran for the racer. “Get on! Now’s our chance.”

I didn’t question who or where she was taking me. She was all I had anymore.

The beast turned its head one last time to face me, its uninjured eye locking onto me.

It didn’t move.

I shut myself down, ignoring the beast in pain because my heart wanted to believe that the look it was giving me was one of betrayal.