Page 31 of Destined to the Reaper

The deep pain that menace stirred within me echoed the fear that flashed over Kali’s beautiful face. A wave of despair washed over me as more fleshy membranes opened. My mind raced as I tried to think of ways I could assist my female once I was no longer officially able to protect her as my survival would no longer depend on her. But I kept coming up short.

“Give me your soul, Kali,” I pleaded one last time. “It will make the transfer even faster, and both of us will be safer for it. Cornelius is on to us. We have too little time!”

“Then let’s not waste it in pointless discussions,” Kali replied, her face closing off before taking on a mulish expression. “Give yourself to me. I will unshackle you, and then kiss you to initiate the transfer.”

Feeling both heartbroken and defeated, I nodded stiffly while ignoring Grizelle’s triumphant chuckle behind us. I didn’t want to lose Kali, but it was now clearly inevitable. Even her life thread showed the likelihood of her survival to be next to nil. A feeble path where she survived subsisted, but I wasn’t foolish enough to cling to it.

“As you wish. Step inside the circle,” I said, my heart aching. “I will kiss you. As soon as I do, it will initiate the process. Do not let anything distract you. Remember that Cornelius will try to reel me back in. Between that and unshackling me, you will have a lot to juggle. If you gave me—”

“I said no,” she snapped angrily. “The matter is settled.”

Without another word, she stepped inside the circle. I gazed at her with infinite sadness. Despite her annoyance, I could see a glimmer of guilt and uncertainty in the depths of her obsidian eyes. It gave me a sliver of hope that she might still be swayed once things became truly desperate. Cupping her cheeks with both hands, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers.

I felt her shock as my energy flowed into her. Unlike the times I’d shared part of myself with her through coupling, this method was more brutal, like trying to force feed someone through a funnel. People instinctively attempted to resist that invasion, which was one of the reasons we avoided such a method. But despite her surprise, Kali embraced all of me. My bride didn’t just embrace me, she drew me in with the tenderness and fervor of a lover.

My ethereal presence faded, absorbed into her. Nine hells, how I loved the feel of her around me! It was like being cradled by the Gods themselves. I vaguely wished she had been the oneinside me instead. Still, that didn’t stop me from reveling in the perfection that she was. Even my magic blended harmoniously with hers whereas it often clashed with Cornelius.

But now, my body was clamoring for me with renewed intensity.

As soon as Kali stepped out of the circle to begin removing the claws digging into my body, I felt the tug from Cornelius. Although he wasn’t actively pulling at me yet, the necromancer now knew something was amiss. Depending on how distracted he remained with the alchemist, it might take him a few minutes to fully investigate what was happening.

That answer came swiftly enough.

A wave of shock, disbelief, and burning rage flooded the link still tethering me to the necromancer. As unnerving as this felt, I couldn’t help but love the potent panic beneath it all. Without me, Cornelius would become half the sorcerer he currently was—maybe less. Even if he furiously rode back home, it would take him at least thirty to forty minutes to arrive. He would then need to set up a circle to perform a recall and binding ritual. It wasn’t much, but more than enough to complete the transfer. By then, it would be too late for him to shackle me again.

Coming directly to the crypt offered an even less promising outcome as he was currently at least an hour and a half away from the burial grounds. And once here, it would take him an extra twenty to thirty minutes to reach this altar.

My biggest worry was for Kali. By now, Cornelius would have felt her through our connection. While his priority would be to bind me again, if only out of spite, he would attempt to retaliate against her. I could only hope that he wouldn’t be able to send some kind of abomination to punish her and further ensure that she did not make it out of here alive.

However, a pained hiss from Grizelle reclaimed my attention. I hated that I could no longer see the room butthrough Kali’s eyes. She was frantically removing the ten hooks embedded in my flesh—each one corresponding to one of the claws at the tip of Grizelle’s fingers. My bride cast a nervous glance towards the Keres only to see her extruding from the wall, her face contorted in a terrifying grimace.

Kali froze, her flight instincts surging fiercely as she struggled to resist them.

“Focus,”I mentally spoke to my female, startling her.“Grizelle will not harm you. A Keres cannot kill without cause, only in self-defense.”

“I’m attacking her!” she countered in a hushed voice, not knowing how to speak telepathically to me.

“No, you’re merely removing her claws that are hurting me. You’re protecting me. Use my magic to cause necrosis to the tips of her claws,”I ordered.

I didn’t know how well Kali would be able to use my powers. But to my shock, it appeared to come to her naturally. However, she blasted a far more potent necrotic aura than she intended. It wasn’t surprising. Having me inside her multiplied my bride’s powers tenfold.

Grizelle shouted in pain and made a gesture with both hands, as if to yank them back. Simultaneously, the hooks shackling me to the altar and draining my natural regeneration abilities retracted from me.

“You will regret this, human!” Grizelle shouted.

Kali gasped as the eyeballs inside the skulls adorning the tips of Grizelle’s thick locks shot out of their sockets on spindly spider legs. They scattered along the walls, scurrying towards the open alcoves. Simultaneously, the dreadful silhouettes of countless Skarachs crawled out of their somber lairs.

The nightmarish creatures had the upper torso of a skeleton with eight long limbs that allowed them to either walk on two legs with six arms to attack their target or walk on all eightlimbs like a spider. What made them creepier was the fact that they leaned backwards to walk like a spider, with their chest facing up. As their heads could pivot by three hundred and sixty degrees, it didn’t impede their ability to see, whichever position they were in. Their skeletal faces didn’t have a nose, only an oversized mouth above which a dozen small red-eyes without pupils peered around, and a set of horns. But it was the bigger gaping hole in the center of the smaller eyes that was the most terrifying.

Each of the scurrying eyes from Grizelle’s hair ran up to a Skarach and embedded themselves in that gaping hole, becoming one of the Keres’s puppets.

“Focus, Kali!”I mentally shouted at her as my body, now freed from the claws leeching it, started regenerating.

My voice snapped her out of her horrified daze. Without hesitation, my bride leaned forward and pressed her lips to my body.

Chapter 9

Kali

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