Page 43 of Cursed Shadows

I still don’t know how he found me. He only ever cryptically replied, “I have a knack for finding those who need me.”

In payment for his long-ago service, I acquire medicine and antidotes for his patients. Debts are not something I like to keep, and I’ve also come to try to avoid calling on Master Ash. But, in this case, it was necessary.

Even with Master Ash’s donation in the bellies of my companions, we reach the new realm hungry and tired. Well, they are hungry—I, strangely, am not, which is perplexing considering I have not fed in quite a while.

I find my gaze shifting to the angel crossbreed but I’m not surprised. She is beautiful. But she is far more than her pretty face and voluptuous body. The angel, as I mentioned, is a crossbreed as revealed by the fact that perhaps twenty minutes earlier, when she was coming back from the brink of death, large and hooked wings escaped her back, as black as the dark of night.

Succubus wings.

“Cambion, what do you require to craft theTransmutation Stone?” I ask the elf king as I look around warily. We’ve cloaked ourselves in disguise, but it does little to reassure me of our security. Variant’s emissaries will no doubt expect our masks and their perception will be improved as a result. It’s an uncomfortable feeling to not have stealth on my side. My weapon of choice, before any poison or blade, is my ability to remain hidden. Traveling with this group, I feel far more exposed than I’d like.

Truth be told, I’ve questioned the intelligence of my decision to remain among them. In general, I prefer my own company and I rely only upon myself. Regardless, this quest is an important one: theTransmutation Stonecould be the answer to my missing memories…

While the crossbred angel is also unaware of her past, it would seem her memories may be more easily restored to her than mine to me. There appears to be a block of some sort within her head that disallows her from recalling her past. I’m fully convinced this block was orchestrated on purpose, and that purpose could have been to protect her from knowing too much about herself—information which could prove dangerous when in the hands of the wrong people.

My own missing memories are a bit more… complicated. As a Revenant, I escaped the bonds of death when I was brought back from the grave. My life, as I know it, began at the point I dug myself out of my splintered wooden coffin.

I wonder if my memories have been denied me, never to be resurrected again. Perhaps they are simply nothing more than vignettes of another life, one that is long gone, never to be returned? I sorely hope not for I’ve wanted nothing more than to understand who I was, so I can better understand who I now am, and the reason I was returned to this bitter existence.

“Serren Wood, Riverine, Kheferu,andHizagkuur…” Cambion says, his voice trailing off until he grows quiet once more.

Already, I feel a cold sense of dread begin to leach the feeling from my fingers. Two of the metals are currently in my bag, but theSerren Woodand theRiverinewill be difficult to locate.Serrentrees grow only in the Fae Realm. AndRiverine, a rock, can only be collected from enchanted streams that exist in the Mortal and Fae Realms simultaneously—the nearest of which, the Mirror Stream, is perhaps two hours away.

“Flumph, do you remember when Cambion said you have yet to be useful?” I ask, turning to the sprite.

He does nothing but prattle on endlessly and I’m at my wit’s end.

“I remember,” he grunts.

“Now is your opportunity to prove your usefulness. It will take us too long to collect theRiverineby foot, and we must limit our time in this realm as much as possible.”

“So what am I ‘sposed to do ‘bout it?” he asks in that grating manner of his.

“You possess wings,” I respond with little humor. “Fly to the Mirror Stream, collect theRiverineand return with it. Post haste.”

“Do I gotta?” His small voice is heavy with dread.

“Yes,” I answer simply.

“Crafting the stone will take nearly a day once we secure the materials,” Cambion adds. “The longer we remain in the open, the more we’re exposed to Anona. We must get the supplies as quickly as possible and return to the Shadow Realm where we can more easily hide.”

“They’re right,” agrees Dragan, nodding his head and giving the sprite an expression that warns the creature not to trifle with him. “Flumph, you have your mission.”

Flumph shudders at the mention of Anona. With good reason—Anona is a demon who answers to Variant and is heavy on our heels. The last thing we need is a row with her and her henchmen. In our weakened state, I doubt we’d prevail.

The heavy sprite appears reluctant, but as he turns to face the angel, his expression changes into something that resembles determination. His usually slumped shoulders straighten, and he rises a little taller in the air.

“I’m gonna do it!” he announces.

After the sprite departs, the remaining members of our party start back along the road toward the Tree Of Shadows, which will lead us back to the Shadow Realm. We walk in silence, anxious that we’ve sent our least reliable and most incapable member to his potential doom. No one voices their concern, but the general attitude is one of anxiety.

I find my attention consistently returning to Eilish. She’s Succubus. Of that, I’m convinced. I recognized her wings the moment I saw them. Yes, Succubae have been extinct for decades, or so I’ve been told. But I’ve also studied dark magic, and I’ve seen enough drawings to realize just what I was looking at.

As a Succubus, she’s also a demon—but she’s a particular type of demon. Her strength is in her ability to seduce. And without even realizing it, she’s been seducing the three of us since we came into contact with her. A Succubus derives her strength from the life energy she leaches from men by having sex with them. I can only wonder if Dragan has already had her, which might better explain his foul mood. Nothing like expecting to fuck an angel and finding yourself with a demon instead.

I, myself, find the whole situation quite comical, actually.

As regards the question of whether or not Dragan has intimate knowledge of the girl, I had witnessed Dragan andEilish in a state of undress only recently when they shared a bedchamber at Master Ash’s, but seeing them thus wasn’t proof that anything carnal happened. Not that it even matters, I suppose. I don’t care whether he’s bedded her or not.

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