Page 60 of The Fated and the Damned
The demons’ voices dropped, and I strained to hear what they were saying. All I got were three words. Crown. Queen. Bargain.
My skin prickled, a foreboding chill that had nothing to do with the freezing temperature of this realm running down my spine. A bad feeling I couldn’t shake.
Fate had told Kitarni months ago that she’d wanted her to retrieve the crown—that she was the only one who could. Since then, Death had made a bargain with Kitarni, asking her to retrieve it in his stead. So why, then, were his minions prepared for Sylvie to return? Unless Death had kept some vital information to himself.
Unless he knew the crown washere. None of it made sense and for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why he’d keep that from Kitarni. Not without having something sinister in mind for when she came hunting for it.
Anger writhed around my bones, heating my blood so much my magic rose to the surface. Black lifted in smoking tendrils from my skin. Black and … red? I stared in alarm as blood-red smoke curled around the black tenderly, as if binding together.
Gods.
My eyes widened as the realisation hit me. We had delved too deep. Giving Kitarni too much of my magic’s very essence had morphed it into something wild and untamed. Having tread so perilously close to Kitarni’s source power, we’d somehow transferred our magic, adapting into an unlikely creature.
Her power was intoxicating, alluring me like a moth drawn to flame. I wanted to unleash it, to feel the gratification of instant death. I realised what it was to hold her strength—what it felt like to have such power in my hands. She was a goddess of death, and I, the faithful servant by her side.
I stepped out from behind my stone and the demons hissed in surprise, shock widening their slitted pupils. Unlike the demon in the Middle World, I could see these ones clearly. Their forms rippled as if made from the shadows themselves, but their faces were twisted, their teeth filed into fangs, their bodies elongated andwrong. They reminded me of snakes that hadn’t quite shed their skins, peeling and fraying at the surface.
My magic flared in my palm as I stepped towards them. They towered over me, which was a rare thing given my height. But, even so, I felt like I looked down on them, not an inch of fear flooding through me. I might have been in their realm, but I had the power here.
A commander of the dead, eager to bend them to my whims. “You’re going to tell me everything I want to know,” I said in a low, deep voice. “Or I’m going to drop your heads at your master’s feet before I leave this place. It’s your choice.”
They looked between each other and I smiled nastily, letting my power flood through the valley, coating the ground in a blanket of red and black. They dipped their heads ever so slightly and my grin grew wider.
“Let’s start with the crown. Then we’re going to have a little chat about this so-called bargain.”
I’d spent the better half of a day travelling through the maze with the demons as my guide. Unlike the one summoned by Caitlin, these ones seemed submissive—eager to be rid of my presence. I wasn’t stupid enough to think it was only my newfound power that prevented them from ripping off my head and I kept my hand firmly clasped around the hilt of my dagger as we moved.
The sky remained unchanged despite the passing of time. A perpetual snowstorm, lashed with lightning and rolling dark clouds. The thundering of my heart was as loud as the booms and cracks above, and I couldn’t help but feel the cold prick of fear as we drew closer to the castle on high.
We’d begun our ascent several hours ago, but it was slow going up the twisting spire as we clung to the cliff face. In many parts, the pathway had crumbled, the rockface giving way to fatal drops onto sharp black rock below.
One wrong step was all it would take.
After another few hours of biting cold and winds strong enough to send us all toppling, we made it to the castle. I stared at the looming keep, all black stone and sharp edges. If there was any light in the Under World, I knew the pitch black of the castle exterior would drink it all in.
This place was the epitome of emptiness and despair. And I was walking right into it.
The demons led me down a narrow ravine filled with a thick black substance—certainly not water, at any rate—lined with bones and skulls. A promising start.
“There isss a grate at the end which will take you into the dungeonsss. You will find what you ssseek there.”
I looked at my companions and smiled. “And I suppose the minute I’m gone you’ll run to your master to inform him of my presence?” They glanced at each other and my lips twitched into a grin. Right then. “I’m afraid that won’t do boys. But I thank you for your trouble all the same.”
Without hesitation, I kicked one square in the stomach, sending it flying off the cliff with a scream quickly drowned out by the wind. The other swiped with curved claws and I feinted, then impaled it with my dagger and charged towards the edge, pulling my blade back at the last minute before it fell.
The steel came back sticky with black blood and I wiped it on my leathers grimly, looking to the ravine filled with dead, forgotten things.
Yes, because this delightful black pool where the grate lay submerged in screamed sunshine and rainbows. I sighed. Just another day in the life. I sheathed my dagger and pulled my swords out, jumping into the ravine.
Dust flew up as my boots slapped the ground and I half-crouched, following the trail of bones. Thunder boomed and lightning crashed moments later, not too far from where I was standing. I frowned as the storm seemed to deepen, the wind whipping at my clothes like a million clawed fingers.
Thunder split apart the sky and lightning cracked closer still. It was sign enough for me. I ran, throwing caution to the wind and sprinting as a trail of white-hot whips followed my footsteps.
Hadur give me strength.I roared, diving into the pool of black as lightning exploded right where I’d jumped, so close the hair on my head and arms rose to attention.
The not-water was cold as winter frost, immediately seizing my bones. I couldn’t see, couldn’t move as it sucked me down into the depths. My clothes and swords were so heavy, but I dared not drop the blades, carefully sheathing them at my back and swimming deeper.
I kicked furiously, blindly aiming for the grate as I closed my eyes and swam for dear life. My hands grazed something hard, skimming over the castle wall and I winced as the jagged surface sliced my palm, then something rounded met my hands. Bars. My fingers curled into fists around the cool metal and I pulled with all my strength, gritting my teeth as my muscles burned with the effort.
