Page 4 of Fate & Monsters
The rift withered, but its echo lingered. And that was worse. Sickly crimson magic like that didn’t belong to the demon world of Infernus. It had no smell or signature I recognized. I knew every sorcerer in this cursed land. If one of them had tried to rip open the veil, I’d have their skin flayed and bones boiling in oil before dusk.
No. This near breach came from the other side.
Earth. The mortal realm. A land of men and creatures I would never know. Somewhere I’d never been, yet fate would never allow me to forget. Not with her blood in my veins. Not with her face burned into memory.
I shook the thought away. Now wasn’t the time.
I turned back toward my scouts. Most had recovered.
As I approached, the air crackled again. Not a rift, but a memory—residual magic brushing my skin like static. My fur bristled along my arms and down my tail. I smelled it then: ash and decay.
Something had almost come through. Something powerful.
“Prince Mavros, what do you want us to do?” asked a shadowed scout, shoulders hunched, front claws kneading the dirt.
I stared at him.
“I want you to find out what did this,” I barked. “And I want their fucking heart on my dinnerplate.”
“But—”
I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the nearest rock wall. His cloven feet dangled above the ground, rat-tail lashing wildly.
“No excuses,” I hissed. “No delays. You think I don’t feel it? The world shifting beneath our feet? Something’s coming.”
He croaked, nodding rapidly.
I dropped him.
The others didn’t speak. They dispersed without a word, melting into the haze as the wind screamed through the ravine again. One cat-like pair of fiery glowing eyes lingered before melting into the shadows and floating home.
I stood alone, condemned to the darkness.
Infernus was growing restless. As if my spirit reflected the state of the land foisted upon my shoulders, so was I.
Every day, I could feel the beast in me pulling closer to the surface. The part that enjoyed the crack of bone and the scent of blood. The part that didn’t care about duty and only wanted violence and submission.
The part that hungered.
I’d restrained that side of me. Tried to rule with some echo of civility. But the increasing threat of rifts and the unknown forces scratched at the fragile walls I’d built around myself. The beast in my bones prowled under the surface, waiting for the lock to break.
I turned toward the castle in the distance, scanning the crooked towers silhouetted against the burning sky. It looked like a broken fang piercing the clouds. My home. My den. My cage.
Her tomb.
I clenched a fist and snarled.
Something else was coming through. When it did, I would be there to greet it. Teeth bared. Claws ready.
The castle loomed like the carcass of some ancient beast, half-buried in black stone, its crooked towers clawing at the sky. No matter how many times I returned to it, it always felt like stepping back into a grave.
The gates groaned open as I approached, obedient to my presence yet resentful, as if the walls themselves resented sheltering a creature like me. My boots struck the stone with dull, echoing finality as I climbed the winding stairs to the highest chamber in the tallest tower, far above the rotting bones of the realm.
By the time I reached my study, I was seething.
The doors swung inward with a bang that rattled the panes, flinging loose parchment and dust into the air like startled birds. The flames in the hearth flared high in response, tongues of red licking the stone, as if preparing to beextinguished by my mood. I strode in without pause, slamming the door behind me and pacing.
I could still feel it—that pulse of magic beneath my skin, not mine, not born of Infernus. It had struck me on the ridge like a curse. A warning. A challenge.
