Page 141 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
Emrys.
The fiends above scuttled and screeched ready for attack. Too many of them for either of us. There was a hesitancy tothem at Emrys’s mere presence. Spots danced in my vision and pain coursed through my blood.
‘Don’t make me waste her, Blackthorn,’ the creature in Fairfax’s body mocked as it staggered closer once more, one half of its face horridly peeled back to show bone, bloody flesh and teeth. ‘You know the masters have been calling for too long. You know the rewards the Verr Princes will bestow upon us.’
‘Your master is already before you,’ Emrys replied, only it didn’t sound like him. Too dark, too filled with rage as the ground continued to shake.
Then I saw why. His pulse pounded at his throat from the exertion of his spell casting, his bare chest covered in a webbing of dark veins.
Different than a dark spell, slate grey and soft, as if drawn with charcoal upon his flesh. Ancient marks from ancient worship. Darker and darker as they moved towards his heart. There sat a mark, in the shape of the crescent moon, the origin point from where his darkness began.
A symbol I’d seen in stories that had been forgotten by time.
The Moon of Serus. The mark of the first Verr Prince who survived a cursed blade to the heart in the first war, touching the purest magic that had created him, granting him the abilities of both worlds. An ancient magic. As ancient as Kysillian and just as forbidden. An enemy of my blood.
Emrys was Verr. A creation of the Old Gods.
The thing wearing Fairfax’s flesh went still, as he finally understood who was standing before him the same moment I did. The blinding white of Emrys’s magic and why he’d been reluctant to show it.Demon fire.
‘That’s not possible,’ the creature sneered.
‘Neither is this.’ Emrys voice was a rumble of deathly calm as a gleam of gold appeared in his hand. An echoingclang rang out as the object landed and tumbled across the seal next to me.
My father’s hilt. It had allowed Emrys to manipulate it. It trusted him, just as foolishly as I did. Every dark creature in the pit shrieked together, sensing the ancient power of the weapon.
The darkness in Lord Fairfax turned and rushed for me with a feral screech.
I rolled as far as the chains would allow, slipping in my own blood, hands wrapping around the hilt, forcing myself upwards, ignoring the burn of the forsaken iron against my flesh as the blade appeared.
I turned just in time as Lord Fairfax screamed, metal nails extended for my throat, and slid the blade into the centre of his chest.
I thrust it upwards, feeling him droop as dark blood dribbled from his lips. I bared my teeth with the ferocity of my pain, giving the blade a sharp twist, listening to his gargled final breath. Those dark eyes took me in once more as the veins began to recede from his face. His body trembled, being consumed from within.
‘Brekver,’ I hissed.
To the never. A command he had no choice but to obey as I kicked his corpse off the blade as it continued to convulse, crumbling to ash next to me.
I turned weakly to swipe at the links of the forsaken iron chain still holding me to the earth, breaking them as if they were made of nothing more than glass. Shattered pieces clattering to the seal.
The creatures above began to drop to the damp earth of the chamber as I got my unsteady legs beneath me. My bloody leg wasn’t working, every step sending the searing agony of that forsaken iron up my thigh.
The seal let out another loud crack, smoke pouring free, and at the exact same moment a strange, pained sound left Emrys as he crumpled to his knees. Darkness consumed his hands, curling up his forearms as he panted wildly for breath with the barest shake of his head as if something was talking to him.
‘Emrys,’ I called, voice strained with panic. Then there was another crack from the seal and a convulsion moved through his limbs. Somehow he was connected to it.
The dark calls all things back in the end.
‘You think it wouldn’t want you back?’ a demonic voice mocked from the darkness. ‘It’s torn you open before for a taste,Serus.’
A roar peeled itself from Emrys’ lips, his breathing laboured as his hands clutched his head, a tension rippling across his limbs. The brutality of those scars, catching the white demonic light.
Claws that had torn him open. Seeking something within. He had no chance in fighting it. All Verr belonged to the darkness beneath the earth.
Servitude to a master.
It was trying to take him back.
‘Emrys !’ I cried, trying to move towards him, but a shadow fiend landed in my path, jaws snapping like a rabid dog as it lurched forward. I brought my blade down in a swift arc, depriving it of its head, only for the momentum to send me to my knees. Weakness clawed at my limbs, my legs trembling with the pain of it. The skin of my wrists were raw and blistered, glistening with blood.
