Dark World (Book I in the Dark World Trilogy) (27 page)

“
What is it?!” she yelled
from both anger and the rising noise of howling winds.

Vale stared at the dark mass
forming overhead, stating with a tone engraved with fright,
“
Ba’al
…has been summoned.”

“
Ba’al?”
she repeated, “Who—or what—is
that?”

His ashen face paled further, an
expression of sheer bewilderment crossing his face.

“
He is the storm elemental
of the underworld,” he uttered. “He can only be summoned by one
being in all of Dark World.”

Fate held her breath, frightened by the
fear lurking in Vale’s eyes.

“
Who?” she inquired
shakily.

Vale shook his in disbelief, then
whispered.

“
The Devil.”

Clandestine

“
Oh, there you are, my
dear,” an elderly voice chirped from behind her. Ever turned from
the old dragon to come face to face with Shaman Goretus. How the
old, blind demon managed to sneak up on her, let alone traverse the
labyrinthine castle by himself, was mindboggling. She would have
sworn he could see plain as day if it weren’t for the fact that his
eyes were completely absent from their sockets.

“
Good day, Shaman,” Ever
responded with a smile. “How are you this fine day?”

“
I am well, princess,” he
said, his sightless eyes shifting in the dragon’s direction. “Just
visiting Arcanum, are we?”

She nodded, wondering for a moment if
the dragon had confided his identity to anyone else, but thought
better of her worries, knowing he wouldn’t risk his life so
frivolously. While she was certain the old Shaman was harmless, she
knew even the most well-intentioned folk could be persuaded—or
tricked—into divulging secrets. And this secret was one that could
never be violated.

“
I see, I see,” he muttered,
absentmindedly fishing for something in his pockets. “And where is
your friend, the shade?” He panned the space surrounding Ever as if
trying to sense Fate’s presence.

“
She…left.”

The old demon nodded. “Well, if you see
her again, here is the potion you requested.” He handed her a small
vial carved from amethyst, the contents sloshed against the
lavender walls as she cradled it in her palm.

“
Potion?” Excitement stirred
in her stomach. “To cure her?”

The elder shook his head. “Cure? It
won’t make her human again, but it should suppress her hunger quite
sufficiently,” he stated happily.

“
Thank you! I will give it to
her…”
immediately
, she wanted to say, but stopped. What was she going to do?
Fate needed this. Without it she’d get worse, needing souls more
and more to survive.

She had to find a way to get it to her.
Her father believed that Fate was the future of his people. Without
her, they would soon be overtaken by the Queen.

Ever’s gaze fell on Arcanum, his amber
eyes shining as he read her thoughts.

He nodded, accepting her
proposal.

“
Ego sum legio!”
he called to the
powers of darkness, whipping his obsidian sword overhead.
“
Ego sum
legio!”

His voice echoed like thunder, red
lightning crackled and clawed the covered sky.

A colossal face formed within the
clouds, eyes glaring red and narrowed. Ba’al’s head emerged from
the writhing tempest, his body a hurricane of black and purple.
Enraged winds whipped the desert, stirring the sands and stinging
Kane’s exposed skin like a swarm of hornets.

The seven death worms immediately lost
interest in Kane, their full attention on the angry storm
elemental. Relinquishing a squeal of terror, they attempted to
burrow into the sand.

Ba’al, however, appeared to have other
plans for the loathsome worms. A mighty fist manifested from the
billows of his atmospheric body, smashing down onto one of the less
fortunate ones. The ground quivered under Ba’al’s clenched hand, a
crater forming under the impact. Guts and grey goo sprayed in all
directions, the death worm reduced to mere chum beneath the
monolithic hammer.

Releasing a mighty roar that embraced
both anger and macabre amusement, Ba’al took chase after another
worm that was attempting to flee.

Kane saw his opportunity to escape. He
wasn’t sure why—or how—Ba’al had been summoned. In fact, he was
completely confused. Only the Devil could summon the great storm
beast.

His own words echoed in his
head.
Ego
sum legio.
What did it mean? And how did he know it? What was this
strange power he could suddenly tap into? For three hundred years
he’d dwelt within the subversive realm and never once had he any
abilities beyond the norm. It was always the Devil who had all the
power, all the magic of the ages swarming within their veins. First
his father, now his mother. But why would she call upon the elusive
elemental? Certainly not to save a son she believed to be dead, and
not in the middle of the desert where she was nowhere to be seen.
None of it made sense.

All he cared about was that Ba’al wasn’t
interested in squashing him at this particular moment, and he
wasn’t going to hang around to see if the winds would change. The
elemental wasn’t known for mercy. If you weren’t the Devil, look
out! No one else mattered in the sky beast’s eyes. And Ba’al
himself wasn’t the most fearsome part of his awesome powers—it was
the rain.

Kane again made a break for the
Crystalline Forest, still too many strides away. The wails of the
death worms arced through the air, their cries of torture and
demise reverberating off the distant volcanic mountains.

Kane almost felt sorry for them.
Almost.

The storm clouds dissipated overhead,
lingering over a spot of desert in the distance. Roars and
whale-like keening saturated the air. Fate shuddered, wondering
what poor creatures had met their end with the one known as
Ba’al.

“
Come on, we have to move,”
Vale’s voice harbored anxiety as he took her hand and pulled her
from the safety of the mushroom cluster. It reminded her of the
fungal forest she and Kane had encountered on their way to his
kingdom.

Kane.
Her thoughts lingered on his name,
his image, his aura. Uninvited tears crowded her eyes. Why had he
turned on her so suddenly? Was it simply her race that led him to
despise her? Had she done anything to give him reason to distrust
her?

She stifled a sob, not wanting Vale to
know she was crying.

He was her only friend right now. Her only
salvation in this unforgiving world. She had no way of knowing
where to go next. All her instincts drove her to seek out the voice
that called to her, but she was certain she knew who that voice
belonged to. Malus. And from what she’d learned of the current
Devil, she wanted nothing to do with her. Or did she? Maybe the
Queen was her destiny. Maybe she should surrender herself to
whatever fate waited for her.

“
There, I think we’re far
enough away now,” Vale said breathily, slowing his pace as he eyed
the now distant storm.

“
What was that thing?” Fate
inquired, catching her breath.

“
Ba’al,” he reiterated. “The
storm elemental.”

“
Elemental?”

“
Yes, he’s a sylph, an air
spirit. He can manipulate the air element at will,” he explained,
raking a pale hand through his tousled silver hair.

“
Sylph? I thought they were
just a myth? And I thought a sylph was a
delicate—fairy-like—creature.”

His eyes laughed. “Ahh, Surface myths,
always good for a chuckle. You can’t believe what you heard on the
Surface, the truth has been distorted over time. Sylphs can
manifest however they like. Some are fairy-like. Some are
like…him.” He tilted his head towards the horizon of blackness
behind them.

“
Elemental…so there’s one
for each of the four elements?”

“
Five,” he
corrected.

“
Five sylphs for every one
element?” She frowned.

Tossing her a ‘duh’ expression, he
responded, “Five elements.”

She turned to him, an eyebrow arched.
Maybe this guy wasn’t as swift as she gave him credit
for.

“
As far as I know, there’s
only four,” she said lifting her hand and counting each of them off
on her fingers. “Air, earth, fire, and water.”

He gave her a sideways glance, the one
that people used when they knew something someone else didn’t. A
secret.

Self-doubt nagged her. But no, four
elements, that was right…wasn’t it?

“
Okay genius, what’s the
fifth?” She stopped walking and set her hands on her
hips.

A surreptitious smirk slid across his
lips. Annoyance crept into her system. This feeling was familiar.
An image of her Surface brother, Greg, forced its way into her
thoughts. She missed him and hated him all at once.

Grinning, Vale leaned into her,
his breath feathering across her cheek as he whispered,
“
Aether
.”

Blood Rain

Kane ran for his life, the Crystalline
Forest too far away to seek safety. Again he thought of his useless
wings. The bane of his existence. If he could fly, he could climb
above the clouds. Safety dwelt above the storm. A place he could
not reach.

If the rains of the elemental fell upon
his skin—even one drop—he would die an unimaginable death. The
venomous liquid would spread throughout his system like a cancer,
exploding each cell one at time.

He imagined himself spreading his wings
and propelling into the atmosphere, the blistering winds kissing
him, welcoming him back like a long-lost family member.

But Kane knew better than to try. The
steel circlets, barbed with their needle-like spikes, would show
him no mercy, not even now, when he needed his wings
most.

Then it began. First, a metallic reek
possessed the air, seizing his lungs like a vice, then the sound of
a thousand dams bursting. A waterfall of blood fell from the
covered sky. A veil of crimson horror pounded the earth behind him,
drowning the sands, seeping through the cracks.

The only way out was to fly—and he knew
it.

The rains edged closer. His hooves beat
the ground at a frenetic pace—but it wasn’t fast enough. The wall
of blood was gaining on him. It would envelop him in
seconds.

Exhausted, he was running out of
options. He was tempted to test his wings. The pain would be
excruciating. It had been years, centuries, since he’d even tried.
But right now, he had no choice.

Bravely, he summoned the muscles on his
back, his leathery wings extending. Slowly. Weakly. The barbs bit
the center of his back, punishing him for his insolence. A warm
stream of blood trickled down his spine, warning him not to
proceed.

I have to! I have to
try!

A breath of air grazed the underside of
his wings. All he had to do was give one hard flap and he would
take off. Hopefully.

The cuffs chewed his skin, gnawing with
every subtle movement, threatening to separate his wings from his
body.

Pushing the pain away, his heart
brimming with hope, he beat his wings for the first time in two
hundred years.

“
Aether?” Fate let the word
roll off her tongue. “Isn’t that just a myth?” Her thoughts shifted
to the Surface and the theories spun by one of her favorite
scientists, Albert Einstein.

Vale shook his head. “No,” he stated
firmly, then continued. “Just because something hasn’t been proven
by science doesn’t mean it’s not real. Aether,” he spoke softly
now, waving his hand as through conducting an invisible substance,
“is what makes magic possible.”

Fate caught herself staring at him.
What an interesting character he was, so full of mystery, yet quite
plainly human—in an undead sort of way. In most respects, Vale was
similar to the boys she remembered on the Surface. Macho and cute,
yet mildly annoying. The memory spurned an ache within. A longing
to go home.

A distant crack of thunder nudged her
from her thoughts. Ba’al was still unleashing his fury. She hoped
no creatures were being harmed in his wake. Glancing behind her,
she noticed a burgundy curtain of darkness drape over the
land.

“
What is that?” she asked,
pointing at the shadow on the horizon.

Vale followed her finger, then replied,
“Blood rain.”

She shuddered. “Excuse me?”

His eyes fell on her gravely. “Every
one of the elementals has a terrifying power, each with the
capability to destroy, maim, and desecrate,” he explained. “Ba’al
has blood rain. Nephele, the water elemental, has surge, a tsunami
of unfathomable proportions. Ardor, fire, can annihilate using huge
fireballs…and I do mean huge.” His eyes widened and he set his
hands widely parallel. “And Catal. She can summon devastating
earthquakes with a mere flick of her finger.”