Shadow Reign (Shadow Puppeteer Book 2) (8 page)

She laughed as she exited. Zephyr turned back to me and this time I met her eyes without flinching.

“She was spying. She feels threatened. Let’s get back to work.”

It was easier for her to brush this off than it was for me. Rose was covered in blood and smelt like Amber. Everything inside of me wanted to push Zephyr to the side and go after her. It was exactly what Rose wanted and she was clearly the best fighter. I had to bide my time.

With that in mind, I went back with Zephyr.

I
laid in bed listening to the fire crackle. This was my designated sleep time, though it did little to rejuvenate my cramped muscles. The cuts managed to scab over, but certain spots kept pulling apart. I threw my legs over the side of the bed and felt a pull in my lower back. There wouldn’t be time to heal before Utan came for me.

The days and nights rolled into one large blur. The one thing that remained consistent was the intensity of Utan and Zephyr’s lessons. Utan wanted me dead and because of this, he was training me hard. Whatever Zephyr’s reasons were, she was training me hard too.

I pulled a vile from my pocket and popped the top. It smelt like swamp water and coated the back of my throat, but it did wonders for the cramping and the aches. It was a mix Zephyr made. I kept my guard up, but little things like this began to forge trust.

The mix went straight to my belly as I drank a little more water to get rid of that horrid taste. It would take a minute for the concoction to numb the pain. I needed to sleep, but my anxiety was increasing. Rose found new ways to taunt me with Amber’s life and one day she’d go too far. I couldn’t wait for that to happen.

Kelaino didn’t check on my progress and Zephyr didn’t tell me what I was training for. I could barely stand knowing that I was waiting for an opportunity while Amber was tortured. I took a huge risk trying to kill Kelaino before I was ready. Was I willing to do something just as risky again?

I drew my fingers through my hair and couldn’t find comfort in even that familiar motion. My finger strayed to the back of my ear where my tracker was still intact. Draken lied to me about turning it off. There were a number of reasons not to trust him, but at the moment, I really wished he’d pop in here and save the day.

The only weapon with me was a
b
o
I was supposed to be constantly training with. The heavy wood and metal triggers felt good in my hand. It was solid and now that I had practice under my belt, I knew how to wield it in battle.

This was crazy and dangerous. There was no reason to believe I’d be able to help them, but if I didn’t try, she was going to die here. That bothered me more than nearly getting sucked into the obsidian mirror. The residue of that moment stayed with me. Sometimes I woke feeling like my skin was peeling back.

I stuck the
bo
in my shoulder strap and the weight was reassuring. Despite the way I felt about the fur coat, I wasn’t opposed to staying warm. I pulled it on and did a few practice moves to make sure I could still quickly pull the
bo
.

The beaded curtains shifted and I turned around, expecting Utan, but it was Zephyr instead. “I heard you told Kelaino that you were ready.”

I shrugged. There wasn’t a better way to help Rex or Amber. Bliss wasn’t coming and Rose needed to be put down. I’d fight her, though I harbored some doubt. Rose had a few tricks of her own and I witnessed those during the Ardent Asylum takedown. I needed a better plan and I’d figure that out once I was in the ring with her.

“You must master the basics. If you don’t control the spirits, they’ll control you. You leave yourself open for possession.” She stopped in front of me. “You have one foot in the grave. I can feel it. You’re already halfway dead.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “Halfway dead?”

Her presence was much larger than her actual size. For a dwarf, she filled the room. I couldn’t shift without feeling her attention. Much like D’s presence, I felt it even with my metaphysical fields up.

“What is the first law to casting a spell?”

I grew more flustered by the second. “I can’t cast a spell! I’m not a witch.”

“I’m a necromancer, I control the dead, but I also feel when something is dying. You aren’t necessarily dying, but you aren’t alive either. That empty piece of you is open for possession. You get a strong enough spirit, nasty enough to overpower you, it’ll be in control.”

Now
this
was information worth knowing. It could explain why I wanted to kill people when I was training.

“How do I protect myself?” I asked.

She crossed over to my bed and sat down, looking tired. “You don’t know what you have to protect yourself from, stupid girl.”

Anger stirred in me and it was that same dark anger that made me want to react without thinking. It was hard to push back down.

“I think something is already inside me,” I said.

Zephyr threw her head back and laughed. It was manic and full of mirth. “Stupid. I’ve never worked with someone so stupid. Rose, she’s smart. She knows the darkness around and within her. You deny it, but it’s there.” She pushed herself from the bed and started towards the beaded curtain. “Come, we finish your training before you face the Prism of Shadow.”

I followed her, though I wish she had summoned me instead of coming to my room. I was too anxious. My stomach was so tight that I thought I was going to vomit the bread and tea I had earlier.

Her training room was ready for our lesson. The black candle within the circle was lit and herbs burned in small tin cups around the room. It was a wall of mixed scents that made my nose itch. I’ve trained in this room for weeks now and still felt anxious that one day the obsidian mirrors would be on the walls.

I took my place on the floor in front of the candle. The orange tip licked the air as lines of black wax dripped to the stone floor. This ritual startup for the ritual practice brought a great deal of comfort, though I was sticking to what I told her, I wasn’t a witch. I didn’t know magic like she did. My only ability was directing the spirits and I wasn’t good at controlling them.

She hobbled to the other side of the circle, staying outside its perimeter. “Cast a circle to keep myself protected.”

I mumbled the words she taught me. It made sense now, because we did this every day. It even slipped into my dreams, along with much darker, less comforting thoughts. The hairs on my arms rose in response, but nothing was happening. I couldn’t focus beyond the state of Amber’s wellbeing.

“It’s not working.”

“Maybe you need a stronger session in order to keep your thoughts together,” Zephyr said.

I stood. “This is pointless. I can’t concentrate with all this pent up energy in me.”

“You have bigger problems, Shadow Puppeteer. You have no idea how many shadows roam this earth, stuck here because there is no ruler in the underworld. You don’t just control them, you lead them and that’s what Kelaino wants; a ruler that
she
can dictate.”

I stood frozen, listening to what she had to say. Kelaino wanted a puppet and Utan didn’t think I could be controlled. Playing her game would allow me to get closer. The shadows would make better weapons than anything Utan could teach me. As welcoming as the thought was it also terrified me. I wanted to use the shadows for destructive reasons.

“What about Rose?”

“Since you came along, she talks of no one else. She thinks you’re the Shadow Puppeteer, but I refuse to confirm it for her. You are untrained and too stupid. Due to your lack of experience you will fall prey to a strong spirit. It could push you out of your body.”

Her admittance surprised me. She thought I was a Shadow Puppeteer too. She turned her back to walk over to the fireplace. The shuffle of her feet and the click of her walking stick echoed in the room. I took another breath of her incense, hoping it would clear my head. It bothered me that I haven’t felt the shadows since coming into the caves. What was more overpowering than their anger?

“Cast it,” she said.

“I can’t. Nothing happens.” That was a lie. Nothing happened that she wanted to happen, but I could feel the energy it summoned. I wanted to go Utan’s route. The blades were physical. I already knew the outcome of using them.

She picked up the bucket that hung on the metal hook beside the fireplace. This time when I took a breath, I noticed that not all the herbs she burned today were her every day usual bunch. There was something tart among the burning cylinders.

“Cast your circle, child. Protect yourself from what’s coming.”

“I’m not afraid of the dark.”

My heart was pounding. I didn’t believe for a second what I said to her. With everything that happened, I lost a great deal of my fear, but something unnatural was creeping into my dreams of late. It felt so real. I woke with the sensation that it touched me. That feeling was sneaking up on me and my spine tingled with awareness.

“You want to survive? Learn how to face and control these spirits with your energy. They know your open to them. They feel that emptiness inside you,” she said.

She turned the bucket and the sand poured slowly over the fire. The flames licked around it, trying to exist until the sand finally took the last of the light. The only light now came from the tiny palm sized cylinders that burnt with incense and the black candle. The shadows started moving and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. A cold breeze blew through and the candle went out.

Sweat tickled my skin. I shrugged off my fur coat and tossed it out of the circle so I wouldn’t slide on it. The dark was solid and I pulled off my eye patch. I could see Zephyr’s aura, gold outlined her body.

The shadows separated themselves from the dark and started moving towards me. They stretched, shapeless and long, reaching for me like the entity that resided here. Lingering smoke curled around Zephyr. She stared in my direction, but she wasn’t looking at me. She couldn’t see in the dark.

“What do you see?” she asked.

My inner turmoil didn’t mirror her excitement. I was too afraid to speak. This was new and its energy was angrier than the spirits I’d dealt with.

“Zephyr, light the fire.” I was surprised my voice didn’t shake.

The old woman stood against the wall, useless now. The air grew too thick to breath. Weeks of lessons and I couldn’t remember a thing she taught. My mind was blank.

“Zephyr, please.”

She never moved. I had to pull myself together and think this through. First part of the lesson was forming a circle. It didn’t work the first time because I didn’t use salt. I fumbled with the drawstrings on the pouch at my waist. The grains did little to calm my nerves as I walked the circle and called to the four corners.

I kept the circle small, but pressure threw me from the ring before I could close it. Airborne for barely a moment, I slammed hard against the wall. Pain rocketed through my skull and down my spine. I tasted blood, but I couldn’t tell if it came from my mouth or from something internal.

“Fight back. Protect your body,” Zephyr ordered.

I barely heard her over the pulsing in my head. I hope she had something stronger I could take. Ghostly fingers pressed into my neck, forcing me to stand. The pressure became dangerously tight. It was trying to suffocate me. I flung the salt in my hand at it and it screeched, shoving me away and darting up into the ceiling.

Until now, I didn’t notice how the ceiling swirled with fog. There was something about the gray and purple swirls that said it would be extremely cold. The wind whipped my hair around my face. It was trying to push me so I got down on my hands and knees.

Force caught the back of my neck and squeezed before sending me face first into the ground. Stone scratched my cheeks, peeling skin. I kicked upward, but my foot went through air. It was impossible fighting something that wasn’t physical.

Pain pinched through my chest, making it difficult to breathe. It was trying to burrow through my skin and into that small empty spot where my shadow heart pulsed. The energy didn’t have a mind and I couldn’t feel a motive, though I opened my shields to look for one. There had to be some emotion I could latch onto and force it away. A quick search came up blank. It was a black hole and there was nothing to grasp. It sucked every emotion from me, including fear, but it couldn’t touch my anger.

I dug my fingers into the stone and the joints twisted under the pressure. Everything hurt and that helped clear my mind. I shoved my energy outward, focusing on the purple light that spiraled around me. The wind sucked upward and the black candle and salt flew up into the hole in the ceiling.

Zephyr buried herself in the fireplace, as if that was going to save her. The void was swallowing her voodoo collection. It was going to swallow me too if I didn’t put a cork in it. I held tighter to the stone and a sickening ache accompanied the rush of cold, tingling nausea that rushed up my left hand and through my arm. Broken fingers; just what I needed. Luckily I didn’t need weapons for this one.

I slammed my metaphysical shields into place. The light became bars as sturdy as metal. I wasn’t going to hold out for long. The salt was reassuring as I dumped it into my palm and whispered the chant Zephyr taught me. Despite the way the wind blew my hair about, it didn’t move one grain of salt. I fumbled with the words. What came from my mouth didn’t sound remotely promising or beneficial. I knew this; I just needed to remember it.

The wind grew worse as the spirits became desperate. The salt crystals had their own glittery white light that rose about mid-calf on me. The words quickened from my lips as I finished the circle and the light shot upward in shades of oyster pink and opal.

“Open a death door and send them through it,” Zephyr ordered.

What flew overhead had to be a death door. I had no idea how to push them through it. Seconds ticked by and adrenaline made my body ache. I wasn’t prepared for this type of fight.

I felt it before it took shape, an essence that I was familiar with. Her energy couldn’t push through the circle I made, but I sensed her just the same.