Shade of Darkness

by D. N. Leo

  Azriel chuckled. “I am immortal.”

  “Then you must get really bored. Why are you here anyway? Why put yourself in the middle of this chaotic world?”

  “Good question.”

  She was trying to bide time, but she was sure Azriel had sensed Caedmon was awake. Without looking back, the angel spread his wings. They stretched outward, the feathers looking like black steel blades. He swiveled then and swung his wings at Caedmon.

  Although he couldn’t see Azriel’s face before the swing, Caedmon had anticipated his move. He put his arms up to block the blades.

  Alyna was devastated. Flesh against blades… Caedmon would surely lose his arms.

  She pulled the dagger Orla and Lorcan had made for her and charged at Azriel from behind. She screamed to get his attention, without success. She planned to stab him in the back. She no longer cared about fair play. She needed to kill this monster.

  Instead of the sound of blades slicing through flesh and bones, she heard a clank when Azriel’s wings came into contact with Caedmon. Azriel staggered back with the force.

  Alyna lunged forward with the dagger. It pierced Azriel’s back, and she could hear his flesh sizzle. He roared in pain.

  She peeked over his shoulder and saw Caedmon smiling at her. The skin on his arms and part of his neck had turned a scaly black. But the confusion and heartbreaking emotion she had seen before in his eyes was no longer there. She knew he had intentionally raised his adrenaline level. He had wanted to shift. He was in absolute control of his actions this time.

  She would do anything to see that smile from him every day.

  Azriel swung his body around, dragging her along with the momentum because the blade of the dagger was still embedded in his body. She drew it back out and pulled her arm back to stab him again.

  He swung his giant wings at her. The blades didn’t hit her, but the force of the movement threw her off the cliff.

  She was on her way down.

  Azriel jumped after her, spreading his wings. He didn’t want her to die. He tried to grab her, but she swung the dagger above her head to stop him.

  She was falling fast.

  Then she heard a whistle. She looked down and saw Nathan wave his arms. A flock of giant eagles flew toward her in an attempt to halt her downward fall.

  She could see Azriel smirk. He swung his wings and sent a storm of black blades at the eagles. Their dead bodies rained to the ground on top of the fighters.

  Alyna was still falling, and the closer to the ground she got, the faster she fell. She could see the look in Azriel’s eyes. She had to either take his arms and live, or keep falling and die.

  She continued to swing the dagger, trying to stop Azriel from reaching her. No way in hell would she let this monster save her. Not in a million years.

  Then she heard an explosion at the top the cliff. She smiled, but to Azriel, it may have looked more like a smirk.

  A magnificent black dragon leaped from the top of the cliff and spread his wings. He roared again, unleashed a beam of fire from his mouth, and flapped his wings furiously to fly down to her.

  Looking up at his shape imprinted against the blue sky as she fell, Alyna smiled. It was a view to die for. She had never seen a creature so beautiful. It was Caedmon. He wasn’t hers, but she could claim a part of his make because she had helped turn him into a shapeshifter.

  He dipped down low beneath her falling path, and she landed on his back.

  They didn’t need to communicate. She knew exactly what to do. Azriel was still in a downward dive. She used Caedmon’s back to jump upward toward Azriel, plunging the dagger into his heart.

  Caedmon caught her again on his back, and he soared upward so fast that Azriel had no choice but to hang from the tip of the dagger. At the top of the cliff, Alyna pushed Azriel’s body onto the rocks. He was almost gone. She charged after him to finish the job.

  With the last of his strength, Azriel stood up and swung his wings again. A storm of poisonous black thorns flew at Alyna.

  She could see the thorns but had nothing with which to block them. She could jump off the cliff again, but that wasn’t an ideal solution.

  The dragon came from behind her and flew forward, blocking the thorns. As they rained down on the cold rock, the dragon charged at the dark angel, letting out another loud roar. All Alyna saw was the angel’s head, ripped from its body, rolling toward her feet.

  The eyes were still open, and the mouth still spoke. “You’re my successor. You’ll become who I am and continue my legacy, Caedmon.”

  She stabbed the dagger into his head, but it wouldn’t shut up. She stabbed it once more and then flipped it over the cliff.

  Azriel’s voice continued to echo in the air. “You’re mine. Your soul belongs to me forever…”

  Chapter 33

  Orla grinned as she witnessed the sight of Caedmon as a magnificent dragon with Alyna on his back, the two of them descending to the ground from the top of the cliff. She had always adored Caedmon when he was a child. But as an adult, just like his father, he was every woman’s dream.

  She hadn’t known Alyna for long, but she knew a good woman when she met one. She hadn’t known Caedmon’s late wife. Thus, it wasn’t fair for her to comment on their relationship.

  The army from the underworld exploded into dust right in front of them. She knew then that Alyna and Caedmon had killed the dark angel. She didn’t know how they’d done it, and she didn’t care. She was proud of them.

  Caedmon landed softly on the ground. He stood as tall as a three-story-high building. The size of him blocked the light all the way to the corner of the street. Orla tried to make sense of it. She hadn’t known much about shapeshifting before Lorcan. After he was turned, she had spent every waking moment studying the creatures.

  She didn’t know much, but there was one thing she was certain about—an individual shifted into one creature, and that creature only. There was no such thing as dynamic shifting where a person turned into a lion one day and a dragon the next. The nature of shapeshifting, if she could call it that, didn’t work that way.

  By the look in Caedmon’s eyes right now, he was in total control of his actions. That meant shifting into the form of an animal and shifting back again was his choice. Orla figured he didn’t want to shift back now because he would be naked in broad daylight with hundreds of people around.

  Plus, as a dragon, he looked magnificent.

  She looked at Alyna. In the short period she’d known her, she had never seen her look so happy. She hoped the feeling would stay a long time for her. Because in her experience, warmhearted feelings never lasted long on Earth, especially in such a destructive time as now.

  Orla looked back up at Caedmon, and everyone cheered.

  Alyna was trying to make her way down to the ground from Caedmon’s back. He swung his tail around, putting the pointy tip against his back to make a path so that Alyna could walk down as graciously as a princess.

  But before she stepped down from the spine of the dragon, she turned, reached for his head, and kissed him behind his ear.

  The crowd roared in excitement.

  Orla thought she saw Alyna blush a bit. But, as usual, she pushed her feelings aside and stepped down to the ground.

  Then Orla’s heart skipped a beat. She saw the look in Caedmon’s eyes. Even in dragon form, the look was the same—it was the look he always had when he had to let go of his favorite sweets.

  It ran in the family. His Uncle Tadgh had a problem with sugar intake. Orla didn’t know what it was, but it seemed serious, and his father, as head of the family, had banned sugar from Tadgh’s diet.

  Unfortunately, Caedmon was diagnosed with something similar, and thus his parents had banned all sweets. The problem for him was that he loved lollipops. Whenever he could sneak into the inter-universal transport to visit her, he would pout his lips and blink pitifully teary eyes at her, and the next thing she knew, she had given him a lollipop.

  T
hen one day he’d seen a documentary screen where his father had struggled emotionally when Tadgh had almost died. The look on his father’s face on the screen haunted Caedmon so much that, as a three-year-old, he turned down his sweet treat for the first time. He did not want his loved ones to suffer because he had indulged himself with a sweet for the sheer pleasure of it. That look was the one she saw now on the dragon’s face. At three years old or thirty, Caedmon was the same. And it broke her heart.

  After casting a glance over the crowd, the dragon turned around.

  Alyna sensed it instantly. “Caedmon, what’s wrong?”

  Orla rushed toward her. “He wants to go. Let him.”

  “No, no, he has to tell me what’s wrong. Why is he upset? He can control the shifting now. Or can’t he?” She looked up. “Caedmon, talk to me.”

  “He can’t talk while he’s a dragon, you see.”

  “No, I don’t see. I don’t understand. He was just fine before. Caedmon, talk to me.”

  The dragon started to gallop away.

  Alyna charged after it. “Caedmon, you can’t leave, not like this. Stop, Caedmon!”

  He didn’t seem to hear her.

  “He understands me. I’m sure of it. He is in control of all this,” Alyna cried out.

  Orla tried to hold Alyna back. “He might be able to shift back. But something happened that changed him. He needs time. Let him go.”

  “If you need to bite me again to snap back,” Alyna said to Caedmon, “then do it. I’m ready.” She ran after the dragon, who flapped his wings and started to take off.

  “Caedmon, don’t go. You have to talk to me. What’s wrong?”

  The dragon flew off into the sky. Alyna ran on the ground after him until she flopped to the ground with exhaustion. Orla sat down next to her.

  “Caedmon, please don’t go,” she muttered in desperation. “I love you.” She turned toward Orla. “Do you think he could hear me?”

  “No, darling.”

  “I said I love him. I’ve never said that before. What did I do wrong? Why did he leave me? The dark angel has turned him into one of his, but I don’t mind. I don’t care what he turns into. I love him just the way he is, and the way he will be. Do you think he can hear me?”

  “No, darling, he’s gone.”

  Orla let her lean on her shoulder, and Alyna wept.

  In front of hundreds of men, in front of her people, she felt no shame in showing her emotional side. She didn’t need to live up to anyone’s standards. She did what was right for her. Her love had just left. She had the right to cry, and she didn’t give a shit about how others thought she should behave as a leader.

  Orla patted her back. “He’ll come to terms with it. He’ll come back. I’m sure of it.”

  Chapter 34

  Caedmon landed on top of a mountain far from New Australia. His navigation was based purely on the natural instincts of the animal whose form he used. He shifted back to human form then stood in front of a cave and waited. Soon he felt a rush of cool air across his skin.

  “You’re here!” he said.

  A distant female voice said, “You’re good, Caedmon. You caught on to the situation quickly. I should have approached you earlier.”

  “At the Peak, you said if I came here, you’d tell me the truth about my wife.”

  He heard a soft chuckle. “You’re a very smart man, Caedmon. Yes, I am prepared to tell you the truth about Sedna.”

  He shifted his stance. He didn’t want to reveal too much of his anxiety to this creature, whatever it was. The incident with Sedna was the only reason he’d come here. He didn’t want to accept that she was dead, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it was a painful truth he had to face.

  “Who are you? How can I be so sure what you’re about to tell me is the truth? You might say anything to get me to kill the fallen angel for you.”

  “Oh no, Caedmon, he doesn’t deserve to be called an angel. That would be a disgrace to the House of Gods.”

  He walked along the edge of the large stone that jutted out from the top of the mountain like a balcony and he peered into the empty cave from where he heard the woman’s voice. “Who are you?” he asked.

  “Given you can’t see me, what’s the point in knowing who I am?”

  “Visibility is just a dimension. You’re an entity with influence. I can’t take your word if I don’t know who you are.”

  He heard a chuckle before the voice continued. “The person who raised me called me Thunder. But don’t worry, if you don’t upset me, you’re safe from my thunder strikes.”

  He frowned.

  Then he heard a soft laugh. “Don’t assume the power of thunder always comes from Thor.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know anything about the magical world or who Thor is. And I don’t care. But if you can tell me about Sedna, we can close this deal and pretend we never met.”

  “One more thing before that can happen—”

  Caedmon laughed. “I knew it! It was just a trick. A scam from the magical world.”

  “I don’t cheat!”

  He felt a blast, and then an incredible force of light hit him hard, forcing him off the cliff. He needed wings to avoid the impact of the fall, but he didn’t want to shift back into a dragon. He concentrated and spread his arms wide. He felt his body lighten, and he turned into a feathered animal. He flapped his wings and flew back up the mountain. After landing, he shifted back to his own body.

  “The eagle suits you. Do you know what kind of shapeshifting creature you’ve become, Caedmon?”

  He nodded. “My shape is in flux, controlled by my mind and my needs.”

  “Very good. You know your strength.”

  “In other words,” Caedmon said with a smile, “don’t strike me again. You have no idea what I can become to strike back.”

  “Noted. I’ll be straight with you. I need your help in return for what I did for you at the Peak.”

  Caedmon was pleased with his new ability, but he also wanted the power of his silver blood back—with it, he could do a lot of damage to any kind of creature. But until then, he would be forced to compromise to stay safe. He forced a smile. “How can I help?”

  “I want the Scorpio key.”

  Caedmon chuckled. “Well, I can’t let you have it. The mage tribe has been taking care of it for centuries. A lot of people died for that key, and my wife sacrificed herself because of a fake key. And now you expect me to help you get it? What kind of insane request is that?”

  “How can you be so sure this one is the real one? Have you ever seen the real key?” There was a pause. Silence. “I take that as a no. The good news, Caedmon, is that the key in this temple is real. It cannot fall into the wrong hands.”

  “Who are you, really?”

  “All you need to know is that I helped create the key. I know what it’s made of. I can control it. No one else can.”

  “If I’m not mistaken, the leader of the mage tribe is the only one who can summon the key.”

  Thunder laughed. “You’re absolutely correct, Caedmon. The key accepts only one guardian. So yes, it’s either me, or it’s Alyna. It cannot be both.”

  “And you assumed she would willingly hand the key over to you?” Caedmon couldn’t help but laugh.

  “No, you’ll have to convince her to give it to me.”

  “I’m not going to even try to do that, Thunder. You’re saying I owe you because you helped me at the Peak. I accept that. But I won’t help you fight Alyna—I won’t fight her for you. So what else can I do for you?”

  “I’m not afraid of fighting her. But it isn’t fair because I don’t have a form to fight her. Ask Alyna—given her code of ethics, do you think she would fight a formless woman?”

  “Well, you’re giving me no solution here!”

  “How about you give me access to a form? I’m sure that would be easy enough for you to do, wouldn’t it, Caedmon?”

  “Do you mean by taking someone’
s body? Even if I had such power, I wouldn’t do that for you.”

  “No, Caedmon, just give me access to the cross zone of the multiverse. I’ll find a cemetery somewhere where unclaimed creatures’ bodies lie scattered around. They’re unclaimed anyway, so why not use them?”

  “Then you’ll use that body to fight Alyna, knowing I will be on her side?”

  “You have to meet me halfway here, Caedmon. You have only to give me a form. You don’t need to fight for me—but neither should you fight for Alyna against me. That’s only fair.”

  Caedmon contemplated, and then he nodded. “You may go to the border of the cross zone. I’ll ask my uncle to issue a pass for you.”

  “Thank you, Caedmon. You won’t regret this.”

  And then—silence.

  Guessing the woman had gone, Caedmon turned, shifted into eagle form, and flew along the mountainside.

  Chapter 35

  Today was the day of the summoning ceremony.

  Alyna pushed her body up from the floor and completed her fitness routines. Her strength had returned. Physically, she was now one hundred percent. She looked at her body in the mirrored wall, assessing the healing process of the more than twenty puncture wounds she’d suffered from Caedmon’s teeth—or rather the teeth of the lion were-creature he was forced to turn into.

  It had been only a few days since he had flown away in dragon form, but it felt like decades. Her bodily wounds were completely healed. But what about her spiritual wounds?

  She normally wouldn’t brood over injuries, whether they be physical or emotional, but this was a different time. Pukak had gone. The mage tribe was in chaos. They now worked with Ethesus, their lifetime opponent, to guarantee the ceremony operated smoothly.

  Everything seemed to be in place and ready.

  Except for her.

  Alyna shook her head. She couldn’t afford to have anything cloud her judgment today. Whether she wanted this leadership or not, it was her responsibility to see the event through. It was the least she could do for Pukak.