Shadow’s Wrath (Demon Generals Book 1)

by Gia Tsiknas

  “There is no other way.” Skye’s face was ice.

  The crystal cracked. She raised her arm for one final blow and screamed. Fire licked her skin, and she fell, letting go of the flag.

  “No!” Machi cried out, her body immobile from pain.

  Skye stood over her. Machi tried to move, but the pain held her fast. Skye had a demented gleam in her eyes. The pain lessened and Machi coughed, gasping for air. Skye’s chuckle built into a fit of insane laughter.

  “You failed, brat.” Machi could only watch as a spear formed in Skye’s hand. She raise her arm. Machi closed her eyes.

  Raboni!

  A loud rip tore through the room.

  No pain?

  Machi opened her eyes. Skye stood frozen, horror-stricken. Machi followed her gaze and saw the great serpentine flag falling, its upper edge riddled in soot and flame.

  Skye reached up, but it was too late. The crystal crashed into the floor and shattered on impact. Skye screamed. The spear fell to ash. The warm, healthy tone of Skye’s skin sapped away and shriveled. She slumped to the floor. Machi struggled to her feet. She looked at the shriveled, grotesque woman before her. Rage building in her mind and body.

  This woman was the reason for everything. She had started the killings; started the hunts and the raids that killed her parents. She had created the puppet Zafirah to run rampant, torturing Brizna and countless others.

  The dying growl of Hanaq echoed in her ears. It whispered to her, and Machi listened.

  Without thinking she lifted her arms, calling forth her own spear.

  “Stop!” Brizna came up beside her and took a hold of Machi’s arm. “Don’t kill her.”

  Machi’s wrath spoke through her. “She deserves to die. She slaughtered the Drakians, she betrayed and killed my mother. She tortured you, Brizna!”

  “Even so,” As Brizna continued Machi noticed he stood favoring his right side. “It is not our place to decide the fate of people, no matter how cruel or just the punishment.”

  “I’m a Hunter.” Machi’s harsh voice cracked. “This is my Hunt.”

  Brizna leaned against her and laid his head on her shoulder, still holding her arm. There was no force, and she didn’t throw him off. He just held her.

  “Not anymore, Machi.”

  Machi lowered her head.

  Time stretched. The sunny windows faded as Skye’s magic dwindled away, leaving them awash in the darkness. But the black night wasn’t so oppressive anymore. The sky no longer dark but a gray that changed to pink.

  Machi lowered the spear. She spit on the floor in front of Skye. The woman hadn’t moved since the crystal shattered. She was a husk.

  “I never want to see her face again. The next time I do, I will kill her.”

  With one last glare Machi lifted her shoulders and walked out of the demolished throne room.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  PROGRESS

  The torches flickered over the chasm as the rushing water roared through the darkness. Memories and fears raced through Brizna’s mind.

  This was where he and Etsuko had tried to escape. Had she gotten free? Where was she now?

  Brizna sighed as he watched two dragons lead Skye, in chains, to the underground chasm.

  Icham, Lucius, Drina and Anget were the only dragons beside Skye’s guard. They had arrived from the opposite side of the river, flying over the bridge rather than treading across.

  Anget glared at Brizna before nudging Icham and turning away. The elder dragon nodded his large head in Brizna’s direction.

  He shivered.

  Had a giant flying lizard acknowledged him?

  Aidrian walked up to the bridge, beckoning Skye and her guards to him.

  Brizna frowned. The man looked changed from the rambling vagabond that stole him. Drina stepped beside him, eying Brizna with haughty disdain.

  Brizna sighed again. Besides himself, Saiya was the only human in attendance. Machi was absent, she refused to bear witness; still holding to her word that if she saw Skye again, Skye would die by her hand.

  Saiya caught Brizna’s eye and winked. She stood to the dragons’ left. He smiled. He hadn’t seen his teacher and mentor in a long time. Perhaps they would catch up later before she went off on her next mission.

  Skye’s footstep echoed in the cavern as she came to stand before Aidrian. Her glare was one of hatred. Aidrian stood before the stone bridge. With a sigh, he addressed the gathering.

  “I have spoken with Raboni about the fate of Skye of Drakia.” Everyone straightened as Aidrian continued. “Her fate is to be exiled to the Abyss.”

  Brizna stiffened. He was glad Machi wasn’t here to protest this turn of events. She would have demanded blood, not an exile.

  But exile… He couldn’t help thinking the sentence was too soft.

  Aidrian turned to the bridge and lifted a hand that wore a gold bracelet of two intertwining dragons. Brizna frowned.

  With a few words the river fell silent. The cavern shook. Brizna and the younger dragons eyed the stalactites. After a moment the shaking stopped. Saiya, and the elder dragons, didn’t look fazed. He gazed at the woman who had once been his teacher long ago, the one who led him to Raboni. Again he wondered what past led someone to remain calm in the face of the bizarre.

  Brizna abandoned his train of thought as two magnificent serpents rose from the underground river. They shimmered as the water that made up their bodies caught in the torchlight.

  The center of the bridge fell away into a large gaping hole. It seemed to have no end.

  “Take Skye to the depths, Guardians of the Abyss, she is no longer welcome here.” Aidrian’s voice carried through the cave and echoed back in the eerie silence.

  The giant serpents answered with a hiss that made Brizna’s hair stand on end. They coiled around Skye in unison. Skye broke from her stupor. She writhed and screamed, trying to break from the dragons’ watery grasp. They bit deep into her flesh and dragged her toward the pit. Her body fell, flesh discarded and rotting to bones before their very eyes. A spectral image of Skye still writhed in the grasp of the serpent’s jaw. Her face twisted in a scream he no longer heard.

  The color drained from Brizna’s face.

  And then, it was done.

  The river roared once again. Aidrian turned and walked away, Drina hurried after him. Brizna turned to go, and the others soon followed.

  Skye’s screams would haunt his dreams for months.

  ***

  Machi stood alone on a balcony overlooking the waterfall, the ruins of the castle to her back. The landscape looked desolate and gray save for the silver ribbon that was the river. Her wings were glossy in the sun, healed and visible to the naked eye.

  She closed her eyes.

  Hundreds looked toward her as she exited the throne room. Empty dolls staring at the last remnants of their master.

  Machi bit her lip.

  “Finally! It took forever to find you.”

  She jumped, turning to see Brizna walking up to her. He wore a fine tunic and breeches in green, his twin blades strapped to his side with a belt.

  She tried a feeble smile but soon gave up and turned back to the scenery.

  “That’s new.” Brizna came up beside her, gesturing to her wings.

  “Something to do with being a Drakian.”

  “So why didn’t I see them during the fight?” Machi shivered as Brizna’s fingers traced lines down the webbing of her wings. “You just looked like you were floating.”

  “Turns out my mom asked Raboni to hide my heritage until I no longer needed to fear. I guess he did.”

  They both fell quiet, gazing out into the distance. Both unable to break the silence; to breach the gap that had come between them.

  Machi’s jaw clenched. What did she have left with no end goal; no revenge against the Gray Demon? What was left of their friendship? Would Brizna forgive her for getting tangled in her mess? Could they ever go back?

  “How can you do i
t?” She whispered.

  Brizna stayed silent.

  “How can you move on?” She looked down at her hands. “After everything?”

  Brizna took hold, squeezing. “Day by day.”

  Machi thought of her vision during the battle. Of Skye standing before the carnage of war, crying. She was like me.

  Yes, child, you are one of the few who can truly understand what she felt. Raboni’s voice was as soft as a breeze.

  She hated the pain and destruction that You allowed. So she changed all that. But—

  She became what she detested with all the passion a human can hold. Raboni finished.

  “Hey,” Brizna’s husky voice pulled her from her thoughts. He touched the ring on her finger.

  Machi looked up, meeting the question in his eyes. A slow burn seeped into her chest. Since when had he grown so tall?

  “That reminds me. Time to collect on that bet.” Brizna leaned forward and kissed her. Her tumbling thoughts faded to the background as the kiss lengthened. When he pulled back Machi’s mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. Brizna blushed and let go of her hands, retreating a bit from the balcony.

  “I, uh, should…”

  “Hey!” Machi snapped. Her red eyes pinned Brizna in place. “I won that bet, so I get to collect!”

  Brizna fidgeted, looking at the floor and mumbling an answer so quiet Machi didn’t hear it.

  She took a step closer. Her heart hammered. She stood before Brizna and stared at him until he lifted his gaze to hers. Then she leaned in and kissed him, lips brushing his so fast Brizna blinked.

  “So there…” Machi mumbled, a burn creeping up her face.

  The silence only lasted a second before Brizna started laughing. Machi grinned then joined in. For a long time they stood, leaning against each other, whooping and gasping for breath. Slowly they regained control and a comfortable silence enveloped them.

  After a moment Brizna spoke, outlining his time under Zafirah’s thumb. Machi listened to his soft voice without comment. This was his story. This was him. As a pause stretched into an ending Machi looked up, trying to catch his eye, but he avoided it.

  Would she have survived with no demon and no hope? What should she say? What could she say? Machi swallowed hard, her throat thick with shame at her own fumbling journey. She wanted him to ask for her story, but she also dreaded it.

  Silence lapsed yet again. Machi looked at Brizna, taking in all his changes; his tall build, malnourished but showing signs of fleshing out, his mop of brown hair, a strong jawline like his uncle, but his eyes were softer, unfamiliar. Could she match his courage?

  She could try.

  Machi started speaking, laying out her journey in terse sentences. She wasn’t as eloquent, and many times had to backtrack, but it all came out, hanging in the air between them. Machi stared at the stone balcony as the sun descended to the horizon. It was too much. She needed to know. She ground her teeth and raised her eyes to Brizna’s.

  There was a fire there. Her voice wavered as she whispered the words.

  “Maybe we can start again.”

  “As friends?” Brizna’s voice held a delicate edge.

  She bit her lip and looked down once again. Brizna knew her better than anyone else. He knew about her temper; her bloody past; her fears. He knew everything ugly that she had ever been, said, or done.

  “Maybe more.”

  Brizna squared his shoulders and took Machi’s hand. He fingered the ring there, the ring he had left, so long ago, at the inn in Den.

  “This was my mother’s once. Before she died. I found it again not long after we arrived at Den.”

  “How?”

  He shook his head. “Eri had it. It seems my mother wanted it altered, and Eri was too superstitious to sell a dead friend’s jewelry.”

  “Of course.” Machi couldn’t help a thread of bitterness lacing her tone.

  “This ring was to be my engagement ring once I grew.” There was a question in Brizna’s eyes that made Machi hold her breath.

  “Would you like it?”

  Machi grinned wide. “We’ll see.”

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I’d like to thank my friends and family for supporting me through this writing journey. Instead of staying in a three-ring binder on my bookshelf, there’s now a properly covered paperback to sit on other people’s bookshelves.

  To Jim, thanks for putting up with my frequent interruptions of “what do you think” and your patient responses to my self-critical eye.

  Thanks, Marta, for all the years sharing stories with each other and helping me hone Machi down to a semi-realistic, semi-likable character. I would be nowhere without you.

  Thank you DM Begin, for being my hype-girl to self-publish. When I came to you every other day in a panic you took the time to listen and tell me it’d be fine. You were totally right.

  Thank you, Allie and Tom, for all your last-minute help with the monstrous task of editing and cover design. You took my ideas and polished them to a shine I hadn’t thought possible.

  Last, but not least, thank you, Lord God, for drawing me along my walk with you, when I was stuck in my anger. Without the transformation you led me through, this story would have been a sad and desolate one.

  GIA TSIKNAS

  is a dietitian, coach, mother and writer.

  When she isn’t writing stories or keeping her husband and son alive and fed, she can be found hatching elaborately glorious arts and craft plans, then tackling them with an enthusiasm few can match.

  @authorgiatsiknas

  www.facebook.com/giatsiknasauthor

  giatsiknas.wordpress.com