Crown of Doom and Light

by Jayde Brooks

  “I surmise that you lost today’s sparring match, Demon.”

  Sakarabru recognized Khale’s voice behind him. She was never far enough away from him, or his thoughts.

  “Distraction is my enemy, Shifter,” he said, over his shoulder.

  “Distraction? What distraction?”

  It was a silly question, coming from her. Sakarabru had been distracted by his desire for Khale since she first introduced herself to him. Even the Dirty had made it a point to call out his lack of focus.

  “Your mind is bent, Demon. Something—or someone—has a hold on it and is drawing you off balance. Focus! Pay attention or we’ll see to it that your throat is cut!”

  “What do you want, Khale?” He didn’t bother hiding his irritation.

  The water around his thighs began to ripple, indicating her approach. She circled around him, between his thighs, in the form of a serpent, and then gradually began to shift into her most perfect and beautiful form, naked to the side of him.

  “I am getting to know my enemy, Demon. What better way than to study him up close?”

  She teased him on purpose. Her protruding nipples dared him to take them into his mouth. The long line of her waist curved into round hips and full and lovely thighs protecting the treasure of that part of herself he knew was sweeter than the sweetest nectar. His cock swelled at the fantasy tormenting him, of slowly pushing himself inside her and pumping in and out of her until she begged him to stop.

  “Rumor has it that it was the Dirty who called you forth, and that they are training you to lead their army against me,” she said, circling him.

  While she spoke his wounds continued to heal, but he was too consumed by her to notice. Khale traced the tips of her fingers across the space between his shoulder blades, sending a jolt of electricity up his spine, but Sakarabru refused to give her the satisfaction of witnessing his reaction.

  “It’s not a rumor, Shifter. And I will not only lead the army of the Dirty, I will use them to destroy your army and to take control of this world from you.”

  It wasn’t a threat. It was truth.

  Khale stopped in front of him and gazed up at him, the violet color of her eyes made even more intense by the water surrounding her. Her plump and inviting lips lulled him into a vision of seeing them wrapped around his dick. Making love to her mouth could be as intoxicating as fucking her pussy. He wanted it all.

  “I find it fascinating that you seem to truly believe that you are capable of defeating me, Demon. How is it that the Dirty have you so convinced that you can challenge me and win? How many other generals do you believe that they have sent on this same journey, and how many of them have ever succeeded? You should ask them.”

  She was everything that the Dirty had said she was. The beautiful and powerful Khale was as arrogant as he. But just as she had studied him, he had his own spies watching her, and the Shifter was more concerned about him than she ever dared say out loud. As he gazed deeper into her eyes he could see, barely, a glimmer of what almost looked like fear hidden behind the façade of bravado.

  He found himself smiling. “You’re very protective of your vulnerability, Khale, but I see it. I see you hiding it behind the image you must project to your people if you have any chance of winning this impending war.”

  She would be formidable, but ultimately, Khale and her armies would fall at his feet and beg for their very lives. But not until Sakarabru had alleviated the problem of his distraction once and for all. His desire for Khale tormented him nearly to madness, and the Demon had learned that in order to overcome a weakness, one had to conquer it.

  He slipped one arm around her waist and abruptly pulled her to him, lifting her off the ground and then forcing her back against the stone wall behind her. His dick pulsed in hungry anticipation.

  “Let go of me!” she protested, pushing against his chin with the heel of her hand.

  Her legs flailed wildly at his sides. She scratched his face, and struggled to free herself, but in her natural form she was no match for him.

  Sakarabru took hold of his cock in his free hand. He used his thighs to spread her legs, and then guided himself into the sweet, warm, and moist treasure he had been dreaming of. The satisfaction of pressing the head of his dick against the folds of her pussy was overwhelming and too great to stop even if he wanted to.

  She was no match for him! Not now and not ever! And she would be his, and when he was through with her, he would discard her and this magic she held over him like waste! He eased into her slowly, savoring the delectable juices of the Shifter lubricating his thick shaft.

  “Yessss,” he hissed, glaring into her angry eyes. “This is what I want, Khale! And I take what I want!”

  His cock pulsed and swelled as he pushed deeper into her.

  Khale fought. “No! No, Sakarabru! No!”

  He couldn’t stop her transformation. He watched helplessly as the Shifter began to shape-shift into the form of the serpent again, as she widened her jaws and sank her fangs deep into his cheek, and then his neck.

  The pain was excruciating, causing him to release his grasp. Khale slipped back down into the water, disappeared, and surfaced again behind him. He turned in time to see her reclaim her natural form on the bank of the lake.

  Breathless and enraged, she pointed at him. “I will see your flesh torn from your bones for what you’ve done to me, Demon! I will carve out your heart with my own hands while you watch and then I will feed it to the Dirty female who spawned you!”

  The ache low in his stomach was almost as painful as the wounds she’d left on his face and neck. But he’d tasted the Shifter, and he wanted more. Sakarabru watched as Khale shifted again into a large brown bird with expansive wings and flew away.

  “Is it done?” Andromeda demanded, bursting through the doors of Khale’s private quarters as soon as the Shifter had landed and shifted back into her own form. “Is it done, Khale?”

  “No!” Khale said, breathless and stumbling over to her bed.

  “What?” Andromeda shrieked in disbelief.

  Khale felt as if her skin was on fire. The pulsing in her groin made her almost too weak to stand. Sakarabru was as delicious to her as she was to him, and she hated herself for knowing that.

  “You have to finish this, Khale,” Andromeda said, desperately. “We cannot afford to wait any longer! I have told you what I have seen. I know what the Demon is capable of. I know what he will do. I have seen it in the prophecy!”

  “I know, Andromeda!” Khale felt as if she were being sucked into a vacuum. Her nipples were so hard they ached. Her thoughts reeled with images of his tongue sweeping through her mouth and of him pushing and pulling his cock in and out of her until she came again and again . . .

  She had done what needed to be done. She had played her hand in this, their first battle in a war that would outlast this world and maybe even the next, and she had played it better than even she could have imagined.

  “He’s coming,” she said, breathless, to the Seer.

  Fate had pitted her against the Demon because no other opponent was worthy. She and Sakarabru were cut from the same cloth. Both were powerful and cunning. However, she’d had an advantage on him since the beginning, and that advantage had been Andromeda and her prophecy. And Khale had used it in a way the Demon never saw coming.

  “He’s coming, Andromeda. You have to leave.”

  Andromeda nodded, her eyes wide with the realization that Khale was about to do the unthinkable—and that it was going to work. The Seer left the room and closed the doors behind her. Khale lay on the bed, rolled over on her back, forced her body to slow down its breath, and waited. Screams could be heard from the city streets below her window. The scent of sulfur filled the air and thickened until it made her sick to her stomach.

  The Demon had come into the fullness of his power. Yes, he was still an apprentice being taught the art of war by the Dirty. But the black cloud that he appeared as on her balcony was his true fo
rm, his most powerful form. As he approached her, Sakarabru marched naked and transitioning back to his beautiful self.

  “I wasn’t finished,” he growled as he grabbed her by the ankles, spread her thighs wide, and lowered his face between them.

  Khale cried out, clutched the bedding in her fists, and thrust her hips against his delicious tongue. The pleasure he gave to her was so cruel, so overwhelming, that she feared she’d faint if he didn’t stop, and that she’d die if he did. But he did stop, because he was a Demon and what else was a Demon if he wasn’t cruel?

  His massive cock throbbed to the rhythm of his heartbeat. He crawled onto the bed, grabbed hold of Khale by the back of her neck, and pulled her up. “Your mouth, Khale,” he commanded. “Open it.”

  There was no explaining this spell he’d cast over her, and there was no resisting it. The Shifter did as she was told, and closed her eyes as he fed himself to her. She wrapped both hands around his shaft, and savored the taste of him as he slowly thrust himself in and out of her mouth.

  The Demon moaned as she worked to pull seed from him. And Khale was so caught up in the moment that she nearly did, before she stopped.

  He glared angrily at her, pushed her violently back down onto the mattress, ripped the thin fabric of her top to free her breasts, and sucked on each nipple so hard that she feared he’d bite them off. She raised her knees to her chest, grabbed hold of his dick, and pulled on him.

  “Now!” she commanded. With her other hand, Khale grabbed a handful of his hair, jerked back his head, and stared into his eyes. “Fuck me now, Demon!”

  “Beg me,” he retorted.

  Unexpected tears filled her eyes. Her hips rolled on the bed beneath her. Khale licked her lips. “Please,” she beseeched him. “Please, Sakarabru.” She clenched her teeth. “I need you—inside me.”

  This wasn’t a part of her game. She never expected to be weak for him. She never expected to crave him.

  The tip of his dick brushed against the opening of her pussy. Her lips moved, repeating one word over and over again, “Please.”

  He was stingy with himself at first. He toyed with her, making her even more desperate for him than she already was. Sakarabru raised his muscular frame up on his arms and hovered over her, eventually falling victim to his own torment.

  He pushed into her with such force that Khale’s massive bed, with its heavy wooden frame, raised off the floor and moved from its original position. She cried out. The pain was overwhelming and intoxicating. The Demon and the Shifter locked lustful gazes as he pounded in and out of her for what seemed like an eternity. He was intent on making this moment last, because both of them knew that there would never be another encounter like this for either of them ever again.

  Khale trembled uncontrollably as her body conceded to the power of her orgasm. Tears streamed down the sides of her face and something akin to gratitude filled her eyes as she stared into the handsome face of Sakarabru. His orgasm revealed itself in the veins engorging on the sides of his neck. Tiny capillaries burst in the whites of his eyes, and in the final gesture of their tumultuous encounter, he lowered his mouth to hers, mated his tongue with hers, and sealed both of their fates with a kiss.

  Khale had no idea how long she’d been sitting there when Andromeda finally appeared again.

  “Now,” the Seer began, “it’s done?”

  Sitting on the side of her bed, her clothes ripped to shreds and the evidence of their union staining her bedding, Khale nodded. “He got what he wanted, Andromeda,” she said, softly. “Sakarabru wanted me and I was his reward.”

  “For now,” the Seer said introspectively. “And you have his seed?”

  Khale managed to smile. “I do.”

  Andromeda was satisfied. “You played this well.”

  It was as effusive a compliment as Andromeda had ever given Khale.

  “Only a Demon can kill a Demon,” Andromeda reminded her. “And Sakarabru has unwittingly sealed his own destruction. The child born of this union will be the one who cuts off the head of this beast. Well done, Shifter. Well done.”

  GATHERING

  Andromeda could not recall a time when all of the sisters had come together in one place at the same time. Some of them had never even met face-to-face because their paths had never crossed until now. But something had drawn them here in this unprecedented meeting, threading them together with fear and dread. Andromeda, the Seer of the Ages, stood in the center of the circle formed by her sisters and, in shock and awe, turned to each of them and called out their names in the order that they were born.

  “Cassiopeia, my second sister,” Andromeda said, pausing at the sister closest to her in age. “Second to me and the Seer of those moments that have passed.”

  Cassiopeia proudly raised her chin. “I trusted you, sister. I trust that we have.”

  Andromeda turned again and stopped at the next sister. “Apus.” She smiled warmly. Apus had always been so very sensitive, overly so. “You follow Cassiopeia, my sister, Seer of those moments that are now.”

  Apus forced a weak smile of her own.

  She turned to the next sister. “Larcerta,” Andromeda said, concerned. “Do not be afraid. We will get through this. We will, Seer of what is to come.”

  Larcerta lowered her head in a slow nod, and then looked up again with tear-filled eyes.

  Finally, Andromeda turned one last time and grinned broadly at the twins, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, who were identical in every way and impossible, even for her, to tell apart. “My lovelies,” Andromeda said with admiration.

  The twins batted their eyes and blushed. One was the Seer of Heaven, and the other the Seer of Hell, but it was always their secret to keep. No one could tell which sister saw which.

  “The mysteries you keep are as precious as the two of you. Welcome.”

  “Why are we here, Andromeda?” Apus asked anxiously.

  “It’s the end of the world,” Larcerta responded solemnly. “Of all worlds.”

  “How can it be the end if we are standing here now?”

  Confusion draped Larcerta’s face. She didn’t understand the concept of now. The future was all that she could grasp.

  “Your suffering is unbearable, Andromeda,” Larcerta said, tears falling down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, sister.”

  Angst pierced Andromeda’s heart.

  “You can’t die,” Larcerta swallowed. “As much as you crave it, death escapes you even amidst your screams.”

  “Stop it, Larcerta!” Apus snapped.

  “She can’t stop!” Larcerta suddenly yelled, covering her ears and dropping to her knees. “The Redeemer—she can’t stop! She can’t!”

  The twins giggled like children and whispered their secrets back and forth to each other.

  “He revels in your blood, Andromeda! He bathes in it!”

  “Shut up, witch!” Apus shouted at Larcerta, Seer of the moments that had yet to happen.

  Andromeda held up her hands to quiet them all. “It’s all right, Apus.” She forced a weak smile. “I already know what I must endure.”

  Apus stared helplessly at Andromeda.

  “Theians burn! Theians are swallowed up in the destruction of our savior! And then—And then—”

  Andromeda hurried over to Larcerta and knelt beside her. “Hush, Larcerta,” she said soothingly, smoothing down her sister’s hair. “I know, Larcerta,” she said as sympathetically as she could. “I have seen it too.”

  “The Shifter played her part well,” Cassiopeia said. “She made good use of being the whore.”

  “It is not right to judge, Cassiopeia,” Andromeda snapped, looking over her shoulder. “She did what had to be done.”

  Cassiopeia smiled menacingly. “She loved every minute of it. And every inch of him.”

  “What do we do now, Andromeda?” Apus asked, understanding neither the past or the future. All she cared about was here, this moment.

  With Larcerta calm for now, Andromeda stood and walked
back over to the center of the circle of Seers. “Now,” she said with conviction. “Now, we write the Prophecy.”

  Each of them held a piece of a very complex puzzle and only together could they tell this story. Only together could they understand it all. Andromeda was the most powerful of all of her sisters, having the ability to see and to know the past, future, present, and even the secrets of heaven and hell, but in her travels through time and space, she could only comprehend portions of each. She relied on her sisters to fill in the blank spaces that she missed.

  She turned to Cassiopeia. “You, sister. Speak.”

  “He was most beautiful,” she began, admiringly. “And reeked of evil,” her expression darkened. “He hated us. Killed us. Enslaved us. Tortured us.” Her voice trailed off as she her gaze met Andromeda’s. “We fought our wars against him and we lost, over and over again.” Sadness washed over her.

  “But the child,” Andromeda quickly added, before she lost her sister completely to her heartache. “The child is our salvation. She is our Redeemer.”

  Hope glimmered in Cassiopeia’s eyes as she nodded. “Yes. But she wasn’t strong as she was when she was born, Andromeda. You know that even though she was a part of him, she wasn’t enough on her own. You know this!”

  “I know,” Andromeda said softly.

  “Only you, Sister,” Cassiopeia said sternly. “Three times, Andromeda! Three times you are his, three times you pray for death, and three times you are denied!”

  “Enough!” Apus shouted at Cassiopeia, crying.

  “I see it!” Cassiopeia shouted back. “I know her suffering! And not saying it out loud won’t lesson her agony, Apus!”

  “Both of you!” Andromeda interrupted, “Stop!” She stared sympathetically at Apus. “Tell me, Apus. Tell me your part.”

  “The Seer Sisters are standing here writing the Prophecy,” she said, meekly.

  Apus could only see the here and the now. Beyond that, she was helpless, or she thought that she was. Andromeda walked over to her and pressed a tender hand to the side of her sister’s face. “And what else,” she gently coaxed.