Angel of Darkness Books 1-5

by Mackenzie Morris

  Gavin grimaced. "Wait. You don't mean you cut her up."

  "Yes."

  "Her eyes and tongue?" Gavin asked, his voice reflecting how uncomfortable this made him.

  "Were harvested and used in potions. But you shouldn't worry for her. Like me, she is immortal as long as I am in a runic contract with at least one demon. I can take whatever I need from her body as long as it's not a vital organ. I could technically take some pieces of her brain or her heart for very powerful spells, but that would be a worst case scenario."

  "Please laugh and tell me this is all a big joke."

  "Why would I joke about this?" Xair asked. "She doesn't mind helping me."

  "Are you now going to claim that slaves don't mind helping their masters?"

  How to explain this? "Amari is not my slave. She is my Ili-Anan. Don't judge things that you cannot understand. My culture is vastly different from these northern cultures."

  "But your country is gone."

  "Hold your tongue, demon. My country is alive and well in my memories. One day, I will see Ka'tayl rise again and flourish like the world power it once was thousands of years ago." Xair turned around as Amari tapped his shoulder softly. He took her hand. "Yes, Ili-Anan? What do you require?"

  She motioned to her mouth then patted her throat.

  "Right away. Gavin, go be useful and pour Amari some water. While you're at it, start making something for dinner. We need to eat while we can because there is no telling when guards or paladins might show up here looking for us. Ilyan is still very much in turmoil. Hopefully the soldiers will be too occupied with recovering the fire victims instead of looking for us so we can get Zeriel back on his feet before we have to evacuate the premises."

  "And what of Jaylen?" Gavin asked.

  "The best we can hope for is that Carvael kills him. I don't want to have to do it."

  "You would kill Jaylen?"

  "Would? No. I have to kill him if I see him again. Call it my Ka'taylin sense of retribution. That's what this glass dagger is for." Xair drew a curved purple glass blade from his belt and held it up in the mage-glow. "This is my arcane dagger. In our druidic religion, every Ka'taylin male child is given one of these daggers at birth to be carried with him at all times. As he grows up, the child will draw a tiny mark in the hilt for each time he felt that he was wronged by someone. Then once he reaches adulthood and enters into his field of study permanently, he is allowed to enact vengeance on each of the people he put a mark onto his dagger for, as long as he kills the person with the glass blade."

  "That sounds awfully dangerous."

  "You didn't let me finish. At the time of the killing, if the one with the dagger cannot fully recount the event that made him place the mark on his dagger, then the accused will go free. If the accused can justify that he has changed in any way, then the one with the dagger must accept his apology if no other crimes have been committed. Finally, if the wielder of the dagger does not kill the accused in one hit, then the tables turn. The accused has every right to then kill the dagger wielder."

  "I see. And you can continue adding marks to the hilt of your dagger even now?" Gavin asked, his eyes never leaving the purple blade.

  "For as long as I am alive. However, nothing involving Ka'taylin culture is void of magic, of course. This blade is enchanted with arcane energy. It knows how many marks it has. If I fill up the hilt with marks that are not settled in one way or another, it will kill me instead."

  "The dagger will kill you, even if you are immortal?"

  "Yes. So a Ka'taylin boy is taught to show mercy and forgiveness at a very early age." He took a small black stick out of another pouch on his belt and made a little mark on the hilt. "That one is for Jaylen."

  "How many marks do you have on your dagger?" Gavin asked.

  "Enough." Xair took the blade in his hand and turned it around to show the leather hilt that was covered in black lines. "Each of those tiny lines is another mark. They vanish once they are fulfilled."

  "Have you fulfilled any of them?"

  Xair sighed as he slid the purple dagger back into its thin sheath. "No."

  "Why not?"

  "Most of the people are dead now. I didn't get a chance to enact my vengeance. Those marks will never disappear. More than likely, I will die to my dagger. Arcane energies are the one way a Ka'taylin can truly die. It is the basis for our immortality, so the energies can also take our life away." Xair started cleaning up the spilled potion and various ingredients on the table. "That is enough talk about that for today. Amari does not like it when I speak about my dagger. It makes her uneasy. Besides, I thought I told you to go make dinner."

  Gavin bowed to him. "Right away, Ata-Lin."

  Chapter 2

  Wanted Dead or Alive: Jaylen Amalas Corrifus

  Offense: High Treason and the Assassination of Prince Averin

  Reward: 1,000,000 Gold

  Jaylen Corrifus is considered extremely dangerous. If he is spotted, do not attempt to engage him. Report his location to the Ilyan guard captain or to any member of the clergy. If combat is imminent, beware of his powerful shadow and light magic as well as his sword.

  This bulletin has been authorized by High Priest Corin.

  Jaylen crumpled up the bulletin and tossed it across the ivory throne room, hitting one of the dark red tapestries that lined the walls. The ball of paper rolled to a stop in front of the left blazing brazier next to the obsidian throne. He glared at Carvael who sat there with his legs crossed under his white robes, obviously expecting some sort of reaction. "Why did you show me this?"

  Carvael stretched out his golden wings then took a drink from his silver chalice. "What do you think about it?"

  "What do I think about it?" Jaylen scoffed. "I think it's filled with lies."

  "Which part? Certainly you don't mean the one about you killing your cousin."

  "No, not that one. I know what I did. But I'm not dangerous. I'm not a traitor!"

  Carvael stood up and walked up to him. He placed his bony hand on Jaylen's cheek. "Then why don't we go to Ilyan and explain it to them? You are forgetting whose side you are on now, boy. I will clear your name easily. If I address the clergy and tell them you are innocent, then they will have to believe me."

  "And what do you expect in return?"

  "You have to negotiate with a certain assassin who is still holding the royal family hostage inside the castle."

  "Still?" Jaylen asked. "The fires were two days ago."

  "Indeed. He has been issuing lists of his demands that he wants to be fulfilled or he claims that he will start killing them off one by one."

  "Why would you want to save them? I thought you wanted Vilyron to fall to Wolfekin. That's why you were helping with the werewolf invasion."

  "If you are going to be fighting on my side now, you really should learn more about politics, Jaylen. Think about this closely. No one knows that I was behind the attack. Even if they did, I could just tell them that I was hunting down heretics and it just so happened to coincide with the invasion. Simple. But if I go into Ilyan and save the entire royal family, then I will be their hero. You will be their hero as well. Then all of this simply goes away. And we will be adored and loved even more. That swings the balance of power into our favor. Oviel and his little band of misfit rebels will have no say in anything. Then we can crush them once and for all."

  Jaylen absentmindedly traced the silver wings on the front of his pale yellow tunic. "Clever."

  "Of course." Carvael rubbed Jaylen's shoulder. "Now, there is just one last piece of business we need to settle before we go back into Ilyan and make the masses adore us."

  "And that is?"

  "You bonding with me."

  "Bonding with you?" Jaylen asked.

  "You are a paladin, so you need an angel. Can't you imagine the awe we can inspire in the citizens when they see a paladin with the most powerful archangel in history as his angel? It will be glorious!"

  "I don't know-"


  Carvael grabbed the leather dog collar around Jaylen's neck and pulled tightly. "You will do as I say, or I will have all of your little friends fed to my dragon. Is that what you want? Do you want to hear their dying screams as Karixlesminatim tears them apart?"

  Jaylen shook his head, unable to speak as the leather cut off his ability to breathe.

  "I didn't think so." The archangel let Jaylen fall to his knees on the white polished floor. "You're my dog, remember? Now, bark like one and tell me you are ready to go to Ilyan."

  With clenched fists, Jaylen closed his eyes. "Woof."

  "Like you mean it."

  "Woof!"

  "Good boy, Jaylen. Go get your bag packed. We leave in one hour. Meet me back here so we can finalize our bond. Don't even think about taking that amulet off. You will need your magic."

  * * *

  One hour should have been just enough time for Jaylen to finally break away from Carvael's constant monitoring and find what he needed to find. As he sneaked down the elaborately decorated hallways that all intersected at a center point like spokes on a wheel, he kept checking behind him for anyone following him. In the middle, a large spiral staircase twisted high up in the air and far down into darkness to an unknown destination in both directions. Balls of multicolored mage-glow danced along the obsidian archways between hallways. Each hallway was lined by a different color of carpet that stretched its entire length, each ending at a heavy steel door that could be activated by a lever on the wall next to it.

  Jaylen had gone down the orange, blue, and green hallways, but each of those only led to either a storage room, an empty bedroom, or a room filled with giant gemstones. He already knew what was down the yellow hallway. It was his room. He finally went down the white hallway until he reached a golden door that stood out from the other ones. If Carvael was going to have a room down here in this awful compound, it would definitely have to be that one.

  He tiptoed up to the door then knelt down in the shadow out of sight of anyone who would possibly be going down the center spiral staircase. With a trembling real hand and a slightly glowing ethereal one to replace the one he lost on his left arm, Jaylen steadied himself against the gold door as he gently turned the handle. He took extra time to make sure he didn't make any unnecessary noise that would draw attention to himself. The entire time that he slowly pushed the door open, he said a silent prayer to Sola that Carvael was not inside.

  To his relief, the purple silk-covered bedroom was indeed empty. Jaylen held his breath as he crawled over the soft plush dark green carpet to the edge of the tall four-poster bed. A fire burned brightly in the marble hearth on the opposite side of the room next to a mahogany dresser with a mirror leaned up against the floral wallpaper. The air smelled like incense from the temple and cinnamon. The combination was nearly enough to send Jaylen into a fit of coughing from the sweetness.

  He went to the dresser and opened a small golden box lined with pearls. Inside, he found exactly what he had been looking for. The dungeon key. He glanced back behind him at the door to make sure no one was coming before hiding the key in his belt. He had spied on Carvael the night before to find out where he kept it when it wasn't on his person. But today, there was something else that Jaylen didn't expect to find in the golden box. It was an old yellow letter, folded in thirds and closed with a royal wax seal that had been broken. Why would Carvael have something like this?

  Jaylen opened the letter only to find a smaller one folded up inside. Could it be a correspondence between two people? Without wasting any more time, he read the first letter on the heavy royal paper.

  Doran,

  What in all of Aldexa were you thinking? I have personally warned you countless times to leave that woman alone, but what do you do? You end up getting her pregnant. Now what do you expect to do with the child? We are desperately trying to keep our royal family clean of any peasant blood. The addition of your bastard child will only muddy our clear waters. Not to mention the implications you are bringing to light regarding the purity of our paladins. Breaking personal vows is one thing, but when you will be our one and only ambassador to Wolfekin, you must have a shining record. Imagine the outrage you will cause when their leader uncovers the filthy secret you have smeared all over our royal family. The entirety of Aldexa will be mocking us and our drunken woman-chasing excuse for a paladin. Get your act together, brother. I want you to do whatever you have to do in order to get rid of that boy. Drown him in the river. Bash him with a brick. I don't care how you do it, but this is an order. You cannot have a son.

  And before you go and accuse me of telling you this just so there won't be a long line of successors up for the throne, you know I already have quite a large family. Archangel Carvael has condemned your son. He will never be worthy of anything. If you want, we can kill the baby in the temple or give him as a slave to Carvael. The archangel himself offered to take Jaylen off of your hands. Please consider one of these options. This is more of a warning and a chance for you to clean up your mistake rather than an admonition. Make Jaylen disappear and all of your problems will go away. I can even delegate some of the taxes we collect this season to support you in your endeavors. I trust you will do the appropriate thing. Think about it, Doran.

  Your always concerned brother,

  Talyn Corrifus, King of Vilyron

  So, Carvael wanted him even back then. But why? Jaylen almost didn't want to know what the second letter would say after reading that. So his uncle wanted him dead when he was just a baby? It was true that Jaylen never got to know King Talyn very well, but he would always go play with his little cousins in the castle before he started his studies in the Clerical Academy. Looking back and knowing that he had been that close to someone who wanted him dead was shocking. He decided that he needed to know the entire story, so he opened the second letter that was written on much thinner paper with no seal to close it.

  To My Idiot Older Brother,

  What I do with my life is none of your royal business. I couldn't care less about the throne or your precious bloodline. How dare you have the nerve to tell me to kill my firstborn son? I love Jaylen with all of my heart and nothing will ever change that. You can take your money bribe and shove it where the sun won't shine. Do you hear me, Talyn? Corina and I are happy together and we look forward to raising our family in Ilyan, but if you continue to threaten my son, then we will move away from here so you won't have a chance to hurt him. Yes, I have done some less than acceptable things in my life, but only when I'm drinking. I swear I am never touching the stuff again. I have to make it up to Jaylen after what I almost did when he was born. Talyn, I almost threw him out of a window. Who does that? Oh, wait. That would have probably made you happy, wouldn't it? Well, it will never happen again. I can assure it. I will raise my son in love, patience, and kindness. With Holy Angel Zeriel as my witness, Jaylen will grow up knowing he is loved beyond anything else. I will never lay a single finger on that wonderful boy. You can mark my words on that.

  Go back to your prissy tea party and leave me the hell alone.

  Paladin Doran Corrifus

  Jaylen took a deep breath before tossing both of the letters into the hearth. He watched them ignite and slowly burn down to glowing coals as he thought back over the words. That was the one and only time he had ever known his father to say that he loved him. What happened to that Doran? Why did he continue drinking and ruin everything they could have had? Jaylen silently cursed the memories of his father and his broken jaw began to ache intensely. Before leaving the room, he took a handful of pain pills from the pouch on his belt and swallowed them all.

  Jaylen knew he was running out of time. The hour Carvael gave him was quickly slipping away. He dashed down the hallway until he found the side stairs leading down into the white-walled dungeon. He was grateful for the torches that lined the walls because he didn't have time to stop and cast his mage-glow to light his way. He slid to a stop in front of the cell on the left where a tiny brown-haired
boy read a book on the edge of a bed in the corner and a turquoise-winged angel with long white hair was busy scribbling on a stack of papers. "Oviel. Psst. Oviel!"

  "Jaylen?" Oviel set down his manuscript then went to the bars of the cell. "What are you doing here?"

  "Liam, close your eyes so the emeralds in them don't record what is going on. Here." Jaylen slipped the dungeon key out of his pocket. "I can get you out of here. Let me unlock this."

  "No. Not yet. Give it to me and I will do it when it's the most opportune time." Oviel took the key then slipped it in his pocket. "Why are you helping us?"

  "Because I need to apologize and to atone for what happened at the fort. I am so sorry. I don't want to make excuses, but I was not mentally stable at that time. I care about all of you more than anything."

  "How are you here?" Oviel asked. "Did you sneak inside?"

  "Not exactly. I am working undercover. I tricked Carvael into thinking I've sided with him."

  "Dangerous. And where is Zeriel?" Oviel asked.

  Jaylen was silent for a few seconds as he battled with himself about how to tell the truth. "He might be dead."

  "What? What happened?"

  "I stabbed him twice. I had to do something drastic so Carvael would believe that I was actually on his side. I broke my bond with Zeriel."

  Oviel gasped as a look of pure horror spread across his face. "You killed your angel? You killed Zeriel!"

  "Shh. I can't think that way. I have to believe that he is still alive. I knew that Xair was still nearby and that he could possibly save him. I would never kill Zeriel for no reason. But I had to save you and everyone else. I warned Zeriel that I was planning to do something like this. I told him that I was sorry for what I had to do. I hope he knows that I only did that so I could do what was right."

  "I don't know what to say. How could you risk so much? I thought you genuinely loved Zeriel."

  "I do. I truly do. It tore me apart to do that to him, but everyone is constantly telling me to be a man and to make decisions. I made a decision. I will stand by that decision no matter what fate Zeriel faced because of it. I did my best to avoid killing him, but I did wound him very deeply." Jaylen struggled to stop the tears from gathering in his eyes. "I've been praying nonstop that Sola saved him somehow. I know it was probably a stupid thing to think that it was all right to hurt Zeriel like that, but I did what I believed was right."