‘My Lady, we have been courting for a month now, and it is traditional in Careen circles for each side to state their feelings following the courtship. What I wish to say, My Lady, Shadow, is that I would be honoured if you would consent to allow me your hand in marriage.’
In true girly fashion, I flung myself off Moonmaiden, into Ilrune’s arms.
‘Yes, goddess, yes!’
We set the date for another month’s time, as I was scheduled to visit another dimension in order to secure a trading deal. Ilrune took to disguising himself as one of my guard, with permission from Captain Nergal, in order to stay close to me as for the moment, he had no need to be at my side, and it was not ‘proper’ for him to get involved with the affairs of state before the marriage. The one place Captain Nergal refused to let him accompany me to were other dimensions. That job mainly fell to Kaleb and a few others. It was considered that my guard was composed of the finest warriors of my army and the captain didn’t want an amateur making a rookie mistake to jeopardise that image. He knew that the weaker my guards appeared, the more danger I was in. What they hadn’t counted on was how much danger I could put myself in.
Spending several days in another dimension to secure a trading deal was not my idea of a riveting activity, not even with the amusement of watching Kaleb trying to hide his boredom. Although my mask hid a lot of my own boredom with the proceedings, it did nothing for my irritability. My vulnerable period was fast approaching and the long, roundabout diplomatic language was definitely not helping my headache since I had to be on alert for every single tiny detail that could be seen as ambiguous. Not to mention that my broken arm had yet to finish healing and it was very much taking its own sweet time about it, much to the healer’s annoyance. I absent-mindedly scratched at the splint discreetly hidden by my sleeve. I froze. I was getting better at predicting the exact strikes of my vulnerable period, and this one was imminent. I tugged on Kaleb’s cloak as inconspicuously as I could. Sensing the urgency in my actions, he nodded once. He knew the score and would take care of excuses. Desperate to get back to Aspheri before losing my magic, I teleported.
I vanished not a second too late. I materialised a little high and fell the remaining few feet to the ground as I felt the change come over me. I pushed myself to my feet, staggering a little, grabbing onto the wall to steady myself. I closed my eyes, fighting down the feeling of nausea.
‘Oh sh—’ This wasn’t Aspheri. I was back on Earth! And even worse than that was the all-too familiar figure someone I really didn’t want to see leaning against the wall a couple of metres away from me.
‘Well, well, well, the little princess is a little lost. It would seem that you are without your guards as well. This is not a good situation for you, is it?’
‘Teran Dementius,’ I growled, glaring at the demon who seemed to be determined to take the throne from me as I reached for the sword at my hip. ‘Just because I seem to have teleported at the wrong moment doesn’t mean I still can’t take you down!’ Even thought I knew that, in human form, I held no threat against the powerful demon. A blade already glinted in his hand. I scrabbled desperately in my mind for an idea to get away from him, to escape from this situation. Late night reading came to the rescue. ‘Law dictates that in order to fight for leadership, the duellers must be on equal footing. I’m in human form, so that would invalidate your claim.’
Teran growled low in his throat, obviously not pleased that I had found the time to look up the old laws of the dimension (all seventeen volumes of the damn thing. Took me near enough a year to get through them).
‘Shadow?’ called a voice. I cursed in my mind. Now was not the time for Bart to turn up. As much as I loved the demon Kraferr hybrid, he had yet to grasp a better sense of timing. ‘Is everything okay?’
‘Who’s that?’ Teran snarled. ‘Yet another hybrid that you’ve added to your clan! How many hybrids are you planning to accept? All you’re doing is diluting our blood. I would have thought better of the supposed princess of our kind. What would your father have said? Then again, your father sired hybrids left and right. What an example to give. But a three-way hybrid? That’s just senseless.’
‘Don’t worry, Bart,’ I called to him, my gaze not shifting from the demon in front of me. ‘Teran was just leaving. He won’t attack me until we’re on equal ground.’
‘What’re you doin’ here in the first place?!’ Bart hissed at Teran, his eyes glowing red in the gloom of the alley.
‘I had come to confront Shadow,’ Teran drawled. ‘But it would seem that she’s human. As she cleverly stated, I can’t challenge her now.’
‘And thank the goddess for that.’ I muttered under my breath before addressing the demon. ‘So you can shift! Go on! Scoot!’ Teran mockingly bowed to me before vanishing from sight. ‘I have never been more glad for that rule,’ I added to myself. A few moments later, Bart relaxed, the bolts of magic disappearing from his palms as he straightened up, staring at the place where, a few seconds ago, Teran had stood. He sighed, grabbing two silver bracelets from his pockets and clasping them around his wrists. A wave of brown streaked over his fur, transforming it back to his Kraferric pelt, before he twisted his head to look at me. I leant against the wall again, pulling my mask off and running a hand though my hair. What a fine mess I had managed to get myself into now. Human and no guards with Teran on my tail. Just brilliant.
‘What happened, Shad? Who was that guy? Why’re you here instead of Aspheri?’
‘Can you slow down on the questions please?’ I asked, rubbing my temples. Boy, did I have one hell of a headache. ‘I was visiting another dimension, sensed my human period coming on and tried to teleport back to Aspheri. Unfortunately, I screwed it up and landed here.
‘And human.’
‘And human, yes.’
Bart sighed heavily, rubbing the back of his neck. ‘As far as I’m concerned,’ he said, ‘you can’t go back to Aspheri or Synairn for quite a while now. I think the more wise decision would be to take you to where Dominique and I live. It’ll give you shelter while you’re…vulnerable.’ He held out a hand to me. I grasped it gently, bracing myself for the teleportation.
Bart’s teleportation may have improved in the way that it only took him two attempts to land in the right place, but his method still left you with the unpleasant feeling that you had just been pulled through a cheese grater. I had to close my eyes and force down the feeling of nausea for the second time that night as we landed. Goddess, how much trouble was I in now? There was no way Teran was going to let me get away. He’d be on my trail for the next three days just waiting for me to get my magic back. The only way I would be able to fight him now would be to get angry enough to discover my true form. A demon or half-demon had an extra morph known as their ‘true form’. The picture I had seen of Karthragan in the Book of Demons, the flaming wolf that was his true form. A full-blooded demon knows their true form from birth. A half demon only discovers theirs if they get angry enough to approach what is called the ‘point of no return’, the point where the demonic possession is so strong that it overlaps the other side of a half-demon’s blood. It was the only power a half demon had up his or her sleeve during their vulnerable period, but it was a difficult power to control and not one ever taken lightly. In fact, there were only six documented instances where a part demon had done so, and five of them hadn’t come back. Bart touched my shoulder lightly. Nodding to him, I dragged a sleeve across my eyes, following him down into the flat.
I braced myself for the onslaught of homicidal fur, but the absence of such a phenomenon told me that Dominique was probably out. I stood in the hallway, unsure of myself or what to do. This wasn’t my land to rule. This was Bart’s territory and I was trespassing once again. The fingers of my broken arm twitched as the old injury throbbed. I followed Bart through to the living room, taking up a post by the window, looking out over the city where rain had just begun to fall. I watched Bart in the reflection of the glass. He had change
d a lot since I had first met the Kraferr. He had been younger than me in physical years at that point, ageing as a normal human despite being a Kraferr hybrid. He used to have a kind of naïve optimism with the enthusiasm of a young person embarking on their first adventure in the footsteps of his Kraferr One predecessors. Now he was several years older, surpassing me in physical years as I had stopped, with a maturity superseding his age. I was, in no minor part, to blame for that. I had burdened him with demonic blood. If I could take it back, I would. It wasn’t fair on him, already one of the last Kraferrs, to have to deal with the rapidly expanding, precarious world of part demons. As I watched him from my discreet positioning, his face was set in an expression of neutral seriousness that I knew all too well as one favoured by my siblings when sorting through their emotions from an objective point of view.
The front door opened again to admit one very wet Kraferrin, who walked into the living room with her head down and, ignoring his protests, hugged Bart tightly. The Kraferr pushed her away, playfully grumbling about how she was getting him wet. I stood still, waiting patiently for her to figure out why there was something not quite right with her living room.
‘Shadow!’ You’re back!’ she exclaimed. I smiled at her, unclasping my cloak and draping it around her shoulders as I realised that she was shivering. Dominique wrapped her arms around herself under the cloak before speaking again. ‘We haven’t seen you for quite a while now…What brings you here?’ she asked, lifting her head, her eyes glinting in interest.
‘I’m sorry about dropping in on you like this,’ I apologised, ‘I had a little trouble with my magic.’
‘Basically, she’s human right now and pretty much defenceless while also having an insanely evil demon chasing her,’ Bart added.
‘Yeah, that just about sums up why I’m here.’ I said before sighing. ‘Teran’s father was Karthragan’s right hand demon. Had Karthragan died first, then Teran’s father would have made sure that Teran got the throne. As you can tell, he’s a little sore. The whole Dementius clan now bears a grudge against the Roths and, by extension, the Mercians. That’s the long story short.’
The door was thrown off its hinges as a blast of nearly white magic blasted it out of the way. Ilrune strode into the flat, sword drawn, confronting the two Kraferrs after pushing me to the side. He growled a challenge in demonic, glaring at Bart and Dominique. The Kraferr swept Dominique behind him, skipping backwards and turning the table onto its side. He bared his fangs, his eyes flickering red.
‘Stop!’ I shouted, grabbing Ilrune’s arm, trying to get his attention before he could hurt either of the Kraferrs. ‘They’re friends, Ilrune! Friends!’
Ilrune’s magic faded slowly as he pushed down his emotions. Closing his eyes briefly, he grabbed me in a hug, as if trying to reassure himself that I was okay. I pressed my face into his chest, breathing in his smell. I hadn’t realised how much I had needed the comfort after my run in with Teran. The two Kraferrs slowly emerged from behind the table, watching the crystal demon warily. As Ilrune let me go, I coughed nervously. I guessed that introductions were up to me.
‘Ilrune, this is Dominique and Bart, the last of the Kraferr race. Bart’s also an Unborn of the Roth-Mercian clan. Bart, Dominique, this is Ilrune of the Wingless, part-demon and soon to be Prince of Aspheri.’
Bart choked on something unknown, spluttering and coughing. Dominique just stared. After a few moments, Bart began to recover a modicum of composure. ‘What do you mean ‘soon to be Prince of Aspheri’?’
‘In the way that we are engaged to be married.’
‘You’re getting married?!’
‘Bart, shut up,’ Dominique muttered before adding in a louder voice. ‘Congrats Shadow!’
Ilrune bowed to the two Kraferrs, speaking up in his deep voice. ‘I apologise for the sudden attack. Shadow warned me of the threat posed by Teran, and I was not sure of your intentions.’ Bart was glaring at Ilrune, but the Wingless was returning the look in none too friendly a fashion. I stamped on my fiancé’s foot as inconspicuously as I could. He glanced down at me, taking in my expression. Sighing, he turned to look at the door, which lay barely hanging off its hinges from his exuberant entry. He cast an eye over the damage before holding his hand towards the wood, letting his whitish magic seep into the wood, reconnecting fibres in shattered wood and reshaping bent metal. Bart looked at me.
‘I take it that now that he’s here, you’ll be going back to Aspheri,’ he said flatly.
I shook my head. ‘That would throw up a magical signature strong enough for Teran to trace without very much difficulty at all. Ilrune wouldn’t teleport me for fear of messing up and being followed by Teran without any back up on our side.’
Bart said nothing but glanced at Ilrune before walking out of the newly repaired door. Ilrune cast a look at me before following the Kraferr. I sincerely hoped that Ilrune wasn’t about to go and cause any trouble. That was the last thing we needed at the moment. Careen were known to be highly protective of their females. I knew that Ilrune was about as pacifist as a demon could get, unwilling to shed the blood of another if there was any other way, but Bart didn’t know that. Bart was more likely to let his anger get in the way of anything that even sniffed of a challenge. Dominique ignored the goings on, walking into the kitchen and making a start on the washing up as if there was nothing amiss whatsoever. I grabbed a cloth and stood silently next to Dominique, drying the dishes as she washed them. We continued in a companionable silence until Dominique suddenly gasped. The glass she had been holding fell, shattering on the floor as she doubled over in pain, tears starting to stream down her face.
‘Oh god,’ she gasped. ‘Bart’s turning demonic!’
I didn’t ask how she knew. Dominique was a Kraferr. Sometimes they just knew things or had ways of knowing with their own kind of magic. She had probably placed wards or something around the Kraferr. Instead, I asked, ‘Where is he?’
‘On the roof, with Ilrune!’ I grabbed her arm, pulling it around my shoulders in order to help her remain upright as we ran for the stairs to the roof. I reached the door, gently propping Dominique against the wall before trying to open it. It was locked, sealed with magic. I growled in frustration, slamming my shoulder against it.
‘Curse this human body!’ I snarled at myself, trying once again with brute force. I hated being human. I had no strength, no magic, no way of fighting. Not unless…
‘Dominique, can you link to Bart’s mind and transfer the link to me? I need his anger!’ For a moment, she simply stared at me. I must have looked a sight. Not many people ever saw me angry. It was dangerous in demonic form. Now that I was human, I could cut loose. She nodded briefly, starting to mutter under her breath, weaving the spells through the air.
Bart’s anger hit me like a slap to the face. I struggled with my ingrained training, forcing myself to accept the emotion, to take it as my own. It flooded through my mind, crushing the dams built around my demonic side. There was no going back now.
Cold air. Don’t like cold air. Little creature beside me. Strange smell. Not a target. Not a threat. Ignore it. Find target. Find three-way-hybrid. Three-way-hybrid in Desert Dimension. Teleport.
Badlands warm. Badlands good. Magic strong. Three-way-hybrid here with Crystal hybrid. Must take down three-way-hybrid. Lunge. Bite. Scratch. Pain of magic. Stinging. Anger. Snarl. Flesh beneath my claws. Smell of blood. Good smell. Falling back. Crystal demon fighting me. Magic around my muzzle. Must get it off. Must get it off! Growl. Snarl. More magic around my paws. Can’t stand. Crystal demon next to me. Warning growl. Get away. Magic still binding. Singing. Crystal demon singing. Familiar song. Soothing. Growing weaker. Can’t hold on to form.
Someone’s voice softly crooned to me. A song I knew from so long ago. The Awakening of Worlds, an old Synari lullaby.
‘Run through the forest chasing the wolf’s tail, Know that in the awakening of the worlds, in the end of dreams, I will forever be here to comfort you.’ I let
my mind wander back to Synairn, to the last month I spent there. Of the nightmares that would wake me up at night with screams of terror. Of Arellan’s arms holding me close, her fingers gently combing my hair as she sang to me, as she sang me back to sleep. For a moment, I lost myself in memory. The loss of Arellan ached deep in my heart, a pain long ago buried returning to rip its way through my mind. I longed to stay in this world of fantasy, where she was still alive, but the singing voice wasn’t hers. The singing voice was quietly begging me to wake up. My arm was screaming in agony when I finally opened my eyes on reality. Ilrune looked down at me with concern burning in his eyes. His hand gently brushed against my cheek.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked quietly. I ignored that question as I started to remember what had landed me here, lying on the couch in the Kraferr’s flat
‘How’s Bart? I didn’t hurt him, did I?’
Ilrune scowled at the mention of the Kraferr’s name. ‘He has yet to awaken. The fight between you was rather violent. I do not believe you have caused him any lasting damage.’
‘I need to see him.’ I attempted to stand, grabbing my cloak, but someone seemed to have replaced my legs with wet noodles. Growling in frustration, I grabbed onto a nearby table, trying to support myself. Ilrune sighed heavily, wrapping one arm around my waist and helping me to walk over to Bart’s room.
Dominique sat alone in the gloomy room, sitting on the edge of the bed, holding Bart’s hand as he lay, unconscious. She glanced up as I pushed open the door, her eyes, wet with tears, gleaming in the light.
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