by Annie Bellet
Footsteps in the snow at my back spurred me to keep moving. My bare hands touched snow and pushed down toward the ground, and I propelled myself forward. Desperately.
I couldn’t end here. Not like this.
I had only just found her.
Please, not yet.
Thoughts of her shot through me like a rush of adrenaline. I didn’t care that the odds were stacked against me. I would survive. For her. I would make it through this if I had to kill every single witch with my bare hands.
The first trees were only steps away when the first of the witch’s spells slammed into my back. It hurled me forward, the left side of my body crashing against a thick pine with an audible crack.
White-hot pain shot across my collarbone as I fell hard to the snowy ground. I winced and shook my head, urging my brain to clear and focus on getting the hell up and pushing deeper into the woods. Warm blood trickled down my spine. Whatever had hit me had gone deep, and I knew I wouldn’t survive another hit like that if the witch who’d cast it were any closer.
They were gaining on me, voices and footsteps closer than ever as I used my good arm to pull myself up, clutching to the bark of the nearest tree. I dared only one glance behind before I started running again.
The moon was hidden behind dark storm clouds tonight, the promise of more snow evident from the crisp smell of the air. Still, the witches carried their own sinister amber-colored lights that illuminated the horrifying mix of hatred and greed and excitement on their young faces. Most of them couldn’t have been much more than children, but I didn’t have time to contemplate what level of evil had turned them into such power-hungry monsters at this young age.
In my short time in the human world, I had learned far too many horror stories about the Order of Shadows to doubt their intentions if they managed to catch me. A demon of my heritage and powers? I was every witch’s dream in this nightmare.
I pushed deeper into the forest, vines and bushes slapping against my legs and boots. The ground here was uneven, covered in a slippery mix of ice and snow. I couldn’t move as fast as I wanted, afraid I might stumble again or trip over the decaying corpse of a fallen limb.
Careful. Precise. Those were methods I knew well from my study of alchemy back in my homeland. But here, I was out of my element, unfamiliar with the terrain and the weather. I needed to be careful, but if I moved too slowly, my life would be over.
I just needed to get deep enough in to be sure I’d have enough trees surrounding me to pull whatever I needed from them. When it was over, the forest would be nothing but a barren crater. I hated to destroy something so beautiful, but what choice did I have?
Just a little farther.
The forest thickened, and it gave me hope. Maybe I would get through this. I’d never fought so many before, but I’d had my share of battles with the witches of the Order of Shadows in the past six months. None of them had been able to bring me down yet, and I wasn’t about to give up, even if there were twice as many this time.
My pulse pounded in my eardrums, my breath shallow gasps in the cold air. I wasn’t dressed for this, and the long-sleeved shirt I wore was now torn to shreds in the back, letting in blasts of icy air with each step I took.
As I ran, I fought to center my thoughts. When I stopped to fight, I needed to be clear-minded and focused. I knew from experience that any slight distraction could have devastating results. I’d watched one of my closest friends get captured by a group of witches after being sliced in the leg with one of their silver ritual daggers. He’d been unable to shift or cast, his thoughts too distracted to do the double-duty of pulling the life-energy from his surroundings and casting magic at the same time. He’d been a prisoner of his human form, and it had ended him.
I couldn’t let that happen to me.
The pain in my shoulder protested with each step, and my thoughts returned to it over and over, refusing to cooperate. Dammit. I was stronger than this.
Another spell blast collided with a nearby tree, mercifully missing me by a few inches as I ran. They were getting closer. After all, they had the advantage in these woods so close to their ritual room.
I couldn’t risk going much deeper into the woods. My lungs were already screaming. I needed to catch my breath and find my center. But how? There was no time.
I risked a glance upward, studying the tops of the trees. The branches were high off the ground and still covered in green needles. Could any of these witches fly? Would I have a better chance up there?
Nearly tripping over a downed limb covered in ice, I quickly looked around me. This was as good a place as any, safely well inside the cover of the woods. If I couldn’t defeat them with the power of the life surrounding me now, I couldn’t hope to defeat them at all.
Heart pounding, I took my chances.
I set my gaze on a tree about twenty feet in front of me and mentally reached inside of it, pulling its life into me. I shifted instantly, my human form disintegrating into a black smoky shadow. I changed directions, turning sharply to my right and disappearing into the darkness just beyond the reach of their lights.
I made it about fifty yards before the pain in my shoulder forced me back to my human form. I landed on my knees on the freezing ground. Cursing, I pulled myself up and started running again. In the distance, I could hear their shouts of confusion.
“Spread out,” one of the witches shouted. “He won’t go far. He’s injured and bleeding. He won’t be able to maintain his form for long.”
I cursed again. She was right. All hope of disappearing into the night and feeding off the trees until I had found my way to safety was gone.
I was going to have to stay and fight. It was my only hope.
Fighting would take power and magic, but it wouldn't mean having to hold my concentration and my shadow form for long stretches of time.
For now I had the slight advantage. Until they found me, I would be able to draw some power from the nature that surrounded me. I would be able to hold it in reserve and hit them with the full force of my magic.
If only I’d been able to bring some of my potions or elixirs with me to this world. I knew how to concoct healing potions that would have taken away my pain in an instant. With a laboratory and some simple ingredients, I would have been able to create potions that could blow them all to pieces with a single drop.
I shook my head and wiped a drop of sweat from my forehead. There was no use daydreaming about what I might have been able to do had I brought potions with me or had time and money to set up a lab here in their world. It was too late for all of that.
Right now, I needed to find a safe place to rest and center my thoughts.
I changed direction again, taking a hard left between two tall trees. A flash of light in the corner of my vision told me at least one or two of the witches were heading in my direction. I had a good bit of distance on them, but it was only a matter of time until they found me.
At least I’d managed to split them up.
For now.
I counted to fifty and slowed, taking a moment to check my surroundings. No one was close that I could see, but I wasn’t blessed with night vision like some other shadow demons I knew.
It was dark enough here, the trees dense and thick. I spotted a fallen pine tree, its shallow roots torn from the ground creating a good little nook to hide behind. I kept my eyes on the darkness around me and slid down the rough bark to sit behind the massive cluster of roots.
I rested my forearms against my knees and let my head hang low as I struggled to catch my breath. How long had I been running? Half an hour? More?
I hadn’t expected the witches to be in such great shape, but they each had a huge advantage over me. Not only were they able to freely tap into and use their magic here in their homeland, but they were also carrying an unlimited power source inside their own bodies—a demon, enslaved in a cruel ritual, reduced to a magical battery that increased a witch’s power and stamina exponentially.
> And somewhere out there, one of them had my sister.
I took a deep breath, focusing on Ariella. She was the reason I was here. The reason I’d sacrificed everything back home to come to this forsaken place.
At the time, I’d known she'd been kidnapped, but I hadn't realized the purpose behind it. Or the fact that I’d never be able to save her and bring her home. Along with the discovery of the heart-breaking truth, I’d also learned that once enslaved, the only freedom for a demon in this world was death. When her host witch died, Ariella would die with her. There was no escaping it.
I still hadn’t found a way to deal with the crushing sorrow of that truth, but even as it weighed on me like the burden of a thousand heavy stones, I understood there was one way I could honor her.
I could bring her peace.
I’d made it my mission to find her witch and put an end to her. I owed Ariella that much after all she’d done for me in our long lifetime. She deserved a better death. She deserved to die in the way of our ancestors—by choice. Not by her own brother’s hand. But it was all I could offer her, and I would not let go of my life until I’d ended her suffering.
Memories of her poured over me like a fresh rain, washing away all thoughts of my pain.
This human form would not take control of me tonight. I closed my eyes and pictured her face. I remembered the way she was when we were shadowlings, running through the meadow at Lora’s End, the light of the sun gleaming in her eyes. I pictured the wide smile that had transformed her features when she’d touched a fawnling’s soft fur for the first time. She’d giggled and scooped the animal into her arms, holding it tightly to her small form.
Ariella had been beautiful and full of joy. She’d been sly and quick, besting me in more than a few training sessions in our mid-years.
She deserved so much better, and I would do whatever it took to free her spirit.
I breathed deeply, my mind only briefly registering the flicker of lights in the distance. My thoughts were with Ariella. My pain was gone.
I exhaled and let the fear leave with my breath, and when I inhaled again, I drew in the essence of the trees around me. Their life-force flowed into me like a current of electricity, charging my power.
I repeated the process, keeping my thoughts centered on the one final purpose of my long years. My power increased, and with it the trees and underbrush around me shriveled and died. Brown, brittle pine needles fell like snow to coat the forest floor.
I stood and readied myself. It wouldn’t be long now before the witches sensed this exchange of power and saw the destruction of nature that it caused. As I inhaled again, death spread out in a wide circle with me at its center. Even the fallen tree I’d used for cover had given what was left of itself and shriveled to dust at my feet.
I focused on the approaching lights and shouts of understanding as those who’d seen the destruction called out for their sisters to join them.
A single moment of doubt invaded my strict focus as I realized that with my pain forgotten and fresh energy surging through my body, I could disappear in seconds. I could fade into the shadows and soar high into the night sky. In minutes, I could be a hundred miles away if I wanted.
But thoughts of a dozen demons just like my sister, living in torturous slavery just a few feet away, held me to the spot.
I would end their pain just as I would end hers. I would see an end to every witch in the Order of Shadows before I would give up or run away.
The first of the witches stepped into the clearing I’d made. There was nothing left of the trees around me but dust. Not even the snow or the grass beneath remained. All that lay between me and the witch was a fine coating of grey and brown dust.
She inhaled sharply and stopped, her eyes widening as they landed on me. She opened her mouth to call to her fellow witches, but before the sound could leave her lips I had already shifted and snaked a dark shadowy rope up the length of her body and squeezed the breath from her lungs.
The witch clutched at the smoky shadow of my form, but her hands passed through me with nothing to grasp but darkness.
As her body writhed and twitched against me, I reached inside her chest and drew what was left of her life from her rapidly beating heart. She went limp, and I dropped her lifeless body to the ground just as two more witches reached the clearing.
One managed to cry out to the others still running toward us, but the second didn’t have a chance. I snaked along the ground like a black mist at her feet and shifted forms as I came up behind her. Before she could react, I gripped her small fist and brought the blade of her own dagger to her throat. The beginnings of a scream vibrated in her throat as I pulled the sharp edge across her skin.
My senses were sharpened by the mix of power and adrenaline surging through my veins, and I caught the sound of a set of icy daggers whistling through the air at my back. I shifted at the last possible second, letting the daggers sail past me as the second witch fell to the ground beside the first.
Ten to go.
I carefully placed the witch’s dagger in a leather holster at my side and retook my demon form. I flew into the air, mixing in with the shadows just under the canopy of trees. The group of witches were all headed to the clearing, so I doubled-back behind them and caught the slowest witch by surprise. I silently dropped to the ground behind her and concentrated on creating a circular motion between my palms. I used the motion to gather energy, like friction between my essence and the air around me. A bright green light emanated from the center of my moving hands, a hissing sound growing louder as the acid inside my magic charged up.
The witch spun on her heels, her hands raised to conjure a protective shield around her body. But she was too late. I stretched my hand and the orb of acid took the form of a long snake. With a single quick flick of my wrist, I sent it slithering on the ground toward her. Its mouth opened and the fangs of my snake sunk into the flesh at her ankle. She screamed as the acid worked its way into her bloodstream, boiling her from the inside. She fell to her knees as the skin and muscle that covered her bones dissolved into a pool of thick green liquid on the forest floor.
I may not have had a laboratory or my elixirs and potions here in the human world, but as long as I had something to fuel my magic, I still had my most effective poison. If the snake’s fangs so much as pierced the skin on a victim and drew blood, it would instantly poison them. My snake’s poison was more venomous than the bite of a thousand rattlesnakes.
Nine.
Before the others could react to the screams of their fallen sister, I shifted and blended into the dark shadows between the trees. I had already used a great deal of my power, but I was far enough away from the clearing now to tap into the life of the trees around me.
I flew a safe distance away and focused again, repeating my ritual and breathing in and out, refueling some deep well inside myself. This time, I only cleared a small area before shifting and moving to a new location. The biggest disadvantage a demon had in this world was that it was very difficult to draw power without being tracked. In the Shadow World, everything was a part of the same energy. As demons, we were part of the world around us, connected to the very nature of the land in an intimate way. We didn’t need to steal power from the world to cast. We were a part of it, and it was a part of us. As a Shadow Demon’s power grew stronger, the world around him grew stronger as well.
Here, it was the opposite. On its most basic level this world’s energy worked in reverse to my homeland. In order to use any kind of demon power, we had to steal from something else. Something born of this world, be it human, animal, or plant. Some demons who had been here much longer than myself had gained the ability to suck tiny amounts of energy from each living thing around them so that no one thing was destroyed or severely altered. It was a skill that took time and patience to master, and I didn’t have a lot of time. Every day I delayed was another day my sister lived in agony.
Maybe someday, if I stayed here long enough, I w
ould get the hang of it and learn to travel and shift and cast without risking detection, but today was not that day. I had to use the knowledge and resources I could to survive, and right now that meant destroying a beautiful forest of trees that had stood for decades.
I continued to shift and pull energy from more than a dozen locations before I circled around and went in search of the next witch. It hadn’t taken long, but by the time I found them, I had lost most of my advantage of being able to pick them off one at a time. Six of the nine remaining witches gathered in the original clearing. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder facing the trees, various weapons and spells cast and ready to aim at any sign of movement in the shadows.
But where were the other three?
I kept low to the ground where it was dark and circled the clearing, searching for the others.
I caught sight of a pair of them creeping silently through the woods about twenty yards outside the clearing. They stayed together, their footsteps slow and deliberate, careful not to make a sound. Their heads moved from side to side, methodically searching the darkness.
In shadow form, I snaked up the dark side of a tall tree until I was well above them. I searched for a sturdy branch that might hold the weight of my human form and when I found one, I shifted and steadied myself against the trunk of the tree. I conjured another ball of bright green acid, wincing as the light that emanated from the magic brightened the area. I worked fast, preparing to separate the magic into two different snakes when a white flash streaked toward me from below. The bolt of lightning was accompanied by a loud crack as the branch that held me burst into flames and fell from the tree.
I lost my concentration and the spell I’d been creating dissipated. Caught in a freefall, I swallowed my panic and narrowed my focus, thinking only of my mission. Before my feet hit the ground, my body shifted once again to black smoke. I skirted the snowy ground and flew upward.
Who had cast that spell?