Wings of The Wraith

by Khardine Gray

  Dante was on the ground for a few seconds before he moved. Blood ran down the side of his face. He gripped his sword and charged the creature but was once again knocked back.

  It seemed worse because he hit his head on the edge of a boulder and fell instantly to the ground.

  I couldn’t see him coming out of this fight alive. I couldn’t see it.

  The creature was too powerful. It was too powerful and here I was sealed in this case with the vines around me.

  I hung my head down in shame as tears fell down my cheeks.

  I was sick of being weak. Sick of being helpless.

  It was the same problem at home. Back in Washington I worked in the library and put up with all that crap because I needed the job. I had a goal for myself with my business and I knew I needed to continue to work at the library if I wanted to finance my business. It was so much worse because I’d failed before.

  Here I was again, helpless to whatever life threw at me. This life, this world that contained so many things I didn’t understand.

  And I was a syphon. A magical being who could syph the powers of whatever I wanted.

  So, what was the good of me now? Like this, in this state.

  When I lifted my head, I saw the elf queen looking at me. Her stare was intense and penetrative.

  “Why aren’t you playing the game?” She spoke to my mind with a bright smile on her face. “Are you going to let your love die?”

  I stared back at her.

  “This is madness, he’ll die,” I said out loud.

  “Then save him, what are you waiting for? My magic is all around you Syph. Those vines on your arms are like touching me. A person would sell their soul to the devil himself to get a hold of my powers, and there you are, just letting time pass and go to waste.”

  My eyes widened as I realized what she was saying.

  I could have her power. I did have her power.

  The same way I had Dante’s.

  I closed my eyes and focused, feeling for the difference and there it was. There it was. Like a box inside my soul.

  “Release me.” I said to the vines and they listened. As the vines retreated back to the earth the glass case shattered, breaking me free.

  “Oh my God.” I gasped and moved to Dante just as the creature was about to land his sword down hard on him.

  I waved my hands and stopped the sword mid strike. The creature growled, and the queen shuffled. I looked to her as the understanding of her power filled my mind. Not everything came to me, but some. Enough.

  She wanted me to show the creature mercy, so I did. This was a game, but not one to the death. With a wave of my hand I sent the creature back beyond the wall it came from. Then I went to Dante who needed me. I knelt down and put my arms around his battered form. Blood was all over his face.

  “Alyssa, syph. God, this feels exactly like the first time I died.” He coughed blood.

  “Hold still. I’ll heal you.” The only way that I could heal him was to turn him back to his angel form. “Revertio discadentio.”

  Those were the words the queen spoke when she transformed him the first time and it worked now to put him back to his angelic form. I watched him turn back into the man I’d come to know, and...loved.

  This...was unreal, everything about the last few days were unreal, but what felt real to me was this feeling in my heart.

  The feeling in my heart that told me I would only ever feel the way I did with him. As I watched him change, I wondered if maybe I could have removed the wraith essence in him, but as he transformed, I saw I didn’t.

  He sat up and expanded his wings and the black tips were there still.

  He reached for me and held me close.

  “You saved me,” he whispered into my ear.

  “I thought it was about time. Right?”

  He held me closer and kissed the top of my head.

  “Both of you get out of my realm,” the queen balked. “And do not come back.”

  We both looked at her.

  She waved her hand into a circle and a portal appeared in front of us.

  “That is the Shadowlands?” Dante asked.

  “It is.”

  “No games or tricks?”

  “Time is of the essence. Balmora and the necromancer are already there waiting for you. This gateway will take you straight to the Cave of Endless Night.”

  When I looked, I saw a lonely mountain off in a distance.

  “Remember, all magic stops while you’re inside the cave.”

  “I know,” Dante replied. He helped me to stand and took my hand to lead me toward the portal.

  “Thank you.” I said to the queen. I knew she didn’t want to help us, or maybe it was more like she didn’t want to get involved. So, she did the next best thing by giving me access to her powers.

  “Use them wisely.”

  “Come on Alyssa,” Dante tugged on my hand.

  We both stepped into the portal and into the shadowlands which looked exactly as the name described. Like a land surrounded by shadows.

  As we stepped in, the portal closed and all there was...

  Was nothingness.

  Chapter 10

  Dante

  Fuck.

  I was actually afraid. Nervous and afraid.

  I reached for Alyssa and held her tight thinking of the most inconspicuous way to get her inside the cave. The cave was off in the distance on the other side of the mountain.

  “Dante,” Alyssa snuggled against me. “We should stay positive. Maybe we have enough. I mean with the queen’s power.”

  It wasn’t enough. It was something, but it wasn’t enough, and just like I knew our presence wouldn’t go unknown in Aestas, I knew Balmora and the necromancer would know we were here.

  We had to get to the cave. Walking was out of the question, teleporting would alert them to our location, but I was sure they would know that in seconds on their own. It was a given with people who had that level of magic.

  So, I chose that. The lesser of two evils.

  We got as far as outside the cave. Just as I thought because the magic wouldn’t take me inside.

  I frowned, however, when I saw them both waiting at the cave entrance for us.

  Balmora with her hideous appearance and the necromancer, a dark haired, ashen faced man with a cape billowing in the wind.

  So that was what he looked like.

  They both smiled at us, relishing the fear that rippled through Alyssa. The necromancer was feeding off it.

  “Wonderful.” He mused holding out his hands to either side. He rose into the air and seemed taller. His hair flowed into the shadow. “Hand delivered is always best. I hope you handled her with care.”

  “Fucking asshole, as if I’m going to allow you to take her. Just like that? Idiot.” I snarled. I looked down at Alyssa and she blinked several times.

  “Thank you for taking care of me.” She gripped my shirt.

  “You were right. Going fast makes people crazy, and crazy things happen. I went ahead and fell for you.”

  Her lips parted. “I lov–”

  There was no time to savor for me to hear her. I had to do it. I couldn’t portal us into the cave, but I could create black holes in objects. That is what I did and pushed her inside before she could tell me she loved me.

  Before the necromancer could snap her up, and she really would be hand delivered. He struck out at me with a wave of thick black fire that scorched the clothes off my body.

  “You’ll pay for that. Wraith.” He hissed.

  “Oh, not just yet. It’s just the wings right now.” My eyes turned gold and I unleashed the angelic magic within me. It was time to show what I had, what I held back. What I failed to acknowledge all these years. I was a fallen angel, but there was so much more to me than that.

  “I’m still a sentinel!” I cried and with a burst of energy I lashed back. My blast got him, but it wasn’t enough.

  “I think we need to make things more inter
esting.” Balmora called out with a wicked laugh.

  Then all around me shadows lifted from the ground. The place was already a spooky gray color. It could be classed as silver against the moonlight, but these figures were black.

  Balmora’s laugh got louder when the figures turned into goblins, but not just any run of the mill goblins. They were hellish creatures that stood taller than me and they had wings too.

  “Lucky for you we love interesting.” Said a voice from behind me I recognized.

  I whirled around to see Neo and Zeek walking toward me, weapons at the ready.

  While their presence did nothing to phase neither the necromancer nor Balmora, to me their presence was most welcomed.

  “Guys,” I beamed.

  “Save the reunion for the after party, boss. You owe me a fucking beer.”

  “You can have a case of it.” I nodded.

  “How about you deal with your cape wearing friend and we’ll take care of these things,” Zeek suggested, nodding toward the creatures.

  “Agreed.” I turned back to the necromancer who had a crazy grin on his face.

  “Look at you all, thinking you have us, where you want. You really believe you stand a chance?” He laughed.

  Balmora snapped her fingers and it was as if something switched on in the creatures. They moved at once toward Zeek and Neo.

  “I think I need to reacquaint myself with Alyssa.” Balmora laughed and to my greatest horror walked inside the cave. As she did her grotesque appearance faded and she looked nothing more than a woman. A human woman without magic.

  I didn’t anticipate that, but I should have.

  With her magic she was one of the most powerful sorceress’ alive, without it I was certain she was still strong. Strong enough to go up against a defenseless woman who was new to our world.

  Alyssa was inside the cave, somewhere, without me.

  A blast of energy sent me flying through the air.

  The necromancer roared with laughter. The kind used by someone who knew they were one step ahead of the game.

  And he was...

  ***

  Alyssa

  ***

  I understood why it was called the Cave of Endless Night. It was so dark I couldn’t even see my hands.

  In my back pockets were a few things my grandmother had given me to prepare me for this. Although no one could have really prepared me for being inside a cave in some strange land by myself.

  She’d given me a little kit with a box of matches, a candle, a flare, and a box of raisins. She always used to give me a box of raisins when she was alive.

  Raisins I loved because they were my favorite things.

  I would have loved to stop and eat them, but I hadn’t felt hunger in days.

  Mostly I felt numb and a part of me felt like I was never going to see Dante again.

  I’d never told any man I loved them, and I never got the chance to tell the one that I did love, I loved him.

  I lit the candle and felt my way through. I suppose I was just to sit and wait in that helpless state I hated.

  There was a stream which flowed down into a little waterfall. I went up to it and crouched down to touch the water. It wasn’t water though. It was mercury.

  I’d seen this a lot at the British Museum. The Egyptians used it in their tombs because of its power to imbue immortality. The Mayans used it too.

  At least I knew something. It being here probably did something to tamp down the magic.

  Of which I had none.

  I felt like my old self again.

  Like the day before my birthday, before everything changed, and turned my world upside down.

  I was about to sit down when I heard laughter I wasn’t likely to forget the sound of, ever.

  Balmora’s cackle worked its way into me like poison.

  I straightened up as my heart stopped in my chest. She came down the same path I’d come holding a torch, which she placed in the crevice of the cave wall.

  “Nice to catch up again. Alyssa.” Balmora looked like a human woman. She looked like a person, instead of the hideous creature I saw when I first met her. “So, this is what I looked like when I was human. I was beautiful, wasn’t I?”

  “How did you become the other way? Ugly and evil.”

  “Naughty girl. You know it’s not nice to call another woman ugly. My demonic state is not ugly. It is an emblem of the gods I represent. All the powers they gave me to save me from the horrible life I had as this...” She pulled at her black robes. “I was nothing, and the man I loved treated me as such.”

  “You turned to evil because a guy treated you like nothing?”

  What would life be like if we all did that?

  “Watch your tongue, you don’t know what I speak, or what happened to me. I was a Spartan princess. My so-called husband betrayed not just me, but his country when he joined forces with the Persians. And all for what? A pretty face. A woman younger than me was worth risking everything. When the Persians came to our village, they desecrated everything and killed my one-month old son and five-year-old daughter. They killed everyone I loved. There is no pain greater than that. And only revenge can heal you.”

  I almost felt bad for her. I felt bad for the human side of her. She walked over to the river of mercury and stopped.

  “So, you chose vengeance with evil?”

  “God and his angels would not help me, so I turned to those who could. It was a long time ago. Now I will return what the necromancer so effortlessly gave me. With Razul here we’ll have every realm at our fingertips. Power, power, power. Who can resist power?”

  “I won’t allow it.” I declared trying to be brave.

  It was foolish because I knew I had no say. I had no say in this matter. I’d never even had a fight at school. How was I supposed to fight her?

  “You, are so silly.” She giggled. “You must know the Spartan way of life. Right?”

  I nodded. Honestly, I’d enjoyed learning about them at school. I never factored in meeting one in my life time though.

  “Good,” she cooed. “So, you know the women were just as strong as their men.”

  “You can’t do anything with me here.”

  “Actually, I can. The good thing about you being a syphon is that we don’t need you to be alive, you could be dead. We just need you to carry the powers of the star. That’s all really. You could have come willingly –alive – but I’m pissed and I’m already sick of the live version of you. I’ve decided I’m going to kill you.”

  I dropped the candle as she whipped out her leg and kicked me straight across my face.

  I cried out and tumbled backwards, falling to the ground.

  She jumped on top of me and held me down, so she could punch my face and my chest.

  Her blows to me hurt me to my soul.

  “I think I’ll kill you slowly, beat you to fucking death for all the trouble you and your angel caused.”

  She laughed and, in that moment, I knew I was going to die.

  ***

  Dante

  ***

  Although her magic was gone, I felt her pain. She was suffering.

  Alyssa was suffering.

  Balmora had gotten to her and my girl was suffering.

  And...

  There wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

  I wasn’t doing so good myself.

  Those goblins were mostly gone, but Zeek was down, injured, and Neo was having a hard time tackling the rest by himself.

  The type of magic the necromancer threw at me was...it was too much.

  Too much for me.

  I wouldn’t make it. I wouldn’t make it.

  He blasted me with an energy ball and shot over to pummel me with a series of punches that felt like knives stabbing into my skin. I blasted back, but it wasn’t enough to take him down.

  I needed something, something stronger than what I was using.

  He blasted me again and I went tumbling through the air, re
eling into the thick mass of shadows.

  That blast took off a piece of my right wing and I went down deep into the ground, leaving a crater.

  He flew to me, getting to me within nanoseconds. Quicker than I anticipated, and before I could process what had happened to me.

  I cried out in pain as he reached into my soul and my essence and crushed me, squeezing, and crushing.

  I was fading. There were no more cards left up my sleeve. No more ideas.

  We’d lost. I’d lost. Getting Alyssa to the cave was a worthless task.

  The plan went to hell the minute Balmora and the necromancer knew that was where we were headed.

  Maybe we should have abandoned it, but I never thought. I never thought this would happen. Not like this.

  As I faded into death I remembered something.

  My brother and I, as boys playing in the fields of the English countryside. Within those rolling hills we trained to be knights. But we played as boys and friends.

  I was never as muscular and strong as Malachi. Of the two of us he was always the best. But he never made me feel any less than he was. He was always there for me when I needed him. All I had to do was call.

  There were a few times in life when I did just that.

  I must have been about sixteen years old when a bully from the neighboring village beat the crap out of me. He was just about to finish me off when I called for Malachi and he came to my rescue.

  The next time like that was at the Siege of Escalon. He came to my rescue again too, but the enemy got to both of us.

  It was my fault. I shouldn’t have called for him. Me calling for him ended his human life.

  It was that same thought I had why I didn’t call for him when I was attacked by the wraith. I knew what the wraith could do, and I didn’t want him to suffer and become possessed like me.

  I needed him now, just as I needed him all those times before.

  This felt different though.

  It felt like the end for me. There would be no more chances, no more lives to live if the necromancer ended me.

  Too bad I found the one woman I could have had a life with and it was over before it began.

  My brother asked me to keep her safe and I couldn’t.