Zachariah

My Marks burned.

A scorching chill spread through my veins to my eyes, light following in its wake. Mindless with the pain, I clawed at my neck. All thought centered on the growing agony. I had to get rid of it; to dig it out of my skin if I could. I shut my eyes, trying to force the pain away. But there was only more darkness behind my lids. My fingers dug into my skin, the tissue healing in pace with the wounds I inflicted. The only gift of being a Chosen I had been “blessed” with so far.

Pressure built behind my eyes, the ice spreading further down my limbs.

Gods. The creature was here all along. And now that it revealed itself, I could feel it. It was hunger. Not merely hungry, but hunger itself. A bottomless, endless void of wanting more. More. It was greed. Gluttony incarnate for the life around us.

“What are you doing here, Halfling?” Renjin growled, fingers like talons digging into my upper arm, “How dare you disrespect the dead! How dare you intrude on our most sacred ceremony!”

I pressed a fist into my forehead, the pressure still building. Why was she bothering with me? Couldn’t she sense the monster?

Opening my eyes, I looked at the corpse’s shadow again. It held to the light unnaturally, taking form. Shape.

No.

Shaking, I lifted my hand toward the corpse, pointing. Renjin ignored it, twisting my arm behind my back until I grunted. Her male Elemancer companions each gripped my shoulders, steering me toward the exit.

Swallowing a scream, I fought against them, the heels of my boots scraping on the stony floor.

I managed a half turn, strength rising from some unknown place. I stopped their progress with a pivot, my knee flying up and into one of the male’s lower stomach. It gave me just enough time to look back at the corpse.

Eyes glittered red in the dark depths of the shadow, the two boys standing sentry over their fallen warrior. Still oblivious. Just as I met the thing's eyes, the form finally settled into a dark-winged horse, every twisting angle demonic. Wrong.

A fist dug into my diaphragm, making me collapse.

“No…Abyssal,” I grunted as Renjin dragged me upright, her fingernails digging into my arm. Her expression didn’t change as she growled something under her breath.

Dammit, why didn’t they see it? I whipped my head around, looking back to the shadow, my stomach filling with ice water.

Gone. The eyes were gone.

And they were replaced by bone-chilling screams. Ripping my arms free, I cupped my ears. I could hear nothing but the bellows of torment echoing in my skull, missing whatever venom Renjin was spewing now. I tried to block it out. Gods, why was everyone just standing there? But then I realized it.

The screams were only in my head.

That didn’t make them less horrible.

The high tones of the bellows bounced off the inside of my skull. They reached a new soprano, and I could hear the poor soul writhing. Picture the shapeless form of the voice throwing their head side to side in unendurable pain.

Renjin was saying something else, her fire burning my arm now. Oji was near me, murmuring something to her, but I couldn’t hear them.

The scream was fading slowly, and I could swear under it there was something else right before it cut off.

A laugh.

The other males, Oji, and Renjin were having a muttered argument now, but I didn’t pay it mind. I was clawing my wat back back through the crowd, the others soon tight on my heels. Twisting between singing bodies, I screamed the only words I could think of.

“ABYSSAL! RUN!”

Heads were turning toward me, brows knitted. Many were outraged. Arms were reaching out to me, halting my progress. But I kept fighting, locking my eyes on the shadow of the corpse, and the two boys still hovering near it.

And the red eyes were back, the black demonic horse form twisting and bending. One of the boys, the younger of the two, shifted as he stared at me screaming.

His shadow touched the corpse’s.

And then the red eyes were looking his way, the greed radiating from it like oil in my throat. Cold. Bitter. Choking.

“RUN!” I screamed to the boy, but he just stared blankly at me. He continued to stare even as the shadow melded with his, changing its shape.

More hands were on me, but I fell into old habits. I turned and aimed a kick at one person’s knee. I put my shoulder into the center of the male’s chest, using my now free arm to pendulum his body up and over me.

The tactic worked, the male’s large form hitting many of those who still held me. There were still some who were just noticing the disturbance, and I used the chaos to my advantage.

I called upon the Earth Elemancy on my skin, commanding it to give form to my will. Nothing mattered except saving that child. No. I would not watch another person get sent to the Abyss.

Never again.

The ground in front of me cracked, thunder roaring through the room. Others were calling on their Elemancy, but I had counted on that. Their focus was destroyed as the ground beneath them tilted upward. The crack created the barest path to the great amethyst center, and I took it. I didn’t need to hurt anyone in this room. I didn’t want to fight anyone. There was something far more precious I needed.

Time.

If only I could stop it.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

But there was no call. No underlying darkness. No thread to the never-ending rhythm of the world. There was only me, the Marks on my neck, and the life that currently hung in the balance.

I made it to the end of the path I had created just to meet red flames.

King Rhagav stood before me, his face pure rage as he directed the fire into a barrier between me and the creature I was hunting. The life I was trying to save.

His eyes shifted as I simply kept running.

The fire ate at my skin, my back taking the brunt of the heat as I dove through it. My shirt and hood were on fire, though the flames staunched as I tucked into a roll on the other side of the barrier.

I uncurled just as my feet rotated to the ground, my skin still burning. But I was healing in tandem with the flames, the pain nothing compared to the need to move forward. But then there was a cry of Kaze, and the ground shifted beneath me, twisting my legs.

I stumbled, my vision going hazy even as the Chosen healing worked on my skin. My hood was gone now, consumed by Rhagav’s fire.

One second. That was how long the stumble cost me, but it was enough. My voice was raw, and I realized I was still screaming. Commanding everyone to run. That the Abyssal was near. More words tumbled from me than I had uttered in the past two months. But they meant nothing.

Ice was suddenly encasing me, bands of it growing over my chest. I looked up and saw Oji vault over someone in the crowd a hand extended toward me. His face was a mirror of his father’s. A mirror of everyone standing around me. That’s when I realized how I looked.

A poor ranting and raving Halfing. Disturbing a funeral.

Others were screaming at me too. Curses and slurs were blended into a hateful wind in the Stone tree. My mother and Rhagav tried to speak, but they were drowned out by all the noise.

Oji’s tattoos swirled, as he took in a seemingly unending breath.

“SILENCE!’ he screamed in Kaze, the power a gale storm behind his words. All went quiet, but all eyes were still on me.

None of them were looking at the boy, who still had red eyes staring out from his shadow.

“Why, Bruneii?” Oji askled in a lethal quiet.

“It’s in his shadow! The boy!” I yelled, my teeth beginning to chatter as the ice continued to spread over my chest. My arms were pinned to my sides, and my legs were encased in rock. Looking around, I saw my mother commanding the stone with her hand extended toward me, her eyes hard as ever.

“The Abyssal wouldn’t dare to come this far into our village. Not when–” Rhagav began, but he was cut off.

The boy coughed, a horrible hacking sound.

His breath came in heavy rasps, sweat shining on his skin. And the red eyes were glowing wickedly now. The boy looked down, even as his shadow shifted again. Darkness the shape of wings was slowly spreading behind him, rising from the ground.

He was screaming now, his back bowed so far it should have snapped. Tendrils of his shadow were tethered to the wings, which were pulling them tight.

The older boy rounded on him, his face pale as he beheld his brother.

A tear trailed down the boy’s cheek. A tear made of light. Another joined it. Then another.

It was the older boy who put it together first. He looked down the the shadow now, meeting the thing’s red eyes, but his gaze rose steadily. The shadow was rising as well, the wings slowly encasing his brother, who screamed and screamed.

The older boy reached to the tattoos on his skin, summoning fire and shooting it at the thing rising from the ground.

But it did nothing. The flames went out as soon as it touched the blackness. And that’s when I heard it.

Laughter. The thing was laughing. Enjoying the torment it was inflicting. It didn’t have to go this slow, but it sensed the panic rising in the crowd. And it loved it. Hungered for it.

The boy clawed at his face, his tears raining light down to the shadow that consumed them.

Other Elemancers were yelling now, shooting flames at the rising shadow. But each was as ineffective as the last.

“Let me go!” I screamed at Oji, but he was distracted by the blackness slowly encasing the boy, his older brother’s screams of rage growing increasingly desperate.

I writhed, curling and uncurling my body until…

Crack.

The ice split around my arms, freeing them, and I immediately laid my hand on the stone at my feet trying to command it to settle.

Meanwhile, the crowd descended into bedlam. Some stared in horror. Many shot flames at the Abyssal. Most of them finally ran.

I was on my feet again, sprinting toward the black mass surrounding the boy, who was still screaming. Still alive. And the thing was still laughing. Still enjoying it.

I found Oji standing before them, his arms spread and his eyes closed. He was muttering low in Kaze, but I couldn’t hear him. I didn’t pay attention, even at the air pressure began to rise.

I sprinted straight into the blackness, doing the only thing I could think of.

I dove into it.

*******

The chaos around me cut off, the darkness complete. There was a weight to it, pulling on my bones. My soul. My Marks were glowing now, the light trailing to my eyes.

I was sure the shadow was only slightly larger than the boy, but it felt larger inside. I ran through the void, trying to track the boy’s voice. His screams were fading, dissolving into soft cries.

I knew the thing was paying attention to me, trying to pull on my soul, but it shied away from my Marks.

Lady Death’s Chosen, it hissed in my mind, its thoughts foul. The voice was neither male nor female. Unnatural and unsettling.

I ignored it, turning and turning until I collided with something on the ground. A quivering form.

Stooping, I picked up the body even as the thing laughed again.

Something was clawing at my being, an agony too deep to ignore. I tried to move, but my limbs wouldn’t obey.

“You cannot have him,” I bit out, tightening my grip on the form that had gone still in my arms. I tried not to think about how it was too small. Too light.

“Go back to the Abyss,” I grunted, trying to move again. But the pressure increased, my soul screaming.

You have no power over me, Chosen. All life will fade–

The Abyssal was interrupted as the darkness exploded into light. A hellish scream tore through the void, bending away and inviting the chaos back.

My ears rang, my tongue tasting ether as I was blown backward. The Stone Tree was back as the Abyssal bent away from the flash of white light. The ground vibrated as Elemancers fled.

Looking up, I saw the Oji standing, his eyes blazing white hot as his chest heaved with effort. His skin was empty, all Elemancy gone.

Lightning. He had used lightning.

Fighting the urge to look at the form in my arms, I struggled to my feet and backed away.

Because the darkness was growing, towering above the fleeing crowd now. The lightning had hurt it, but the Abyssal was merely angry now. The Black Pegasus was in full form. Red eyes scanned the crowd, deciding on its next victim. And I could feel it’s intent. The boy had been for pleasure, but now it would feast. Devour every soul as fast as it could.

I was still trying to back away as it swiveled its head, rearing up.

But blue light was spreading in the tree’s walls, the glowing carvings of the Other still pulsing. The energy was palpable even as everyone ran.

And that was when Raito Kenshi, fox head a radiant blue and eyes the purest white light, walked through the walls of the tree. He aimed straight at the Abyssal.

The true King of the forest did not hesitate. Did not even slow as it sprinted toward the towering shadow.

Light met darkness in an earth-rattling impact. The ground was upended beneath me, the Stone Tree groaning as shockwaves rang out again and again. The beings met one another blow for blow. I curled myself around the boy’s body, unable to do anything but wait.

A final blow rang out, my bones vibrating with the crash

The pain from my Marks bled away as the light emanating from the Other carvings faded. The ringing in my ears subsided as the dust settled, the room quiet.

Both the Abyssal and Raito Kenshi were gone.