Chapter 61
MORGANA
A ster screamed into my ear. He used his body to shield me from the tormenting shadows that tried to pierce through him. I could feel blood soaking my fingertips as he collapsed over me. A wall of darkness shot out of him, shielding him long enough that he could jump off me and yank me upright. We scrambled for our clothes, his back slashed ten times as if he’d been whipped. I’d barely gotten my foot through the second hole of my pants when he grabbed my wrist and we vanished into a void of midnight.
Unlike last time, we didn’t go far. We materialized in the middle of the Umbran Guard base, fire blooming off one of the tents nearest a campfire that had exploded. It was night, but there were no stars above. No glistening moon, as if a month had come and gone. It was infinite blackness that greeted us, only the strongest light surviving the depths.
The chill in the air was ripe with this stench I’d never imagined was human, sickening hisses howling into the expanse all around us. When I turned to Aster, his face had paled. He dipped his head to glance directly overhead, and then he screamed, “Move!”
In an instant, the night emerged as a ghoul, swirling down from the heavens at us. We both jumped out of the way just as it crashed into the ground, red-hot mist sizzling into the air where it had vanished.
“Vespera has attacked us,” he hollered over the chaos. “We need to run. We need to?—”
I screamed when a giant claw formed, rushing into his chest and sending him flying backward. I chased after him, skidding onto my knees to try and catch him before his head smashed into the corner of a crate, but not even the little magic I could summon worked fast enough.
He hissed, his back arching as he rolled onto his side and grabbed the back of his head. I crawled to him in an attempt at grounding him, knowing that even a man as strong as him would be ruined by a blow like that. Groaning, he scrambled onto all fours and commanded me to stand. “We are the only ones who can fight this,” he said with a cracking, feeble voice. “Morgana, I am going to need you to fight with me. I cannot do this on my own.”
I choked, shaking my head wildly. “I cannot?—”
“You can and you will ,” he pleaded and pulled me to him. “You are strong.”
My lip quivered, but with a nod, he yanked me forward and we ran in the general direction of the exit. The paths were too dark to see which way was right and which was left. We blazed through the base, the stench of burnt flesh and damp earth—worse than any old dock I’d ever smelled—smacked me. It all but demanded I pause to gag, but I kept onward. We ran until monsters so ugly, so dark, so twisted, stood in our way.
Aster grasped my hand tightly, and I felt his power surging through me. I felt stronger, faster.
The magic whirred around him, lacing between our fingers and conjoining with mine. The darkness seeped from every one of my pores, and as if he were leading a dance, he ushered our power in unison. I felt the draw of my hand back, blades of darkness slicing through the air and crashing into the monsters as if they had flesh?—
And they did. One was decapitated before my very eyes at the hands of our power. Ichor oozed from him, akin to the dark blood that spewed from Aster’s mouth when I toyed with his shadows.
The other two vanished before reappearing at our side. I spun out of their talon’s swipe, the tip barely grazing my shoulder but stinging like it’d been poisoned ten times over. I stumbled back, and Aster raised a wall that then pummeled through the soil until it smashed into the beast at my side. Then, as he let go of my hand, a weapon crafted of ash and ink and nothing more glittered into the air. He took hold of it and slashed as the final beast charged at him. It cut through its chest, but it was stronger than the other two.
It tackled Aster, the fabricated weapon dissipating the second he lost sight of it. I readied myself to lunge over him, to tackle the beast that was both mist and shadow, skin and bone, but when Aster roared, a wave of energy crashed from his lungs. For a moment, that monster had a face—that of a man, melted skin that revealed his skull—before he, too, vanished.
These monsters once had hearts. Faces. Families. They were not merely nightmares. They were souls, trapped and forced to do the bidding of an evil force.
Aster jumped to his feet, and I could see the blood seeping through his shirt’s back. I turned around to find a place for us to run, but a ghoul-like beast fabricated out of nothing before my very eyes. It hissed, revealing these large, sizzling teeth, sharpened to a point. I screamed and jumped back, but the monster grabbed me by the neck and burned my skin. Magic swelled in the center of my palms, and when I grabbed hold of its arm, energy bounced off me and into the beast before its entire limb exploded from its torso. The force rocked into me, my body flailing through the air before rolling down a hill paved with cobblestone. My back smashed into the corner of a crate, and I groaned as stars littered my vision.
Aster appeared before me within seconds, dark mist shedding off him as his magic sparked across his skin. I’d never seen his shadows so volatile, like the electricity within a storm, and not the idle sway of midnight wind. He helped me back on my feet, my entire back screaming in pain as I tried to straighten my posture. At the top of the hill, just as my vision calmed and the ringing in my ears faded, I saw hordes of monsters tumbling down toward us. Some vanished and reappeared five paces closer. Some barely shuffled their feet fast enough to move. Each of them had the same goal, but I doubted they were smart enough to coordinate their attacks.
“Morgana, get behind me,” he whispered. He guided me, and then the shadows across his skin started to lift into the air. “Once I am lost to this madness, you need to run.”
“What?” I hissed.” What do you mean?”
“Listen to me, little dove,” he bellowed, his voice a distant, echoing thunder clap. I winced and turned my focus to the beasts tumbling toward us, only a few paces away. Their hideous faces contorted into inhuman masks, mouths open wide with swirls of darkness falling from their tongue. They radiated death—the very death spoken of in rumors regarding Vespera’s lethal origins.
Aster’s form rippled, every muscle contorting as if possessed by a darkness far older than the world itself. His glowing vermillion eyes cut through the gloom, twin embers of rage that blazed with the promise of violence. Shadows poured from his skin, thick and sinewy, wrapping him in an inky, primal armor that pulsed with malevolence. His hands, no longer merely human, extended into clawed talons, black as void, sharp enough to carve through flesh. Through bone.
He lunged forward. There was nothing of Aster left in his movements—each strike was raw, brutal, an animalistic fury with no restraint. His mouth twisted into a snarl, lips pulled back to reveal jagged, shadowed teeth that seemed to shift and writhe in the air. He was no longer just a man; he was an embodiment of a nightmare, a predator built of wrath and darkness.
The ground trembled beneath him as he leapt at the creatures, his roar shaking the very air. With each blow, the monsters crumbled, but there was no mercy in his assault—only a relentless onslaught, as if the shadows themselves demanded more blood.
Each beast fell in quick succession, overwhelmed by the sheer ferocity of Aster’s attack. I watched in awe and horror as the shadows consumed him, transforming my once-regal prince into a whirlwind of destruction. The air was thick with the scent of blood, and for a moment, I thought all hope was lost. His command reverberated throughout me, but I couldn’t leave him.
No, there were too many monsters. Too many foes. I looked down at my hands, and within seconds, the darkness ebbed off my veins, dancing across my skin. One by one, the beasts fell—but he was being swarmed. I almost screamed when I saw the largest one pick him off the ground and smash him onto his back, but the shadows swirled violently in my hands before converging on them.
My attack hit true, and the energy launched itself from me, careening into the creature’s flesh. There was a moment of stillness as the magic held its grip, and then with a final, explosive force, the monster disintegrated into nothingness. I turned to face Aster, to help him up so we could keep moving, but he was hunched into himself, large swirls of darkness bleeding off his back and forming the shape of wings. I made a step to help him as his body, covered in the ichor of these monsters, twisted into pain. As his glowing eyes squeezed shut.
But a hand grabbed hold of my neck.
I nodded. I opened my mouth to finish the decree I’d been stripped of in the bed, to tell him I loved him—that I didn’t know what such a thing felt like either, but I was certain it couldn’t be better than what we had shared.
It was when a blade pierced through his lower right side, into my stomach, that I realized I was too late. That of darkness—bleeding ink of shadow and death—had metered through me. I crumbled onto the ground at the same rate as he did, his eyes dancing all across my face in this miserable, pleading apology.
“Morgana, run?—”
“I think she is perfectly capable of doing that on her own accord,” a voice bellowed from behind. “Morgana, doesn’t he look positively terrifying like this?”
The voice. The curled confidence in his tone. I couldn’t turn to face him, but I bared my teeth and hissed with all the confidence in the world, “Atlas.”
“I have to say, it sounded far sweeter when you were whimpering it off your lips at the party.”
I growled in rage and kicked my foot into his shin, hard enough that it would have sent any ordinary man howling, but he merely laughed.
Atlas’s laughter echoed through the clearing, a dark and mocking sound. I struggled against his grip, my hands clawing at the air, but his shadowed talons only tightened, cutting off my breath.
“Is this the creature you trust to protect you?” Atlas mocked, pulling me closer as he leaned in. His breath was warm against my ear, his voice thick with dark amusement. “He’s barely the shell of the man he was just hours ago.”
Before I could retort, there was a sudden shift in the atmosphere. The ground beneath us trembled and Atlas’s grip faltered. In that split second, Aster moved. It was as if he dissolved into the shadows themselves, the darkness swallowing his form whole. Then, with terrifying speed, he emerged in front of me. So close I could smell the tang of dark magic.
Shadows writhed around him, the power radiating off of him making the air thick with magic, suffocating and cold. Atlas barely had time to react before Aster’s clawed hand shot forward, wrapping around his throat with the same deadly grip Atlas had on me moments before.
“Let her go,” Aster growled, his voice layered with the animalistic fury that always threatened to overwhelm him in this form.
“Ah, there’s the beast I’ve been waiting for,” he sneered. When Atlas made no move to listen, the umbra power shed from him like a wave, hitting the two of us and severing his hold on me. I rolled on the ground, as did Atlas, but I was freed.
I stumbled forward, gasping for air, but my eyes never left the two of them. Power surged between them, a battle of wills as much as magic. Atlas’s dark energy coiled, ready to strike, while Aster’s shadows roared to life, surrounding him like an armor forged from the void itself.
Atlas barely had time to draw breath before Aster struck. His hand shot forward with impossible speed, shadows trailing his movements as if they anticipated his attack. The blow landed square in Atlas’s chest, sending him stumbling back. The sound of the impact was a dull, bone-crushing thud, followed by the low hum of magic vibrating in the air.
I winced as dark energy spiraled around Atlas, tendrils of cold magic wrapping around his arms as he steadied himself. His eyes flashed with amusement, as if he’d been waiting for this moment.
“You think brute strength alone will win this?” Atlas sneered, raising his hand. With a flick of his wrist, a wave of magic erupted from his fingertips, rushing toward Aster like a blackened tide.
Aster’s shadows rose to meet it, forming a dense wall that absorbed the magic, the force of it sending ripples through the ground beneath them. But even as the shadows absorbed the blow, Atlas was already moving. He was fast—faster than any normal human. His form flickered as he blurred into the shadows, appearing at Aster’s side with that same cruel smile.
“Too slow,” Atlas hissed as he drove his fist into Aster’s ribs.
The impact should’ve sent Aster crashing to the ground, but he absorbed it, his bestial form shaking off the blow like it was nothing. His eyes locked onto Atlas, burning with fury. The air crackled with his power, the shadows around him tightening, thickening like a second skin.
In a swift, fluid motion, Aster spun, his claws arcing through the air. Atlas barely managed to dodge, but Aster was relentless. He followed with another strike, then another, each blow more brutal than the last, until finally one clawed hand ripped across Atlas’s side, tearing through flesh. All the while, those wings of shadows hadn’t vanished. They bled off more and more murk into the air, as if shielding them from my sight. I found the energy to stand, to try and help, but Atlas’s hiss of pain made me pause.
Aster’s cousin staggered back, out of the shadowed shield as dark blood oozed from the wound. But instead of fear, there was only delight in his eyes.
Aster’s growl deepened, his eyes flashing with something dangerous—something unhinged. His restraint was unraveling, the beast inside him clawing to take full control. The shadows twisted around him, darker, more sinister, as if feeding off his rage.
Atlas noticed. “Yes,” he purred, wiping the blood from his side as the wound began to close. “That’s what I want to see. The monster you’re so afraid of becoming.”
Before Aster could respond, Atlas struck again, this time unleashing a torrent of dark magic. It shot toward Aster in jagged, pulsating waves, like shards of ice cutting through the air. Aster raised his arm, his shadows surging forward to deflect the attack, but the force of it was overwhelming.
The magic hit him hard, driving him back. His feet dug into the earth, but the relentless barrage didn’t stop. The ground trembled beneath the power Atlas wielded, and for a moment, it seemed like the darkness would consume Aster whole. I screamed, rushing to join him, but then—everything changed.
Aster’s shadows erupted in a violent wave, exploding outward as he roared, his voice no longer human. It was a sound of pure, primal rage, the beast inside him fully unleashed. His glowing red eyes flared brighter, and his form seemed to grow, the shadows wrapping tighter around him until he became a living storm of darkness.
He vanished from sight, becoming one with the void itself, and before Atlas could react, Aster appeared behind him, faster than even magic could track. His claws dug deep into Atlas’s back, pulling him up into the air before slamming him down with a force that cracked the cobblestone.
Atlas gasped, the wind knocked from him, but he didn’t have time to recover. Aster was on him again, shadows converging on Atlas, pulling him into a vortex of writhing darkness. It was suffocating, choking, the sheer weight of it pressing down on Atlas’s chest, pinning him to the ground.
But Atlas, even in his desperation, grinned. His eyes met mine for a brief second, and there was something there—a glint of victory.
“I’ll drag the monster out of you yet,” he whispered before his form dissolved into mist, slipping through Aster’s grip and vanishing into the night.
Aster collapsed onto his hands, breathing heavily and coughing up blackened blood onto the ground. I rushed to his side. Aster’s eyes met mine, and for a moment, there was a glimmer of recognition. But it was quickly swallowed by the pain and anguish visible in his expression. He reached out to me weakly, his fingers trembling slightly as he touched my hand.
“Little dove, leave me. Leave me be here, and I will find you.”
I choked on the laugh that was stuck in my throat, wincing as I reached to take hold of him. “You’re a fool if you think I’ll leave you.”
His face contorted into denial, in raw, unfathomable pain, but he accepted my words. I moved to try and help him stand, to break him free of the agony that was overtaking him, but the beasts… the darkness… the terror. It was a howling, rumbling omen that surrounded us at all sides.
We wouldn’t make it anywhere in this state.
I reached for his chest, the markings bundled over his heart hot beneath the thin fabric. “Morgana, don’t you dare. ”
I ignored him. I held onto the heat beneath his shirt, and just like last time, the swirls bled through the barrier and lifted into the air before weaving through my fingers. A rush of light raced through me, of healing. It even made me take ease for a moment, the aching in my bones dulling out into nothing more than a dull prick.
Aster’s head whipped back and he cried out in pain, but the glowing crimson of his eyes faded as he looked up at the stars. The wings that bled from his back evaporated, and the heat beneath my hand cooled.
That was when my fingers turned black. It inched across my skin and poisoned the veins, webbing across my entire forearm before we both gasped.
Aster was sputtering, and I was?—
I looked down at my side as pain rocked through me. I tried to stand, to back away and see what had happened, but I couldn’t as a midnight blade pierced deeper through Aster, into me. I captured Aster’s terrible, remorseful gaze as he took hold of me. As he gripped my arms. As he wept.
Peering over his shoulder, I saw Atlas, the darkness of Vespera breathing off him and into the night air.
“Aster,” I whispered wildly, reaching out to him. I needed him to break free. To rid us of this agony so we could flee. “Aster, behind you. Behind ? —”
“Sorry, cousin,” his voice was a hiss as he snaked toward us. When he appeared directly behind Aster, he grabbed him and ripped him from the blade that bound us. I screamed and hunched over, holding onto the magic as if I could pull it free. It was firm like steel, lodged in place. “I couldn’t just let Morgana suffer with you.”
I lifted my head and glared, reaching a hand to send a wave of magic toward him, but nothing came to fruition. Atlas was holding Aster with one hand, as if he were stronger than anyone I’d ever seen, and his darkness paralyzed him. Aster was at his mercy.
Atlas used his free hand to slip a piece of parchment from his pocket, brandishing it. “I got your letter, Morgana.”
Every part of me froze. He tossed it toward me, and like it was heavier than stone, it thudded in front of me. I reached for it with shaky fingers and opened it.
Dearest Siren—I need your help.
Sirens at Vespera’s borders. That was what Galen had warned me of. That was who Atlas was.
Atlas was Siren. No, this was a mistake. The letter was intercepted. Atlas couldn’t be?—
“I’d love to catch up, Morgana, but rumor has it the king is dead.” He turned to his cousin and grinned, ear-to-ear. “There is simply no time to waste.”
I screamed as wind whipped around them. I felt all of this untapped energy brew inside of me, and before I could even make it onto my knees, I sent whatever darkness boiling within my chest toward them. It was a foolish attempt at saving him—hells, it could have hurt him further, but I didn’t care. I had to try.
It was futile.
Because as Aster vanished, his cousin in tow, my magic crashed into the side of the fortress. Everything collapsed—and I was left in the dusty, dark depths that remained.
Alone.
The story will continue in
Celestial Devotion Book 2