Prologue #2
Shadows began to peel from the walls and my lips fell open as I stared at the creatures born of darkness which writhed from the rocks themselves and began to creep closer to me, surrounding me with hunger in their eyes and violence in their expressions.
I held my chin high as I let them come, making no attempt to reclaim the knife and fight them. I would endure all it took to serve at the side of my lost goddess. To live the life of power and worship that I had always dreamed of and knew was within reach.
Sharp claws sliced into my back and I cried out as the pain of them tore through my skin like burning acid.
That first strike laid way for the next and the next, countless creatures of shadow and death pouncing on me and forcing me to the ground as they cut and bit into my flesh, feeding on me and devouring me, making my screams ring out around the chasm endlessly.
The pain went on and on as they worked to consume every piece of me, the heavy weight of the goddess’s eyes on me the entire time, hours, weeks or months passing as I drowned in agony while never once asking for it to end.
I paid the price she required of me long beyond the point of my death, still feeling it even when the shadows had reduced me to nothing but bone beneath them and I shouldn’t have been able to feel anything at all.
Within my agony, whispers pressed close to me, speaking words long forgotten from a prophecy which time had left behind.
“ While Herdat stirs among the Fallen Fae. Her dark servant shall gain eternal power, if the dead man wakes within the final hour. For the Prophet lingers in the deep, waiting for his chance to reap…” The words went on but the pain in me rose, stealing them away on the back of my screams as flesh was cleaved from bones and I was shredded inside and out.
I took it and revelled in it and begged her for more until finally there was nothing left of me to devour at all.
“You belong to me now.”
Her voice echoed through the remnants of my being and though I had no tongue of my own to answer her, I swore with all I was that it was so, pledging myself to her and dedicating whatever life she offered me in service to her power.
“Then rise.”
Blinding light filled the space and I screamed once more as I was thrust from the embrace of darkness into the cold reality of the world, landing hard on the black rock before the mirror and sucking in a breath of air for the first time in so long that I could barely remember what it was to breathe.
Black hair spilled down around me as I stared at the hands which now belonged to me, my dark skin impossibly soft and youthful, my sharp nails biting into the stone as I trembled on my hands and knees.
“Your body is mine.”
“Yes,” I swore vehemently, gasping as a hand fisted in my hair, claws cutting into my scalp.
My head was tugged back so that I was forced to look into the silver mirror and witness the creature I’d been reborn as.
For a moment all I saw was a jet-black skull with dark and hateful creatures shifting between the sockets of my empty eyes and racing between my parted lips.
But as I blinked, the image changed, skin forming over the truth of what I had become and making me suck in a sharp breath.
Long gone were the worn and haggard features of the priestess I’d once been, an ageless beauty taking her place with dark eyes and deep brown skin which practically glowed with vitality and youth. My hair was raven black and my body lithe and youthful. The kind of vessel worthy of a goddess.
My gaze shifted to the fist which still held my hair and a shiver of fear passed through me as I took in the demonic form standing at my back, watching me as I watched him.
He was a creature of shadow and malice, with curving spines lining his back and jutting from his arms, sharp teeth bared at me in a mouth too wide for his unnatural face, and eyes so full of torturous intentions that I knew he could only be an incarnation of Herdat’s own dark and deadly essence.
“You will carry my seed and birth a weapon fit to serve you. Then our work will begin.”
“Yes,” I swore once more, arching my spine as the demon shifted at my back, his cock hard against my behind and making it more than clear what was expected of me next.
But I wasn’t afraid. I was in the hands of my goddess, and I wanted nothing more than to serve her.
So he could take my body, ruin it, use it and fill me with a piece of the goddess herself in any way he desired to do so.
I would take the pain of that coupling and far more besides in my devotion to her.
Because this was all I’d ever dreamed of.
To wield the power of a goddess and serve her as I’d always hungered to do.
I would reap the rewards of her favour in time, and I was her willing pawn until that moment came.
“The Prophet lingers in the deep.” Herdat’s words resounded through my being as I waited to face this next test. “But his time approaches. You must be ready to raise him once again.”
I lifted my chin and prepared for the next test of my devotion as I looked into the soulless gaze of the creature waiting to claim me in the reflection of the mirror, vowing to keep my eyes open through every torturous moment of this and revel in the knowledge that I was finally serving a goddess in the way she required.
And once it was done, every Fae in Osaria would finally be reminded of what power the lost gods once held over our kind.
“I’m ready.”