Prologue #2
I blurted it out, fast and harsh. Some dark and devastating emotion flared to life on his face.
The chaos around the town drew closer as if the others sensed his emotions and were preparing to rip me to shreds.
Umemri laughed, his dark, thick voice vibrating my bones.
His generals joined in his mirth, the sound growing more grating and animalistic.
He reached out and grabbed me by the throat, his laughter abruptly morphing into a snarl as he lifted me off my feet.
His face split and opened, the transition making bile rise in my throat.
I saw the pincers waiting within, and I was certain he was going to eat me.
“Impossible,” Umemri said, holding me as if I weighed nothing. “No one I have an allegiance with would touch her. Even if they tried, none could stop her if she was in her true form and on a rampage. I doubt a town full of Itians could even scratch her.”
I struggled against his hold, my heart thudding in panic. He eased up just enough that I could choke out, “Samkiel.” I said his name as if it were a prayer, and it alone could grant me my life, and it did.
Umemri’s eyes flared, and the creatures halted as if I’d spoken a curse.
Everything went oddly silent. The only things I could hear were the crackle of the fire and the whisper of the wind.
He suddenly released me, and I fell to the ground.
I panted, blood dripping down my neck from the puncture wounds his talons had left.
It felt like hours passed before Umemri finally blinked, and I saw realization rip through him.
It was as if just the sound of his ancient enemy’s name was enough to prove to him that his murrak was dead.
His shoulders bunched and fabric ripped as thick, spiny, dark appendages broke free, curling around him in agitation.
“You’re lying,” he snapped, his lip curling and his tentacles snapping toward me in agitation.
I wasn’t, but I could tell he wished, above all else, I was. “No,” I said, my entire body shaking with uncontrollable tremors. “I’m not. He was here with a woman. They left after the murrak attacked and he killed it.”
The sharp point of an appendage pierced my shoulder. I screamed, and Umemri smiled cruelly, seeming to savor the sound.
“A woman?” Umemri enunciated with a painful twist.
“Yes!” I cried. “I never got her name, but she was an Ig’Morruthen. I don’t know why she was with him.”
The talon twisting in my flesh stopped before it ripped through my shoulder.
Umemri’s head snapped toward his cursed army, and he barked an obvious command in a language I did not know.
One of his creatures took flight before he brought his attention back to me.
The look in his eyes only increased my fear.
“It seems I do not need you any longer, then.”
He raised one thick tentacle, the sharp point aimed at my head. Just as he brought it toward me, I yelled, “I can take you to her! Where we buried your murrak!”
He dropped me so fast that I fell forward. One of his guards caught me and lifted me to my feet, arms still bound.
Umemri tilted his head, his eyes flashing with grief and rage. “Very well, lead the way.”
I took a shuddering breath and started walking, knowing exactly where her large, twisted body was.
A few of the other townspeople and I had buried her.
I always knew doing good deeds would eventually fuck me up.
His guards fell into step beside and behind us as I led them forward, past the tree line, until we reached the freshly churned dirt mound near the base of a thick, gnarled tree.
A soldier pushed me to my knees, my shoulder aching and seeping blood as he held me there.
Umemri stepped forward as his guards formed a circle around the grave.
He lifted a hand and squeezed it into a tight fist, the ground shifting and rolling in response.
What powers did he possess? I thought only gods had telekinesis.
I had heard rumors that some witches had powers to rival the gods, but I didn’t know of any, and he wasn’t a witch.
The ground split, thousands of bugs and worms oozing from the grave on his command.
With a nauseating pulse of their bodies, a head emerged from the dirt.
I’d braced for the monstrous, crystallized one with pinchers and large, oval eyes.
Only that was not what they delivered. Umemri kneeled and brushed his talons through hair the color of moonlight.
The insects retreated, and the guards in the clearing bowed their heads in a sign of respect and shared grief.
A sound of despair left the King of the Underworld, but he cut it off as if he’d had no control over the making of it.
He stood and turned toward me, his tentacles raised threateningly behind him.
My eyes were drawn to the head he cradled against his chest as if it were the most precious thing in the world to him.
She stared at me with wide, lifeless eyes glazed a milky white.
Her features were feminine and delicate, with the same lines around her mouth that he had.
I saw nothing of the monster we’d buried.
I realized now why the town burned, why he’d slaughtered everyone. He was the same as any being who had abruptly lost someone they loved. The murrak hadn’t been just something to him. She was someone. From the level of his despair and anger, I suspected she was a lover, or worse, his mate.
“This woman he was with. Tell me more about her,” Umemri demanded.
I didn’t think there was a way out of this for me, but I knew this was my only hope, so I didn’t hesitate.
I told him about the boat ride and how they acted with each other.
A tremor went through him, and his tentacles lashed the air when I told him how they’d fought for each other, describing how they killed the female he held so close.
When I was finished, I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and waited.
A bird of night landed in the trees just above Umemri, its glittering eyes boring into me.
Watching. Waiting. It stretched its wings and cawed loudly, but neither Umemri nor his guards seemed to notice it at all.
I blinked up at it. The damn thing seemed curious about our conversation.
The peculiar thing, though, was that birds had fled this area hundreds of years ago.
Leaves crunched, drawing my attention back to the King of the Otherworld. His guards watched me, their eyes reflecting the light from the crescent moon peeking through the trees.
“Am I free?” I stumbled across my words. “I told you everything I know, and I won’t speak of anything that happened here today. Whatever you wish.”
A ghost of a smile pulled at his mouth. “You cannot give me what I wish for now,” Umemri said. “But I shall grant your request. I’ll set you free.”
The warmth of relief spread through my body. I knew some would call me a coward at how I gave up everything to save myself. Some would say that I was without honor, but I wanted to live. Pain exploded across my neck, and then I felt nothing.
I watched from the forest floor as my body thudded inches away from me, my head missing.
I blinked as the last of my life held fast. The ground shook and hissed, splitting as steam rose.
Orange runes appeared, casting a bright glow around each being.
The beasts sank one by one, the ground swallowing them whole as the king and his army returned to the Otherworld.
My mouth gaped open, trying to form words I could no longer utter.
I blinked once more as the bird made of midnight spread its wings far too wide.
My vision faded as it landed, taking the shape of a man made of darkness.