Shadow Reign (Shadow Puppeteer Book 2) (14 page)

T
he pressure in my chest tightened. The shadows were pleased with my decision, though it was out of survival. I lay on the stone, lacking the energy to move. I needed to sew my stomach wound before I lost more blood.

The world rumbled around me and I couldn’t push myself up if I wanted too. There was no strength in my arms. The rocks gave way under me and I was falling too. The cold wind speared through my skin, chilling the little heat the rocks gave me. It stole the air from my lungs. I was going where Rose went.

I fell through wispy hands, nearly as cold as the wind. The shadows were trying to help. There was no way to prepare. My heart beat fast, determined to keep me alive.

I slammed into the solid earth, feeling my solid parts shatter on impact. I opened my mouth to scream and couldn’t fill my lungs. The pain was too deep. Too many things were broken within. My lungs pierced with the effort.

The only thing that remained consistent was the way my bracelet beeped. Rex needed me. It became my mantra as I tried to sit up. Not one muscle in my body allowed the movement.

“Get up.”
The wind blew. The words were whispered and fluttery, but I understood the order. It was strong and made pieces of me tighten in response.

I licked my lips and tried again. “Rose?”

My throat hurt, dried from the wind during my fall. I swallowed again, grateful I found my voice. There was no response from Rose. I lowered my shield and didn’t feel the slightest emotion from her. She fell over the side before I did, but she wasn’t down here with me. I didn’t feel her anywhere within the space. It became obvious now, that she could fly. She tricked me.

“Get up, child of Luna.”

That order stole the little bit of breath I managed to squeeze into my lung. It was electric, giving my nerves a jolt. I jerked upright, finding strength I couldn’t possess on my own. My head buzzed and both my eyes hurt. The severe aches made me want to vomit. It was more than my torso giving me pain now.

The quintessence wouldn’t let me give up. My bones popped. Deep pieces of my body itched as bone fused. It cracked and made my headache severe as my body mended itself. When I had the strength, I rolled over and dry heaved. Nothing came out.

When it was over, I sat in dampness, unsure if it was sweat or blood from my injuries. Nothing else hurt, but my torso where Rose stabbed me. How was it possible to heal from multiple bone fractures and still have this stupid wound?

Rex’s monitor beeped, a signal that it was time to get moving. It took a few tries before I found my balance and stood.

Light detailed the symbols carved into the stone. It wasn’t as eerie as Kelaino’s ritual room. Something about these symbols bought a great deal of relief. The heat spread through the thin soles of my shoes, warming my body again.

I tried to follow the obvious path, but my legs wobbled. I wasn’t ready to move just yet. What my body did was unnatural.

There was something much stronger here. At first I didn’t see it. I felt it, but my depth perception wasn’t great. I stared hard at the surrounding darkness and the atmosphere lightened. Shadows stood out. They were large and unmoving. My fingers twitched above the handles of my guns.

Rows of overbearing statues towered nearly fourteen feet in height. There were so many of them and this area stretched in all directions. I circled where I stood, but there were no walls and no ceilings. The only light came from the symbols carved into the stone. This truly was a graveyard. I didn’t like the way it made my hair stand on end.

The statue closest to me was a three headed dog. Each mouth was open bearing sharp teeth as if caught in mid-bark. I couldn’t read the symbols marked on the dais it stood on. The statue next to it was a man with his bow arched. The arrow pointed upward, ready to fly. His chiseled features made him gorgeous, though his face was rather intense.

A swirl of white energy caught my attention before completely disappearing. I moved around the large statue to see where the light went. The statue waiting there was just as odd as the three headed dog. It was a female with tons of snakes on her head. Her mouth was open and very sharp stone teeth were carved into her mouth. I thought the doppelganger was scary. This was far worse.

The static energy swirled just behind this statue. It was a wisp of light, but easy to see with the darkness that surrounded the atmosphere. I moved around the dais, noting that my shoes made no sound on the stone. My nerves rode the surface of my skin, making me acutely aware of my surroundings. Still Rose wasn’t near. Neither were the shadows.

I caught the wispy energy at the sides of my vision. It led me down several rows of statues until I stood in front of a single statue far removed from the others. There were a few more just beyond this one, also spaced from the others.

The statue that lured me was a cylinder shaped blob that stood as tall as the others. It had two dents that could be considered eyes, but no mouth, ears or nose. The power disappeared within it.

Wind whistled from above, pulling at my hair and making my ears itch. Despite being stone, the energy within the statue was amused. The compulsion to feel the stone beneath my fingers was strong.

After my ordeal, I couldn’t fight the wind when it pushed me forward. I felt as light as dust here in this great beyond. My discomforts became a haze. I really wanted to touch the statue. All I had to do was stick my hands through the pulsing waves and touch the smooth stone.

I held my breath and stuck my fingers through the energy field. The electricity sent a jolt up my fingers and through my body making my muscle tighten. I wanted to let go, but I couldn’t.

So grateful,
the wind whispered.

There was a hollow whistle that followed. It sounded like the low rumble of talking voices, but I couldn’t follow the conversation. The stone started to shift. The rock dripped away like melting ice. I jerked back, surprised that the dripping rock didn’t stick to my hands.

Even without the stone covering it, the form on the dais was shapeless with starry white dots in the black fabric of its body. It was strange to say, but I knew this was a female. She reached out to me and I jerked back, tripping on my feet and landing flat on my butt. It stirred the ache in my torso and snapped the energy’s hold on me.

It was the energy I felt when I went after D’s spirit. “You brought me here. You wanted me to come to you.”

She wanted me to free her. The energy was strong, but it was my curiosity that kept me from fighting the drive. The blob stretched its shapeless black arms at me and I scrambled away.

Grateful
, the energy whispered again.

It was more than grateful, it was ecstatic. She wavered sucking me into her aura. I felt agelessness within her. I pulled my blade and this time the energy twinkled with laughter. It felt like a million little bursts under my skin.

Purpose started. Must return.

“I came for the Prism of Shadow and I’m not leaving without it.”

This time when she laughed, I was prepared, but it didn’t make the sound easier on the ears. Now I understood why people worshiped these beings. I felt so small in her presence. There was no underestimating the fact that this was a god.

It inched off the dais and floated just above me. Her very presence pushed down on me, making it difficult not to lie down and surrender.

You ask for Pandora’s Box? You’re not whole. In this form, you can’t control what you unleash.

There was humor in that statement. It made the muscle between my shoulder blades itch. She leaned forward and white fire burned in the spots where her eyes should be.

I opened my mouth and promptly shut it. I wouldn’t be insolent with this creature in front of me. Kelaino took it, but Kelaino didn’t ebb with this flow of power.

She reached within her darkness and her blubber rippled outward like water. When she pulled her shapeless hand back, a black glass prism about the size of my thumb in height, waited to be plucked from her grasp. I didn’t need to touch it to know it was obsidian and that its smooth exterior would react to me. I fought against the compulsion to touch it. She said I couldn’t control what was inside and I already unleashed one large presence.

She gestured her hand towards me.
Next of kin, it belongs to you. Will you open it here or wait until you are back in your own realm? It doesn’t matter where you open it, pandemonium will follow.

Pandemonium was already in effect. My life was a mess and the box had nothing to do with that. I pulled a hanky from my pouch and used it to grasp the prism. Coldness slid through the fabric as I wrapped it tightly and stuck it in the pouch that held the salt.

Spread the word.

I waited for her to continue but she didn’t. I hope it wasn’t brazen to ask. “What word?”

Bubbles burst under my skin, making it difficult to concentrate. It was powerful and strong and so incredibly uncomfortable. My discomfort made her laugh harder.

Khaos is free. Our power is matched. Tides will follow. Let them fear us both.

Great, just what I needed, another egotistical being to deal with. I heard the Gods were proud. If people knew she was free, it would lead to questions that would eventually lead back to me. My bracelet beeped, grounding me to the issues outside the comfort of this timeless world. I couldn’t stay here and become a statue too.

“I need to get back to my realm.” I hoped that didn’t sound like an order.

Are you ready for your realm, little Shadow Puppeteer?

I didn’t like that nickname. “I need to get back to the mountains.”

She laughed.
That would be utterly non-chaotic.

The rocks dropped out from under my feet and I was falling again.

Khaos. That name repeated in my head as the whirlwind yanked at me. It pulled at my clothes and my skin. It was impossible trying to breathe. My lungs strained and just when it felt like I would suffocate, gravity became solid. Air was a substance again, and I had the briefest chance to draw into my lungs before I crashed hard on something wooden.

The pain rushed through me, sharp like it had when I fell in the cave. Pain seized me as darkness hedged the sides of my vision. I couldn’t blackout here. I had to fight.

Voices and movement surrounded me. I opened my eyes and the world was a haze, but my vision focused long enough to see blond hair and a fair face. My heart swelled with happiness.

“Where did she come from?” he asked.

“Is she okay?”

“D?” I raised my hand to cup his cheek and a softer hand caught mine.

“It’s going to be okay,” a female said.

“D?” I tried again.

“She’s delirious. She’s trying to say something,” the young man said over me.

This wasn’t D. This man was too assured. I wanted to say more. I really did, but my jaw was tight and my tongue felt leaden. When the haze slid over me, I couldn’t fight it.

T
he strangest sound pulled me from the depths of my dream. It was a clicking noise with English words translated on top of it. It was difficult to focus on anything past the headache and exhaustion, but I forced myself. I had a feeling these words were playing for a while, which meant I was back in World Congress’s assimilation room.

No, that wasn’t right. There was no metallic grind of machinery in the background. I couldn’t be with World Congress.

“Buy the human skin you dreamt of at affordable prices.” The sound was stunted by a speaker.

“This looks like the closest signal we’re going to get,” a female said. A stranger’s voice shouldn’t bring me comfort but it did.

“What’s the coordinates that come up?” a man asked. His voice was deep, almost pensive. He was a thinker. Without reason, I liked him too.

“The signal is still too far off. With our ships untested, we have no way to judge the power needed. We don’t even know what we’re up against and what weapons would work,” she answered.

That pulled me from sleep. I blinked against the fluorescent light that beat against the white walls. Everything was foggy. I was lying in a bed, connected to an IV.

My head didn’t hurt, but moving it was hard. It felt like it weighed a ton. Three people sat in this room, two guys and a woman. Half the wall was filled with computer equipment that beeped and hummed. At the young woman’s station was a small television. From the angle I laid, I could see the images flashing across the screen and it left me nauseated as my bearings grew stronger.

I tried to draw my arms down and underneath me so I could sit, and that’s when I realized it was more than sleep keeping me in bed. I was tied down. My heart raced as I yanked at the straps that kept me in place.

“Dorothy’s awake.” The woman didn’t even glance back. Her wispy blond hair was falling loose from her ponytail.

All my discomforts made it hard to gain leverage. I yanked harder to no avail. They obviously didn’t want me going anywhere. I was clean though, I noticed that first with my skin and then with the gown I wore.

“My name’s not Dorothy.” My throat was dry and it hurt to talk. I was just thankful they had the foresight to keep my eye patch on.

The young woman laughed and I still liked the sound despite my situation. “She doesn’t know the reference.”

“It’s obvious she’s not with the rebels,” the older man said, leaning back in his chair.

If I concerned any of them, it wasn’t obvious. They looked at ease among their technical equipment.

“Wizard of Oz,” the younger of the two men said. He stood from his post and stretched. He looked a lot like the female. Twins right down to the way their hair was parted, though hers was a lot longer. “Sheep. She might be a spy.”

“World Congress can’t open doorways,” the woman said.

“And aliens aren’t allergic to wolf blades,” the older man said.

He swirled in his chair to look at me. His brown eyes were sharp catching my attention, not to mention the thin material of his shirt that barely hid the muscle. He was a fighter. His brown hair was short and a mess which went with his day old whiskers. It was obvious he was tired by the dark shadows under his eyes, but he wasn’t giving up on the computer work.