Page 41 of Shadows of Air and Earth
“Run!” she screamed, throwing us backwards just moments before the earth fractured. Monstrous cracks and splintersseparated the lands, spraying up grass and dirt, and the entire world roared with the force of its great divide.
I rolled upon the trembling earth, Xi’s power sending us all sprawling upon the thick grasses battered by both air and the separated earth. “Xi!” I shouted, thrusting out my own power to slow my momentum and grasping for anything that could stop me from tumbling off the edge of the newly formed cliff.
Silver glinted in my periphery, a sword thrown by Remnant’s hand, and I honed in on the sinking sound of steel plunging deep into the ground. Contorting my body, I grasped at the hilt of a blade I knew well. Muscles straining to the point of ripping, I roared, falling halfway over the ledge, before momentum ripped me back around.
Inhaling dirt and grass, I moaned, willing my body to stand upright despite every fiber of my being crying out in protest. Hair blowing across my eyes, I swiped it back, peering over the edge into an abyss that could have been my demise.
“Riley!” screamed Remnant, her voice urgent but muffled in the violent winds. My eyes scanned the chaotic destruction. Bolts of lightning and streams of fire poured down from the sky trapping Remnant in a prison upon a small island of earth in the distance. Her shadows whipped around her, shielding her on all sides while engulfing as much of the elemental power as they could, but it was clear she would be overpowered soon. “Not me!” she cried out, already sensing I was attempting to find a way to get to her. “Xi, help Xi!” She waved frantically outward across the great divide where earth still cascaded in crumbling heaps down into a pit of darkness.
Like a polar vortex blistering across the lands, my blood froze when my eyes fell on Xi, leagues away from us, facing two of the most dangerous beings of our world—alone. With her stance firm like the stone she wielded, she missiled rockstowards her parents who stood unperturbed, deflecting each one of her attacks into nothing but dust.
Her parents' assault was pure violence, and within the narrowed space Xi could not avoid their attack, several blows sending her careening backwards. Hair whipping back from her face, her sharp eyes met mine across the great expanse. Grit and anger flared inside of them before they fell on Remnant still holding her own against the multiple assaults.
Separated again. Just like we had predicted but never once had I ever anticipated I’d be forced to choose between my very existence and my pledged honor.
“No,” I howled as I slashed my hands downward, the air obeying my command. Rippling from my outstretched hands, it raced towards both Xi and Remnant in a powerful blast that sent Xi’s bastard parents flying and snuffed out the flames that kept Remnant imprisoned.
There would be nochoosing. They were bothmine.Mine to irrevocably support, mine to cherish with every thundering heartbeat, and mine to make sure that with every breath they took, they soared high above the shambles of this world.
And if I were forced to make the sacrifice, then it would be my own goddess damn self. Never—never would it be one of them, not fucking ever.
Standing here upon the destroyed valley, I made this my silent vow, sending the rest of my power into the fae I loved, seeing her gold collar glow brightly against the dark blue landscape.
“Riley behind you!” Remnant screamed. The opening I had created with my winds now oozed with darkness, and from it another flash of silver shot through the black sky, hurtling towards me with savage, lethal intensity.
A beastly grin spread across my face and I spun, the air following me as I caught one of my scimitar blades as it waslaunched through the air while unsheathing the other from the ground.
Steel rang, vibrating throughout my arms, meeting my enemy’s killing blow. “Hello, uncle.” I drawled, taking great satisfaction in the shock rippling across his face. Roaring, I shoved his blade from mine, sending him tripping backwards over the prone, naked form of his captive shifter he had so thoughtfully dragged along with him to these lovely festivities.
A scream of violence ripped from the shadow fae general behind me and my smile grew wider at the thunderous boom that followed shortly after. My uncle’s head snapped upward, his normally insipid, pale face growing deathly white…with fear.
Fear that only grew as dark objects fell from the sky—no not objects—fae, dead fae of my uncle’s fighting forces. Never expecting him to be this clever of a strategist, I relished the way the general had single-handedly thwarted all his carefully laid out plans. Those fae had been tasked with one purpose only—to kill Remnant Dark. Instead, they were struck down by the lethal explosion of the shadows, an unmerciful deadly blow that demonstrated just how much the commander of the queen’s city forces had underestimated her.
The fucking fool.
Blood sprayed and bones were obliterated when one of the bodies hit the ground between us, and I chuckled darkly, the carnage dripping down my face. “You didn’t really fucking think you could actually defeat General Remnant Dark, did you uncle?”
Feeling her cool darkness at my back, I poured the rest of my energy into the possession bond with Xi. If I could not be there by her side to fight now, then the least I could do was give her the part of me that could. Blasts of thunderous earth and roaring screams tore across the expanse that separated Xi from us—huge deafening sounds that would have worried me had itnot been for the connection I had with her. I could feel her every heartbeat, every breath, every single ounce of her satisfaction, and right now she was smug as fuck with the power I delivered her. This was the beauty of our bond, the reason why I had selfishly kept it, even if giving it did weaken me.
But weak in power did not mean I was frail in strength and right now, I had vermin to exterminate.
Twirling my scimitars, my smile turned feral when Remnant’s shadows brushed against my side, their master following shortly after with just a barely imperceptible nod in my direction.
“Commander Rory,” Remnant purred, shadows billowing from her body, and swirling across the ground. Their whorling smokey darkness, stretching out to the whimpering shifter who scrambled as far away from them as she could. “I didn’t really think it was possible for your tiny brain to piss me off. But consider this,” she waved at one of the dead mush of a fae between us, “officially pissed the fuck off.”
My uncle snarled, whipping his hair back arrogantly and swiping at the blood staining his face. “Shadow bitch, back off or this cunt dies.” His booted foot stepped forcefully onto the retreating shifter’s face, pressing her cheek forcibly into the ground.
She cried out in pain, and I instinctively lunged towards him with a snarl, my air slashing outward with the intent to snap his leg in half.
Laughing, he blocked it easily, forcing me to stumble back until Remnant’s strong grip stopped me from fully falling on my ass. “Nice try nephew but seeing how you have depleted all your power to your little earth cunt, you are no more a challenge to me than this bitch beneath my foot.”
I growled, suddenly caught by the big, light brown eyes of the shifter, greasy strawberry blonde hair falling into theirfeverish light, her mouth silently begging under the sickening heel of my uncle’s boot.
“Please,” her breath was nothing but a whisper, but I could hear it, and just like that, the memories I thought I had buried a long time ago came hurtling back.
“Please,” my mother whispered to my father, standing in front of him, her eyes void of the light and laughter that used to live free within them. Her lush strawberry blonde hair fell over her face, brushing against the cold, harsh steel of her scimitar blade.
In front of her, the matching blade to hers squared off, shaking within my father’s hold. His long evergreen hair blew in the gentle wind he used to soothe his love, pushing her long tresses back over her shoulder so he could look upon his soulmate’s face. His hazel eyes, normally so full of mirth, were wracked with pain, his facial expression that of a broken, fractured male. Grief-stricken, guilt-ridden.
