
Resounding Echo

Angel's Voice, Volume 1

Michelle Louring

Published by Michelle Louring, 2011.
Copyright (C) 2011 Michelle Louring.

michellelouring.com

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All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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4th edition, 2019

# Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Two Weeks Later | Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Several Weeks Later | Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Follow the Author on:

#

_I'm dedicating this book to all the people out there who try to bring others down. _

_Without you, I never would have turned out this stubborn._

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# Chapter 1

The silence in the temple was deafening. No sound was heard in the deserted hallways and not even the chirping of birds filled the gardens. It was just before sunrise and the usually crowded yards were empty. Neither the priests nor the people who came to seek the gods' blessings were awake yet. Not even any of the many refugees who sought sanctuary there were to be seen this early in the morning.

A slight rustle of movement broke the silence. On the roof overlooking one of the temple yards sat a young woman. She was the only one awake, and she made sure to sit so still that no one would have noticed her, even if they had happened to pass by.

Selissa shifted slightly. She had been sitting there for hours already, and her back was getting stiff. She knew the priests would reprimand her for sitting out all night, just like they always did, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

A cold wind blew through the yard, whipping Selissa's hair into her eyes. She absentmindedly led a hand to her face to brush it away. The cold didn't bother her. It helped chase away a very different kind of chill.

The nightmare was still vivid in her mind. Though it still left her shaken, it was nothing new. It was the same nightmare that had plagued her ever since she first came to the temple.

How long had it been since then? Five years? Six? She couldn't quite remember anymore.

Ghostly images still flashed through her mind when she closed her eyes. It was always the same. A dark room, filled with whispering voices. She was surrounded by cloaked figures. She would never see their faces, but their voices haunted her even during the day. A constant whispering, like they were chanting. A sudden pain shooting through her body as if hell itself was trying to burn its way through her back.

She never saw what happened at the end. She would always wake up in a cold sweat, as if the pain had been real, the chanting still echoing in her mind.

A noise broke her from her thoughts. She had barely noticed the first light shining on the horizon, announcing the start of the day. The apprentices were the first to show for the morning's duties. Their first job of the day was to make sure everything was ready for the morning Mass.

Selissa knew the priests would be making their way to the Great Hall by now to perform the Mass. That's how it went, to the point where she never needed to know what time it was. The life in the temple was so structured and predictable she could hardly remember the last time something out of the ordinary happened. Every day started out with the Mass in the morning and ended with a ritual at night. After the Mass, classes would start. The apprentices would study in the library or assist the priests in teaching the children who came to the temple for lessons. Once a week, the priests would perform the Blessing for any who wished for the gods' protection. Occasionally, some of the refugees living at the temple would get into a fight, but the priests would always put an end to it. More than once, she had gotten involved in those fights and been on the receiving end of a few punches. But that was the worst that ever happened under the temple's roof.

She knew the priests had to pass by the place she was sitting to get to the Great Hall. And she also knew that if they discovered her, they would not only pester her about staying out at night, but she would also be forced to attend Mass, even if they had to drag her by her ankles.

She quickly jumped down from the roof as quietly as possible so the passing apprentices wouldn't notice her. Sneaking around without getting discovered was a skill she had mastered early in her time living there.

Knowing exactly which hallways would be empty at this time made it easy to avoid the temple's other residents. She made her way through the maze-like corridors, all of which she knew like the back of her hand, to the garden farthest away from the main halls of the temple.

As the garden came into view, Selissa felt herself relax at the familiar sight. The morning light bathed the place in an almost ethereal glow, painting the grass in a pale green color. It was a color that couldn't be seen at any other time of day.

The garden was nearly isolated from the rest of the sanctuary and Selissa always got the feeling that she was stepping into a different world when she entered it. The sound of human activity faded away, and as she slowly made her way across the grass, the only noise made was that of the birds waking up to greet the day.

She liked the solitude the garden provided. It allowed her to escape the life of the temple, even if only for a little while. She was thankful to the priests who had taken her in all those years ago, and they had always treated her well, but she knew she didn't belong there. It was like there was an invisible wall between her and everyone else. It made little sense to everyone else, but she felt the least alone when she was by herself.

She walked through the garden, slowly approaching the small lake hidden in the back. Watching the light play across the surface, she listened to the soft sound of rippling water.

Sitting down at the edge, she watched the water move quietly. The wind had blown a few leaves into the lake and rings were slowly spreading, disturbing the surface.

As the water stilled, Selissa found her reflection staring back at her. A narrow face framed by dark hair. But that was rarely what caught people's attention. The pair of eyes staring back at her were pale, a misty silver color barely broken by faded black pupils. They stood in sharp contrast to her dark hair and made the reflection shimmering across the surface seem unreal.

Frowning, Selissa threw a rock at the water, watching the ghostly image dissolve. It was no wonder people kept their distance. She knew those strange, silvery eyes unnerved them. The way she looked reminded them of the demons in the myths who took the shape of humans in order to trick their victims. In a place where people worshipped angels, a simple birth defect was enough to make everyone wary of her.

Lost in thought, she almost missed the sound of soft footsteps on the cobbled path. Her head snapped up when she realized she wasn't alone, searching the garden for the intruder.

A young man, dressed in priest robes, stepped onto the path behind her. She relaxed immediately when she recognized him.

Calen had been an apprentice at the temple when Selissa first arrived. He was one of the people who had found her lying battered and bruised outside the sanctuary grounds all those years ago before she was taken in by the temple's priests.

He had long since passed his exams and become a priest, but to her he was still the same. The years hadn't changed his boyish but kind face much and he still had the same shaggy blond hair that always managed to make him look like he just rolled out of bed.

"Skipping Mass again?" he asked, as he approached her. There was no accusation in his voice, and the smile on his face told her he was more amused by her actions than disapproving.

Some of the tension disappeared from her shoulders. Calen was the closest thing she had to a friend and being around him always made her feel at ease. "I'm not skipping. I'm just not attending," Selissa answered, before realizing how stupid it sounded. Calen's smile widened and he let out a chuckle.

"The High Priest won't be happy with you, you know," he said, sitting down next to her.

She scowled and rested her head in her hands. "That old man is never happy, is he? I might as well be slacking off since he needs something to complain about, anyway."

Calen let out a sigh, though the smile never left his face. He was so used to her antics by now that he didn't even try to correct her.

"Why did you come out here anyway? I guess you didn't just want to remind me that I wasn't at Mass," Selissa said, figuring that he must have had a purpose in coming to find her.

"Some refugees and travelers arrived this morning to seek sanctuary here. Since you skipped Mass again, the High Priest wants you to help getting them settled." As Calen said this, he rose from his spot beside her and extended his hand to help her up. She stared at it for a moment before reluctantly accepting it. How bad could it be?

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# Chapter 2

The temple gates opened with a creaking groan. Selissa waited, none too patiently, with Calen and a few of the temple's apprentices. The gates opened fully and a small group of people entered the temple grounds. Most of them wore ragged, dirty clothes, revealing them as refugees on the run. Many of the people who came to the temple had fled their homes because of war or persecution. The outer areas of Sinaria had been plagued by the conflict with the enemy nation Ver'dohna, ever since the war broke out between them a few years ago. No one knew the exact reason for the war, or who made the first strike, but that didn't stop the two countries from despising each other. Unfortunately, it was innocent people that paid the price for that resentment.

The result was thousands of people fleeing their homes and being separated from their families. The temple provided sanctuary for anyone who chose to come there, so seeing refugees was nothing new to Selissa.

She watched as they approached, most of them shooting wary looks around them. By now, paranoia was so deeply settled in them it would probably follow them for the rest of their lives.

A young girl stumbled on the road and fell to her knees. The hood on her ragged cape fell from her face and long, bright red hair spilled out from it. But it wasn't her hair that caught Selissa's attention.

On the girl's face, right under her left eye, a black mark was tattooed. Even though it was the first time she had ever seen someone with such a tattoo, she recognized it immediately.

The Mark of the Cursed. Selissa had once seen a picture of it in one of the library's books, but never thought she would meet someone who actually carried the mark on their skin.

The Mark of the Cursed got tattooed on people who were influenced by demonic magic. They were considered outcasts and were often hunted down when people saw the symbol on their cheek.

A boy, probably a few years older than the girl, helped her to her feet. Selissa noticed that many of the temple's passing residents were staring and whispering among themselves. The red-haired girl lowered her head and tried to look as small as possible. The boy kept his hand on her shoulder and glared at the nearby people who were all suddenly in a hurry to get to their destination.

Selissa followed them with her eyes as they passed her. The young apprentice who greeted them was obviously nervous, his eyes constantly flickering to the tattoo on the girl's face.

"She must have had it rough if she is met with such hostility even here." Calen's voice broke her from her thoughts and she turned away from the sight of the two children. Her only answer to his statement was a nod as her eyes turned back to the last of the newcomers.

Most of them had already been led away, but Selissa's eyes landed on someone lingering by the gate. She wondered why she hadn't noticed him before. Just from looking at him, she knew he was neither a refugee nor an ordinary traveler.

She couldn't see his face, since he was wearing a hooded cloak, but his frame was tall and abnormally thin. Seeing starved orphans or refugees was nothing new, but this man clearly wasn't a refugee. His clothes were both new and clean, and when he walked towards them it wasn't with the meek walk of a runaway, but with a brisk, confident stride.

As most others had already left, Calen approached the stranger. She heard him greet the cloaked man who merely nodded in return.

Calen turned to walk to the temple halls, the stranger following right behind him. Calen smiled at her, acknowledging her with a nod as he walked past her. Selissa barely noticed him, her eyes never leaving the other man. As he strolled closer, he lifted his head and for the first time she saw his face.

A pair of dark eyes looked back at her. The face under the hood was pale, framed by dark brown hair. His cheeks were sunken and the skin was practically stretched across the bones. If it hadn't been for the intense look in his eyes, she would have thought she was looking at a walking corpse.

Suddenly his eyes met hers and her entire body went rigid. A strange feeling went through her, a feeling of recognition. Like she was supposed to know this man.

His eyes bore into hers, and he didn't look away until he and Calen were past her. Selissa watched them disappear around a corner, too shocked to move at all.

She finally pulled herself together and shook her head in an attempt to shake off feeling. "What the hell was that?" she muttered to herself. She had never met this man, and she sure as hell didn't have any desire to meet him again. But still, her mind was screaming at her to run after him and demand he tell her who he was and what he was doing there.

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Later she found herself brooding in her room. The stranger bothered her more than she would ever admit. Even Calen had noticed her foul mood, even though she was trying to act like nothing was wrong. Finally she had grown tired of his questioning looks and had hid in her room.

Selissa glared at the wall while silently berating herself. She was acting ridiculous and she knew it. It was not like he was the first strange person who had come to this place. Throughout the years, the amount of unique characters that had passed through could fill a Sinarian circus.

The temple welcomed everyone. It was dedicated to Issara, the angel of sanctuary. She was one of the seven archangels, servant to the Sinarian god Shi'laran. Six similar temples were placed all over Sinaria, each dedicated to one of the seven angels.

To turn someone away would be considered sacrilege and Selissa had no intention of going against the guardians of Sinaria.

While growing up she had been surrounded by thieves, robbers and even a couple of guys she suspected might have been assassins. A thin guy in a cloak should not bother her.

She rose from where she was seated on her bed and went to her cabinet to pull out her training gear. She might as well do something instead of sitting around and torturing herself.

Years ago, a Kaneiran blademaster had stayed in the Issara temple for a couple of months. His name was Teren'thil, and he had taken a liking to Selissa, despite the fact that everyone else preferred to keep their distance. In the time he had stayed there, he taught her a lot about sword fighting and hand-to-hand combat.

She had gotten quite good at it and had continued training, even after Teren'thil had left. And right now, a hard training session sounded like a good idea.

She started undressing to change into her training outfit. As she pulled off her shirt, she caught a glimpse of her back in the mirror on the other side of the room. One would think she would be used to it by now, but the sight still made her flinch.

The symbol snaked across her back, the black of the mark contrasting with her pale skin. When the priests first found her, they had thought it was a tattoo of some kind, but there was no sign of any damaged skin under the mark.

Selissa herself didn't know what it was. She didn't remember anything, except her name, from before she came to the temple, and the mark had been there ever since.

It was a strange symbol. Black lines circled each other, like snakes fighting for dominance, and covered much of her back. She had looked through thousands of books to find out what it meant and asked every priest who would listen to her, but no one seemed to know what it was.

Selissa pulled the shirt on, willing herself not to care. The symbol, the nightmare . . . No matter what she did, she couldn't figure out what it all meant. There was no point in trying if there was no answer. She had told herself that so many times she almost believed it. Almost.

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# Chapter 3

She slashed at the air again and again, trying to hit invisible enemies. She was spinning around herself rapidly, fluid movements making it seem as if she was dancing, rather than training.

As usual, she trained alone. Calen had no combat training, and no one else liked to spend more time in her company than strictly necessary. So ever since Master Teren'thil had left, Selissa's only opponent had been herself. The few training dummies she had put together in the past barely lasted more than a few weeks.

Slash, kick, dodge . . .

She moved vigorously, swords dancing around her. The blades in her hands were the only thing of value she owned. The pair of twin swords had been a gift from Teren'thil, just before he left. They were old, but well-kept and of good material. The blades were long and thin, and light enough to allow her to swing them with ease. From the hilt of each sword hung a long, red ribbon, which flew around her with each swing. They were designed to attract the enemy's attention and distract them from the actual blade, and they flew through the air, painting scarlet red lines before her eyes.

Stab, swing, kick . . .

Selissa let everything around her disappear, focusing instead on every step and every movement. The weight of the swords in her hands was familiar and calming. After all these years they felt like extensions of her arms.

Spin, slash--

Cough. She stilled immediately and spun around when she heard someone clearing their throat behind her. On the stairs leading up to the hallway behind the yard sat the strange traveler from earlier. He had changed his clothes and was now wearing a long coat instead of the cloak. Around his neck hung a long scarf, and he had a lit cigarette in his hand.

"Little girls shouldn't be playing around with weapons. They might end up getting hurt," he said. His voice was low and surprisingly pleasant compared to his unhealthy appearance. He took a drag of the cigarette, but kept his eyes trained on her.

Selissa's hands tightened around the sword hilts in anger. Who the hell did he think he was? Not only did she stand at nearly six feet tall, she had beaten almost every fighter in the entire temple and the adjoining village, even counting all the travelers and war refugees that lived there. No one called her 'little', even before they met the business end of her fists. This stranger had no business questioning her skills, just because she was a woman.

"Little girl, you say?" she answered, trying not to let her fury show in her voice. "I got twice the muscle of you. Can a walking stick like you even lift a sword?"

The walking stick wasn't fazed by her taunt. He merely watched her calmly over the cigarette. "Why don't you try and see for yourself?" he asked and rose from the stairs. He threw the smoke on the gravel and put it out with his foot.

Selissa raised an eyebrow at the man's challenge. Did he really want to fight her? She snorted, more than willing to teach this man a lesson. She threw one of the swords at him. It landed right between his feet, the blade cutting into the gravel. The stranger still wasn't fazed. He shot her a glance, before bowing down to pick up the sword. He easily dragged it out of the earth and held it up before him.

Selissa didn't wait for him to be ready. She charged at him, sword ready to strike. She slashed and hit-- nothing. Eyes wide in surprise, she heard the gravel shift behind her. She spun around as fast as she could to block the incoming blow. Blades clashed against each other, and the strength of the blow sent her stumbling back several steps. She just barely managed to regain her balance before falling on her ass.

She jumped back to make some distance between them. In her mind she heard Master Teren'thil's voice scold her. "Never underestimate your opponent." He had told her that so many times, and she cursed herself for forgetting.

She slid into a battle stance while she studied her opponent. He was standing casually in front of her, like they were not in the middle of a fight. She willed herself to calm down. Fury might have made her strikes stronger, but it would ruin her technique. She took a calming breath before striking again.

This time he blocked her attack before making a strike of his own. But this time she was prepared and spun out of his reach. She aimed a kick at his stomach, which he just barely dodged.

They spun around, kicks and blows flying around, blades slashing through the air. No one got a direct hit at the other, and Selissa soon realized that they were too evenly matched for either of them to gain the upper hand.

She jumped back and stilled, chest heaving from her ragged breathing. The stranger also stopped moving and simply watched her from the other end of the yard.

"You're a lot tougher than you look, I will give you that. Let's say we're even, shall we?" Selissa said as her breathing returned to normal. The stranger simply nodded, a smirk on his face that made her want to bash his nose in.

"Let's say we are," he agreed. He held her sword up for her to take, and she hesitantly stepped forward. There was still something about him that put her on her toes and knowing she probably couldn't beat him in a fight didn't make her any more comfortable.

"Do you have a name, stranger?" she asked as she accepted the sword.

"Has no one ever told you it's bad manners to ask someone their name before giving your own?" he said, the arrogant smirk never leaving his face. Selissa felt her jaw clenching at his attitude. Did this arrogant fool even know the meaning of the word manners?

She forced a smile. "My name is Selissa. Pleased to meet you." The stranger heard the thick layer of sarcasm in those words and he raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Selissa? As in Sorrow? What kind of parents gives their kid a name that means sorrow?" he asked. Selissa's eyes widened for a fraction of a second, before she hid her surprise behind a bright smile. She knew her name originated from Sinar, the ancient language of Sinaria. It hadn't been used commonly in centuries and was now only used by those who studied ancient texts. The only ones who knew how to speak the language now were highly ranked priests and historians. For him to know the meaning of her name he had to have some knowledge of it as well. Not for the first time since he arrived, she found herself dreadfully curious as to who this man was.

"Well, I wouldn't know. I don't have any memory of my parents," she said pleasantly, the fake smile still in place. A strange look appeared in his eyes, as if he had just confirmed something he already suspected. It was gone as soon as it appeared.

"So they abandoned you in this place? Like so many of the other unwanted children who live here?" he asked with such nonchalance he could be talking about the weather.

His tone swiftly ignited Selissa's annoyance with him into full-blown anger. He had no right to assume something like that. He didn't know anything about her.

There was a pang in her chest when she realized that neither did she. The reason for her anger was not his words, but the fact that they might be true. No one had ever come searching for her. She had always told herself that her parents were dead, but maybe the truth was that no one wanted to find her.

She forced herself to remain calm. "It's none of your business," she said before turning away.

"You're right. It's not," he said simply before lighting another cigarette and turning to leave.

As he started to walk away, Selissa felt the need to have the last word. "Those things will kill you, bastard."

"Alassane," he said.

"What?" Selissa said, brows furrowed in confusion.

"My name. And somehow I seriously doubt this will be what kills me," he said, chuckling as if it was some kind of inside joke.

Selissa could only stare in confusion as he walked away.

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# Chapter 4

The sound of the village was a sharp contrast to the peace of the temple. Everywhere people were hurrying around, doing their work or running the daily errands.

Although Selissa liked solitude, there was something about the bustling life of the village that she enjoyed. Maybe it was the lack of solemnity, a feeling that normally surrounded the people living in the temple, or maybe it was that she was able to blend into the crowd with everyone too busy to shoot her strange looks.

She made her way through the streets on her way to the village's tailor. Calen had asked her to pick up the robes for the new set of apprentices that would arrive soon. Every year some of the priests accepted apprentices that would study under them, later to become priests themselves.

She had never once considered trying for an apprenticeship herself, despite Calen's insistence. She had a deep respect for Issara, but the life of a cleric was not for her. She was a fighter by heart and would never be able to live by the strict rules of priesthood. Knowing her, she would have punched one of the devout by the second week.

Angry sounds rose from a crowd nearby, distracting her from her task. People were standing in a half circle, looking down and yelling at something in the middle. Selissa craned her neck to see what it was, but even her tall frame couldn't reach above the people in front of her. She considered ignoring it for a second, before admitting to herself that her curiosity would get the better of her soon enough.

She stepped forward, pushing through the crowd under loud protests from the surrounding people. Finally, she managed to squeeze to the front of the masses to see what all the fuss was about.

On the ground lay the red-haired girl Selissa had seen yesterday. The boy who had accompanied her stood leaned above her, trying to protect her from the angry villagers. Selissa tried to comprehend what the poor girl could possibly have done to upset so many people. When she realized what the problem was.

The girl had the Mark. That was why everyone was so upset.

Someone threw a stone at the girl. It hit her on the cheek and left a bloody mark. Although it had to have hurt quite a bit, the girl didn't make a sound and merely shied away. The boy yelled furiously at the crowd for them to leave her alone.

Selissa felt rage bubble in her chest. Had these people no shame at all? This girl's only crime was the mark on her face, but still these people treated her like dirt.

She saw another person lifting his arm to throw something. Before he could even react Selissa seized him and threw him into the people behind him.

The crowd immediately went quiet. Everyone was staring at her, clearly frightened by the violent look on her face.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves!" she yelled. A few of the nearest villagers stepped back. "On what grounds do you attack this poor girl?"

A few gained back their courage at her accusation. A man stepped forward, disgust clear on his face.

"She got the mark of demons!" he shouted, more people getting incited by his statement. "We don't want scum like that in our town!"

"Demons? Look at her! Does she really look like someone who would harm anyone?" Selissa asked incredulously, gesturing to the small girl behind her. She couldn't be much more than twelve or thirteen years old, and as she cowered on the ground, she looked even younger. She shrunk back, trying to hide as much as possible behind the boy at her side. Selissa met the eyes of the man who had stepped forward. By the sight of her eyes, the man started to fidget, unnerved by the strangeness of their silvery color.

"The only scum in this town are you! Cowards like you who only attack people weaker than themselves make me sick," Selissa said, willing anyone to oppose her. The people started to whisper among themselves, many with ashamed looks on their faces. But most just shot disdainful looks at them before turning to leave.

Soon the crowd dissolved, and the only ones left were the three of them. Selissa kneeled by the girl and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly, careful not to frighten her further. The red-haired girl looked at her with wide eyes, clearly not used to people being kind to her.

"Y-yes," she stammered, lowering her eyes when she realized she had been staring. The boy shot her a grateful look.

"Thank you," he said. "Not many would have stood up for her like that."

"Unfortunately, the world is mostly populated by lowlifes like them," Selissa answered. She rose from her kneeling position and offered the boy a hand. He took it with a thankful smile before helping up the girl. The girl, still frightened, kept hiding behind him.

"You live at the temple, don't you?" the boy said. "I think I saw you yesterday."

"I do. My name is Selissa," she answered, smiling at the boy. As she met his eyes, she saw him stiffen in surprise. That was a normal reaction when people looked her in the eye, but the boy soon recovered and returned her smile.

"I'm Nijel. This is my sister Nadia," he offered his hand. Selissa accepted the handshake, a little hesitantly. She figured he had to be from Ver'dohna. Sinarian people didn't shake hands, but she recalled it to be common courtesy in the neighboring country.

"Pleased to meet you," she said before dropping his hand. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up in this situation?"

Nijel looked a little embarrassed, but explained. "Nadia and I simply went for a walk in town. I didn't think it would be a problem, since she had her hood on, but this vendor bumped into her, so it fell down. It went downhill from there."

The young girl, who Selissa now knew as Nadia, bowed her head.

"It's all my fault. I'm sorry," she said in a meek voice.

Nijel opened his mouth to protest, but Selissa beat him to it. "Sorry? Sorry for what? That some people decided for themselves that you were worth less than them and gave you that mark?" Nadia looked up and Selissa met her eyes. "You're only worth less when you start to thinking you are. Don't let those people get to you."

Surprise was clear in the girl's eyes. She clearly wasn't used to people other than her brother accepting her and standing up for her. Selissa's thoughts went to Calen. She knew how that felt. Everyone but Calen had always kept their distance to her too. But even if they avoided her, at least they didn't try to chase her away.

Painfully aware of the hostile looks passing people were shooting their way, Selissa smiled at Nadia.

"I have to go pick up some robes at the tailor. Want to join me?" she asked, extending her hand to the girl. Nadia looked warily at her hand, half surprised, half frightened. She shot a look at Nijel, who smiled and nodded at her.

Nadia hesitantly accepted Selissa's hand, and the three of them went on their way, doing their best to ignore the stares of the crowd.

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# Chapter 5

After returning to the temple Nijel and Nadia had gone to their room, leaving Selissa to go look for Calen. With her arms full of clothes, she went through the temple grounds.

As she went up the stairs to the east quarters, she saw something move to her left.

"So the warrior girl is running errands now?" a low voice asked. Selissa felt an annoyed tick in her jaw as she turned to the speaker.

Alassane stood leaned against the wall a few feet from her, a lit cigarette hanging from his lips.

The same strange feeling she had experienced at their other meetings washed over her, but this time it was overpowered by annoyance. Had he nothing better to do than to bother her?

"Why don't you just go somewhere else? To hell, perhaps?" she said, plastering on a pleasant smile to go with the sentiment.

He mumbled something she could have sworn sounded like 'been there'. She figured she had imagined it as he was looking at her with that damn smirk. He took the cigarette from his lips and exhaled slowly.

"Who are you trying to fool with that fake smile of yours?" he asked.

Said fake smile widened. "You, obviously," she said.

Her reply caught him off guard, and she took the chance to slip past him. She breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't follow her. She had no idea what the guy's problem was. He had only been there for a few days and he was already getting on her nerves.

Forcing her skinny tormentor from her mind, she continued on her mission to locate Calen. While turning down another empty corridor Selissa cursed the size of the temple. Normally she found it great as it prevented the priests from easily finding her. The problem was that it also prevented her from finding the priests.

She rounded a corner and, having apparently missed the sound of footsteps, collided head-on with someone hurrying in the other direction.

She staggered back a few steps, dropping the robes in her arms in the process. As she regained her balance, her eyes located the cause of the collision.

A brown-haired boy, probably a few years younger than her, sat on the floor where he had fallen. He was rubbing his head where he had bumped into her.

He seemed to realize he had actually run into someone and jumped to his feet. "I'm so sorry! Are you all right?" he asked, obviously mortified by his actions.

"Yes, don't worry. I guess I wasn't watching where I was going," Selissa said, trying to ease the boy's anxiety. Getting a better look at his face, she guessed he had to be one of the new apprentices. She had never seen him before, and he was too old to be one of the children attending classes there.

She bent down to pick up the clothes strewn across the floor. The boy kept mumbling apologies while he bent down to help her.

"I really am sorry. I should have been paying more attention," he said as he picked up most of the robes. "There's a lot here, you shouldn't be carrying this much. Let me help you."

Selissa laughed softly at his eagerness to make up for running into her. She picked up the last of the clothes before motioning for him to follow her.

"Thank you for the help. It is quite a lot to carry alone." She had absolutely no problem carrying it all, but she decided not to mention that. He would probably feel better if he felt like he was helping out.

They walked on, Selissa navigating them through the corridors to where she hoped Calen would be. The boy stared in wonder while they passed by the different gardens and halls of the sanctuary.

"How do you find your way around here? It's huge. I have been getting lost all day," he said, looking like he was trying to make a mental map of the hallways they crossed.

"You get used to it," Selissa said, finally spotting Calen talking to one of the lower ranking priests. He looked up and smiled when he saw her approaching.

"There you are. I was wondering where you had gone off to," he said.

"I'm sorry, Calen, I had to break up an angry mob on the way," she said as she handed him the robes. Ignoring the questioning look on Calen's face, Selissa turned back to the boy.

"Thank you. You were a great help," she said. The boy, pleased by being of help to someone, leaned forward in a bow before turning to leave.

Selissa considered staying to talk to Calen, but she knew he had a lot to take care of. The priests were always busy when the new apprentices arrived.

She waved goodbye to him and turned to leave herself. As she turned her head, she saw Nadia standing close by, staring at them with wide eyes and a horrified look on her face.

Selissa walked towards her slowly and kneeled next to her. "What's wrong, Nadia?" she asked softly, careful not to startle her.

"That boy . . ." Nadia whispered, looking past her. Selissa followed her eyes and saw she was looking at the young apprentice, just as he turned a corner and disappeared.

"Yes, what about him? Is there something wrong with him?" she asked the girl, who had started to shake.

"H-he's . . . He's going to die."

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# Chapter 6

The next day Selissa sat in her secluded garden, thinking about Nadia's words.

"He's going to die." What did she mean by that? There was nothing wrong with the boy and absolutely no reason why he should get hurt. So why would she say that?

Selissa let her head fall back against a tree and stared into the air. She had been wondering about this all day yesterday, but hadn't reached a conclusion. Not one that made sense, anyway.

"Willing to share your thoughts?" a low voice that was familiar by now asked. "Or are they not worth my time?"

Selissa's eyes narrowed as she looked up at Alassane. He was standing there watching her, the ever-present cigarette in his hand. She could almost feel the arrogance emitting from him.

"You again? Are you stalking me?" she asked. She was not in the mood for this.

Alassane let out a huff of smoke. "Don't flatter yourself, woman."

Selissa exhaled deeply, trying to keep her anger in check. It seemed like his very presence managed to send her into a temper tantrum and she didn't want to give him that power. She rose from her seated position and strode past him, doing her best to ignore the choking smell of tobacco.

Just as she thought he had gotten the hint, she heard him falling into steps with her, a few feet behind.

"My, my, you really aren't good at taking criticism, are you?" she heard him say.

"Leave. Me. Alone," she said slowly, as if talking to a challenged kid. Which she was starting to suspect he might be.

"Such a temper. You're really an unpleasant person to talk to."

"Then stop following me!" Selissa nearly screamed. There really was no getting through to this walking stick. His skull had to be the thickest part of him.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you that you ought to act more like a lady?" he asked casually. Oh, what she wouldn't do to wipe that smirk off his face . . . She felt the last of her patience snap.

"Now you listen to me, you arrogant, sexist, narrow-minded--" Selissa's tirade was interrupted by a high-pitched scream. Forgetting all about her anger, she turned to where the sound was coming from. It didn't take long before she realized it was coming from the ceremony hall.

She cast a shocked look at Alassane, before setting into a sprint.

She reached the hall in record time, Alassane hot on her heels. The screaming had faded into a loud sobbing by the time they entered.

In the middle of the large room, a girl lay on her knees in front of the statue of the archangel Issara. Selissa recognized her as one of the few female apprentices in the temple.

She continued sobbing, oblivious to their presence. Selissa tried to see what had caused the girl's despair, but her view was blocked by her hunched form. She stepped closer to get a better look, careful not to startle the distraught girl. As she stepped around her, Selissa had to fight off nausea at the sight that met her.

It was gruesome. A body was lying at the statue's feet. It took her a second to recognize it as the boy who had helped her yesterday. The boy Nadia had said was going to die.

It was an eerie sight. Empty, lifeless eyes were staring blindly into the air, no longer seeing anything. His body was mutilated so terribly that she almost couldn't recognize him. It looked like every bone in his body had been broken, his limbs spread out at unnatural angles. Half of his face had been ripped to shreds as if some animal had tried to tear it apart.

But the most terrifying thing was the gaping hole in his chest. She could see the broken ribs sticking out, covered by bloody flesh. Selissa felt a violent urge to throw up when she realized his heart had been ripped out.

She had to avert her eyes and bowed her head to look at the floor. That's when she noticed it. She hadn't seen it before because her eyes had been drawn to the bloodied body.

Someone had drawn a symbol on the floor. In blood.

It was crudely drawn, blood splattered everywhere, but Selissa recognized it immediately. How she recognized it she didn't know, but she knew she had seen it before. It was a demonic mark. The mark of the demon lord Azarial.

A sudden pain shot through her back. Selissa bent over and gasped in shock from the pain.

It felt like the symbol on her back was burning. Like it was reacting to the bloody mark on the floor.

'It has begun.' Selissa stiffened in shock at the voice.

A lot of people had been attracted by the screaming, but the voice didn't belong to any of the newcomers. It was more like she felt it rather than heard it. Like a presence in the back of her head.

The burning in her back had faded into weak heat, but she was still acutely aware of it.

'It's a warning,' the voice sounded again before going quiet.

"--issa. Selissa!" Selissa looked up, startled, as she realized someone was shouting her name. This voice was far more familiar and far more real to her. Calen was looking at her, concern clear in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked worried. She nodded, absentmindedly noting the hysterical girl being led away, while a few of the priests examined the body.

She felt the presence in her head fading away together with the warmth in her back. "What is this?" she whispered, when she finally found her voice. Calen simply looked at her, a lost expression on his face, but Alassane caught her eyes and held them.

"They've made their move. This is only the first step."

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# Chapter 7

They both froze at his words.

Selissa stared at Alassane. "What? What are you talking about?" she asked, voice rising in frustration. Alassane pretended not to hear her.

"They have waited a long time. Something must have changed . . . Or maybe they simply ran out of patience." He said these words as if talking to himself.

"Who are 'they'? How do you know about this? Who are you?" Selissa wasn't sure which question to ask first. There seemed to be a million. She could feel herself getting more and more frustrated by the second. She didn't understand a thing of what was going on and the smell of blood was making her lightheaded. Focus, she told herself firmly. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Calen staring over her shoulder at Alassane.

"I think you have some explaining to do," he said. Selissa had never seen Calen look so serious before. There was no trace of the smile that usually graced his face, and the look in his eyes was hard.

Alassane returned Calen's stare calmly for a moment. Finally he nodded his head slightly. "This is not the best place," he said simply. Calen nodded and started walking towards the door, his hand still on Selissa's shoulder, leading her along. Alassane followed without another word.

ℓ

Ten minutes later Selissa found herself in the room that served as Calen's study. She and Calen sat facing Alassane, who had chosen to stand leaning against the wall.

Selissa could feel a mist clouding her mind. The entire situation was so surreal, and she had trouble making sense of the chaotic thoughts in her head. She could still smell the stench of blood, despite leaving the body behind. Every time she closed her eyes, she would see the gaping hole where a human heart had been ripped out. She clenched her fists against her knees, trying to force the image from her mind.

Calen gently placed a hand over her closed fist. She sent him a weak smile, trying to reassure him as he watched her worriedly. He squeezed her hand before turning his attention back to Alassane. She could feel how tense he was as he sat waiting for the other man to speak. She had never seen him like that. Calen nodded at Alassane, signalling for him to start his story.

Alassane didn't seem to be in any hurry. He reached into the pocket of his coat, pulled out a cigarette and lit it. He inhaled deeply before blowing out the smoke.

"That boy was killed by a group of people who call themselves the Demios," he said slowly, as if contemplating what to tell them.

"The Demios?" Selissa said. Somehow that sounded familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had heard it.

"Yes. They're a decades old clan, consisting of very dangerous people," Alassane said.

"Dangerous? You don't say. You mean the mutilated boy out there is the work of 'dangerous' people?" Selissa asked sarcastically. Fear and shock was still lingering in her mind and she channeled it into anger. It was easier to deal with anger.

Alassane was not fazed and held her eyes. "These people are far more dangerous than you can imagine. They are not only extremely powerful, but also worshippers of demons."

"Demon worshippers? If that is so, I see why they would leave the body like that. But why would it make them more dangerous than what we already have seen?" Calen said, always the voice of reason.

"If they were merely demon worshippers, they wouldn't be too much of a threat. Humans are, after all, weak beings. But the members of the Demios are not simply humans," Alassane said, his voice becoming more serious.

"What do you mean?" Selissa asked, her curiosity winning out on her anger.

"The Demios consists only of people who have been under the influence of demon magic. Like that red-haired friend of yours," Alassane said, looking at Selissa seriously.

"Nadia? But . . . Why?" Selissa asked confused.

Alassane was quiet for a moment, before explaining, "The people who receive the Mark of the Cursed are all born with special abilities. All of these abilities are unique from each other. Some have powers that make them extremely dangerous in combat, others have abilities that give them knowledge no one else have access to. The thing they have in common is that they are far superior to other humans."

Calen closed his eyes, deep in thought. "So you're saying that this was done by a group of fanatics with demonic abilities?" He opened his eyes and looked at Alassane seriously. "But why? Why that boy?"

"The boy probably had nothing to do with this. He was just the sacrifice they used to give their warning," Alassane said.

Warning. That was the word the mystical voice had used too. Selissa bit her lip, wondering if she should mention what she had heard earlier. She decided not to. She reasoned she had just imagined it because of the shock. Besides, she didn't need them thinking she was going crazy. Enough people thought that already.

"Warning? What kind of warning?" she asked out loud.

"A warning that they have started to move again. And that they will try to complete the ritual that failed years ago," Alassane answered, taking a drag of his cigarette, casual despite the words leaving his mouth. His eyes never left Selissa.

"What ritual? You keep talking like we're supposed to know. And how do you know all this?" she asked, keeping eye-contact with Alassane. She tried to find out what he hid behind those dark eyes of his, but there was nothing there. They were as calm and emotionless as the sky before a storm.

"A ritual they tried to complete several years ago, but their attempt was foiled. What the purpose of the ritual was, I can't tell you, but I do know that it will have dire consequences if they are able to complete it. And now they're trying again, to succeed where they failed." Selissa frowned. He clearly knew more than he let on, but she didn't stress it. "I was sent here to make sure they won't succeed."

"Sent by whom? And why come here?" Calen asked. He looked like he had a hard time taking all of this in. Selissa couldn't really blame him.

"Who sent me isn't important," Alassane said, waving off Calen's concern. He paused for a second, then looked straight at Selissa. "That is important is that they're after you."

She stiffened. "Me? Why me?"

"I don't know." She knew he was lying through his teeth. He was hiding something. "But they are after you. That means you're either of use to them, or a threat to them. Either way, it means you will be able to help stop them."

Everything was spinning before her eyes. Selissa put her head in her hands, dizzy from all of this information. Some kind of demon cult had killed that poor boy? They wanted to do some ritual . . . and they wanted her? None of that made sense to her. She was not important. Why would any of this have anything to do with her? Alassane had to be mistaken.

But deep inside, she knew he wasn't. She had felt it when she saw the symbol on the floor. She had recognized it and knew what it meant. That could not be a coincidence, could it?

She felt the weight of Alassane's stare on her. What did he expect her to do? Jump in like some kind of hero and save them all? She had no idea what they wanted her for. How could she ever help stop them?

Selissa felt like she was suffocating. Her head spun, and she couldn't bring herself to focus. She had to get out of there.

"This is insane . . . You're insane," she said to Alassane. Shooting one last look at him, she turned around and stormed out of the room. She heard Calen calling her name faintly, but the only thing she could think about was getting out of there. And away from Alassane.

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# Chapter 8

Selissa didn't know how long she had been lying there, just staring at the ceiling. She had tried to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes the image of the poor boy lying maimed on the floor appeared in her mind.

These Demios . . . To literally rip a boy apart just to send a message. What kind of ruthless, disturbed people would do that?

"That is important is that they are after you." Alassane's voice sounded in her head. She closed her eyes, trying to force the memories of yesterday's conversation from her head. When it didn't work, she slowly opened them again. Sick of watching the ceiling, she turned to her side.

The view that greeted her was a pair of distressed silver eyes staring back at her from the mirror on the other side of the room. She looked awful. Her eyes were red rimmed from lack of sleep, and her face was pale as death. She was used to not getting a lot of sleep, waking up in the middle of the night from another terrifying nightmare, but it had been a long time since she had looked like that.

Selissa sat upright in the bed, her feet hitting the floor. She had been wondering about something, something other than Alassane's words, and since thinking about that conversation wasn't getting her anywhere, she could at least do something about the other.

She splashed some water in her face in the hopes of getting some color back into her cheeks before heading out to find her target.

She found her in the far eastern corner of the temple, her brother by her side. As she approached them, she could tell Nadia had been crying. Selissa guessed the news from yesterday had already spread through the sanctuary.

Selissa came to a stop next to the siblings.

"How did you know?" she asked quietly. Nadia looked up at her with wide eyes, her face covered in barely dried tears. Nijel looked like he had expected, and dreaded, this moment.

"How did you know that boy would die?" Selissa asked again when Nadia didn't say anything.

"I . . ." Nadia started, then hesitated. She seemed to gather her courage before continuing, "I saw it."

Selissa's eyes widened. "Saw it? What do you mean?" Nadia hung her head, ashamed.

"I can see . . . people before they're going to die," the girl said before going quiet. Nijel put his arm around her, taking a deep breath.

"Nadia has an . . . ability. She foresees when people she has met are about to die . . . That's why she got the mark," he said, meeting Selissa's eyes. She realized that he was waiting for her judgment. Waiting for her to reject his sister, like everyone else had.

"Do you . . ." Selissa began, trying to get over the shock of their revelation. "Do you see them die?" Did she see who did it?

Nadia finally raised her head. The look in her eyes had changed to something Selissa couldn't quite define.

"No," Nadia said. "I only see their bodies. When they're already dead."

"I see," Selissa said thoughtfully. So Nadia didn't see how it happened, or who was responsible. Feeling the girl's stare, Selissa looked back at Nadia.

"You're not scared of me?" Nadia asked in wonder. Selissa blinked in surprise.

"Why would I be scared of you?" she asked puzzled.

"Because people always are," Nadia answered. Nijel looked at her sadly.

"There's nothing most people fear more than their own death. No one wants to be around someone who can tell them when they will die," he said.

Selissa couldn't help but pity her. Not only was she forced to know when everyone she knew would die, she also had to endure them being afraid of her because of it.

"I'm sorry," Selissa said. "And I'm not afraid of you." It was the truth. She couldn't say the idea of this girl telling her when and how she was going to die didn't make her uneasy, but she was not afraid. She was going to die someday, whether someone gave her a heads-up or not.

Both Nadia and Nijel stared at her, Nadia in shocked silence while her brother smiled gratefully at Selissa.

"You're a good person," he said. Selissa frowned.

"I'm really not. But I have no right to judge others." She didn't even know who she was. Who was she to say she was better than anyone else?

A strange feeling of being watched washed over her. Selissa cast a look over her shoulder and saw Alassane standing there, watching them silently.

She didn't want to see him right now. But deep inside, she knew she had no choice.

"Take care," she muttered and patted Nadia on the head. Then she turned away and began walking towards the last person she wanted to talk to.

As she got closer, the smell of smoke assaulted her. She crinkled her nose in disgust. The man's lungs had to look like coal by now.

"Strange company you keep," Alassane said when she came to a stop before him.

"With all the time I'm spending around you lately, I'm inclined to agree," Selissa shot back.

A disdainful snort was the only response she got.

"So what do you want?" she asked. "I guess you didn't come here to tell me you disapprove of the people I hang around."

"I was serious, you know," Alassane said simply

Thrown off, Selissa looked at him in confusion. "What?"

"About you being able to help stop them," he said. The usual arrogance was gone from his voice, and he looked at her seriously.

"And I was being serious about you being insane," Selissa said calmly. "I know nothing about this madness, and even if I did, I'm nothing special. Why would I be of any help?"

"If you were nothing special, they wouldn't be targeting you. Either they need you, or they need you out of the way. Either way, it's important for them to get to you. And it's important to us that they don't."

"Us? Who are 'us'? I don't remember agreeing to any of this," Selissa snapped. All of this was insane. "I'm not getting involved in this. You're on your own." She turned her back to him and started to walk away. She didn't know where she was going, but as long as it was away from him, it would be an improvement.

"Don't you want to know what the symbol on your back means?" Alassane asked so quietly that she almost didn't hear him.

Selissa stopped dead in her tracks. The symbol. How did he . . .?

She slowly turned to face him. Every muscle in her body was tensed, and she clenched and unclenched her hands repeatedly to calm herself. What did the symbol have to do with all of this?

"How do you know about that?" she asked, eyeing him warily.

"That is why they want you. They're searching for the person who bears that mark." He was watching her closely, waiting for her reaction. Selissa noticed that he had avoided answering her question.

"Why? How does that fit into all of this?" Alassane was silent for a moment before answering her.

"I can't tell you," he said quietly.

Selissa didn't buy it. "You can't or you won't?"

Silence was the only answer she got. "That's it, I'm done here. Goodbye." She spun on her heels and started walking. Once again, her escape was cut short.

"So you intend to just wait for them to come after you?" Alassane asked. "You didn't strike me as the type who waited for others to make the first move."

Selissa bit back a spiteful reply and forced herself to walk away.

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# Chapter 9

She could hear low voices all around her. Over and over again, they kept on whispering. The room was dark, the only light emitting from a few torches along the walls. They cast long shadows over the cloaked figures residing inside.

The chanting got louder and through the voices were still whispering, it sounded like thunder to her ears. She tried to figure out where she was, or what was happening, but all she saw was darkened faces hidden by hooded cloaks.

As the voices rose, the searing pain in her back got stronger. Burning, like a thousand flaming knives stabbing her back. She tried to scream, but not a sound escaped her throat.

By now the voices were a roar in her head. The chanters slowly came closer and closer, forming a tight circle around her. She saw the light from the torches reflecting in something held in the nearest figure's hands. A knife.

The cloaked man brought his arms above his head, the blade shining in the flickering light. The voices were almost shouting now, as the man quickly brought the knife down towards her chest . . .

Selissa jerked awake, gasping for air. Cold sweat trickled down her back and her breathing was ragged. She could still feel the scream trying to force its way up her throat. Taking a long, deep breath, she put her face in her hands and tried to calm down.

That dream again. When was it going to leave her alone?

Slowly her breathing became more steady, and she was able to think clearly again.

There had been something different about it this time. It had been so clear, so . . . real. And this was the first time she had ever seen the knife.

For so many years it had been just a blur of inconsistent sounds and images. Why had it changed?

'The seal was released.' Selissa jumped at the voice that suddenly cut through her thoughts and looked around wildly for the source.

'Not there,' the voice whispered. Selissa stilled. She felt her heart hammering in her chest and this time it had nothing to do with the nightmare.

It was the same voice she heard when they found the boy's body.

She willed herself to stay calm. "Who are you?" she asked in her head. It didn't seem like there was a need for her to speak out loud. She waited for an answer, but the voice had gone quiet.

She resisted the urge to scream. What the hell was happening to her? In just a matter of days, she had gotten involved in the work of demon worshippers, crazy men telling her she had the potential to stop them, her mark burning, and now she was hearing voices? When had her quiet and predictable life taken such a drastic turn?

For what felt like hours Selissa just sat there and waited, forehead rested in her palm. When the voice remained silent, she threw away the covers and got up from her bed. Throwing on some clothes, she left the room and tried to ignore how her hands were still trembling.

ℓ

"Compassionate Issara, guardian of this temple, I ask for your guidance. Take my hand and lead me to the answer." Selissa recited the prayer from memory as she knelt before the statue of the angel, something she hadn't done in a long time.

The ceremony hall had been cleaned, but an eerie feeling still surrounded it and the calm the faithful usually found in the presence of the archangel was evading her.

All that had happened: Alassane coming to the temple, the boy's murder, and the mystical voice . . . It was all connected somehow. And it all seemed to revolve around the mark on her back. And around her. But why?

For as long as Selissa could remember she had lived the temple. And nothing special had ever happened . . .

For as long as I can remember. She had no memory of the time before this place. They had found her outside the temple, her body covered in bloody wounds. Everyone had assumed she had been attacked by bandits and left there. But she couldn't remember any of it.

Her amnesia. Could it have something to do with this? She asked herself this, but she couldn't seem to find an answer. Everything was so confusing. The recognition she had felt when she first saw Alassane . . . Had she met him before?

And this Demios clan? What did they want with her?

A thousand questions were flying through her head. None of this made sense to her.

They were coming for her. What would she do when that happened?

Alassane's taunting voice rang in her mind, "You didn't strike me as the type that waited for others to make the first move."

Selissa gritted her teeth. No. She wasn't the type that waited for them to make the first move. If they were going to strike, she was going to strike first.

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# Chapter 10

Selissa slid her swords into their sheaths and swung them onto her back. Her other belongings were sparse, and she had managed to fit them all into one bag.

She had gone to talk to Alassane earlier. A nod was all she got when she had told him she was coming with him. It looked like he had expected her change of heart.

Looking around the empty room, she realized it had taken her all of ten minutes to pack everything she owned. The bed was made, and the only other things left in the room were the big cabinet in the corner and the mirror on the opposite wall. It looked like no one had ever lived there.

She took the bag and swung it over her shoulder. They would be leaving soon. Once again Selissa felt a sneaking suspicion that she had no idea what she was getting herself into. All she had was the word of a man she doubted to be entirely sane and the nagging feeling that if she wanted her questions answered she would have to leave with the lunatic.

Pushing her doubts aside, she strode out of the door. She refused to just sit and wait for those demon fanatics to come after her. The weight of the swords hanging from her back reassured her. Master Teren'thil had always told her you should take advantage of making the first strike. To get your opponent unaware.

If they thought they could just come for her, they were sadly mistaken.

She was on the way towards the main gate when she heard someone behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Calen standing there, watching her.

"So you're really leaving?" he asked. Selissa felt her heart clench when she saw the look in his eyes.

"I guess I am," she said, as if she only now realized that she would really be leaving this place. She wouldn't spend her days hiding from the priests or skipping Mass. And she wouldn't see Calen every day.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" Calen asked as he stepped closer.

Selissa found herself smiling. That was Calen, always worrying about her.

"No," she said honestly. "I'm not sure. But I know I have to do this."

Calen sighed, seeing her resolution. He surprised her by pulling her into a hug. "Just be careful. And remember, if you ever need my help, I'll be here."

Selissa felt tears well up in her eyes, and she returned the hug.

They stood like that for what felt like an eternity until she finally pulled away. She was blinking furiously to keep the tears from falling. She gave Calen a sad smile.

"I'll be okay. I can take care of myself," she said. The young priest returned her smile.

"I know you can. But remember what you're dealing with." His face turned serious. "It was not ordinary humans who mangled that boy. To do something like that, they're probably closer to the demons they worship. Don't take them lightly."

"I won't," Selissa promised.

Ignoring the heavy feeling in her chest, she gave him one last hug before turning away. She was acutely aware of his eyes following her as she walked away.

She fought back the tears that threatened to spill. Calen had always been her only friend and now she didn't know when she would see him again. If she would ever see him again.

As she reached the main gate, Selissa found Alassane waiting for her.

She took a deep breath and braced herself for whatever sarcastic comment was going to be thrown her way.

She waited. Nothing.

Surprised, Selissa shot a glance at the man. No annoying smirk on his face, either. Alassane was looking at her, seriousness edged in his face.

"You know what it means if you walk out that gate, right?" he asked, his eyes boring into hers. Selissa nodded. She knew exactly what it meant.

When she walked out that gate, she said goodbye to her old life. She would say goodbye to the peaceful and protected life of the temple. She would risk her life for something she was not sure she believed in . . .

"It won't be easy," Alassane said.

"I know," she said simply.

"You might not come out alive," he went on.

"I know that," she said.

"And still you want to go?" he asked. Selissa knew what he was doing. Alassane was giving her one last chance to turn back. After this there was no return.

She took a steadying breath. "I need answers," she said with determination. "And if this is the only chance I get to find them, I'll take it."

"Are you sure?" he asked her seriously. Last chance.

"I'm sure," Selissa said. "You almost sound like you want me to stay. And here I thought you were so determined on getting my help."

A smirk tugged at his lips. Suddenly he looked a lot more like the Alassane she had gotten to know.

"I am. But I wanted to make sure you knew what you were walking into," he said. He bowed down to retrieve his own bag from the ground.

"Are you ready?" He started walking, not waiting for an answer.

Selissa turned and shot one last look at the temple. The heavy feeling in her chest returned as she realized this was the closest thing she had ever come to a home.

Ignoring the melancholy washing over her, she turned around and ran after Alassane. Resisting the urge to look back over her shoulder, she walked away from the only life she had ever known.

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# Two Weeks Later

# Chapter 11

Selissa's patience was wearing thin. No wait, scratch that. Her patience had been worn thin a long time ago and now only an extreme amount of self-control kept her from punching Alassane's lights out.

Two weeks had gone by since they had left the temple of Issara. And in two weeks he hadn't stopped complaining. Complaining about everything.  If she thought he had been a pain before, it was nothing against spending every minute of the every day with him.

Currently he was grumbling about something concerning street vendors. But even if her life depended on it, she couldn't say what his problem with them was. For the sake of what was left of her sanity, she had stopped listening a long time ago.

Tuning him out, Selissa turned her attention to her surroundings instead. This town looked just like the last one they passed through. And the one before that one . . .

In the two weeks they had traveled together, they had come through several Sinarian towns. In the beginning she had been convinced Alassane had a destination in mind, but now she was having a sneaking suspicion he didn't know where they were going any more than she did.

"--that has no use of . . . Are you even listening to me?" Selissa caught the tail of Alassane's rant as her thoughts returned to the present.

"Absolutely," she assured him absentmindedly. She had no idea what he had been talking about.

He let out an annoyed huff and muttered angrily to himself. Selissa thought she heard the words "insufferable woman", but she couldn't be sure.

Out of the corner of her eye, she studied the man for a moment. In the time they had spent together, she had learned a lot about him, both good and bad.

Alassane was in every way a rather strange individual. She had learned that underneath the sarcastic attitude . . . well, there was more sarcasm and more than a few annoying habits. But underneath all that, he was rather intelligent. He knew a lot about a wide range of subjects and seemed to be able to find a solution to most problems.

On the other hand, when it came to social interaction, he had about as much common sense as a cactus.

Selissa was not sure he intended to, but somehow he managed to insult almost every single person he came into contact with. She couldn't count how many times she had had to interfere and apologize before they were thrown out of a tavern or a shop. She winced as she remembered the butcher who had hunted them down with his large butcher knife swinging over his head.

But annoying attitude and troublemaking aside, Selissa found herself almost liking traveling with Alassane. Not that she would ever admit that to anyone, least of all him.

"So," she said, interrupting his angry mumbling. "Where are we going? We have been on the road for weeks, and you still haven't told me where we're heading."

Alassane finally stopped talking. He seemed to consider her question before answering.

"We're supposed to go to Var'nori," he said slowly. Selissa looked at him in surprise.

"Var'nori?" she repeated. She had heard of the city before. It was a neutral city, lying on the border between Sinaria and Ver'dohna. It was home to the most prestigious magical academy found in both countries, and she knew that a lot of famous mages and scholars lived there. Sinaria and Ver'dohna had both fought for control of Var'nori for years, but had never been able to get past the powerful, magical protection around the city.

"The mages there study very powerful magic. Someone might be able to help us find a way to subdue the Demios. And there is no doubt that the Demios are interested in the city. They might make an appearance."

The Demios. Selissa shuddered as she remembered what they had done in the temple. If they went that far to give them a warning, how far would they go to obtain the power of Var'nori's mages?

"What do we do if we meet them?" she asked. Alassane gave her a long, serious look.

"We fight or we die," he said.

ℓ

"My sister and I need a room for the night," Alassane told the innkeeper.

Selissa didn't bother to ask about the sister part. By now she had been his sister, his niece and his apprentice. She didn't really understand the need for changing the story every time, but then again, she didn't understand a lot of things Alassane did.

The innkeeper handed Alassane the keys with an uneasy look at him and Selissa. She couldn't really blame him. An abnormally thin man, who mostly resembled a living corpse, and a strange, silver-eyed woman did kind of stand out. Especially when she was armed.

An hour later Selissa lay in her bed, deep in thought. There was something she had been thinking about ever since her and Alassane's conversation earlier.

"Alassane?" she said quietly into the dark room, hoping he was still awake.

There was silence for a moment. Then she heard him shift in his bed. "What is it?" he asked.

"I was thinking--" she began and resisted the urge to throw something at him when she heard him mumble something along the lines of "Don't hurt yourself."

"I was wondering about something," she said instead. "Have you ever met a member of the Demios?"

Alassane was quiet for a long time, and for a moment Selissa thought he wasn't going to answer her. Finally he spoke, this time in a low, serious voice.

"I have." He didn't elaborate.

Selissa considered letting it go, but her curiosity won. "What are they like?"

This time he didn't hesitate. "Ruthless."

"I kind of figured," she muttered. She might not have met them face to face, but she had seen what they would do to an innocent boy. That was not an act of mercy.

She heard Alassane sigh. "The Demios have devoted their entire lives to the demon world," he said. "Once upon a time they might have been like everyone else, except born with a demonic ability. They were probably just like that Marked girl at the temple."

Nadia, Selissa thought to herself. She had a hard time believing Nadia could ever hurt anyone.

"But being involved so closely with demonic magic has warped their minds. I doubt there's much left of their humanity," he continued. "And their insanity is clear for everyone to see."

Selissa had nothing to add to that. She wanted to ask how he had come into contact with the Demios to begin with, but she knew she would get no answer. Silence fell over the room.

She didn't get any sleep that night.

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# Chapter 12

They arrived at Var'nori at midday three days later.

Selissa marveled as she saw the walls of the mage city rise before her. The pure white stone walls seemed to shine in the sunlight, making them look like nothing more than an illusion.

They rose far enough into the air to completely block the city from view, giving the impression of an impenetrable fortress and not a place of learning.

As they came closer to the city gates, she felt the powerful presence of strong magic. The entire area was surrounded by it, and it was making her feel slightly dizzy. Selissa looked at Alassane out of the corner of her eye, but he seemed unaffected.

The gates came into view. The first thing Selissa noticed was the guards. In all the cities they had passed through, the guards had been clad in light armor and had carried weapons by their side.

The Var'nori guards looked nothing like those men. The men by the gates were dressed in heavy, pristine white robes. The cloth was embroidered with intricate silver patterns. The guards themselves were unarmed and stood up straight, barely moving.

So even the guards are mages, Selissa thought. She began to understand why no one had ever managed to invade this city.

The guards turned to her and Alassane as they approached.

"Reason for visiting Var'nori?" one of them asked in a solemn voice. Selissa couldn't help but roll her eyes. She had never met a mage who didn't act like he had a stick up his backside.

"We're seeking counsel with one of your higher-ranked mages," Alassane said, bowing his head to the guard.

What's with the polite attitude? Selissa thought. Who is this guy, and what did he do to Alassane? Alassane ignored the weird looks she was giving him, his attention on the guard.

"We will have to inspect you before you can enter," the guard said, nodding to his partner.

The second guard stepped forward and raised his hand towards Selissa. A soft blue glow appeared around it.

Selissa immediately took a step back. "What are you doing?" she asked warily.

"I'm checking for negative magical influence," the guard said as if it should have been obvious to anyone. He stepped closer to her and reached towards her head. Selissa stood frozen, watching him like a cornered animal. He traced his hand down in front of her, fingers hovering a few inches from her body.

For a moment she thought nothing was going to happen and then suddenly the glow changed from blue to a bright white.

Both of the guards stiffened and stared.

"How can this be?" the first one whispered to the other, looking at the white light with disbelief. She couldn't hear the other's reply as he lowered his voice. The two mages started a hushed conversation, obviously upset about something.

Selissa looked from one to the other before turning to look at Alassane. "Was it something I did?" she asked. Alassane just sighed and shook his head.

Meanwhile, the mages' conversation was getting heated. Whatever they were discussing were causing a fair bit of argument.

Finally Selissa's patience ran out. "Are you guys going to tell us what this is all about or should we expect to be standing here all day?" she asked. The mages looked at her like she had grown a second head.

Just to be sure Selissa felt around her neck. No extra body parts sticking out. Good.

"What is going on here?" an authoritative voice sounded behind them. Selissa turned around and was met with the sight of the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.

The woman approached them slowly, looking as if she was floating rather than walking. She was dressed in lavish blue and white robes clearly showing that she commanded a higher rank than the guarding mages. She had long, beautifully blonde hair and striking blue eyes, reminding Selissa of the paintings of angels she had seen lining the temple's halls.

Selissa could only stare in awe and feel more than a little inadequate. Not only was the woman that beautiful, but everything about her screamed powerful. She was obviously not your average mage.

The guards immediately straightened when they saw her.

"Archmage! We're sorry for disturbing you, but we have a rather uncommon occurrence . . . I'm not sure exactly what happened, something might have gone wrong with the spell or maybe--" the guard started blabbering, clearly nervous about not having an explanation for the archmage.

"What happened?" the woman cut him off. The guard immediately shut up and looked embarrassed.

"When I checked this woman for magical influence, the spell told me she possesses divine magic," he said. Selissa didn't understand a word of it. What did he mean by divine magic? She wasn't a mage, divine or otherwise.

The beautiful woman's eyes widened in surprise. "Divine magic?" she said. The guard nodded meekly.

"Anyone mind telling me what's going on?" Selissa asked impatiently, not all that fond of being talked about like she wasn't there.

The other woman turned to her. Piercing blue eyes watched her carefully. "What is your name?" she asked her, voice chiming like bells.

Selissa was caught off guard at being addressed by the archmage, and it took her a few seconds to answer. "Selissa, my lady," she said, placing her hand over her heart and bowing slightly. She might not have been fond of mages, but she had enough sense to know it paid to be polite to certain people. The other woman smiled at her.

"I'm Serendia, archmage of Var'nori and part of its council. It's a pleasure to meet you," she said. Her smile was dazzling. How could one person be that beautiful?

Turning to the guards, the archmage dismissed them with a wave of her hand. "Return to your duties. I will take care of this. Please follow me, miss."

Selissa hesitated. "What about him?" She gestured to Alassane, who had kept surprisingly quiet during the whole affair.

"Your companion may come with us," Serendia said, nodding at Alassane in acknowledgement. Alassane returned the gesture, but he was watching her warily while doing so.

Serendia turned to leave and motioned for them to follow her. Glancing at Alassane, who seemed unusually tense, Selissa hesitantly followed her.

The archmage strode purposely through the city, radiating a grace far beyond human. Selissa felt like a bumbling fool next to her. Alassane, however, didn't seem to be at all that impressed by the mage. The tension never left his shoulders, and his mouth was set in a grim line.

She wanted to ask him if he knew what all this meant, but decided against it. She would wait until they were alone. For now, she decided to seek her answers elsewhere.

"Could you please tell me what is going on?" she asked Serendia, mindful to keep her rising frustration out of her voice. The mage cast a look at her over her shoulder.

"I am not quite sure myself. This is very unusual," she said thoughtfully.

"What is unusual?" Selissa asked. She was getting fed up with these vague answers. She had never liked mages, and her opinion of them was not getting any better.

Serendia held her eyes for a long moment, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I will explain the best I can when we arrive," she said and Selissa accepted that she wouldn't be getting anywhere by asking more questions.

The rest of the trip was spent in silence.

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# Chapter 13

Serendia's destination turned out to be a marvelous building in the middle of the city. Like the rest of the buildings in Var'nori, it was built in white stone and looked like a cross between a fortress and a temple, imposing yet elegant. Huge spires towered above them and Selissa had to crane her neck to see the top.

Before the entrance, a huge stairway ascended towards enormous fortified doors. At its base, a statue of the archangel Maiya, the protector of magic, was placed. It towered above them, watching them like an unmoving guardian.

Serendia ascended the stairs to the main entrance. "This is where the council of high-ranked mages in Var'nori resides," she explained.

The entrance was guarded by two mages wearing the same robes as the guards at the city gates. They bowed as Serendia passed them and granted Selissa and Alassane a stoic nod.

The interior of the building was no less impressive than the outside, but Selissa had no time to study it. Serendia didn't slow down and walked with determination through a labyrinth of hallways.

Finally she stopped at a door and led them inside. They entered a lavishly furnished room, filled with an endless amount of books and scrolls. She motioned for them to sit down on a couch in the middle of the room.

"If you will excuse me, I have to see for myself that the guards were right," the mage said, while watching Selissa. Selissa was anxious to get some answers to what she was talking about, but reluctantly nodded her consent.

Serendia lifted her hand and the same soft blue glow surrounded it, just as it had the guard's hand earlier. She reached towards Selissa and let her fingers hover over her skin. Soon the blue faded into a brilliant white. The archmage's eyes widened in disbelief.

"This doesn't make sense," she whispered to herself.

"What doesn't make sense?" Selissa snapped. This was starting to get on her nerves.

The mage retracted her hand and stared at Selissa as if she was some strange creature she had never seen before. Selissa shifted uncomfortably under her stare, unnerved by the intensity. Finally Serendia decided to answer her.

"This spell is designed to sense magic. Blue reveals normal, non-harmful magic. If it turns red, however, it senses demonic magic. For it to turn completely white should not be possible . . ." she said.

"Why shouldn't it be possible?" Selissa asked, trying not to remind the mage out loud that not everyone was familiar with all this magical nonsense.

Serendia looked at her seriously. "Because white is divine magic. Only celestial beings possess such power."

Selissa blinked and stared at the mage. "Celestial beings? Like angels?" she asked in disbelief. Was she serious?

"Yes," Serendia said, seemingly not understanding much more than Selissa did. "Only something like an angel would cause such a reaction. I have never seen anything like this."

In her mind, Selissa saw the statue of Issara. She remembered all the stories she had heard about the archangels. Such powerful beings were so far above her, it wasn't even funny. How could she possibly possess such magic?

She looked at Alassane who still hadn't said a word. He was staring into the air, deep in thought.

"It is possible for humans to be influenced by divine magic. Sometimes the angels wish to protect certain humans and grant them their protection. But the spell wouldn't have reacted so strongly had you only had a spell cast on you. It sensed far more energy than that," Serendia continued. A frown made creases in her perfect face.

Suddenly someone chuckled. "That girl is no angel, that's for sure," a sarcastic voice sounded. Alassane had finally broken free of his trance and was watching them calmly.

And he's back . . . Selissa thought, rolling her eyes. She shouldn't have worried about him.

Serendia frowned at him. "If she's not an angel, why does she possess such powerful magic?" she asked him. Alassane met her eyes, disinterest on his face.

"You're the mage. You tell me," he said.

Selissa resisted the urge to kick him. Insulting random innkeepers and vendors was one thing. She was not sure it was a good idea to insult an archmage.

The only sign that Serendia had taken offense, however, was a small twitch of her lips. She ignored Alassane and turned back to Selissa.

"I will do my best to get to the bottom of this. I ask you to stay in the city for now," she said.

Selissa and Alassane exchanged looks, but didn't object.

ℓ

"When did my life stop making sense?" Selissa asked as she and Alassane made their way through the streets of Var'nori. They had just left Serendia and were now walking around aimlessly.

"It will only get worse," Alassane said. "Trust me."

Selissa let out a huff. "My, thank you for cheering me up," she said. Even if it wasn't technically Alassane's fault, it still helped to take it out on him when she was annoyed.

He made an irritated sound before opening his mouth to deliver what was without a doubt some scathing reply. "You really should--"

He was cut off by shouting nearby. They both stopped dead in their tracks and turned towards the uproar.

People were flocking together, and a woman was screaming.

"Help! Somebody help him!" she cried. Selissa wasted no time running towards her, pushing people out of her way as she went.

The woman who was shouting was lying on her knees, a man cradled in her arms.

Selissa froze in shock when she saw the scene before her. Images of the murdered boy at the temple flashed through her mind. The sight of this man was eerily similar.

The ground was soiled with blood. Clothes hung from the man's body where they had been ripped apart. Deep wounds covered every inch of visible skin, and his arms and legs were hanging limply from his body.

Selissa kneeled next to the wailing woman and put her fingers to the man's throat. His eyes were rolled back into his head and at first she was certain he was already gone. But as she pressed her fingers to his throat, she felt a weak pulse.

Ignoring the agitated whispering of the crowd, she looked around.

"What are you all standing there for? Get a medic!" she shouted. A young man jumped like a frightened squirrel when she looked at him before scurrying down the street to get help.

The other woman was now crying quietly, clutching the man to her chest. Selissa gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"What happened?" she asked. The woman took a shaky breath and looked at her, tears falling down her face.

"I don't know," she whimpered. "I was gone for just a few minutes when I heard him yell. Then I came back I found him like this!" The last of her calm disappeared as she said this and she broke down crying again.

A frown crossed Selissa's face. How could no one have seen what happened?

A few moments later, the young man from before returned with a medic in tow.

Selissa took one last look at the injured man before slipping away silently. No one spared her a second glance as she slowly walked away from the commotion.

Her eyes scanned the ground until they found what they were looking for. She crouched down and let her fingers trace the bloodstains on the cobbles. The dark red liquid stuck to her fingers, and she wrinkled her nose in disgust.

She stood slowly and took a few tentative steps forward. There were several more bloodstains, but they were becoming less and less frequent the further she walked. She came to a stop a couple of steps later when the stains disappeared.

Selissa cast a look over her shoulder. The crowd was still preoccupied with the wounded man. No one was thinking about finding the one who attacked him.

She made a quick decision. These bloodstains were obviously left by the attacker. Which meant they had probably escaped into one of the side streets.

She had already started to turn down the nearest alley when she was reminded of something. She looked all around her, but there was no sign of Alassane.

Biting her lip indecisively, Selissa told herself he would disapprove of her going after some unknown assailant alone. Well, he would probably disapprove of going after him altogether. After all, Alassane didn't believe in getting involved in things that didn't concern him.

But she wasn't Alassane. Dismissing the nagging voice in the back of her head that told her this was a bad idea, she ran down the street.

Several other streets connected to that one, and Selissa didn't know where to go. Going by instinct she turned right, then left, then right again, until she had no idea where she was.

She turned again and almost collided with a wall. Dead end.

Selissa cursed quietly. The attacker was probably long gone while she was running around blindly.

Disheartened she turned and started to walk away from the alley.

'He's here,' she heard someone whisper. She stiffened. That voice . . .

She hadn't heard it since she left the temple. Why now?

A chill went through her. She suddenly knew why.

Selissa turned around slowly, a bad feeling telling her she already knew what she would see.

"Looking for someone?"

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# Chapter 14

Cold, dark eyes were studying her intently. The man watching her was crouching on the roof of one of the buildings and was dressed head to toe in black.

Black clothes covered in blood.

His long black hair was tied in a low ponytail and falling down his chest. But it failed to cover black tattoo that snaked its way across his face.

Demios. A feeling of dread spread through her body. The man was watching her calmly, appearing completely relaxed, but still he emitted a feeling of danger. Of death. Selissa felt it surround her and it made her feel like she was choking.

She swallowed hard, her eyes never leaving the Demios. The man cocked his head, strands of dark hair falling into his eyes. A smile graced his lips, standing in sharp contrast to his blood-covered appearance.

"Something wrong, sweetheart?" he asked, smiling at her gently.

Selissa took a cautious step back, all the while trying to swallow her panic. He was smiling. He was covered in the blood of a man he had practically slaughtered, and he was smiling.

"Their insanity is clear for everyone to see," Alassane's words echoed in her mind.

The man didn't move, but the intensity in his eyes never wavered as he continued to watch her.

A million things ran through her head. Could she run? Would he go after her if she did?

It wouldn't help. He had maimed that man, and he had been gone before anyone even noticed something was wrong.

She needed time to think. If she could just stall him for a moment, maybe she could figure out how to get away.

Trying to keep her voice calm, Selissa asked the only thing she could think of.

"Why did you attack that man?" It was probably not the best thing to discuss with a raving psychopath, but she didn't have any other ideas.

He tilted his head and considered her question. "I needed to get your attention," he said slowly, his eyes never leaving her face.

So he really was after her. Selissa had suspected as much, but having it confirmed still felt like a punch to the stomach.

She felt sick. The dead boy at the temple, the man beaten to an inch of his life just a short distance away . . . Did they have no qualms about harming innocent people? Harming them just to get her attention.

Fear and rage were battling for dominance. Part of her wanted to run for her life while another wanted to make him regret that he ever decided to go after her.

She wanted answers. She wanted to know why. Why her?

"What do you want with me?" No matter how much she tried to keep her voice steady, it came out as a snarl.

The man's smile widened and a low chuckle escaped his lips. "He didn't tell you?" he asked, amusement evident in his voice.

"Who? Tell me what?" Selissa's frustration didn't seem to affect the Demios in the least. He threw his head back and laughed. It was a rich and joyful laugh, yet it still sent chills down her spine.

"He really didn't tell you?" he said, almost as if to himself. He placed his elbow on his leg and rested his chin on his knuckles, still watching her with a soft smile.

"Well, that might actually make this easier," he said after a while. He rose slowly before jumping gracefully off the roof. He landed on the ground in front of her and straightened to his full height. Only now did Selissa notice what an impressive figure he made.

He was well over six feet tall and despite his slender build you could see the muscles moving under his skin. The long dark hair framed a handsome face. If it wasn't because everything about him screamed madness, Selissa might even have called him beautiful.

"What's the matter with me? I haven't even introduced myself yet," he said, sounding quite disappointed with himself. "My name is Ardeth, member of the Demios. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance." He bowed slightly, but his eyes never left hers.

She couldn't breathe. Everything about this guy was wrong. And she knew her time was running out.

Throwing caution to the wind, she made her decision. Leaping backwards, Selissa drew her swords. She kept her eyes on Ardeth as she slid into a defensive stance. He had not made a single aggressive movement and still she knew she had no choice but to fight.

Ardeth closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "You know, you should just come along quietly. There really is no need for this."

Selissa scoffed. "You think I'm just going to come with you, like a good little girl?" she asked incredulously. He shrugged slightly.

"I had hoped. It would be such a shame to mar such a pretty face," he said and ran a hand through the loose strands of hair falling in his face.

Selissa didn't wait for him to finish. She charged at him, the red hilt ribbons of her swords dancing behind her.

Ardeth's only reaction was to lift his head. She had already swung one of the swords, aiming for his throat, before he moved.

With a speed far above humanly possible, he moved out of her way and her blade hit nothing but cobblestones.

Regaining her balance, she braced herself against the wall and sent a kick flying towards him with all her strength. Her foot hit him square in the shoulder and with great satisfaction she heard the bone break. As soon as her foot returned to the ground she spun out of his way. A broken shoulder would definitely put him at a disadvantage. Maybe Alassane had exaggerated when talking about the Demios' fighting abilities.

She came to a halt as soon as she was out of reach. Looking up, she saw to her surprise that Ardeth hadn't moved at all. His shoulder seemed to have been dislocated when she broke the bone, but he didn't even seem to notice.

"Feisty, aren't we?" he said, as a smile spread across his face. He slowly pushed his shoulder back into its socket.

Selissa's eyes widened when she heard a sickening crunching sound. Ardeth rolled his shoulder a few times, moving it like it had never been broken in the first place.

She was so bewildered that she barely had time to react when he suddenly rushed forward. She threw herself backwards, just in time to avoid taking the full hit, but she felt something tear at her arm. She dropped one of her swords in shock and it made a loud clattering sound as it hit the ground.

Stumbling back, she pressed her hand to her arm. The skin had been pierced, and she felt the warm blood running down her arm and through her fingers. Confusion flickered through her mind. How had he cut her when he didn't even have a weapon?

She looked up at her opponent and took a moment to study him. His palms were open and from the center of each of them, something sharp and white protruded. Was that . . .?

Selissa didn't get to finish the thought, as he was already approaching again, arm raised to strike. Realizing that she didn't have the time to dodge, she raised her remaining sword over her head to block the incoming blow.

A sharp sound cut through the air as the object in his hand collided with the metal of the blade.

The blow sent her stumbling back a few steps and her muscles strained under the pressure, but she stood her ground.

With a swift motion, she thrust the sword up in the air, forcing him to jump back. Not giving him a chance to recover she sprinted towards him and swung at him. He raised his hand and parried easily.

As he raised his hand, Selissa saw that the sharp object in his hand really was protruding from the middle of his palm. The skin was broken and small spatters of blood covered the edge.

Selissa almost dropped her sword in shock when she realized what it was. His bones were sticking out from his hands.

She staggered back, her eyes never leaving Ardeth's hands. "What are you?" she asked horrified.

Ardeth grinned and lifted his hand to show her the bone clearly. Selissa felt sick when she saw the bone sink slowly back into his palm.

"Don't you know? All of the Demios are quite gifted," he said, still grinning at her. "I was born with the ability to freely manipulate my bones."

Selissa's eyes widened. He could manipulate his bones? Was that the kind of powers the Demios possessed?

She watched as he tilted his head and brought his hand to his shoulder. She heard the same sickening sound as before and slowly a bone grew from his shoulder. Selissa stood petrified as Ardeth grabbed his own bone and ripped it out of his shoulder.

"En garde, my lady," he said playfully and held the bone out in front of him. The tip was sharpened and Selissa was sure it could easily penetrate her heart. What a sick joke, to use one's own bones as a sword.

She took a deep breath and gripped her own sword harder. She was quite sure this freak of nature was a lot stronger than she was, but she couldn't let it faze her. With another deep breath she steeled herself and lunged at him.

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# Chapter 15

Fighting Ardeth was different from everything she had ever experienced.

Selissa whirled around him, letting strike after strike rain down over him, and he blocked them all effortlessly.

With the ribbons dancing around her, forming angry red lines in the air, she continued to search for an opening, yet somehow she was caught completely unprepared when a kick to the stomach sent her flying through the air.

Gasping for air, Selissa scrambled to her feet just as Ardeth leaped forward to strike. She threw herself to the side, narrowly avoiding having her guts spilled across the cobbles.

The evasion had her fighting to regain her balance, and she didn't have time to move as the back of the bone sword slammed into her face.

The impact sent her flying to the ground, and she heard something crack as her back hit the unforgiving stone. Stars were dancing in front of her eyes, and she felt the metallic taste of blood on her tongue.

She heard the gravel shift as Ardeth stepped closer.

"I told you it would be better if you just came with me," he said as he leaned down to look at her.

Her head throbbed horribly and she closed her eyes to keep out the light.

"Open your eyes," he said softly. She could feel his hot breath dancing over her face and she felt panic overwhelm her. She slowly opened her eyes to look at him.

"Better," he said. "You have such beautiful eyes, you know."

Her eyes widened, but the rest of her remained frozen in shock. It was the first time anyone had ever complimented her on her eyes. The pale, silvery eyes that tended to scare people away and make children cry. Just her luck that said compliment had to come from a psychopath.

Selissa cursed silently at herself. What was she doing? She had a deranged murderer leaning over her, a murderer who was probably only seconds away from killing her, and somehow she was oddly flattered that he liked her eyes?

Mustering up her strength she sent a kick towards his legs, hoping to knock them out from under him.

Ardeth dashed her hopes as he grabbed her by the leg. She bit back a scream as he used his hold on her leg to throw her into the nearest wall. Her leg twisted painfully, and she didn't have a chance to shield herself before she slammed against the wall.

Pain washed over her as she slid to the ground, and she had to fight to stay conscious.

With the last of her strength she pushed herself off the ground and stood shakily. Her sight was blurry and she could barely breathe from the pain in her chest.

There was no way she was beating this guy. She was up against a murderer with supernatural abilities and she could barely stand. The only way she was getting out of this was when they dragged her lifeless corpse away.

So be it, she thought to herself. There was no way she was letting him get her alive. As she was now unarmed, she clenched her fists and ran forward, ignoring the searing pain that coursed through her body.

Ardeth must have been surprised by the fact that she could still move because she felt her fist connect with his jaw. His head snapped back, but her victory was short-lived.

Ardeth quickly regained his composure and three claw-like bones shot out from his knuckles.

Selissa cried out in pain as he swiped at her stomach. The claws tore through her shirt and carved deep wounds in the flesh.

Identical claws spawned from his other hand and strikes rained down on her from both sides.

All attempts at protecting herself were in vain and soon she felt the last of her strength leaving her. Her body was so battered she barely noticed the impact as she once again hit the ground. Everything was spinning in front of her eyes and the pain was so overwhelming that she couldn't move.

"How disappointing," Ardeth drawled as he drew closer. "I had expected more of the great Cadeyrn." She vaguely wondered what he was talking about, but it seemed insignificant now.

He stopped next to her broken body and watched her with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"So I guess this is it, then." He let out a deep sigh as if he really was disappointed that she didn't put up more of a fight.

Selissa forced herself not to close her eyes as he lifted his hand to make the final blow. She remembered reading something about looking death in the eyes, no matter which shape it came in. Even if death came in the shape of a terrifying, yet strikingly beautiful demon.

In a swift motion, he brought his arm down, sharpened bone in hand. Selissa braced herself for the strike that would kill her.

But it never came.

A mere inch from her face, Ardeth froze. When Selissa looked at his face, she saw that his eyes were wide in shock and every muscle in his body was shaking from strain as if something invisible was holding him back.

"Let her go," someone said. Selissa blinked a few times. The pain must have gone to her head. She could have sworn that sounded like Alassane.

A grin slowly replaced the look of surprise on Ardeth's face. He let out a low chuckle.

"So the protector has arrived?" he said. Whatever had been restraining him seemed to have disappeared as he straightened slowly and turned to face the newcomer.

"So this was the best they could send, huh?" he said. The look on this face reminded Selissa of a predator, ready to pounce. She turned her head to follow his eyes, silently hissing in pain as her head ached.

"You could be smart and leave now, demonspawn," the other one said. Selissa blinked. She wasn't hallucinating. She would recognize that patronizing drawl anywhere.

Alassane stepped closer, and Ardeth huffed in amusement. She wanted to yell for him to run, but no sound made it past her lips.

She tried to get up, but her body screamed in protest.

"Don't move." Alassane's gentle tone surprised her. Selissa caught his eyes and saw the determination in there. And no matter how much she wanted to disobey his order, she couldn't bring herself to do it. She kept still, watching him intently.

She heard a familiar crunching noise and turned her head to watch the long bone blades slide out from Ardeth's palms.

"As much as I would love to play, I'm only here for her," he said, taking a step forward. Alassane didn't seem the least bit intimidated, looking more annoyed than anything as he scowled at the Demios.

"She's staying here," he said simply.

Ardeth didn't bother with an answer. The grin widened, and he charged towards Alassane.

Selissa didn't quite register what happened next. A flash of brilliant blue light forced her to clench her eyes shut and the next thing she knew, Ardeth collided with the ground several yards away.

But Ardeth recovered quickly and rolled to his feet. For the first time he looked out of breath. The grin had disappeared, replaced by a look of wary anticipation.

Alassane didn't appear to have moved at all, but his right hand was surrounded by bright blue flames.

Confusion flickered through Selissa's already dazed mind. Alassane's wasn't a mage . . . And could mages even do that?

The flames around Alassane's hand flared up and shot towards the spot where Ardeth was crouching. Ardeth managed to hurl himself away before he was hit by the blast. Where he had been only seconds earlier, a big crater now marred the ground.

"Still want to play, demon spawn?" Alassane asked and held up his flaming hand.

Ardeth seemed to consider that. "I guess we'll have to save it for another time," he said. The blades in his palms slid back in and were replaced by claws. He turned around and jumped up against the back wall of the alley. Ramming his claws into the wall, he dragged himself the rest of the way and landed gracefully on the roof.

Looking over his shoulder he shot a smile at Selissa. "I'll see you soon, princess." And then he was gone.

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# Chapter 16

Her head was spinning and Selissa knew she wouldn't be able to stay conscious much longer. She was barely able to raise her head when she felt Alassane kneel down next to her.

"How did you do that?" she asked. Even to her own ears her voice sounded raw, and she had to force out the words. Alassane shot her a quick look, but kept quiet as he looked over her injuries.

"You got your ass handed to you, girl," he said, but his sarcasm didn't fool her this time. "You really should start thinking--"

"Answer me," Selissa said. She wasn't going to let him out of this one. She was sick and tired of everyone keeping her in the dark.

Alassane sighed. "You almost got yourself killed," he said. "What about worrying about that first?"

Selissa wanted to scream and shout at him. She didn't know why she was almost killed, either. She knew nothing. She didn't know who he was. She didn't even know who she was.

She opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't remember what she was going to say. She couldn't think. Everything was going black.

She closed her eyes and welcomed unconsciousness.

ℓ

She had been at the temple for two weeks. She hadn't been able to leave her bed the entire time because of her wounds.

She was scared. She didn't remember anything. The priests were trying to get her to feel at home, but all the unfamiliar faces scared her.

She had woken up to the sound of someone praying. When she opened her eyes, she saw a boy kneeling by her bedside. He couldn't be more than a few years older than her. He had blond hair and a gentle face, and his eyes were closed in concentration.

He didn't notice her watching him, merely kept praying for her recovery.

"Merciful Arnath, please give her your blessings and heal her undeserved injuries . . ."

The praying continued, but this time it was not Calen's voice. The light in the room was soft, but it still stung her eyes when she opened them.

The gentle chanting stopped, and Selissa turned her head to see Serendia watching her with a relieved look on her face.

"Where am I?" she whispered. She immediately regretted it. It hurt to speak.

"In my chambers. Your companion brought you to me after you fainted," Serendia said. Her soft voice was calming and Selissa relaxed slightly.

" . . .Alassane?" she asked. She hoped Serendia understood because she didn't seem able to speak in full sentences at the moment.

"I sent him outside just minutes ago, so I could clean and dress your wounds." The mage helped Selissa sit upright, mindful of the hisses of pain escaping her.

Her clothes were nothing more than rags now, and she didn't protest when Serendia ripped the remains of her shirt apart.

Serendia picked up a washcloth and went to clean the wounds on her back. But as soon as she looked down, the mage went still. Selissa glanced at her, unsure of what had made her pause. It took a few seconds before she realized what the problem was.

Without the shirt, nothing obscured the symbol on her back. The black lines stood out clearly against her pale skin, and suddenly Selissa felt very naked.

She closed her eyes and held her breath while she waited for Serendia's reaction. She didn't know what she expected, but shock, repulsion or even fear were all on the list.

Which was why Selissa froze when she felt fingers slowly trace the symbol on her back. She turned her head slightly to see Serendia study her back intently, a look of fascination on her face.

"The mark of Cadeyrn," the mage whispered, wonder in her voice.

Selissa jerked around, forgetting about her injuries. She doubled over in pain, clutching her ribs.

"You know what it means?" she gasped, desperate to find out what she could tell her about the symbol she had carried on her back for as long as she could remember.

Serendia looked stunned, as if she had just woken from a trance.

"You don't know?" she asked, surprise clear in her crystal blue eyes. Selissa forced herself to keep calm and answered.

"No. I really don't," she said. Silver met blue as she held Serendia's eyes. Serendia seemed to be taken back by the intensity, because she lowered her voice ever so slightly.

"So you don't remember how you got this?" she asked and traced her fingers slowly down the mark.

"No. I don't remember much," Selissa admitted. It felt weird saying it out loud. The only one she had ever discussed her loss of memory with was Calen. Even Alassane didn't know.

Serendia watched her thoughtfully. "This mark. I have only ever seen it in books. It isn't used anymore," she said.

"Why?" Selissa asked. Why hadn't she been able to find it anywhere?

Serendia hesitated. "I'm afraid that is a longer story."

Selissa held her eyes and even the mighty archmage seemed slightly unnerved by her silver stare. "Do I look like I'm going anywhere?" she asked.

The archmage sighed in defeat. "Let's get you cleaned up first. Then I will tell you what I know."

As much as Selissa longed for answers, she knew the other woman wouldn't cave. Closing her eyes, she reluctantly let the mage clean her wounds.

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# Chapter 17

With her entire body covered in bandages, Selissa followed Serendia to the room where Alassane was waiting for them. She felt very uncomfortable in the borrowed mage robes she was wearing, but tried not to let it show.

Alassane watched them silently as they entered.

"I'm no healer, but I did the best I could. I would suggest for her to rest as much as possible." Selissa noted with a bit of irritation that Serendia was addressing Alassane instead of her. Who did she think he was? Her keeper?

Serendia turned to look at her. "Please sit down. I will try to explain what I know about your mark."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alassane stiffen. "Her mark?" he asked warily. Serendia nodded.

"Yes. I never thought I would ever see that symbol in person," she said.

Selissa plopped herself down on the couch next to Alassane. "What does it mean?" she asked for what felt like the thousandth time. She had waited years for answers. She didn't intend to wait much longer.

Serendia sat down calmly on a chair opposite them. She didn't seem fazed by Selissa's impatience.

"The symbol on your back is the mark of the archangel Cadeyrn."

"Archangel?" Selissa said confused. "There's no archangel named Cadeyrn."

"Are you sure about that?" Serendia said. Some emotion Selissa couldn't quite define was shining in the mage's crystal blue eyes.

"Yes, I'm sure!" Selissa snapped. "I grew up in a temple, for Shi'laran's sake. I'm pretty sure I know the names of all seven archangels, and none of them goes by the name of Cadeyrn."

"That's true," Serendia said simply, ignoring her outburst. "After all, Cadeyrn was the eighth archangel."

Selissa just stared at her in disbelief. "I didn't sleep through all of the priests' sermons. There are only seven archangels," she said flatly.

"Now there are seven. Originally, they were eight," Serendia said. Selissa opened her mouth to protest, but Serendia held up a hand to silence her.

"The story I'm about to tell you have been forgotten by most, centuries ago. Only very few still know about what happened." The mage could clearly tell Selissa wanted to interrupt because she shot her a look that brooked no argument. Selissa sat back in her seat and reluctantly stayed quiet as Serendia started her story.

She took a deep breath before speaking. "Almost 600 years ago, a powerful demon plagued our world. His name was Azarial."

The name made Selissa look up. Azarial . . . Why did that sound so familiar?

Images of a mark drawn in blood appeared in her mind. The symbol painted on the floor by the murdered boy's body. She remembered recognizing it as the mark of Azarial.

But how did she know this?

Her turbulent thoughts were cut short as Serendia continued.

"Azarial brought terror everywhere he went and soon grew so powerful that he became an immense threat to humanity. To prevent him from destroying this world, the eight archangels joined together to fight him."

Selissa felt Alassane shift next to her, but ignored it. She leaned forward, listening to the archmage with undivided attention.

"It came to a confrontation between Azarial and the angels." Here Serendia paused, so Selissa took the chance to speak.

"What happened? Did the angels kill the demon?" Somehow she already knew it wouldn't be that simple.

"No," Serendia said. "At that point, Azarial was far too powerful to still be mortal. When the angels realized they couldn't destroy him, they decided to seal him away."

"What does all this have to do with Cadeyrn?" Selissa asked confused.

"Sealing away someone as powerful as Azarial takes an incredible amount of power," the mage continued. "To power the seal, the angel Cadeyrn decided to sacrifice himself."

"So he died?" Selissa asked shocked. She had never heard about an angel dying, no less an archangel.

"No one knows. He might have sealed himself away together with Azarial, or he might have died when he gave up his powers."

Selissa couldn't think of anything to say. Alassane had been silent through the whole conversation, staring at the walls.

Serendia closed her eyes in thought. "No matter what happened . . . After that, Cadeyrn was never heard from again."

ℓ

Selissa rested her head against her knees as she sat on her bed in her and Alassane's inn room. For years she had been dying to know the meaning of that symbol, but now that she finally found out, she was left with more questions than answers.

"Why do I have the mark of an angel that disappeared 600 years ago?" she asked Alassane as he exited the washroom. He didn't say anything as he walked to stand at the end of the bed.

Selissa knew he was watching her, but she didn't bother raising her head.

"That time, back at the temple. You knew about the mark, even though you never saw it," she said quietly. She knew Alassane kept many things from her, but it had been an unspoken agreement that they didn't speak about it.

"You probably knew what it meant too," she said. She didn't really expect him to answer her. He rarely did when it came to things like this.

No words passed for a time, but Selissa was content to sit in silence.

A sigh sounded from the end of the bed. "Cadeyrn's temple was abandoned centuries ago, but it still stands," Alassane said. Selissa lifted her head and looked at him in surprise.

"The Demios know we're here, so we should leave Var'nori soon either way. We can go there next, if you like," he went on.

Selissa knew she should be mad. Mad at him for avoiding her question. Mad at him for keeping something like this from her. But watching him now, she couldn't bring herself to it.

For the first time, he offered to help her find out who she was. What all this meant. And she couldn't refuse.

"Okay," Selissa said simply. "Let's do that."

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# Chapter 18

Compared to their arrival, their departure from Var'nori was rather uneventful.

They left without a word to anyone, even though Selissa noticed Serendia watching them from afar as they walked through the city gates.

The guards shot her nervous looks as she passed by, and she wished she could say she was any less confused than they were.

It had been two days since Serendia had revealed the story of Cadeyrn and in two days her thoughts had been one big mess.

The mark on her back was the symbol for the archangel Cadeyrn. The mages had detected divine magic in her. And she was attacked by a demon worshipper who wanted her for some perverted reason . . .

She knew all these things were connected. How could they not be?

It was like having all the side pieces of a puzzle. You could see how there was a picture to be seen, but you didn't know what it looked like. And none of the middle pieces seemed to fit quite right.

For what must have been the thousandth time she tried to make some sense of what she knew. She remembered nothing from when she was a child. The mark on her back was an angel's symbol and somehow she possessed divine magic.

What was her connection to the angels? Had they for some reason bestowed their blessing upon her?

Or their curse?

Selissa sighed. She figured that if it was any of those, it was probably the last one.

She glanced at Alassane walking silently by her side. He had barely said two words to her since he agreed to take her to Cadeyrn's sanctuary. He had told her when they were leaving and then he seemed to ignore her existence.

She tried not to let it bother her. It wasn't like they were friends. She had known from the start that he had his own agenda. That there were things he wasn't telling her. And that he was probably only using her in the end.

And even though she had known all that from the moment this whole mess started, she still felt a sense of betrayal. After all, he had betrayed the trust she shouldn't have in him.

Selissa ignored the strange tightening in her chest. The overwhelming sense of loneliness washing over her made no sense. She had always been alone, and she had never been bothered by it before.

Again she peered at the thin man next to her. She had no business seeing this man as a friend. He wasn't, and he never had been.

She knew nothing about him. She didn't know who he was or where he was from. And most importantly, she didn't know how he got involved in all this to begin with.

A sudden thought struck her. It was something that had completely slipped her mind after discovering the meaning of the mark.

"How did you do it?" she asked.

She saw Alassane go tense for the slightest of seconds before collecting himself. "Do what?" he said without turning to look at her.

"The thing you did to send the Demios guy packing," she said. "With the blue flames."

She halfway expected him to go silent as he always did when she asked personal questions, but he replied in the sarcastic tone she had come to associate with Alassane.

"Have you never seen magic before?" he said in a tone that normally had her spitting fire, but now it caused a sigh of relief. She could handle the sarcastic, annoying Alassane. It was the silent, secretive Alassane that left her feeling angry and lost. The presence of something familiar and safe in the middle of the storming ocean that was her life made her regain some of her spirit.

But it didn't mean he was getting off that easily.

"But you're no mage," she deadpanned. Alassane scowled annoyed. Yes, good old Alassane was back.

"It is not just mages who are capable of using magic, you know," he said gruffly.

"I know that," Selissa said, rolling her eyes. "Demon, angels and other magical creatures do too. And sorcerers. Are you a sorcerer, Alassane?"

Alassane sent her a look that would have frightened even a demon lord. Sorcerers might have been human magic practitioners like mages, but that didn't mean there wasn't an enormous difference.

While mages prided themselves on studying magic and using it correctly, sorcerers were often self-taught and known to perform dangerous experiments. And often it was quite dark magic they practiced.

And while mages were respected and admired, sorcerers were treated with contempt or downright feared.

Despite her dreary mood, Selissa felt a touch of spiteful glee from the way the insult got under Alassane's skin.

"Shut up, woman," he said and walked on. Selissa checked a point for her on her mental scoreboard before running to catch up with him.

"Where are we going, anyway? You haven't told me where this temple is." She paused for a moment. "Actually, you never seem to tell me where we're going. You should consider breaking that habit."

Alassane snorted. "I'll buy a leash in the next town. Then you won't get lost."

Selissa grimaced. "Just tell me, will you?"

Alassane let out a sigh. "It's in the western Ver'dohna, not far from the Sinarian border."

Selissa stopped dead in her tracks. "Are you crazy?" she said incredulously. "We're going to Ver'dohna? For the love of Shi'laran, they're going to slaughter us the moment they find out we're Sinarian!"

Ver'dohnians weren't known for their compassion. Selissa had heard horror stories from Ver'dohnian refugees who had been forced to flee their own country. And Ver'dohna and Sinaria had always despised each other. Even before the war Sinarians hadn't been welcome. And now, they would be killed on sight.

"That is why they're not going to know," Alassane said calmly, unaffected by her concerns. He stopped walking and looked around thoughtfully.

"This place will do," he muttered to himself. Selissa watched him with confusion as he dropped his bag to the ground.

"While I'm not planning on announcing our presence once we enter enemy territory, you seem to find trouble no matter where you go. You should be prepared," Alassane said. "So from today on, you're starting your training."

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# Chapter 19

"My . . . training?" Selissa asked slowly.

"Yes. Training. You might have heard of the concept," Alassane said impatiently.

Selissa's eye twitched. "And who, might I ask, would be training me?" Of course, she already knew the answer to that question, but she prayed that, by some incredible stroke of luck, she was wrong.

"Who do you think?" Alassane asked, not at all amused with her pretended ignorance.

Suddenly facing a dozen Demios didn't seem so bad. Dying a horrible and painful death sounded far more pleasant than training sessions with Alassane.

Possibly she was being a tad melodramatic, but Selissa was feeling rather strongly about the whole idea.

"Why are you going to train me?" she asked. "You didn't even win our sparring match back at the temple."

Alassane scoffed at her. "And who almost got the life beaten out of her when the demon spawn appeared?"

Selissa frowned. He was right. Even if she was talented with a sword, she hadn't stood a chance against Ardeth.

Swallowing her pride, she nodded. "What are you going to teach me?" she said, admitting defeat. She was never going to hear the end of this.

Alassane refrained from making any comments on her surrender and went straight to the point.

"You're clearly strongest in hand-to-hand combat and sword fight, so we will start with polishing your skills there," he said thoughtfully. "At least what I saw of your fight with the demon spawn proved that you can throw quite a punch."

He smiled at the last comment and Selissa cocked her head, blinking with something akin to shock. That had to be the closest she had ever come to being praised by Alassane.

But he didn't give her time to bask in his almost-compliment. He shed the heavy coat and the scarf he usually wore and walked away from her.

"Let's start with unarmed combat. This should be enough space for that," he said as he turned to face her.

Selissa placed her pack on the ground and removed the sheathed swords from her back. As she put down the swords next to her pack, she took a moment to study Alassane.

He definitely didn't look like someone who would be a threat in an unarmed fight. Without his coat he looked even thinner than usual. His sunken cheeks had his skin stretched tautly over his skull, and his tall, sinewy frame looked like it might break in two if you hit him. Alassane was nothing more than skin, bones and sarcasm.

But if there was one thing she had learned in the past few weeks, it was that appearances could be deceiving. She would not underestimate him this time around.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked when he did nothing but watch her.

"Attacking me would be a good start," Alassane said dryly.

Selissa clenched her teeth. She knew very well that he was only trying to rile her up. The worst thing was that it was working.

But she refused to let him get to her. She clenched her fists and lunged at him, aiming for his face.

She was rewarded with a kick in the stomach, which sent her toppling backwards. Unable to regain her footing, she hit the ground heavily.

"Just because your opponent is unarmed doesn't mean you can just leave yourself completely open, girl," Alassane said as she rolled to her feet. "Try again."

Sneering, she went for his side this time. Again she was sent tumbling to the ground.

"You have to do better than that," he said, not even bothering to comment further on her lack of success.

The embarrassing routine repeated itself until Selissa was practically spitting nails. She was beginning to think he simply enjoyed humiliating her. She was not learning anything, if he didn't tell her how to improve.

'Calm yourself.' Selissa froze, barely daring to breathe while she wondered if she had imagined the whisper.

'Face him, move your left foot back, and relax your stance.'

She barely noticed what she was doing as her body slid into the attack stance almost on its own. It was like she could see in her mind exactly what she was supposed to do. She relaxed her body and tested the improved balance of the stance.

Selissa frowned. This was not a stance she was used to, but still it felt comfortable and familiar.

The voice sounded again, but this time so low it almost blended with her own thoughts, 'Raise your hands to your face and keep your elbows close to your body.'

For some reason she trusted it. She knew she should be scared, terrified of how she was hearing voices in her head, but somehow it made her feel safe. She couldn't explain why, but still she raised her arms before her. She could feel energy pulsing through her body and suddenly she felt more confident.

Holding her stance she pushed off the ground and ran towards Alassane. Her greater balance gave her a faster start and Alassane had to throw himself to the side to avoid the incoming punch.

He grabbed hold of her arm and used his leverage to fling her away. Selissa stumbled briefly, but managed to regain her balance.

"Better," Alassane said, caught off guard by her sudden change in technique. "But that doesn't say much, of course."

Selissa knew it was what he aimed for, but she still felt her temper flare. Sliding back into position, she considered her next move.

'Strike from his blind angle.' Her body moved on its own, and somehow she didn't even need to take the time to locate the right angle. In her mind, something had already analyzed Alassane's stance and its weak spots.

Instead of running directly at Alassane, she aimed slightly to his left. Just as she came up on the side of him, she turned and sent a punch towards his jaw.

He didn't have time to turn towards her before he was sent sprawling to the ground.

While he was quick to get back on his feet, Alassane looked visibly surprised.

Selissa couldn't help the rush of victory she felt. Not giving him too much time to recover, she charged at him again. But Alassane was already getting over his surprise and adjusting, and he quickly dodged the incoming attack.

Her attempts at getting into his blind spot also failed as he now moved around too fast to allow her to get behind him. However, spoiling her attempts also prevented him from getting a proper hit in himself.

Going by instincts she didn't know she had, she swirled around trying to get him to lower his guard.

'Kick him in the back of the knee.' By now she didn't even question why she was hearing the voice, she just went along with its instructions without hesitation. She sent a kick flying to the backside of Alassane's knee and his leg disappeared from under him.

He rolled to the side as soon as he hit the ground to get out of her reach. In a matter of seconds he was standing once again, his trademark smirk on his face.

"You still have to do better than that," Alassane said. Selissa clenched and unclenched her fists to calm herself.

She could still feel the presence of the voice in her head, but that wasn't all. She could feel a strange energy flowing through her. Like cool water filling her veins and flowing through every nerve in her body.

'Use it.'

It was as if her body weighed nothing. Her legs carried her with unfamiliar speed and before she knew it she was in front of Alassane.

He dodged in the nick of time and Selissa avoided his returning kick with ease.

Kicks and blows flew through the air, and Alassane and Selissa danced around each other. Every once in a while one of them would get a hit in and send the other stumbling back, but just as soon they would have to avoid the next blow sent their way.

Selissa felt the energy pulse through her veins, begging to be released. Both she and Alassane were now breathing heavily, but somehow she didn't feel tired.

"Come on, little girl," she heard him say. She no longer thought about how she moved. It was like she had always fought like this. She faintly heard Alassane taunt her again, telling her to get serious and hit him.

She let the energy flow freely. Let it flow through her arms and into her fingertips. With a single punch she released it all.

The only thing she registered next was a blinding white light as Alassane was sent flying into a tree.

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# Chapter 20

Selissa splashed her face with water in an attempt to calm down. She shuddered as the cool water hit her skin and ran down her face and neck.

She had fled Alassane's presence immediately after the incident and had come across a large lake where she had collapsed. Confusion, shock and fear raced through her, and she couldn't face him right now.

She looked at her hands, dripping with water. The strong white glow had faded away now, leaving no traces of the powerful magic that had coursed through them only moments before.

Fear clawed at her throat. She couldn't breathe. Her heart was hammering so hard she thought it might burst right out of her chest.

She gave up trying to hold herself up and slumped against the grass.

All this time she had wondered what the Demios was. What Alassane was. But she had never stopped to wonder what she was.

Selissa looked at her hands again. They were trembling.

She shouldn't have been able to do that. Never before had she showed any magical ability. Why now?

By now her entire body was shaking. Quiet sobs raked through her body and she felt hot tears run down her face.

She couldn't remember the last time she cried.

All the fear and frustration she had felt ever since she first met Alassane suddenly overwhelmed her and she wanted to scream. But despite her tears, not a sound crossed her lips.

Selissa didn't know how long she was lying there, but she was vaguely aware of the sun beginning to set.

The trembling had stopped, but tears still ran down her cheeks and into the already wet grass.

"Who are you?" she whispered in the air. Silence was all that answered her.

ℓ

Darkness had fallen over the lake and her body was chilled from lying on the ground. Selissa slowly pushed herself up.

The tears had long since dried on her face and she leaned over the water to inspect herself.

Her face was pale as death, and her eyes were red rimmed. With her silver eyes on top of this, she looked like a ghost.

Sighing, she brushed a tangled lock of hair away from her face. She was just about to get up when a strange sound made her freeze.

She sat completely still and listened intently. It was faint, but Selissa was sure she hadn't imagined it.

The sound rose slightly and she could now hear it clearly.

It sounded like someone was singing. It was a sad, melancholic song without words.

Against her will, Selissa felt herself rise from the grass. She felt the song draw her in, and she slowly moved towards the place it was coming from.

She had only taken a few steps when someone grabbed her arm and caused her to stop dead in her tracks.

"Don't." She turned her head to see Alassane's eyes burning into hers. The warning look in them broke her from her trance-like state.

"What is that?" she asked quietly. The song continued, beautiful and eerie at the same time.

"Trouble," Alassane said, just as softly. Whoever was singing, it was clear he didn't want them to hear them.

He stood completely still, his hand still gripping Selissa's arm. Every muscle in his body was tense, and he was staring into the air in the direction of the sound.

Selissa watched him silently, barely daring to breathe. It surprised her to see that, except from a few tears in his clothes, he appeared completely unharmed from the blast he had taken earlier.

Suddenly the singing stopped. And with it, every other sound of the forest. Complete silence fell over them.

The hand that was holding her arm tightened its grip almost painfully. "We have to get away from here . . . Now," Alassane said. Selissa felt a lump forming in her throat at his urgent tone. No matter what the song was, it was bad. It had to be, for Alassane to be acting this way.

Despite her aversion to fleeing she didn't hesitate to follow when Alassane set into a sprint.

The only sound was the sound of their footsteps, muted by the grass, echoing through the silence as they ran. Nothing made it seem like they were being followed, but Selissa wasn't fooled. Though she could neither hear them nor see them, she could feel the aura of dread surrounding her. The exact same feeling as when she had first met Ardeth.

Adrenaline, and something else she only faintly recognized, surged through her body.

She heard something move to her left and almost stopped to see what it was. Alassane, however, was not slowing down and Selissa forced herself to keep going.

More movements. She tensed as she realized it was coming from both sides. There was more than one.

'Behind you.' She didn't hesitate. She swirled around, just as the first attacker hurled themselves at her. The kick she sent flying hit the stranger in the stomach and sent them sailing through the air.

She heard Alassane stop a few yards behind her. Her breathing was heavy, but somehow she didn't feel tired.

Energy was coursing through her. The same energy she had felt just before she sent Alassane flying. But instead of rejecting it, Selissa put away her fears and embraced it.

Two shapes slowly closed in on them, like wolves circling their prey.

"My my, it seems Ardeth was right," a low voice said. Selissa couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. "She's a feisty one."

"Just makes it more fun," answered another, definitely female, voice. The one who had been singing.

The woman stepped out of the shadows, the moonlight illuminating her face.

It was a young woman, probably still in her late teens. She was not that tall and slenderly built, giving her the appearance of being even younger than she was. Short blonde hair hung into her eyes, but did nothing to disguise the cold look in them.

The black tattoo under her left eye confirmed what Selissa already knew. She was a Demios. And so was her partner, most likely.

As if on cue, the other stepped forward and revealed his face. Like his partner, he was not all that tall, but he had a strong build. His brown hair was shaggy and had a reddish tint to it. There was a smile on his face, but there was no warmth in it.

Unlike Ardeth, and despite the woman's words, there was no amusement emitting from those two, only cold ruthlessness. Somehow, Selissa didn't know what was worse.

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# Chapter 21

Selissa desperately wished she had her swords with her. They might not have helped her much, but at least it would have been a comfort to not be utterly helpless.

She backed up slowly, until she felt her back hit Alassane's. She turned her head slightly to look at him out of the corner of her eye, but didn't dare turn away from the two Demios who were watching them like predators waiting to pounce.

"Now would be a good time to pull out that little trick you used to scare off the last one," she said, pitching her voice so only he could hear it.

Alassane shook his head, barely noticeable. "He was alone and unprepared. It won't be enough this time," he said in the same low tone.

"Now, isn't that lovely?" Selissa muttered. Despite her best efforts at being sarcastic, her voice came out a bit shaky. She turned her attention back to the issue at hand.

The man was slowly inching closer while the woman hadn't moved at all. Selissa saw him look over his shoulder at his partner and give her a brief nod. Then the predator pounced.

ℓ

Selissa immediately jumped away from Alassane to avoid the hit. Only too late did she realize that she hadn't been the target.

The man rammed into Alassane and knocked him to the ground. Before Selissa could even make a move to help him, she was knocked off her feet by a blow to the side of her head.

The world spun before her eyes for a short moment before she was able to see clearly again. She staggered to her feet and looked up to find the blonde woman watching her calmly. How she had reached her so fast, Selissa didn't know, but thinking back on the surreal way Ardeth had moved, maybe she shouldn't be surprised.

The Demios made no move to attack her, so Selissa watched her warily, trying to decide on a plan of action.

She could take her on alone or go help Alassane. Out of the corner of her eye she saw bright blue flames shooting past her and decided that Alassane would probably be okay.

Turning her attention back to her opponent, Selissa tried to figure out her next move. The girl had to be slightly younger than herself, and she knew she had the physical advantage as she was both taller and stronger. But she was also unarmed, and she had no idea what this Demios's ability was.

She could almost hear Master Teren'thil voice instructing her. "Never charge into a situation before you know all the details."

Selissa turned around abruptly and started running towards Alassane. She had to force the Demios into revealing her abilities before she made a move. The best way to do that was to keep her distance for now.

But she had only made a few steps before her path was blocked by scarlet flames shooting up in front of her.

"What the--" Selissa exclaimed in shock, barely able to stop herself before tumbling head first into the ten feet tall flames. They were so close she could feel the heat licking against her skin and she jerked back to avoid getting burnt.

Was this another one of Alassane's magic tricks? No, she thought. His flames were blue.

So the Demios girl could control fire. Selissa swirled around to face her once again, only to find her gone.

Biting back several phrases that a girl who grew up in a temple shouldn't even know, Selissa surveyed the area around her.

There was no sign of the blonde woman, and the flames blocked her view of where Alassane and the other man had to be fighting.

She felt sweat run down the back of her neck. She wasn't sure if it was the heat from the enormous flames or just pure fear.

The Demios had to be here somewhere, watching her.

Suddenly Selissa felt very uneasy about being separated from Alassane. She might need the backup soon.

The flame wall blocked the entire path to the east, the area around it covered by dense woodland. Somehow the fire didn't catch on to it, but she would have to wonder about that later. First she would have to get around it.

She started running in the opposite direction to find a way around the clutches of trees and bushes blocking her way. She didn't get far.

This time, the wall of flames didn't just cut off her path. The flames roared to life all around her, forming an infernal circle of hissing fire.

Selissa looked around frantically, but there was no gap in the wall. She was trapped.

Anger and desperation flooded her. "Come out, you coward!" she yelled. "Come out and fight instead of hiding behind your tricks!"

Someone laughed. It was a cold and joyless sound.

Selissa spun around trying to locate the source, but there was nothing but fiery, red flames all around her.

"Who's hiding?" a voice said. "You're just not looking."

It was coming from somewhere to her left. Selissa turned around, but still found nothing but fire. She was just about to yell out again when she saw it.

A face in the fire . . . No, a face made of fire.

The flames twisted and danced and formed the shape of a woman. The Demios.

Lips of fire stretched into a sadistic grin as the fire woman took in Selissa's shocked expression. "Cat got your tongue? You were breathing fire before, weren't you?" she laughed. Selissa gritted her teeth in frustration. She had no idea what to do, so she opted for stalling.

"Well, aren't you a funny one?" she shot back.

The smile immediately disappeared. "Not really," the Demios said calmly. There was only deadly seriousness in her voice now. "And I'm not here to play. Let's end this."

Selissa watched as the figure raised her blazing arm, and suddenly the flames started twisting violently. Several shapes started forming in the fire. All around her, flaming wolf-like beasts took shape. Hideous, snarling faces stared at her and long clawed paws cut into the ground.

Selissa backed away in horror, just as the flaming shape of the Demios raised her arm towards her. On their mistress's cue, all of the flaming beasts shot out of the fire and attacked.

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# Chapter 22

There was fire everywhere.

Selissa screamed in pain as flames burned every inch of her skin. She stumbled back, swiping uselessly at the flaming beasts. The more she tried to push them away, the harder they came at her.

Falling to her knees, she tried to cover her head with her arms, but the fire surrounded her. It felt like the flames were trying to devour her and there was nothing she could do. The only thing she could focus on was the sensation of being burned alive.

'This isn't real.' A tiny bit of hope flared to life at the sound of the voice and Selissa clung to it desperately.

"Help me," she whispered. The pain from the burns was overwhelming, but she forced herself to concentrate on the voice.

Her pleading did not go unanswered. She felt her veins pulse with energy and her body filling with power. It spread underneath her skin and eased the pain from the burning.

'Fight fire with fire.' This was the same power she had recklessly let loose on Alassane. But Selissa realized that, in this moment, she knew how to use it. Allowing this unfamiliar instinct to take over, she forced the energy into her palms.

She thrust out her arms, blasting away the nearest beast. It exploded in a shower of sparks, before vanishing completely.

Selissa wasted no time and got to her feet. Another surge of energy was sent flying towards the next beast and with a roar of flames it disappeared. The other blazing creatures followed their comrade as they too got blasted into oblivion.

After ridding herself of her assailants, she looked towards the flame wall. The Demios was watching her appraisingly.

"So you do know how to use Cadeyrn's powers," she said slowly.

Despite her mind screaming at her to attack and not hesitate, the words made Selissa pause and she watched the woman warily.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Cadeyrn's power? How could it be an archangel's power she was using?

"Ardeth was right. You really don't know anything," the woman said incredulously.

Something inside her snapped. "No, I don't, because no one finds it necessary to tell me anything!" Selissa snarled, momentarily forgetting that the woman in front of her was trying to kill her. "So why don't you tell me? What is my connection to Cadeyrn?"

The Demios scoffed. "You really can't figure it out on your own?" she said mockingly. "And here I thought Cadeyrn would at least have chosen a clever host." She gestured towards the flames and the entire flame wall started moving.

"Host? What are you talking about?" Selissa asked as she watched the contorting flames warily. They were slowly twisting into another shape, and soon a huge flaming snake raised its head above them.

"Since you know his name, I assume you know the story about what happened to him?" the Demios asked as the fire disappeared from her skin and revealed her real shape. The snake was circling its enormous, blazing body around her, ready to strike.

Selissa discreetly took a step back. The flaming wall had been consumed by the snake and she was no longer surrounded by it. She looked around for any sign of Alassane while she answered the woman. "He sacrificed himself to seal away the demon Azarial."

Suddenly the flames flared. "Don't you dare say his name!" the woman screeched. The fire snake reared its head and hissed silently, responding to its mistress's anger. Selissa took a hasty step back, eyes never leaving the enormous, flaming creature.

"Let me ask you something . . . Do you know what happened after the angels performed the ritual?" the Demios asked scornfully. "What Cadeyrn did to secure the strength of the seal?"

Selissa hesitated to answer. This woman was clearly unstable. "No?"

A chuckle escaped the Demios. "He sealed himself away on earth, so he could continue to power the seal. He sealed himself away in a human." She said the word as if they burned her throat.

Selissa froze. Was she really saying what she thought she was?

She didn't have time to dwell on it as the snake chose that moment to strike.

She barely got out of the way in time as it lunged for her. Missing its target, the snake crashed headfirst into the ground and dissipated.

For a brief, relieved moment Selissa thought it was gone. Clearly, she was wrong.

Flames started to coil themselves around her. The snake wrapped itself around her like a rope. She cried out in pain as it burned through her skin.

'It isn't real.' She tried to listen to the voice, but this pain felt very real.

She threw herself through the fire, biting back a scream as it burned everywhere. Her entire body was covered in burns and blisters and her legs collapsed under her.

"Why don't you just give up?" The scorn in the Demios's voice was clear.

Selissa heard the crackling of flames above. She desperately wanted to move, but her body wouldn't cooperate. She looked up to see the snake rushing towards her . . . only to disintegrate into thin air, mere inches before it collided with her.

She heard someone scream. And this time it wasn't her.

To her surprise, Selissa realized the pain had disappeared. She sat upright and looked down at herself. No burns on her skin. Her clothes weren't burned, either.

"Aiken, I thought you were going to take care of him!" she heard the Demios woman shrieking.

Selissa looked up in confusion to see Alassane standing nearby, surrounded by blue flames. The blonde woman had several singed hairs and was glaring daggers at her partner, who Selissa assumed had to be Aiken.

"Well, then don't play around, Nadesha!" Aiken yelled back. "You could have taken the girl down long ago!" Selissa could see he was badly wounded. Blood was running down his face, and he appeared to be limping.

"Why don't you two stop bickering and get lost before I stop playing nice?" Alassane said as he summoned up a handful of blue fire. Nadesha glared at him, before grabbing Aiken by the arm.

Alassane sent the flames sailing towards them, and she made a hissing sound, before she and Aiken took off into the woods.

Alassane watched them disappear between the trees. He didn't seem to care that they got away that easily because he merely scoffed and turned away. To Selissa's surprise he went to sit down on the ground beside her, sighing deeply.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he looked at her. She hesitated, asking herself the same question.

"Somehow I am," she said slowly. "I could have sworn I got burned to a crisp."

"It was just an illusion," Alassane said and Selissa stared at him in disbelief.

"An illusion?" she said. "How could it be an illusion? I could feel the heat from the flames. And I know the pain was real."

"It was all in your mind," he said. "If your mind tells you it's real, it's going to feel real."

Selissa stared at her hands. Had she just been flailing around, blasting away at figments of her imagination?

"So the illusion broke when you attacked Nadesha?" she asked slowly. She still had a hard time believing none of it had actually happened.

"Yes," Alassane said and nodded. "The reason she had Aiken attack me was because she couldn't uphold the illusion if she had to defend herself against outsiders."

"I see." As the panic slowly left her mind, Selissa remembered something. She looked up at Alassane and held his eyes.

"We need to talk."

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# Chapter 23

Alassane didn't even blink. "What did she say to you?"

Selissa didn't skip a beat. "Something you should have told me."

He pushed himself off the ground and looked down at her. "Let's go back first." Even as he was speaking, he was walking away.

Angrily, Selissa got to her feet and ran after him. "I'm not going to let you wave me off this time!" she said. She had accepted him keeping secrets for way too long. Alassane stopped and looked at her.

"I won't. I promise," he said. He sounded so honest that Selissa's anger almost subsided. "But we will talk back at the camp. If we do it here, you're probably going to regret not having your swords with you to skewer me with."

For some reason, he sounded deadly serious about that last comment.

ℓ

The silence was heavy in the air as they walked back. Selissa slid her hands over her arms absentmindedly, still expecting to feel burnt skin underneath her fingers.

Catching herself in the act, she let her hands drop by her sides and stared emptily into the air. She tried to calm her racing thoughts, but to no avail.

He sealed himself away on earth. The words echoed in her mind, taunting her. She knew what they meant, but she still couldn't accept the implication behind them. He sealed himself away in a human.

The night air suddenly felt very cold, and she hugged her arms around her body.

In a human . . . She wanted to cry and shake her head in denial, but she refused to be that childish.

No matter how much she wanted to deny it, she knew it was true. All the pieces of the puzzle suddenly fit. How she had not seen it before, she didn't know.

She had not noticed Alassane stopping and nearly barged into him. Looking around, she realized they had reached their small campsite.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts before letting herself drop to the ground next to her pack. Absentmindedly she traced her fingers over her sheathed swords, relishing in the feeling of leather against her skin.

"What exactly did that girl tell you?" Alassane had sat down in front of her, but she didn't look up at him.

She continued to slowly drag her fingers down the worn leather of the sheath. "She told me about the seal Cadeyrn made." The embroidering was old and nearly faded away, but Selissa still traced each line carefully. "She told me he sealed himself away. In a human vessel."

Alassane was silent for a while, but she still didn't look up at him. Right now she felt numb. It felt like every nerve and muscle in her body was heavily sedated and her mind was fussy, but at least she was calm. She feared that if she looked at him, she would lose it.

"It's true, isn't it?" she asked, her voice void of emotion.

He was silent only for a moment before answering. "It's true."

His admission somehow triggered the latent anger the numbness had suppressed. Selissa looked up at him, ice cold fury glinting in her silver eyes.

"So that's what I am?" she said, her words freezing as they passed her lips. "A vessel?"

Dark eyes met hers, and the resigned look in them might have made her hesitate if anger hadn't been burning through every inch of her body like a fire.

"To ensure that the seal was kept intact, Cadeyrn's powers had to reside on earth. Close to the seal itself," Alassane said quietly. "Ever since the creation of the seal, he has chosen a number of human hosts."

"Like me," Selissa said. Anger fueled her and she felt the need to move. To do something. She stood up and started pacing restlessly.

"So that is why they want me?" she asked. "Because I have the power of an archangel inside me?"

"Yes," Alassane said, like it was that simple. He remained seated and watched her pacing in silence.

"Why?" she said, more to herself than to Alassane. "What do they need it for?"

Then she remembered something. "You said . . ." She hesitated and finally stopped pacing. "You said that they planned to complete a ritual that had failed before."

She stared at him, trying to put the pieces together. "And they need Cadeyrn's power for that."

Suddenly it hit her. Flashes of memories shut through her mind. The bloodied symbol on the temple floor. Serendia telling them about a demon. Azarial.

Her hands were shaking. "They want to bring back Azarial." She felt nauseated, but it was the only thing that made sense. "They want to summon a demon lord."

She felt her legs grow weak and she allowed herself to sink down in the grass. "Why?" was the only thing she managed to ask.

"They were shunned by humans for their demonic abilities. They have never had anything important to them, so all they seek is power. And they believe he will grant them that power as a reward for their loyalty," Alassane said, but even he sounded like he didn't truly understand the words leaving his mouth.

"And they tried this before?" she asked, willing her voice not to waver.

"Twice, to my knowledge. Maybe more," he said. "Both times it failed."

To my knowledge. Selissa let out a bitter chuckle. He knew all of this and kept her in the dark. And still she followed him like a trusting dog. "What is your role in all of this?" she asked. She kept her voice quiet, but there was a hint of steel to her words.

Alassane hesitated. "My role is to keep you safe," he said simply.

She let out another joyless chuckle. It seemed she wasn't getting anything better than that.

"I keep hearing this voice in my head . . . His voice," she whispered. Alassane didn't ask who she meant. He didn't need to.

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# Chapter 24

In the following days, Alassane tried to act like nothing had changed, but it still felt like an invisible wall had appeared between them.

They talked and argued as usual, but somehow it felt like there was nothing behind the words. They were empty. Whatever companionable feelings she might have had for him before had gone numb. She could forgive, but she couldn't forget. All the things he had kept from her were a constant reminder in the back of her mind of how she couldn't trust him.

They continued their journey towards the abandoned temple, occasionally stopping to rest at whatever small town they passed through.

As they came closer to the border, the war showed its obvious signs.

On every street, orphans were begging in the streets. In every town you could see burned down houses. People kept their heads down and didn't dare look anyone in the eye as they passed.

Ragged clothes and starving people showed just how much people suffered from the war.

Selissa and Alassane were both dressed in similar ragged cloaks. A pair of strange travelers in this area was already enough to cause suspicion. They had to blend in as much as possible.

But despite their best efforts, Selissa could still feel eyes following them as they made their way through the various towns and settlements. Strangers were not welcome here. To these people, strangers meant nothing but pain and misery.

It took them a week to arrive at the border crossing. By now, Ver'dohnian guards patrolling in every town was a familiar sight, and Selissa felt the paranoia set in. She felt her shoulders grow tense every time they passed a guard, fearing exposure.

If they were discovered while crossing, they would be killed on the spot. She had never been to Ver'dohna before, and with good reason.

"How do we get across the border?" she asked Alassane. They were currently sitting at a table in a rundown tavern. The place they were in was closer to a military encampment than an actual town. It was right at the border and heavily guarded by Ver'dohnian military.

Alassane leaned closer to her to ensure that no one else heard their conversation. "We need to find out who's on guard duty tonight," he said softly. "That way we can deal with them before we cross the border."

Selissa nodded. To Alassane, 'deal with' roughly meant 'knock out and throw in a dumpster'. "How do we find out who's going to be on duty?" she asked.

Alassane subtly tilted his head towards a man sitting at the bar. He was clad in armor and a sheathed sword stood leaned against the counter next to him. "That guy seems drunk enough to accidentally spill something. Go get him."

Selissa frowned. "How? He may be drunk, but he's not going to just tell me if I walk right up and ask."

Alassane scoffed. "You're a woman, aren't you? And even with those creepy eyes, you're not that bad-looking. Use it."

"You want me to flirt with him?" Selissa said incredulously, raising an eyebrow at him. That hadn't exactly been her plan.

"You're right. You're probably too masculine for that to work," Alassane said. He was promptly rewarded with a smack to the back of his head.

Selissa stood up defiantly, and with one last look at Alassane she strutted towards the inebriated soldier at the bar.

Subtly, she loosened the first few buttons on her shirt before sitting down on the stool next to him. She asked the barmaid for a drink, deliberately leaning forward so the man next to her got a good view as her shirt dipped. It was not in vain.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his eyes flicker to her chest before quickly returning to her face when he noticed he was staring.

She turned to face him, a pleasant smile on her face. "Hello. My name's Selissa." She offered her hand to him, thankfully remembering Ver'dohnian customs. The man seemed shocked by her addressing him, but quickly recovered and shook her hand.

"I'm Adriel," he said. The slight slur in his voice was the only thing revealing that he had been drinking.

Selissa smiled radiantly at him. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, making sure to be the very picture of friendliness. "I'm just in the town for a couple of days. I'm on my way to visit my brother."

The lie slipped out effortlessly, and Adriel seemed to buy it. He returned her smile tentatively. "I hope you're enjoying your stay, though there's not much to do here," he said.

Selissa cheered inwardly at how she had managed to get a conversation going. "You're part of the military, aren't you? That must be such a dangerous occupation!" she said, false admiration in her voice. Border control . . . Dangerous indeed.

But it did the trick. Adriel relaxed and his chest swelled a bit at her flattery. "Yeah, it can be, but I can handle it," he said proudly.

Selissa suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. This was almost too easy.

"I believe that," she said and placed her hand on his arm. "What kind of work do you do here?"

He took a swig of his drink. "It's our job to secure the border. To make sure no damn Sinarian scum gets into our country."

Her eye twitched. So Sinarians were scum. We're not the ones destroying the homes of our own people, she thought annoyed. She chose not to point out how he and his fellow soldiers were currently occupying Sinarian soil with their patrols, but it was an effort not to clench her teeth while she went on.

"Really? Well, you're probably going to be on duty tonight, aren't you?" Selissa asked innocently. She leaned forward and stared intently into his eyes. She ignored his startled jump when saw her eyes clearly. "Such a shame. I was looking forward to getting to know you better."

Adriel eyes flickered unsurely. "No no, I'm free tonight!" he said quickly.

Selissa fluttered her eyes, feigning confusion. "But what if they need a replacement for tonight? Shouldn't you be available then?" she asked.

"Nah, I just saw Dion and Ethan leaving the 3rd division's barracks. They're going to be on duty all night," he said eagerly. Selissa smiled, hoping he didn't notice the predatory glint in her eyes.

"Well, that's great. I'll have to go take care of something first, but how about we meet here in an hour?" she asked sweetly. Adriel nodded enthusiastically as she slid out of her seat. She shot him one last smile before disappearing out the door.

Alassane was waiting for her outside, an amused smirk on his face. "You seem to have done that before," he said suggestively.

Selissa merely rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to comment on that," she said. If only he knew. Turning serious, she looked at him. "Two soldiers named Dion and Ethan are going to take the next shift."

"Good job," he said. "I will take care of them. Meet me near the border in an hour."

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# Chapter 25

Crossing the border went smoothly. The unfortunate guards were now lying unconscious in a back alley, and no one else noticed them as they slipped past the invisible line that separated Sinaria and Ver'dohna.

Having entered enemy land definitely didn't help Selissa's growing paranoia. Where the people of Sinaria devoted themselves to the angels and believed in their protection, Ver'dohna believed only in power. Their military power was massive, and it showed.

In every town they passed through, they found soldiers patrolling. Until now they had avoided suspicion, but Selissa still held her breath every time they had to pass by the city guards. There was nothing revealing them to be Sinarians, and the soldiers had no reason to suspect them of anything, but the logic of that didn't calm her down.

They would mostly camp out in the forests to avoid staying in populated areas for too long. The dense woodland provided a good cover against prying eyes.

Hidden by the trees, they had set up camp in a small clearing. Selissa was polishing her swords after yet another training session. After discovering she possessed the powers of an archangel, she had trained fervently to try to control them. But no matter what she did she couldn't make them appear at will.

How could she learn to control them if they only appeared when she was angry or scared?

Selissa pushed all her frustration into polishing the already sparkling sword. Her movements bordered on aggressive, and it was no surprise Alassane noticed.

"It doesn't help taking it out on the sword, you know," he said. He was lying in the grass, a cigarette between his lips, idly watching the smoke rise above him.

Selissa put down the sword. "Sorry," she muttered. "I'm just restless."

"Why are you brooding?" Alassane asked and lazily turned his head to look at her. Hugging her legs to her chest, Selissa rested her head on her knees.

"I'm not sure," she said. "I just don't know anymore."

Alassane watched her silently for a moment. "It's rather pathetic seeing you this meek," he said.

"Shut up or I'll break your skull open with the back of my sword," Selissa answered through gritted teeth.

He gave her a thumbs-up. "Now that's the spirit."

Her lips twitched. She refused to smile at his odd attempt at cheering her up.

Laying down in the grass, Selissa opted for watching the sky instead. It was darkening, and the moon was already peeking through the clouds. A few stars were blinking lazily down at her.

She sighed deeply and watched the clouds flow by. She heard Alassane shift in the grass next to her.

"We will be at Cadeyrn's sanctuary in a few days," he said.

Selissa was just about to answer when she heard faint voices coming from the woods.

She bolted upright, every muscle in her body tense. Alassane was already on his feet, staring intently into the forest.

Selissa stood and walked up to Alassane carefully. The voices were getting closer, revealing there to be more than one person.

Alassane silently motioned for her to follow, and side by side they crept closer to the place the noise was coming from. They knelt down behind a couple of large trees where they had a good view of the clearing in front of them.

Five men were gathered in the clearing. They were all wearing military armor and talking rather loudly amongst themselves.

One of them was holding a young boy by the arm, shaking him roughly. "So what do we have here?" he sneered at the boy. The boy whimpered in pain, but he didn't say a word.

The other men laughed cruelly. "What should we do with this little whelp?" the first one asked the others. Selissa could see the malicious grin on his face.

She leaned closer to get a better view. She watched the man throw the boy to the ground and finally realized what was happening.

The boy was Marked. Half his face was covered by a black tattoo, but unlike the demonic Demios, there was no malice emitting from this child. On the contrary, he was curling up in a ball on the ground, shaking in fear.

One of the men kicked him in the stomach, and he cried out in pain. The others laughed and several of them joined in and started kicked the defenseless boy.

Selissa sneered in fury and she was about to jump out from her hiding place when Alassane grabbed her arm. "It's not your fight," he whispered.

She tore her arm away from him. "Like hell it isn't. I can't just stand by and watch them beat a child!" she hissed at him. She would have charged right at them if Alassane hadn't wrapped his arm around her to restrain her.

He leaned down to speak in her ear. "If you have no choice but to get involved with something that's only going to get us in trouble . . . at least don't just barge in like a fool."

Selissa relaxed slightly. "What are you suggesting?"

She listened intently as he whispered his plan to her. She hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Watching as he disappeared into the shadows of the trees, she waited.

Her stomach lurched at the sight of the poor boy getting beaten, his strangled cries filling the air, but she knew she had to give Alassane time to get in position.

Making sure not to make any noise, Selissa bent down and picked up a rock. Aiming, she threw it with all her strength at the nearest soldier's head.

It hit its target spot on, and the man yelled out in pain and surprise. The others stopped their assault in surprise, and all of them looked around to find the person who threw the rock.

That was Selissa's cue to make her entrance. She stepped out from behind the tree. "You really should fight someone your own size," she said calmly as she stood in front of the men in the clearing. The comment itself was ridiculous as each of the men was twice her size, but they would soon regret underestimating her.

They started laughing at her, and she grinned.

"You're going to fight us?" one of them said mockingly. Selissa just smiled sweetly at him.

"No, I'm not. But he is," she said and pointed behind them.

The soldiers all turned to look in the direction she was pointing, just as two of them fell to the ground, unconscious.

Selissa didn't hesitate to take out two more while they were still distracted, just as Alassane made quick work of the last one.

In less than a minute, all five men were lying scattered on the ground. The boy was looking at them with wide scared eyes.

"Don't look at us like that, boy," Alassane said. "Get going before they wake up."

He didn't need to say that twice. The boy stumbled to his feet and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He stumbled over his own feet before finally disappearing into the shadows of the trees.

Selissa watched the place where he disappeared as Alassane bent down to examine one of the soldiers.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she turned to see him rummaging through the man's bag.

"Looking for something," he said without looking at her. Apparently he found what he was looking for, because he threw something at her. Catching it, Selissa looked at the object curiously.

"What is it?" she asked as she turned the metal badge in her hands. A symbol was carved on the front.

"A Ver'dohnian military badge. They might get useful," Alassane said as he started searching the next soldier. He pulled another badge from that one and placed it in his coat pocket.

"So we can identify ourselves as Ver'dohnian guards?" Selissa asked curiously. No more passing borders illegally it seemed.

"Indeed," Alassane said as he got to his feet. "We have to get moving. It won't be long before they wake up, and they will search all over this place for us when they do. That's what you get for meddling."

Selissa laughed softly before following him back to their camp to pack up their stuff. At least she hadn't gotten beaten up this time.

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# Chapter 26

As Alassane had promised, it only took them two more days to reach their destination.

Selissa felt a wave of anticipation as the first glimpse of the temple walls appeared. She was not sure what she expected to find, but she had a feeling a lot of things would become much clearer as soon as she got past those walls.

As they approached the temple, the gate towered above them. The sanctuary was enormous and must have been a magnificent sight in its days of glory, but centuries of decay had left its mark.

The great stone walls were crumbling and large parts of the roof had caved in. The gardens, which were visible through the ruined walls, were unkempt and overgrown with vines and dying shrubs. The life that must have once filled the place was nothing more than a ghostly memory.

The gate had succumbed to years of deterioration, and they had to cross the fallen rubble to enter the temple halls.

A deep feeling of familiarity spread through Selissa's chest as she passed through the fallen gateway. A feeling of belonging she had never experienced before.

Confusion flickered through her before she realized it wasn't her own feelings she was feeling. 'This is your home, isn't it?' she spoke quietly in her mind. Memories of life bustling through the halls flashed through her mind. Memories that weren't hers either.

"Where do you want to go?" Alassane's voice brought her to the present. She shot him a glance over her shoulder.

"I think . . ." Selissa hesitated, watching the crumbling stone around her. "I think I want to go alone."

She didn't want anyone around. Somehow this seemed too personal. Like visiting a loved one's grave. She didn't know how to explain it, and she doubted he would understand anyway.

She saw him clench his jaw, but consenting to her request with a stiff nod. "If that's what you need," he said reluctantly. Selissa nodded gratefully.

She trailed her fingers along the walls as she walked down one of the many hallways. Dim light was shining through cracks and holes in the ceiling, bathing the corridor in a ghostly light.

It felt like she had known these halls forever. She knew that she wouldn't get lost because somehow she knew this place.

Men and women, clad in white robes, talking and laughing. Beautiful gardens, filled with life.

She closed her eyes and let Cadeyrn's memories overwhelm her. Pictures of a world that was long forgotten filled her mind and with it, a sense of loss so great she felt like crying.

She stepped into a garden that had once been breathtakingly beautiful, but no one had taken care of it in centuries. Everything was covered in long, creeping vines and she had to walk carefully to avoid tripping on the overgrown path.

A statue of an angel was placed in the center of the garden. Both its feet and the platform it was standing on were almost completely covered by the vines that had taken over the garden, but except for that the statue seemed unaffected by the ravages of time.

The twenty foot tall statue towered over her as she approached it. The angel's face was turned towards the sky, his wings spread as if he was about to take to the sky.

Selissa studied the angel's face. Its features were graceful, yet masculine. Long hair appeared to be flowing down his shoulders, covering half of his face.

"Is this what you look like?" she asked the empty garden. Was it a bad sign that she was talking to a voice in her head? Selissa laughed quietly at herself. It probably was.

When she didn't receive an answer, she decided to keep talking. "You have to help me out here. Tell me what I need to do." She hated herself for feeling so lost. For talking to an entity someone had forced on her without her knowledge or permission. "I need your help."

When there still was no answer, she slowly sank to her knees and rested her forehead against the cool stone of the statue. Was coming here just another dead end?

'I'll lead you.' Selissa stiffened in surprise as his voice sounded in her head. Not only had she thought he wasn't going to answer, but this time his voice seemed so much more powerful to her. As clear and as real as if it had come from a person she could see and touch.

"You feel so much closer to me here. As if I know you," she said, smiling without really knowing why.

'You do know me. I'm part of you after all,' he answered, and she could almost picture his face. Not the cold, lifeless stone face of the statue, but the face of a living, breathing being.

She suddenly longed to touch him, to assure herself that he wasn't just an illusion created by her mind as a sign of her rapidly deteriorating sanity. To feel the warmth of life, not just the cool feeling of his presence inside her head.

Suddenly she remembered something Calen had told her many years ago.

Do you have to be able to see something for it to be real? As long as you can feel it in your heart, it's as real as it can be.

She smiled at the memory. She had been just a girl, and she had asked him how he could have such faith in the existence of Shi'laran and the angels, even when he had no proof.

She had not understood his answer then, but now it made sense to her. She couldn't see this archangel, but everything in her made her believe that he was real. That was enough for now.

Slowly, Selissa rose from her kneeling position. She had come here hoping to understand more about Cadeyrn and she already felt like she did. Standing here, in his sanctuary, she could feel his presence so strongly that she wasn't sure if the emotion she was feeling was really her own.

But as she looked up at the statue, she heard a voice that made a chill run down the back of her neck.

"Long time no see, princess." Selissa froze, a lump forming in her throat. For a moment she considered running, but a sudden stubbornness rose in her. She was done running.

Turning around slowly, she faced the intruder.

Ardeth was looking at her with a smile on his face, his back leaned against the stone wall. He looked for all the world like he belonged there.

"Didn't you get enough last time?" Selissa asked tersely. She prayed he didn't remember how it had been Alassane that had beaten him, not her.

The Demios laughed softly. "I'm not here for you this time."

She frowned. "And that will stop you from killing me?" she asked.

Ardeth tilted his head and grinned at her. "It was never my intent to kill you," he said. "They want you alive after all. And I have gotten no orders to go after you, so I will let it go for now."

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# Chapter 27

More than a little confused, Selissa hesitated. "So you're going to leave me alone? Just because you weren't ordered to go after me this time around . . .?" she asked slowly. It didn't make much sense that he would just let her go, when the Demios wanted her so desperately. And what was he even doing here then?

"They're the ones who want you, not me." Ardeth shrugged. "I couldn't care less, to be honest."

It had to be a trick. He was trying to make her believe she was safe from him for now, just so he could make his move.

She backed away slowly, all the while keeping her eyes on him.

Her plan backfired when he noticed her retreating. In seconds he was in front of her.

He grabbed her chin and, with surprising care, lifted her face so she would look at him. Selissa was tall for a woman, but Ardeth's height dwarfed even her. Her head barely reached his chin.

He continued to grin at her as their eyes met. She wanted to jerk away from him, but she found she couldn't bring herself to move. His dark eyes held her in place. They were calm, but still burning with an intensity that made her breath catch. They were standing so close she could count every one of his eyelashes and see every tiny muscle in his face move when he smiled.

He really was beautiful. Frighteningly beautiful.

"Are you afraid of me?" Ardeth asked. His hot breath washed over her face as he spoke and she shivered.

"Yes," she said without hesitation. She knew he would be able to see every lie in her eyes, so she didn't even bother denying it. She was afraid of him. She was downright terrified of him, yet at the same time she found herself fascinated by him.

He watched her thoughtfully, as if he didn't quite know what to make of her.

"I see," he said slowly. He released her chin and took a step back.

Her skin burned where his fingers had touched it, but breathing got a little easier when he stepped away from her.

Selissa took a shaky breath to steady herself. "If you're not here for me," she said slowly. She knew that if he really wasn't going to hurt her, she should just get the hell out of there and put as much distance between herself and him as humanly possible. But no matter how frightening she found him, there was also something about him that made her pause. "Then why are you here?"

His grin widened and Selissa felt the blood freeze in her veins. She had never met anyone who made a smile look so unnerving.

"I had some . . ." Ardeth paused for a moment. "Business to take care of in the area. And I decided to pay this place a visit while I was here."

Selissa shuddered at the way he said the word 'business'. She wondered how many innocent lives were lost every time he had business to take care of.

"Why would you want to come here?" she asked. Her mind was screaming at her to get out while she still could. There was something very disturbing about having an almost normal conversation with someone who might very well randomly decide to kill you.

"I have my reasons," Ardeth said simply. He turned his head to look at the angel statue and a frown crossed his face. It was the first time Selissa had seen him show any sign at displeasure. Somehow it made him seem more normal, more . . . human.

But of course, being human never stopped anyone from becoming deranged killers.

"Your protector hasn't showed yet," he said suddenly. Selissa frowned before she realized he was talking about Alassane.

It was a clear sign of how she was getting slightly too comfortable in this man's presence when she said, "I can take care of myself." She realized how childish that had to sound. If it hadn't been for Alassane, she would have been very dead the last time she faced Ardeth.

"I bet you can." He didn't even sound sarcastic. "And for your own sake, let's hope so."

He turned to look at her and there was some emotion in his dark eyes she couldn't decipher. "I wouldn't trust him after all."

"Trust who? Alassane?" Selissa asked, eyebrows creasing in confusion.

Once again, Ardeth's lips stretched into a grin. "I have to get going, princess," he said. "But I guess I will be seeing you soon."

Just like that, he walked away. Selissa briefly entertained the idea of attacking him while his back was turned. She realized it would likely still end with her dead, and instead she watched him leave silently. Who was he to say who she should or shouldn't trust, anyway?

Frowning at Ardeth's retreating back, Selissa pondered on how she really didn't get him. The first time she had met him, she hadn't even been able to walk away from the encounter by herself. But this time he didn't even seem to care that the Demios wanted her. Or rather, wanted Cadeyrn.

She would give everything she owned, however little that was, to have her life make sense for once.

Shaking her head, Selissa sighed. Lingering would do her no good. She shot the statue of Cadeyrn one last look, before walking back to the place she had left Alassane.

Cadeyrn's presence had faded into a faint echo in the back of her mind, but she could still feel him with her. Everything about this place seemed to enhance her connection with him. She closed her eyes thoughtfully. She could take advantage of that.

She wouldn't let Ardeth's unexpected appearance rattle her. She quickened her pace, excited to tell Alassane what she had decided.

Selissa found him sitting on a pile of rock that had previously been part of the temple roof. He was staring absentmindedly into the air while smoking a badly rolled cigarette. He looked up when he heard her approaching.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" he asked her.

She considered telling him about Ardeth, but decided against it. That was not important.

"I did," she said.

Alassane threw the rest of the cigarette on the ground and put it out with his foot. "Then where do you want to go from here?" he asked her and the question made her smile. For the first time since she had left the place where she grew up she knew what she wanted to do. What her next course of action needed to be.

"I want to stay here," Selissa said. "I want to learn to control Cadeyrn's powers."

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# Chapter 28

The training was intense. The magic an archangel possessed was far more powerful than anything a human body was ever made to withstand. Trying to draw it out was not unlike trying to run against the wind in a hurricane.

Being at his temple helped Selissa connect with Cadeyrn, but the effort she had to put in to use his abilities was still tremendous. She wondered if mages had this much trouble when they first learned to control magic. If so, she didn't envy them.

For the past week, she had trained constantly from sunrise to sunset. The first few days, all she managed was a few, scattered bursts of magic. But now she was able to summon it at will. The problem was that she could only uphold it for short periods of time before running out of energy.

Selissa sat down heavily, gasping for breath after once again trying to keep the magic flowing. Her muscles were burning from the strain of drawing out that much power, and she knew she wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer.

Resting her head in her hands, she tried to remember what she had done while fighting against Nadesha's illusions.

She remembered fear. Fear of dying by the hands of the Demios.

Selissa sighed in defeat. She couldn't use fear to anything.

She looked up when she heard footsteps approaching. Alassane was walking towards her with his hands in his pockets, looking like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Unless you want to kill yourself, cut yourself some slack," he said casually as he stopped in front of her.

"As I am now, I don't stand a chance against them," she said. She closed her eyes in thought. "And I don't have much time, do I? It won't be long before they come here."

Alassane's lips stretched into a frown. "No," he said honestly. "They won't waste their time."

"Then I need to be ready," Selissa said with determination. She couldn't count on Alassane to save her every time. She had to be able to hold her own.

Getting to her feet, she prepared to try again. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She felt the magic flow through her body and tried to ignore the feeling of exhaustion that came with it.

Opening her eyes, Selissa focused on a dead tree on the other side of the yard. She raised her hand, trying to keep it from shaking. A pure white glow surrounded her entire arm.

She took aim and released the energy coursing through her arm. Blinding light rushed through the air and blasted against the tree. The dead roots gave in, and the trunk plummeted to the ground.

Selissa fell to her knees, unable to fight the exhaustion. She breathed heavily while she studied her handiwork.

"At least you can control it now," Alassane commented behind her. "It was rather pathetic watching you work so hard while nothing happened."

She ignored him. "When I fought Nadesha, it didn't exhaust me to use Cadeyrn's power," Selissa said thoughtfully. "Rather it renewed me. Why does it wear me out so fast now?"

Alassane seemed to consider that. "Back then, the power was flowing freely instead of you forcefully drawing it out," he said slowly. "It's the power of an archangel you're using. It's far too powerful to be contained by a human."

She turned to look at him. "What do you mean?"

Alassane sighed. "I mean that, right now, you and Cadeyrn are two separate beings. But he's part of you, and the sooner you accept that, the better. His power needs to be your power before you can reach its full potential."

"I see." Selissa was not quite sure she actually did see, but she was willing to give it a try. She closed her eyes and felt for Cadeyrn's presence inside her. Alassane was right. She could always feel the angel with her. He was part of her, and she needed to stop thinking of him as merely a voice in the back of her mind.

Her body was crying out in exhaustion, but she ignored it and got to her feet. She would not be limited by a human body.

ℓ

For three days Selissa kept on training. It got easier and easier for her to draw out her magic, but she still couldn't keep it up for long at a time.

The yard she used as a training area looked like an immense hurricane had passed through. Trees and pillars laid scattered across the already mostly crumbled temple yard. She was beginning to be able to control the amount of energy she released at a time, but it had required sacrifices.

Selissa stood in the middle of the destruction when she saw Alassane enter the yard.

He had wisely stayed out of sight while she was causing havoc. He only checked in to make sure she hadn't killed herself. Or caused the ceiling to collapse on top of her.

"Looks like you need some new targets," he said as he looked at the fallen trees.

"Are you offering?" Selissa asked. She would definitely not be opposed to that idea.

He glared at her, but chose not to comment. He kicked some rubble out of his way as he crossed the yard and sat down beside her.

"If you keep going this way, you're going to bring the whole damn temple down on us," he scoffed at her.

Selissa opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a huge tremor shaking the earth. She stumbled and would have fallen if Alassane hadn't grabbed her arm.

"That wasn't me, you know," she said shocked. Maybe he was right about the temple coming down on them.

There was another tremor, and she clung to Alassane's arm to keep her balance. "An earthquake?" she asked and looked at him. What she saw in his face gave her the answer.

The look on his face was hard. "No."

That was all he had time to say before the next tremor hit, much more powerful this time, and the ground cracked open.

Confusion turned to horror as Selissa watched the earth being pushed aside and pale, bony arms with rotten skin claw their way out of the ground.

All around them corpses fought their way to the surface. Scrawny, decayed bodies surrounded them, together with the stench of death. Empty, lifeless eyes watched them without emotion.

One of the corpses closest to them staggered forward and Selissa saw a muddied rosary swinging from its neck. Her throat closed up as she realized they were surrounded by the lifeless remains of the sanctuary's former residents.

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# Chapter 29

The stench of rotten flesh was choking. Deformed bodies were slowly moving towards them, and horrible, deranged snarls were erupting from throats where the vocal cords had long since rotten away.

"What is happening?" Selissa asked Alassane, hating her voice for sounding so weak. She stepped closer to him as the lifeless bodies closed in on them. She watched as some of them collapsed to the ground as their decayed limps shattered under them, only to have several others crawling over them in their quest to get closer.

She stood frozen in horror as one of the abominations reached for her with long, bony fingers.

"Don't just stand there!" Alassane shouted as he sent a blast of blue flames towards the corpse. With an inhuman scream, it burned and fell apart, its fingers disintegrating mere inches from her face.

"Are you going to wait for them to rip you apart?" Alassane asked as he summoned up flames until they covered his arms. "Isn't this what you have been training for?"

His voice snapped Selissa out of her terror-induced trance. "I didn't exactly train for this," she screeched. Another corpse stumbled closer to her, and she kicked it in the face. The skull broke right off the neck and the rest of the body fell apart and ended up in a heap on the ground.

Alassane sent a sea of blue fire towards the approaching cadavers and incinerated half the circle that had formed around them.

Distorted screams rose from the crowd of dead bodies, and burning body parts fell to the ground.

Selissa felt relief flood her as she watched them fall, but it was short-lived. Where the others had fallen, twice as many were already crawling from the ground.

"Where are they coming from?" she asked, her voice rising in panic. Alassane gritted his teeth.

"Someone is raising them," he said and blasted another group of corpses away. They had barely hit the ground before more rose to replace them.

"A necromancer?" Selissa said, barely believing this was actually happening. She had heard townspeople speaking about those in hushed voices, but she had never met anyone with such a gruesome power. But then again, she had never been surrounded by living corpses before.

"He must be hiding somewhere nearby," Alassane said, then yelled, "Behind you!"

Selissa swirled around, but she wasn't fast enough. Fleshless fingers grabbed her leg and tried to drag her into the crowd of mindless acolytes. She kicked furiously to get it off, but it only tightened its grip. The bones of dead fingers tore painfully into her skin, and she hissed sharply.

Alassane came to her rescue and kicked it sharply in the ribs. Its frail bones scattered, and the remains flew away from them. But the grip on her leg didn't loosen.

Selissa looked down to see the hand still attached to her leg. Only the hand.

Bending down, she tore at the hand that literally had her in a death grip. The fingers were embedded in her flesh and they tore the skin open when she ripped them off her.

Disgusted, she threw the dead hand away from her. Blood was running down her leg, but she didn't have time to worry about that.

For every one that had fallen, several more had risen. They would be overrun soon if they didn't do something.

Selissa took a deep breath and let energy flow down her arm. She could only pray it would work.

'Let it flow freely,' Cadeyrn's voice sounded in her mind. 'Let it be a part of you.'

Part of her. Selissa let the magic flow through her body, letting it embed itself in every muscle, every nerve. It pumped through her like adrenaline, empowering her body instead of draining it.

Alassane continued to magically slay the corpses, but he couldn't take them down as fast as they appeared.

'You're ready.' That was all the confirmation Selissa needed. The sky illuminated with a blinding white light as she released a huge blast of energy. It tore away at the corpses until there was nothing but the dust of bones left.

The entire area was emptied within seconds. Even the ground was still, with no more dead people deciding to get up from their eternal sleep.

She turned to Alassane to see if he was unharmed, when a voice cut through the air.

"Very impressive." A man stepped out from the shadows. His face was hidden under his cloak, but Selissa felt a flash of recognition. Memories of cloaked men and chanting voices came to mind. Memories of something she used to think was just a dream.

"You have grown powerful since the last time we met." The man came closer, slowly raising a hand to remove his cloak. The black tattoo came as no surprise, but Selissa hadn't expected the deep scars covering the rest of his face. A grotesque pattern of long-since healed wounds marred his skin and made him look only slightly more human than the creatures he had raised. It looked like someone had taken a knife to his face and cut through every inch of skin, until not a single piece was left unmarked.

"Though I hadn't expected you here . . ." The necromancer addressed Alassane this time. "It seems like I'm not the only one with a talent for raising the dead."

Selissa looked from the scarred Demios to Alassane. They knew each other? And what did he mean with the last time he met her?

"What's the matter, Selissa?" the man asked. "Don't you remember me?"

She sneered at him. "How do you know my name?" she asked. She was sure she knew this man, but she didn't know from where.

"So they sealed away your memories together with the archangel's powers," the Demios said thoughtfully, but he didn't sound surprised. "Then I guess I will have to introduce myself all over again."

He stepped closer, all the while watching her with cold, gray eyes. She could feel Alassane stand tensely behind her.

"I'm Ilyan. And I'm--"

"--the leader of the Demios," Selissa finished for him.

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# Chapter 30

The scarred man before her was the leader of the Demios. The leader of the clan that wanted to kill her in order to bring a demon intent on bringing suffering to humanity back to earth. Him being a necromancer was oddly suiting. His bizarre ability fit the darkness of his mind.

Fragments of chaotic memories surged through Selissa's head. She had met this man before and somehow gotten out alive. She could do it again.

Without warning, she flung a blast of magic at him. He didn't have time to move, and the white magic spread like fire across his body.

She watched, expecting him to burn, only to see his body disperse like smoke.

"Did you expect it to be that easy?" Selissa swirled around, trying to locate the voice. It sounded like it was coming from all around her.

"An illusion. That girl Nadesha must be with him," Alassane said.

Another illusion . . . "So we have no way of knowing what's real?" Selissa asked. This was not looking good.

"And no way to know where they're hiding . . ." Alassane added. He was just about to say something more, when the ground started shaking again, this time far harder. Both of them struggled to keep their balance while cracks started appearing all around them.

Suddenly they were everywhere. Rotten bodies dragged themselves from the ground and staggered towards them like mindless minions.

There had to be hundreds of them. They stumbled over each other, not keeping back from ripping each other apart to get past. It didn't seem to lower their numbers, though.

Selissa blasted away at them, but it was like shooting arrows into a crowd. A few might fall, but the rest still kept coming at you.

Alassane's efforts didn't have much effect, either. Blue and white lights flashed through the air, but the amount of corpses coming towards them didn't seem to decrease.

Hands started clawing at them, ripping into flesh. Selissa kicked desperately at them, but nothing hindered them.

"Do you still insist on pretending, even while standing in front of certain death?" Her head shot up at the sound of Ilyan's voice. The Demios leader was standing on top of one part of the roof that hadn't already collapsed.

She ripped a dead arm off her and used it to bash in another corpse's head. She frowned, confused by his comment, until she realized he wasn't talking to her.

Alassane sneered and shot a spell at him, but he merely dispersed like the last time.

"What is he talking about?" Selissa shouted. A mangled body crawled towards her, dragging itself by its arms as its legs had been ripped off. It grabbed her leg, ripping and tearing at the flesh.

She kicked at it furiously to shake it off, but another corpse came up from behind. It grabbed her foot and pulled.

Involuntary, she let out a scream as she lost her balance and was pulled to the ground. She heard Alassane shouting at her, but she was too busy struggling against the hands pulling and ripping at her from all sides.

She tried to summon up the energy to blast them away, but they pinned her arms to the ground.

The more she struggled, the more they clung onto her. They dug into her skin and ripped at her until she felt the blood flow from her wounds like rivers.

The only thing she could think was how she was going to die. She was only faintly aware she was screaming while trashing against the rotten hands holding her down.

Alassane was still shouting, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. The corpse holding down her left arm suddenly burst into blue flames and released her with a strangled sound.

With one free arm, she tried to twist away, but the grip of the others was too strong. She screamed again as she heard the bones in her right leg break. She tried to kick away the ones holding it, but found that she couldn't move it.

Just as she was about to give up, a powerful feeling washed over her. The feeling of massive amounts of magic power being released.

Selissa felt the lifeless bodies holding her down freeze, reacting to the pressure of the magic.

She twisted her neck to look at the source, and her eyes widened at what she saw.

Alassane was standing in the middle of the crowd of undead, surrounded by immense magic flames. The soft blue color had changed into an acidly green, but it was not the flames that caught her eyes.

She watched in horror as Alassane's skin melted off his bones, revealing only the stark whiteness of his skull. His eyes started rotting away and the empty sockets filled with the same green fire that surrounded him.

Skin and flesh melted off his body, until nothing but the skeleton was left.

She watched as the abomination that had once been Alassane lifted its long, fleshless fingers towards her. The white bones glowed green as magic encased them. Selissa didn't even see him move, before the entire area was burning in a sea of green.

Everywhere, guttural snarls erupted as the living corpses got devoured by the flames. The hands restraining her released her abruptly, as the bodies staggered back, strangled screams escaping them as they burned.

Despite nothing holding her down, Selissa found she couldn't move. She laid petrified, staring in muted horror at the terrifying creature in front of her.

"Are you happy now?" The snarling voice was so different from Alassane's, but the tone was exactly the same. She felt sick when she finally realized that this being really was Alassane. The Alassane that, despite all his secrets, she had always believed to be human.

"Finally showing your true colors, I see." Even at the sound of Ilyan's voice, Selissa couldn't bring herself to turn around to look at him. Her mind was as numb as her body, and somehow, none of this seemed important anymore.

She felt her body shaking, but she didn't care. She wanted nothing more than to cover her eyes and ears, and pretend none of this was real, but she couldn't.

The green flames were dying out now as there was nothing left to burn. The ground had stopped shaking and no more rotten remains tried to pry themselves from the grips of their graves.

"It's time to end this," Alassane said, the strangled sound of his voice somehow leaving a throat that no longer had vocal cords. Selissa watched as green light spread like a wildfire, and soon it was all she could see. It seemed to be everywhere, but it went around her, like she was protected by an invisible wall.

She heard a frustrated scream, and she immediately recognized the voice. He had found Nadesha.

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# Chapter 31

The fire died down and Selissa could finally see what was happening.

The illusion had broken, and she saw Ilyan and Nadesha facing Alassane at the other end of the yard. Nadesha was badly burned, and her eyes were wild with fury. Ilyan was standing a bit back, appearing to be unharmed.

Selissa's head was spinning, and she was not quite sure what happened next, except that a fight broke out between the three of them.

Having finally gotten some control of her body again, Selissa clumsily attempted to drag herself away. She had no intention of getting in the middle of this.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw rapid movement and blinding green lights, and she heard the angry screeching of Nadesha.

Awkwardly, Selissa pushed herself to her feet. Her right leg was still not responding and when she looked down, she had to fight down the urge to throw up.

The flesh was ripped to shreds, her leg resembling something from a slaughterhouse. It was broken in several places and was hanging limply at an unnatural angle.

She staggered to the closest wall, so she could support herself against it. The claw-like marks on her arms were stinging, but it was nothing against the pain in her leg.

Suddenly she heard a piercing scream. Selissa turned her head just in time to watch Nadesha throw herself in front of Ilyan, just as a blast of green flames was about to hit him. Selissa watched as her body fell limply to the ground. Even from where she stood, she could see Nadesha's eyes stare lifelessly into the air after her body hit the ground.

Selissa could not hear what was said, only watch as Ilyan picked up the Nadesha's limp body and held it close to his chest. She could see his lips move, but she had no idea what his last words to Alassane were before he disappeared into the darkness of the temple corridors.

The blood loss was making her lightheaded, but she fought to keep upright. Everything inside her was screaming at her to run when she saw the skeletal form of Alassane approach her.

The flames in his eye sockets died out and pale skin slowly grew back across his face while he came closer. His eyes also started growing back and the look in them was apologetic.

"Selissa, let me explain," he said softly, as if not to scare her.

"Get away from me!" Selissa shouted, backing away as quickly as she could with her wounded leg, but she still had to support herself against the wall.

Alassane's appearance had now fully returned to how she remembered him, but the image of stark white bones was burned into her mind. She could never look at him the same again.

"Please, just calm down and let me explain," he begged. Selissa had never heard him beg before.

He took a step closer and she finally snapped. "I said get away from me!" she screamed and sent a ray of magic towards him. It hit him square in the stomach and sent him crashing to the ground. It hadn't been enough to seriously injure him, but he still didn't try to get up.

"I have had enough, do you hear me?!" Selissa yelled. Fear, frustration and fury surged through her, and she felt angry tears run down her face.

"I don't care anymore!" She was still shouting, letting out all the frustrated feelings she had locked away the past few months. "I don't care about demons or angels. I don't care about rituals or some symbol that supposedly makes me special!"

Alassane opened his mouth to protest, but Selissa didn't want to hear any of it. "You're just as bad as any of them. I don't even know what you are!" Her throat was getting sore, but she kept yelling. "I'm done here! I'm done with all of this and I'm done with you. You dragged me into this without telling me anything and now you're on your own."

Fury seemed to melt together with the magic coursing through her body. White light shot from her hands and circled around Alassane. It wrapped itself around him and held him down.

Her fury was numbing the pain in her leg and the flow of magic kept her going. She turned around and limped away, deaf to Alassane shouting her name.

She didn't look back even once.

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# Several Weeks Later

# Chapter 32

She was surrounded. Red eyes watched her from the shadows, beast-like faces snarling at her from all around her. Claws ripped into her, trying to tear out her very soul.

The sound of giant wings beating. Angel wings.

A grinning face without skin, burning with the fires of hell . . . The sound of screams piercing through the air . . .

Selissa woke with a start, the scream dying on her lips. Her body was shaking ever so slightly and when she unclenched her hands, she found them clammy from cold sweat.

She was no stranger to nightmares, but she couldn't pretend they were merely dreams anymore.

Throwing off the covers, Selissa swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Long, white scars met her eye as she looked down at her leg. The wounds had long since healed, but the pain was still a vivid memory.

The morning sun was peeking in through the window and bathing the inn room in a soft light. She went to the window, not even bothering to get dressed, and threw it open. The cool morning air hit her bare skin and helped calm her racing heart. Selissa took in a deep breath, letting it clear her head, before turning around to get dressed.

After pulling on her clothes, she made her way downstairs and smiled shakily at the elderly innkeeper. He was an old man who had trouble walking, so he let her stay at his inn for free in exchange for her running errands for him.

"Good morning, my dear," he said as she came down the stairs. "Sleep well?"

As much as Selissa hated lying to kind old man, he didn't need to worry about her. "Just fine, Elias," she told him with a smile. "Do you need help with anything today?"

"The brewer needs his payment for the latest shipment today, so I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to bring it to him," Elias said apologetic. Selissa couldn't help smiling at him. Even though he let her stay there free of charge, he still felt bad for asking her to go to the other end of town.

She assured him it was no problem and accepted the payment for the brewer before leaving the inn. As she walked away, Selissa looked back at it over her shoulder. She had stayed there for a few weeks, and she knew she had to leave soon.

Resigned, Selissa ran a hand through her hair. She had just grown to like Elias. All the more reason to leave.

She had heard nothing from the Demios since the encounter at the temple of Cadeyrn, but she wasn't naive enough to believe they had given up on her.

After leaving Alassane, Selissa had briefly considered returning to the temple of Issara, but she knew she would only bring the people there in danger. From now on, she was on her own.

She forced the dark thoughts from her mind, telling herself she wouldn't get caught up in all this again.

'You can't run forever,' a voice said and Selissa gritted her teeth in anger.

"Shut up! I want nothing to do with you," she sneered, earning her several alarmed looks from passing townsfolk. "Just leave me alone."

Cadeyrn's presence faded away, but lingered in the back of her mind. No matter what she did, she couldn't pretend he wasn't there.

She tried not to let her bad mood show as she entered the brewery.

The brewer was a grumpy, middle-aged man. She had only met him a couple of times, but he had already made it painfully clear that he didn't like her. At all. He let out an annoyed huff when he saw her enter.

"What are you doing here, gal?" he asked surly, and Selissa returned his scowl with a smile.

"I'm here to deliver the payment from Elias," she said calmly. Being around Alassane had really done wonders for her temper. She felt her face turn grim when his name popped into her head, but she immediately plastered a fake smile onto it. She would not think about Alassane.

The brewer grabbed the bag of coins from her hand without a word. He grumbled quietly to himself while he counted the content. When he was done he looked up at Selissa standing silently in the doorway.

"What are you standing around for? Get out!" She took this to mean she didn't need to bring any messages back to Elias, and she silently slipped out the door.

With nothing else to do, she made her way back to the inn. Deciding to take a shortcut, she strayed from the main road and went into an alley behind a butcher shop.

The small alleys running between the buildings were deserted, and the sounds from the busy main street faded away as Selissa made her way through them. The town was run-down, like so many other Sinarian towns near the border, and most people didn't want to venture into the small roads and away from the safety of the crowd.

Selissa understood why when she heard muted footsteps behind her. She didn't slow down, and she didn't look over her shoulder, but she knew someone was following her.

More sets of footsteps joined in, and she knew she was in trouble.

Picking up her pace slightly, she turned abruptly into another side road. Maybe I can shake them off, she thought.

She kept on changing direction, hoping that they would lose track of her. However, the sound of footsteps was never far behind.

Two men stepped into the street in front of her and blocked her path. The look in their eyes told her they weren't just passing by on a stroll.

She turned around, only to see several more men closing in on her from behind.

This couldn't possibly be good.

ℓ

She was surrounded and unarmed. This was in no way what she would consider an ideal situation.

Seven to one. Selissa admitted to herself that she might be at a slight disadvantage. But there was no way she was going down without a fight.

"So, are you going to give us what you have? Or are we doing this the hard way?" one of the men asked. Selissa scoffed. He had no idea what the 'hard way' meant in her world.

"I don't have anything for you. Go find someone else to play with," she said and stared him down as calmly as she could. He stiffened for a moment when he looked into her silvery eyes, but he quickly tried to cover up his unease.

"Nah, I think we would rather play with you," he sneered and drew a short sword. Selissa made a mental note to never go anywhere without her swords again.

He signaled the others, and one of them charged at her with a drawn sword. She spun out of his reach, before kicking away his feet from under him. The thug fell to the ground and impaled himself on his own sword, a strangled scream dying in his throat.

One of the others let out a roar of rage, before slashing at her with a long knife. He received a kick to the stomach for his troubles and went stumbling into one of his comrades.

That left four. The others had figured out by now that they should take her seriously. They went at her at the same time, weapons drawn. Selissa dodged the first strike, but the second got past her guard and slashed a line up her arm. A third man hit her in the jaw with a punch and she heard her bones make a disgusting creaking sound as she staggered and fell to the ground.

The thugs laughed and spit on the ground next to her. "Not so tough now, are we?" one of them mocked her. She tried to get up, but was immediately kicked down again.

'Let me help you.'

Selissa sneered angrily at her attackers, only because she couldn't do so at the disembodied voice in her head. 'I don't want your help.'

It would be so easy to finish off these lowlifes. Just a small amount of power, and she could blow them to bits. But she was done with him. She didn't want anything to do with him or his power.

The energy flowed through her, begging to be released. Selissa clenched her teeth stubbornly and refused, even as the kicks rained down on her. One of thugs raised his sword, and she braced herself.

Thud. The man fell to the ground unconscious, his sword clattering down beside him. The others turned in shock, momentarily forgetting about Selissa.

"Don't you think it's a little unfair to gang up on a woman?"

Her eyes widened in shock. She recognized that voice.

Suddenly getting beat up by robbers didn't seem all that bad.

Selissa looked up to see Ardeth sitting casually on a rooftop. She didn't know what he had thrown, but she suspected it was something that was normally supposed to stay a part of the skeleton.

"Do you want to die, punk?!" one of the men shouted furiously. Ardeth merely grinned.

"As if you could kill me," he said calmly.

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# Chapter 33

With a speed that shouldn't have been humanly possible, he ripped out a long, sharp bone from his arm and chucked it at the nearest man. It hit its target square in the throat and the thug fell lifelessly to the ground. Selissa scrambled away when the man landed next to her, bone sticking out of his neck.

Ardeth jumped down from the wall effortlessly and landed gracefully barely ten feet away from the other men. He had barely straightened from his kneeling position, before they were on him.

And barely had the thugs moved, before the first one went sailing through the air. A long bone was sticking out of his stomach.

The action stunned them long enough for Ardeth to take out the last one with a kick to the face. A sickening crunching noise told her it had broken his nose.

The two men Selissa had knocked off their feet earlier had recovered and were now trying to surround the Demios. They went at him from both sides, using the fact that they outnumbered him to their advantage.

They didn't even stand a chance. Ardeth fought like it took no effort at all. He moved out of their way too fast for even a single swing or kick to hit him.

In no time at all, they were both lying on the ground, unable to move. Selissa watched petrified, as Ardeth walked up to them slowly. From his palms slid two sharpened bones and she had an unpleasant feeling she knew what he was going to do.

He stopped next to the two men and ripped the bones from his hands. She clenched her eyes shut as he plunged the spikes into their chests, but that didn't prevent her from hearing the slashing sound as they went through the flesh. Horrible screams cut through the air, but died out within seconds.

Selissa opened her eyes slowly to view the carnage around her. Bloodied bodies were lying all around her, and Ardeth was standing casually in the middle of it all, as if he was just taking a stroll through the area. He looked at her, like he suddenly remembered she was there.

"Are you all right?" he asked calmly. Like he hadn't just slaughtered six people.

She stared at him incredulously, before opening her mouth to spit out some scathing reply. Instead she got a blinding pain in her jaw. She felt the metallic taste of blood in her mouth as she tried to get the words past her lips. She cradled her jaw gently, but kept her eyes on Ardeth.

He knelt down next to her and looked at her curiously. She froze in fear when he touched her jaw gently. All she could do was stare mutely at him as he looked at her thoughtfully.

"I think it's dislocated," he said slowly as if it was utterly fascinating to him. "I never have that problem . . ."

She tried to wrap her head around the bizarre situation. He was fascinated by her bone structure?

She tried to back away from him, but a sharp pain shot through her ribs. One of them must have cracked when the thugs were kicking her.

She stumbled back, clutching her ribcage in pain. Ardeth was watching her calmly.

"You won't be able to walk like that," he said and got to his feet. She tensed and watched him warily. What was he going to do to her?

He bent down and, to her great surprise, wrapped his arms around her and picked her up. She hissed slightly in pain as she had to move her ribcage, but the pain was nothing against the fear she felt.

Despite the searing pain, she started to struggle, but his grip remained firm. He leaned down and whispered softly in her ear, "I'm not going to hurt you."

She didn't know why, but she relaxed slightly. She had absolutely no reason to trust him, and yet somehow she knew he wasn't lying.

He started walking, carrying her like she weighed nothing. His ponytail fell over his shoulder and tickled her face, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Why are you doing this?" she managed to get out, despite the pain in her jaw.

He looked at her confused. "Doing what?" he asked.

"Helping me," she said. He looked at her thoughtfully.

"Do I need a reason?" he finally asked.

"Yes," she said tersely. She could feel the rumble going through his chest as he laughed quietly. He didn't answer her.

She noted vaguely that they had entered the main street. She heard stunned whispers break out all around them as they passed.

Despite herself she laughed at the absurdity of it all. A tall man, bearing the Mark of the Cursed, carrying an injured woman, both covered from head to toe in blood. What a sight they had to make.

Ardeth didn't seem to care about all the people staring, because he walked on like everything was completely normal. To him, it most likely was.

She barely noticed them arriving at the town's clinic, before Ardeth kicked the door open. He walked in, ignoring the protests from the nurse.

"She needs medical treatment," he said simply. Selissa actually snorted in amusement. Looking at all the blood, it would probably be a little obvious.

The nurse was about to start protesting again when Ardeth shot her a long look. That was all it took for the woman to shut her mouth and lead them to an empty room.

Ardeth put her down on the empty bed, and the nurse immediately started tending to her injuries.

Selissa turned to her as she asked a string of questions. When she looked up again, Ardeth was gone.

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# Chapter 34

Selissa stayed in the infirmary for almost three days, but she didn't see or hear anything from Ardeth. The nurse who had greeted them asked a lot of questions about the blood-covered man who had brought her in, but Selissa told her she didn't know him. If she had explained the real relationship between them, the nurse would probably have sent her to the asylum instead.

Elias had come to visit her, and she had given him a watered-down version of what happened. The old man already worried enough as it was. He didn't have to know about the small massacre that had taken place while she was finishing up errands.

The little town had no healers, so she had to recover naturally. It took her less than a day to become restless. The sterile room with the bare white walls in the infirmary made her uneasy, and she was not fond of being confined to a bed.

When the doctors finally told her she could leave, Selissa couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Elias had been kind enough to bring her some clean clothes, and she threw them on before leaving the clinic in a rush. The fresh air smelled wonderful after the antiseptic smell inside. Though it made pain shoot through her aching ribs, she breathed in deeply and filled her lungs. Feeling her dreary mood lifting, if only a bit, she decided to enjoy her newfound freedom. Selissa was not eager to be surrounded by walls once again and staying in town for a while before returning to the inn was an appealing idea.

She was badly in need of some new clothes, anyway. She seemed to have developed a habit of getting them ruined.

Thanks to Elias not charging her rent, she still had some money stashed away to spend on refreshing her very lacking wardrobe.

She ignored the odd looks the vendors gave her when she requested men's clothes. They would not wonder as much if they had tried fighting in a skirt. Skirts were only useful if you needed an easy way of concealing your weapons. And even then, your opponents could have stabbed you seven times by the time you got your hidden dagger untangled from five layers of fabric.

A few hours went by before Selissa made her way back. She had filled an entire bag with clothes and she silently prayed she would be able to keep those from being shredded to pieces. At least for a few weeks.

The late afternoon sun was now casting long shadows over the town and the first vendors were beginning to pack up their goods to call an early night. It didn't take Selissa long to get to the inn and she entered the dark lit main room to see the first of the evening crowd already gathering inside.

She couldn't see Elias anywhere, but she figured he was probably working in the back. Not particularly inclined to help out with the soon-to-be drunks, she snuck up the stairs to her room. She fumbled for her key before finally locating it and unlocking the door.

Opening the door, she fully expected to find her room just as she had left it. The bed with the hideously brown sheets, the old dresser against the wall to the left, and the wobbly nightstand with the just as wobbly lamp.

What she wasn't prepared for was the Demios sprawled across her bed. Possibly naked. He was lying on his back, hands under his head and the blanket draped across the lower half of his body.

Maybe she should have expected it. Her day had been way too peaceful.

Selissa was faintly aware of her bag slipping from her limp fingers and dropping to the ground, but her brain was too busy trying to figure out exactly what was going on.

The part of her mind ruled by her survival instincts told her to be afraid and run. A more logical part told her that if he had been coming to kill her, he probably would have done so fully dressed.

Unable to make sense of the situation, Selissa stood frozen by the door as awkward seconds ticked by. Finally she collected herself enough to blurt out the only thing she could think of.

"What the hell are you doing?" she deadpanned. She realized it maybe wasn't the most clever of remark, but it was the best she could handle at the moment.

A lazy smirk spread across his lips. He sat up slowly and leaned back on his arms. Her eyes flickered to his chest where strong muscles rippled underneath the skin and then down to where the blanket had fallen around his waist. She felt a blush creep up her neck and her eyes shot back to his face. It wasn't that she had never seen a naked man before. She had just never seen anyone like Ardeth.

The Demios tilted his head and smiled charmingly at her. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

She blinked a few times. "It looks like you're lying in my bed . . ." Her eyes wandered briefly to the blanket that was dangerously close to slipping. " . . .naked."

He made a little sound of agreement, still smiling.

"How did you even get in?" Selissa asked, before thinking better of it. "Wait, I don't even want to know. Get out. Now."

"That would really defeat the purpose of me breaking in here to begin with," he said calmly.

Selissa took a deep breath to prevent herself from breaking into hysteria. She had a mass murderer in her bed. A naked, unbelievably attractive mass murderer.

Focus, she told herself sternly. Nothing about this guy made sense. First he tried to kill her, and then he decided to save her life. And then this. "What are you after?"

His eyebrows shut up and he looked down at his naked chest. He glanced back up at her with amusement dancing in his eyes. "I thought that would be fairly obvious," he said suggestively.

She was not in the mood to play games. "No. Why are you doing this?" she asked, frowning down at the smug bastard. "One day you're dead set on spilling my guts on the ground, then suddenly you turn around and save my life. Why?"

He watched her calmly and ran a hand through his long hair. She noticed that it wasn't tied back into its usual ponytail, instead spilling loosely down his chest. "Would you rather I tried to bring you to them?" he asked.

"You're avoiding the question," Selissa said tersely. She noticed he said them. Just as that time at the temple, he didn't seem to consider himself one of them, despite presenting himself as a Demios when they first met in Var'nori.

"Maybe I am," Ardeth said simply, offering no explanations.

Selissa sighed and went to look out the window in an attempt to clear her head. Her mind was screaming at her not to turn her back on him, but she was also unwilling to show the fear his presence caused in her.

"Unless you intend to make up your mind, get out," she said. "I don't need this."

She heard him get up and step up behind her. His proximity made her uneasy, but she told herself that if he was going to hurt her, he would have done so already.

"They are going to come for you, you know," he said, voice low as he spoke into her ear. She forced herself to breathe slowly and not turn around.

"You talk like you're not one of them," she said.

He was silent for some time. "Not everything is set in stone."

She spun around to face him. "You're just not going to give me a clear answer, are you?" she snapped before realizing how close he was standing. Their chests were almost touching, and she had to crane her neck to look him in the eye. She looked down and noticed that he had bound the blanket around his hips. For the sake of what was left of her sanity, that was probably a good idea.

"Now where's the fun in that?" he said jokingly and grinned at her. Considering who he was, the gesture was ever so slightly menacing. His face was only inches from hers and suddenly she found it hard to breathe.

"I'm going to go talk to the innkeeper. When I get back, I want you to be gone," Selissa said as calmly as she could. She placed a hand on his chest and pushed him away, ignoring the feel of rippling muscles under her fingers, and fled through the door. She went downstairs without looking back, praying that he wouldn't be there when she got back to the room.

He wasn't.

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# Chapter 35

Sleep didn't come easy that night. Every time she was about to drift off, images of corpses and skeletons would appear behind her eyes and she would be startled awake.

Sitting up in her bed, Selissa put her head in her hands and took a shaky breath. Ardeth's appearance had made it all rush back, shattering her feeble attempt at pretending she could live a normal life.

She stayed in bed, desperately seeking the sleep that evaded her, until she saw the first rays of light shine through the window. Sighing, she gave up and tossed off her blanket. She got dressed and slipped out quietly, careful not to wake anyone in the inn.

The streets were almost empty, containing only a few vendors preparing to open their shops. Selissa walked aimlessly down the street, enjoying the quietness of the morning.

But of course it didn't last.

For once, her reaction to seeing him wasn't fear. She was so tired that all she could feel was pure exasperation.

"Can't sleep?" Ardeth asked when she approached the spot where he was leaning casually against a wall. His black hair was tied in a way so that it covered most of his face and hid his tattoo, giving him a slightly less intimidating appearance to people who didn't know it was there. It was little comfort to her.

"How did you know?" Selissa asked with more sarcasm than was probably wise considering the personality of the man she was talking to.

"Because you're awake," he said simply.

She couldn't really argue with that. So she walked on in the naive hope that he wouldn't follow.

Of course she wasn't that lucky.

He trailed after her with his hands in his pockets. "So this is how you're going to spend your days?" he asked. "Hiding away in some measly little town?"

"It's none of your business," she said as calmly as she could. She didn't want to admit that his words stung. She could tell herself over and over again that she wasn't hiding, but that didn't make it true.

"Maybe not," Ardeth said slowly. "But someone has to tell you."

Selissa stopped dead in her tracks and spun around, sneering at him.

"Leave me alone! It's not my problem anymore," she said angrily. "I was dragged into all this without knowing anything! I don't care anymore."

He watched her with calmly, unbothered by her outburst. "Do you really think you have a choice?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"There's always a choice," she said, though she wasn't sure she believed it anymore.

"Not for you."

She wanted to cry and scream in frustration. The truth in his words sliced like a blade and cut down whatever delusions she had managed to built for herself.

"What do you want from me?" she asked defeated. "Tell me."

He wrapped a finger around her chin and forced her to look at him. "I want you to fight," he said, some unknown emotion shining in his dark eyes. "You're better than this."

She felt her anger slowly disappear at the honesty of his words, no matter how bizarre that honesty was. The man was clearly insane, but at this point sanity was likely overrated.

"Why do you care?" she asked quietly. "I don't understand you."

He smirked at her, a hint of the infuriating smugness returning. "Not everything has to have a reason."

"I have lived most of my life without a reason for anything. For once, having a reason would be nice," Selissa said. Never had anyone given her a reason why she couldn't remember anything from her childhood. Or why she had that symbol on her back. It was just something she had come to accept. Just for once, she wanted to know the reason behind what was happening to her.

The streets were slowly filling up with people now, and a lot of curious looks were sent their way.

Selissa realized what they must look like. They were standing so close to one another, talking so seriously. Like lovers making up after a quarrel.

She stepped back, suddenly feeling embarrassed. Self-consciously, she brushed her hair behind her ear and looked away.

"People are watching us," she said, more to break the silence than anything else.

Ardeth looked around as if he only now noticed that people were watching them curiously.

"So?" he asked and shrugged lightly.

"I think they're misunderstanding the situation," Selissa said. She wasn't sure why she suddenly felt so self-conscious, but for some reason it bothered her.

Ardeth grinned when he caught on to her meaning. Before she had any time to register what was happening, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. To her horror, he leaned forward and planted a kiss on the side of her mouth.

Horrified, she felt her face burning. "What are you doing?!" she shrieked and pushed him away.

"Giving them something to look at," he said with a grin.

"It's not funny," she hissed.

"I beg to differ," he said as he looked at her red face.

The seriousness of their conversation seemed to have dissipated into thin air, so Selissa turned to leave, still blushing from embarrassment and anger.

She heard Ardeth laugh quietly as she stomped away. She considered throwing something at him, but thought better of it. Change in attitude or not, he was still the person she had seen ruthlessly kill seven men. With his own bones.

Still fuming, she absentmindedly noted that it was the first time in weeks she had felt anything but numb.

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# Chapter 36

Her mornings just seemed to get better and better.

Though she had finally managed to get some sleep, Selissa was not happy with the sight she woke up to the following morning.

Ardeth was sitting casually on her windowsill, as if it was completely normal for him to be there. She buried her head in her pillow and let out a long-suffering groan.

"How long have you been sitting there?" she asked, her voice muffled by the pillow.

In her mind she could practically see him shrug before answering. "For some time, I guess."

She removed her head from the pillow, mostly because it was getting hard to breathe.

"Some people would be disturbed by having someone watching them sleep, you know." Especially by less than stable men, who can pull their bones from their bodies, she added to herself.

"You don't like me very much, do you?" Ardeth noted, looking at her thoughtfully.

Selissa sat up suddenly and glared at him.

"Well, I'm sorry," she said sarcastically. "Could it have something to do with you leaving me bleeding on the ground the first time we met? Or maybe that you're working for the lunatics who want to kill me?"

When he didn't answer, she threw the covers aside, not caring about modesty, and got up. She grabbed the clothes carelessly flung over the foot of the bed the night before and started to get dressed.

Though he kept silent, Selissa could feel him watching her. Normally she wouldn't care much about someone seeing her dressed in nothing but her underwear, but she still felt chills run down her spine at the feeling of Ardeth's eyes on her.

She was pulling her shirt over her head when he finally spoke.

"I don't really care about the Demios' intentions," he said quietly. His admission made her pause, and she looked over her shoulder at him. She had suspected that ever since their meeting at Cadeyrn's temple, but hearing him say it out loud still surprised her.

"When why do you work with them?" she asked.

He leaned back and looked out the window thoughtfully while he considered the question.

"A sense of purpose, I suppose," he said slowly. "Somewhere to belong."

Against any sense of logic or reason, Selissa felt a pang in her chest at his words. She knew that feeling all too well.

She looked at the tattoo on his face and thought back to the townspeople who had shunned Nadia. Was that how he had lived all his life?

She wanted to ask him about it, but it felt too personal. Truly, everything felt too personal when conversing with the psychopath who kept breaking into your room. Instead, she opted for something she had wondered about for some time now.

"How many of you are there?" Selissa asked. She had seen four of the Demios' members by now and one of them was no longer alive. Knowing how many were left would be a great help, just in case she could start crossing people off the list.

"It differs," Ardeth said and turned back to look at her. "Eight or nine, at most. Most of them don't last long."

Selissa finished fastening her clothes and turned to face him fully.

"What do you mean?" she asked, frowning slightly. None of the Demios she had met went down easily.

"Ilyan likes to . . . perform experiments," Ardeth said slowly, watching her closely for her reaction.

Nausea welled up in her throat. She could only imagine what kind of experiments he was talking about.

"Experiments? On the Demios members?" Selissa repeated slowly, afraid of the answer to the question she was about to ask. "Why?"

"He's obsessed with the idea of freeing Azarial. The only sure way to do that is to acquire Cadeyrn's powers," Ardeth explained, not sounding overly concerned. "And since he hasn't been able to do that, he has tried other ways to break the seal. Considering some of us possess great magical powers, he has tried to use them as substitutes."

"And they died," Selissa guessed.

"Gruesomely," Ardeth confirmed.

She shuddered, trying not to imagine it. She sat down on the bed and tried to calm her thoughts.

"So if they get me, they can complete the ritual and break the seal?" she asked after a while.

"If all goes well, yes," Ardeth said. Confused, Selissa looked up at him.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"They tried with the last host. His body wasn't strong enough to contain the power, so he died before the ritual was complete," he said, still studying her face closely as he spoke.

She nodded mutely. That made sense. After all, she had almost collapsed after forcefully drawing out just a small portion of Cadeyrn's power. To forcefully release it all at once would surely be more than a human body could handle.

"How long ago was that?" she asked quietly. Ardeth shrugged.

"Fifteen years or so. I wasn't around back then," he said.

"Do you know the name of the host?" Selissa asked. She was curious. She knew there had been others before her, but since that was all she knew, those people were just faceless ghosts to her. They weren't really people as long as she didn't even know their names.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Ardeth asked. There was an unfamiliar note of hesitation in his voice.

"Why would I care? It was fifteen years ago," she said. She couldn't have been much more than five years old back then, and it was not like she could remember anything from that time, anyway.

"You should know by now that the dead don't always stay dead," Ardeth said with a tight smile.

Selissa had no idea what he was talking about, but she had a feeling she wasn't going to like it.

"I can only tell you what I have been told," he said. "But as far as I know, the last host's name was Alassane."

Selissa was glad she was already sitting down.

"You can't be serious," she said slowly, feeling the words sink in. It couldn't be.

She recalled the image of Alassane's burning skeleton form. Was he really undead? More importantly, was he the one who had been Cadeyrn's former host? It just couldn't be.

"It's true," Ardeth said, watching her calmly. There was nothing in his voice that suggested he was lying to her.

She felt herself shaking. Shock was spreading through her body, but at the same time a lot of things suddenly made sense.

The first time she had met Alassane, he had felt familiar because of Cadeyrn's memories. He had been protecting her, because he was just as involved as she was.

"So he's really not human?" she asked quietly. Even after all she had seen, she still had a hard time believing it.

"No. He's not," Ardeth said. "The only reason he could appear human and still had his free will is because he was raised by divine magic. Not by necromancy."

All the things Alassane hadn't told her . . . And still she had followed him blindly for as long as she had. The shock slowly disappeared to make room for another emotion.

"That filthy, lying son of a--" Selissa spat furiously as she got to her feet, pacing back and forth.

"Calm down or you're going to wear a hole in the floor," Ardeth said as he watched her move restlessly.

"I'm just so sick of everyone lying to me," she said angrily, but after a few more turns she stopped and slumped down on the bed again. Ardeth watched her thoughtfully.

"I'm not lying to you," he said honestly.

She looked at him and almost laughed at the irony. The only person she could trust to be truthful to her was a man she had once been sure was going to kill her. A man she still wasn't sure wasn't going to kill her.

That didn't bode well for her.

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# Chapter 37

During the following days, as strange and unnerving as it was, Selissa started to get used to Ardeth's presence.

He stuck around and would always appear when it suited him. It still made her uneasy that she didn't know why he was there, but as he had said himself, he might not actually have a reason. Only sane people needed a reason for doing things after all.

"Are you really content running errands for some old fool who might keel over and die at any moment?" he asked as they walked down the street. Selissa was currently putting in orders at the local stores for Elias, and somehow she had ended up with Ardeth tagging along, following her like a homicidal shadow.

"As I have told you countless times already: it's none of your business," she said as she checked her list. She only needed to go to the butcher and then she was done. Of course, Ardeth wasn't making her work easy.

His tattoo might have been covered by his hair, but that didn't stop him from attracting attention. People would literally stop and stare when he passed them, and he didn't even seem to notice.

Selissa glanced at the assassin out of the corner of her eye. She had to admit that even if you hadn't seen him rip out his shoulderbone, he was someone you would take notice of.

Alassane had been taller than her, but Ardeth practically towered above her and everyone else for that matter. And there was no way she could deny he was attractive.

It was something she was noticing more and more as she spent time with him where he wasn't trying to kill her.

At first she had been acutely aware of him because he frightened her. Now she was still acutely aware of him, but mostly for an entirely different reason.

It wasn't like she was entirely new to such feelings. But whatever brief affairs she had had in the past, it had always been with harmless village boys or traveling merchants. Safe.

This was anything but safe.

She nodded absentmindedly along with something Ardeth said, even though she hadn't been listening to a word.

"What's wrong?" he asked, having noticed her thoughts were somewhere else.

Startled out of her musings, she forced a smile. "Nothing. Just lost in thought."

He shot her a strange look. "That's good," he said. "Because we might have a problem soon."

Selissa tensed and watched him warily. "What kind of problem?" she asked. To people like him, a problem was unlikely to be something trivial, like not making it back before dinner. A problem meant that someone was going to get hurt. And she had an eerie feeling it was going to be her.

"We should get out of the streets, or he will attack us here," Ardeth said and looked around. He looked thoughtful as if he was turning over a problem in his mind.

"You would mind these people getting hurt because they got in the middle of it, wouldn't you?" he asked slowly as if he wasn't quite sure why anyone would care.

"Yes, I would mind," Selissa hissed. "What are they going to be in the middle of?"

She blanched when she thought of the possibilities.

"Don't tell me the Demios are here?" she said. She felt panic rise in her chest at the thought.

"Aiken," Ardeth muttered to himself. He placed a hand on her back and started leading her down the street.

"If you don't want any of them involved," he said, nodding towards the passing townspeople, "we better get out of this town quickly."

She didn't argue and obediently followed him as he made his way towards the town gate. Somewhere in the frantic mess that was her thoughts something occurred to her.

"Wait, are you going to fight him?" she asked, somewhat shocked. Was he really abandoning the Demios?

"Why not?" Ardeth shrugged, but kept going. "I'm stronger than him."

A million questions flew through her mind, but Selissa asked only one.

"Why are you doing this?" 'Why do you choose me over them?' was the one she really wanted to ask, but couldn't. If he had any reason, besides an enjoyment of causing chaos, it couldn't be good.

Ardeth glanced at her, but didn't answer.

The guards at the gate barely spared them a second glance as they walked past. But though the guards showed no interest, Selissa got the feeling someone was following them who did.

They were barely out of sight of the town when a deep voice greeted them.

"You should really reconsider where your loyalties lie, Ardeth." Aiken was sitting calmly on a large rock, watching them thoughtfully. The red of his hair shone brightly in the light, but it didn't bring any heat to his cold demeanor.

Ardeth only smiled at his words. "I know perfectly well where my loyalty lies, Aiken," he said. "It's where it always has. With myself and no one else."

A cold smile crossed Aiken's lips. "You might come to regret that," he said. Ardeth's grin widened, unfazed by the thinly veiled threat.

Seeing where this was going, Selissa decided to break up their little reunion.

"You might as well back off. You don't stand a chance against the both of us," she said. She hoped that was true. Ardeth might have said he would fight with her, but he was known for changing his mind. And she was still reluctant to use Cadeyrn's powers. But Aiken didn't know that.

Aiken chuckled quietly and with no amusement. "I didn't say I came here to fight you, did I?"

Selissa stiffened and out of the corner of her eye she saw even Ardeth's shoulders tense from surprise.

"Then why are you here?" she asked warily. She hardly believed he just followed them here to say hello.

"I'm here to tell you it would be wise of you to surrender yourself to us," Aiken said. He was smiling secretly, as if he knew something she didn't.

"And why would I do that?" Selissa asked, disdain dripping from her voice.

Aiken's smile widened and she shifted uneasily.

"Your priest friend is not quite used to the rough treatment he's receiving. He might not last long if you don't come to us," he said.

Selissa's eyes widened as she caught on to his meaning. Calen.

It couldn't be anyone else. But how did they know? She hadn't seen Calen in months, and he had never been part of this.

She gritted her teeth in anger. Had they really taken him to get to her? Or were they just bluffing?

"Why should I believe you?" she said slowly. Just the thought that they were torturing Calen because of her tore her up inside, but now was not the time to lose her cool.

Aiken reached into his pocket and pulled something out. He tossed it towards her and it landed on the ground at her feet.

With trembling hands, Selissa bent down and picked it up. The long silver chain slid through her fingers and she clenched her eyes shut when she saw blood on the pendant.

She remembered Calen showing her the Issara pendant proudly when he finished his training and became a priest. It was his dearest possession, and she knew he would never willingly have given it up.

It was all the proof she needed to know that Aiken was telling the truth.

"You bastards," she said quietly once she found her voice again. "He has nothing to do with this. Let him go."

"We have no interest in him." Aiken scoffed, as if the very idea was ridiculous. "If you come with us, we will release him."

"So you can let loose a demon that might kill thousands of innocent people?" Selissa asked incredulously. She was feeling sick to her stomach, and the anger and despair welling up inside her was making her feel lightheaded.

"It's your choice," he said and got to his feet. "We will be waiting."

She watched him leave in petrified silence, unable to say another word as her world fell apart once again.

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# Chapter 38

Hugging her knees to her chest, Selissa tried to stop the trembling. She had been sitting on the bed in her dark inn room for what felt like hours. Ardeth hadn't said a word since they got back. He stood leaned against the wall, watching her silently.

"They're never going to stop, are they?" she asked, trying to sound strong, but she knew he heard the tremor in her voice. She felt like crying, but she couldn't allow herself to fall apart now.

"No. They're not," Ardeth said, voice flat, while he watched her like he was trying to figure out what to do with her.

"I hate this," Selissa said. "People are getting hurt because of me and there's nothing I can do about it."

She got no answer, and she didn't expect one. Against her will, she felt hot tears well up in her eyes and run down her face. Anger at herself for crying, especially in front of someone like Ardeth, burned in her chest, but she couldn't stop.

"This feels like a nightmare," she said and let out a shaky, humorless laugh as the tears kept flowing. "But I don't think I'm going to wake up from this."

Ardeth moved from where he was standing and sat down on the bed beside her. He moved uneasily, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

"I'm not good at this," he said suddenly. His admission shocked her enough that the tears stopped running and Selissa blinked at the dark-haired man who was looking anywhere but at her. The realization that this man, who she had seen slaughter several grown men without even batting an eyelash, was unnerved by crying women seemed hilarious to her, and despite herself she started laughing.

Ardeth jerked away in surprise and looked at her as if she had grown a second head. The utterly confused look on his face only made her laugh harder.

"I'm sorry," she managed to get out as she finally calmed a bit. "I'm just--"

She shook her head slightly, a few giggles escaping her. She suspected she was getting a bit hysterical because of the stress of the situation.

Ardeth still looked highly alarmed by her sudden mood swing, but settled back down on the bed.

Finally calming down from her sudden outburst, the gravity of the situation she was in washed over Selissa once again. She leaned her forehead against Ardeth's tense shoulder and stared blankly at the dark fabric of his shirt.

"What do you want to do now?" he asked. His voice was low and ever so slightly hesitant, like he was talking to a frightened animal, but Selissa thought his question over before answering.

"I want to save Calen," she said.

"That might not be so easy," Ardeth answered.

"I know." An idea was forming in her mind and she realized it was the only choice she had left. "That's why we have to find Alassane first."

ℓ

They left the town that night, long after everyone had gone to sleep. Selissa didn't say goodbye to Elias. It was better that way.

She wondered briefly if her life would ever be anything resembling normal again. For weeks she had been doing fine, living like a perfectly ordinary, boring person. Yet now here she was, once again on a wild goose chase with a man she wasn't sure she could trust.

Despite the situation, there was something comforting about feeling her swords strapped to her back. Selissa would never admit it to him, but Ardeth had been right. She hadn't been content with living such a mundane life. But for a short while, she had thought it was what she wanted.

"So . . . Where exactly are we going?" Ardeth asked.

Well, that was the big question. Going to find Alassane had seemed simple enough when she had thought of it, but there was just one problem . . . She had no idea where to look.

"To be honest, I don't know," Selissa admitted reluctantly. Where did you go to find an undead guy? Graveyards? A morgue? "I left him at Cadeyrn's temple, but that was many weeks ago. He could be anywhere."

"Well, that's helpful," Ardeth said. He didn't really seem to care that she had no destination whatsoever in mind.

"Ardeth," she said slowly. "Do the Demios have a place where they meet up? Somewhere to go to get their orders?"

He looked thoughtfully into the air. "Not really," he said. "Mostly we receive orders by messengers."

"I see." Well, that was one plan down the drain then.

"However," Ardeth said, glancing at her. "Ilyan has a mansion up north. I believe it's where the ritual will take place."

She considered that, all the while trying very hard to ignore how he was still talking like the ritual that would kill her was a certainty. Better not go down that path.

"So it's probably where they are keeping Calen too," she said.

"Probably, yes," Ardeth agreed, still sounding like it didn't matter all that much to him. "What does that have to do with your undead friend?"

"He's not my friend," Selissa said, surprising herself with how angry she sounded. She might need his help, but he was still the bastard who had lied to her and deceived her for so long.

Ardeth's only reaction to her small outburst was the raising of his eyebrows and Selissa sighed, running a hand through her hair before returning to the matter at hand.

"If I'm understanding this whole mess right, Alassane's mission was to prevent the Demios from capturing me and completing the ritual," she explained. "So since he's not with me anymore, he might be going after the Demios directly."

She noticed it had been some time since she last associated Ardeth with the Demios. Now it was he and them. Selissa knew it was wrong of her to trust him, but she didn't really have any other choice.

"You think he might be heading for the mansion?" Ardeth asked.

"I don't know. But I have no other ideas," she said. For all she knew, Alassane could be back in his grave where he belonged. His job had been to protect her and she no longer wanted his protection.

"So we're heading north?" Ardeth asked, going along with it for whatever crazy reason he had for following her around.

Selissa nodded her agreement. "We're heading north."

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# Chapter 39

Selissa asked about Alassane in every town they passed through. Luckily Alassane's sickly figure was easily recognizable, so she knew if anyone had seen him, they would remember him.

Occasionally, someone admitted to having seen him. But every time it had been weeks ago. The people who had spotted him were few and far between, and Selissa wasn't able to figure out where he was going. All she knew was that he had been in the area a while ago.

They had just left another town where no one seemed to know anything. Exhausted, Selissa threw herself on the grass in the clearing where they had set up camp.

While traveling, they had mostly opted for sleeping outdoors. In one of the first towns they had been in, Selissa had attempted to get an inn room. The innkeeper, however, had noticed Ardeth's mark and promptly told them to get out of his inn. She had hurriedly dragged Ardeth away, trying to explain to him how it wouldn't be acceptable for him to murder the innkeeper.

"This is hopeless," she said as she slumped on the ground. She would have given everything to lie in a soft bed, but for now she had settled for what she got. If that was a mossy stretch of cold earth, filled with bugs, so be it.

"I could have told you that," Ardeth said as he lay down beside her. At some point over the past days, Selissa had stopped subconsciously preparing to be stabbed in the kidney whenever he got within a few yards of her. She didn't even flinch.

"I wish this could all just be over," she said, fighting to keep the hopelessness from her voice.

Ardeth raised himself up on his elbow and looked down at her.

"What would you do if it was all over? Go back to that temple where you grew up?" he asked. He almost sounded like he was interested in the answer.

Selissa watched the sky thoughtfully as she pondered his question.

"I don't think so. It's never really been home to me," she finally said. "Maybe I'm going to travel. It would be nice to do so not because I need to or because I'm running for my life, but just to see new places."

He smiled down at her. It almost didn't look unsettling. "Sounds nice."

She made a little hum of agreement, but said nothing. Part of her wanted to ask him what he would do, but she was afraid of the answer she might get. For all she knew he might just wander from town to town, stabbing random innkeepers.

Selissa wondered how he had come to be like this. She didn't understand his total disregard for human lives, but she knew Ardeth's own life couldn't have been easy.

She rolled to her side and looked thoughtfully at him. Knowing she might be going too far, she carefully placed a finger against his cheek, tracing the tattoo there. He lay completely still, watching her intently.

"How did you get this?" Selissa asked quietly.

Ardeth closed his eyes and leaned into her touch, the movement so faint that she almost didn't notice. He was silent for a while before speaking.

"I was eleven. The blacksmith of the little town I grew up in had seen me pull a bone from my wrist while I was playing at the lake," he said. There was no emotion in his voice and Selissa wished she knew what he was feeling. If he was feeling anything at all.

He slowly opened his eyes and continued, "When I got home, he had gathered most of the townspeople and brought them to our house. They were yelling and my mother tried to calm them down. She was crying."

Selissa kept quiet, but slowly lowered her hand. She had a sinking feeling she knew where the story was going.

"When they saw me, it got worse. My mother tried to prevent them from getting to me, but they didn't care. When she refused to move, they started beating her. They kept on hitting her until she stopped moving."

Selissa fought down a lump in her throat, but Ardeth continued to speak as if his own words didn't affect him at all.

"They dragged me through the town. I let my bones grow out to cover my skin, so they couldn't hit me. They had four full-grown men restraining me as they tattooed the mark on my face," he said. "In the end, it wasn't enough."

Selissa took a shaky breath. "Did you kill them?" she asked.

"Yes," he said simply.

Losing the fight, Selissa felt tears run down her face. Ardeth looked at her curiously.

"Why are you crying?" he asked.

She smiled sadly at him. "Because you're not. Someone needs to," she said.

He watched her, confusion clear in his eyes. She guessed he had never had anyone show compassion towards him and didn't recognize the feeling.

Ardeth raised his hand to her face and brushed away the tears from her cheek. He looked at intently, a look of thoughtful curiosity on his face.

"No one has ever cried for me before . . ." he said. Selissa smiled shakily and laughed softly.

"There's a first for everything," she said.

He slowly leaned closer, and she felt her heart catch in her throat when she realized what he was doing. His hand slowly made its way to her neck where it gently held her head in place.

She knew she should be pushing him away. This was a bad idea, in every possible way, but the logical part of her was strongly overruled by the part that wanted to kiss the man in front of her.

She closed her eyes as she felt his breath ghost over her lips. She could hear blood rushing in her ears, making her slightly lightheaded.

She was not sure what happened next, but it definitely wasn't what she expected.

Before she could register what was happening, she was thrown to the ground by Ardeth's sizable body weight. They tumbled to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

She was just about to start yelling at him when something massive hit the grass in the exact spot they had been sitting before.

Selissa stared in shock at the creature in front of them. It had to be at least three times the size of a wolf, and instead of skin or fur, it was covered in scales. Its jaws were big enough to easily engulf her head and massive fangs protruded from them.

And it was snarling at them. And drooling.

"What the hell is that?" she asked horrified. Ardeth didn't answer immediately, but pulled them both to their feet and stepped in front of her protectively. Bones shot out from his arms and shoulders and covered him like a bizarre armor.

"A Devourer. It must have tracked us down," he said and kept his eyes on the beast. It returned his stare, or at least Selissa assumed it did. She was not quite sure it actually had eyes or if they were just hidden underneath the scales. It growled at him lowly, but kept its distance as if it was assessing him before it made a move.

"Devourer?" she repeated, looking at the creature warily. It certainly looked like something that devoured unfortunate travelers who got too close. "Great, so it's going to eat us."

"Nah," Ardeth said, dismissing her easily. "Just you."

She stared at him. "What?"

He smirked at her over his shoulder. "Devourers feed on magic. You're probably a feast to them."

"My, isn't that just flattering?" Selissa said sarcastically.

"They're demons who can sense magic. They must have been tracking you," he explained. His eyes flickered across the forest clearing. "And maybe you should know this . . ."

"What?" Selissa asked, still staring uneasily at the demon.

"They travel in packs."

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# Chapter 40

Snarling, scaly beasts appeared from the shadows of the forest. Low, animalistic growls sounded all around them, and Selissa wrinkled her nose in disgust when she saw large drops of drool fall from the open mouths of the demons.

She chose to focus on that, and not the razor-sharp teeth also on display.

"Stay behind me," Ardeth said. "They will go for you."

She opened her mouth to protest, to tell him she was not some damsel in distress who needed to be protected, but in that same moment one of the demons slammed its jaws together with a loud, snapping sound. Selissa promptly shut her mouth, deciding she could handle being protected just this once.

Ardeth reached behind him so that his palm was facing her. She watched as a sharpened bone slowly slid out from the skin towards her.

"Take it," he said. "Magic won't work against them, so use it until you can get to your swords."

Selissa stared uneasily at it. But her swords were currently lying just inches away from one of the beasts' clawed feet, and she didn't fancy the idea of being completely defenseless against a horde of demons.

She grabbed the bone, and it slowly slid all the way out, leaving only a few drops of blood in Ardeth's palm as the wound healed.

Trying very hard not to focus on how she was using his bone as a weapon, Selissa turned her attention to the demons.

They were circling them like wolves, obviously trying to get around Ardeth. One of them took the chance and leapt at her, but Ardeth was too fast and quickly sent it flying by kicking it in the stomach. It made a loud, yipping sound, like a kicked puppy, as it rammed into a tree. It slid to the ground, where it lay twitching, but didn't get up.

One of the others started howling and several of its brethren soon joined in. Piercing howls resonated through the forest as the beasts crept closer, snapping their jaws and snarling at their prey.

Selissa leaned closer to Ardeth. "Maybe they will run away if you throw them a bone?" she whispered in his ear. He shot her a look over his shoulder that said he was not amused by her joke.

Another Devourer tried its luck and ran at them. Swift as lightning, Ardeth ripped a bone from his arm and chucked it at the creature. It penetrated its forehead, and the beast collapsed mid-leap and fell to the ground lifelessly.

That seemed to be the last straw. Several enraged howls sounded. Then all the beasts charged at once.

Ardeth moved swiftly, stabbing demons left and right, but one of them got past him in the fray. Panicking, Selissa held up the bone Ardeth had given her to block the attacking beast. With a sharp snap its jaws clamped down around the bone, the sharp point jamming into the roof of its mouth and preventing its teeth from sinking into her instead. But though the move saved her from its deadly fangs, the blow from the collision sent both her and the demon tumbling to the ground.

The demon landed up top of her, its greater weight pinning her down. She gripped the bone with both hands, keeping its head away from her. Large drops of drool fell from its mouth and dripped down on her shoulders while it struggled against her.

It tore and ripped at the bone, but Selissa held on to it with all her strength, desperately trying to push the beast away.

When the Devourer realized it couldn't use its jaws to kill her, it swiped at her with clawed paws. Two enormous claws protruded from each paw, and she hissed when one of them cut into her arm, ripping a long bloody line in her skin.

Keeping both fangs and claws at bay was an impossible task, and she struggled to free herself of its grip.

Suddenly, she heard Ardeth shout at her.

"Move!"

She didn't need to be told that twice. Gathering all her strength, she rammed a knee into the beast's stomach and managed to throw it off her. She rolled to the side quickly before it had a chance to get a hold of her again.

She was barely out of the way, and then Ardeth was over it. The creature didn't even have time to react before he jammed a sharpened bone through its skull. It twitched slightly shortly, before it stopped moving altogether. Blood so dark it was almost black started gathering in a pool under its crushed head.

Selissa slowly got to her feet, clutching her injured arm. The wound was deep, but not serious, so she tried to ignore the pain shooting through her arm.

"Thanks," she muttered breathlessly. She had been a little too close to ending up as demon food for her liking. She looked down at herself and noticed disgusted that she was covered in drool.

"Gross . . ." she muttered as she attempted to wipe some off her shoulder.

Ardeth laughed softly while he checked to see if any of the demons were still alive. They were scattered around the clearing as flies, and once again Selissa found herself impressed by his fighting skills. It had taken him less than a minute to take down all of them, all while she had been struggling with one.

She watched as one of the beasts slowly got to its feet, its head lowered. Small, whining sounds erupted from its throat.

Ardeth slid another bone from his wrist, ready to kill it off, when an idea struck her.

"Wait!" she said and scurried towards him. He looked at her oddly, bone already raised over the demon's head.

"What?" he asked confused.

Selissa bent down next to the demon. "Just trust me," she said.

The demon looked at her and whimpered pathetically. It reminded her of a big dog. A big dog with scales and fangs the size of carving knives.

Not sure whether it would work, she carefully reached a hand towards it and concentrated on summoning up a bit of magic. She hadn't used any magic at all since she split up with Alassane, but somehow it still came naturally.

Pure white magic filled her palm, and she held it out to the demon. It watched her warily, before slowly leaning closer. It opened its mouth slightly and stuck out a long, thin tongue towards the light. It slowly started sucking away the magic until all of it was gone and her palm was empty.

"Why are you feeding it?" Ardeth asked incredulously.

The demon made a pleased sound, somewhere between a roar and a purr. It stood up fully, but made no move to attack or run away.

"You said they could track magic, right?" she said, glancing up at him. She carefully touched the hard scales on the Devourer's head. The long tongue darted out and licked her hand.

"Yeah . . . So?" Ardeth asked, still not following. He tilted his head as he watched the strange scene in front of him.

She turned her head to look at him, but kept petting the demon.

"Alassane is a powerful sorcerer. It should be able to track him down for us," Selissa said.

He looked at her like she had just suggested they invited Ilyan and his undead army for tea. He shook his head in disbelief.

"It might be docile right now while it's hurt, but it will turn on you sooner or later," he said. "So unless you like the idea of getting eaten, this is not a good plan."

Selissa knew he was right, but they had no other way to locate Alassane. This was a good a plan as they got.

An idea formed in her head. It wasn't a bad one, if you considered the other ideas she had had in the past week. She just needed to know if it would work.

She felt for Cadeyrn's presence. Can I do this? she asked him silently. Her answer in the form of power coursing down her arms.

Placing her palm against the demon's forehead, Selissa closed her eyes and allowed the magic to flow into the beast and possess it. It sat absolutely still, paralyzed by the spell.

She opened her eyes and removed her hand slowly. On the demon's forehead a shining white symbol had appeared. The exact same symbol that covered Selissa's back in long black lines. It shone white with magic for a few seconds before fading away, leaving only a faint mark carved in the scales.

"What did you do?" Ardeth asked warily. The demon sat down, still as a statue.

Selissa smiled, pleased with her work. "I subdued it. From now on, it's a servant of Cadeyrn. And, therefore, of me."

"Not bad," Ardeth said. "Not bad at all."

Selissa petted the Devourer's head gently and then got to her feet. "Now let's go find that undead bastard."

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# Chapter 41

The Devourer, whom Selissa had named Kurt to Ardeth's absolute horror, proved to be a valuable addition to their bizarre little team. Thanks to the link she had established between it and the archangel, it instinctively knew who to search for, as Alassane was as connected to Cadeyrn as she was.

Of course they had to avoid populated areas as much as possible now. They couldn't very well show up in a town with a demon in tow. Absentmindedly, Selissa wondered what the punchline would be if a girl possessed by an angel, a cult member and a demon walked into an inn. She decided she really didn't want to know.

Selissa let out a sigh as she watched the Devourer sniff the air. Finding Alassane couldn't happen fast enough. In the days they had spent searching, the Demios could have done all kinds of unspeakable things to Calen.

She knew they wouldn't kill him. He was their ace card, so they would keep him alive for as long as possible. But there were a lot of things they could do to the priest that were far worse than death.

And if anything happened to him, it would all be her fault. And she would never forgive herself for that.

She remembered all the times he had stood up for her. She wondered if he would still have protected her if he knew what he would get himself into later.

The thought made her smile sadly. He probably would have. Calen had always been the kindest and most selfless person she knew.

She would not let him down.

"We're nearing a town," Ardeth said.

Being lost in her own thoughts, Selissa hadn't noticed before, but now she saw the buildings up ahead.

"We'll go around it," she said, raising her hand. The symbol on the demon's forehead glowed and she willed it to pass by the town. To her surprise, it didn't change direction, but sat down and howled in protest.

"What's wrong?" Ardeth asked as he looked at the Devourer. "Your little magic tricks aren't working anymore?"

"No," Selissa muttered. "It's not that."

'You found him,' Cadeyrn whispered.

"Yeah, we did," she said out loud. Ardeth shot her a strange look.

"Care to fill me in?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Selissa grinned at him. "He's in this town."

"Let's go then," was the only reaction she got. Ardeth wasn't easily surprised.

She turned and raised her hand towards the demon again.

"Stay here," she said. The Devourer obediently lay down and rested its head on its paws.

Selissa gave it a pat on the head, then turned to hurry after Ardeth who was already walking towards the small town.

"Are you sure you want to talk to him?" he asked when she caught up to him. "I could just go in and knock him out, then drag him along. You wouldn't have to deal with him at all."

Selissa suppressed a smile. By Ardeth's standards, that was being sort of sweet. But even though she was tempted to accept his offer, she knew she had to face Alassane sooner or later.

"Thanks," she said. "But I'll be fine. I can knock him out myself."

Ardeth looked unconvinced, but let it go.

The guards looked at them suspiciously when they passed through the town gates, but they didn't make any move to stop them.

Selissa had prepared herself for searching the entire town to find Alassane, but it almost immediately turned out to be unnecessary.

They were just passing the town's inn when she heard shouting from inside. It sounded very much like a brawl was about to break out.

She shot a look at Ardeth, and they entered just in time to see a bulky man grab a very familiar person by the collar of his grubby coat.

"You think you're so smart, huh?" the man snarled at Alassane. Alassane didn't seem fazed, despite the fact that he was practically hanging off the floor by his collar.

Several more men were standing around them, looking enraged. They looked more than ready to beat up Alassane as soon as the bulky fellow was done with him. So Alassane did what he always did when he attempted to fix a problem. He made it much worse.

"Considering the company, yes, I would say I'm the more intelligent person in the room," he said calmly, still hanging awkwardly from the man's hand. Selissa resisted the urge to bang her head against the wall.

The man holding Alassane let out a furious growl and raised his fist to punch him. However, the movement caused him to loosen his grip on Alassane's coat, and before he knew it Alassane was behind him, kicking his legs out from under him. The man fell over, his bulky frame hitting the floor heavily and causing him to slam his head into the floorboards.

The action quickly caused others to join in the fight. Soon, fists were flying through the air, and tables and chairs were being knocked over. Men were falling over each other to get to Alassane who somehow managed to keep out of reach.

Selissa sighed and rubbed her forehead in exasperation. Normally, she was the person who started brawls. She didn't usually break them up, but it seemed like she had no choice this time.

She tried to reason with the men closest to her, but no one seemed to have time to stop and listen to her. After several failed attempts, she lost her patience.

"Everybody shut up!" Selissa yelled at the top of her lungs and finally got a reaction. People stopped moving and turned to stare wide-eyed at her.

"Better," she said when she got their attention. "Now, get out!"

One man stepped closer and sneered at her. He was not that much taller than her, but about twice as wide and he tried to use that to intimidate her. Selissa was not impressed.

"This is none of your business, woman," he said. "Stay out of it."

Selissa's eyes flared. He had no idea who he was dealing with.

"It is my business," she said coolly. "If anyone is going to beat up that man, it will be me."

The man let out a scornful laugh and grabbed her chin roughly. He had barely touched her before a hand shot forward and grabbed his wrist in a death grip.

"Don't touch her," a cold voice said. Selissa turned to look at Ardeth, who was looking at the man with a murderous look in his eyes.

"And what are you going to do about it, pretty boy?" The man laughed, but she didn't miss the nervous tinge to it.

Ardeth stepped closer, still holding the man's wrist tightly. He was far taller than him, and the man swallowed nervously as the Demios towered over him.

"What am I going to do about it?" Ardeth asked softly, his voice deadly calm. Bones shot out from everywhere on his arms and torso like great white spikes. The man's eyes widened in fear and shock at the sight, color rapidly draining from his face.

"You still want to fight me?" Ardeth asked, smiling in a way that showed entirely too many teeth. The man immediately let go of Selissa and tried to scramble away. Ardeth graciously let go of his wrist and allowed him to flee the room.

Ardeth looked around the room, where people were watching in slack-jawed shock.

"Anyone else has something they want to say?" he asked softly. His question seemed to jolt them into action and everyone were suddenly in a hurry to get out. Ardeth grinned, pleased with the reaction.

"You okay?" he asked Selissa and looked her over.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. Had Ardeth given her time, she would have slogged the man herself. It wasn't like she was a stranger to that kind of thing, though she had to admit she had never cleared a room quite as quickly as Ardeth.

She turned around to face Alassane, who was watching them warily.

"Well, this is a surprise . . ." he said slowly. "As always, it's some interesting company you ke--"

He didn't get to finish his sentence, because in that moment Selissa punched him in the face with enough force to knock him to the ground. She looked down at him while rubbing her hand.

"That felt a lot better than it should have," she said to herself. She heard Ardeth chuckle behind her, but chose to ignore him. She stepped closer to where Alassane was lying on the floor and frowned down at him.

"Get up," she said, her voice slightly harsher than she intended. "I need your help."

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# Chapter 42

"My help?" Alassane said as he got to his feet. He was rubbing his face where her fist had left an angry red mark. "You didn't want it before."

Selissa scowled at him. "Oh, I still want nothing to do with you," she said. "You are nothing more than a lying low-life and I would like nothing more than to never have to deal with you again. Unfortunately, things rarely go my way."

Alassane watched her calmly, despite her harsh words. "What do you want from me?"

She lowered her eyes. "They have Calen," she said.

She could almost see him rack his brain, probably trying to avoid another punch caused by asking a wrong question. "Your priest friend?" he said slowly, trying to place the name. She nodded and led a hand to the pendant she had taken to wearing around her neck.

"I'm going to free him. And I need your help with that," she said, leaving no room for him to refuse.

"You're going to do exactly what they want you to do?" Alassane asked incredulously. "They want you to come to them!"

"Don't you think I know that?" Selissa asked angrily. She knew very well that she would have to play by their rules, but she didn't exactly have a choice.

"Do you still not realize the consequences if they catch you?" he asked seriously. "If they complete the ritual, we won't be able to stop them."

"Then come with me and make sure they don't," she shot back.

"You're really going to do this, aren't you?" Alassane said, voice flat.

"Yes. And you're coming along." She knew he wouldn't refuse. Protecting Cadeyrn's host was the only thing that mattered to him, and he knew she knew that.

He looked into her eyes and saw the determination there. With a resigned sigh, he nodded.

ℓ

They had left the inn in a hurry, before the townspeople returned with reinforcements. Alassane had followed them without further protest, but that didn't stop him from shooting dirty looks at Ardeth.

"Do you mind explaining to me how you ended up with the demon spawn over there?" he asked. Ardeth sent him a mocking grin.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Don't like the fact that you have been replaced?"

Alassane scoffed. "Didn't you try to kill her?" he shot back. "Hardly the best company."

"And you're better?" Ardeth's grin was, once again, showing too many teeth. "I think being with me beats traveling around with a dead guy."

Alassane opened his mouth to deliver what was no doubt a scathing reply, but Selissa had had enough.

"For the love of Shi'laran, shut up!" she yelled. They both stopped and looked at her in surprise.

"Stop acting like children!" she said, not caring that the men she was yelling at were both immensely powerful and dangerous. Their constant bickering and male egos were driving her insane, and it wasn't like she had been all that happy to begin with. "If you want to beat each other up, go ahead. I don't care. Just stop it!"

They both looked like they were going to protest, but she shot them a look that had even them shutting up. They kept glaring at each other, but followed her in silence, and that was all she really wanted.

She closed her eyes and felt for the Devourer's presence. It was still where she had left it, and she called it to her through the magical link. It might have fulfilled its purpose and tracked down Alassane, but it could still be useful. Besides, it was bound to her, and it was kind of nice to have someone who obeyed her every command. It was tempting to try the spell on the two brooding men behind her, but she figured that might count as power abuse.

"How far is there to Ilyan's mansion?" she asked Ardeth. He visibly brightened at having her talk to him again. She rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to smack him when he shot Alassane a triumphant look.

"We should be able to get there in less than a day," he said.

She nodded silently. In her opinion, that wasn't fast enough, but it would have to do. She would give anything to know if Calen was all right.

Her anxiety must have shown on her face, because Ardeth looked at her in that uncertain way he always did when forced to deal with human emotions.

"Hey," he said, in a voice that was probably meant to be comforting but wasn't used to the job. He reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers hesitantly. "I admit I don't understand why it is so important for you to save this guy. In my opinion, he would probably be better off dead."

He looked at her with an intensity that almost made her stop dead in her tracks.

"But since it is important to you, we will get him out alive. I promise you this."

She looked at him in surprise. It was the first time Ardeth had cared about anyone's life, even if it was only for her sake. And the fact that he cared because she cared made some unfamiliar emotion spread in her chest and she wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She settled for offering him a confused smile.

"I really don't understand you, Ardeth," she said softly. "But thank you."

He led her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. "My pleasure," he said with a playful smirk before dropping her hand.

She laughed at him, trying to ignore how cold her hand felt after he let it go. She had almost completely forgotten about Alassane when the man cleared his throat, rather more loudly than was strictly necessary.

"And what exactly is the plan when we get there?" he asked, sending them both a look that clearly said they better stop whatever they were doing. Selissa bit her lip in embarrassment, but willed herself not to blush. Maybe she was getting a bit too chummy with the former cultist.

"Get in, get the priest, and get out," Ardeth said as if it was the simplest thing in the world. Alassane scoffed in disdain.

"So you're just going to barge in? Why not just jump off a cliff, if you're so willing to die?" he said sarcastically.

Ardeth let a couple of bones shoot out from his fingers and watched them thoughtfully. "I can make a shield over my skin with my bones. I'm not sure jumping off a cliff would actually kill me."

Selissa tried not to laugh at Alassane's expression. They had to be the oddest group ever to embark on a rescue mission. "What Ardeth is trying to say is that we don't have a plan."

"Well, that is comforting," Alassane said, sarcasm dripping from his every word. She ignored him. She didn't really have anything better to offer him.

A low growl sounded behind them, and she turned to see the Devourer catching up to them. It ran to her side, and she stroked the scales on its head affectionately. She was becoming quite fond of it.

"What is that?" Alassane asked incredulously as he stared at the demon.

"It's a demon. I call him Kurt," Selissa said, offering no further explanation. She ignored Alassane's disbelieving expression and kept on walking.

They didn't speak much after that, focusing solely on reaching the Demios' nest. Any further attempt at conversation would probably not have gone over well anyway.

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# Chapter 43

They reached the mansion the next evening. Twilight had already fallen, which only made the huge building even more unsettling.

The mansion loomed over them, the very walls emitting the same dreadful aura Selissa associated with the Demios. Death and despair.

Large, naked oak trees stood in the front garden like silent sentinels. The leafless branches cast long shadows across the mansion, making it look like fingers clawing at the walls and trying to get in.

Not a sound was heard around the house. Not even birds seemed to come near this place. A heavy ambience surrounded it, causing all living things to instinctively avoid it.

Selissa swallowed heavily, but forced herself not to give in to the panic she felt. She wanted to run. To run and never look back. But she couldn't go back now.

"Are you ready for this?" Ardeth asked her. He was looking down at her with something resembling concern in his eyes. It was an odd emotion that did not belong in those normally cold eyes.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she said. She glanced at Alassane over her shoulder. He nodded silently at her, indicating that he was ready as well. The Devourer let out a low whine and scratched at the ground restlessly. It clearly didn't want to go in there anymore than she did.

Ardeth gestured for them to follow him and led them around the mansion. The closer they got to the building itself, the heavier the choking atmosphere got. It crept under Selissa's skin and made shivers run down her spine. The feeling of dark magic surrounded the place like a heavy cloak, and she wasn't able to shake it off.

They got to the back of the mansion, and Ardeth slowly made his way along the side of the building. Selissa was just about to ask what he was looking for, when her eyes fell on a wooden hatch. It was almost covered by vines and overgrown plants, so she would have missed it if she hadn't been looking for anything out of place.

Ardeth grabbed a hold of the handle and pulled. It clearly hadn't been used in a long time, and it only reluctantly opened. The wood creaked loudly, the sound cutting through the silent night like a roar.

"It leads to the basement," Ardeth said. "It's the only way to get inside without being seen."

Selissa nodded, although she really didn't have any desire to enter a necromancer's basement. Visions of undead corpses grabbing at her ankles flashed through her mind, and she shuddered in disgust.

She thought about Calen and took a deep breath. They were holding him somewhere inside and he needed her help. This was not the time to be afraid of the dark.

She took the hand Ardeth held out to her and hesitantly followed him down the narrow staircase leading down to the dark cellar.

She jumped slightly when the old wood creaked underneath her feet. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and she tightened her grip on Ardeth's hand. She had to calm down. She would be no help if she was jumping at shadows.

Feeling her feet land on the concrete floor of the basement, Selissa looked around blindly. The room was so dark that she could only just make out Ardeth's form in front of her.

She lifted the hand that wasn't holding onto Ardeth's and summoned a small amount of magic into her palm. The pure white light lit up the area around them, allowing her to make out the contours of the room.

It was plain and only contained a few dusty bookcases and some boxes spread out across the floor. A few doorways led to the basement's other rooms.

She heard Alassane make his way down the stairs, followed by the heavy steps of the Devourer. Alassane came to stand beside her and looked warily around the room.

"Have you any idea where they might be keeping him?" he asked tensely. Selissa shook her head.

"No. We will have to search for him," she said. Alassane nodded, but the frown on his face told her he was not happy with the situation. She couldn't blame him.

"Let's split up and search the basement first," Ardeth said and let go of her hand. Selissa desperately wished to grip it again, just to have something to hold on to, but instead she clenched her now free hand at her side.

"I'm not sure it's a good idea to split up," Alassane said. "If any of us runs into trouble, they'll be alone."

Selissa had a feeling that when he said 'they', he was referring to her. Ardeth scoffed at him.

"Everyone here can hold their own until the others can reach them," he said.

Alassane frowned and looked like he wanted to protest, but reluctantly nodded his agreement.

Selissa and Ardeth went through one doorway, while Alassane took the other. The Devourer stalked after her like a watchful guard dog, a low growl coming from its throat.

The next room they stepped into was bigger and looked like it was used for storage. Old furniture was stocked up along the walls, and piles of dusty items were scattered around the floor.

Two doors led away from the room, one on each side. Selissa cast an uneasy look at Ardeth when she realized they would have to split up.

"You go left, I go right?" he asked her. She nodded, before realizing he had no way to see in the dark without her.

She took his hand, letting the magic pool into his palm. It formed a shining white sphere in his hand and cast a soft light into the room.

He watched her carefully, but she just smiled weakly and made her way to the left door. Her hand shook slightly as she placed it on the doorknob, and she took a moment to collect herself.

She heard Ardeth open the other door, and out of the corner of her eye she could see the light from her magic fade away as he went through it. She turned the doorknob and slowly pushed her own door open.

The next room was smaller and completely empty. She walked through it slowly, the Devourer padding along behind her, and found yet another door. She grabbed the doorknob, only to find it locked.

She shook it roughly to see if the lock would give in. The metal lock held, but the old wooden door creaked loudly under the force.

Backing away a bit, Selissa rammed her shoulder into the door. She winced at the loud, banging sound as she hit it, but she felt the door give under the pressure.

She repeated the motion again, and the wood splintered. The third time the door flew up, causing her to nearly fall into the room.

The magic vanished when she stumbled through the broken door, and Selissa was suddenly shrouded in complete darkness. She blinked her eyes furiously, trying to adjust to the missing light.

Suddenly she felt a wave of something dark and menacing brush over her skin. The feeling of magic washed over her and wrapped itself around her. The dark presence in the room was so intense it almost choked her.

'Get out. Now.' Cadeyrn's voice was clear and urgent. She would have been more than happy to listen to him, but she had to know what was in there.

She raised her hand above her head, letting white flames shoot from her palm. They lit up the room, casting long, flickering shadows into the corners.

Her eyes took in the room, a feeling of dread spreading in her chest and seeping into every inch of her body. Behind her, the Devourer whined uneasily.

Along the walls and scattered across the floor were countless unlit candles. The only piece of furniture was a table placed at the far end of the room. It was covered in a black cloth and several items she couldn't identify from where she stood were placed on it. But it wasn't the table that caught her eye.

Selissa felt her hands begin to shake when she looked at the floor. Bile rose in her throat and she covered her mouth with her hand as she took a step back.

The blood was old and faded, but she could still make out the symbol drawn on the floor.

Azarial's mark, drawn in blood. Exactly the same as at the temple. The same as in her nightmare.

Memories of cloaked figures and chanting voices flashed before her eyes, and the shaking got worse as she realized this was the exact same room featured in the nightmare that had plagued her for years.

Another thing she realized was that this was the place the ritual for freeing the banished demon lord would take place. And where it had taken place before.

Selissa slowly sank to her knees as long-repressed memories suddenly came rushing back. She had been there before.

She was so lost in her thoughts she didn't hear someone enter the room before they spoke.

"I see you have found me."

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# Chapter 44

Selissa looked up to find Ilyan standing at the other end of the room. The ghostly white light danced across his disfigured face and made the scars look even more grotesque than in daylight.

"Do you remember the last time you were here?" he asked as if recalling fond memories. She watched him warily, but didn't answer. He didn't seem to mind.

"Unfortunately, the archangel's powers went wild and ruined the ceremony before it was complete." With a flick of his hand, all the candles flared to life and lit up the room. Suddenly, Selissa's small ball of light seemed weak and insignificant.

"You have tried to do this to me before," she said quietly. The scattered memories were wreaking havoc inside her mind, but she knew that much.

"Getting to you was much easier back then," Ilyan mused. "You didn't have such ardent protectors. Your father did fight valiantly, though."

Selissa's eyes widened. Her father?

Nowhere in her mind could she find any memories of her parents. All her life she had believed that they were either dead or had abandoned her.

Despite her situation, she felt a weight lift from her chest. She hadn't been abandoned. She wasn't unwanted. Her father had fought for her.

Selissa knew he had likely died for her too. But she would not let his sacrifice be in vain. She had no intention of dying there tonight.

She had to keep Ilyan talking until she figured out how to get out of there.

"So, what went wrong?" she asked.

Ilyan watched the shadows dancing across the walls. "We couldn't subdue him," he said slowly. "He managed to take over and fight us."

"Take over?" Selissa asked confused. Cadeyrn had possessed her?

Ilyan sighed. "The will of a child is much weaker. It was not hard for Cadeyrn to overpower you and take control of your body," he said. The sudden gleam in his eyes made her heart sink in her chest.

"He brought you to safety, before sealing away both his powers and your memories. He might have done so to protect you, to prevent us from finding you." Ilyan smiled darkly. "Clearly he underestimated us."

For some reason, Selissa felt the need to stand up for the angel. "It still took you years, didn't it?" she said, sneering at the necromancer. "You didn't find me before almost six years had passed."

"I have spent fifteen years working to achieve my goal," Ilyan said. "And all those years now seem insignificant when you think of what I will achieve here tonight."

This man was utterly insane, Selissa decided in that moment. The zealous look in his eyes told her he was deadly serious.

"Why do you want to release a demon lord? Do you really think he will reward you?" she asked defiantly. "You will be nothing but a nuisance to him once he's free."

To her surprise, Ilyan laughed. "When he sees my potential, he will bestow his power on me." He approached her slowly until he was in front of her and leaned down to look her directly in the eye. "I will be his most loyal and trusted servant."

Selissa leaned back in repulsion. He was so close she could practically see the madness shining from behind his eyes. He really believed that a powerful demon would be thankful to a human.

In the end, it didn't matter. She would rather die than be his sacrificial lamb. Only the thought of Calen prevented her from taking her sword and ramming it into her stomach, ending this once and for all.

Ilyan rose and walked to the other end of the room. He bent down over the table and studied something lying there.

"I knew you would come for your friend," he said quietly. "So now everything is ready for the ceremony to start."

Selissa wasn't having any of that. She got to her feet and charged at his turned back. Magic was crackling around her fingers, just waiting to be released.

She didn't get far. Ilyan turned abruptly, and suddenly long strands of black magic shot out and wrapped themselves around her arms and legs, binding her in place.

She glared at him as she stood rooted to the floor, unable to move. He merely smiled knowingly at her.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" he asked. Selissa's eyes fell on the item he had picked up from the table. The light from the candles hit the long blade and made it flash ominously.

"Maybe cutting off a leg or two would make you a little calmer," Ilyan said thoughtfully as if the idea didn't seem bizarre to him at all. He walked closer, raising the knife as he went. He was only a few feet from her, knife raised to strike, when a heavy weight slammed into him.

He fell to the floor, the Devourer clawing and snapping at him. The knife clattered to the ground as he tried to avoid the deadly fangs trying to rip open his throat.

The dark magic restraining her vanished the moment the demon hit him. For a second, Selissa considered helping it, but she knew she didn't have the time. Sending a thankful thought to the creature for saving her life, she ran out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her.

She found a staircase in the next room and almost fell over her own feet in her hurry to climb it. Ripping open the door at the top, Selissa flew through it and slammed it shut behind her.

She leaned against it heavily and looked around to see where she had ended up. She was in a dimly lit hallway. It was empty.

Catching her breath, Selissa made her way through it slowly. Her body was tense, and her eyes flickered warily. There was a good chance that all the noise had alerted someone, and she would hate to be there when they came looking for the source. She didn't know how long the demon could keep Ilyan busy, either.

The shadows formed eerie shapes on the walls, like hands reaching for her as she passed by. She knew it was just the paranoia talking, but she still watched them carefully, as if they would leap out and attack her at any moment.

She opened the first door she passed, but all that greeted her was an empty room. It was the same with the three next doors. It seemed like the entire building was deserted, but she knew that was all just an illusion. If Ilyan had prepared for the ritual, the Demios would be there. It was just a matter of time before they came to find her. Hopefully, she would find Calen first.

She turned down another hallway, hoping to find some clue as to where they were keeping the priest. This hallway didn't have any doors, but led to a huge staircase that seemed to lead down to the main hall. She was just about to go past it when she heard voices coming from the hall. She quickly ducked behind the banister, hiding herself from view.

Her heart hammered in her chest as she listened to the hushed voices. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she could pick out two people.

She prayed they wouldn't notice her. Had there been only one, she might have been able to knock them out before they saw her, but two people would easily overpower her.

She heard footsteps on the stairs and panicked. Still ducked out of view, she hurriedly ran back the way she had come, careful not to make any noise. She stepped into the hallway, just as she heard them reach the top of the stairs.

She straightened up and sprinted down the hallway. It would only be seconds before she would be in clear view. She turned around a corner and opened the first door to her right, stumbling through it. She closed the door quietly behind her and leaned against the wall beside it.

As she listened for footsteps outside, Selissa drew one of her swords. If someone entered the room, she would slit the first one's throat the moment they opened the door and hopefully catch the other by surprise.

She heard the muted sound of footsteps and tensed. She didn't even dare breathe as she heard them coming closer, and she gripped the hilt of the sword until her knuckles turned white.

The footsteps sounded just outside the room, and she let out the breath she had been holding when she heard them continue down the hallway.

She waited until long after the sound of footsteps had faded away. Opening the door, she peered outside. Finding the hallway empty, she slipped out and went in the opposite direction of where the others had gone.

She searched every room she could find, but there was no sign of Calen. It didn't help that the mansion was huge and there seemed to be an endless amount of halls and corridors. It didn't take long for Selissa to lose her sense of direction.

She was closing another door when she felt something snake its way up her legs. She looked down to see the shadows writhe at her feet as if they had suddenly come to life. They seemed to take solid form, before wrapping themselves around her legs like ropes.

She tried to move her legs, but the living shadows kept her firmly restrained to the floor. The more she struggled, the more the shadows spread over her body.

"Seems we have an intruder." A figure literally stepped out from the shadows in the hallway. If he could cloak himself in shadows, it would explain why Selissa hadn't seen him coming, but that was hardly a comfort.

She had never seen him before. He had to be around her age, maybe slightly older. His sickly pale face was framed by dirty blond hair, giving him an unhealthy appearance. The black tattoo under his eye stood out sharply against his pale skin. The shadows seemed to gather around him, causing him to be surrounded by darkness.

Selissa immediately reached for her swords, but the shadows writhed in response to the movement and shot out to wrap themselves around her wrist. Her other hand got strapped to her side, and she was suddenly unable to move.

"Let me go," she hissed at the newcomer. Obviously she knew he wasn't going to do that, but sounding threatening beat just standing there looking like an idiot.

The Demios stepped closer, the shadows slithering around him.

"Lord Ilyan would appreciate me bringing you to him. Let's not--" He stopped dead in his tracks when two strong arms wrapped themselves around him.

"Let's not what, Alecta?" Ardeth said softly in his ear. He had to bend down since he was much taller than the man he was holding, and the effect was not unlike that of a giant snake leaning its head towards the prey wrapped in its tail.

"So you really have turned traitor, Ardeth," Alecta said disgusted. "You would rather protect an angel?"

He said the word like a curse. Ardeth smiled darkly.

"Goodbye, Alecta," he said. Bones shot out from everywhere on his body and impaled Alecta like spears. For a brief second, the other man's eyes were wide with shock, but they soon turned cold as the life left them.

Ardeth let the bones slide back into his flesh and released Alecta's dead body. It dropped limply to the floor, blood flowing from the many deep wounds.

Ardeth looked emotionlessly at the body, as if he hadn't just turned himself into a living version of an iron maiden. His clothes were torn and hanging off his body, and he was covered in Alecta's blood.

Selissa looked at him and found she didn't mind. After all, he had once again saved her life.

"What does it say about me that I find you less and less horrifying every day?" she asked as she stepped around the body, now free of the restraining shadows. Ardeth merely grinned at her.

She looked down at Alecta's lifeless form and thought about what he had said.

"You never actually told me why you're helping me," she said slowly. She had pushed it to the back of her mind for a long time, but seeing him killing a former ally made the question seem all the more important.

Ardeth smiled that disarming smile that usually made her drop the subject. "Do I need a reason for saving your life?" he asked.

"This time you do," she said. This time she wanted an actual answer.

He stepped closer to her and raised his hand to her face. He gently stroked her cheek, smearing blood all over her face in the process. He looked into her eyes earnestly.

"Maybe I wanted to be the hero for once," he said. He leaned forward slowly and pressed his lips to hers.

His lips tasted of blood, and they were standing beside a fresh body, in enemy territory. But despite the bizarre situation, Selissa found she didn't mind.

She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck, not caring that she was getting covered in blood. She tangled her fingers in his long hair, hair that was much softer than she had imagined, and ignored the voice in the back of her head that told her this was not the time.

But soon the madness cleared and she was reminded that she was standing in a necromancer's home, next to the corpse of a man whose heart had barely stopped beating. A man whose blood was now on her lips, because she was kissing a murderer while she should be rescuing Calen and then get out before someone used her to release a demon lord.

Lightheaded for more reasons than she could count, Selissa broke away from Ardeth. But she didn't step away. He leaned his forehead against hers and grinned at her.

"Let's go find that friend of yours and get out of here."

She could only agree.

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# Chapter 45

"You didn't find anything in the basement?" Selissa asked as they walked down the hallway. Ardeth shook his head.

"No sign of them keeping him down there," he said. "I don't think the dead guy has found anything, either."

She had completely forgotten about Alassane. She wondered if he had run into any of the Demios after they split up.

"Where do you--" She paused when something caught her eye. A few dark spots stained the floor in front of them. She bent down and traced her fingers over it. It didn't take a genius to figure out it was bloodstains, but they were old and had long since dried.

It didn't surprise her that there were bloodstains in a place like this, but why hadn't it been cleaned up?

"The whole place smells of old blood," Ardeth commented, clearly following her thoughts.

"Their blood or Calen's?" Selissa wondered aloud. She heard an amused huff coming from Ardeth.

"The priest's, most likely," he said. "You might be able to wound a Demios, but ordinary humans can't. Most people passing through here are only covered in other people's blood, not their own."

She grimaced at the thought, but nodded. Ardeth certainly had a habit of getting coated in other people's blood.

"Well--" He stopped talking abruptly, and she turned to look at him.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We got company," he said in a tense voice she had never heard him use before and looked pointedly at something behind her. Confused, Selissa turned to look and immediately knew they were in deep trouble.

She had not heard them approach, but now the smell of decay filled her nose.

The bodies walking slowly towards them looked nothing like the rotting corpses Ilyan had summoned in Cadeyrn's temple. These could almost have passed for being living. Their hair had not yet fallen out and while their skin was ashen gray, it had not begun to rot.

The only reason she knew they were dead was the empty eyes staring into the air. And the fact that among them was Nadesha. The Demios she had watched die.

Selissa watched in horror as the lifeless remains of the deceased Demios limped towards them, like a morbid parade in honor of Ilyan's insanity. The experiments Ardeth had talked about apparently didn't stop just because the guinea pigs were no longer among the living.

She scrambled back to stand beside Ardeth, who already had bones sliding from his skin.

She reached for her swords, but Ardeth stopped her.

"Go," he said. "I'll take care of them."

Protest immediately sprung from her lips. "I'm not going to--"

"You're here to find your friend, aren't you?" Ardeth asked. "Then you better hurry."

Selissa looked uncertainly at the undead approaching. Ardeth smiled darkly.

"I'll be fine," he said, dismissing her unspoken concerns.

She hesitated, but then nodded. "You better be," she told him, before running down the hallway, leaving him to deal with the shambling corpses. It didn't take long before she heard the sounds of bones ripping through flesh.

She kept on running, not entirely sure where she was going. She kept turning down new, unfamiliar hallways and only slowed down when she noticed the heavy smell of old blood.

She hadn't noticed it before when Ardeth commented on it, but now the smell was so severe it almost choked her. She put a hand over her nose and rushed to the nearest door. He had to be here . . .

She threw it open, but it was nothing but an empty sitting room. The next room wasn't any better.

Door after door was slammed open, but Selissa didn't find what she was looking for. She grabbed the next doorknob, only to find the door locked.

She could hear the blood rushing in her ears. She backed up and threw herself at the door, but it didn't budge. She tried again, but there was no sign of the wood giving in. She considered breaking the wood with her sword blade, but thought of something better.

Stepping back, Selissa summoned a small amount of magic into her hand. She aimed at the lock and released it, sending white light flying towards the door.

The lock broke, and the door flew open. Selissa reeled back as the smell knocked into her like a wave. Fighting back the nausea, she carefully stepped into the room, afraid of what she would see.

The walls and floor were covered with dark brown stains, making it look like someone had sprayed paint all over them. Selissa wanted to cry when her eyes fell on the figure slumped on the floor.

His usually shaggy blond hair was dirty and matted. His torn clothes were bloodied and hung off his frame, which was much thinner than the last time she had seen him. His body was hunched over, so she couldn't see his face, but the unsteady rise and fall of his shoulders told her he was breathing.

She rushed to his side and fell to her knees beside him. Carefully cradling his face, Selissa lifted it so she could look at him.

"Oh Calen . . ." she whispered. "What have they done to you?"

The priest looked at her, but his eyes were glazed and unfocused. It took several seconds before he recognized her.

"Selissa . . .?" he asked, his voice low and raw, as if he had been screaming. She tried to smile at him, but it turned into a grimace.

"I'll get you out of here, I promise," she said. She dragged her eyes from his face to check him for injuries. To her surprise, there was none.

There was fresh blood on his torn robes, but she couldn't find any wounds on his body. Terrified, Selissa realized they must have healed him after torturing him to keep him alive. How much pain had he had to go through . . .?

"I will kill those bastards," she said through gritted teeth. She looked back up at Calen to see his eyes flicker as if he was just barely keeping conscious.

"Stay with me," she said and dragged his arm over her shoulders. He was not much taller than her and so thin that it was no problem for her to lift him up. He leaned heavily against her, his legs not quite able to carry him.

She wrapped an arm around his waist to support him and nearly dragged the priest from the room. She almost dropped him in shock when she found Ardeth standing just outside.

"You found him," he said, stating the obvious.

"How did you get here so fast?" Selissa asked. Had he really taken down all the undead that quickly?

"Ilyan must have called them back. They all suddenly just left," Ardeth said, sounding oddly annoyed by that turn of events. "Or what was left of them, anyway."

She had a feeling that was a bad sign. They couldn't get out fast enough in her opinion.

Ardeth looked at Calen's slumped over form with a raised eyebrow.

"You know, it would be more merciful to just kill him," he said. Selissa glared at him.

"Just help me carry him, will you?" she said. Ardeth laughed softly, before grabbing Calen and slinging him onto his back like he weighed nothing.

"Hang on, priest boy," he said and made sure Calen's arms were safely around his neck.

"Let's get out of here," Selissa said. She couldn't wait to leave this cursed place.

But Ardeth didn't move. He watched her seriously.

"Are you just going to run?" he asked. "If you leave now, they will never stop hunting you."

She clenched her jaw and looked away. She didn't want to hear it, but she knew he was right.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked in frustration.

"As long as he is alive, he will come for you again," Ardeth said softly.

Selissa glanced at him unsurely. "So you want me to kill him?"

"It's the only way to be free of him," he said calmly. She looked at him, feeling lost. Killing came so easily to him, but she had never intentionally hunted someone down in order to kill them. She didn't know if she was strong enough.

She looked at Calen, who was hanging limply from Ardeth's shoulders. They had kidnapped and tortured him. All because of her. And if she didn't end this, they would do so again.

"He's in the basement, isn't he? In the ritual room," she said slowly. For some reason, she had a feeling he was waiting for her. He had not come after her personally, but sent his undead minions. He would be there.

Ardeth watched her silently, knowing that she wasn't waiting for an answer. She turned on her heels and started walking back the way she came.

She would end this tonight.

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# Chapter 46

The flames from the candles flickered slightly as Selissa opened the door and entered the ritual room. Ardeth had left Calen upstairs and was following close behind her. Looking around the room, the first thing she noticed was the body of the Devourer on the floor, a pool of blood spreading beneath it.

She kneeled down next to it, already knowing it was dead.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

It had died protecting her, and she wouldn't let its sacrifice be in vain. Too many had gotten hurt because of her.

"I see you have come for me." Ilyan stepped out of the shadows as Selissa got up. For once, his appearance didn't strike fear into her. Now there was only determination. She had come to end this, and she would.

She drew both of her swords and lowered them in front of her. The only sound in the room was the muted sound of the blades scratching lightly against the floor.

"It ends here, demon." She said this with surprising calm. Ilyan wasn't fazed by her audacity. He laughed, a laugh that made the air turn cold.

"You call me a demon, like it is a bad thing," he said mockingly. He stepped closer, the light illuminating his scarred face.

She tightened her grip on the hilts, but he didn't come any closer. Leading a hand to his own face, Ilyan slowly traced some of the white scars.

"You have such faith in humans," he said. "You see everything in black and white, and in your mind the humans will always be on the side of good."

He let the hand fall away and looked at her with his cold eyes. They were almost as lifeless as the creatures he raised, but a deep hatred was burning behind them.

"It was humans that gave me these scars. They did gruesome things to me, simply because I was blessed with a unique ability. They cast aside everyone they deem unworthy," he said, his voice sending chills down Selissa's spine. "Before you condemn the demons, you might want to look at the true nature of your precious humanity."

The truth of his words pained her, but she held his eyes defiantly. She had seen the dark side of humans. People had shied away from her, simply because her appearance unnerved them. They would mistreat children after seeing a black tattoo on their face, believing them to be worth less than themselves.

Humans lied and deceived others. She knew very well that some humans could be as cruel as the demons they feared. But no matter how much proof she had of human depravity, she refused to give up on them.

She wished to believe everyone had something good in them. In fact, she needed to believe that.

"No matter what humans have done to you, it doesn't justify this," Selissa said calmly. He had let countless people die for his delusions, and she knew many more would follow if she didn't stop him. Including herself.

She tensed when she saw other figures emerge from the shadows. She stared into the eyes of the animated Demios as they came to stand beside Ilyan like obedient dogs, waiting for him to give his orders.

When she had first seen them in the hallway, she had thought they looked almost alive, because of the lack of decay. But looking at them now, Selissa could see that there was no way most of them could be alive.

One appeared perfectly healthy, but the gaping hole through his stomach showed otherwise. Another had had his throat slit so thoroughly that his neck was nothing but a huge, open wound. Yet another had had his eye gouged out so violently the hole went all the way through his skull.

Swallowing the bile in her throat, Selissa looked at Nadesha, who was staring emptily into the air to her left. Her body was still whole, as it had been a magic spell that had killed her.

Selissa knew it wouldn't be long before her body started rotting and falling apart, and just the thought of someone having to experience the decay of their own body made her sick.

"Let them go," she said, her voice strained with disgust. "They already died for you once."

"Why do you care about them?" Ilyan asked amused. "They are servants of Azarial, after all."

It took every bit of self-restraint she had not to lash out at him. Selissa flexed her fingers around the hilts of her swords, trying to resist the urge to bury the blades in his chest.

"They still deserve to rest in peace. No one deserves to be ripped from their graves," she said, her voice dangerously low. She felt Ardeth shift closer to her. He had yet to say a word, but knowing he was there made her feel slightly better. Slightly.

"They're just empty shells." Ilyan scoffed. "They feel nothing."

Her patience was wearing thin. "Release them," she said again.

She heard Cadeyrn whisper softly in mind, but she couldn't make out the words. She knew he was responding to her anger. Power was surging through her, erasing all traces of exhaustion.

"I said release them," she repeated when she got no answer. She was vaguely aware of the magic leaking from her body and covering her skin like an aureole. For a second she saw Ilyan's eyes widen, and she could swear she saw fear in them.

The magic flowed down to envelop the blades of her swords, and the white light seemed to glister against the steel. She held one of them up in front of her, pointing it at Ilyan. It shone brightly, making the light from the candles seem incredible weak in comparison.

She could feel Cadeyrn's presence melt together with hers, and she reveled in the feeling. It felt like every fear and doubt she had ever had was being chased away by the bright light filling her body.

"Last chance," she said. Her voice didn't even sound like her anymore. It was lighter, yet still more powerful. "If you won't free them, I will."

She didn't wait for an answer. Brandishing her blades, she lunged at him.

Ilyan raised his hand, and immediately one of the undead came to his aid. Selissa didn't have time to stop before her swords slashed into Nadesha's chest.

She froze, staring into Nadesha's lifeless eyes. She had swung the swords with enough strength to cave right through her body, and only Selissa's grip on the blades embedded in her chest kept it from falling apart.

Selissa had to remind herself that Nadesha was already dead. She might have looked alive, but she wasn't. The blades in her chest didn't kill her.

Selissa took a deep breath, before stepping back and letting the swords slide out of the body. With nothing to hold it up, Nadesha's mauled corpse staggered for a moment, before collapsing in a heap on the floor. Selissa was about to step over it when she realized it was still moving.

The torso was almost severed from the rest of the body, but Nadesha's corpse still tried to pick itself up from the floor.

Selissa stared with bizarre fascination as it desperately tried to stand up. The legs were flailing uselessly, while the arms tried to push the body up. Each attempt was spoiled as it collapsed to the floor again.

She dragged her eyes away from the sad and macabre sight and looked up at Ilyan, who was slowly backing away.

He locked eyes with her. "Kill them," he said, and it took her a moment to realize he was addressing the undead.

Selissa rushed at him, only to be stopped by dead hands grabbing her. She struggled against them while she watched Ilyan slip out the door at the other end of the room.

"Come back here, you coward!" she screamed and tried to pry off the fingers holding her in a death grip. She felt them release one of her hands, and she looked up to see Ardeth slashing a corpse to pieces.

She swung her free hand at the other one holding her, and the sword went right through its neck. The corpse released her when its head separated from its shoulders and hit the floor with a sickening sound of bone and flesh.

She kicked away the headless body, and it fell to the floor like an old ragdoll. Several more were approaching them, and she stepped closer to Ardeth to avoid getting separated from him.

"You need to go," he said when she had her back to his. Everywhere, lifeless bodies seemed to be coming at them. Selissa was getting really tired of being surrounded.

"Are you kidding me?" she said and cut off an arm that was reaching for her. It didn't stop its owner, however, so she promptly cut off its legs, and it tumbled to the ground.

"I will hold them off. You go after Ilyan," Ardeth said and threw a bone spike after another corpse. It hit it in the forehead with such force that it went right through its skull and knocked it off its feet.

"You're crazy," Selissa said. They were everywhere. She couldn't possibly leave him to deal with all of them by himself.

They were standing close enough that she could feel him shrug.

"Can't really argue with that," he said. "Now go."

She looked at him uncertainly over her shoulder and saw he was deadly serious.

Finally, she said, "If you die, I will never forgive you."

Ardeth laughed as he took down another undead Demios. "Well, I would be dead and beyond caring, but I get your point." He turned his head and looked at her, suddenly serious.

"I won't," he promised. She hesitated for a second before nodding.

"I believe in you," she said and ignored the surprised look on his face.

She raised her swords and began slashing at the seemingly endless crowd of animated bodies. Limbs flew around her, but not a single drop of blood was spilled. It had been too long since a beating heart had pumped blood through their veins.

Hands grabbed at her, but she threw them off before they could get a hold of her. Something grabbed at her leg, and she almost fell through the door as she reached the end of the room. She sent a kick at it and her foot hit its target. She heard something break, and the fingers released her.

She stumbled through the door and slammed it shut behind her. She prayed Ardeth would be okay, but she didn't have time to worry about that now.

She ran through the maze of the basement, searching every corner she could find. It wasn't long before she heard the muted sound of footsteps from somewhere to her right.

She turned sharply and followed the sound. There was no way she would let him get away.

The basement seemed to consist of an endless amount of small rooms. She had a feeling that every time she entered a new one, he had just passed through it.

She could no longer hear Ardeth fighting. She stopped, the sound of her own footsteps fading away. For a moment, the only thing she could hear was her own shallow breathing.

The other set of footsteps had stopped as well. She stood very still, trying to hear anything over the rapid beating of her heart.

'Take the left door.' Deciding to trust the angel, Selissa turned to the door. She approached it slowly and realized she could feel the aura of dark magic coming from the adjoining room.

'He is playing with you.´ She nodded. She knew it was Ilyan's plan to separate her from Ardeth, so he could face her alone. And even while knowing that, she had no choice but to play into his hands.

"You're with me, right?" she asked quietly. Cadeyrn's answer was the feeling of energy enveloping her like a cloak. She calmed down knowing she was not alone.

"Here goes nothing," she muttered and opened the door.

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# Chapter 47

It was deadly silent when she stepped into the room and so dark she wouldn't have been able to see her hand even if she held it up in front her.

She took a few tentative steps into the room, looking around blindly. She couldn't see him, and she couldn't hear him, but Selissa could feel Ilyan's presence filling the room. It was cold and warm at the same time, and it settled around her like it was trying to drown her. She resisted the urge to shiver.

She tried to locate its source, but it curled around everything in the room like mist, making it impossible to figure out where he was.

She didn't dare light up the room. She barely dared to breathe.

He could come at her from anywhere. She didn't know where he was, but she was pretty sure he knew exactly where she was. She stood completely still, waiting for him to make the first move.

She heard a rustling sound and tensed. Her eyes moved rapidly, trying to find him, but she couldn't see through the darkness surrounding them.

She barely had time to react when the spell was hurled at her. She turned and raised her swords just in time to block the incoming blast. What looked like black fire hit the blades and split around them, narrowly missing her.

She channeled her own energy into the swords, lighting up a circle around her. She saw something move at the edge of the light, quickly retreating into the dark corners.

She swung one of the swords, sending a bolt of light towards where the figure had disappeared. The spell flashed through the room, lighting up a path around it. It crashed into the wall, the light disappearing as the magic dissipated. It had revealed nothing but empty space.

This time she was prepared when another spell flew through the air from the opposite side of the room. She met it with a spell of her own, and they collided in a burst of white and black fire.

"Stop hiding," she said to the darkness. "Or are you afraid to fight me face to face?"

She didn't feel quite as brave as her words. He was just playing with her. She didn't really want to know what would happen once he got serious.

She heard him laugh. The sound ricocheted against the walls and made it sound like it was coming from everywhere at once. Selissa got the feeling the room was much bigger than she had first thought.

The smell of rot hit her nose. She cursed silently to herself. She had thought he had left the rest of the dead bodies with Ardeth. Clearly, she wasn't that lucky.

She felt something grab her leg and immediately swung her sword to separate the rotten hand from the corpse that had grabbed her. With another swing she cut the corpse in two.

All around her, she now saw decayed bodies emerging from the darkness. They scrambled at the edge of the light cast by her sword, skeletal hands reaching for her.

She was having none of that. She forced more magic into the sword blades and started swinging them in a circle around her.

Fiery white flames erupted from the blades and formed a pillar around her as she spun the blades around. They enveloped the corpses and easily burned through their dry flesh.

Strangled, inhuman screams erupted from their throats, even as they desperately tried to reach her through the storm of flames. Burning hands reached through the fire, only to disintegrate inches before her face.

The flames died down, leaving nothing but ash at her feet. Selissa lowered the swords, but the blades still gleaming with magic.

"Is that all you got?" she asked and kicked some of the dust into the air. It briefly formed a grey cloud in the air, before it fell to the ground uselessly. Dead. That was how it should be.

Ilyan laughed again from somewhere in the dark, and something inside her snapped. She let out a frustrated cry and rushed forward blindly. She swung her swords furiously, slashing at the darkness. He was somewhere in the dark, like one of the monsters that would haunt her nightmares. But this time she wasn't going to wake up before the monster got her.

Her blades hit only air, but she kept slashing desperately. She was sick of his games, and she would find him, even if it meant taking his head off.

She kept stabbing and slashing until she finally hit a wall. The blades carved themselves into the wood, and she leaned against them heavily. Her fury slowly faded away as she realized how ridiculously she was acting. She closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing.

He was right behind her before she heard him move. She tried to turn around, but the knife connected with her skin and cut into her shoulder before she could. Unable to avoid the blow, she threw herself to the side to prevent her arm from being separated from her body.

The knife jerked from her flesh, ripping a large, open wound. Pain shot through her arm, causing her to drop one of the swords. It fell to the floor with a clattering sound that echoed through the room. She lost her balance and tumbled to the ground next to it.

Ilyan stepped closer, while she lay on the floor holding her shoulder. She clenched her teeth as she watched her blood drip from the long blade in his hand. She recognized it as the sacrificial knife he had taken from the table earlier.

Despite the searing pain in her shoulder, Selissa didn't waste any time. With the sword still clenched in her other hand, she lashed out at his legs. She didn't hit him, but forced him to step back, giving her enough time to scramble to her feet.

"Just step down. You can't win," Ilyan said calmly.

"I'm not the one who has to hide in the dark," she spat. She clutched the sword she had left, her knuckles growing white. Her other arm was hanging limply by her side. She couldn't move it without a sharp pain shooting through her shoulder. She didn't even try to get the sword she had dropped. It would be no help if she couldn't move her arm freely.

"Your friend Alassane gave up quickly. Too bad he was too weak to contain the power given to him," Ilyan said as he stepped closer.

Suddenly the room was lit up with sharp blue light. Ilyan froze and turned his head. Selissa followed his eyes.

"Not anymore." Alassane stepped closer, his body surrounded by blue fire.

Ilyan's and Alassane's combined power created a crushing pressure of magic in the room, and Selissa had to take a deep breath to steady herself. She could feel magic crawling all over her skin, like water crashing down on top of her.

She tried to ignore the sensation of drowning that washed over her. She shook the feeling off and focused on the two sorcerers.

"This has nothing to do with you, undead," Ilyan told Alassane. Black magic was emitting from his skin, in response to the power Alassane let flow freely through the room. Selissa kept quiet, her eyes darting between them.

"Nothing to do with me?" Alassane asked tersely. His voice was cold. "You killed me!"

"You were weak. That weakness became your death," Ilyan answered calmly.

Alassane let out a short, cold laugh that didn't sound like him at all. Selissa wondered what it was like facing the man who had killed you. From the cold look in Alassane's eyes, she didn't think you would feel very forgiving.

"Then your arrogance will become your death," he said. Selissa's eyes widened when she saw the flames around him flare up, and she barely had time to get out of the way before the air exploded in a tornado of energy.

The time for talking was clearly over, and she pressed her back against the wall, as Ilyan and Alassane started flinging deadly spells at each other.

Most of them missed and exploded against the walls, while some collided in bursts of blue and black.

She would have been perfectly content to keep out of it, but she knew she had to stop them before they brought the building down on top of them.

'Just run,' Cadeyrn urged her. 'Get out while you can.'

"No," she told him. "No more running."

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# Chapter 48

A wayward spell exploded above her head as Selissa made her way towards the fighting sorcerers. She cursed as debris fell from the ceiling and covered her in a layer of dust. She coughed as it got in her mouth and settled in her throat.

Another ball of light blasted past her, and she only barely dodged it in time. It grazed her arm and burned her skin, like ice-cold fire. It left a glowing black mark on her arm, like the magic had embedded itself in the wound.

It didn't really hurt. It felt more like something warm and cold pressed against her skin at the same time. She wondered what effect it would have had if the spell had hit her in the chest instead of merely grazing her. Considering how its user was able to raise the dead, she didn't believe it could be anything good.

Ilyan and Alassane were fighting closely now, Ilyan swinging the sacrificial knife dangerously close to Alassane's throat. They were so intent on killing each other they paid her no heed.

Ilyan swung the knife again, aiming to take off Alassane's head. Alassane jerked backwards, but the blade still managed to cut a small line across his throat. The sight of the thin line of blood running down his neck stirred Selissa into action.

She charged at Ilyan, who had his back turned to her. She felt her heart in her throat as she watched the knife descend towards Alassane's chest. She reached them, just as Ilyan was about to make the fatal blow, and swung her sword at his neck.

He moved too fast for her to react. The knife, which had been just above Alassane's chest, suddenly flashed through the air and blocked her blow.

Shaking off her surprise, Selissa quickly moved to the side and swung the blade again. A sharp metallic sound echoed through the room as she once again hit the dagger.

She narrowed her eyes as she looked at the knife. It was almost long enough to use as a sword, and that was clearly what he was trying to do.

She grabbed the sword with both hands as he lunged for her. She didn't have the time to block the incoming strikes, instead being forced backwards as he stabbing at her with the long blade.

Stumbling backwards, she raised her sword to defend herself. The blades clashed, both trying to force the other back. She placed all her strength into the swing and hit the knife with enough force to knock it out of his hand.

It flew through the room and clattered to the floor. But being unarmed didn't stop him.

The spell he cast hit her square in the chest and sent her flying backwards. She dropped the sword as her back hit the wall. Bits and pieces of the already crumbling wall collapsed, and she hissed in pain when pressure was placed on her injured shoulder.

Ilyan approached her, but in that moment the energy in the room changed. Bright green light shone behind him, and the magic pressure in the room intensified tenfold.

Selissa looked up in confusion. Then she realized what was happening.

A line of green flames shot forward and in front of Ilyan, cutting him off from her. They flared up and created a fiery wall between them.

She watched in awe, as Alassane stood before them in his skeletal form, surrounded by green fire. He slowly stepped closer to Ilyan, bright flames burning in the place where his eyes should have been.

"We didn't finish, now did we?" he said. His voice was strange, a low rasping sound compared to the way he normally sounded. Of course, it might have something to do with the fact that he had no vocal cords anymore. The only thing keeping him together was the magic coursing through his bones.

Ilyan turned to look at him scornfully. "Do you really think a corpse stands a chance against a necromancer?" he asked, voice dripping with disdain. "I'm the master of the dead."

There was no flesh left to form any expression on his face, but Selissa imagined Alassane's sneering at Ilyan. But looking at him, it was only his grinning skull that met her eyes.

She had had a hard time accepting the fact that Alassane was undead, but now it hit her like a sack of bricks. He was dead, and he had been so long before she even met him.

She slowly pushed herself to her feet, while Ilyan still had his back turned to her. She was very aware of the fact that she was unarmed, but then again, so was he.

She had the powers of an archangel. She didn't need cold steel to defeat him.

She summoned up the power for an attack in the same moment Alassane sent a sea of green flames towards Ilyan. She sent her own spell flying, and suddenly Ilyan was surrounded by a storm of green and white.

But it didn't hinder him. Selissa had to jerk back as the necromancer suddenly shot through the magical fire towards her. Even with flames licking against him and catching on to his clothes, he was dead set on getting to her. Black magic flew at her and only a quick reaction saved her from being hit.

Alassane rushed to her rescue, striking at Ilyan from the right. Ilyan, however, was prepared and sent Alassane flying back with a powerful spell. He crashed to the ground, a sickly, hollow sound resounding through the air when his exposed bones hit the floor.

Ilyan raised a hand towards him, as if he was establishing some invisible hold on him. Selissa's eyes widened when she saw skin slowly grow back over Alassane's bones. Green flames extinguished and eyes grew back into empty eye-sockets. Soon every inch of Alassane was back to human form, leaving him looking oddly vulnerable.

"I told you," Ilyan said patronizingly, "that I am the master of the dead. You can't fight me."

"Then think about those of us who are still alive," Selissa sneered and lunged at him. She took advantage of his attention being on Alassane and sent a fist flying towards the back of his head. He turned just in time for her fist to connect with his cheek instead.

The magic surging through her empowered her strike and sent Ilyan staggering backwards. She didn't give him time to recover, sending a kick towards his stomach.

But he was faster than she expected and caught her foot in his hand. She heard the bones creaking under the force of the kick, but he didn't recoil.

Ilyan threw her leg aside, making her lose her balance and fall to the floor. She quickly rolled to the side and to her feet, avoiding the spell he sent her way.

"You should just give in. The result will be the same," he said.

"If you want me, you will have to kill me," she said as she sent a blast of her own flying. "But you won't do that, will you?"

She clearly hit a nerve. Ilyan sneered at her, scars stretching unnaturally, but didn't say anything. He needed her alive, so there was a limit to how far he could go, and he knew she knew that.

"Even if you die, there will be another after you," he said.

Selissa smiled mockingly. "The question is, how long can you wait?"

Her taunting was met with a flurry of attacks raining down on her. She answered the assault just as fervently, blocking each attack with one of her own.

But despite that, she found herself losing ground.

"I should just kill you here, like I killed him before you," Ilyan spat. She assumed he was talking about Alassane. "Another one will take your place."

"You honestly think I'm going to let you kill me?" Selissa asked. She could not afford to lose. If she was going to die, she would take him down with her.

Another powerful blast almost knocked her off her feet. She stumbled back, feeling the magic lick her arms, burning like fire. Ilyan took a step closer, arm raised for another attack.

"You will die at my feet, just like your useless father did," he taunted her, voice filled with contempt and disgust.

The rage that filled her was so powerful she could almost taste it on her tongue. This man had killed her father. It was his fault that she had grown up as an orphan. All because of his deranged scheme.

She let out a strangled scream of fury and lunged at him. She was done with these games. She wanted to see him dead.

The spell she hurled at him caught him off guard, and he didn't have time to dodge it. Flames of white light surrounded him, searing away at his already disfigured face. Bits and pieces of flesh started crumbling, disintegrating under the force of the spell.

He let out a wild howl of pain, before lunging at her blindly. His partly ruined face looked like something out of nightmares as he threw himself at her, knocking them both to the floor.

His weight pressed her down, and she struggled desperately to get free. He was clawing at her face blindly, like he was trying to claw out her eyes.

His nails cut into her skin, trying to find their target. Not seeing any other way to get free, Selissa leaned her head as far back as she could, before ramming it into his skull.

It worked. The blow sent him scrambling off her, clutching his head. He cried out in fury, his unseeing eyes glaring at her madly.

She felt the enormous pressure of magic in the room when he summoned up the next spell. It was by far more powerful than anything else he had thrown at her that evening, and suddenly she knew what was happening. He was going to kill her.

She didn't have time to move. She was still lying on the floor, unable to get up in time to avoid the burst of magic that would end her life.

Selissa forced herself not to close her eyes. If she was going to die, she was going to be looking into the eyes of the one who killed her. She stared into Ilyan's disfigured face, just as he hurled the shining black sphere at her.

She was bracing herself for the impact, when something threw itself in front of her.

The full force of the spell hit Alassane in the chest, and he was thrown back into her with enough force to make them both slide across the floor.

She gasped for air, Alassane's limp body crushing her to the floor. She placed her hands on the floor, in an attempt to push herself up, when she felt something underneath her fingers.

She was aware of Ilyan walking towards them, but she didn't move. She laid her head against the floor, listening to his footsteps approach.

"How foolishly noble . . . To sacrifice himself for someone who will die anyway," he said as he bent down over her. Fingers that were nearly falling apart from the influence of magic closed around her neck.

She had him right where she wanted him.

With her fingers clutched around the sacrificial knife, she rammed it into his chest. She twisted it, making sure to jam it as far into his cold, black heart as she could.

"Just die!" she hissed as she pulled the blade out, just to stab it into his chest again and again.

The fingers around her neck went slack, and Ilyan's eyes widened in surprise just before the light left them. Blood pooling from his chest, Ilyan slowly slid to the floor as life left his body.

Her fingers kept clutching the knife, her breathing ragged. Part of her wanted to keep stabbing him, just to be sure he really was dead, but she found the last of her strength leaving her.

It was over.

She heard a weak moan coming from the man still lying partly on top of her. She let go of the knife, before gently tugging her legs out from under him. She turned him over so he was lying on his back, facing her.

Alassane was even paler than usual, life slowly draining from his face. Dark brown eyes were looking at her, but not really seeing her.

"Thank you," Selissa said softly. She didn't really know what else to say.

"That's why I'm here," he said, his voice strong despite the light rapidly leaving his eyes.

She put a hand under his head, supporting him the best she could.

"Are you dying?" she asked quietly. She already knew the answer.

He laughed hoarsely. "I'm already dead."

She didn't cry. After everything that had happened, there wasn't enough emotion left in her to mourn for him. She merely held him as the skin started to crumble and flake off his bones. She didn't even flinch as his bones finally crumbled to dust and there was nothing left of the man she had known as Alassane.

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# Chapter 49

She was still kneeling on the floor when Ardeth arrived. He looked around the room, seeing Ilyan's mangled corpse on the floor, but kept his thoughts to himself. Silently, he crossed the room, picking up her discarded swords on the way, and came to stand beside her.

Selissa looked up at him, but couldn't find the strength to speak.

His clothes were torn, and he was bleeding from a wound on his chest, but other than that he looked unscathed. She was vaguely aware of how much worse she had to look. She was covered in blood and dust, and the wound on her shoulder was still bleeding heavily. But in spite of that, she felt numb.

"I guess it's over then," he said softly, looking down at her with those deep, dark eyes. Despite herself, Selissa chuckled. It was an oddly simple thing to say after all that had happened, but she supposed there wasn't much more to say.

She started to get up, her legs shaking slightly. Ardeth wrapped an arm around her shoulders, steadying her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, almost whispering as if not to startle her. She glanced at him and managed a smile.

"I will be," she said. She turned to look at the bloodied body of the Demios leader. She was finally free of him. She would be all right. Eventually.

"What happened to the undead?" Ardeth asked her, looking around for any sign of Alassane. Selissa just shook her head.

"Gone," she said. Ardeth seemed to understand perfectly, because he accepted her answer with a nod.

They started to walk through the basement, Ardeth's arm still wrapped around her. She leaned against him, accepting the support he offered. After all what had happened, she felt like she needed it.

He led her through the dark rooms confidently, and she followed without a word. They entered the ritual room, and she wasn't surprised to see dead bodies ripped apart and scattered across the floor. They were no longer moving, and she guessed the magic that had animated them had died along with Ilyan.

She spotted Aiken between the lifeless corpses, a bone sticking out of his throat. She supposed he had tried to interfere. Not very successfully, it seemed.

Ardeth didn't slow down and led her towards the stairs. She blinked when they got upstairs and sunlight hit her eyes. Had they really been there all night?

Calen sat leaning against a wall, the morning light making him seem even paler. He looked at them as they approached, his eyes more focused than they had been before. He shot her a weak smile as she shakily kneeled down next to him.

"Hey," she whispered and stroked his cheek gently. She let her hand drop when she realized it was covered in fresh blood. Calen didn't seem to mind.

"Did you get him?" he asked, his voice hoarse and raw, but stronger than it had been when she found him.

Selissa hesitated for a moment. He had always told her that all life was precious and should be preserved. And here she was covered in the blood of a man she had killed without remorse.

"I did," she said softly. The priest smiled at her.

"Good. Then it's over," he said. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes as if it was an effort to keep them open.

She stroked his hair softly, reasoning that it was already caked with blood and she wasn't going to make it any worse, before getting to her feet. She turned to look at Ardeth who was standing a bit away, watching the scene with a slight frown. She left Calen sitting against the wall and walked towards him.

"Where do you want to go from here?" he asked her. She thought about his question for a while, not sure she had an answer.

"I don't know," she finally said. "So much has changed. I think I just need some time to figure out who I am. And it's not like I'm being purely philosophical here, since an angel took away my memories, but either way . . . I'm not sure I'm the same person I was a few months ago."

Ardeth didn't comment on that. "We could go anywhere," he said. She looked at him with surprise. She thought he had merely followed her this far because he was bored. That he would still go with her after it was all over made her happier than it should have, but Selissa knew it couldn't be like that.

"You can't come with me," she said sadly. She didn't want to say this, but she knew she had to. "These past months people have constantly told me who and what I am, but I need to figure that out on my own."

The look in his eyes almost broke her heart, and she realized she had gotten far too attached. Ardeth opened his mouth to protest, but she held up a hand to silence him. She placed it on his cheek and let it slide into his hair, which had come loose somewhere along the way. She pulled herself closer and kissed him softly, trying to express all those feelings she couldn't put into words. She felt his arms wrap around her tightly, like he was afraid to let her go.

She slowly broke away, her hand resting against his cheek.

"I can't do this anymore," she said quietly and pulled away. Ardeth's face was carefully blank, dark eyes watching her painstakingly. She let her hand drop from his face and stepped away from him.

She averted her eyes, suddenly finding it hard to look at him. She had never meant to start caring about him. They were worlds apart, and she thought she had been happy keeping it that way. But now, she suddenly found it incredibly hard to tell him goodbye.

She took a deep breath, still not looking at him.

"Will you do me a favor?" she asked softly.

"Anything," he said.

She smiled sadly, still looking emptily into the air. "Would you take Calen back to the temple of Issara? I'm not sure I could go back to that place."

He was silent for some time, and at first she thought he would refuse. Then, he sighed.

"If that is what you want, I will do it," he said. Selissa finally turned to look at him and sent him a grateful smile.

"Thank you," she said.

She wanted to linger, but she knew she had to leave now, if she was going to leave at all. It would be so easy to just accept Ardeth's offer, to stay with him, but she had to do this.

She said nothing as she turned to leave. There was nothing left to say, anyway.

Next Book in the Angel's Voice Series

Silent Sound

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