Act of a Demon: The Dark Bloods - Book II ✓

Chapter 26 - Shadows and Memories

26.

Shadows and Memories

Auronmar brought his arms down and saw he wasn’t in his castle anymore. In fact, he was outside in some other part of Demon World, thousands of miles away from his fortress as far as he could tell. This alarmed him not because he had been randomly transported without warning but because it meant his fountain was alone.

He had been, for centuries, trying to manifest and replicate the Dark Blood fountain that had given him his power. It wasn’t till now that he believed to have achieved it. It may not have been as tall as the original—certainly not surrounded by stairs, brick, and colorful heavens—but the water itself, the keeper of the Dark Blood, had been duplicated.

The location of the real one had been kept a secret from him, and Auronmar had been fine with that until Blethinette decided she wanted to ignite civil war. She had access to the Dark Blood when he had not, yet now that he did,  he lacked the two people he needed: Dante and Reyna. Since their arrival under his care, the king had planned to give them the power. To pass on his supremacy to them. It was the only way he could—   

“Why are you here?” Blethinette’s voice floated through his ears.

Auronmar turned around to see her. He was surprised he hadn’t sense her, considering she was so near. Her question and puzzled face showed she probably couldn’t sense him either.

“Blethinette,” he said.

She twitched and he could see the other emotions on her face. There was frustration in her curled lips and insanity in her wide, glossy eyes. Red caked her cheeks and there was a sticky drip of it running down her chin.

“Blethinette,” he repeated. “Is that blood?”

She laughed. It was a flurry of staccato cracks, something he’d never heard her do. “I killed two by squeezing their heads off,” she said and raised her hands to show to blood on her claws.

Auronmar eyed her. There were no corpses or heads. It was only the unbroken landscape of green fields and black sky. If her claim was true, maybe she had been transported as he had.

“Were you brought here as well?” he asked.

Blethinette lowered her hands and gazed around as if realizing for the first time where she was. Her stiffened shoulders relaxed, eyes blinking as she sighed. A sense of tranquility emitted from her.

“I believe I was brought here as well,” she said, astonished. “This is not where I was a moment ago.”

“You were in the demon world?” Auronmar asked.

She smiled, and it saddened him. Her smiles weren’t the same anymore. “Yes, my dear,” she said, “and I was at our wonderful first son’s home.”

His eyes widened. “You found Verden?”

Blethinette giggled like she was a preteen. “Yes! He is probably dead at the moment. He is dead for all the moments.”

 Auronmar’s chest caved in. He had only just discovered he was alive, and she already killed him. He was their son.

“I believe them to all be dead,” she said, circling closer to him.

“All?” A wave of dread hit him.

The crazed intensity from before revisited her ever widening eyes. “Yes. Darkness swallowed them all, including your mortal pets. They are gone. All gone! Our vile of son included. I enjoyed his death twice—”