Born of Shadow - Book 1 (complete)

Chapter 54

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Liam moved so he could see better. The man held the girl’s face in his hand, pinching her cheeks tightly with the other. Her dirty face was inches from his. She wore nothing more than a ragged gown. Her legs and feet were bare.

“You know what’s coming,” the man grinned, as if relishing this. “You have had time to imagine it, haven’t you? Gasping, fighting, knowing it is all futile as the blackness takes you.”

The girl kicked him hard, and the guard’s smile disappeared. She twisted and turned, nearly escaping. He gripped her even more firmly.

“Fine,” he grunted, lifting her above his head. “We end this now.”

He dumped her into the glass cell, her flailing body plunging through the wax. As the wax sucked her down, she pressed her body against the glass as if she could somehow escape through it. As the wax quickly hardened around her, her movements slowed, then stopped. The guard pushed a button that dropped the wax cell out the bottom, leaving an empty glass cell.

Liam blinked, stunned. His heart felt heavy. It was over so quick. He felt a tear slip from the corner of his eye. He brushed it away, furious at himself, furious at the woman who’d built this place, furious at this sadistic guard who so callously threw lives away. The worst of it was he had done nothing to help her. He’d just sat there while the thug had killed her.

He felt the anger rolling through him. He wanted to avenge the girl’s death and stop this creep who’d taken so many lives. He moved to his knees. His blood pounded hot. He pulled his knife from his boot. He inched forward, his body coiled, but just as he was ready to make his move, the other guard walked in. The whip was still in his hand.

He stared at the empty cell, then he glared at the other guard.

“You were supposed to wait for me,” he accused.

“What? She was a squirmy little worm. I thought I might lose her again if I didn’t take care of it.”

Liam reassessed his rash plan. He might have been able to take out one guard, but two—particularly one that had a whip that could reduce a shadow creature to a quivering mass? He wouldn’t stand a chance. He wanted to take out that guy so bad it hurt, but if he did, all of this would be in vain. He wouldn’t be able to help Kami, or Yasmin, or any of them.

He eased back into the corner, the darkness cloaking him.

“You sure it’s done then?”

“Of course I am sure. Look for yourself if you do not trust me.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it. You know how precise the queen is with her orders.”

“It’s not like she is ever going to know.”

Their voices were receding now, down the corridor, back to the dungeon area. Liam waited for a few minutes, then eased his body out from under the ledge. He walked over to the doorway and looked down to the entrance where he’d entered. Blast! He’d hoped the dragon had moved so he could slip out undetected, but the creature was stretched out on the ground again, continuing to block his passage.

The girl had said there was no way out from up here except through a locked door. Maybe he should have brought Chris after all. Bringing the whole crew wouldn’t have worked well, but if Chris were here, maybe together they could take down the shadow dragon, or he could take out the guards while Chris picked the lock. Well, it was too late to be rethinking it now. It was all up to him.

Then he remembered—the whip. He didn’t know how it controlled the shadow creatures, but he wanted one. If he had one of those, he might have a chance to get past the dragon. The girl had said the dungeons were down the tunnel. He walked its length, about sixty feet, and peered around the corner.

The two guards sat in chairs, one reading a paperback and popping sunflower seeds in his mouth, the other dozing, because, apparently, that’s what you do after murdering a helpless girl about a third of your size. You kick back for a little R & R! Liam shook his head in disgust. He eyed the keys at the waist of the one reading the book. What he wouldn’t give for those! The man turned a page with a rustle.

The whip was hanging on the wall directly behind the sleeping guard.

Liam leaned out to access the room. It was a quick peek, but enough to tell him what he needed to know. People of all different ages, men, women, children were crammed into a prison cell lined with steel bars. He saw a woman dressed in a filthy robe standing apart from the others. They made eye contact, and he held a finger to his lips and pointed to the whip.

The woman must have taken the hint, because all of a sudden she started moaning and speaking in a loud voice. The guard reading the book spoke to her sharply, but that only seemed to increase her agitation. He nudged the other guard awake and set down his paperback.

As the two men stood and shouted at her, Liam slipped in behind the guards and snatched the whip off the wall. He crept outside the room and listened at the door. The men were threatening the raving woman.

He was so close to rescuing Kami’s Neina. He looked down at the whip in his hands. He wondered if it worked on people, or only on shadow creatures. If he knew, maybe he could take out the two guards and end this. But then again, it would be next to impossible to navigate such a big group of prisoners out without getting caught.

No, that plan was too unwieldy. It would be best to get out of there, plan a better strategy and bring reinforcements now that he knew the prisoners’ location. He needed to be quick about it, before the guards noticed the missing whip.

Liam quickened his pace, slowing only when he reached the cells. His eyes were inexplicably drawn to them, and then he saw her—the girl he hadn’t saved. His mind screamed at him to keep moving, but he couldn’t. He stopped and stared at her body, forever frozen in struggle. His eyes rested on her panicked face and moved down her arms until, what was that? He saw something that made him stop and move in for a closer look. The tip of her index finger barely poked through the wax. He felt compelled to touch the wax around the finger, and as he did so, it began to melt beneath his touch. His hand brushed against the finger. It was still warm, she was so freshly dead.

Then her finger moved.

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So we are on the countdown to the end of "Born of Shadow" - only 3 chapters left. To this point I have been posting at least three chapters a week. Due to my workload, however, I will only be able to post on Monday and Friday of this week, and Monday and Friday of next week. So a week from this Friday, the entire story will be up. Wow - I can hardly believe it! I want to send a huge thank you to all my wonderful readers who have shared this journey with me.

I am super excited to announce that I will be posting book 2 in The Shadow Wars series "The Bloodstone Prophecy" here on Wattpad in November - yay! I hope you continue to enjoy the journey with me. In the meantime, I am putting together a Born of Shadow Fan book. The story will include in-depth descriptions of characters and a Q&A section. I need your help to figure out a cast and an official BoS playlist. I will also be running a headline contest, a fan art contest and a writing contest. Should be super fun and I would love to have everyone participate who would like to. Just PM me if you're interested.

The dedication for this chapter goes out to a wonderful Born of Shadow reader @zoe027. She has been following and commenting through the entire story and I always enjoy chatting with her. Thanks Kiara!