Iscariot

Can you see my scars?

The shadow world blurred and stretched as the demon carried Mika through it, a dim warped version of the Abyssal Plains. Many more hands stretched from Shadow, grasping and propelling them down the path. They crawled up the side of Lilith castle like a spider, Mika held flush against him, screwing her eyes closed as the shifting view made her dizzy, the height making her stomach drop.

The steward laughed and the sound vibrated through them, prickling like sharp bristles into Mika's skin everywhere the demon touched her. Pausing on the side of the tallest tower, high above the ground, he loosened his hold.

Mika shifted, sliding out of his grasp to plummet. She screamed, the sound muffled in the sepia darkness before he caught her once more, feasting on her fear. She fought, trying to summon her magic, but she had expended so much in her fight with the Demon Lord and in the garden with the Lord of Lilith, she was on the brink of exhaustion already.

It only made it that much easier to scare her, that much easier to drive her to despair. The demon laughed harder, the hands wrapping tighter to smother Mika and pin her against him. Pulling her along, he climbed across the rooftops before dropping through a window into one of the halls.

Shadow let her go again, this time on her feet, craving a little game of cat and mouse. Mika instantly summoned her shield, calling up ethereal shards to throw at him, but they were swallowed into the darkness, absorbed. The demon grew, filling the entire hallway, his chuckle vibrating down the corridor.

Panicking, Mika turned and ran for it, Shadow watching her go. They were in his realm, his place of power. The wraiths and other shadow demons knew to stay back, letting their leader have his fun, absorbing the waves of fear the girl was expelling from a distance.

Mika ran, feeling dizzy. The castle was bleary, blurry, warping at the edges of her vision. Nothing looked right. It was hard to breathe, hard to focus. She couldn't recall her training.

She saw a servant and ran up to them. The butler didn't stop, didn't seem to notice her. She gasped as they walked right through her. The laughter grew behind her as Mika yelled, trying to get the demon's attention, but it was for nothing. She was only a ripple of air in the hall.

She took to running again. Damien's room was on this floor, she might find it. Idiot! She thought to herself, pissed. What are you doing?

"Izroul!" Mika shouted his name, trying to summon him. There was no answer.

"He cannot hear you," Shadow called to her. "He cannot join you here. You're never going back to them." The hands flowed past her, racing over the walls, blocking Mika off. She dodged aside as they reached for her once more, turning down a servant's stairway, steep and narrow.

The adviser's laughter echoed once again, the darkness pouring down the stairs behind her. Mika felt icy fingers brush her ankle. She couldn't react fast enough, falling as they pulled her leg out from under her. The stairs bruised her as she struck them, rolling down, the landing rushing up to meet her. Mika's head exploded with pain before everything went black.

The human girl lay unconscious at the foot of the stairs, the dim colors draining from the walls as Shadow returned the two of them to the demon world. The adviser regarded her, amused and invigorated. He scooped her up into his arms and took her into the nearest room.

The other stewards looked up as their leader entered, surprised to see him carrying Mika.

"There you are. The lord's been asking questions, wanting to know what we've been doing!" A portly brown faun glared at him. "We've no idea how to answer."

"Then don't." Shadow dropped the girl on top of the table in their midst, to a round of exclamations.

"Is that her?" A bespectacled blonde demon, the kingdom's financier, asked curiously as he studied the human woman now laying on top of his reports. "Why has he been hiding her?"