Chương 40: Blood and Shadow

The coastline of the Demon Continent stretched beneath us in a bleak sweep of black stone, dark water, and ash-covered shore. Jagged cliffs rose from the iron-colored sea while narrow beaches curved between broken stretches of rock. Farther inland, pale forests twisted toward the sky in shapes too thin and crooked to seem natural. Nadia had called them bone trees. From above, I could see why.

They grew in dense clusters, their pale trunks packed together like ribs rising from the earth while narrow branches clawed upward in uneven tangles. A lovely country and I already wanted to leave. Aura followed the coastline east, her wings cutting through the evening wind in slow, powerful strokes. She had gone unusually quiet, her attention fixed on the land below and whatever might be waiting ahead. The first spire was far behind us now, reduced to broken stone and lingering smoke.

The second waited somewhere ahead along the outer coast, hidden beyond the ash valleys and black ridges. We had not spoken much since leaving the peak. Everyone had their own thoughts to sort through. Nadia and Rowan were newly turned, and their restored bonds were still settling within me. The severed feeling from before was gone, replaced by something steady and familiar that still felt strange, considering how little time I had actually known them. Akane's presence was harder to ignore.

I tried not to dwell on that. Celeste, naturally, noticed.

"Mother," she began, her voice sweet enough to rot teeth, "you have been unusually quiet."

"I'm often quiet."

"Not like this."

"Don't start analyzing me."

"I don't need to analyze you. You're obvious." I looked at her. She smiled. I turned my attention back toward the coastline.

"I spoke with Akane." That silenced Celeste immediately, which was rare. Several heads turned toward me, and even Adrian, who had been watching the rear sky, shifted his attention in my direction. Celeste's eyes brightened.

"You actually spoke with her?"

"Yes." Her interest sharpened almost instantly.

"About everything?"

"No… And before you ask, I'm only explaining the part that matters to our survival." Her expression fell.

"That's cruel."

"That's what you're getting." Malcolm covered a faint cough with one hand while Vera's mouth twitched. Celeste opened her mouth again, clearly preparing to test exactly how firm that boundary was. I did not give her the chance.

"Akane told me what went wrong in the previous timeline. Our greatest mistake was separating during the invasion. Whether circumstances forced us apart or we chose to divide the battlefield ourselves, the result was the same. That was when the Demon Lord killed me." Nadia lowered her gaze while Rowan's jaw tightened.

"The important part is that we don't repeat that mistake. When the invasion happens in this timeline, Akane and I stay together. She believes that if we fight side by side and refuse to separate, we win." Celeste, to her credit, managed to keep her thoughts about Akane to herself, though the look she gave me made it painfully obvious what she was thinking. I chose to ignore it and turned the conversation back toward the reason we were here.

"As for the spires, every one we destroy now weakens the threat we will eventually have to face. That does not mean we keep pushing deeper into the continent until we make a mistake we cannot recover from. If we can destroy the second spire without taking unnecessary risks, we do so and then return home." Aura's voice carried back to us through the wind.

"Only the second?"

"For now."

"The others remain."

"They will continue remaining until we are better prepared." Adrian nodded once.

"The farther we continue, the easier our pattern becomes to predict."

"Exactly. If whoever controls this continent possesses intelligence greater than a damp brick, then the destruction of the first spire already alerted them. The second may still be vulnerable because we are moving quickly enough. By the third, they will almost certainly understand what we're doing." Vera looked down toward the coast, her gaze moving across the dark terrain below.

"So we strike hard enough to weaken them, and then leave before they can organize a proper response." Adrian gave a small nod.

"Cripple them, withdraw, strengthen ourselves, and return when we're better prepared."

"Clean enough," Malcolm remarked.

"Not particularly satisfying, but efficient."

"Satisfaction is for idiots and gamblers. I profit from both, but I have no intention of becoming either." Celeste leaned closer, interest brightening her expression.

"Akane told you not to overextend?"

"She advised caution." Celeste's smile widened.

"That's adorable."

"It's strategic."

"You listened to her."

"I listen to useful information."

"You listened to your mate." I turned my head toward her slowly. Celeste immediately arranged her face into an expression of perfect innocence, which only made her look guiltier.

"Only the tactical parts."

"Of course."

"If you keep smiling like that, I will feed you to the bone forest."

"You would miss me." You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"I would enjoy the quiet before that became a problem." A soft laugh escaped Rowan from beside Nadia, and the sound drew my attention toward him. There was still grief in his expression, but it no longer weighed on him quite as heavily. Considering everything Nadia and Rowan had endured, even a brief laugh felt like a sign that some of the weight was beginning to lift. They had carried enough grief already. I turned my attention toward them.

"Speaking of usefulness, we should discuss your abilities." Nadia straightened slightly.

"Mine involves blood."

"Most of ours does," Celeste offered. Nadia gave her a faint smile.

"It has less to do with hunger and more to do with memory. When I smell blood, I can sense something lingering within it, almost like traces of information left behind. If I drink from someone, I think I can see fragments of what they experienced." Adrian's attention sharpened.

"That could mean recent locations, orders, names, and troop movements."

"Traps," Vera added.

"Commanders," Malcolm followed.

"Patrol routes." Nadia nodded, though each useful possibility seemed to make her less enthusiastic about the ability.

"Yes, but I don't think I can control what I see yet. It could be the strongest memory, the freshest one, or whatever the blood is holding onto most tightly."

"Then we test it." I suggested Her expression tightened.

"On demons." She said with a disgusted face.

"Unfortunately."

"What a miserable first meal." Celeste brightened immediately.

"Could she test it on me instead?"

"No." The refusal left my mouth before Celeste had even finished asking. She blinked.

"You did not even consider it."

"I considered it instantly and rejected it with enthusiasm." Nadia looked between us.

"I would rather not invade anyone's private memories unless it becomes necessary."

"Wise girl. Although in Celeste's case, it might finally confirm whether she thinks about anything besides irritating me." Celeste pressed a hand against her chest.

"Mother, that is unnecessarily cruel."

"You volunteered."

"For science, not slander."

"Science has exposed worse." Rowan grinned.

"Now I'm curious." Celeste immediately pointed at him.

"You're far too new to betray me." Malcolm laughed outright and even Adrian's mouth twitched. Celeste narrowed her eyes at Rowan, though there was no real irritation behind the look, which told me enough. If she was already comfortable teasing him, then she had begun accepting him into the family. I turned my attention toward Rowan.

"And you?" He raised one hand, and the shadow beneath his fingers shifted with it. There was nothing violent or spectacular about the movement. It simply stretched against the angle of the fading sunlight, sliding toward his palm when it should have been moving the other way.

"Shadow manipulation," Rowan explained.

"I can pull on darkness and shape it a little. I think I can hide inside it if the shadow is deep enough. Earlier, I almost felt some kind of path through it."

"Movement between shadows?" Adrian asked.

"Eventually, I could. Right now it feels like trying to walk through a door when I cannot find the handle."

"Useful for scouting," Vera observed.

"And eliminating sentries," Malcolm added. Rowan smiled.

"That part feels easier."

"Concerning," Celeste remarked. Adrian glanced toward her.

"You once dropped lightning through a nobleman's ceiling because he insulted Mother's chair." Celeste looked genuinely offended.

"The chair was custom-made."

"It was still a ceiling."

"It was a rude ceiling." Aura's wings dipped as she descended farther along the coastline. The temperature changed with the setting sun. Heat slowly bled from the rocks below, yet the land itself never seemed to cool. It held warmth like a fever. Crimson mist thickened inside the gullies as dusk deepened. Night would not hinder us. Vampires had been called creatures of the night for as long as humans had feared teeth in the dark. Plenty of those stories were nonsense.

Others were practical observations made by people smart enough to run after sunset. My vision sharpened as the remaining daylight disappeared. The ridgelines came into clearer focus, patrol fires stood out against the darkening coast, and even the smallest movements across the ash became easier to track. The growing darkness seemed to favor Rowan as well. Shadows gathered more readily around his hands, deepening and responding with far less resistance than before. He noticed the change at the same moment I did.

"Night suits you." Rowan flexed his fingers, watching the darkness shift around them.

"It feels easier to control now." Ahead, the coastline narrowed into a valley between two black ridges, with the second spire rising at the far end. It was broader and slightly shorter than the first, with dark ridges spreading from its base into the surrounding ground and pulsing faintly with crimson light. Watch posts, barracks, ritual huts, and several stranger structures crowded the area around it. This one was clearly more fortified and much better organized. Adrian studied the scene below.

"It's better defended."

"But not fully mobilized," Vera observed. Vesper had already split into several small crimson birds and begun circling far below, nearly invisible against the darkening haze. Nadia leaned forward, recognition draining some of the color from her face.

"This is it. The second spire." Rowan's voice became quieter.

"I remember the valley."

"Anything useful?" He shook his head.

"Not enough."

"Then we learn." Aura circled high above the spire while Celeste quietly worked a spell around us, folding the wind and sound away from our approach. The upper platform came into view as we descended, a jagged ledge jutting from the tower near its crown. Four sentries stood across it, with a possible fifth partially obscured near the far side. The lean, horned demons carried hooked blades and were smaller than the brutes from the first spire, but they were far more alert. They had not noticed us yet.

"Land above them," Adrian instructed. Aura rumbled in agreement and began a nearly silent descent, her shadow sweeping across the platform just as the first sentry looked up. By then, Adrian was already moving. He dropped from Aura before she had fully settled, bringing his sword through the nearest demon's neck in one clean arc. Its head struck the stone before the others could react.

Malcolm landed moments later and released a focused pulse of gravity, forcing two sentries violently to their knees hard enough to crack the platform beneath them. Vesper struck the fourth as a streak of crimson light, driving blood-crystal shards through its weapon arm and pinning it against the wall. Rowan moved last, not from hesitation but because he was waiting for the right shadow. The moment Aura's wing passed over the platform; he stepped into the darkness beneath it and vanished.

Half a second later, he emerged behind the fifth sentry with only the slightest stumble. Darkness immediately gathered around one hand and formed into a blade with practiced familiarity. The demon died before it could react. Rowan glanced down at the body, then at the shadow still wrapped around his hand. A faint look of satisfaction crossed his face.

"As expected." Adrian looked him over.

"Your exit was sloppy."

"I was adjusting to the difference."

"You nearly stepped into the demon." Rowan gave him a small shrug.

"But I didn't." Nadia had already turned toward the remaining sentry. The creature hissed and struggled against Vesper's crystalline restraints while Malcolm increased the gravity around its limbs just enough to keep it pinned. I looked toward Nadia.

"This one is alive. That should make the memories clearer."

"It will." Her answer came without hesitation. The demon spat something in a language none of us understood, but Nadia barely reacted. Her attention had already settled on the blood at its throat. Even from where I stood, the scent was unpleasant. Burned iron, rot, and old smoke clung to it. Nadia noticed it too. Her expression tightened with disgust, but there was no uncertainty in her eyes.

"I already hate this."

"That seems reasonable." Celeste leaned around me, curiosity winning over restraint.

"Maybe just a small bite?" Nadia gave her a flat look. Celeste lifted both hands.

"Encouragement." Her fangs extended. For several seconds, the valley below was quiet except for the low thrum of the spire and distant calls from demons gathered near its base. Nadia bit into the sentry's throat, and the demon immediately thrashed against Malcolm's gravity and Vesper's crystal restraints. She drank twice before her body went still, pink-violet light flaring through her eyes as dark blood stained her lips.

The bond between us shifted faintly, enough for me to feel the sudden concentration behind it, but whatever Nadia was seeing remained entirely her own. Her fingers tightened around the demon's shoulder as she focused on the memories unfolding before her.

"Left descent is trapped." Her voice took on a distant, almost layered quality as she spoke through the memories surfacing in the blood.

"The center stair is guarded, the right stair leads to the inner shaft, there's an alarm crystal below the second landing, the horned captain carries the key brand, and reinforcements are stationed beneath the east barracks." Nadia's breathing hitched as the final memory came through.

"They know one spire fell." Adrian's eyes sharpened. Nadia swallowed hard.

"They don't know who destroyed it." A slow smile spread across my face as the usefulness of Nadia's ability became immediately clear. Nadia tore herself away from the demon a moment later and spat a mouthful of black blood onto the stone.

"That," she gasped while wiping her mouth, "is disgusting." The demon tried to laugh, but Rowan's shadow blade swept cleanly through its throat and silenced the sound before it could fully escape. Rowan looked toward Nadia.

"You found the path." Nadia coughed once and wiped the remaining blood from her mouth.

"You killed my source."

"It was rude," Rowan replied without the slightest concern. Nadia gave him a flat look.

"It had more memories."

"It also had a face."

"Unfortunately, so do you." Rowan blinked at her, then broke into a grin. Nadia kept glaring at him, but some of the tension had already left her expression. Beside me, Celeste leaned closer and lowered her voice.

"They're definitely yours." I watched Nadia and Rowan bicker for another second.

"Unfortunately, the evidence is becoming difficult to dispute." Below us, the second spire pulsed crimson against the deepening night, and thanks to one of its sentries, we now knew exactly how to get inside. The Demon Continent was beginning to realize that something had arrived on its shores. By the end of the night, it would know us a little better.