“I give you the chance to take your revenge and take his shattered soul to her kingdom. I call upon you, my Prince.”
The darkness that pooled across the floor was not the same as Xander’s shadows, nor her own. Adriana knew this was otherworldly, deadly. At the centre of the room, where the shadows were thickest, a pale figure with long white hair rose from the ground as it crawled its way up to the Land of the Living.
Caligo was here.
Chapter twenty-seven
The Prince and the Lord of Shadows
Xander
Caligo stood in the middle of the room, his shadows leaving a sea of darkness that rippled across the floor. Dressed in black fighting leathers with a long cloak, trailing behind him it was clear he had prepared for his visit. As his thin lips peeled away into a smile that showed his rotting teeth, Xander could see his black eyes were fixed on Adriana.
Xander noticed her shiver beneath Caligo’s stare, causing the undying creature to laugh as he made his way over to where she stood chained to the pyre. His movements seemed so inhuman, the way he glided across the floor; it was as if each time Xander saw him, he’d lost more and more of whatever he had been before he’d become Lilith’s Umbra.
With a roll of his shoulders, Caligo let out a sigh of content as he twisted his head to look at Xander. “Ah, it’s good to be back. You don’t look too happy to see me, though.”
He brought his attention back to Adriana, running one of his bony fingers along her jaw and wiping some of the flammable liquid from her skin. A sharp nail extended from his fingertip, blackened from rot, as he dragged his finger down her neck, leaving a thin trail of blood in its path.
Xander had never been one to freeze from fear. And yet here he was—completely frozen on his knees at the sight of Caligo daring to touch Adriana. He was helpless. Useless. Powerless.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, little lightbringer,” Caligo taunted. “Lilith will be most intrigued to meet you. In fact, I’m fairly certain you might become her new favourite pet.”
“Be careful how you speak,” Xander finally spoke through gritted teeth.
Caligo laughed at him. “I don’t think you’re in much of a position to be making threats right now.”
As he stepped back from Adriana, Xander let out a silent sigh of relief, grateful that she was at least safe for now. Caligo joined Rook and peered around at the bodies of the Liberators Xander had slaughtered.
“My, my, you’ve made a mess, Alexander,” Caligo tutted, his foot kicking over one of the bloodied bodies to inspect their slashed throat. “Nothing I can’t work with, though.”
Caligo closed his eyes and held his arms out, palms facing up. The shadows that covered the floor grew more aggressive, their soft ripples becoming strong waves that swarmed around the bodies on the floor.
“Stop this!” Xander yelled, feeling Norman’s hands shaking on his shoulders. He knew even his traitorous brother would not have agreed to this. “You’re a fucking hypocrite, Rook. Youdetest Daemons and yet you are working with him? Withher? You have no idea what you’re doing!”
Rook took a gun from one of the nearby Liberators and aimed it at Xander’s head. “You think I care who I use to get what I want? I will gladly serve her, someone who holds such power over you all, if it will finally rid us of your infection.”
The shadows expanded until they covered all the Liberators’ bodies on the floor, a strange crackling noise echoing around the room as the darkness grew taller around them.
“I will gladly do her bidding,” Rook continued, waving the gun frantically as he stepped towards Xander. “I will inflict chaos upon the world, I will do whatever she asks of me. And when I am done, this world will be free of you all, and she will reward me. I will sit by her side as her equal, herking, forever.”
The shadows began to condense, forming a thick layer of darkness around each individual body like living armour. As Caligo raised his arms higher, the bodies twitched on the floor, the crackling noise growing louder. Until it suddenly stopped.
Every single corpse stood simultaneously, turning to their master and waiting for his command. They were faceless soldiers, an army of the dead, with such little resemblance to the humans they had once been as the shadows obscured all features from view. Now they were Caligo’s Umbranimae.
“You’re a fool!” Norman shouted behind Xander. “I cannot stand by this, Lucas. I have stood by you through many things, but I will not be a part of this!”
Rook said nothing as he nodded to Caligo, his silent command clear. With a smirk, Caligo lifted his hand to point a pale finger at Norman’s Lamiae, their group cowering in the corner behind the Court leaders. Almost instantly, the Umbranimae were upon Norman’s descendents, tearing through their flesh and pulling them apart.
Norman’s grip on Xander’s shoulders tightened as he watched the Umbranimae slaughter his Lamiae, their blood splattering across the floor. The shock of Rook’s secrecy and allowance of Caligo to kill several of his descendents rolled off of him in waves. And beneath it all, Xander could sense his pang of guilt; a sharp and bitter feeling that Norman did not like to acknowledge.
The Umbranimae made quick work of Norman’s Lamiae, dropping their torn apart bodies to the floor once they were done, and turned to circle round the Court leaders.
“I’m the fool?” Rook asked, his face split into a grin. “It looks like you just switched to the losing side, Norman. Did you really think I needed you? Even your own family never needed you.”
Xander felt his brother’s shaking hands grab hold of the cuffs that held his wrists behind his back, the heat of his Igni power melting the metal and burning his skin. He bit the inside of his cheek and dropped his head, being sure to hide his grimace at the pain.
As Caligo’s monstrous creatures approached his family, he let his own unrelenting anger burn within him, matching the fiery heat of Norman’s magic. He let it melt away the freezing fear that had held him in place, and focused on his Manipuli power, drawing it back to him and freeing the Court leaders’ minds from his hold. He didn’t want to risk their lives, he’d have gladly taken the fall if it meant saving them. But now that Caligo was involved, now that he had threatened to take Adriana toher, Xander knew that his own surrender would only quicken the rest of their downfall.
