“I would usually punch you in the mouth for a comment like that, but in this case, I have to agree.” The crystal that was glowing on the witch’s desk suddenly dimmed, returning to its dark, inert state.
“So, I’m going to meet a woman. That’s about all we’ve deduced from this spectacular fortune reading?”
“Don’t be so ungrateful.” Tabitha scowled.
“I’m not. It’s just utter bullshit.”
“Fine, don’t believe me. You’ll soon see.” Tabitha held out the crystal to him. Raxx took it warily, relieved to find it was stone cold once more. There was a moment of silence before his curiosity got the better of him.
“Any indication of when all this is likely to happen?”
“I have no clue, but what does it matter? It’s all ‘utter bullshit’ to you anyway, right?” Tabitha smirked.
“Don’t be like that.”
“Whenever it happens and whoever she is, I just hope I’m there to see it when she knocks you right between the eyes,” Tabitha said haughtily, folding her arms beneath her bust.
Raxx laughed. “We’ll see about that.”
Chapter One
Besides the crackling of the fire and the rough scratching of a quill on parchment, the room was quiet. Raxx sat in a corner, cloaked by shadows, and sighed heavily.
“Something troubling you?” King Zelrus asked, not looking up from the letter he was writing.
“No,” Raxx replied and allowed his form to waver into view.
At his reluctance to elaborate, the king looked up and met his eye. “You know I’m always keen to hear your thoughts Raxx.”
“I was thinking about your meeting with Cirro—”
The door burst open and both Raxx and Zelrus leapt to their feet. A young demon, his face shining with sweat and chest heaving, leant against the door.
“My king, one of the soldiers you sent with Commander Lephas has returned. He… He brings grave tidings.”
“Raxx—” Zelrus began.
“On it.”
As Raxx disappeared into the shadow realm, the room around him darkened and faded. He slipped past the young demon in the doorway. Travelling easier and faster than he would in his corporeal form, the shadow demon hurried down the staircase and into the main entrance hall of the king’s compound below.
There was a commotion and it didn’t take Raxx long to locate the cause of it. A bloodied demon was surrounded by his comrades and wrapped in a blanket. His eyes were hollow and haunted, the familiar expression of someone who had seen the horrors of battle.
Raxx didn’t make his presence known, just stalked in the shadows and eavesdropped on the soldiers’ conversation for a moment.
“How many of them were there?”
“Did the commander get away? What happened?”
“We cannot stand for this any longer.”
Recognising the distress amplifying on the soldier’s face, Raxx allowed himself to become corporeal. He appeared, seemingly from thin air, in the middle of the group.
“That’s quite enough,” he said and the other soldiers startled, shuffling away.
“Lazuli’s men ambushed Commander Lephas’s team, sir,” a particularly outraged foot soldier told him. “Griff here was the only one who made it back.”
Raxx turned his gaze to the bearded man sitting before him. The soldier, Griff, tightened the blanket around his shoulders and stared at the floor.
