For centuries, their war had torn the worlds apart and laid waste to countless lives. Led to utter destruction.
And had ended only after a mutual act of supreme betrayal had caused the two main leaders of the dominant armies to be put down, and the last Malachai to be cursed and enslaved by the six Source gods who had created them all.
To be the last of his kind.
Forever alone. No friend. No family. Always betrayed and bereft. Unable to trust anyone.
Even himself.
Doomed to an eternal cycle of living a cold, brutal life without happiness or friendship of any kind that would ultimately end when his own son came of age and ruthlessly slaughtered him to take his place and begin the reign of terror all over again.
That was his legacy.
Hatred. Murder. Pain.
Conceived in violence to do violence and to die violently.
For no other reason than the gods were shits, and because the original firstborn Malachai had had the grave misfortune of being born to their queen of destruction who’d had the audacity to fall in love with her own Sephirii warrior.
Misery takes pity on none. She serves her dishes up without regard to a person’s life or their accomplishments.
Now, this latest Malachai warlord had found a way to cast off his chains of bondage and escape the hell they’d banished him to, and Adarian was taking his chance for freedom. More than that, he wasfurious over their latest attempt to overthrow him with a child he’d been duped into fathering.
Andthiswas the result. The gates were open and he was coming for the world to take it back as his own, starting with the sacrifice of that child he’d fathered.
Vengeance is mine.…
Be careful what you do, for with every action taken there is a corresponding overreaction.It was easy to cast out the devil you feared. But the true monster wasn’t the one you saw…
It was the devil unknown.For that beast who came next was oft far worse than the one you originally threw down. And the one to fear the most was the one who came up quietly while you were distracted fighting the monster you thought you knew.
Fear that beast unseen. The one who snuck from the total darkness within. Unheard and unknown until it struck with fatal accuracy.
Kalder’s mind whirled as he remembered his father’s prophetic words.
They’re coming for me, boy. And one day, they’ll come for you… watch your throat and your bullocks. For they’ll strike where you’re weakest, and at the thing you’re paying the least attention to.
And still the turgid waters rose up, boiling in their anger, seeking to overturn theSea Witchand drown them all. They pounded against the sides in a primal rhythm, demanding the lives of everyone onboard.
Over and over.
The war was no longer coming. It’d arrived and this was ground zero.
Mara cried out as the ship began to splinter apart. The boards under their feet were giving way.
“Divide yourself from the ship! Pull out before they destroy you!”
He barely heard Devyl’s orders for his wife to remove her nerve endings from the ship’s structure before they ripped her asunder. All Kalder could do was stare in disbelief at what was coming for them out of the dark depths below. Paralyzed in shock by an attack from the past that he’d thought was gone, stirred up by the wrath of a monster that had been released by treachery. These were creatures that shouldn’t exist anymore. They were supposed to have been banned after his father’s reign.
The Dread Waters are no more.
Kalder had rounded them all up and destroyed them. Unlike his father, he hadn’t wanted them as part of his army.
Yet here they were. Back like some invincible nightmare phantom that wouldn’t be denied. How had they resurfaced after all these centuries?
Hatred is never ending.
Fear always endures.
