IZOGIE

  The phantoms loomed over the prison, concealed in a cloud of smoke and fire. Below the jagged edges of the cliff, the maze glowed faintly at the base of the chasm. The torches lit in the vale fought against the grim shadows of the endless night. Scorching winds swept across the smoldering skies above while the sand hissed as it trailed through the desert.

  Izogie held the mask in her hands, staring at the flames of the underworld growing darker in the quiet. Tears clouded her bloodshot eyes while the bitter taste of sand burned the back of her throat. She coughed until it rattled inside her chest like a wild dog thundering at the blistering heat.

  She wiped the warm drops of blood from her lips using a tattered piece of Katara’s shirt. “What are ya’ stupid?” Izogie heaved. “Ain’t no use in staying fit for the grave. You’re in hell now, elf.”

  His gaze charred straight through her like a raging inferno that consumed everything. With a dauntless mien, he seethed each time he repelled himself off the ground in a mass of darkness. His breathing intensified as the veins in his forehead bulged and convulsed. The more he used his power, streaks of twilight vanished until it was completely gone.

  “Sssahh!” He cried out, struggling to push himself off the warm black stones of the cave.

  “That’s the sixth time you’ve locked lips with the dirt,” Izogie said, pressing her back against the wall, desperate to conserve every ounce of her breath.

  He exhaled into the frayed slabs of stone, fanning his hot breath against the heated rocks. “I saw her.” He said, staring at Izogie with desolate eyes. “Ferisha fell to the north. What’s beyond this desert?”

  Izogie examined the ghoul helm once more, her sadness reflected within the demonic grin of the mask. For a moment, she imagined the four cobblestone walls of the prison. Even though the capital tried to turn her into a beast, she found a reason to live.

  Now, she longed for the empty prison with the hole drilled through the wall and the young woman who looked beyond their demise.

  “Death.” She spat.

  “What’s out there?” He whispered, leaning closer.

  “Why do you think they put two golems in one cage weeks before the oath severance?” Izogie asked with bitterness clinging to her voice.

  He jumped to his feet, not wanting to waste any more time. He extended his arm as the astral steel appeared in the palm of his hand. The sword glistened in the haze, beckoning onto Izogie. She could feel something pulling her to take the weapon and decimate all of her enemies. If only she could get closer. “ENOUGH.” He held the sword at her throat. “Where is Ferisha?!”

  “The cell isn’t so we don’t run.” Izogie turned the center of her neck towards the blade. “When they starve you long enough, then after a few weeks, you don’t care where the hell the meat comes from.”

  “You think I care what happens to demons.” He spoke with quiet ferocity, and she could tell he was close to inching the blade deeper into her neck. She felt his hatred emanating within the sword, but with each stroke, it dwindled. Something told her if he was at full strength her head would have toppled like the King’s.

  He had the same look as her when she dashed forward and tried to take the head of an empire that was never meant to fall. The only thing keeping her alive now was a whisper of a girl that she knew was already gone.

  “Either the Elfete is dead, or the Shadow Eater’s gonna make her wish she was.” Her bottomless gaze watched his trembling hand resist the urge to slash into her jugular until her blood spilled across the cave.

  The blade gleamed a dark ash grey as it stabbed into the wall inches above her head. He gritted his teeth, grabbing a handful of her thick curls as he pulled her to her feet. She tore at his knuckles, but even with his strength fading, he was still too strong.

  “They’re dead, okay!” She bellowed.

  “You either find her alive or in death.” He cautioned, his silver eyes now tainted with a deep, sable black.

  “You can bleed me dry, but I ain’t dying for no damn elf!” Izogie shrieked, struggling against his iron grip.

  “Remember your place, golem.” His white hair sailed through the sweltering wind as he sealed the ghoul helm in complete darkness. The mask drifted beyond his reach, slamming into Izogie’s face. Her piercing cries echoed inside the cave as the metal hooks burrowed inside her skin.

  Izogie dug her fingernails into the back of her head, trying to pry the mask off. She pounded her fists against the metal until a dark purple bruise formed on her knuckles. As tears fell from her eyes, she stumbled outside the cave while the ghoul taunted her. Rhegon watched her closely, with intensity searing within his eyes.

  She knew the only way she’d ever survive was if she stared down at Katara’s mutilated body. Izogie didn’t know how she weathered Galadhrim, but the pit of Kings Veil was a different inferno. And now Izogie was miles beyond its borders in a place where even the demons of Penance feared.

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  “Who let this bitch out her cage?” A coarse voice called from the desert.

  A man with an eye engulfed in fire and brimstone stalked towards Izogie with an iron step. He was wearing a black suit of armor interwoven with intricate designs. The dark metal contrasted with the golden accents, giving the towering man a regal and intimidating emergence. Yet her scrutiny still lingered on a knife holstered on his side. He stopped in front of her and kicked a small mound of sand into her face.

  Tears ran down her cheek as she howled in pain. Her vision faded in and out of the landscape. Her fingers hovered over her eyelashes, haunted by the cold, daunting steel pressed against her skin. Taunting screams swelled inside her chest, unable to be silenced.

  “IT BURNS!” She yelled.

  “You’re a long way from the pit, guhrl.” He sneered.

  “You filthy blight!” She roared, spitting at his feet.

  “You damned, D’mon.”

  He shoved his reinforced boot at the ghoul helm, but with each blow, the metal withstood. The mask pushed further into her face, jarring against her nose until blood spilled from her nostrils. The desert floated around her as the crimson dripped from the ghoul.

  A smile reached her lips as her fingers coiled against the scalding sand. The ground trembled and traversed like an unstoppable whirlwind. “And you’re dead.” Izogie wrenched two clumps of sand into her hands and shoved the desert back into his face. He winced as a burst of scorching winds consumed the smoldering skies.

  Izogie ran her fingers along the glistening blade. She didn’t know the moment the knife crossed her hands, but the longer she held it, the more her imaginations festered. The knife was the breadth of her forearm with a curved tip. She swiped at the air, getting a feel for her new weapon. But the moment she plunged the knife into the atmosphere, she felt the armor behind her fist.

  She met his piercing glare as shadows clawed at her feet until her entire body was nearly swallowed by infinite darkness. “Who’s your master, guhrl?” He whispered into the ghoul helm.

  But in that instant, she saw her searing obsidian eyes reflected in his steely gaze. She looked at the man with fear brimming in her soul until the shadows concealed her. In a moment, she inhaled the stale air of the cave as Rhegon slithered along the opposite wall. Izogie’s heart leaped out of her chest while she stared at the same jagged piece of metal. She closed the palm of her hand until the shard pressed against her flesh, and her blood mixed with his.

  “DIE.” Her nostrils flared, and her face contorted behind the mask. The ground rumbled beneath his feet while a creature emerged from the sand. A monster with four ruby eyes and charcoal black scales phased through a myriad of scarlet portals. It encircled its prey, closing the distance until it teleported right in front of the soldier.

  The dragon-like creature drove its long, slender neck to the ground while its mouth wrenched open, revealing columns of razor-sharp teeth. Both man and beast dived forward with an incredible display of power. It was as if time itself stood still to memorialize a reckoning of the greatest beasts in the underworld.

  Rhegon slammed Izogie against the wall, slowly closing his grasp around her neck. She squirmed behind his tight grip like a wild animal that was in pain. “What the hell did you summon?”

  Izogie laughed bitterly. “Why don’t ya ask the blight?”

  “Ask me again,” Rhegon breathed heavily. “and I’ll send you to die with him.”

  She watched the blight reel his arm back until he stabbed the creature in one of its lower eyes. It roared like a thunderstorm crackling in the sky, but the elf stood firm. Still, he only had a twisted smile to protect him from the beast as it ripped into his flesh.

  “Specter.” She muttered.

  “A WHAT?” He asked

  “Round here, we call em specters.”

  “And the dead purifier?”

  Izogie smiled, laughing behind the helm. “He ain’t a purifier. He’s something worse.”

  His hold loosened around her neck as his hands trembled. Izogie squeezed the shard of metal in her hand until a small pool of blood desiccated in the sweltering sand, leaving dark, brittle stains behind. Rhegon stood quiet, furrowing his eyebrows. He clenched his fists until the veins in his hands bulged.

  A portal grew at the entrance and consumed the cave. She felt the ground surging beneath their feet. Izogie fell to her knees, stretching her arms outward, releasing the sand into the blazing wind that erupted from the red portal.

  The specter slowly moved through the solid, rocky walls of the cavern like a phantom. She may be insane but she’d rather die than go back to that prison. Bitterness swelled inside her chest at the thought of all those people she had to leave behind. Even the ones that already left the sands of the underworld for the plush paradise of eternal sleep.

  This tradition only made the world cheer in excitement as Golem released the earth into the four winds. Accepting that a dear one has crossed over into the unknown. When they didn’t have ashes they used nature in their stead. Even though she only knew Katara for a fleeting moment, it felt like an eternity.

  But now she was as good as dead, lost to the bowels of their world. Izogie dispersed the grains of blistering sand for Katara and the others that would die in battle.

  Before dawn climbed to the surface, Katara would be dragged deeper within the maze to scavenge for Dragon’s Breath for the remainder of her short days. She knew they’d only compete in the battle arena if fate favored them in the next life.

  From the moment she sliced her sword into the King, she knew there wasn’t a place for her in glory. Hell, even if Nikolai wasn’t dead, those bloodthirsty demons would still torture her. Her life would end sooner than she anticipated because in truth she never planned on raising a sword against her people.

  They’d either kill Katara or force her to forage for the remains of dragons until she was a living skeleton. The moment every child reached adulthood, their candle was snuffed out by the perils ahead. They usually died in battle at the hands of their brothers, but if they managed to survive, even our ancestors whispered of the impending horrors that lay ahead. A knife to the heart is a mercy. It’s better to die than to conquer.

  “I hope you find the Elfete,” she sighed. “but I’d rather die than go back to that cage.”

  “The only way you’ll die here is after I plunge my sword through your heart.” He said calmly, pacing back and forth.

  Izogie hesitated, blinking rapidly. “There ain’t nothing left for me here, elf.” Her voice cracked as she spoke.

  “During the war, humans made mothers wear the heads of their dead sons. Forced fathers to watch as they berated our daughters. They locked pregnant Elfetes in cages with men who hadn’t eaten in weeks. We heard the sound of men crunching on their soft skulls before we ever heard their cries. And you think you’ve suffered?!” He gritted his teeth, clenching the hilt of his astral steel sword with ferocity.

  “I didn’t force your wife to wear her dead son’s head round her neck. I never forced you to watch while they raped your daughter. And I didn’t lock pregnant women in cages to feed those sick bastards. And I won’t slaughter my own people to appease yours.”

  “The moment you’ve outlived your purpose, I’ll collect your head as it rolls on the ground.” He cautioned, his eyes shifting into an infinite void.

  “I’m not going back!”

  The specter unleashed a primal growl as it towered over Izogie. Rhegon took a step back until he was engulfed in a cyclone of darkness that concealed the other side of the cave. The creature snapped its mouth open, pulling the tentacles apart as it prepared to feast on its prey. Her heart throbbed inside her chest, but she couldn’t find the strength to move.

  She couldn’t face the people that always mended her. Out of everyone, they were the only ones that didn’t call her a monster. The specter lurched forward with a loud shriek, and Izogie instinctively closed her eyes.

  “I go to join the fallen.” She mumbled.

  Before she exhaled and her life was taken from her, a loud slash tore through the air. When she looked up, Rhegon stood before her with his sword drawn. A deep gash settled on the specter’s belly, but the beast never faltered. Sweat trickled down his biceps, and his chest heaved violently, but he kept standing between her and the specter.

  “I told you,” he grunted, “the only way you’ll die is if I allow it.”

  Izogie sat there in silence while Rhegon rushed forward. He soared through the air, rising to the specter’s sight. But as quickly as he rose, the specter phased through Rhegon and swatted him with its tail. The behemoth charged at Izogie without hesitation. His razor-sharp teeth were so close to her head that she smelled its rancid breath. Before he snapped down on her neck, its belly was sliced open from the inside.

  The blight pulled back the layers of its skin with a gritty smile. The man dived out of the carcass, his left arm barely clinging to his body. When his feet touched the ground, the specter fell with an ear-splitting thud.

  “Whew, shit.” He whistled. “that was a nasty son of a bitch.”

  She nearly collapsed on the ground, the muscles in her arm throbbing in agony. She looked at the blight, her body trembling in fear as she spoke. “H-how?”

  “Look, guhrl, I don’t know how you managed to climb your way outta hell, but when the Overlord sinks his teeth into you. You gone wish you stayed at the bottom of that pit.” His lips curled into a twisted cackle, and his taunting laughs resonated through the cave.

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