Whispers and Shadows

Chapter 3

Blue

Picking up traces of ash left from the other me, I sprinkled it liberally inside his bassinet. We were twins; those ashes would be a near enough match to mine to make no one question their authenticity.

I did not look back as I snuck out the nursery. I had to return back to the time in the future when I’d left, and the last time I’d done it I’d made the journey alone. Killing Erene then had allowed me to return to my time, and now killing my past version would allow it. But now I traveled with Erene, which meant another soul debt must be paid.

I glanced down at the sleeping bundle in my arms, feeling both unsure and oddly sentimental. I’d charted a course for which there was no going back; my only objective in this life was to guard him.

Erene and I being twins meant that I was also a baby in this timeline, in fact the baby version of me should be just a few rooms down, asleep and without a care in the world. Last time I’d left that old me alive because I’d needed her to live for the elder me to survive. Truthfully I was conflicted about what to do now.

Maybe, killing that younger me would end things in its tracks. The threat that I posed would all be over with the knick of a blade, and yet… I sighed. I’d cast the spell in the first place because I’d desperately wanted to change my old ways. No more killing innocents.

Now it was time to send Erene far, far away.

I was the only magic user adept with this level of dark magic. If I made it back to my time with Erene, no one would know what I’d done this night, and no one could pursue him. In short, I’d crafted the perfect crime. But I still had to leave soon; Father’s spies would be awaiting my return, and would report back to him sooner rather than later.

There was only one place I knew to send him to keep him safe and off the radar of both the upper and lower realms. Looking around the nursery, I searched until I spied a nursery book. I ripped out the dedication page and used a black marker to ink out detailed instructions. I would be sending Erene into the waiting arms of a dark fae no one should ever trust, least of all me.

Using a diaper pin, I fastened the note to Erene’s blanket, then laid him down. He started to cry. I ignored the pangs of guilt and the fear that I was sending him to his death yet again.

Ripping open my wrist with my teeth, I used my blood once again to draw out the runes, then uttered the cursed words and sent my baby brother through time. My heart pounded when I stared at the charred space he’d just occupied.

Already the bloody runes were gone. The spell had consumed my offering; I paid the price of the soul when I stabbed the other me to death.

With a quick bit of spellwork I flashed myself over to the next room. There I was, unattended in my crib, just as Erene had been. But my room wasn’t full of finery as his had been. In fact, it was white and sterile. My crib was little more than a wooden box. My body reeked of urine and waste.

The priestesses of light had never cared for me. My soul had been weighed at birth and found to be dark. They’d tolerated me only for the sake of my mother’s blood that ran through me.

A moment of curiosity came over me then: had I always been neglected? I’d not thought so since mother had treated Erene and I no differently, and yet the differences between our rooms were stark.

Light blue eyes stared innocently up at me. Just as the other me had looked upon me with resignation and understanding, I felt this infant version of me also had that same insight.

Picking my infant self up, I cradled her close. She didn’t even utter a sound. I needed a way to follow Erene, the old me would have taken it in the form of killing this innocent me. Dropping my head to my chest, I closed my eyes. She was a problem. If I left her alive she could very well come back to haunt me later, a doppleganger I did not need.

I could kill myself, but then what happened to Erene? If I drove the blade through my chest he’d be left alone, this infant version of me wouldn’t grow up for many more years and would likely suffer the same fate at the hands of her sadistic father.

In an act of sheer helplessness and desperation I prayed. Something I never did. “I don’t know if anyone can hear me, but if you’re there and you care at all about the fate of Demonia, then please—” I sighed, “help.”

“Oy! Drop that child!” Someone yelled.

My eyes opened and for a moment I stood shocked. There’d been no one around, I would have sensed the disturbance of another. But then the priestess without another word of warning came flying at me wielding double daggers. I had barely enough time to set the baby down. The blade nicked my cheek, I felt the heat of warmth rise upon it.

With blinding speed I twirled and slammed my blade into her carotid. She dropped like a sack at my feet. Breathing heavy I stared at the body as I lightly grazed my cheek. That woman had been no fighter. It was almost as if something, or someone, had sent her.

I tsked and gave a nervous laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous.” Now I have the body I need.

But what did I do with the baby? If I took her with me I’d need another body. So maybe the only answer was just to take her someplace where she could grow up as a normal and happy child. Not overthinking, I took her in my arms and flashed to a village on the very outskirts of Demonia that had an orphanage. The child would always be a half-breed, but perhaps she could find safehaven with the Nuns of Haversham.

But she couldn’t have the blue hair, it would be a dead giveaway about who she was. I also needed to make sure she and I never met again, so a place furthest from father’s kingdom. “We should never have been, Blue, so I hope you’ll live a normal life. Please know this was the best I could do for us.” Then quickly writing a note with my magic, I pinned it to her gown and sent the child on a journey to the out of the way orphanage.

Then I lifted my wrist and ripped off the scab with my teeth. Once again I bled freely. It was time to get back to Erene. I painted the runes upon the floor, same as before. Only once the spell was ready did I lay her down in the center.

Through the pulsating waves of agony, I whispered the spell. When I blinked next, I was in a small, dilapidated structure in the heart of Hong Kong. My brother was on the ground, swaddled still and sucking his thumb. A small cry, like a wounded kitten, fell from my lips as I ran to him, surprised by how happy I was to know he’d not died as he traveled dimensions to arrive in Hong Kong.

Tears ran unchecked down my cheeks as I lifted him to me and nuzzled his sweet skin, aching for the countless deaths I’d caused. My chest still ached, and a part of me wondered if it always would.

I wasn’t even grateful that I was alive; living was a burden that I must now bear, and try to do it with honor. I wasn’t sure if that was even possible for something like me, but I would try.

“Mailina,” I called with a voice that sounded rough and scratchy to my own ears.

She appeared in a smoky haze. She had skin pale as milk in the moonlight with long, lustrous silver hair and eyes that were as black as her soul. I handed over my brother to a tiny woman who’d been banished from Demonia many years ago.

She was a half-breed just like me. Half brownie, half spirit. Her crime had been that she’d dared to denounce Prince Damian—my father—as the heir to the throne.

She’d been forced to survive on her own in the middle lands. Stripped of her shapeshifting magic, she could no longer hide her fanged teeth and open sores that oozed a constant stream of pus and blood. In the dark lands she’d been a feared figure known as ‘The Bloody Hag.’ She now endured a hand-to-mouth existence. She’d become a beggar woman with no home, no money, and no allies. I handed her a bag of silver.

She licked thin cracked lips, avarice gleaming in her dark eyes.

“Guard the child with your life, Mailina,” I said with a heavy growl in my voice, willing the ice in my eyes to pierce through to her soul. She shivered but nodded, clutching the bag of coins in one hand and my brother in the other.

“If so much as one hair on his body is harmed, I will banish your soul to eternal torment.”

She moved the blanket off his face a bit, studying him with her cold, flat eyes. “Who is he?” Her voice sounded like it came up from the bowels of the lowest pits.

I shook my head. “That is not for you to know.”

She trembled. I was wrapped in shadows; any citizen of Demonia would know to fear this version of me. My face had never been seen. Everyone in Demonia knew Blue as the bastard daughter of the Prince, but none would connect the bastard to the legendary assassin because I’d always been careful to conceal who I really was when I took up the mantle of “Whispers and Shadows.”

“Yes… yes, master of Whispers and Shadows.”

I grinned, then I punched my hand through her chest, wrapping my fingers around her soul orb. She gasped and jerked violently as I yanked out her soul. It was a bright rust color, and ringed with white, reflecting both her brownie and spirit heritage.

She trembled, clutching at the now smooth area in her chest where my hand had just been.

“Just to ensure you have no intention of betraying us, you see,” I said with a menacing smile. I was still no saint. I doubted I ever would be. But I would use anything at my disposal, even my own twisted darkness, to protect Erene.

I shoved her soul orb into my chest. It felt like the fires of torment ripping through me. I bit down as I fought through the pain of absorbing her soul. It was dark and twisted; I saw all the lives she’d taken, all the bodies she’d left in her wake. Mailina was not a good person, but she was the right person for this job. And that was all that mattered to me.

I’d not consumed her soul, I’d merely inhaled it. Inhaling souls was partly how my power had grown. I was the most feared and powerful assassin in all the realms because of all the souls living within me.

Mailina clutched my brother to her flat chest, her cold eyes stared back unflinchingly as she said, “You have my word I will never betray you.”

I snorted “Oh, I’m sure you won’t.” Those words were a threat, and judging by her flinch, she knew it too.

I touched my fist to my chest. It was time to return to the dark realm.

To the double life I would now be forced to lead.I would fix this, and then I would finally be free…