Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson

27

It was a game to Marius as he stalked me through the castle. His domain of shadow and stone.

For hours we played, me the role of a mouse and Marius the hungry, prowling cat. He did not attempt to get close to me, although I was confident he could if he wanted. Instead he let me run from hiding place to hiding place, laughing and scratching nails against walls as he followed me.

My initial plan had been ruined and my panicked mind did not have time to conjure another as I looked wildly for the next place to keep hidden. It was best to keep moving, not allowing him to trap me in one place.

The castle was barren. As I ran the halls, it was not the same place I had dwelled within thus far. Only the light of the red moon gave visual to the forgotten castle. No candles burned. There was no smell of freshly prepared food, or the usual warmth from the lit hearths in every room.

On this night, it was as though I had woken in a place that had been left neglected and untouched.

I found myself down an unfamiliar hallway, one not blessed with windows which made it blindingly obscure. My hands fumbled across the walls, hoping to find a nock to hide within, or a door to hide behind. Gone was the hope to conjure firelight, for that would alert him to my presence. If he was not already aware.

The slack shirt I wore was now plastered to the curve of my back from sweat. If the noise of my bare, running feet did not scream my location, I was certain my odour would.

Just as my hands found the familiar shape of a handle, a scuffle of noise echoed at the end of the hallway.

Reluctantly I glanced back. For painful long moments the hallway was empty. Then my breath halted as a figure ran across it. In a blink it was there, then gone. My heart filled my throat, beating loudly in my ears. Marius had found me.

With damp hands I fumbled for the door handle and thrust it open. Into yet another dark room I ran into, not bothering to shut the door behind me.

I stood, bathed in darkness, as I watched the door.

Come on.My body vibrated with nervous energy. Show yourself.

It had become clear that Marius was stalking me. There was no hiding place he would not uncover. I quickly learned to play along. Not controlling my fear as I longed for the adrenaline that came with it, hand in hand, to aid me when the time came.

“Why did you stop?” His voice was all around me. I spun in frantic circles, trying to search for him in the dark. “Do not make this easy for me, Jak… just when I was beginning to believe you were trying.”

The hairs on my arms stood on end as his rumbling, drawling tone shuddered from each corner of the room. I raised a hand ignited in conjured fire to battle the shadows, uncovering that he was not physically in the room.

Not yet.

But his power of the darkness clearly aided him.

“It seems you missed an important lesson,” I shouted back, waving my fire covered hand as though it was swordplay.

“Pray tell, what would that be?”

A cold chill raced down my spine as icy breath brushed against the back of my neck. My nose scrunched against the copper twang laced among sweet notes of wine. I was rigid and still as a clawed finger traced up my neck, stopping at the base of my ear.

If I closed my eyes it would have been no different to the nights prior when I lost myself to his touch. Although I felt as though I could simply melt beneath him, I stood rigid.

He had not walked through the door, only securing the suspicion that his mundane chase through the castle, hunting me, room to room, was no more than a game to him. He could move through the shadows. And now he had me.

My voice was weak as I finally uttered a reply. “It is rude to play with your food.”

“That was a lesson I must have skipped.” His nail traced down from my neck to my collarbone. I could not help but tilt my head as he traced my skin. “Why do you not fight back?” His voice was velvet steel, gentle yet sharp.

My mind seemed to scream to a body that simply ignored it. “Is that what you want?”

Marius moved his nail down to my chest, tugging at the string cords that kept the material over my shoulders. He did not stop until the point of his nail pressed against my naval.

“You burn bright yet hold your flames at bay. I sense your want for me. Is that why you keep your power contained? If you will not fight me, then let me have what I desire…”

I hardly registered as flames dripped from my slackened hands like water. The aged flooring hissed as the tongues of hungry fire took control of the dead wood. I blinked, slowly, as the room lit from the ever-growing blossoms of fire.

Marius made no move away from me, not as the fire melted the leather of his boots or flirted with the material of his trousers.

I gasped at the wet lap of tongue that tickled my neck. My stomach jolted, urging the power to burn hotter, higher.

Marius moaned, wrapping one arm around my back, the other grasping my jaw. “You are the greatest I have tasted. Like honey and sugar, so sweet.”

“Stop.” As I listened to my pathetic voice, it was as though I watched on in astral form, hardly lifting my hands to bat him away.

“Say it louder,” he growled, voice vibrating against my skin as he pressed his lips into my neck. “Then maybe I will listen.”

I fought against my own reasoning. It would be easy to give in. To close my eyes and see the end.

“Stop,” I said again, lifting my hands before my face. Fire dripped down to my wrists as its unwelcome light seared into my gaze.

Marius hissed and his hold loosened. With the lack of his voice, I regained my control. I pulled away, throwing myself over the rivers of fire that ate away at the room. As though the amber glow had brought me out of a daze, I scrambled away from Marius.

Except he no longer stood in the room. It was only me and the fire that devoured the shadows until every corner of the room was bathed in its light. Strange shapes had been covered in dusted sheets, revealed by the light of my fire. Furniture forgotten from years of disuse. A room lost to the dark years that’d passed, unveiled by my power. Yet Marius was lost to the light, not hiding in the corners where the shadows fought to hold their positioning.

He had fled.

For now.

I pushed myself to standing, unable to ignore the slow movements of my limbs. Marius and his touch had done something to me. Kept me in a dulled, calm state, effects which still lingered. I took a step back towards the door and stumbled over my footing. Each blink slow, that when I opened my eyes the room had seemed to shift.

I felt… drunk, my mind foggy and limbs equally useless.

I gripped the door frame as I reached it, noticing the lack of fire across my hands. Behind me the heat from the remaining flames intensified as the room burned. I squinted back at it, watching my lingering power devour the room entirely. It spread quickly, walls and floor creaking as though it screamed in agony.

I could put it out — stop the flames with a single thought.

But I chose to ignore the notion and left them to feast across the room until fire chased after me when I finally left my compromised hiding spot.

* * *

The fire spread swiftly,devouring the floor I had left and the many above it. I thought back to Marius’s study, imagining how the books would only fuel the flames that had become the master of this place. Guilt stabbed at my gut as I ran down the stairs towards the entrance. I had my arm held to my nose to keep the intoxicating smoke from dragging me into an unwanted sleep. One I would not awake from.

Marius did not intercept me. Not as I took two steps at once, practically throwing myself down the flight of stairs to the ground floor. The grand doors were open, giving view of the night beyond, a domain of shadow and the beasts that lurked within it.

Yet I still ran for the exit as more sounds of shattering glass and the loud snaps of wood shuddered through the burning castle.

The kiss of night engulfed me as I stumbled outside. I took mere steps before falling to my knees as the hacking coughs overwhelmed me. My fingers dug into the gravel path, mud sinking beneath my nails, as I willed for my lungs to welcome the fresh air, to battle out all remnants of smoke that dared linger behind.

My ears rang violently. As the sound finally calmed, it gave way to a deep growling. A feral, guttural noise that resonated all around me. I looked up slowly, rigid with fear. The fire from the castle cast enough of a glow to bat away the immediate shadows around me. But among that darkness, barely an arm’s reach away, was a host of glowing red eyes.

Unlike Marius, his bloodhounds lacked the sophistication and patience to stalk me. Even as I stood on the path, they lacked the rules that Katharine had explained. I supposed rules did not apply during an evening of such horrors.

I sensed its rushed move before its shadowy claws left the dirt ground to pounce for me.

Deeper into the damp, dirt ground, I dug my hands in until my fingers became the very roots that dwelled far beneath me. I called for the earth, urging it to be my protector.

The ground rumbled and split. The level of energy required snatched my breath away. I pinched my eyes closed moments before hearing a wheeze as a root speared through the gut of the bloodhound. Opening my eyes, I saw rows of teeth inches before me, frozen in air as yet more feral roots joined the first. They wrapped around the creature’s dark fur, containing its thrashing and snapping jaws.

It is yours. I forced the thought through my hands and deep into the ground. The earth did not linger on my gift. The creature thrashed, feeble attempts to break free. But more roots broke through the ground and encased it, a den of wooden vipers, dragging its feast into their lair.

I sensed the reluctance from the other bloodhounds that watched their foolish pack member disappear beneath the earth.

A warning of what would become of them all.

I lowered my gaze and snarled, baring teeth at those who gazed at me, my own growl of warning echoing around me.

Then the laughing began again, breaking the moment like glass shattering in fire. The pack of bloodhounds parted for the creature that walked between them. One step at a time, his white skin illuminated beneath the ruby glow of the moon and orange flare of the fire.

Marius.

He looked up at the castle behind me, lips twitching as he studied its destruction. “Your kind destroyed my love, my life, and now my home. I see now that you do not run from me, but merely beg for me to punish you.” A blink and he was before me, strong hands clamped around my jaw as he lifted me from the ground. “And punish you I shall.”