Second excerpt from Chapter 1 of the Nyx: Remnants of the Ashen Blood

BY Hardikkumar Joshi PUBLISHED Jan 05, 2021

A chilling presence draped around the net of gnarled trees that was silent yet deafening.

Sir Dragan's mind had been addled occasionally, but not today. There was a menacing edge to the darkness that made his nape prickle.

He sensed something different, something watching him, implacable that even Jared had felt, but he was on the other side where only destiny would unite them again at the holy circle. Viola. Jared could feel the faint voice, lifeless and cold.

This time, it was familiar. The silvery edges of the clouds cast a ruddy light onto the scorched marks on the damp floor. The clouds rumbled and a flash of lightning triggered, illuminating the area and sending wisps of unnatural light into his intense brown, irate eyes. He opened his mouth to scream but soon felt the dark pressing on him, suffocating him. But as quickly as the coldness had approached, it went away.

Something swooped by, faster than even light could follow. As it perched onto a dry twig, another thunder rumbled and in that intense moment, he saw a violet-bleached yellow-eyed raven, the same who had made the raucous cry the day his sister had died.

It made its familiar screech and dispersed into the air. He strongly grasped his necklace that contained his mother’s bead. He felt a strange energy that escalated within him, and he drank two vials from his buckskin. His body shuddered and his eyes went pure black, his hands elongated into razor claws.

The ground rumbled and suddenly, a brooding mist crept through the clearing, encompassing the light as well. His breathing quickened, rasping and tense. His nerves pulsated unevenly and soon the heart stopped beating completely.

In the silence that followed, he heard hoofbeats, his hearing heightened beyond measure. He bounded into the direction of the voice where the world whizzed by and his blood raged inside as a pure molten lava. Jared abruptly stopped near a brook when an explosion shattered the night. Mark lunged forward in the moment of confusion as he saw the hound bolting through the seared bark as a fiery wind surged through his face. Dragan loosened the arrow in mid-air as it embedded into the hound’s hind legs and hissed into the darkness.

The ground behind was flattened as a mile-deep crater, which sent tendrils of mist snaking through the crumpled ground. Before he could head towards the crater, something caught him and pushed him into the forest.

After thrashing wildly, the tension was released and he found himself at the centre of the forest near the sparkling holy circle.

Two moons intertwined along with the fangs and the eye of the beast glowed at the centre of the sign. A man in a purple cloak approached him and he knew it was him.

Jared Algread, the son of the emperor of Vyrzim and the most foolish noble that he had ever seen. Jared backed away abruptly, an involuntary grimace of terror and repulsion contorted his lips. After a moment, Jared regained control.

“Does this dark unmans you, Mark? You already look like a corpse yourself and you want to hunt the dead,” he said.

Mark simply stared.

“Ok, fine. You fear the forest, I get it. You came back at me for companionship. So did you accomplish our little hunt?” he asked, stuttering.

Mark smiled wryly and replied, “I would have killed the hound if you had not interfered with your smug face. Now, we must track her again.”

“Now, now, my friend. We do not need that. I already found another way. The moon will outshine in a few moments. She will Shift and this stone in my hands will bind her Necronux essence to my body and I will control her to lure her here. Simplicity itself,” he blathered wantonly.

Mark’s steely gaze followed the glow of the sky, and that’s when he saw it.

Swirling red mist engulfed the blue moon, and the black sky brightened for a moment. The crimson light now bathed the iridescent forest, gleaming in the pale light. He felt thudding footsteps and saw the hound was a mere foot away from them.

“See that? Courtesy of the woman who sings the tale of the dead. We are the fireworks in this velvet dark, the blaze that dares to light up the night,” chuckled Jared.

“You made a deal with her!! She is the stalker of dreams, the goddess of blood. You used a burnt corpse’s heart to summon her. She will claw us alive, you fool!!” Mark shrieked.

Jared opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. Mark saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes streaking through the woods. A glimpse of an ivory shadow gliding through the racking twigs, the icy rush of the stream.