Free Web NovelChapter 503: Chapter 503
Morana stood still in the sudden quiet, flames still licking at her fingertips. She turned in a slow circle, scanning the dark road in both directions for any sight of him but she found nothing.
Then her gaze dropped to the ground.
There. Right where Arius had been standing was a shadow on the ground, and it was shrinking. Not cast by anything she could see. It contracted steadily inward, pulling toward a single point like water draining from a basin.
She moved before she finished thinking. Inky tendrils shot from her outstretched hands and plunged into the shadow, forcing it wider. The darkness peeled open like a wound in the earth, just large enough for her to fit through.
Morana stepped into it.
The drop lasted less than a second. She hit the ground hard and bent her knees, absorbing the impact, and straightened into a crouch with her hands already raised to fend off any sudden attacks.
She was no longer on the road from before.
The air here was thick and stale, heavy with the smell of rot. The alley lay unlit except for what pale moonlight filtered down from the narrow strip of sky above.
"You should not have followed me here alone," Arius’s voice drifted to her from somewhere nearby. "That’s how you get yourself killed."
Morana did not answer immediately. She turned slowly, cataloguing the space. Piles of broken barrels, and crates stacked against one wall. A narrow passage to her right where the alley bent sharply into deeper shadow. Darkness pooled deep in every corner.
"Come out and face me," she spat. "Even in exile you are nothing but a coward. Reduced to little more than a tracking hound. Not much different from the mercenary you were." She kept moving as she spoke, circling toward the nearest wall so nothing could come at her from behind. "You have only ever won a fight when your opponent was already on their knees. I am not surprised that hasn’t changed."
She got no reply.
She had put a bounty on Arius’s head after she seized power from her uncle. A generous one at that, enough to make a person wealthy for the rest of their life. It didn’t matter to her if they brought him back dead or alive.
But Arius had spent years making himself difficult to find, moving between cities with a rotating set of lackeys to shield him. Every lead had gone cold. Every informant had either lost the trail or ended up dead before they could report back.
Today, she vowed, it would all come to an end. Her ears perked up at the faint noise to her left. In the blink of an eye, she turned and unleashed a massive stream of fire in that direction, catching her attacker completely off guard.
A scream split the air. The figure went down in a tangle of burning cloth, and she stepped aside the moment she confirmed it was not Arius.
From the corner of her eye, Morana spotted movement to her right. She launched the next strike on instinct.
But this new attacker was faster, ducking under the worst of her strike. He retaliated almost immediately with a torrent of shadow that clipped her across the forearm. She sent two more blasts and did not look back once the body dropped.
But by the time Arius sent the third attacker after her, she was already fed up with his tricks. She knew his plan was to wear her down by sending attacker after attacker, and she refused to let him succeed.
All at once, she unleashed a massive surge of shadows, vicious tendrils that moved with the speed vipers. They coiled around the third attacker’s neck and snapped it. But she didn’t stop there. The shadows stretched farther, slithering through the darkness as they sniffed out the other attackers lying in wait, killing them one by one.
When it was over, dead bodies surrounded her. Only she and Arius remained standing.
"Even till this day, you are still loyal to my uncle." She scoffed. "How unfortunate."
She was breathing harder than she wanted to be when she turned towards the other side of the alley.
Arius stood at the far end. His eyes had gone fully black. Darkness poured off him in dense, rolling streams, gathering at his hands, thickening by the second. He charged at her and launched a concentrated mass of shadows aimed directly at her chest.
Morana dodged it, causing the strike to hit the wall behind her hard enough to crack, sending chips of stone raining down.
Shadows and fire both surging from her palms in a single, combined burst aimed straight at him.
It slammed into Arius before he could slip away. The explosion lit the alley in a violent flash. He crashed against a barrel, splintering the wood on impact.
His face twisted in pain, veins bulging at his neck.
Morana walked toward him, breathing hard, flames still running along her forearms.
Arius managed to glare up at her through the pain, hatred burning in his eyes. He tried to summon one final surge of shadow in his right hand. She crushed it with a burst of fire that seared his palm.
Flames gathered in her right hand, condensing into the shape of a dagger. The blade shimmered with intense heat.
Arius’s eyes widened.
She didn’t hesitate to drive the flaming dagger straight into his eye.
His scream ripped through the night, raw and anguished. The fire sank deep, and when she released the dagger the flames spread at once, melting the skin around his eye socket in bubbling rivulets.
His hair ignited next, racing across his scalp in a bright flare. The fire traveled down his neck, devouring cloth and flesh with vicious hunger.
Arius thrashed beneath her, hands clawing uselessly at his face, his screams turning hoarse and wet as the flames consumed him.
Morana stepped back and watched in silence. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. His body jerked and convulsed for another long minute before the movements slowed, then stopped. Smoke curled upward from the charred remains.
***
It was last midnight and Azul’s chambers was as silent as a tomb.
A single lit candle flickered low on the bedside table, casting long shadows across the walls and the ornate furniture.
Azul lay motionless on the wide bed, his chest rising and falling in shallow, uneven breaths. He was shirtless, the upper half of his body exposed to the cool night draft, while fresh bandages wrapped tightly around his abdomen, stained faintly with dried blood from his wound. His face was slack, eyes shut, utterly oblivious to the world around him.
The door to the chambers opened softly. A figure slipped inside on silent feet, dressed in dark, unremarkable clothing with the purpose of remaining inconspicuous. A hood and scarf concealed their face.
Somehow the intruder had passed the guards stationed around the building without being noticed. The stranger closed the door behind them with care and advanced toward the bed.
Azul did not stir.
The intruder paused at the edge of the bed, gaze locked on the unconscious man. In one smooth motion, a sharp dagger slid from a hidden sheath. The blade caught the candlelight for a brief instant before the intruder leaned over Azul’s still form.
The dagger slashed across Azul’s throat in a single, vicious cut.
Blood erupted immediately, pulsing from the severed artery. It spilled over Azul’s neck and collarbone, soaking into the white sheets beneath him. His body jerked once, a reflexive spasm, but his eyes remained closed. freёwebnovel.com
But the intruder was not finished.
Keeping the dagger steady, he pressed the blade to the corner of Azul’s mouth and drew it upward in a clean line, slicing through skin and muscle until it reached the cheekbone. He repeated the motion on the other side, carving symmetrical gashes that pulled the wounds into a grotesque, widening grin. Blood welled up and flowed freely down Azul’s face, pooling in the hollows of his neck and staining the pillow crimson. The carved smile gave his features a nightmarish, almost mocking expression even in death.
Azul’s breathing had already stopped. His chest no longer moved.
The intruder wiped the dagger on the edge of the sheet, sheathed it, and stepped back. Without a sound, the figure turned and slipped out of the chambers the same way they had entered. The door clicked shut, leaving Azul laying there, throat torn open and face forever frozen in that bloody, horrific smile.
