A Kingdom of Bloodshed

*¬*Chapter Thirty One*¬*

Quiet death fills this space. This weird black prison that I'm trapped in. Something slinks closer to me, hiding within the shadows of its home. There is nothing else here but eternal darkness and shadows.

"Where am I?" I ask to the listening silence. The creature that slinks within its embrace laughs at me. You are in the Void. The place where time and space have no meaning, where everything is one colour, one taste, one sound. This place is endless. There is no hope of escaping it unless taken from here.

I swallow, "Who are you?" I am not someone this world should forget. I am both Death and Life. I am fear and joy. I am everything and nothing. I am the thing you see in your nightmares as a child and the shadow hiding in the corner of your room at night. I am ancient and powerful and hungry.

My throat dries out, my stomach dropping this doesn't sound good. How am I supposed to get out of here? To find my way back to Kaz and my family? "What do you want?" I rasp, hoping that this creature will let me go. That I can slip free of its grasp and find my way back to my people.

You. I want you. You are my passage out of here. You are the vessel I need to inhabit in order to find my way back into the living plane. You, Althea Alinac, descendant of the great warrior Myra Alinac, are my ticket to freedom. All you need do is agree. Allow me in and this process will be painless.

Horror eats at my stomach. Is this what Augustus wanted? To sacrifice my body and my soul as a means to tie his demon to the living world? To use me as the shell it inhabits in order for him to control it?

No. No, no no. I will not accept. I do not.

The creature approaches closer, red eyes gleaming at me from a few feet away. I cannot make out its shape, only that it's tall and muscular. That has long claws and sharp teeth. Putrid breath that makes me gag and hisses like an annoyed snake.

"Are you Curseclaw? The Blood Demon that Augustus wants to summon to cause destruction to my world?" The creature laughs, You are smart girl. Yes I am he. The Blood Demon you all fear so greatly. I am Curseclaw. A drop of your blood was needed to tie me to you. A drop of your blood had to be spilled in order to give me a vessel; a fae one no doubt. Human would have been fine, but you; oh how sweet you are.

Its crooning makes me sick. I want to scream, but the sounds won't come to me. I feel frozen in place.

"I thought he could summon you through the Crown? That he was going to raise Xavier and you both. I'm confused." The words just pour from me, spilling from my lips and splashing into the air between us. Curseclaw laughs, Augustus Morningsong is a fool. The Blood Crown cannot be used by him. He can use it to summon his ancestor or myself but he cannot use it to destroy the world. Augustus is simply one piece to this very large puzzle. He's going to bring two of the world's greatest villains back into the present and once he does, there will be no telling what we will do.

However, there is a catch. Everything he's summoned, or brought into the world has one common theme; blood.

I blink, trying to piece everything together. "The Blood Horse, the Blood Crown, the Blood Demon. It's all interconnected. Hell even his Kingdom is called Bloodshed." Curseclaw hums at me, waiting for the pieces to connect. "Oh. He's going to bring you both into this world, to try and use you as puppets in his game. To get what he wants, but it won't work for long. He can only control you if he has something of value, something of blood relations to one of the objects he's using."

Well done Althea. You're starting to figure it out. Xavier is of blood relation to Augustus thus he'll have more control over him once he's summoned. But me? I have no blood ties to him, he power over me will be futile. Unless he ties me to someone. Which is where you come in. He used your blood as my conduit. Which means, I am controlled through you. As for the blood crown, well you're the only one with blood ties to that. Which makes you more powerful than you could ever imagine.