The Shadow Sisters

[E1] Chapter 1 - Callum Toner

Callum entered Kavannah Park to escape the Demons. He dashed through the ornate wrought iron gates and hurried over the cobbled pathway. It was bordered by spiralling marble and bronze statues, showcasing the six unique chess pieces on opposing sides.

His coattails billowed and his boots crunched on dry leaves as he sprinted along the labyrinthine trail. He was careful to use the trees and shrubs as cover as he searched for an animal. The footfalls of his pursuers were growing louder, so anything would do at this stage, even a squirrel, a fish, or a cat.

Evidently, Kaprixi was smiling radiantly upon him, because he did eventually happen upon a rotting pigeon carcass on the west bank of Kavannah Lake.

Dropping to his knees, he analysed the fine gift. It was dry and had decomposed so much that only the bones were visible. All the meat had been picked apart by scavengers, likely its kin.

After taking a deep breath to keep his stomach from heaving, Callum proceeded to pluck a feather from the creature and pop it into his mouth. His expression soured. He worked it around, trying to remain disconnected from his senses, like a child attempting to finish his steamed broccoli so he could finally get to this serving of cookie dough ice cream. His throat tightened as the flaky texture broke apart. But he fought onward, pressing the feather to the roof of his mouth.

Then he felt it.

There was a surge, a reserve of power, that he hadn't felt since the Demons had taken him prisoner weeks ago, awakening. First, he shrank. Then his nose sharpened into a beak. Then his skin sprouted feathers. And his limbs changed into wings. The transformation felt longer to his body, but to outside observers, he had turned from man to bird in only seconds.

One of the cloaked Demons, too slow to register this, was in the process of tackling Callum at the exact moment he flapped his wings and took to the sky. The poor sod's momentum carried him right through and he only grabbed at fresh air before tumbling over into the ice-cold lake.

"Hah," Callum barked over the sound of his screams. "I'll bet that is the first decent wash you've had for the better part of a century."

The soaked Demon cursed him.

As Callum flapped harder and harder, ascending towards the safe refuge of the clouds, he watched the demon gang cluster around the bank. He counted six in total.

Six. Then where was-

The answer to his unfinished question sprang upon him like a bolt of lightning. He had only just noticed the shape on his peripherals as he spun his tiny bird neck. His sharp eyes gazed directly into the thick of the sycamore which had towered over Kavannah Lake for almost two hundred years. From within the dense foliage, he noticed a pair of shiny white eyes, glaring out from within.

Callum squawked.

The Demon leapt out. It zoomed as a blackened ephemeral shape and tackled Callum, dragging him to the ground.

As Callum struck the soft grass in the shadow of the sycamore, he was swiftly encircled by the other six Demons. They pressed in too closely to allow his flight. So deciding that he'd have better luck with fists to throw, Callum returned to his human form.

The Demon who stood closest, the one who'd leapt from the foliage and tackled him from the sky, lowered his hood.

Jones had a slender face and gaunt, sharp features. They hinted at his absence of humanity. He watched Callum with those sharp eyes which changed colour depending on his mood. Right now, they were a blood-red, echoing the sentiment of his companions.

The six lackeys backed away from Jones as if he'd conveyed to them a silent command, and for all that Callum knew about Demonic magic, he might very well have done just that.