The War of Darkness

Sarah Earl

Description

There will come a time when the sacrifice of one will alter the tide... Having left her Haven in search of the Augur, Kess discovers that Rome is but the first step in her journey. Desperate to rid herself of the cryptic writing covering her, Kess must now find a way to enter Heaven, to seek the aid of a Scribe. Yet when Kess discovers the meaning behind the cryptic writing, the truth is far more dangerous than she feared. As a demonic army gathers, Kess must decide whether she believes the cryptic writing covering her body holds the key to saving her warrior companions. But has she understood the Scribe's cryptic prophetic message, or is she being influenced by the rising darkness?

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 29 mars 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528960908
• Langue: English

Extrait

About the Author



Sarah Earl lives in Queensland, Australia, with her husband and three young children.

“I have always enjoyed stories which take well-known myths and legends and give them a twist. I hope you enjoy the second book of The Rise of Darkness series.”

You can follow Sarah’s Facebook page: @theriseofdarknessbooks.

Dedication








For everyone who has read The Rise of Darkness,
thank you.




THE RISE OF DARKNESS SERIES




Sarah Earl



The War of Darkness





















Copyright Information


Copyright © Sarah Earl (2019)

The right of Sarah Earl to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528914444 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528914451 (Kindle e-book)
ISBN 9781528960908 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ

Epigraph





The marking of the Arc
Shall herald the war of darkness
The likes of which mankind
Has never seen.
Should the Arc be lost,
Mankind will fail.

In Origine Adam
(Lost Pages from the Book of Man)

CHAPTER 1
The Wolf Amongst the Sheep


Kess Grayson stood in the centre of the Sistine Chapel, staring at Michelangelo’s rendition of the Garden of Eden when a dense silence entered the room followed by a chill so deep it felt like her bones would shatter. She dragged her eyes from the mural – where a serpent-tailed figure was handing Eve a piece of fruit plucked from the branches – and looked around searching for the source of her unease.
An Asian man stood in the centre of the room, fingers twitching towards the camera around his neck that he wasn’t allowed to use.
An elderly couple sat on one of the benches lining the walls speaking in hushed voices as they pointed out figures within Michelangelo’s mural.
At the end of the room, a dark-skinned priest passed through the carved wooden arch doorway.
Not seeing anything obviously dangerous she shook her head, eyes trailing back to the same panel where the next scene showed an Angel, face set in anger, forcibly removing the pair from the Garden by sword point. When the prickling sensation continued between her shoulder blades and the hair on the back of her neck spiked, she looked back around. Her gaze returned to the priest drawn by the black robes trimmed with red at the neck. His clothing, combined with the dark pallor of his skin, marked him as a solitary black figure in a sea of colour.
Then she noticed the fluidness of his movements, the graceful slide between steps like he skipped through moments in time. He was close enough that Kess saw his eyes as they skimmed over her, filled with such fathomless depths she felt she could be sucked into them and fall forever.
She tensed, staring at him dumbfounded.
There was no doubt what he was.
A demon.
A demon walking freely through the Sistine Chapel. Her skin itched at the wrongness of the violation to this holy place.
For all appearances, the creature looked human – apart from its eyes. They were blacker than the deepest night, though around the mortals in the room it had restricted the blackness to the centre of its eyes, covering only the pupil and iris. The rest of its eyes were white, so unless someone looked closely, they would think the priest’s eyes were of the darkest brown.
Kess could sense the evil roiling within the creature – the hatred, malice and utter contempt for the humans around it.
She glanced around, wondering how no one in the room sensed the malevolence emanating from the black priest. No one, apart from Miah – the warrior Guardian never far from her side these days – who had circumspectly moved closer as soon as Kess tensed, casually blocking her view of the demonic priest.
Kess sensed Kai – her bonded Angel – moving closer. Stay where you are, she sent to him through their blære bond.
What’s going on? he asked immediately.
Demon.
Kai swore through their bond.
When she sensed him edge closer, she sent urgently – If the hells spawn sees an Angel with us, I doubt we will get out of here easily. Kess glanced around in worry at all the tourists milling about, looking at the chapel’s famous roof. It would turn into a bloodbath if the demon decided to attack, and with this many people, they wouldn’t be able to protect everyone.
She felt his disagreement as he moved another step closer.
I still need to find the Augur, please Kai, she begged the Angel.
The demon-priest sniffed the air as it passed, testing the currents like a hound scenting its quarry, but as yet unsure where it was.
Kess held her breath as it paused, starting to worry as the seconds dragged on, but thankfully the demon continued without glancing back, heading towards a white robed figure who stood in the back corner of the room blessings tourists.
The demon-priest spoke a few words to the white robed, obviously human priest, and gave him a wide toothed smile, which reminded Kess of a shark. To her absolute horror, he took over offering the blessings, eyeing the tourists almost hungrily like he was imagining slaughtering them all.
What happened to people blessed by a demon? Kess shuddered but couldn’t stop the demonic infiltrator without alerting him to the fact that she knew who – what – it was. But even if she did, who would believe a girl ranting about demons in the Vatican. They’d lock her up.
As the demon-priest raised its fingers to “bless” the first tourist in line, the side of its mouth rose in a lazy grin, as it locked eyes with her across the room. Somehow the creature had marked her as different. Or perhaps it was Miah at her side, blatantly glaring across the room, that it was taunting.
Miah turned to face her. Though no one else would probably notice, she saw the tiny creases at the corners of the warriors’ eyes and the contraction of muscle at the side of her mouth that indicated her worry. ‘We’re leaving.’ Miah’s hand twitched towards the sword at her side though, thankfully, she made no move to draw it.
Without waiting for an answer, the warrior grabbed her elbow as soon as the demons attention was occupied blessing another tourist and guided her under the archway Kai had exited through earlier.
Making sure to keep herself between Kess and the room they had just left, the warrior hustled her directly to the right out of the small anteroom and down a short corridor.
As they came to a junction, Miah made to push Kess right again, yet as a flicker of movement appeared down the hall, she changed direction veering them left instead. As they made their way down the corridor, Miah edged in front of her.
They had almost reached the next bend when Kai appeared in front of them. ‘You’re heading in the wrong direction.’
‘I saw movement in the other corridor. I didn’t know if the demon had friends.’
Kess knew that by herself the warrior wouldn’t have hesitated to enter the corridor, but with her charge in tow had not wanted to place her at unnecessary risk.
Kai’s raised eyebrows lowered. ‘You may be walking into an ambush.’
‘You think I don’t realise that? Where were you, anyway?’ Miah huffed in annoyance.
Kai ignored her question as he glanced around worriedly. ‘What happened?’
‘Demon-priest.’
Kess felt his obvious surprise quickly followed by his concern.
‘Where the hells were you?’ Miah asked again brusquely, glaring at the Angel.
‘Searching the nearby rooms.’ He glanced at Kess apologetically.
She didn’t know about Miah, but she was infinitely glad the Angel hadn’t been in the room when the demon entered; otherwise, their exit would definitely not have been so easy.
As Miah led her out of the dim passage, she stopped so suddenly that Kess would have crashed into her, had Kai not grabbed her shoulder.
The demon-priest stepped casually into view, even though she could have sworn the corridor had been empty only moments before.
The hellion’s wide, predatory grin faltered for a moment as it saw Kai behind Kess’s shoulder before its focus returned to Miah, confident once more.
‘What are you doing in my house, warrior?’ The dark-skinned demon-priest tilted its head regarding them curiously.
‘The house of God is hardly the residence of demons,’ Miah retorted, hand edging towards her spatha.
The demonic priest’s lips pulled back in an unpleasant smile, which somehow seemed to promise pain and madness. ‘Fee-fie-foe-fum I smell–’ it took another deep breath, ‘so many delicious things. And an Angel as well, my, this is a good day.’
‘I wouldn’t count on it,’ Kai said conversationally. ‘My friends and I were just leaving.’
‘Leaving? I don’t think so.’ The demon-priest shook his head. ‘I had thought Guardians immune to Angelic lure, but,’ he shrugged his darkly clad shoulders, ‘lucky for me. A pretty collection,’ he said, surveying Miah and herself like they were prize cattle or perhaps, seeing the hunger in his eyes, prime cuts of steak. ‘A pity your efforts were wasted. Though,’ he paused as he gave Miah a wide taunting grin, ‘I’m feeling generous. I will make you a deal, Angel, one otherworldly creature to another. Leave me your enthrals, and you can go, or,’ the demon’s eyes turned fully black, ‘you can join in on the fun.’
Kai