Blue Flames

Chapter 76

The waterfall of white blood split like sliding doors. Beyond it, in a world of darkness and chaos, stretched a black moving carpet.

No. Not a carpet. An army.

It was like a doorway had opened to a different reality, in which the sky was a deep purple and the ground, a deep brown of rocks and dirt, was dotted with an infinite army of unseemly creatures.

On the head of that army was a monster. He approached the gate, a humanoid of at least eight feet tall and almost half as wide. His gait was slow and purposeful. His long cloak, the color of a moonless night sky, swallowed the light.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Every step he took seemed like a nail to my coffin. His cloak flared, revealing an armor reminiscent of a time long past. Except the color was a shimmering metallic blue instead of gray. Old scars marred its surface. Obsidian chainmail peeked through the gaps. A helmet covered his face and a massive sword hung at his hip.

On the breastplate stretched across his broad chest, a swirl of white lines was burned in. A crest that became clearer the closer the demon got. A dragon head with two swirling horns.

The demon stopped inches from the portal and reached up with a gauntleted hand, touching a translucent film separating our reality from theirs.

The film cracked, like glass, and shattered in a rain of shimmering stars.

Silence.

The demon lowered his helmet and I sucked in a breath. I never expected a demon would be beautiful, but this one had an odd kind of beauty that repelled and sucked you in at the same time.

His skin was a dark brown with undertones of olive, it stretched across a face that looked human but wasn't. The cheekbones were too high, the nose too flat, and the chin was a perfect square in the middle of which thin lips stretched.

His irises were a perfect leaf green against a backdrop of black; the part of a person's eye that would be white was pure black, and his pupils were slitted against the bright green. The effect was deeply unsettling.

His skin was not smooth, and as he turned his head, I could make out its texture. Like tiny scales of a dragon.

Inexistent wind blew his hair back, the strands long and feathery. White at the roots that deepened into green, then black at the ends.

The ombré style was done very well. The ridiculous thought snapped me out of my shock.

Sound returned to my ears. A flurry of whispers rolled through the crowd as the demon took a step forward and landed in our world. The immortals closer to him all took a collective step back, pushed by an invisible force.

A burst of heat singed my skin. The energy the demon emanated was unlike anything I'd ever felt. It tasted like that of the lesser demons I'd encountered before. But it was more. More refined, more potent, just more. Even to my silver dulled senses, the power in his magic took my breath away.

Rami stepped toward the demon. He looked so small and weak next to him.

The demon opened his mouth, revealing two rows of serrated, sharp teeth. "You have fulfilled your end of the bargain, witch."

The voice was deep and growly, what I expected a dragon would sound like.

Rami bowed his head, eyes still on the demon. "The stage is yours, demon lord."

The demon took another step and looked around him at the faces of stunned immortals, then his gaze went back to Rami. "The gate needs to stretch farther to accomodate my army."