Crouched in the shadows of a rooftop in the market district, Bakt listened to the wind and waited. Amarna was not a quiet city, not by any means, but it was quiet enough to hear the scuttling of the demons as they approached, skittering through the street below. They were looking for her. She was certain.
Bakt dove off the roof, landed rolling, and gutted the first one with her knives before either of the pair were the wiser. It shrieked and writhed and dissolved into dust and ash beneath her hands. The other one skittered back and began circling her, and when she looked up she could see a third demon starting to make its way toward her, tail lashing back and forth.
The second one charged and she dodged sideways, digging her blade into its side and ripping it open. It exploded into ash and she charged the third one, slicing the barbed stinger from its tail and burying both her knives into its back.
"Oh, very good."
Bakt looked up, startled.
A woman stood in the doorway of a nearby shop, watching her. Her skin was as grey as the skin of the dead, her hair a matching color, as if someone had doused her in clay dust, and her eyes were fully black. Demon eyes.
"Who are you?" Bakt growled.
"I don't know," the demon-woman answered. She sounded oddly genuine, but Bakt knew better than anyone how easily demons lied.
"What have you to do with these demon?" Bakt demanded, gesturing to the empty street around her. "They have infested this city for three days and three nights. You brought them upon us, didn't you?"
"I seek something," the demon-woman said. "Something which may be hidden in your city's records. They are merely helping me to look for it."
"Then what do you seek?" Bakt asked.
The demon-woman only stared at her.
Bakt strode toward her and raised her blade, pressing it to the side of the demon-woman's throat. "What do you seek?"
"My name," the demon-woman answered. "Now let me go."
______
notes:
welcome back to book four of my christopher lightwood fanfic. this has got to be the wildest 'days past' segment ever written. but it's going somewhere, trust me.
YOU ARE READING
a cross in the void // christopher lightwood {4}
Fanfiction{Rivers & Gates, Pt. IV} Pluto's not sure if she's ever recovering from the cleansing ritual they performed for the goblins living under the Wiltshire Downs. Haunted by their vision of Christopher lying dead and fearing their uselessness in the upco...
