The Raven and the Wraith Book 2 (Completed!)

The Raven and the Wraith 2 Chapter 55

The Raven and the Wraith 2 Chapter 55

My hands trembled as I clicked the blades into place. I was leaving behind the only connection I had to my mother. I was leaving behind the rags of those old memories, those flashes of a past life with their fangs of despair, those fangs that could still rend me any time I dared dwell on them.

I was ready. I could leave them here, I could leave them, and all of the anger tied to them, behind.

The moment the blades clicked into place, the gathered Draelkin began to moan. It was the first time I'd ever heard them make any sound other than a hiss, and I knew it would haunt my dreams forever.

It was the keening, crying symphony of thousands of voices, rising and falling in total discord, yet still blending into a single message. The voice Despair. And then, abruptly, they fell completely silent. I began climbing down, keeping a watchful eye on the huge crowd surrounding me. They were all standing frozen, faces up towards the Wererat head, transfixed.

I looked at my next handhold, then back out at the crowd, and I saw a perfect nightmare come to life. Every single, wretched thing had reached up, and tore their own throats out. There was blood. A fountain of it, rivers of it, cascading down onto the gray stones. So much blood.

Though they staggered, though they fell, they made no sound. It was so unbelievable, so disgustingly warped, I almost fell. I started scrambling down, feeling time running out, feeling my heart wrenching coldly in my chest. I had to get out of here!

As I dropped the last few feet down, I heard a strange clicking, like hundreds of pebbles being dropped onto the stones. Even as I sprinted away, with that sound echoing through the clearing, I knew what it was. The Wererat skeleton statue was moving.

The opening to the street I was racing towards flickered, making me pull up short. The shadows down that street, and all the others I could see, were swaying like silent, black flames.  There was a growing pressure on my eardrums, and all sound faded away with it. I had never been so terrified of silence in my life.

I turned back to the clearing, my power held as ready as I knew how. I found myself desperately trying to change back into my half cat form, but I didn't know how. It had happened on its own that first time, and I hadn't had time to dwell on how it really happened.

The Wererat stood in the clearing, no longer towering above the buildings, but now about my height and size. It was wreathed in those foul, black shadow flames, hiding its face and form, but it stood in the same hunched over stance as the skeleton statue had. I somehow sensed it was not yet complete, that it was still caught halfway through the transformation.

It lifted one hand, the inky blackness surrounding it silently dripping off its arm, and beckoned me closer. I shook my head.

"Nah. This is probably close enough. I'm thinking we're just going to have a nice little talk, not start an intimate relationship." My own voice sounded like it was spoken from a far way off, and I redoubled my efforts to change into my Werecat form. This thing, despite my bravado, would eat me alive if I couldn't access those powers!

"Do you know who I am?" It's voice was the barren, cracking of ice, the empty howl of the storm-wracked plains, the ceaseless, uncaring thunder of the ocean.

I gritted my teeth and locked my knees, determined not to sway back from the effect of its voice. I would show this abomination no weakness, no fear.

"You're the fallen Werecat. The dreamwalker. The one who's haunted me my entire life."

It nodded, seemingly pleased at my answer. "I was those things. But now I'm so much more. Now I'm free of the dream cage, now I walk whatever Path I choose, to whatever realm I will. I'm completely free. As you can be."

"I'm already free. I already threw you away, like a dirty piece of garbage, remember? I answer to no one, now. I dance for no one, now."

It glanced around the clearing. "Ah yes. You tossed me away? Is that what you think? Tell me, unwanted worm, who guides your rage in battle?"

I opened my mouth to snarl something foul back, but my memories began pulling up those instances where I had allowed that darkest, inner fury free. I carefully watched inside, at my own thoughts just before striking, and I saw the truth. I had relied on this things darkness, I had leaned on its strength, it's freedom to kill, in battle. It shook me to the core, but there was yet a glimmer of hope.

"Yeah." I croaked. "You're right. I've never been truly free of you. Not since I was a child, not since you taught me to trust no one, to see nothing but helplessness and despair all around me. But then, what happened when I met Genevieve? You almost lost your link to me. You were able to use the Council and my love for her to drive me deep into despair, but I still fought you back. Since then, I've trusted others. I've made friends. I love Kiera. And you...you've lost me. You can't control me anymore."

At that, it seemed to swell with unholy rage, affirming I was right. "If you do not join me, I will erase you, I will purge all Reality from the taint of your touch, those who know you will be left to live with nothing but a festering, empty hole in their memories, and it will drive them all right into my arms. Choose, worm. Join me and walk the Web as a free Master Werecat, or die and leave everyone you know as my slaves, forever."