Kai grimaced as he struggled to shake off his confusion. He was inside a building. The coppery aroma of blood caressed his nose. The sickly sweet smell of Dusk accompanied it. Black hammers, broken glass, and blood covered the floor.

  He knew where he was, but how he'd gotten there was a mystery.

  Three bodies decorated the once clean floor. Two of their faces twisted in frozen horror. A subtle, uncomfortable hunger arose within Kai.

  He ignored it.

  His memory had been altered, erased. He kicked the corpse lying face down nearby. The force of the blow caused the body to rotate, revealing a man with a scarred lip and a dark beard.

  Kobb.

  The big Carver bastard who almost sent Kai to the Darklands. His eyes bulged. His mouth hung open in a silent scream. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

  Kai touched his face. The scarf was gone; he felt a gritty powder covering his mouth and nose. He checked his fingers; covered in black. Not good.

  He was inside the Dusk house.

  The Dusk all over his face explained the memory loss. But knowing the why didn’t extinguish the violation of the what.

  The recent flow of events was a blur, a smudged gap in his mind.

  He was in a small room. Dime bags and Dusk covered three tables. A duffel bag filled with Darkshards lay near his feet.

  Kai squatted down to take a closer look at Kobb. No cuts or marks. Kai checked his own body. No cuts there either.

  The blood on the floor came from somewhere, or someone else. His hands patted the big corpse until he retrieved a knife from a sheath.

  He moved to check the other corpses, but learned little. No wounds on any of them. Their death was a mystery.

  They were lucky.

  Kai would’ve given them no mercy for messing with his mind. Though his chances in a fair fight against three goons were slim, it hadn’t stopped him before.

  Three gas masks lay on the opposite side of the room. But that didn’t solve the puzzle. Dusk didn’t kill people like this.

  Disregarding the cryptic situation, Kai glared at the bag of Darkshards. There were enough shards to complete Renzo’s request and furnish his personal stash. But…

  Leaving the black book in the Carver Mob’s hands was a problem. It was too dangerous, too powerful, too incomprehensible to allow his enemies to keep.

  A heavy reluctance weighed him down. An inexplicable connection bonded him to that grim artifact. Its chilling force pulled at his soul, even now.

  His jaw tightened at the unspoken meaning.

  Noll was with the book or already dead. Either way, Kai could kill two birds with one stone. Future jobs would be harder without the bald mercenary.

  He sighed as he crept toward the door at the opposite end of the room. He paused for a moment before easing the door open. Outside stretched a corridor lined with more rooms. To the left lay the main hall - the source of the chilling pull. To the right, the building’s entrance awaited him.

  Sounds of movement came from the hall, punctuated by a metallic clatter that rose above the chaos. A rough voice echoed through the hall.

  “Light the lamps he doused! He’s using the darkness - stay in the light!”

  Kai knew that voice. Dakas.

  His stomach tightened. The sounds told him everything. Noll didn’t have long.

  Kai moved into the corridor, eased the door shut and laid the duffel bag on the floor. His fingers tightened around the stolen knife. It wasn’t much against a Marked, and who knows what else, but it was better than nothing.

  He turned left, following the ominous pull of the dark book.

  Shadows shrouded the hall as Kai neared the corridor’s end. In the dim glow of the few remaining gas lamps, Dakas loomed beside a mundane teenager.

  Dakas was broad-chested and taller than anyone Kai had laid eyes on. Stubble covered his face. No scars marred his skin. He leaned against a massive battle-axe at the rightmost edge of the hall, his back to the wall.

  A teenager stood to his left, childlike beside Dakas - a frail barrier between Kai and the Marked.

  Another goon moved through the dim hall with a torch, relighting the lamps as he went.

  Noll would soon have no place to hide. The darkness to Dakas’ right was his only path of attack - and Dakas knew it.

  Kai had to create a distraction.

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  And what could be more attention-grabbing than your target walking into your trap?

  Kai adjusted his grip on the knife and swaggered towards Dakas. Dakas turned at the sound of footsteps, and Kai revealed a bright smile.

  “Looking for me?”

  Dakas narrowed his eyes, a scowl on his face.

  “Finally, you stop your shameful hiding. But you’re a fool to face me directly—”

  Noll’s pale hand grabbed Dakas - and Kai’s triumphant smile fell from his face. Dakas stood tall, unfaltering. No drop. No sleep.

  Faint sparks appeared in the surrounding air, and a soft cracking sound echoed throughout the hall.

  Noll collapsed, unconscious.

  Ashes!

  A painful lump emerged in Kai’s throat. The truth landed like a blow to the stomach. They were wrong - misinformed and foolhardy.

  His mind spun. Dakas’ Gift wasn’t a physical defense.

  It countered everything.

  A power too ridiculous for a rational mind to predict.

  They would both die here.

  The darkness in the hall deepened. An icy chill covered the area. The faint sound of whispers filled Kai’s ears.

  Noll’s body twitched. Dakas jumped away - but the teenager standing near him was too slow. A dark tentacle, covered in inhuman symbols, burst out of Noll’s left eye and wrapped around the teenager’s waist.

  The tentacle squeezed, and the teenager burst like a red balloon. The bloody appendage continued to strike the corpse as it fell. Legs hit the ground first, followed by the torso and arms, leaving blood splattered across the hall.

  Kai’s gaze caught an arm that landed nearby, a snake tattoo coiled around it. One of Renzo’s spies?

  The tattoo blurred, a ripple of green ink, then vanished.

  Before the tentacle could reach Dakas, the giant’s axe blurred. Noll’s head separated from his body and rolled towards Kai. Dakas raised his bloody battle-axe, revealing cracked tiles where Noll’s head had been.

  Noll’s body lay limp and lifeless, the cursed book cradled in his arms. Kai’s heart dropped. Dakas roared at the teenager at the other end of the hall.

  “Don’t just stand there gawking, idiot! Hurry and burn this abomination!”

  Dakas’ gaze fell on Kai.

  Cold sweat flooded Kai’s forehead. He held his trembling knife toward Dakas. The giant laughed.

  Kai would’ve done the same if someone else were in his position. But the shaky knife wasn’t his only weapon.

  His gaze fell on Noll’s headless corpse. Kai spoke in a language no human tongue could speak:

  “Rise.”

  Before the teenager could burn the corpse and prevent it from becoming a vessel, Noll’s headless body rose into the air. The cursed book melted into the flesh of his stomach.

  Three tentacles sprouted from Noll’s open neck. Bloodshot eyeballs, like festering boils, covered each one.

  Noll’s limbs lengthened. His arms bulged with power, his legs thickened with muscle. Black claws sprouted from his hands and feet.

  A tentacle whipped towards Dakas and struck him. It had no effect. Bright white sparks surrounded Dakas, and a faint cracking sound echoed in the hall once again. Before the first tentacle retracted, another curled, ready to attack.

  Kai’s head throbbed; his fingers released their grip on the knife. His legs buckled under his weight. Cold gripped his heart, and darkness swallowed the world.

  ***

  An endless void welcomed Kai.

  A lone onyx statue watched him, its face too handsome to be real. Glacial cold blanketed Kai, bringing a calm that settled his heart.

  Then it was gone.

  Kai opened his eyes. His chest tightened. More lost time.

  Heat spread through his body, and his heart pounded in his chest.

  A cold, hard floor pressed against his skin, carved grooves in the tiles guiding his gaze. He strained his neck, and at the end of the path, it revealed itself.

  An enormous bowl sat on a defiled burgundy altar, both stained red with blood. Candles flickered around it, illuminating misshapen skulls and polished bones.

  The fight was over. They lost.

  Heavy footsteps grew louder.

  He moved to stand, only to find his hands and feet bound, a plastic-like material cutting into his skin. Zip-ties.

  No escape.

  Kai was helpless, captured, and powerless in enemy territory. Noll was dead. Dakas had the cursed book, and Kai was clearly about to become part of some profane ritual.

  The bastards had sullied his precious memory. Using the book had forced him unconscious. The heat in his chest warred against his exhaustion.

  He tried, didn’t he?

  He should’ve left Noll and the book behind. All he achieved was landing himself in deep ash.

  Renzo won.

  Kai released a laugh. Death always wins in the end.

  “What’s so funny?” Dakas’ voice was calm but weary. The fight with the abomination must’ve taken a lot out of him. Kai doubted Dakas got out of that encounter unscathed.

  Good. The bastard’s not invincible.

  Kai was in a poor position to capitalise on his newfound knowledge; his options were grim.

  Stay quiet and look for a way to escape, or persuade Dakas to spare him. Both likely to end in his bloody, abrupt death.

  But there was a path. Renzo had a spy in the hall. If Dakas didn’t know, Kai could shift the spotlight onto Renzo. If he did know, he’d expose Renzo’s treacherous nature.

  “It’s funny what happened to Renzo’s spy, right?”

  Dakas snorted.

  “You think I do not know his intentions? That I do not know the loyalty of my own men?”

  The footsteps stopped. The scrape of metal against stone filled the silence.

  “When I make a deal with the devil, I read the small print.”

  Dakas knew too much. He already knew Renzo for the slimy bastard he was. The giant was gonna be a tough nut to crack.

  Kai’s mind raced. He had little to offer, and Dakas already suspected his stepfather. He had to buy time to think.

  “You think Renzo will honour your deal?”

  Dakas laughed. “You are a fool, boy. Why do you think you are not dead already?”

  Ashes. That bastard sold me off? Then got me to walk into the hands of the highest bidder.

  Renzo had outplayed him from the beginning. A trap within a trap.

  “Why? What am I worth to you?”

  Dakas moved to stand in front of the altar, cuts and tears riddled his body and clothes. He glanced down at Kai and offered a soft nod.

  “A dying man should understand his end.” He gestured to the enormous bowl. “Your blood will complete it. I will ascend to become Darkbound.”

  Dakas shook his head. “Your despicable master omitted details, but I reaped a bounty from the corpse above. A good outcome.”

  He’s trying to bypass the second trial? And he found the book?

  Gods.

  They thought they could use him and throw him away. Heat spread across Kai’s face. “You’re an ashen fool if you don’t think Renzo’s told your plans to your boss. He’s the slimiest bastard I know. You’re next!”

  Dakas’ laugh cut through the air.

  “The deal is done. What Renzo does now doesn’t matter. Thank you for your sacrifice.”

  Dakas bent down, gripped Kai’s ugly green cloak and hauled him over his shoulder. Kai’s gaze fell on the inside of the bowl.

  An unholy pool of blood squirmed and swirled. Dark remnants of previous sacrifices lined its bottom.

  Kai struggled, but he couldn’t escape. Dakas threw his bound body into the massive bowl like ingredients in that soup thing he’d learned about in books.

  Tainted blood welcomed his body, then invaded his orifices. Before he could accept his dire fate, a hand pulled his hair.

  His head emerged above the bloody surroundings. Struggling to open his blood-coated eyes, he glimpsed Dakas’ enormous battle-axe a moment before a searing pain slashed across his throat.

  Then he returned to the red abyss. And there was nothing.

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