Dark Descent (Codex Blair Book 3) Read online

  Dark Descent

  Book Three of the Codex Blair Series

  Izzy Shows

  Contents

  Mailing List

  Also by Izzy Shows

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Also by Izzy Shows

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2017 Izzy Shows

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design by James T. Egan of Bookfly Design LLC

  BookflyDesign.com

  ISBN: 1544642075

  ISBN-13: 978-1544642079

  For my father, who never once questioned my dreams and always believed in me. My mother, who taught me the freedom found in creative pursuits. For Josh, my boyfriend, my biggest cheerleader, and my most devout fan. I couldn’t have gotten here without any of you.

  Want a free book? Sign up for my mailing list to get The Fallen’s Crime for FREE! Subscribe now!

  Also by Izzy Shows

  The Codex Blair Series

  Grave Mistake

  Blood Hunt

  Dark Descent

  1

  High energy music played around me, pulsing its beat through my body as it took me to another level. I fought to breathe and steady my heart rate, but it wasn't working. I couldn't settle, not with the music and the fight.

  Mal's fist came at me and I ducked, falling to the cold concrete floor, and catching myself with my hands. I pushed up, rolling to the side until I landed on my feet and stood. My stance was cautious, defensive. Mal wanted me to attack, but I couldn't bring myself to do that.

  I was afraid to.

  We were training.

  Raven and Mal had decided that it was the only way for me to learn to control the magic inside of me, the demonic power that, two years ago, I had been gifted. We had been working at this for six months now, and it felt like I hadn't improved from the first day. Every fight still brought the rage inside me to the surface, the brand still burned as it had before we'd started.

  Now, it was uncovered, the cuff gone for now. I still wore it whenever I was outside the compound Mal had purchased specifically for my training. I didn't want anyone to see the brand, especially not Emily. I knew that the moment she knew about this she would turn on me, condemn me for the deal that I had made. I wasn't willing to risk her friendship, she meant too much to me.

  Maybe a little too much.

  Mal connected a blow to my head, I hadn't been paying attention and wasn't quick enough to block.

  "Stay focussed," he barked at me.

  The entire thing was reminiscent of training with Aidan that one winter day. When he'd yelled at me to get my shields up.

  But we weren't training with magic right now, it was only the two of us, battling with our fists to try to keep me under control in the moment. Magic would come later.

  Without answering him, I swept his legs out from under him with a kick and launched myself on top of him, pinning his arms to his sides with my knees. "You were saying, smart Alec?" I said with a smirk.

  He grunted, looking up at me from beneath those heavy lashes, grinning. "I could get used to this, you know."

  I got off him and rolled my eyes, shaking my arms out to dislodge the energy that had collected in my shoulder blades.

  "This isn't working. I'm just as keyed up as when we started. If anything, it's getting worse."

  "That's because you haven't mastered the lessons I gave you," Raven said from where they leaned against the far wall. The compound was vast, with a number of different training dummies and a makeshift obstacle course. Raven preferred to hang out by the wall on the far side, opposite the door. They had assumed a human form for these lessons, their silver hair cropped to about chin length, wearing all black and somehow managing to make it seem sleek and formal instead of goth.

  I frowned at them, crossing my arms over my chest. "Your breathing exercises haven't exactly helped either."

  "You aren't trying," they said, pushing off from the wall and walking towards me. Their gait was unnaturally smooth, moving with an alien grace that always sent a shiver down my spine, reaching me within seconds. "Sit down."

  I did as I was told, sparing a glance at Mal. He seemed aggravated, clearly wanting to continue the fight.

  "She doesn't need to learn how to breathe, she needs to learn how to fight without letting the brand control her."

  "She would not have a brand to need to control if it weren't for you," Raven shot back. "This is entirely your fault, and I don't believe we can trust you to know how to bring this to heel. You will listen to me."

  The two immortals stared at one another, defiance flashing in Mal's eyes.

  "Hey, easy does it," I said. "Let's take things down a notch. There's plenty of time to keep going as we have been, taking turns on who gets to try and fix me one way or the other."

  Some days I didn't want to be fixed, but I was sure that was the brand talking. I was just sick of failing at this, it was a constant reminder that I wasn't good enough to handle it. I had just started to get control of the magic I'd become aware of within me, and now I had a new trial in front of me. In many ways, it wasn't fair, but it didn't do to dwell on that.

  Raven sat down in front of me, crossing their legs and placing their palms on their knees.

  I brushed a strand of my platinum hair out of my face, it was almost as pale as Raven's though it did not have the same kind of silver sheen that theirs did. I'd wanted to ask them on numerous occasions where the colour of their hair had come from, it wasn't the white of old age that one would normally expect, nor did I think it came from a bottle, but it felt like a rude question. I'd been chastised once for not understanding something about Raven; I didn't want a repeat of the lecture. Raven was nothing at all like humans, and in fact despised taking on a human form. If they had their way they would probably be the raven I'd named them after, but it worked better for this purpose to allow me to see and mirror the motions that they wanted from me.

  "Close your eyes," they said, doing so themselves at the same time that they spoke.

  I obliged them.

  "Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth.
Listen to your heartbeat."

  My heart was beating erratically, pounding against my chest, demanding that I stand up and engage with Mal again. I wanted to, but I knew better than to disobey Raven. They had a temper when they weren't listened to.

  "You are thinking too much, Sheach."

  I winced, trying to focus on my heartbeat, but it was hard. There were so many thoughts flying through my mind about how to deal with the task in front of me. I wanted to calm down, I wanted to control the rage that flooded my body every time I engaged in a fight, but it wasn't easy. I pulled in another breath, holding it for a heartbeat or two so that the deprivation of oxygen would hit my heart harder, then letting it out in a whoosh of air. It was much more difficult to try and pull my thoughts together during the breathing exercises than it was to engage Mal in combat. That was something I could do with my eyes closed. Raven's lessons were a lot harder.

  Maybe that meant that Raven's time was what I should be focussing on, but all it meant for me was that I didn't want to engage with them as much.

  I heard a sound I took to be of disgust escape Raven and peeked one of my eyes open to see a matching expression on their face.

  "Sorry," I said. "I really am trying." I sounded meek to my own ears, not like me at all. That’s what failure does to you.

  "Not hard enough, apparently."

  Raven had little patience for me, or anyone for that matter. They expected so much from me, had thought that I would have this down already and that it wouldn't take six months for me to still be nowhere.

  "Think of it like building a shield within yourself, mayhaps that will assist you with the process. Envision it surrounding the rage that is consuming you."

  "Yeah, but I do that already," I said with a sigh, opening both my eyes now. "I shut everything in a door within my mind, it just comes barrelling back out later."

  They opened their grey eyes to glare at me. "I do not mean for you to shove them aside. I want you to grasp the feeling and slowly deprive it of energy until it is snuffed out, akin to a fire being deprived of oxygen."

  "That won't work," Mal said, rolling his eyes now.

  Raven turned their glare on him now. "And you would know this because...? You did not know what was affecting her before I came to help."

  "I know that she should be learning to live with it, work with it, not destroy it."

  "She should not have it to worry about!" Raven snapped at him, standing up.

  My eyes widened and I stared at the two of them; I hadn't seen them fight before and it was a little disconcerting.

  "You should not have messed with her mind," Raven said, their words laced with venom and their features twisted into a snarl.

  "I didn't mess with her mind. I gave her the power she needed to get through something she could not have otherwise handled. How the hell am I the bad guy for that?" Mal had his hands up in a defensive position for a moment before he crossed them over his chest. "I'm not going to stand here and listen to you berate me for making the only choice available to save her. What use were you that night?"

  Raven flinched. "I did everything within my power. You know that we are not supposed to interfere with the mortal domain."

  "Yeah, well, I guess you can thank me for sidestepping the rules then."

  They glared at one another for another moment before Raven sat down in front of me again.

  "Form your shield," they said, snapping their fingers to emphasise the command.

  I nodded, closing my eyes. I didn't want to argue with either of them while they were in such a mood, I knew that it wouldn't end well for me. I inhaled through my nose, letting the breath out as I tried to focus. It was easier to focus when I was reaching for the magic within myself than it was when I wasn't trying to do anything in particular. I found the well of magic and pulled it up, forming it into a sphere around what I envisioned as the rage within my mind.

  It was a dark red mist that would cloud my vision and take hold of me if I allowed it, and inside the shield it swirled and pushed at its boundaries. But I felt the effect almost instantly, the ease of the need to stand up and pound on something until it was spent. It was like a switch had been turned off, and a breath of relief escaped me.

  It felt so good to not have the rage burning inside of me, even if it was just a temporary fix.

  "Very good, Blair. Now slowly decrease the size of the shield, envision it closing around the emotion and stifling it."

  I did as I was told, reducing the shield inch by inch. The cloud of red raged for a moment, as I squeezed. I pushed at it, forcing it to reduce in size as the shield shrank. Sweat broke out on my forehead as I battled with the rage inside the shield, forcing it smaller and smaller. I found that it was harder to do without the rage fuelling me, which was a surprise. I had never thought that it might be energising my magic as well as my emotions. That was scary to think about; that I might have been using the demonic power without even thinking about it.

  How much had it affected me before I had reached out to Mal for help?

  I knew that if I asked him, he could provide a temporary respite from the rage, his touch against the brand had quietened it twice now and could do it again. But it was not a long-term fix, any more than this shield spell was, and I needed to learn how to get rid of it.

  With a burst of energy and frustration, I squashed the shield around the ball of rage and watched it die in my mind's eye.

  I opened my eyes and sucked in a breath of much needed air.

  Mal was staring at me with an odd expression on his face, as if deep in thought.

  "I did it," I said, in case that wasn't obvious to the two of them.

  "Very good," Raven said. I felt myself glow at their praise, so eager was I to impress the immortal being.

  I still didn't know what Raven was, it was something I was immensely curious about, but again it felt rude to ask any questions. They had their secrets and they were entitled to keep them. I had enough of my own to worry about.

  "Can we get on to the rest of it now?" Mal asked, sounding impatient.

  Raven nodded their head as they stood. "Indeed, I think we have done as much as we can with the mental exercises. Let us see how it will affect the fight."

  I uncrossed my legs and stood too, a wary feeling building like a knot between my shoulder blades. Mal looked agitated, and I knew that was going to come out in any fight between the two of us.

  We took our stances opposite each other, and I held my left hand down at my side at the same time as I brought my right up in front of me in a defensive position. Mal always attacked first—weakness of his, he couldn't wait out his enemy. I was learning a lot about him from the training we'd been working on the past six months. He was impatient and had a temper, something to be expected from a demon.

  He brought his hand over his head and brought it down again in an arc, calling fire to him that he sprayed out at me a second later.

  I didn't miss a beat. "Glacio," I said, calling ice to my right hand that flared to a circular shield in time to meet the fire's blast. It was so much easier to call ice than it was fire, and it responded to me with a readiness that had surprised me the first few times I'd done it. Like it was an extension of myself, it knew what I needed it to do almost before I thought it through. It almost didn't hurt that time, so frequently had I used it. The pain was more of a constant reminder of the tremendous power within me and a caution against using it too much; something that didn't haunt me as much as it had once upon a time. I twisted my arm to the side, sending the fire to extinguish itself on the concrete floor, and flexed my forearm. Several spikes of ice appeared out of thin air and flew towards Mal.

  He had his own shield of fire ready for them, melting them into nothingness as soon as our magic met.

  He pressed on, throwing balls of fire at me at such a steady rate that I faltered a step, driven backward by the onslaught. The itch began in my wrist and spread up my arm, the brand begging me to call it into use.

 
"Come on, Blair," Mal jeered at me, taunting me to use the magic that I so desperately wanted to avoid. I was terrified to use it, afraid of what it would do to me.

  I was already afraid that I had been using it without realising it for a while now.

  His next attack was one of black energy called into a slithering form that came at me, ignoring the ice that I threw at it, wrapping its way around my feet as if I had done nothing at all. Panic edged at the corners of my mind—we weren't using innocent spells, but attacking each with full force, and I didn't know what Mal had sent at me. He'd never used dark energy before, this was a new development.

  Was he mad at me, for not using the magic he had given me? For listening to Raven?

  I felt the fear consuming me, the need to use the demonic power breaking free into my mind again and needling at me to give it form.

  "Couvra!" I gasped, the word ripping out of my throat and gone from my mind as soon as the syllables were out. A blast of energy rippled out of me, tearing at my senses in a way that my other magic didn't, and it came out of every available surface of skin as I had not known to give it a direction. The black energy was pounded into the floor and dissipated there, a light squealing sound coming from it.

  I looked up to see Raven and Mal staring at me, a hint of fear in Mal's eyes.

  "What?" I said. It came out sharp. I was feeling anxious now that I had done something I wasn't supposed to do. I couldn't remember the word I'd spoken to call that magic to life, but it had a sense of familiarity to it. I remembered a similar situation, when I had fought at Tyburn Tree two years ago, words had come to me that I hadn't known at the time, tearing magic from my insides and pouring it out as I'd needed it.

  Mal shook his head, and his mask of composure replaced itself on his face.

  "Nothing, I just…No, nothing." The two of them shared a look, a secret passing between them that only served to heighten my anxiety.

  My lips twisted into a frown. I didn't like to be kept out of the loop. Sweeping my arm in a wide arc and aiming it out at Mal, I brought my other hand to press against the mark on my wrist. I snapped the next word out. "Infernus." I knew the damned word as I spoke it, knew its connotations and the danger it represented. Fire erupted and engulfed my arm though it did not burn me, and sprayed out at Mal like a flamethrower.