Essence was not mana. You couldn’t drink a vial of mana potion and get more of it. You couldn’t regenerate it from breathing in the air or eating mana-enriched meats and herbs. It was what made you, you. That is why, even though I had just gotten a bucketful of it, it wasn’t mine. It was still the matriarch’s.

  I needed time for my soul to finish digesting it and convert it to suit me. Only then could I use it. And without it, I couldn’t use my reaper abilities like meld and alteration. That meant right now I was out of options. And I had nothing to defend myself with—not even a weapon.

  I leaned back on the rough rock wall behind me and rested my back on the stone mouth of the cave.

  Baz, the damned man, looked at me with a hateful look. I had just killed his matriarch, and one thing I knew about predators was that they were extremely territorial. There was no way he was going to let me live after what I had done.

  “You wait there. I am going to come for you after I am done, you bastard,” Baz stated, giving voice to my thoughts.

  I didn’t respond. There was no point in doing anything like that. Also, I needed time. Time to get myself together.

  My head hurt, and blood dripped down my cheek. My leg was a clawed-out mess. One of my shoulders didn’t move right. And I think a few of my ribs were broken. I was a mess. It was bad, but I had been in worse situations. And even though that had been in the dark waters when I was a reaper, I still wasn’t out of options.

  Moreover, I had one last card to play. I didn’t know how it would go, but I was going to do it anyway.

  Sitting there quietly, breathing in and out to get myself together, I watched Baz. He had transformed half of himself in anger and now was using his clawed fingers to rip open the matriarch’s chest. He needed to do that. I had ripped apart her soul in the dark waters, not in the world. In the world, she remained whole.

  Meanwhile, I may have seemed like a mess here, but in the dark waters, I was doing better than ever since my awakening. But that only meant that I just needed to stay alive to build on my gains.

  Cupping one of his palms, Baz began scooping up handfuls of the eggs stored in the matriarch’s body. Every time he saw dead larvae or a cracked egg, a deep growl escaped his throat. He opened his leather bag and took out a jar, then began dropping them in, handfuls at a time.

  I watched the damned work, and when he was fully immersed in his task, I began crawling into the cave. I tried to avoid making any sound and failed. One of the loose stones on the ground clattered down the slope, hitting others and drawing the damned’s attention.

  Baz stopped his work and looked at me. I looked back at his glowing red and yellow eyes.

  The damned opened his mouth and hissed loudly. After the inhuman hiss, he stated, “If you run and make me work, I will kill you slowly.”

  I gave up on stealth and began using my arms to drag myself inside the cave faster. Baz watched me drag myself into the cave for a long moment but didn’t follow. He continued his work.

  I wasn’t running. I was giving myself a fighting chance. I didn’t have any more essence to use, and I didn’t have access to my mana. What I had was my fists and legs. And a trick.

  I dragged myself over the loose stones and into the darkness of the cave. It took me two minutes to drag all fourteen feet of myself all the way in. Immersed in the darkness, I pressed myself against the wall and took in a deep breath. I brought my hand up and untied the lace on my collar with my good arm. I ran my fingers over the torc, trying to find the spot with the symbols.

  The sound of a stone being kicked made me look at the cave opening. I hurried my fingers. I ran them down its surface and found the dimpled surface. Usually, I needed mana to activate or deactivate my torc. But there was another way. My blood had my mana, and I could use it to work my torc.

  I touched the wound on my head, and my fingers came away wet with fresh blood. I rubbed it all over the symbols and willed my torc to work. The torc in my hand buzzed, and I felt my mana contracting inside my body. I grunted as my body followed the mana’s will. I heard a clattering sound and looked down. The shackle on my damaged left wrist clattered to the ground. I lowered my right hand and slipped the shackle off.

  I quickly grabbed my shoes and threw them off one by one. My hands went to work slipping off the shackles on my legs. I jostled my injuries, but I didn’t stop. The light from the cave’s mouth dimmed, and I looked at the shadow of a man with glowing yellow-red eyes looking down the cave. I worked faster and finally threw off the shackles.

  My body took in an involuntary loud breath. Ice-cold mana began to trickle into me, and I wanted to cherish the life-giving force. I didn’t. This wasn’t going to be enough. Not with my ice. However, I didn’t just have ice; I had death running in my dark veins too.

  The only problem was, I didn’t know how to use it.

  “There you are,” Baz snarled.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  I looked at the damned. He didn’t hurry. He took his time walking to me. He was a predator stalking his prey.

  “Nice trick. I didn’t know you could shift sizes.” Baz looked at the shackles lying on the ground next to me and chuckled. “Got yourself free, did you?”

  I took in a breath and started scrambling to my feet.

  “Do you think it will make any difference?” Baz asked in a hiss.

  The damned man blurred into action. I took in a sharp breath and lifted my hands to cover my face. Baz shifted his strike to my midsection. With a grunt, I doubled over. He grabbed me by my hair and slammed my face into the cave wall.

  “What did I say? Huh? What did I say!?” Baz screamed in my face.

  I coughed.

  “I told you if you run, I will kill you slowly,” Baz shouted and kicked me in my stomach.

  My breath was knocked out of me, and I stumbled backward. Another kick had me slipping over the stones. Somehow, I managed to stay upright and kept my footing.

  Baz began to walk to me slowly and casually. “Now, are you going to tell me how you killed Esni?”

  He didn’t know. He hadn’t sensed me slipping into the dark waters. That meant I had a chance to slip in a strike when we grappled next. But before that, I needed to hold Baz off to give my soul time to convert some of the essence I had just acquired. And that left me with only my magic.

  “Well?” Baz asked.

  “Go suck an egg.” Compared to all the insults I’d heard thrown around, mine needed work. The look the damned gave me told me that.

  He snorted. “You are a newborn mana-born, aren’t you?”

  The damned tapped his clawed foot on the ground as if he had all the time in the world. He looked up thoughtfully. “What am I going to do with you?”

  I let the man prattle on. I needed to figure out how my death magic worked. I couldn’t make spikes or balls of ice with death. Could I? No. Maybe…

  Baz blurred again and kicked me in my chest. I felt my bones creak, and I went flying back out of the cave. I hit the stony ground and rolled over the rocks.

  “Look at me when I am talking to you!” Baz screamed from the cave’s mouth.

  I scrambled on the floor and began lifting myself back up.

  “You know, I thought about giving you a chance. Even after you killed my mate. But you are one annoying bastard,” Baz said, walking down the slope toward me.

  I put my knees under me and lifted my head to look at the damned.

  “I am just going to kill you,” Baz stated and motioned with his hand. “Get up. I want to see the look in your eyes when I gut you.”

  I lifted myself back to my feet, bent my knees, and took a fighting stance.

  “Oh… Someone thinks they can fight back,” Baz clapped, mocking me.

  I narrowed my eyes.

  The damned blurred once again. I heard a loud thwack. My face stung and my head reeled. I stumbled and grimaced.

  I looked at the damned. Had he just slapped me? Me? That… That annoyed me.

  Baz laughed. “You think you are special? A Truechild? You are nothing. We were going to make you into something bigger than yourself. But now… Now you are food. And I am going to enjoy cutting pieces out of you to feed to my younglings.”

  I cracked my neck and looked at the damned. “How?”

  “How? How?” Baz asked and grinned. “You want me to show you how?”

  Baz’s foot dug into the ground, and he moved. I was waiting for him this time. As soon as he moved, I pushed a wave of death mana out of my body, just like I did with my ice-cold.

  Baz’s eyes widened as a black cloud erupted out of my body. He tried to skid to a stop. But he was going too fast. The damned hit the wall of dark death. My fist followed the wave and crunched into his nose. This time the damned flew back and went down rolling.

  “Aaaahhhh…” Baz screamed, clawing at his face.

  I tried to move toward him. My foot gave way on the second step, and I fell down to one knee. I looked at my clawed-out leg and mentally cursed the non-responsive limb. By the time I looked up, Baz was back on his feet and looking at me with one good eye.

  “Death caster?” Baz asked in a scream.

  I smiled and nodded.

  Baz dug his claws into his socket and popped out his eyeball. He crushed it with one hand.

  I lifted myself back up and waited for him to approach. He didn’t move from his spot. Well, if he wasn’t going to move… I hobbled to him.

  The damned swung at me with his claws. I dodged and twisted. Baz followed my movement, but with only one good eye, he missed. My uppercut sent him stumbling backward.

  Baz snarled, “I am going to kill you!”

  I rolled my eyes and responded, “You’ve already said that before.”

  Baz gritted his teeth. “What!?”

  I cracked my neck. “All you damned are the same. You all say, ‘I am going to kill you. I am going to torture you. I am going to blah… blah… blah.’”

  I wasn’t just spouting insults for no reason. I needed the damned man to lunge at me again so that I could use that wave of death magic again.

  “You are a dead man, Truechild,” Baz shouted, and spittle flew everywhere.

  I sighed loudly. “Boring.”

  Baz straightened. “You want to play? Well, let’s play.”

  Baz’s shoulders cracked. His neck tensed and elongated. His back creaked and lengthened. With a popping sound from his bones and muscles, he began to transform. I took a few steps back as fiery embers appeared on his skin and flew out in a rush. Finally, his ears elongated, and his teeth began to lengthen into jagged, pointy ones. In just a handful of seconds, his skin began to darken, and two horns began to jut out of the damned’s head.

  “Death magic is banned in the empire,” Baz’s voice doubled as he announced.

  I looked up at the ten-foot-tall damned and nodded. “Yes, I know.”

  “Hypocritical imperials,” Baz cursed.

  “Says the man who damned his soul for immortality.”

  Baz laughed. “You know what else is banned?” The damned slashed his claws across his chest, ripping streaks in his flesh. “Blood magic.”

  The damned flung needles of his blood at me.

  I threw myself down to avoid the needles and tried to roll up. A kick hit me on my damaged side, and I flew sideways into a thorny bush. I rolled up to my feet and had to dodge again to avoid a wave of fire from Baz’s mouth.

  With thudding footsteps, Baz charged. I shot a wave of death magic out. Baz stopped just out of reach of the wave. I expected that. I picked up a large stone and hit the damned man on his head. Baz rolled with the blow and kicked me with his haunches.

  I flew back and came up to my knees, ready to defend myself. Baz didn’t launch an attack. He sniffed the air and looked up.

  He looked back down at me and growled, “This isn’t over, Voss Truechild.”

  Baz rushed over to his bag, lifted it, and jumped into the trees. I looked at his retreating form, clueless, until he disappeared out of my line of sight.

  After a moment, something thudded behind me. I turned back and saw Ilya looking at me aghast.

  She gave me a long look and asked, “What happened?”

  I fell to my rear and sighed in relief. “Got abducted by the damned.”

  Ilya blinked. “Explain.”

  I held up my hand. “I will, but first, can you teach me how to insult people?”

  “What!?”