Logan stepped back behind the cover of the brush, clutching at his racing heart. The men who were no longer men had not heard him. They still shambled about, meandering in purpose and direction.

  Logan leaned back into his former position. The eyes still focused on him in an unsettling steady stare. The creature had not called out. It merely kept its eyes on him in a silent plea for help.

  What did it think he would do, risk everything for something that wasn’t even human?

  Words came unbidden to him, old ones that he had heard when he was only a child. His father had told him something long ago. His father was fond of many old sayings. He believed in fully this one.

  “A man who abandons one in need, might as well not be a man at all,” Logan whispered to himself, drawing a bit of courage from the words.

  Logan went to work, picking up a dry leaf from the ground and taking the marker out. He lit the leaf with his flint, getting a quick spark off and covering his hand. He tossed the leaf inside the tube and resealed it.

  He would only have a few moments. He threw the marker into the center of camp, and the men jerked when they heard the noise. They moved towards it, but even if they could still comprehend what it was, they wouldn’t expect what happened next.

  Logan covered his ears just as the explosion ripped through the air. White smoke exploded out from the marker, turning the clearing into a hazy white wall. Logan pushed himself up, coming on his feet at a run.

  He dodged through the smoke, avoiding the shadows that marked the men. He was light enough on his feet that they wouldn’t hear him, but the smoke wouldn’t last forever. He came up to the cage, slowing and kneeling back down.

  He searched the bars with his hands, looking for anything that could release the darkling. It let out a low whine as he worked, soft but piercing. Did it know what he was doing? Did it know he was trying to help?

  His hand found purchase on the lock. Old rusted metal slipped in his fingers. There was a hole in his plan. Without the key, he couldn’t get the cage open. He could try to force the lock, but the smoke wouldn’t last long enough.

  There was only one thing he could do as the smoke cleared.

  A strong arm grasped his shoulder in an iron grip. Logan was already moving, drawing his knife and thrusting it into the man’s arm. There was no cry of pain. It didn’t even react to the cut.

  “What are you?” Logan asked.

  The man pushed away from Logan, taking the knife with him. Logan was already drawing his sword, ready to face the rest. The smoke had almost entirely faded, only faint wisps now trailed through the air and into the sky above.

  They saw him now, their eyes empty as a starless night sky.

  The one Logan had stabbed, a bald burly man, pulled the knife from his arm. From the wound, shadows burst out, reaching out with a thousand strands. They spread across his arm, covering it until it formed a large black claw.

  “Damn,” Logan whispered, taking a step back.

  The injured creature jumped forward first, soaring through the air with surprising speed. He moved unlike anything Logan expected. For their meandering gait, when presented a target the creatures were surprisingly nimble.

  Logan brought up his sword, catching the claw with the side of his blade and parrying it to the side. His sword sang when it struck. The blade shook in his hands. Fire shot up his arm and the force rattled through his bones.

  Logan switched tactics, freeing his left hand and grabbing his second knife from its sheath. He struck the man straight in the heart. The blade passed through with a dead thud. The man reacted as if Logan had merely pricked him with a needle. He stepped back and pulled the blade out.

  Again, the darkness surged forth from the wound, consuming the man’s chest and head in a black shroud. Now, he appeared more monster than man. Glowing white eyes stared down at Logan with a predatory glee.

  “Well, now what?” Logan asked himself.

  The creatures answered the question for him, pouncing into the air. All five took hold of him at once, slamming him into the cage. His breath left him, and pain cracked through his ribs as one’s claws pushed him harder against the bars.

  It leaned in close to Logan, its blank face coming within a hair’s breadth of Logan’s face. A crack formed in its face, creating a maw of light. A shrill piercing cry erupted through Logan’s mind, stabbing into his soul like a thousand needles piercing through his chest.

  Logan strained backward against the iron bars, but there was no escape. The creature’s strong grip wouldn’t let him up. There would be no respite from its cry. Logan clawed at the arm with his hands, fighting, struggling, and squirming for release until even his fingers were hot with blood.

  He tried to cry out, but the creature’s wail drowned out his voice.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  A single voice cut through the sound. A quiet solitary whisper rang out against the noise. It was so quiet that Logan didn’t notice it at first. The pain blocked everything else out in a blinding white light. But, he did hear it, and it latched onto him like a lifeline in a storm.

  ‘Do you want to live?’ the feminine voice asked.

  Logan searched around, dizzyingly, trying to identify the voice.

  ‘Do you want to live?’ it asked again, more urgently.

  Yes, a thousand times yes, Logan wanted to call out. He wanted to live. Yet there was no power to his voice. The creature’s scream was too loud.

  ‘Do you want to live?’

  “Yes,” Logan whispered, forcing his mouth to open.

  ‘Then form a pact with me.’ Logan turned his head, looking down the bars to the darkling’s green eyes. ‘Do you agree to serve me in exchange for this life?’

  It was getting harder and harder to breath. The bars dug into his back and his mind blurred into a white haze. There was only one way out, and he would take it.

  “I do.” Logan let out his last breath, his chest burning with fire as it escaped.

  “Good.” The darkling spoke aloud for the first time, her voice dripping with childish glee.

  It started as a tingle, his chest falling away from his body. A thousand tiny pricks then erupted through him, pulling him taunt with a gasp. Something was inside him, reaching through him and gripping his soul tight.

  His entire being split in two with a sickening tug. Logan’s vision went white; he no longer could see the men, the cage, or the forest. He was no longer there.

  Then it was over.

  He exploded back into the world, seeing it for what felt like the first time. His senses returned to him. The hard press of the black arm still pinned him against the cage. The men’s decay still burned in his nose. However, when he looked back down to the cage, the darkling was gone.

  Coldness grew in Logan’s stomach. The darkling betrayed him. He was just a tool for her escape. He let out a silent curse as he stared back into the eyes of the men.

  ‘He he he.’ The impish laugh of the darkling rang through his head.

  Logan wanted to respond, he wanted to burn the creature with his words alone, but the grip of the claw still held strong against his chest. Instead, he cursed silently again, slamming his fist against the dark arm with his last remaining strength. There would be no help for him.

  ‘I guess I should fulfill my part of the bargain.’ Again, the darkling’s voice sounded in his head.

  Fire coursed through his veins as a surge of energy burst through him. For a brief moment, he was part of a flood, one with a power so great that he was nothing beside it. It tapered off then, concentrating in the tips of his fingers.

  Dark claws, so similar to the ones that gripped him tightly, stretched from his fingers. They grew and grew, until the darkness covered both of his arms. Logan grasped the arm that held him with those claws, cutting deeply through the black skin.

  It felt good.

  It was wrong.

  Logan worked without thinking, tearing loose the arm that was impervious just moments before. With one quick twist, it ripped loose, rendering him finally free of its grasp. The man fell to the ground, the darkness exploding out of his body.

  Logan took a deep breath, relishing in the power that flowed freely from him.

  ‘Grab the sword, quickly,’ the darkling said.

  Sword? Logan almost laughed at the thought as his heart beat hard in his ears. It was useless against these monsters.

  ‘Take it now!’ she yelled.

  The power seized inside of him and forced his muscles tight. It took over, forcing Logan to kneel down and pick up the blade. Shock rocked through Logan as he watched helplessly, completely unable to control his own body.

  The power transformed as he held the sword in his hand. It was no longer the screaming torrent, a crack in a barrel of water letting the water gush forth with abandon. It focused down to a single point, as a blade dipped with poison.

  ‘You need a focus,’ the darkling said. ‘So you don’t burn to ashes.’

  The strings that held him still then released, leaving Logan with the full control of his body once again. The ground wavered as he regained control and he almost fell. He held his sword at the ready, staring down the four remaining men as a ghostly black shadow emanated from the blade.

  They started at him again, advancing forward in their shambling way. There was no hesitation. He knew what to do. He struck down the first one easily, his blade cutting through its chest with a single swing.

  The darkness shot out of the wound, surging through the air like a swarm and out of sight. A very dead corpse fell to the ground, completely drained. Not even blood flowed out of the dry husk that remained.

  Logan smiled as the fear from before washed away with his newfound strength. He lunged at the closest of the remaining three, gaining the same outcome as before. Again, the black smoke rose up into the sky.

  Logan stared down the remaining two. They were backing away, no longer willing to fight. He pitied them. They were just victims caught up in the darkness. He wasn’t sure if they could control their actions, but he couldn’t allow them to escape.

  As they began a full flight, he cut them down, not allowing them to depart the clearing before his sword bit into their flesh. It was over now. He thought of sheathing his sword, but the ghostly aura remained.

  ‘Calm down,’ the darkling said. ‘It will fade once you are out of danger.’

  Logan took a few deep breaths, following the words. The power faded from his body, leaving sore muscles and an emptiness that clawed at his heart. Logan finally realized just how much he had exerted himself.

  “What happened to me?” Logan asked as his heart calmed to a quiet murmur. “Where are you?”

  “I am now your shadow.” He turned to see the darkling standing behind him, standing within the confines of his shadow. “We are now part of one another. The bargain you made was to serve me in exchange for your life, do you not remember?”

  “I do.” Logan cringed.

  “Good.” She nodded, hiding a laugh behind her pointed teeth. “I am Talan. You may call me your master if you like.”

  “Talan,” Logan said. “Why couldn’t you have just used your magic to get out of the cage?”

  “We all need a source for our power.” Talan giggled in a way that Logan was sure was mocking him. “You eat to live and I need your soul.”

  “That strength was from my soul?” Logan looked down at his hands.

  “Yes, so don’t burn it all at once,” Talan said, before fading into his shadow. ‘I would tell you more, but we need to leave.’

  “Why?” Logan asked, looking around the clearing.

  ‘The savod do not take kindly to those who kill their servants,’ Talan said. ‘Don’t you hear it coming, from deep in the forest? Even with your entire soul to burn, you are not ready to face that.’

  Logan strained his ears, hearing nothing but the rustle of trees. It was merely the wind whipping about, not the approach of a monster that was a folk story. He desperately wanted to be sure.

  Then he heard it, the wailing cry that rang through the silence. It was getting closer, and closer, through the trees. Logan froze, his eyes widening as he tried to find the source.

  ‘Run,’ Talan whispered, laughing in his head.

  Logan didn’t need any further prodding. He ran.