Lord of the Abyss - By Nalini Singh Page 0,49

didn't understand what she meant, but saw a silent promise that she would do as he asked. Dropping her hand and anchoring his feet, he awakened the old, old magic that was of this place and that lived in him when he wished it to. Of the Abyss.

The black armor crawled over the exposed parts of his body at the same time, curving over his fingers and around his neck, into his hair and across his face in fine threads of impenetrable jet.

"Please be careful. My father doesn't play fair."

Things didn't touch him in the depths of the Abyss, but he felt the care in her words wind around his heart, protecting it in armor that was invisible. "Wait for me, Liliana." Then he rose into a sky stained with the malevolence of a dark blood sorcerer.

The magic in that stain recoiled from his black armor, from the kiss of death that was the Abyss. But it didn't retreat. Instead, after a short hesitation, it curved around him, and he knew it had tasted the death, decided that it held no danger. It was wrong. The Lord of the Black Castle stood as the guardian against evil, no matter its form.

Arms down his side, he spread his fingers and said a single word. "Rise."

The ghosts of the Black Castle circled into the sky in a wave of cold, the wind vicious and cutting. He knew they wouldn't hurt Liliana where she stood looking up at him, a tiny figure clothed in green.

Around him, the ghosts formed a twisting ribbon of ice, and he knew it was time. "Hold."

The ribbon solidified into shimmering white on either side of him. An instant later, the ice coated his armor in glittering shards bright as diamonds.

The dark sorcerer's claw reached out again - only to scrape off the ice with a screech that had Liliana clapping her hands over her ears below. Perhaps he should've warned her, Micah thought with the part of his mind that remained of the man, not the Guardian, but he had told her to go inside. The shriek reverberated through the sky, through the dark sorcerer's power, shattering the stain into thousands of lethally sharp pieces. Those pieces began to ricochet back. Hard.

Micah smiled.
Chapter 15
Deep in the castle that had once been the heart of Elden, the Blood Sorcerer fell to his knees with a bone-chilling scream, his entire body covered with hundreds of cuts seeping thickest crimson. He hadn't seen this much of his own blood in decades.

A banging on the door.

"Leave me!" He couldn't be discovered in such a weakened state.

Hissing out a breath, he struggled to his feet - it had been a mistake to probe that realm. It was protected by something that had never welcomed the dark magics.

He had ever hated the wall of black that stood between him and the vicious nightmare of the Abyss. Oh, he cared nothing for the sorcerers trapped within, but if he ruled the Black Castle, he would have access not only to wealth incomparable, but also to all that power. Sweet, deadly, beautiful power.

But he couldn't go there. Not yet.

However, there were others who could - because though he called her stupid, his daughter was very smart, smart enough to have found a way to hide in the one place he wouldn't follow. His minions didn't understand why he wanted her back, didn't comprehend that she was his possession. None of his possessions had ever dared leave him.

He was going to hurt Liliana a great deal when he dragged her back. She'd beg him for death by the time he was done. Maybe he'd give it to her...or maybe not. His daughter was his most amusing toy. But before he could indulge himself with her, he had to find her.

Swiping the blood from one of his cuts, he fed it to the palm-sized spider on his desk. "It's time, I think, to awaken your brethren."
Chapter 16
Liliana's ears were still ringing an hour later. "Have you ever seen anything like that before?" she asked Jissa as they sat in the stone garden, shelling nuts simply because they wanted to be out in the sunshine after the cold. Goosebumps broke out on Liliana's arms at the memory.

Reaching over, Jissa rubbed at her skin with a tsking sound. "Always here. The ghosts. Always here." She removed her hand after a comforting pat. "Never saw them do that before, never, ever."

"Their power was different." It had tasted of death, but been