Royal Academy: Hellfire's Fury

Chapter 5

Unknown POV

I move the hour-glass from the old, wooden desk, and opened the scroll completely so that the entire display of runes and pictures could be seen. The mark of Cerberus stands out at the center of the document as the faded print of the runes and spells encircle it. I brush my index finger along the runes and flinch when my skin is scorched from the spell that binds the scroll.

"How much longer do I have to wait for you to fix this?" I look over at the old woman seated across from the desk as she waves a pair of charred wood over the scroll.

"You must understand that the magic that binds this script is as old as they get. The runes are written from the blood of a Cerberus ancestor and then the parchment was dipped in the oil from the pits of Hell itself. What you are asking me to do is not an easy task."

The old woman stops what she's doing and moves in closer to the parchment. She whispers under her breath as a thin ember mist rises from the paper and the runes begin to fade and contort.

"What are you doing? You will destroy the script!" I reach forward, and the woman halts my movement when she lifts her right hand, the mark of Dakini visible on the palm of her hand.

"Do not interrupt me. You requested my help while your subordinates recover the blood of the line of Cerberus. The one resource you still possess will not feed the well with enough blood to fulfill the entire transfer process. So allow me the chance to try and decipher what I can, while we wait."

I shift back in my stance and grit my teeth as I move towards the door of the room. "Do not judge my allowance as weakness, demoness. You ensure that I get what I need from that scroll, or your next meal will be your own limbs."

I slammed out of the room and made my way through the narrow tunnel towards the main hall. Stepping into the clearing, my eyes fall upon the statuette that pillared over the dark, murky well beneath it. The streams of thin sunlight that slithered in through the many cracks of the overhead stone hedge, cast grisly looking shadows on the ground around the well.

"My Lord," a young scout ran up to me and bowed at the waist.

"Tell me that you found him," I watched as the young man hesitated for a second before standing upright and meeting my narrowed gaze.

"We...we tracked his movement to the borders of the Crystal Lakes pack. The informant told us that the Beta of the pack married a young woman who has the powers you were seeking." The young man hesitates once more and I growl beneath my breath for him to hurry up. "The Beta and the woman...they have children. Twins."

A smile pulls across my face. The feeling of justified relief washes over my entire body. "Excellent. Twins make it all the more likely that their mother is who the insolent fool ran off to warn. His attempts will be futile, however, because I have my trump card that will make that young woman come to be freely." I let out a sinister laugh as the old woman walked up and stopped beside me.

"Twins and their mother fill the gap in the runes of the scroll. Marked as two and carried by a third, the three-headed hound will rise from the ashes and reclaim what was once forsaken by Zeus and Hades themselves. Hesiod will reign once more."

The ground beneath our feet shook with the woman's proclamation as the statuette trembled at its place above the well.

You won't win this. You can't. They will stop you.

The soft voice echoed through the main hall as the people working around the well's base stopped to stare up at the statue.

"Your time here is almost at its end, my dear. No one is going to stop me now. Not even that fool." I called the young scout back to me and he rushed over.

" Gather a small group and go to the borders of the Crystal Lakes pack. I want that young woman and her children. And kill the mage. He has served his purpose."

"Yes, my Lord."

The old woman turns to leave but stops just before she is out of my line of sight. "Crystal Lakes pack is the home of two of the chosen three. Do not underestimate that family. They have generations of strong and capable wolves, along with the backing of the Red Wolf Clan. The task you deployed will not be easily executed."

"Leave the art of war to me, demoness. Your energy should focus solely on translating that scroll. When I bring you the pure blood of the Cerberus line, I do not want any excuses. I will harness that power as my own. I will claim what was rightfully mine. That b***h, Cora, will not have the final word. Her family will pay the consequences of her actions."

The woman shook her head as she quietly walked away. The smell of ash and sulphur remained in her midst, as the statue continued to shake and tremble, and the unmistakable stream of moisture that ran from its eyes turned embers as it trailed along its length and dripped into the dark depths of the well.

I clenched my fists at my sides as the people scurried to collect the embers and scraped off the residues pooling at the surface of the well. The statue suddenly stood still once more and the thin streams of light from overhead dimmed and then completely disappeared, casting the main hall into complete darkness.