Tyler couldn’t tear his eyes away from the Demon Prince’s hand. The palm rested on the ground where Alina had been, six red fingers splayed out with Tyler-length black nails on their ends reaching over the ravine’s edge. Tyler stood between two of them, but he was focused only on the spot where Alina had been. Where the Demon Prince’s hand now was. Is that really how Alina had died? Crushed like scrap metal in a hydraulic press?

  That wasn’t right. It couldn’t be right. Such a young woman. A brave woman. An amazing woman. Her life ended so brutally, with a finality that made him question whether she had existed in the first place. He stared at the red hand of the Demon, as if trying to drill through it and see Alina again. In the place where she had smiled her final smile. He was trying to process what had happened but reality refused to make sense. One moment she was sitting there. The next, she was not. He rejected the idea that Alina had been crushed so callously. As long as he did, then she hadn’t been. She’d got away somehow, or maybe she hadn’t been there to begin with. Maybe this was all a dream, and he’d be waking up soon, safe and sound in his bed. On Earth. That would be it. That must be it. He chuckled to himself softly.

  He willed himself awake, but nothing changed. He closed his eyes, and opened them again. Nothing changed.

  The Demon Prince raised his hand, fingernails scraping on stone as they rose to display his palm, his fingers wagging in a parody of a greeting. Splotches of crimson, darker than the surrounding red streamed down his open hand. Sunlight caught the corners of crushed violet armour amidst chunks of sinew, bone and mutilated muscle lumped together in a thick, dark red liquid. Like the Prince had created a type of stew. Human stew.

  On the ground, more pieces of violet armour, and a scabbarded sword lay crushed against the jagged edges of the stone formations. Lumps of golden-brown tissue lay squeezed like toothpaste out of the armour that had contained it. Never a whole limb. Just the hint of an arm here. A portion of a leg there. The mashed remnants of a skull further back, silver strands floating in pools of cherry-coloured blood. An eyeball – its partner missing – stared at him with a light-green pupil, that was neither sad nor happy. Not even accusatory, or with a fond remembrance. It just looked at him. Stared at him. Alone.

  He turned away and retched. Last night’s meat and potatoes burned his throat as they tried to join the distressing hallucination that surrounded him. His cheeks puffed out, but he held the contents in, forcing it back down his throat. A slight pain spread across his chest, as the slimy lump of saliva and vomit seared his insides as it retreated. The discomfort was still preferable to the scene ahead of him.

  At least the vomit had given him a new focus, each internal burn reminding him that he was still alive. Imanie. Emelyn. They’d given their lives for him. Alina too. Looking at the remains pooled on the floor, he would do well to remember how it had ended. He still couldn’t believe it. Didn’t want to believe it. But he needed to. He had to. For Alina.

  He looked at the Demon Prince. At the wolf’s snout with the grey beard, and the red eyes beneath those curved horns. He composed himself. Breathed in slowly. Breathed out slowly.

  “Why?” he asked, a slight tremor in his voice.

  “Hmmmm?” the Prince said, his voice deep and booming with a raspy edge. “Are you feeling upset, little one?”

  “Of course I’m upset,” Tyler said, a touch of anger in his words. It was an effort to hold his voice steady.

  “Are you?” the Prince said, turning the palm of his hand towards himself. He studied the contents for a moment, before turning the palm back to Tyler. “Did this upset you?” That touch of anger was rising, but before Tyler could respond, the Prince said, “Did it upset you when you did the same thing to my children?”

  The question caught him off-guard. It resonated with his earlier thoughts, though he doubted the Prince actually cared about the demons he had killed earlier. He didn’t care much for them either, if he was honest with himself. They weren’t human, and they would have killed him first, if he had let them.

  “I killed to survive,” Tyler replied.

  “And that makes it moral?”

  “Was what you just did moral?”

  “I wouldn’t claim that it was,” the Prince laughed, a harsh rasp that scraped against Tyler’s ears.

  “Well, I never claimed I was either.”

  The Prince laughed louder this time, a sound like coarse sandpaper grinding down stone. “And that’s why you would be perfect to join us.”

  “To join you? Is that why you want me?” Tyler shuffled back slightly. “Is that why you want the other two as well?” he said as an afterthought. “Why do you need us?”

  “I don’t think we do, but I was voted down by the Council.”

  “Why do you want me then?”

  “I told you,” the Prince said, as he gently laid his hand back down, two fingers to either side of Tyler. Closer this time. He had nowhere to run. Just somewhere to fall, the edge of the ravine a few feet away. “To join us.”

  “But why me? Why the other two? Since you’ve managed to escape the Riftlands, shouldn’t you be out there terrorising cities or something? Plenty of people there.”

  “You mean locals like this one?” the Prince raised his palm again. Wiggled his fingers. A lump of Alina plopped to the floor. The contents of Tyler’s stomach stirred, his throat gagged slightly.

  Tyler looked to his left, as much as to avoid seeing what remained of Alina as it was to catch a glimpse of the city. “There’s a city over there. Not far at all. Thousands of people you can turn to your cause.” He turned back to the Prince. “Why don’t you go bother them?”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The Demon Prince remained silent for a moment, put his hand back down. “I guess there’s no harm in telling you. You’ll either join us after. Or you’ll die.” The nonchalance was terrifying.

  “Outworlders like you are different. When an Outworlder arrives, the Elysian overrides their memories, and gives them new ones so that they believe they are of this world. It creates a connection between the outworlder and the Elysian. Of course, those born on this world are born with that connection. It limits their potential. Even if they joined us, they would not be able to surpass the limits imposed by the Elysian–”

  “I’m sorry but, what is the Elysian?”

  The Prince was not impressed at being interrupted. He might seem okay for now, but he had just crushed Alina without a moment’s thought. Tyler looked slightly towards the sky near the Prince’s head. He didn’t want to think about Alina right now.

  “Have you heard of The Nexus Prime?”

  Tyler nodded.

  “That’s the Elysian,” the Prince said, like that should be enough of an explanation. Tyler wasn’t about to interrupt again though. “But outworlders like you? That connection was severed before it had completed. You’re only partially connected. Enough to be a part of this world, but not of it. Your potential is limited right now, unless you join with us. Then you’ll be able to access the power of the Asuras. You’ll be able to become more powerful than you could ever imagine.”

  “Is that what the Riftborn are? And demons? Outworlders with only a partial connection to The Nexus Prime?”

  “Those Riftborn fools gave their souls to the Elysian. They are as much his puppet as the rest. We are different. We seek our own destiny.”

  “But were you an outworlder?”

  “No. Now, I do have other things to do. You have two options. Join us. Or end up like your lover.” He raised his palm again.

  “Well, hold on a minute,” Tyler said, then after processing what the Prince had said, he added, “firstly, she wasn’t my lover. I barely knew her. Secondly, this isn’t a split-second decision. I can’t just make it without more information.”

  The Prince stayed his hand. “What information do you need?”

  “Well. I mean, are there perks to the job? What will I be expected to do? Do I get time off?” It wasn’t the time to be making jokes, but Tyler needed to stall. He needed to buy time. Needed to think.

  The Prince began raising his hands again.

  “Okay, wait, wait, wait…” Tyler said, hands outstretched, halting the Prince. He couldn’t see a way out of this, except for the ravine behind him. He glanced over his shoulder, saw the drop. Other than the fall through the air, the ending should be quick. Is that what he wanted? Was death preferable to joining the demons? Death was but a part of life. Happened to everyone, good or bad, young or old. But he wasn’t Alina or Imanie or Emelyn. He couldn’t face death in the same way they had.

  Dammit, he didn’t even have memories other than those of the day he’d spent here, and they weren’t exactly the memories he wanted to die with. He looked back at the Prince, wondered if he would be transformed in the same way. Look like one of the demon-spawn by the stream, or like the Prince in front of him. He could get used to it, he thought. The beard, under a wolf’s snout. What wasn’t to like? And then he saw the remains of Alina again. The splotches of crimson on the Prince’s hand. A thought occurred to him. If the only way he could live was to join the demons, then at least maybe he could make something right.

  “Can you bring her back?”

  The Prince looked at him questioningly, and then glanced at the remains on his hand.

  “I thought she wasn’t your lover?”

  “She’s not. But she didn’t deserve to die.”

  “I can, but it would only delay the inevitable,” the Prince said, but he thought on it a moment. “If you join us, I will bring her back.”

  Hidden in the shadows of gaunt trees on the edge of the rocky clearing, Reaper observed the exchange between the two of them. His [Prime Shadow Veil] had a while to run. He wished Alina were alive. She would have served his purposes far better than the boy. The other two women would have worked just as well. Perhaps better. He had caught up with those two in time to kill the demon-spawn, but not before the women had been lost already; the impressive brute with the axe spluttering her final breaths; the older one already passed. They had put up one hell of a fight, taking down two of the creatures, before finally falling. They would have been excellent candidates.

  Looking at the pool of what had been Alina, he felt the slightest pang of regret. As Reaper had approached Alina and Tyler, getting ready to offer the contract, he had been just as surprised as them when Zellaran appeared. The boy had been the bait, but Alina was meant to have been his prize. That was ruined now. He hadn’t expected Zellaran to have his own version of [Shadow Veil]. To be able to go invisible, and cover his movements. Although, that was his own oversight, but he hadn’t expected a demon to utilise such means. They preferred to be seen.

  He listened to Zellaran’s explanation of outworlders. It reminded him of when he had first arrived. Daniel, he had been called then. Born in a small village in the Kingdom of France. Back then, the first outworlders that had been sent arrived with their memories. The Nexus Prime had put a stop to that, when he realised what was happening. Most of those early outworlders had perished, only a few making it into the Riftlands. Of those that did, only he and Sophie remained, and Sophie could barely be said to remain. He gently stroked the black armour writhing across his chest.

  The ones that made it to the Citadel were given the option to become Riftborn. Or die.

  Revenant wailed softly. Reaper heard Zellaran offer Tyler what Sophie had once been offered. Revenant wailed again, the sound becoming distant, as if she were retreating within herself.

  “Don’t worry, my love. We will have our vengeance.”

  Reaper heard the boy ask about Alina, and heard Zellaran’s lie. It was time to intervene. Time to play his trump card. Before the boy made the wrong decision.

  “You can?” Tyler asked.

  The Prince nodded. “If that’s what it will take to bring you to our side.”

  Tyler was reminded of his time with the Gamesmaster. Either choice was shitty, but one seemed a little less shittier than the other. His eyes remained on the crimson splotches, and the floating lumps on the floor. He could bring her back. He just needed to become a demon. He really wanted to know what that would entail, but he didn’t think the Prince would tell him. Would Alina have made such a sacrifice for him? Hasn’t she made an even bigger one already? She had. She’d died so he could live. It was only fair that he remedied that.

  He steeled himself to answer, and looked at the Prince. He opened his mouth to speak.

  “He’s lying to you,” a voice echoed in his mind. Reaper’s voice. “Zellaran doesn’t have that power.”

  Tyler kept his eyes on the Prince. He didn’t want to give away that he was conversing with the Riftborn.

  “If you want to live without becoming a demon, I need you to do something for me.”

  “What’s that?” Tyler replied in his mind.

  [Reaper offers you a Quest]

  [Mythic Quest: Return Reaper’s Essence to the Citadel]

  [In the event of Reaper’s death, his essence will transfer to your body for a period of one hour. During this time, you will have access to all of his power, his skills and his abilities. His suit of armour – Revenant – will be yours to command for the entirety of this period. During this time, you must return his essence to the Citadel

  Quest Rewards: 2,000,000 XP. Gear of your choice from the Citadel]

  [Reaper offers you a Binding Contract]

  [Binding Contract: A life for a life]

  [You have one hour to return Reaper’s essence to the Citadel. If you fail to do so, all three of you will perish]

  [All must be accepted for the offer to be valid.]

  “Accept my offer, and we both live to see another day.”

  Enjoy the weekend, folks!