Curseborn Saga - Fade to Black Read Online Free Page A

heart pounded in his chest. Nothing could be done. He was moving too fast to stop his fall. To his side a falling meteor raced him downwards. He would soon collide with the ground at full speed. Rings of broken air were left in his wake as he plummeted towards his end.
    Storm screamed his torment into the sky. “I will not lose to you old man! Not ever again!!!”
    And there he was again, descending, like a wraith of craving bloodlust, moving at speeds that Storm could no longer follow, and the grim reality hit him: The fall wouldn’t kill him. The ice would not become master of his grave, only the keeper. No, Ronin was more elegant than that. The fight started with blades, and would end with them. With gleeful eyes, Ronin’s auric pressure paralyzed Storm in mid-descent and he could no longer move. Storm felt the sharp of silver pierce his skin, coating itself in his own blood as the blade edged its way deep into the bone of his ribs. Blood spewed from Storm’s mouth and he felt a warm liquid seeping down his side.
    A hazy mist surrounded Storm’s senses as Ronin’s face came before his own. Yet it was not of wicked eyes and curving lips. A great sadness was shown from the face of the old man and it was then that Storm realized his own imminent death … and he smiled.
    A look of sudden confusion overcame Ronin. “Why do you smile Storm? Is this your truth? That you fight not to win, but to die?” Storm’s fingers slipped slowly from his own bloodstained hilt, and his weapon was lost to clouds of black.
    Ronin felt a sudden grasp like cold iron overcome his forearms. “I think … your age is clouding your head … old man. It was the only way … to beat you,” coughed Storm. Blood floated upwards from his lips as the two hurtled to the ground, locked together.
    A wicked grin curved across Storm’s face and all became clear to Ronin. It was a trick. The entire fight had been a trap. And he had fallen for it. A flash of Caim smiling rushed into his mind. He had misread it. He had misread them. His eyes grew wider. He knew what was next.
    “The good thing about Caim …” Storm whispered as they fell, “Is that he’s predictable.”
    “Storm! You’ll pay for that you bastard!!” A thunderous voice erupted from beneath them. Storm grinned.
    A surge of rippling energy exploded beneath them. The silhouette of a swordsman with hair like silver fire rose from the depths; blue flames of aura surrounding him as he grasped his hilt and ascended like a shooting star. Ronin’s teeth clenched as he struggled desperately to pull himself free of Storm’s grasp.
    “I thought you had caught on, old man … but it turns out my past haunts you more than myself!” With desperate force, Storm rotated Ronin to the ground. His eyes found his raging brother racing toward them. “Caim!” he screamed. “The bells!”
    “Oh now you want to work together!?” roared Caim.
    “Clever,” said Ronin, smiling. “But the key to strategy is sometimes not to see ten moves away, just the perfect move for every turn. Swordplay is a game of strategy, Storm.”
    Ronin’s fingers slipped off his blade as he tried to stop their fall, but it was then that Caim came upon them, ripping forth his Fallblade and driving it diagonally across Ronin’s back. Blood splashed across the sky. The jingle of the bells became the only audible sound to the two brothers—Caim, who had taken one hand off of his hilt, was reaching for the white bell, and Storm, whose eyes focused only on the black.
    Just as Storm was closing his hand, he felt Caim’s blade sink into his chest, drive through his flesh and cut straight out through his side. Blood arced before him as Ronin’s figure dissipated into nothing but air. He had vanished. The bells had been in his grasp and Caim could not stop his rising speed. Caim’s eyes widened as his Fallblade slashed across his brother.
    “Storm …?” Caim shouted. “STORM!!”
    Caim’s entire body was shaking as he