Destroyer Rising Read Online Free Page A

stiffened at his words.
    “Koda is an old friend,” Edgar said. “I would never
harm him, or any member of the Society of Flame. They are
invaluable, and impartial. I understand his concern.”
    I didn’t say a word. If I was a threat to Glenn, that
meant I was a threat to Hern, and maybe it meant I could harness
enough power to free Vicky.
    Edgar crossed his arms. “Tread lightly. Your
alliances with the Old God, Aeros, the Ghost Pack, and Gaia are
well known. You felled Prosperine and Azzazoth, and the dispatching
of Ezekiel has created a backlash among the immortals. That says
nothing of Mike and his ghost, or Ashley’s mastery of the Blade of
the Stone. And Samantha? Frank? The Piasa Bird? With Nixie’s allies
behind you, the River Pack, and the Demon Sword, there isn’t a
being on this plane who won’t see you as a threat.”
    “What are the Green Men?” I asked, letting Edgar’s
words pass unchallenged.
    “Enforcers,” Aideen said.
    “Yeah,” Foster said. “Like the trolls from the
Burning Lands we faced in Gettysburg.”
    I remembered the fiery, lumbering creatures. I
remembered skewering them with an art so powerful it still made me
cringe to think of it. Despite that aversion, I longed to do it
again. “Are they like the legends? Leaves and vines and bark given
life?”
    “I don’t believe that is the legend, exactly,” Aideen
said. “But yes, they are all of those things.”
    “May I see it?” Edgar asked.
    His question confused me at first, but I realized he
could only mean the Book that Bleeds. I lifted the pile of
manuscripts to reveal the tome. Edgar stared at it for a
moment.
    “A very long time ago, that was known as the Book of
the Dead. It still brings dread to my heart.”
    I frowned and looked at Edgar. “I would have thought
that would be all hieroglyphs, no?”
    “It is much older than ancient Egypt, Damian. It is a
living thing in its own right, evolving as the magics recorded
within its pages evolve. A practitioner who speaks only Mayan would
see the entire text in his native tongue. You see only the
incantations and words with no meaning to your language in their
native form because that is how they function.”
    The scope and precision it would take to create so
complex a magic gave me chills.
    “Tread lightly, Damian. Your allies have the power to
shape the world, or destroy it.”
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    I stayed upstairs after Edgar left. Aideen and Foster
returned to the shop when the bells chimed, signaling the late
arrival of a customer. Bubbles settled onto my feet, her massive
form threatening to cut off the circulation in my toes, but I
didn’t make the cu sith move.
    I was flipping through the Book that Bleeds, hunting
for more information on the devils of the Burning Lands, when I
found the end of the Wandering War. The Nameless King, slain by
Gwynn Ap Nudd. An etching sat on the page, dripping and red with
the same blood that seeped from the book itself.
    Hern kneeled before Gwynn Ap Nudd, a severed head
held high in the victor’s hand. Beneath the etching, the story
continued.
     
    It was then the hand of Gaia was
lost to the Fae, but not lost to the world. It sought a new master,
a descendent of its owner, the beginning of the Anubis bloodline.
Her power remained inside the realm, trapped within the hand and
scattered across the Abyss, but her body would forever rest in the
New World. A man would build his house upon her bones, never truly
understanding why he must build upon the riverbanks. For all
time, an immortal stands guard over Gaia, for when she awakens, the
world of men will be forever changed.
     
    “That can’t be …” I stared at the passage and read it
again and again. I slid the page of a manuscript into the book and
refocused on my search for the devils. I would ask Gaia about her
resting place when I stepped into the Abyss again.
    Two chapters later, I found a short passage about the
Burning Lands. It was one of several realms that sat