The Shadow Gods by Ripley Proserpina EPUB & PDF – eBook Details
- Author: Ripley Proserpina
- Language: English
- Formats: PDF/ EPUB
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Series: None
- Price: Free
- File Size: 1 MB
Thousands of Years Ago
Someone was here. Like all warriors, they tried to move silently through
my lair.
The smoke from the torches lighting this cold, lonely space cast
shadows on the stained walls. Hundreds of years of smoke marred a temple
that used to be pristine. Even now, I could picture it. The altar. The columns.
The statue of the goddess remained stark white, while everything around
me was tainted.
Like I was.
Gods, I was tired.
I crept over the broken marble floors, slithered over the stone bodies of
the men who had come before.
To kill me.
To punish me for a crime I had never committed and an outcome I’d
never deserved.
Rage filled my belly and my companions hissed at my disquiet. We were
one now, when for so long, we’d been creatures desperate to escape each
other. A cool tongue kissed my cheek, and I reached my hand to my head,
petting the serpents. Quiet, quiet. My touch calmed them, though I felt
anything but.
Metal clattered to the ground, and if I hadn’t needed to worry about my
life, I would have smiled. Whoever this was moved with the stealth of an
oversized bull.
I bent down, taking up the golden sword of one of my victims. My hazy
reflection gleamed in the shiny hilt, and for a second, I was captivated. There
were no features to discern, only the outline of my neck and head.
And the serpents.
Don’t look.
I didn’t want to see what I’d become, but it was ever so tempting. I only
had a dim memory of what I’d been and what the goddess Athena had made
me. Now, there was only what the dim light revealed. Dirty hands and arms.
Long, ragged nails. My dress had long ago disintegrated, so I wore what my
victims left behind: a breastplate and bracers. I had no need for shoes, as
Athena had transformed my skin into scales and folded my lower body into
that of a snake.
Gliding one hand over my skin, I brushed aside the rocks and dirt that
clung to me and stretched around a fallen column to find my pursuer.
There.
He was younger than the other warriors and not clad in the protective gear
of a soldier. His eyes were wide, scanning every dark corner, but never
landing on me. In his worst nightmares, he couldn’t conceive of such a being.
In one hand, he held a sword, and the other, a bright shield. I noticed
something strapped to his back but ignored it. The danger was the weapon
that trembled like the flickering flames of the torches.
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