Sterling and Damian contended through Karimov's vacated fort halls, following Emilia's echoing riots deeper outside. Torches blurred past as they mounted the stairs three at a time, arising in a altitudinous palace room lit only by moonlight. Emilia knelt bound and gagged before a veiled figure at the window. " Let her go!" Sterling roared, leveling his fireballs at their cloaked bushwhacker. A soft laugh emitted from the murk of their hood. " You've baffled my plans at every turn, but now your loved bones
will break you," came a malformed voice that transferred chills down Sterling's chine. Damian inched forward cautiously." Show yourself, sissy! Or are you too hysterical to face us without hostages?" The figure strengthened at the taunt, also sluggishly lowered their robe to reveal a woman's scarred face, one eye blackened and swollen nearly shut. Emilia heaved in shocked recognition beneath her monkeyshine. Sterling goggled, stunned." No.it can not be." Before them stood Jessika, their former comrade from Ravens days, whom they'd allowed
long dead. Her one eyeless eye lustered with abomination. " Hello.brother." " Jessika.but how?" Damian stammered. Their supposed family- in- arms had decomposed times ago in an ambush, or so they'd been told. Jessika tapped her scarred face." Left for dead by your new' musketeers' at the vill. I swore revenge as I recovered alone in the nature." Sterling kept his dynamo trained." All these attacks, just to hurt us? Release Emilia now and face us with honor." Jessika laughed plaintively. " Honor? You lecture me about recognize after you betrayed our family? No, I want you to suffer as I did!" She drew a dagger and held it to Emilia's throat. Damian took a conservative step forward, triumphs open." Please Jessika, violence will break nothing. Let the history go in peace." She glared malignantly." I'll noway know peace until you join me in hell! Say farewell to your precious woman
." Jessika reared back to rent — but Emilia suddenly headbutted her hard and broke free. As Jessika reeled, Sterling dived her while Damian restrained Emilia protectively. Jessika writhed madly, sticking like a feral beast. Sterling projected her dagger arm down with difficulty." No further bloodshed, family! Cease this madness!" But in her crazed eyes shone only a darkness that called for revenge in death alone. With a brutish laugh, Jessika fought for the cutter with the frenzied strength of the condemned. Jessika plodded violently under Sterling's grip, grasping blindly for the dagger just out of her reach. With a grunt, she managed to fling Sterling out, slashing hectically at his face. " Sterling!" cried Damian, drawing his own cutter to defend his family. But before further blood could be revealed, a voice echoed through the palace chamber. " Enough!" All turned to see Emilia clinging a blackened crossbow, trained on Jessika with steely determination." Any who hang my family will fall. Lay down your armament now." Jessika set, taking in Emilia's resoluteness and the sisters' readiness to cover each other. Her eye darted between them all, still alight with madness. sluggishly, she tossed away the dagger with a concave laugh." You've won.for now. But this is n't over, sisters. I'll have my revenge in this life or the coming!" With that cryptic oath, she threw herself from the palace window into the flume depths below. Sterling rushed to look but saw only murk in the gathering mist. They were safe, for the moment, yet a bite dallied. Had Jessika truly decomposed, or would her revengeful ghost hang them still? Damian put a hand on Sterling's shoulder." Come. We must leave this dark place." As they attended Emilia out, all knew Jessika's shadow still dallied over their future. The moon was high by the time Sterling, Damian and Emilia rode down from Karimov's fort under its pale light. Though physically unharmed, each carried moping apprehension from their battle with Jessika. They rode in weighted silence until reaching a rocky overlook, where Damian eventually broke the stillness." Her abomination ran too deep. I sweat we have not seen the last of her vendetta, indeed from beyond the grave." Sterling scrutinized the moonwashed flume pensively." She was always a survivor. If fate saw fit to spare her fall." A away howl echoed through the night, raising the hairs on their neck. Emilia fiddled against the bite." We must leave this accursed place behind us. make a life of peace far from these ghosts." The sisters knew she spoke wisdom. Yet as they began their descent, a new sound arose- the rapid-fire beating of bodies. Looking up, they glinted a lone shark circling the palace, as if drawn to moping traces of revealed blood. A dark auspice that the holocaust was n't over. Sterling drew his rifle anxiously." Lift! We are being hunted still." Spurs dug into sides as their mounts bolted through the night. But nearly out there, in the gathering mists, Jessika's creepy revenge continued its flight. The sisters and Emilia prodded their nags through the night, putting as important distance as possible between themselves and Karimov's portentous fort. As dawn's light began to filter through the flume, they reined in their lathered mounts at a isolated spring to rest and water-soak the creatures. Sterling derided the border while Damian tended injuries. Emilia splashed her face wearily." We have escaped pursuit for now, but that specter wo n't rest until we are in the ground." Damian grasped her hand grimly." Do n't lose stopgap, my love. We have survived darker storms together." Just also, Sterling's cry chimed out- a command of rough men on the crest over, gaping towards the spring through spyglasses. " Bandits!" whizzed Damian, drawing dynamo and cutter. But before they could flee or engage, a blitz of shots cracked through the flume. riots followed. When silence fell, Sterling surfaced from cover to find their adversaries cut down. Upon a cadaver lay a familiar bone minced arc and robe sutured with raven feathers. A scrap of diploma fluttered to Sterling's bases, dark with drying blood. scribbled upon it in crazed script was a single communication I'll be your shadow until death. • J Jessika's shadow had fallen upon these men to prop their escape. But as always, her gift came stained with the red cost of revenge. And in the rising sun, her flight The sisters and Emilia precipitously made leave of the flume under the brewing shadow of Jessika's haunting pursuit. They rode hard for days with little rest, putting ever more distance between themselves and Karimov's remains. Still, no matter how far they fled, an uneasy feeling followed that revengeful eyes tracked their every move. One night as they stopped to chamber by a rushing sluice, Sterling's hackles rose as three hooded numbers surfaced quietly from the darkness. Damian drew sword but halted at their guests' elevated hands." We mean no detriment," spoke a husky voice, muffled by cloth. The center figure lowered his hood to reveal a scarred face, empty eye sockets boring into Sterling's soul." My family spoke only of you.said you could end her torment." Sterling and Damian changed a dark look, seeing this wraith's connection to Jessika. Were they friend, or new trouble in her guise? Before answers could be given, a bone whoosh resolve the air, followed by riots in the night. Jessika had loosed her quest, and the sisters were directly in her sights formerly more. In the shadowy game of revenge, could Sterling and Damian shirk their specter's stalking grasp? Or would Jessika's darkness at long last claim them into the realm of murk? The final quest was on.