Sepia Blue- Nameless: A Sepia Blue Novel- Book 4 by Orlando Sanchez (best self help books to read .txt) 📗

Anchors on me. That conversation had been theoretical—the change I was undergoing now was real.

I felt my body expand as I grew. My skin changed and was soon covered in green-tinged scales. My hands had become clawed and my vision shifted, the night becoming as clear as day. I noticed the green glow around my face and realized my eye shone bright with green light.

A roar escaped my lips and was answered by the horde behind the Blight.

The Demon Anchors around my wrists fell away and I felt more power course through me. So much for the anchors acting as a limiter.

“You will not pass,” I said, stepping forward. “The Keep is under my protection.”

My voice reverberated through the Park, a mixture of bass undertones and the potentiality of lethality. I looked down at my body and realized I was easily twice my normal size and covered in muscle.

“You’re a Jade Demon,” the Blight said. “Now I understand why I was summoned. It will be my honor to take your life, but not tonight. You’re not nearly strong enough to face me—yet. You’re not quite there, but you will be, once I inflict enough pain upon you.”

“You fear me,” I said, taking another step forward. “Come face me.”

“Do not step out of the circle, Sepia,” Calisto said with a groan from behind me. “It’s right. You’re not ready.”

“The witch is correct this time,” the Blight said, glancing in Calisto’s direction. “I’m impressed you survived my sphere. It should have put you out of your misery.”

“You’ll find…that I’m not so easy to dispatch,” Calisto said, managing to lean against the wall of the Keep. “Why don’t you come in the circle?”

The Blight smiled, shook its head and wagged a finger.

“I think not,” the Blight said. “We still have some time before the dying starts.”

“Are you running, coward?” I said.

“Insults. How quaint,” the Blight said, focusing on me. “You may have managed the transformation, but it doesn’t mean you can stand against me. We will meet again, soon, Demon. In the meantime, prepare. I bring death and destruction to your world.”

It vanished as I took another step forward. The horde that stood behind it dispersed into the night as I made my way out of the ward circle with another roar of frustration. My body reverted to normal a few seconds later.

“You’re not ready,” Calisto said. “It was right.”

I whirled on her, eager to lash out at something, anything, when I sensed it—an energy signature was racing across the Park to my location. I turned to face my new attacker.

The sky had lightened as sunrise approached.

“Stay in the circle,” I said. “Someone or something is coming.”

“Come back into the circle, Sepia,” Calisto warned. “I can’t help you, and this energy signature is—”

A man stood in the clearing before the Keep. He held a dark blade and was surrounded by a cloud of black energy.

“Hello, Sepia,” the man said. “My name is Velos and you have something that belongs to me.”

“I don’t even know who you are,” I said, unleashing my pent-up rage at not being able to face the Blight. “If you think I have something of yours”—I took several steps forward—“why don’t you come and take it?”

“Sepia, no,” Calisto said. “That blade—”

“This is Retribution,” Velos said as the black nimbus danced around him. “I’m here for your blade. I’m here for Perdition.”

I formed my blade with a thought as black-and-green energy raced down my arm.

“You want to take Perdition?” I asked, holding it by my side. “My mother gave me this blade. If you think you can take it from me while I’m still breathing, you’re mistaken.”

Velos gave me a small nod and a tight smile full of evil.

“I never said anything about your continued breathing,” Velos answered. “I’m here for the blade and your life, Hunter.”

I let the power of Perdition run through my body as I entered a defensive stance. I felt the energy fill me as my eye blazed with green light, and I looked down to see the scales appearing on my skin.

I smiled.

“Come take them.”

TWENTY -EIGHT

Rafael opened his eyes in the center of a large training hall.

“A dojo, of course,” Rafael muttered to himself as he crossed the smooth wooden floor and looked around. “Not just any dojo—the Iron Dojo.”

The training hall in Gan’s mind mimicked the Gray Headquarters dojo, except that it was ten times the size of the actual thing. The hardwood floor in the center dominated the space as it glistened in the low light.

Candles in lamps adorned all of the walls at regular intervals. Outside one of the windows, Rafael glimpsed a zen garden with enormous stones and raked sand. Around them, weapons of every kind were hung in racks on the walls.

Rafael remembered spending countless hours sweating and training on the hardwood floors of the Iron Dojo. It was a pleasant memory filled with good pain. Somehow, he didn’t think this experience would be the same.

“What are you doing here?” a voice asked from behind him. “You don’t belong here.”

It was Gan.

He was dressed in a black loose fitting robe with large sleeves and covered with white ward symbols. On the rear, a design of a large dragon drifted among clouds. Rafael looked down and saw he was dressed in a similar white robe with black ward symbols. The symbol of a large tiger among trees dominated the back of his robe.

“Hello, Gan,” Rafael said, glancing around at the dojo again. “You’ve gone deep, I see.”

“Who are you?” Gan asked. “Why are you here?”

“To bring you back,” Rafael said. “I need you to come back with me. You can’t stay here.”

“Of course I can,” Gan said. “I have everything I need here.”

“Do you?” Rafael asked, opening his robe top and removing the outer jacket, revealing a thin white silk shirt underneath. “This is not your reality.”

“Reality is the conscious agreement of what our senses portray to our brains,” Gan said, removing his outer robe jacket to reveal a black