Chapter 12

12

We kept moving deeper into the underworld for a long time without any other issues. To be honest, I thought it was oddly quiet and kept expecting something awful at any moment.

But nothing happened.

And that only made me worry we would bump into another prisoner with great powers, and who knew what this one would do?

We walked the entire day—per our watches and phones—and didn’t find anything else, no one else. When it was late, we stopped in a large desert area with only a handful of broken, burned tree trunks around us.

Rage made a small bonfire to give us more light. We sat down around the fire and ate our protein bars and drank our water. I counted how many more bars I had. If I ate only when necessary, I would have enough for a week.

It had been two days already. That left another two to go, maybe three if I rationed a little more, before we had to turn back. A sense of despair filled my chest. Would that be enough? If the past two days was any indication, it wouldn’t.

But it had to be. It needed to be.

We ate in silence, everyone lost in their thoughts and stealing glances at the dark horizon. Yes, we were in a wide-open expanse of dry land, but it was dark, and some creatures could sneak up on us undetected.

After we finished eating, Rage divided us in three groups to keep watch while the others rested.

I was in the second group along with Lacey. I lay down with my bag as a pillow, but it was hard to disconnect, close my eyes, and sleep.

I tossed and turned a little, but eventually I fell asleep.

A whistling sound echoed through camp and I woke up with a start, reaching for my magic, only to be frustrated when it didn’t answer.

“It’s okay,” Rage said.

I looked at him—he was seated in front of the dying fire, almost in the same position he had been in when we were eating, his spear resting over his folded legs.

The whistling sound came again and this time I saw it—thin, dark figures running through the sky, like deflating balloons zipping past overhead.

“What are those?”

“Some kind of spirits,” he said. “Naughty, but not evil. They like to scare, but they can’t do anything.”

“Have you seen them before?”

He nodded. “They are all over the underworld.”

The sound echoed again, fainter this time, more distant.

How could one sleep like that?

I glanced at my phone—I had slept for a little over an hour, but I suddenly felt too awake to even try again.

“You should try to go back to sleep,” Rage said, echoing my thoughts.

“I will, but probably after my shift.”

He nodded and looked over my shoulder. I followed his line of sight and saw Mill walking a wide perimeter of the camp.

Deciding it was a promising idea to stretch my legs, I went to the other side and circled around the camp, walking slowly and trying to keep my mind blank. But it was hard when we were in the underworld, at the bottom of a cliff, and at any moment, I expected either to have an evil being attack us, or to bump into Levi.

After a full lap, where I passed Mill, I decided patrolling the perimeter wasn’t my thing and sat down across the fire from Rage.

He was still as a statue, but his eyes kept scanning the horizon.

“How did you come to work with King Tanner and Princess Jasmin?” I asked, because why not? I had nothing better to do.

He grabbed a stick and poked the fire. “It was nothing special. I had been reassigned to a European outpost, but I didn’t want to go. Then I heard King Tanner was trying to assemble a team of hunters to work exclusively with him.”

“Didn’t Alain Heyward have a tantrum?”

As far as I knew, Alain was sort of the head of the Blackthorn Hunters, watched closely by Rey Lowe and Erin Belmont, of course.

“He went directly to Rey to complain about it, but Rey told him he thought it was a good idea, and even put out an official call for it,” Rage explained. “Though, King Tanner reserves the right of approving anyone who wants to join.”

I frowned. “How many hunters are there in this taskforce.”

Rage scratched behind his neck. “Well, only me so far. About a handful approached the king, but he passed on them, saying they weren’t right for the job.”

Not right for the job? What did Tanner want in a demon hunter? Besides what they already were?

I wouldn’t ever understand the mind of any ruler.

We remained quiet for the rest of the night, until it was time to switch. Rage bid me good night and went to his sleeping bag as Lacey woke up and sat down beside me.

“So, any gossip you want to talk about?”

I smiled at her. At least I could spend a few hours with my friend.

* * *

Next day, I was getting bored of walking. At some point, I kind of wished a lesser demon would attack us to have something to do.

We stopped at noon for a quick lunch and resumed walking. Thankfully, the terrain changed soon after.

A gentle incline started several yards in front of us and went on forever. We paused at the start of the incline, admiring the landscape we were about to brave—gentle ups and downs of dry ground and huge rock formations. Some were thin and pointy, others were massive and almost too smooth.

And the first thing that came to my mind was that it was the ideal place for evil beings and little naughty creatures to hide. We might not have had any action in a while, but maybe that was about to change.

“We’re still on the right track?” Rage asked Barn and Mill. The demons nodded and pointed straight ahead.

This was probably bad of me, but for a moment, I couldn’t help but wonder if these demons were taking us into a trap. Had they really converted and now worked for King Tanner, or were they trying to trick him? Trick us?

There was only one way to know. “Let’s go,” I said, gesturing for Rage to keep moving. I would have taken the lead, but I knew he wouldn’t like that.

I really didn’t care. I could be dead last in line, as long as we kept going.

Slowly, carefully, we went down the slope and started trekking among the rocks. Now that we were beside them, I could see that there were no small rock formations. They were all at least twice my height, and some … I didn’t even know, maybe ten times? It was dizzying to look up.

The terrain wasn’t smooth here, and with the rough terrain, we tired faster. For hours, we walked this maze of rocks and sand, and I hoped Rage knew the direction we were going.

As we walked, a faint pain started inside my chest and my breathing grew slightly shallow. Was I getting winded and tired from walking so much? Angels didn’t have heart attacks, did they?

The pain was so faint, it was easy to focus on something else and forget it. If it increased, I would ask Lacey to take a look at me. With her healing abilities, I was sure she could help me, whatever it was.

We stopped a few times to rest and eat and drink, but for the most part, we trudged on. I couldn’t help feeling frustrated again at how slow we were going.

This was taking way too long, but what other option did we have?

“Look.” Farrah pointed up to a tall, narrow rock formation.

It seemed like the tip had been broken and the top was smudged in black.

“The fireball,” I muttered.

Ignoring the increasing pain in my chest, I followed the path I thought the fireball had fallen, and I could barely contain myself and my racing heart as I saw more clues: broken rocks, black marks on the rock sides, a faint burnt scent in the air, and finally a huge, black crater that had flattened the terrain and exploded a couple of rocks to dust.

I froze, my eyes huge as I stared at the crater.

If it hadn’t been Levi and Ylena, then what was it? Meteors in the underworld? I doubted that was a thing.

“This is certainly where the fireball landed,” Rage said.

Farrah turned to Lacey. “Can’t you sense your brother’s aura or something?”

“I can try,” Lacey said.

The pain in my chest increased and I realized it wasn’t pain. It was a forceful tug. “The bond,” I whispered. I pressed a hand to my chest and almost wept for joy. “I can feel the bond.”

Lacey stared at me with huge eyes. “That means he’s here. That he’s close.”

My chest squeezed and the tug almost made me breathless. I walked into the crater, approached the center, looked around, but saw no one, no clues of where he might have gone.

Lacey followed me. She crouched down in the center of the crater and touched the darkened, burned ground. “I can sense it … him. And someone else.” She looked up at me. “He was here.”

“Levi!” I called out.

Wyatt sniffed the air. “I think I got a hint of their scent, but it’s faint. If that’s them, then they aren’t here anymore.”

“Can you follow the scent?” I asked, full of hope.

“I can try.” Wyatt started taking off his clothes, and all of us turned around. Except for Farrah. “My senses are stronger when shifted.”

I heard a groan and a couple of seconds later, a little whine. We turned and saw Wyatt in his wolf form—a big, deadly creature with brown fur and sharp teeth.

He started prowling, smelling the crater. He looked like an ant lost in a maze. I was about to deem this a failure, when he walked to the edge of the crater, sniffed the air, and let out a short yelp.

“That way,” Farrah said.

We rushed after Wyatt as he left the crater and weaved a path among the rocks. A couple of times, he circled around, doubled over, went back a few yards … and I did my best not to get frustrated.

The pain inside my chest now turned into a faint tug that was almost in sync with my fast-beating heart.

All this time, I had tried not to think about Levi much. I didn’t want to remember our moments together, especially what he had said right before disappearing through the portal.

But now that we were getting closer to him—I hoped—the emotions I had fought so hard wanted attention. The moment I saw him I didn’t know what I would do. Punch him hard for what he did or hug him tight and never let him go.

Because I truly didn’t want to let him go, and that scared me like hell.

It was crazy how everything could change in a matter of days.

I don’t know how long we zigzagged between the rocks, but I could feel the tug becoming stronger the farther into the territory we went.

Just when a deep tug took my breath away, Wyatt stopped between two big rocks and howled.

We rushed to his side.

Beyond the rocks was a large clearing, where lots of other rocks had been before, but now were broken into little pieces. Some were dust on the ground.

“What the—?” The question died on my lips as a black bolt zipped through the air and hit one of the rock formations across the clearing. The bolt caused the rock to shake and several broken pieces fell to the ground.

“That’s what happened,” Zad said.

But I was still shocked to see a black bolt.

Which meant …

With a shriek, Ylena zoomed through the clearing. Another bolt came from the left and missed her by a hair. She hissed and flew a little higher, hopping over a rock formation.

And we all gawked at her.

“Is that her?” Farrah asked.

Lost for words, I nodded.

Yes, it was Ylena.

But it wasn’t.

Her blond hair was longer, wilder, her clothes were in tatters, she had a craze glint in her eyes, and a snarl on her lips. Her skin was grayish, and her hands … her fingertips had become black and razor sharp, like claws.

But the most shocking of all was her wings: they were now black.

Like Zad’s and mine.

“That’s what happens when you spend time locked in the underworld,” Zad said, his voice low. Sad. “You go insane, and if you’re an angel, your wings turn black.”

“Did Levi go insane too?” Lacey asked, glancing to where the bolt had come from a moment ago.

I also wanted to know that.

As if answering her question, he walked into the clearing and I couldn’t control my reaction. I gasped as the tug turned violent and my heart squeezed.

Levi was here in his demon form.

But he was different. He was larger, his horns were longer, and his skin was darker than before. His wings … they were at least twice their normal size.

He had the same crazed glint in his eyes as Ylena’s, but he wasn’t snarling. He was growling like an animal ready for dinner.

Levi stopped a few yards later and sent another bolt of darkfire at Ylena. She snickered, flapped her wings, twisted in midair, and landed atop the rock again.

“That’s the best you can do?” she said, her voice shrill like a ghost’s.

With a growl, Levi cast another bolt.

We stood several yards to their side, at the edge of the clearing, but they were unaware of our presence.

“Keep Ylena busy,” I said before dashing into the clearing. “Levi!”

Slowly, Levi let the bolt fade and turned to me. His bright red eyes met mine and for a second, I wanted to cry with relief. He saw me! I was here! He would be fine now.

His lips curled back and he snarled.

With a flap of his powerful wings, Levi lunged at me, his hands in front of him, ready to strike.

I froze.

Someone rammed into me from the side, knocking me to the ground as Levi zoomed past me, his claws an inch from my head.

I fell hard, hurting my shoulder with the impact, and Lacey landed on top of me.

“What?” I blinked, as if waking from a daze.

“He’s not himself.” Lacey stood and offered her hand to me.

I grasped it and helped her pull me up, just as Levi whipped around in the air and came at us again.

“I don’t want to fight him,” I said.

“Me neither.” She cast a barrier in front of Levi. He slammed into it and fell to the ground.

A scream came from our left and I couldn’t help looking—the others attacked Ylena, but she sent a light bolt to shock them all and flew away.

Levi stood, punching the barrier, which broke and faded in the air. He growled at us. “Stay out of this,” he said, his voice guttural. A monster’s.

He leapt into the air and flew after Ylena.

What the hell had happened?