Chapter 16

16

I couldn’t stay there, but I didn’t want to go far in case Levi came around again.

I walked to the nearest bank of the Red River and washed the blood from my neck and shirt and shaking hands.

What the hell had happened? It was like Levi had snapped and the demon had taken over, even if only for minutes.

But in those minutes, he had killed our enemies.

And he had advanced at me as if I was one of them.

He had almost butchered me too.

I didn’t know what to think.

I sat on a rock a few feet from the water, and tried to think what to do. Should I wait for Levi? Before, he had stuck around and had come to help me when I needed him. What if this time he wasn’t around? What if he had really left?

How long should I wait for him?

And what if I waited for him only to have him attack me?

I shivered.

I took to the skies and went to the same town as before. I stopped at the gas station, where I charmed the young guy behind the counter to lend me his phone for a couple of minutes.

He was more than happy to oblige.

Thank goodness angels had good memories and I had learned most of my friends’ numbers without much effort.

I started dialing Thea and stopped. Drake had left the underworld in a rush, to stop that crazy Sarki witch, and he was probably busy now trying to save Aurora from her, and Thea would be right there along with them.

Instead, I called Tanner’s number.

“This better be good,” he answered, his tone flat.

“Tanner, it’s me, Ariella.”

“Oh, it is good. Where the hell are you?”

I told him—I had to ask the clerk the name of the town—and Tanner guaranteed I would have a warlock to open a portal for me in no time. Apparently, the others were still locked in the underworld and were having trouble coming back.

It hadn’t been my fault that I had left them all behind, but I was still sorry.

I waited by the gas station as instructed. Not ten minutes later, Boise walked out from the line of trees behind the pumps. He was friends with Aspen, and also worked directly with Keeran, the Warlock Lord.

“I’m here to take you to the underworld,” he said, all formal.

I nodded and followed him back into the forest. Without a word, he opened the portal and I stepped through. I thought I would arrive in Tanner’s throne room, but instead I was back at the underworld’s gate. Of course, normal portals didn’t work on the other side.

Lily was waiting for me. I thanked Boise for coming to pick me up and followed her into the underworld.

“How mad is he?” I asked.

“I have never seen King Tanner like this and I’ve known him for many years now,” Lily told me.

Shit.

As expected, Tanner and Jasmin were waiting for me in the throne room. Lily stopped by the doorway and gestured for me to go alone. Awesome. Inhaling deeply, I walked toward the thrones.

Tanner became tenser the closer I got to them.

When I was finally about ten feet from them, he shot up from his throne. “What the hell happened out there?”

I let out a long sigh. I was sure Jasmin had already told him about the demon we encountered and Sarki, the witch who cursed Drake’s daughter, but he didn’t know the rest other than getting reports of Levi’s escape.

“First, tell me, were you able to stop Ylena? And Sarki?”

“I asked you first?—”

Jasmin rose from her throne and exchanged a heated glance with her brother, making him grunt and fall silent. “Unfortunately, no. There’s something else you should know before you tell us what happened.”

Oh, this couldn’t be good. “What is it?”

“Time passes differently down in the mist,” she said. “It goes by faster. When I came back here after helping Drake out, it had been only a handful of hours since we had left.”

“Wait.” I made some rash and surely inaccurate calculations in my heads. “But we were down there for days. That means … Levi and Ylena were there for months.”

She nodded. “We got a glimpse of Ylena when she escaped and she didn’t look like an angel. How’s Levi?”

I opened my mouth. Shut it again. That was why they had been so ragged, crazy, and dark. Because they had spent months lost in the mist.

I shook my head and told them what happened after Jasmin left with Drake.

With a sigh, I looked at Tanner. “I don’t know what happened. I just know that I’m sorry for all of it.”

Tanner pointed a finger at me. “You?—”

Jasmin shot him a hard look and he immediately shut up. Staring at her, he inhaled deeply and let the air out slowly.

“Better?” Jasmin asked in a soft voice.

“Not really,” he muttered, but at least he was composed and not yelling when he turned to me again. “I’m glad you were able to find Levi, but now we’ve got a big problem on our hands. Drake has been gone for only a couple of hours but he already called for a lockdown of DuMoir Castle, the Silverblood Estate, and the Silver Moon Academy.”

“We offered him our help, but with Ylena on the loose, we need to divide our forces,” Jasmin continued. “But first, we need to retrieve Rage and your friends.”

Tanner nodded. “Demon hunters are waiting in front of the castle to go with you. Help them off the cliff, bring them here, and we’ll reassemble when everyone is rested and clear minded.”

“Yes,” I said, feeling like a fledgling on her first day of guardian school.

“I’m coming with you.” Jasmin descended the dais. “Are you ready to go, or do you need to?—?”

“I’m ready to go,” I said. I was tired, in need of a shower, but if I had been outside the mist for over a day, my friends were probably in there for who knew how long. We could all rest and clean up later.

A handful of demon hunters I hadn’t met before waited for us at the castle’s entrance. It was all the same. We walked a good distance, and then the shadow horses appeared.

When we were about an hour from the cliff’s edge, a demon hunter shouted. “Stop!”

The horses slowed down to a halt.

“What happened?” Jasmin asked.

“There.” The hunter pointed to the horizon.

Slowly, shadows formed in the distance … no, not shadows. Silhouettes. People.

“By the light,” I muttered, kicking the sides of my horse.

The animal jumped into a gallop and only slowed down when we came face to face with my friends—who were all also mounted on shadow horses.

My heart squeezed upon seeing Rage among them. “You’re alive.”

“Thanks to Zad and Lacey,” he said. He did look like he had been beaten pretty badly, but I was certain he had died.

“Well done with the key,” Wyatt said.

I had kicked the key down the cliff. “I was worried you wouldn’t see it.”

“It was pure luck,” Farrah said.

“Where’s Levi?” Lacey asked, concern clear on her face. “What happened?”

I let out a sigh. “Come on. I’ll tell you everything on the way back to the castle.”