Chapter 36 #2
“Is that what I think it is?” I ask in awe. We’re all whispering as a precaution.
“Yeah. That was once a dragon,” Rhett replies.
I have the sudden urge to pinch myself. Never in my life had I imagined seeing a dragon’s skeleton. “If the head is this big, its body must have been over two hundred feet.”
“Well, that canyon probably formed when it fell, so that sounds about right.” He fishes the intricate compass from his pocket. “By my calculations, we should reach the oracle soon.”
“How does the compass work, exactly?” Kaiden inquires.
“By magic. It was created to find portals but can also point you to the thing you want to reach even if you don’t know its exact location.
However, it doesn’t work that well for locating people—that’s why I couldn’t find the oracle sooner.
But once I heard the rumor about the Wasting Woods, I could give the compass something to work with.
” He pauses. “My mother received it as payment from a mage for some of the rarest books she had. We were all supposed to use it to escape to the human world, but our city got attacked the night before. Only I made it out.”
Kaiden sounds genuinely sympathetic as he says, “I’m sorry.”
We continue our journey in silence for the next few hours. When my muscles scream in protest because we haven’t stopped even for one second, a tiny wooden cottage squatting in a clearing takes shape through the dense murk.
“It’s hard to believe someone lives here,” I muse, taking in its crooked lines and the huge claw marks scoured into the decaying wood planks. “It’s too quiet. Do you think the king’s knights got here before us?” I ask Rhett.
He doesn’t get to answer because the door screeches as it opens, barely holding onto the rusty hinges. A small body flies at us.
“Hello,” I say to the girl, who can’t be older than eight, when she stops right in front of me. “We’re here—”
“I’ve been waiting for you.” She tucks a white strand as pure as snow behind her pointy ear as she regards me through thick lashes of the same color.
Her dusty blue dress hangs at least three sizes too big on her, and the way her collarbones stick out is gut-wrenching. No child should look so malnourished.
“Thalia! Come back inside right this second!” A woman yells before appearing in the doorway, anguish marring her features. She blanches as her gaze finds us.
Thalia points at me. “She’s the girl from my dreams.”
We all share a look.
“Thalia, inside. Now,” the woman scolds again, then to us, “Who are you?” While there is some resemblance to Thalia, she has thick, chestnut hair braided like a halo around her head and shrewd hazel eyes that glare at us with suspicion.
“You should listen to your mother,” Sam murmurs to the girl.
“She’s not my mother,” Thalia huffs in a way that would make a teenager proud before trudging back toward the cottage.
“They’re with me,” Rhett answers. “We’re here to speak to the oracle.”
The woman’s tone could freeze over an ocean as she says, “There’s no oracle here. Now leave before the sun sets, and the dead come.”
“I’m a traveler. Maybe you’ve heard of us before. We help those who want to escape the war. These people are from the human world.”
She arches an eyebrow at Rhett as she ushers Thalia inside the dilapidated cottage. “I can tell. I have eyes, you know.”
“We mean no harm. Please, we only need a few minutes of the oracle’s time, and then we’ll be on our way,” I intervene, trying to placate her.
She ignores me. “You really bring fae to the human world?”
Rhett nods.
She nibbles on her lower lip. “What about the vampires?”
“They still pose a threat. But we’ve found ways to hide. It’s much better than living here amongst death and war.”
A stifling silence settles over us as the woman ponders her decision. “If I let you speak to the oracle, will you take us back with you?”
Rhett’s answer is immediate. “Yes. Even if you don’t help us, I will still take you.”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “Fine, but only one of you can come in.” She points her chin at me. “You.”
“I’m not letting her go alone,” Kaiden says, stepping up next to me.
I turn to look at him. “It’s okay. There’s a child inside. What do you think could happen? They’re spooked enough as is without adding a scary, six-foot-four tattooed demon to the equation.”
His nostrils flare, but he nods stiffly.
“Leave your weapons,” she clips out.
I slide off my backpack, then make quick work of removing all my weapons and handing them to Sam.
An ominous feeling thrashes beneath my skin with every step toward the cottage.
The rickety porch stairs creak under my weight as I ascend.
The woman lets me pass through the warped doorframe, a glint of interest shining in her eyes as they rove over my hellseeker gear.
“I’m Iris,” I tell her. She’s as skinny as Thalia and much younger than I first thought. She might seem fragile, but the way she carries herself and the look in her eyes—the kind you only get after a life of hardship—tells me she’s wise beyond her years.
“Yana. I’m Thalia’s sister.”
The cabin has only one room. The pallet pushed against the farthest wall and covered in rags must be their bed.
Still, even though it’s cramped, it’s clean.
I expected another person to be here, maybe an old woman, but there’s only Thalia.
She’s hunched over on the floor while playing with a doll made of sticks.
Something boils in the pot above the fire crackling in the hearth, the smell of food making my belly grumble loudly.
Last night, exhaustion kept me from eating what we had left after the pixies’ theft.
And after trekking through these woods on an empty stomach, it feels like my organs are sticking together.
Yana’s lips thin. “We’re not sharing our food.”
I would have considered it rude coming from anyone else, but who knows what she had to do to procure it. “I wasn’t going to ask you to.” My eyes snag on the engraved onyx plaque hanging from a rusty hook beside the oil lantern.
“The stone is spelled. It’s the only way to keep the dead animals from entering. They come at night, claw at the walls.” She shudders before clearing her throat. “Go ahead.”
I had an inkling Thalia might be the oracle, but it’s still unbelievable that a child could possess such power. I drop to my haunches next to her. “Thalia, my name is Iris. I came all the way from the human world so I could speak to you about a prophecy.”
She stops playing and glances at me. Up close and personal, the subtle pink in her light aqua eyes is noticeable. “A prophecy cannot be given freely.”
“What do you want in return?”
“The Fates decide, not me. I have to touch you if you want to find out the price.”
“That’s fine.”
The second her wispy fingers meet my temples, her eyes roll to the back of her head. A flash of white. Then, I’m no longer in the cabin, but in a sunlit clearing.
Three women stand in front of me. “The price has been decided. Are you ready to pay, Iris Harper?” they ask in a solemn voice at the same time.
“What is it?”
“A happy memory.”
Their words are bone-crushing because the memories—good or bad—I’ve made after the car accident are all I have. But I nod. Everything we’ve gone through can’t be for nothing.
Two women grab my shoulders, while the third places her palm on my forehead, and I’m thrown into the past.
“Hi, angel.”
“Of course, you’re a morning person,” I grumble as I shuffle into the kitchen on autopilot.
Kaiden arches an eyebrow before he lets his heated gaze rake lazily over my body. Like fingers dancing across my skin, I feel it everywhere. “It’s past noon,” he says, extending a large cup of coffee toward me.
Fuck me. He’s dressed in a pair of basketball shorts and a sleeveless shirt that puts all his bulging muscles and tattoos on display.
I want to kick myself for not even looking in the mirror before getting out of my bedroom.
But I’m not used yet to having a demon live with me.
And this is the first day. To be honest, it all seemed like a fever dream—him announcing he’s moving in with me over dinner.
Glancing down, I notice I forgot to put pants on and am only wearing the T-shirt I slept in, which barely covers my ass.
Shit. “Potato, potahto. Noon is morning for me.”
Our fingers brush as Kaiden passes me the cup. I take a sip. The coffee is perfect—just like the last time he made me one after I woke up in his penthouse after the umbra attack. “Man, this is so good, I could kiss you right now,” the words slip out before I realize my mistake.
“Careful, angel. Or you might find yourself on top of the counters with my head between your thighs and my tongue inside you. I haven’t forgotten how you made yourself come while screaming my name.”
I almost spit out the coffee as heat scorches the tips of my ears.
Kaiden throws me a rakish smile that makes my bones melt.
He shakes his head. “I love how easy it is to make you blush.” He closes the space between us and brushes a wayward coal-black strand behind my ear.
My pulse skyrockets as our eyes lock. “You’re devastatingly beautiful when you’re sleep-rumpled.
C’mon, I’m making breakfast and then we can go for a run.
” His big hand engulfs mine before he pulls me to the table.
We spend the rest of the day doing mundane things, and while it seems silly, this is one of the happiest days of my life.
Because of its simplicity. Because moments like these are the ones that brand your soul and burrow deep.
Because I didn’t even realize how barren my life was before Kaiden barged in.
I hold onto this memory by the skin of my teeth, but it’s futile because in the next breath, it’s gone.
It dissipates like smoke in the wind. The only thing that’s left is a hollow in the space between my ribs where that spark of happiness once resided.
With another flash of white, I’m transported somewhere else as the Fates’ warped voices ring in my ears on a loop.
“When the blood moon hangs from the sky,
and the clock strikes midnight,
The sacrifice will come forth.
At the twenty-third circle of life,
The Daughter of Starlight and Shadows,
will open the gates and raise the black death,
bathing the world in blood and despair.
When all virtue is lost,
a soul will be taken.
Ravens will circle the skies,
their master awaken.
A choice will be made,
One will be dead.
Time will sit still in the night
And the world of the living
will meld with the beyond.”
Images of the ground cracking wide open while bubbling lava rises to the surface and hellfire, scorching through flesh and bone, assault my brain as the chant continues like terrifying echo chamber.
Thousands of demons flying freely, crawling on the streets, feasting on the innocent, leaving gory destruction in their wake, a thick river of blood overflowing, coursing through the mass of cadavers lined streets, people wailing in horror.
When I come back to reality, it’s to screams. At first, I think I’m still hearing the gory reverb, but then I realize it’s Yana.
The planes of her face contort in abject terror as she shakes Thalia—who is still catatonic—her eyes encased in white.
Dread sinks its icy hooks beneath every layer of skin.
Tears stream down Yana’s cheeks. “Thalia! They’re here! We need to run.”
The unmistakable clash of metal as two swords meet slices through the air. I don’t waste another second.
I jump up and barrel out the door.