Chapter 3
My stomach clenched as I followed Raze into the forest. The portal to his realm wasn’t so bad, and the breath of fresh air that came from the woods and evergreen trees was a reprieve from the Underworld’s heat.
I was a Princess of Hell, but I had a feeling that my destiny led me to places like this.
Full of life and wonder.
And…
I squinted as I made out a white little puffball with a massive set of teeth.
“Uni!” I squealed as the uni-hare chomped down on her latest kill.
She retracted her jaws and blinked at me. Her features transformed to the adorable little bunny with a unicorn horn that I loved.
She still had a streak of blood around her mouth, but she was a cute little killer bunny.
She bounded into my arms and I laughed as she nuzzled my face.
“Ew, what did you just eat?” I asked, holding her with one arm while using my shirt to wipe at my chin.
Raze chuckled, the low throaty sound that shifters seemed to have reminded me of Logan.
Gods, I miss him. I hope he’s okay.
“That would be a tree rat,” Raze said, glancing at what was left of the carcass with distaste. “Not very edible, at least to those of us without razor teeth. The rats have pretty tough hides.”
I booped Uni on the nose with my finger. “Who has the bestest razor teeth? You do!” I cooed.
Raze gave me a raised brow.
“Hey, I missed her, okay?” I said in my defense.
Plus, I was nervous about seeing my mates again. It had been months since our encounter with Lucifer in the Underworld when he’d infected them with Calamity.
So much had happened since then and now.
I’d learned how to fly.
And then I’d faced Lucifer again and lost one of my wings.
Which, thanks to Cole, I survived with his donor.
Then I’d bonded with Azrael, and learned more about how my powers worked. This whole time I’d been trying to find balance within myself, thinking that’s what had prevented me from bonding with Cole and my angels.
But that hadn’t been the problem.
The problem had been my mates. They hadn’t believed themselves worthy, and so therefore they weren’t.
It was hard to imagine an arrogant beast like Cole, a Demon of Rage, and Lucifer’s brother, having a problem with believing he was worthy of anything.
Yet, as Raze led me deeper in the forest, I felt a glimmer of that sensation.
My mates were counting on me, and yet I’d been helpless to save them from Calamity. They’d been trapped in the forest while I went on without them.
Did that make me unworthy of their love?
As if the UniHare could sense my distress, she whined and nuzzled my chin, then licked away what stray bits of blood-smudge I’d missed.
Giggling, I smoothed back her ears, careful to avoid her sharp horn. “Thanks, girl. I’m fine.”
When Raze took me toward the ruins, I paused.
He stopped and glanced at me, the knowing look in his eyes already glittering with an apology. “We couldn’t keep them on shifter grounds while they’re awake. The location of our kind is a highly-kept—”
“Secret, yeah, yeah I know,” I finished for him with a sigh. I waved him onward. “Let’s go, then. They’ve waited long enough.”
Raze’s jaw flexed as if he wanted to say something else, but then he nodded and continued through the woods.
The ruins gave me a bad vibe. This was the place where Calamity had been contained for thousands of years and this was where the echoes originated.
The hum that rumbled through the air gave me a headache within a matter of minutes and Uni whined.
“I don’t like it either, girl,” I told her, stroking her fur as I held her against my chest.
I used my magic to alter the air around us to create a shield, but it only diluted the noise.
Another echo was due to release soon, and I wasn’t sure what would happen if we didn’t take care of the Conduit from this latest echo before the next one came.
No Champion had ever failed that badly before, so I’d be an unprecedented first.
But so was a Conduit like Lucifer.
Calamity had taken root inside the devil himself, an immortal that would be difficult to defeat, to say the least.
From what I’d read about the past echoes, Lucifer wasn’t the first powerful immortal that Calamity had used as a Conduit, even if he was exceptionally difficult to challenge.
It often chose a soul greedy enough to want its unsavory power, while at the same time choosing someone formidable enough to withstand the Champion selected by destiny to counteract it.
I wasn’t sure who had created this dance of good versus evil, and I wasn’t sure if there was an end to it all.
It meant, in theory, I was just as powerful as Lucifer—with one key detail.
As long as I could bond all of my mates who were supposed to lend me their strength.
A bond forged in love was what made the Champion unique, it was what ensured her success.
And that eternal bond was the one thing I was struggling to establish with my mates.
Until we figured it out, all I could do was protect my mates and make sure they had a world to come back to after all of this was over.
That was enough of a task for me.
And maybe along the way, we would find the love we were promised.
Although destiny seemed to have a way of screwing me over. Doubt constantly crept into my mind that I would be the first Champion to truly fail.
Shaking off the disconcerting thoughts, I followed Raze to see my mates.
When we stepped through an oily bubble that reminded me of the barrier magic used back at the Academy, I realized that the ruins had slightly changed.
There were buildings here now and structures that resembled houses and streets.
“What’s this?” I asked Raze as he led me down a cobblestone path.
“The ruins have been regressing,” he said absently as he glanced toward the empty buildings. The tension in his shoulders suggested that this wasn’t a safe place to be.
So why had he put my mates here?
“Regressing?” I pressed as I squeezed Uni against my chest.
She squeaked at me and complained until I let her go, then she scurried over my shoulder. She chirped in annoyance at my bat-like demon wing before burying herself in my angel wing’s fluffy down.
She had a magical way of making herself small and light so that I didn’t even feel her, and I was glad to have her hitchhike a ride with me again.
Plus, I didn’t blame her for wanting to hide when this place gave me the creeps.
“The ruins used to be a city, although the history of what that city was and who lived here is lost to the ancients.”
“Isn’t this your home realm?” I asked skeptically. “You don’t even know where your little prison for Calamity came from?”
He shrugged. “We know how to work the magic, but no, we don’t know where Calamity came from or who created this place and the means to contain it.”
That unnerved me, but I was more interested in the immediate issue.
Such as why were my mates here and how fast could I get them the hell out?
Glancing up, I noticed that the sunlight didn’t seem like it could filter in very well. We’d broken through the tree line. This area of the forest didn’t seem to allow trees to grow anymore as if Calamity had sucked the life out of them.
The oily sheen of the translucent magical wall rippled above me, making me frown.
“Why did you put up a barrier?” I asked, my tone turning defensive.
I doubted it was to keep anything out.
Calamity wasn’t due for another echo, so I wasn’t sure what the unicorns wanted to keep in.
Unless…
“They’re this way,” Raze said, blatantly ignoring my question with the one thing that would take him off the hook.
My stomach flipped again and I stared at the massive building he’d indicated.
He walked up the steps and rested his hand on the door handle. He glanced at me and gave me an encouraging smile. “You coming?”
Frowning at him, I debated arguing. Something was wrong and he knew I could sense it.
“Just take me to them,” I snapped, tired of whatever game he was playing.
He nodded and opened the door. The interior was fully furnished and brightly lit, a contrast to the ominous presence from the rest of the “revived” ruins.
I couldn’t help but wonder if the work that the angel twins had done in the Underground had somehow impacted this place. The realms weren’t so separate anymore. Ever since the first echo, the realms had begun to merge onto one another and what impacted one realm very well could impact another.
I made a mental note to discuss that later with the twins as I ventured inside.
The air shifted once Raze closed the door behind me and my feathers stood on end.
Something didn’t feel right, and it made me want to run down these halls and find my mates.
Except my link to them was still fragile, and I wasn’t exactly sure which way to go.
I felt them in the general vicinity like an aura that surrounded the compound, but they could be anywhere. Based on the outside view, this place was huge.
“Show me the way,” I ordered as I wafted my wings, disliking the confines no matter how spacious they might be.
I still hadn’t been able to fly with my mismatched wings, at least not very well, but the angel inside of me wanted the option to fly skyward in times of danger.
Thanks to Azrael, that part of me was alive and well. Even though Kaito had helped me reorient my body to the darker side of my abilities, it only made her dormant. It didn’t put her back to sleep.
Raze cleared his throat. “I’m afraid this is as far as I go.” His ruby eyes shifted, taking in the dark main hall lined with paintings. “You’ll have to venture the rest of the way on your own.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
He sighed. “Because I’ve been ordered to keep my distance by my superiors. I must warn you, Lily, your mates are awake, but they’re… different.”
My skin crawled with his admission.
Because I had already sensed as much.
“I don’t care,” I said, ignoring the dread curling deep in my stomach. “I want to see them.”