Chapter 24 Lily #2
When we broke through the clearing, Riviana appeared in the line of torches. They lit immediately and Leviathan appeared in front of her, but the fires weren’t bright in this morning light.
Callum continued forward, heading for the skull rock behind Leviathan. We didn’t have time to move as slowly as possible to avoid making noise, so he walked swiftly, hand on the rocky outcropping for balance as he moved around the side and then inside the mouth.
I was the one behind him, so I mirrored his footwork exactly and followed him to the closed door made of bones.
He opened it and stepped to the side, ushering each one of us inside. The last one to enter was Viper, before Callum moved behind him and shut the door.
The second we stood in the underworld, I was reminded of the eternal darkness that was so thick you could breathe into your lungs. The stale humidity felt like we occupied a cave located under a river.
Callum moved forward and grabbed a branch from the ground before he quickly wrapped dead grass around the end and secured it with a long leaf. Then he lit it with a match he carried, the light illuminating all of our faces.
My father addressed Callum. “Do you know—”
A slow, roaring boom filled the underworld, like the sound of enormous gears grinding as they worked to open a massive gate. It was loud and echoed with a cacophony before it finally went quiet once more.
My father looked to Callum for explanation.
“The barrier,” Callum said. “It grows thin.”
“Then we really don’t have much time,” Dad said.
“But they’ll be at their weakest,” Aunt Eldinar said. “And they’ll be surprised and overwhelmed by the seven of us.”
Callum lifted the torch and led the way. “Leviathan may report his conversation to the Covenant, but he’ll return to the castle afterward. That’s probably where he’ll be by the time we’ve made it down the mountain and through the forest. It’d be best if we don’t speak from this point onward.”
In a single-file line, we moved together, Hawk behind me and my father behind him, walking down the mountainside and then reaching the forest, all the trees jagged and dead, ominous in the shadows.
Callum seemed to know the way without taking the path, careful with the torch not to set everything on fire.
My father and I were the only ones who’d been there before, but I wondered if he’d ever entered the forest. Since we’d never really spoken about his time in the underworld, he hadn’t shared much with me.
Finally, the castle came into view, lit by the torches along the walls and outside the enormous double doors. Once we left the tree line, we would be in the open until we reached the castle, which was already plagued by creatures.
Callum came to a stop then turned to the rest of us. “We wait here. He’ll appear after he’s finished with the Covenant.”
“You know this for certain?” Dad asked.
“No, but I can surmise. I served him for a short period of time.”
In silence, we stood there at the tree line, Callum’s torch the only source of illumination in the darkness. We all watched the castle, watched servants and monsters come and go with their activities.
My eyes anxiously searched for him, desperate to find him, wanting to strike while the iron was hot, wanting to rush into battle while the adrenaline strengthened my muscles.
“Do you have a plan?” Dad asked.
“Yes,” Callum said. “When I see him, I’ll approach.
Distract him while Lily makes her move.” He turned to him.
“Impale his neck where he’s most exposed.
His armor is strong, strong enough to rival the strength of dragon scales.
If you can’t sink your blade, then the rest of us will try to chip at his armor. ”
I nodded in agreement.
We continued to wait, and then minutes later, he appeared, emerging from nothingness on to the castle grounds, handsome in his human form with his dark cape behind him.
My heart gave a lurch of fear…because this was it.
Callum turned to me. “I know you can do this, Xivin.”
I held his gaze longer than I should have before I gave a nod.
Then Callum left, tossing the torch aside and stomping it out with his boot before he continued forward, approaching the castle’s stone steps, his shoulders shifting and moving in the heavy armor that protected his mortal heart.
My father nodded in a different direction.
“Hawk, Lily, and I will approach from the side. The rest of you approach from a different angle.” He moved through the dark, taking the lead for Hawk and me to follow.
We made our way along the side of the castle, the wall slowly rising to where we’d have to climb to get to the scene.
We crossed the grass and approached, and that was when I heard Leviathan address Callum. “How admirable. You’re here to defeat me and stop me from taking the one thing that matters most to you. I’m afraid you’re too late, because even if you cut my head from my shoulders—”
“I come here to warn you. Open the portal, and you’re doomed.”
My father offered his knee so I could use it as leverage to get myself up quickly.
I used it to push myself up and grab the wall before I pulled myself over, the weight of my armor making my muscles scream in protest.
Leviathan gave a quick chuckle, and then he was no longer human but the fiery demon I’d met before. “Thank you for your concern. I suppose after all the time you’ve spent here, you still have affection for your kind.”
Callum gave him a hard stare. “I’m not your kind. Not anymore.”
I stood upright and unsheathed my blade, prepared to cut this monster down and launch him into the void forever. Prepared to do whatever was necessary to protect my world and the people I loved so much.
I moved forward, and then there were screams.
The servants screeched like dogs that had been kicked, and the monsters that spotted me howled into the night, sounding the alarm.
Callum unsheathed his blade then launched his attack, but Leviathan unsheathed his blade at a speed quicker than the eye and blocked it before he shoved Callum hard and sent him flying back until he hit the stone wall.
I couldn’t think about Callum right now. I knew he would be okay.
Leviathan turned to look at me, an eight-foot demon with flames visible between his teeth, having a hard exoskeleton instead of armor, his black heart visible in the strange webbing over his body. Then his voice sounded directly into my mind. Lily Rothschild, welcome home.
The monsters that served Leviathan started to converge to attack, to protect their king.
“Form a perimeter!” Dad yelled. “Let no one through.”
I couldn’t look at any of them, my entire focus on the god considered my equal.
You’ll sleep in the cell I’ve built just for you—on the bodies of your dead loved ones. He started to move toward me before he issued a roar that sounded like a dragon, his mouth opening to show the flames that burned up his throat.
I unsheathed my blade, spun it around my wrist, and started to circle him.
He turned his body to face me while the others battled the spawn of the underworld. He gave a chuckle as he watched me, over two feet taller than me, his arms nearly the size of my body.
Ladies first.
I continued to move around him, trying to find the right time to make my move but painfully aware of everyone I loved fighting for their lives around me.
I couldn’t pay attention to any of them.
If someone needed help, I couldn’t break my concentration.
All it would take was one blow from this demon, and my head would be—
He launched forward with the speed of a charging horse and brought his sword down on me.
Zehemoth’s focus was still with me, even in another world, and the strength that Callum had permanently gifted to me fueled every muscle in my body, making me feel eight feet tall. It allowed me to raise my sword to block his attack without having to think about it, my reflexes supernatural.
He struck me again and again, slamming his sword down with both speed and strength, and through sheer instinct, I blocked every hit, my feet moving automatically to keep myself in optimal position.
But that flurry of blows was followed by another, and he hacked at my sword with his blade and drove me back, trying to tire me just from blocking.
But I knew he was weaker than normal since their harvest of souls had been put toward the destruction of the barrier, so he was probably trying to defeat me as quickly as possible by converging all of his strength in a single attack.
I blocked hit after hit, feeling him drive me back, my muscles aching from the exertion of stopping his strength.
He finally withdrew his blade and took a step back, but I’d been waiting for this opportunity as he’d pummeled me with his attacks, so I was ready to seize the moment, to strike my blade across his chest and scratch open the fibers woven in millions of intricate braids.
It must have seemed like a paper cut to him because he didn’t release a roar of pain.
I sliced at him again, leaving a scratch in the hard exoskeleton of his arm.
He quickly raised his sword again and the dance continued, but now our pace was evenly matched.
I could tell he knew it, because he stepped back and released a quiet growl as he surveyed his next move. His movements became clunky and abrupt, like he didn’t know how to approach this fight.
A demon god against a fused goddess—evenly matched.
He stared me down with the threat of a nightmare, flames visible between his teeth, his black heart pounding against the fleshlike webbing that covered his body.
If I could stab my blade through it, it would probably defeat him.
Lily Rothschild, you shouldn’t have come here.
I slammed my sword against my chest as I moved in again, the battle surrounding me, when all I saw was the demon before me, the creature that had tried to force me to be his. I launched myself forward again, determined to get access to the webbing over his heart.