45. Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Five
Thea
My feathered wings carry me as I glide over the streets. My wings flutter bringing me to a soft landing in the middle of the street and my head starts to swim. The feeling hits me, and I know a vision is coming. I can't let anyone see this, whenever someone has seen my abilities in the past they've all called me the same thing.
An abomination.
A name I have carried within myself since my mother abandoned me in this city at the age of seven. I slip into the shadows of an alley lodged between two of the trees making it just in time and the vision begins. I can feel the feathers on the knuckles of my wings lift to reveal eyes of gold and I know who sent this vision as the images take over my mind and body. Leaving me completely at their mercy.
Embla stands in front of me, her petite curves displayed by a soft dress that hugs her perfectly, but I don’t recognize what surrounds us. Her hand caresses my cheek before I pull her in so close that her breath becomes my own. Her lips are soft, hesitant, against mine before they become eager and demanding with every second that floats between us. My hands roam over her body.
“Mate,” her voice reverberates through my mind, echoing over and over as her touches become more desperate as she tries to pull me closer to her.
Just as fast as it came, the vision leaves me in a puddle on the ground of the alley as I try to catch my breath. Disoriented, I glance around pressing my hand to the ground and the trees that surround me as my brain reels. The effects of the vision leave my mind sluggish, but I can’t help thinking one of the gods wants me to protect Embla. I can still feel the silent request etched into the vision; a protectiveness swells beneath my breast. I haven’t ignored a vision since they started when I was five, which has caused me a lot of trouble.
But this one? It feels like a gift. As soon as I finish this errand for the King I will be glued to Embla's side. She won't be able to get rid of me. I will protect my mate even if I have to sacrifice my life to do it. With a power thrust of my wings I'm back in the sky flying as fast as my body will let me.
I fly across the ocean for hours without a safe place to stop until the large charred piece of land looms on the horizon.
Mor Ed Helen, an island of eternal darkness.
The black mountain peaks rise before me lit up only by the orange glow of the lava that flows within. Cracks run through the entire island allowing embers to escape. A cursed land containing a gate to a realm of shadows and monsters, called the Helmouth. It allows Hel’s children, the demons, to spill through into this reality. The ward wraps around the island, a purple glowing wall against the darkness that battles to take over. The wards were weaved together by the seven other gods and maintained by the Mages. They haven’t been seen in thousands of years. History has forgotten them and their plight in the efforts to cover up a war that everyone wants to claim is over. My wings whisper through the air as I fly high above the glowing scorched land, searching for any sign that the wards have failed. Any sign that the other world has leaked over into ours.
A loud explosion sounds from deep inside the mountain, and I watch in horror as something large and circular is shot from the peak and launched through the air into the unsuspecting continent. The wards should have stopped it, but it crashed straight through the air. The leak isn’t the wards around the island but the one above it. Demons are loose in the world, and we have no idea how long this has been going on for. Before I am seen, I turn around. I have to tell King Ephraim. Who knows where they have spread to or how many have gotten out.
The wind nips at my face as I fly faster than I have ever flown before straight to Myrr’s castle. I stumble over my feet as I run through the halls heading for the King’s study.
“They’re free, the demons are free,” I say when I burst through the doors, and his blind eyes widen in shock.
“We knew this day was coming,” King Ephraim says, sighing. “I just hoped it would be after my time. We must prepare for war. They won’t stop until they find Myrr and the Demon Lords punish us for locking them away,” King Ephraim says, rising. “We have to be ready.”