Chapter Twenty-Six
Grym
Itried to soothe Miles and Joel as best I could. I held them against me, which gave me as much comfort as it did them. At least I wasn’t alone in the dark. “This place is a kind of afterlife.”
“Why aren’t we on the beach?”
“This is Donn’s realm. He creates it, not us. He is manipulating the environment.” Not everything about the afterlife was bad. “There are parts of this realm that are peaceful.”
“Peaceful is a cabin in the forest,” Miles whispered. I could feel his arms around my waist. His body shook, but he distracted himself. It was what I wanted them to do.
“Mine is the beach, smoking the best weed, and a hot guy in tiny speedos.” Joel seemed a little calmer, but there was fear behind his words. His voice shook.
“I want a hot guy, too,” Miles said.
“They’re not Hot Wheels cars, Miles.”
“I just want Elliot. Just him and me. I don’t care where we are.” And I didn’t care which realm we stayed in, as long as we stayed together.
“Do you think we’ll see Elliot and Morgana again, or your brothers?” Joel followed up by rubbing my back. The attempt to soothe me made me smile.
The growling and the rustling of brush grew louder. I thought I’d feel the creature’s breath if it were close enough to take a chunk out of one of us. It stalked us, ready to make its acquaintance in the worst possible way. I couldn’t pinpoint the creature’s location from the sound.
The helplessness wasn’t something I was familiar with.
I’d teleport away from it if I could see where I might end up. The darkness was too consuming. I couldn’t get my bearings. I suspected we were in a forest, but I had no way to be sure. I could teleport us into a tree or into deep water we couldn’t swim out of.
There was nothing I could do but keep Joel and Miles close. My only way to protect them was by proximity.
The truth sounded harsh even to me. “There isn’t much of a chance of getting out of here. We’re in Donn’s creation. The darkness will never end. Even if Elliot were here, it’s almost impossible for him to find us, let alone the door to the way out.”
“It’s the darkness,” Miles said. He might have grabbed Joel’s hand behind my back, since Joel stopped his calming efforts. “It’s effective at keeping us from moving.”
“I suspect we’re in a forest.” Besides the leaves rustling in the breeze and the brush parting for the stalker, I could smell pine and damp earth. Not unpleasant, except for the many unknown factors that held us prisoner.
“What if we feel around? Maybe we’ll find something,” Miles said.
“Like what?” Joel’s grip tightened as the creature drew close enough that I could hear it breathe. “I see its eyes. They’re glowing red.”
“Just focus on the solution. Not the problem.” Miles was a doer, which might have been a good thing if the darkness weren’t so debilitating.
“How am I supposed to do that when I’m about to be a giant creature’s dinner?” The word giant was right. Based on the placement of the glowing red eyes, the creature was a head taller than me, and I was six feet three inches.
“I’m sure it’s tomorrow at home. It’s probably breakfast time by now.” Miles did a better job of keeping Joel from panicking than I did.
Joel sighed. “That wasn’t my point.”
“Let’s just keep each other distracted.”
Joel began to shake. “Something breathed on me.”
The creature had fur. It brushed against the back of my hand as I held Joel.
I stopped breathing, trying to stay as still as a statue. The last thing I needed was for something to bite Joel.
Joel whimpered. His tears soaked through my T-shirt, and all I could do was hold him as close as possible.
I backed us away from the animal as slowly as I could, not wanting to aggravate it with any fast or sudden movements.
I thought I knew what it was—some sort of catlike creature Donn had sent to torment us.
The ground under my feet sounded different as I took the next step. Instead of the crunch of leaves, it sounded as if I had stepped on pebbles. They felt tiny under my feet. Each step was a test. I measured them, which helped me stop focusing on the creature’s proximity.
When I hit solid ground, I stopped. “We’re on a path.”
“It feels different,” Miles agreed.
It was about three feet wide, which didn’t matter as much as choosing a direction.
It must lead somewhere, right?
Joel cried out. His grip on me was tight enough to hurt. “It licked my neck.”
Whatever that thing was, it definitely liked Joel. Whether it wanted to eat him or make friends was still unclear.
“You shouldn’t have eaten all that ice cream, Joel,” Miles whispered.
“Right. That’s what it is. The ice cream.” Who knew Joel could be so sarcastic?
“Ow. Asshole.” Joel must have smacked Miles.
The creature forced us to turn right. If we didn’t, we’d be turning toward the creature, which might provoke it.
“He’s mine!” Was that the creature speaking?
Joel whimpered, then jerked as if something or someone had tried to pull him away. He screamed just before stumbling into me. We managed to hold on to each other, but it was mostly my death grip that kept the creature from taking Joel. “He must stay with me. I’ll lose him to the darkness.”
“Fuck you!” That sounded like a very modern response in a place full of so many old souls.
“Show us the way out, and you can come with us. You’ll be able to get to know him properly,” I offered.
If even one beloved were lost from the living realm, the prophecy would end.
No one deserved to leave the living realm and their loved ones behind before their proper time.
Donn shouldn’t have taken Miles and Joel from their lives in the living realm.
“I don’t know the way.” I suspected, instead of a cat, it was a hellhound. I had met a few. At least I knew what I was dealing with. “Mate.”
“He’s touching me,” Joel whispered, his voice shaking with each word.
“He won’t hurt you. I’m almost sure of it.” It seemed Joel didn’t have a reaper after all, meaning they were protecting all beloveds, not just reaper beloveds.
“I’ll kill anyone who touches you, mate,” the creature whispered. Joel pressed against me, so he might as well have said it directly to me, too.
“Oh god.”
The creature growled but backed off. Maybe it knew Joel feared it.
“My name is Arnoc. I am a hellhound sent by Donn to harm you, but you smell good, little mate. So very good.” Well, that just solved that. Not that it was a mystery anymore.
“Can you see the path?” I hoped he could clue us in on where we were going.
“There’s nothing but forests on either side. Donn will shift everything when we get close to the door.” The creature snaked his arm between us, wrapping it around Joel’s waist.
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “Do you know anyone who knows the way out?”
“Tech Duinn is an island. There is no way off it, Reaper.”
There had to be a way. I couldn’t be stuck here without Elliot. That would be torture.
“What is that?” As soon as Miles asked, I saw it, too.
There was a light in the distance. It was dim, but it lit up enough of the forest for me to see just how dense the brush and trees were. It was a small thing, but even the smallest thing gave me hope when I was a prisoner of the darkness.
Arnoc growled just as Joel jerked against me. Joel screamed. “No! Don’t. Please. They’ll never find me again.”
“I’ll keep you safe, mate.”
“Okay, but I need to stay with my family. Please.”
“I’m your mate.”
“We’re staying with Grym and Miles. That’s final.” Joel’s tone suggested Arnoc had better not argue with him.
“I’ll see that we do.”
“Good dog.”
Arnoc growled. “I am not a dog, but I like the praise.”
“Fine. Good Arnoc.”
“That’s better. Those are gods, Reaper. Only they glow in the dark.”
Miles chuckled. It came out a little hysterical. “A glow-in-the-dark god.”
That made Joel chuckle, too, but his chuckle sounded watery.
“My mate has a musical laugh.” Arnoc seemed to like it when Joel was happy, which gave me a bit of hope, too.
“We are all very close together. I would like it to be just my mate, please.”
“Good Arnoc for asking.” Joel moved to my side. He still had a death grip on my arm.
“My friends call me Arnie. You may call me Arnie if you’d like.”
“Do you think that’s the god who put us here?” Joel asked.
“Donnie Death,” Miles whispered.
“He’d send my hellhound brothers before searching for you himself.”
It was then that I heard the most beautiful sound. Elliot called my name.