Chaol
Daniel was dreaming about him, and he didn’t know whether to howl in triumph or frustration.
This was torture.
He kept his hand on Daniel’s thigh as the night wore on. It was a small allowance, this single point of contact, and one he didn’t think Daniel would take exception to. He liked the sensation of warm, jean-clad muscle beneath his palm.
“Morning already?” he asked, ducking his head.
“Afraid so.”
“No wraiths attacked in the night?”
Chaol bared his teeth. “They wouldn’t dare.”
Daniel shot him a weary smile. “Glad to hear it. Did you sleep at all?”
“No.” At Daniel’s frown of concern, he added, “Demons don’t need sleep as often as humans. I’ll be fine.”
The furrow between his brows didn’t abate. “Right. Is that true for all demons?”
“I believe so. I mean, I haven’t done a survey.” His fingers curled under Daniel’s. “Ready to go?”
Daniel looked down at their hands on his thigh like he was noticing them for the first time. “Uh. Yeah.”
Chaol turned his hand, capturing Daniel’s, and tugged him from the narrow hideout. Neither of them mentioned the hand-holding, and Chaol reluctantly let go when they stepped outside.
“We reach the city today, right?” Daniel asked.
Chaol nodded. “Yes. Stay close.”
“And how far is the transformation thing beyond the city?”
“Another day’s walk at least, depending on how quickly we move. It’s near the Pit. ”
Stress lined Daniel’s face as his gaze turned toward the city spires looming ahead of them. “Okay.”
“Don’t worry, darkling,” Chaol said, throwing an arm around Daniel’s shoulders and pulling him into a walk, “I won’t let anything harm you.”
A thrill went through him when Daniel tucked himself against Chaol’s side like he was content to stay there, and the brush of his hand at Chaol’s lower back had warmth blooming in his chest. He was downright giddy over the human’s closeness, and he turned away to hide his pleased smile under the guise of watching their surroundings.
Their path eventually led them to a road made of smooth white bones. Daniel tilted his head back to stare up at the spires of Pandemonium as they approached, towering above them.
“Are those buildings? Like the skyscrapers on Earth?” he asked.
“Yes. They’re hollow, and many demons inhabit them. The first demons to reach sapience carved their homes out in there. One by one, networks and communities were built. We won’t be going in any of them.”
“Good, that’s good,” Daniel said faintly. “I’d rather not get caught inside something like that with no way out.”
The road took them over a bridge, and Daniel eyed the red river beneath them.
“You’ve heard of Styx, I take it?” Chaol asked.
“That’s the river Styx?”
“Yes. Look closer.” Chaol tugged him to the edge of the bridge. In the river below, human souls were visible, their faces pale and gaunt as the river guided them to the Pit.
Daniel’s face twisted with horror. “All those people…”
“Sinners, darkling,” Chaol reminded him. “All those people are exactly where they’re meant to be. Or, rather, they’re on their way.”
“What—What would happen if I fell in?”
Chaol’s fingers fisted in the fabric of Daniel’s shirt. “Don’t fall in.” He wasn’t sure, to be honest, and he didn’t want to find out. Daniel could be swept away, and Chaol might never find him again.
Daniel pressed closer, his arm cinching tight around Chaol’s back. “Okay.”
“Come on. It’s a long walk through the city, especially since I’m not taking you through the most heavily populated areas. We’ll hang near the outskirts. I don’t imagine you want to walk through the Inner Market.”
“Market? There’s a demon market?”
“There are several.” Chaol gestured to the road on the other side of the bridge, where many booths and stalls were set up on either side of the road. “This is the Outer Market. It’s never as crowded as the ones deeper inside the city. Actually…”
He pulled Daniel over to one of the stalls, manned by a bored looking rybboc.
Daniel’s eyes snagged on the volvuroth harnessed to the rybboc’s cart.
It had four slender legs and leathery black wings.
Its beaked snout turned toward them curiously, and its four eyes blinked in tandem at Daniel.
Drool gathered in the corners of its mouth and dripped from its beak, and Daniel inched away, pressing himself closer to Chaol.
“How much for this?” Chaol asked, plucking at a black cloak folded on the rybboc’s cart.
The rybboc’s wide, flat eyes landed on Daniel. “One human soul.”
“Fuck off, he’s not for sale.”
“He’s very bright,” the rybboc growled, leaning toward Daniel. “I bet he tastes spectacular.”
Chaol snarled. Digging in his pocket, he slammed a handful of black coins down on the booth and snatched up the cloak.
“Hey!” the rybboc protested.
Chaol snarled again, baring sharpened teeth as the color leached from his skin. The rybboc jerked away, grumbling as he scooped the coins into a beefy hand, and Chaol dragged Daniel down the street, ignoring the curious looks that followed them.
“Here, put this on,” he said, wrapping the cloak around Daniel’s body and lifting the hood to hide his face.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Daniel said.
“I did. The fabric is made from demon skin. It’ll help hide you.”
Daniel stiffened. “Demon skin?” he hissed.
“Don’t you humans wear the skin of animals?” Chaol asked, lifting the hood up a bit so he could meet Daniel’s eyes.
“Well—yeah. So this is like demon leather.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel’s lip curled. “Still sounds gross.”
Chaol laughed, pulling the hood back down. “You’ll survive.”
“Promise?” came the petulant response from beneath the hood.
Chaol wrapped his arm around Daniel’s shoulders. Now that Daniel had made it clear he didn’t mind, Chaol couldn’t seem to stop touching him. “I promise.”
They clung to each other as they walked amongst the shorter buildings on the outskirts of Pandemonium.
Chaol had no intention of letting him out of arm’s reach.
He meant it when he said he wouldn’t let Daniel out of his sight again, and he wouldn’t risk anyone getting too close and ripping Daniel away from him, either.
As long as other demons were nearby, Chaol didn’t want to let him go.
No, that wasn’t true. He didn’t want to let Daniel go even when they were the only ones around for miles. Touching Daniel felt like finding a puzzle piece he hadn’t known he was missing.
Daniel’s hood swung from side to side as he took everything in, and Chaol followed his gaze, trying to see it as the human did.
Most of the buildings were made of black stone.
Long ago, when the first demons had carved out the spires, they’d used the stones to create the buildings that surrounded them.
Streetlights fed with hellfire from beneath the ground lit the roads, and lanterns hung under awnings and in windows.
It wasn’t so different from a human town, Chaol thought, or what human towns might have been a few hundred years ago.
Demons had no electricity, but they had no need of it.
There was no indoor plumbing or running water, because those things weren’t necessary here.
Most of the demons here traversed the Pit, where the human souls were tortured.
It was some distance from the city—and not somewhere Chaol intended to take Daniel.
The horrors there would warp his mind, and the transformation would be bad enough.
He didn’t want Daniel to go insane before they reached the surface.
It was one reason most halflings didn’t really remember Hell.
Forgetting the worst of it was a survival mechanism. Chaol didn’t want that for Daniel.
“Is that a blacksmith?” Daniel asked lowly as they passed an awning with a scaly-skinned demon hammering a piece of black metal.
“It is. You can’t use any of those weapons, though.”
“Why not?”
“They’re infused with hellfire. They burn a human to touch. Demons use them in the Pit.”
Beneath his arm, Daniel shivered and pressed closer. Something akin to a purr escaped Chaol before he could bite it back, but if Daniel heard it, he didn’t react.
As promised, the leather cloak helped mask Daniel’s bright, human soul from demonic senses.
Any who got too close would recognize that he wasn’t demonic, but the streets here were quiet and the crowd sparse.
Chaol growled at anyone whose eyes lingered, and that was enough of a deterrent to keep curious demons from getting too close.
When a scream split the air, they both stiffened.
“I don’t suppose that’s a normal sound for the city?” Daniel asked.
“Not particularly.” They were too far from the Pit for that to be the cause.
Demons were emerging from the buildings around them, listening intently as the sounds of a fight nearby rose in volume.
More screams and shouts filled the air, and from an adjoining street up ahead, demons streamed into view.
Their faces were wild with terror, and they ran in all directions.
Above, flying demons burst into the air like birds startled from their perch.
Chaol grabbed Daniel’s hand. “Come on.” They would have to pass that street, but if they could get through the crowd, they’d be home free.
Daniel stayed close as they ran into the fray. No one paid him any attention now, too busy fleeing from whatever was happening on the next street over to even notice the human in their midst.
Chaol could see a break in the crowd up ahead when something crashed through the building beside them, sending shattered stone into the crowd.
A chunk of rock half his size slammed into him, ripping his hand from Daniel’s, and everything went dark as he fell, rolling and skidding across the bone-cobbled road.
“Chaol!” Daniel screamed, but Chaol couldn’t see him. He couldn’t see anything.