Chapter 38
VALEEN
S tanding in front of the door in the middle of this eerie dark wood made her skin feel like spiders crawled all over her.
There was no mistaking that they were followed.
By what? She wasn’t sure. Pairs of red eyes glowed among the blackened foliage all around them.
Popping up out of the bog were yellow eyes connected to any manner of creatures below the surface.
Serpents slithered in the branches of the trees above their heads.
The door was anchored to the ground but nothing else supported it.
On the other side was more of this seemingly endless dark realm.
The sooner they got out of here, the better.
Distant wailing came from inside of the horrible door with terrifying faces in it.
It was essentially a portal to the next realm of the dead.
Something behind it screamed. Valeen gripped Soulender tighter.
The golden blade gave her comfort. It had shined with a light she’d never seen before when those creatures attacked them under the water.
The skin along the nape of her neck prickled.
It felt wrong here, heavy, dark, and even if she was queen of the night, there weren’t stars in the sky and no moons to speak of.
This wasn’t a peaceful night where she could marvel at the heavens.
Even the goddess of night wished for sunshine sometimes.
“Don’t you think it’s strange we haven’t been attacked again?” Varlett whispered, glancing behind her. “I can feel their presence, and I know we’re being hunted, but why don’t they move in?”
“Maybe you haven’t been attacked,” Hel grumbled.
“Aside from when you took the key.”
“It’s probably the ring you wear.” Valeen nodded toward it. “Or they’re afraid of a weapon created by the gods.” She tapped her golden sword against her opposite shoulder. They should be terrified of it, and if they tried anything, they’d find out why.
“They no longer have a prince on this level to command them.” Hel keenly watched the inky darkness around them. “Demon creatures need a master. It’s what they were created for.”
“I’m surprised one of the other princes hasn’t come then,” Varlett said.
The door to the next demon prince’s realm was unlocked but Hel hadn’t pushed it open yet. With his palm pressed against it, he glanced back, garnet eyes flicking between them. “They don’t know we’re here, but they will soon enough.”
A few beats passed and Varlett cleared her throat. “Are you going to open it?”
“The door feels cold. Very cold.”
“So we have to wait until you’re dry.” Varlett turned away and started walking into the shadowy forest. “I’ll find some branches and make a fire.” Her figure disappeared into the umbra.
Valeen lowered her voice. “There’s something she isn’t telling us. I can feel it. She doesn’t move like someone who is ill even if she looks terrible.”
“It could be a curse of some kind, like the pale one curse, and we can’t risk something happening to you. I hate that we have to protect her, but we do, as if it was you.”
“When you fought with her at Castle Dredwich, every strike, every cut affected me instantly. I felt her stub her toe the other day. Why isn’t this?”
“I don’t know.”
Valeen shook her head and started pacing. “Maybe the link between us only responds to physical harm. Maybe whatever is happening to her, isn’t harming her.”
His brows furrowed and he stared into the darkness she’d disappeared into. “What if it’s turning her into… something else.”
One look was all it took to decide they were foolish to let her wander off. Together they ran. The creeping sounds in the bushes and the snapping and popping of hidden creatures seemed louder. Valeen ducked under a thick branch and weaved around protruding roots until she slid to a stop.
Varlett sauntered her way with a stack of branches in her arms. “What are you looking at?”
“You’re… still here.”
“Well, where else am I going to go?” she drawled. “I can’t open the door out of the underrealm without one of you. I’m not a goddess.”
Time seemed to pass slowly, with the wailing like nails scraping on glass, the heavy breathing from unseen things, and the feeling of doom like a weight pressing in.
Valeen took her boots off and placed them close to the fire.
Her armor kept the moisture in her clothes but taking it off put her at risk, and yet without her magic, she didn’t know if they’d survive this place.
Reluctantly she removed her Raven armor and hung each piece on branches near the fire.
Hel took his shirt off and stood only in his pants.
The strange light seemed to make Hel’s tattoos shift and move.
The lily mark on his chest almost appeared to bloom.
It was eerie what tricks of the shadows could do.
He rolled his neck side to side and then turned his backside to the fire, and that’s when she noticed the dark streaks spreading out from the bite on his neck.
What is that? Her stomach dropped and she grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to turn fully toward the firelight.
“What’s wrong?” He glanced back at her.
“Kneel down so I can get a better look at this.”
He dropped to one knee and rested his elbow on his thigh. “I can think of better things I’d like to do from my knees.”
“So can I.” The light hit his back fully, and she clenched her teeth.
The ebony streaks like webbing on broken glass had spread almost to the middle of his shoulder blades.
This was bad. She’d never seen anything like it.
Obviously getting bitten by something that was dead was going to have consequences.
Hel was just too stubborn to admit it. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’d rather be fucking you on a beach somewhere.”
Now is not the time for your blasé attitude. “I’m serious.”
Varlett choked out a laugh, and they both looked at her. “I’m surprised you’re not blushing and berating him for his dirty mouth, Val.”
She slowly rolled her eyes to Varlett and scowled at her. This dragon seriously needed to die. “You don’t know me, Varlett, and you certainly don’t know anything about our sex life.”
“He told me all about you. How you lay like a dead fish, too proper to make a sound when he’s railing you. How he wished you’d suck him off once in a while, but you never did.”
Anger flushed her cheeks, and she accidentally dug her nails into Hel’s shoulder, until he said, Put the claws elsewhere. I never said that.
Of course he didn’t. It was just more of Varlett’s lies and manipulation to try to drive a wedge between them again.
She knew Hel wouldn’t have said that even if he’d been angry with her.
Mostly because it simply wasn’t true. They had chemistry she’d never felt with anyone else, and it showed when they made love.
Hel pushed up and staggered slightly, shoving a finger at her. “First of all, I’ve never said a damn word about her to you.”
Valeen held onto his arm. It was only her grip on him that kept him from falling over. The creatures around them, and Varlett shouldn’t see him so weak. All Mother, if the princes showed up now… You need to sit down and rest for a moment.
“Second, if I did say anything, it would be that she is the sunrise after a long dark night, and the reason that I still wake up each day. She is my heart, the only one I have, and if you say another disrespectful thing about her, Varlett, I will invade your mind and turn you into my puppet on a string to dance for the demon princes forever.”
Protective Hel certainly knew how to make her feel wanted.
“In your state you couldn’t touch my mind,” Varlett sneered.
“Want to find out?” He challenged.
Hel, now is not the time. You could hurt her more than you mean to and I don’t know what that means for me. She stepped behind him and touched the outside of the bite mark; his skin was flaming hot. “Hel, how do you truly feel? Don’t you dare lie to me.”
“I’m a little dizzy,” he murmured.
If he admitted that, he was more than a little dizzy. He’d downplay it.
“Are you ready to ask for my help?” Varlett twirled a lock of her silvery hair around her finger.
“I’d rather die,” he snarled at her, then one of his knees buckled.
“Hel!” Valeen wrapped her arms around him from behind, but his weight pulled her with him to the ground.
He was on his hands and knees, breathing hard, heart pounding. Promise me you will not let her anywhere near me with that demon’s ring. You must not trust her. You understand? You don’t know what she could truly do with that kind of magic.
She knelt and took his face in between her palms. He was too warm. I won’t watch you die.
I wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t important.
His half-closed eyes and blown pupils sent her pulse racing.
“Hel, we have to do something .” She still couldn’t feel her magic; it was like a spark between flint and rock that just wouldn’t catch flame, and it made her sick.
Did that pool shut off their powers until they left this realm?
She’d racked her brain on what to do but came up with nothing.
Without magic to heal him, all she could do was wait.
Hel’s rough hands slid along her neck and up into her hair.
“I am already prone to wickedness. I’m not a good person.
If I’m touched by demon’s magic—” he went back to speaking to her mind, I don’t know what it will do to me.
I don’t know who I could become… who she could turn me into.
His eyes were glassy, and his cheeks flushed from fever.
“I will survive this bite. My body is pushing out the venom. I can feel it. Trust me. Please.”
“You are better than you believe you are,” she whispered.
“No, I am not.”
She kissed him hard on the mouth. “Yes, you are.” Your serpent’s bite doesn’t scare me .
He managed to half-smile. “Don’t let her touch me no matter what happens. Promise me.”