18. Willow
Willow
Today is the day. I've felt it since the moment I woke, a heavy weight sitting in the pit of my stomach, warning of the dangers to come.
Dagny and her mates will be back today, and they will carry our fate with them.
Either they convinced the southern king to help us, or they failed.
And all we can do is wait for an answer, hoping for the best.
I stand at the mouth of the cave with my three mates, looking out over the horizon. For a long while, there's nothing out there but empty gray sky. Then I see it. A huge mass of large, winged objects soaring through the clouds, growing larger by the second as they fly directly toward us.
"Are those…?”
"Demons." Dravik tenses beside me. "A lot of them."
As they get close, I can make out Dagny and her mates leading the pack, side by side with a demon I’ve never seen before. He flies close to her, matching her pace, so close it's clearly not the first time.
Beside me, Dravik's jaw tightens. "That must be the king."
"Must be," Nyx says. “Think we can trust him?”
“We’ll have to.” Dravik's hand finds mine, and he gives it a reassuring squeeze. “We will keep you safe, my heart.”
“Always,” Nyx and Rhune add at the same time.
I nod, letting out a breath to calm my nerves. The group is growing near, and within a few moments, they’ll be on us. I watch silently as hundreds of demon soldiers land at the base of the cliff, grouping close together before going eerily still.
Dagny and her six mates land in the cave, and behind them, a demon I don't recognize steps forward.
"This is Vhalthor," Dagny says. "King of the Southern Isles."
He's unlike any demon I've seen so far. Horn-like projections grow in clusters from his skull, down the back of his neck, and across his shoulders—almost like armor.
His wings are massive, the same mottled gray hue as the rest of his body, their tips ending in deadly claws.
His nose is thick and flat against his face, giving him a harder, more alien look than my mates, and he has no hair on his head or anywhere else on his body to speak of.
All of him is fascinating, but it’s his eyes that hold me. Almond-shaped pools of glowing silver that flicker with different hues as he gazes around the cavern. Red, then orange, followed by a burst of white when they finally land on me.
I step forward, pulling my shoulders back in an attempt to seem braver than I feel. “Hello, Vhalthor. My name is Willow.”
Vhalthor gazes down his nose, snorting a laugh. “You are tiny.” His voice is gravelly and impossibly deep, seeming to fill the whole cave. “The serafyn chose you to be its vessel?”
Okay. Rude. “I’m actually taller than average for humans, thank you very much. And I don’t like your tone.”
The demon regards me with a careful eye. He takes a deep breath, his nostrils flaring wide. “No fear at all. What a strange creature.”
Dravik growls, stepping in front of me to take a protective stance. “She has no reason to fear you. Or does she?” he asks, his voice lowering to a deadly pitch. “Do you mean to intimidate my mate, Vhalthor?”
He holds his palms up, defensive. “I meant no offense. My apologies…” He waits for Dravik to introduce himself.
Dravik snorts, reminding me a lot of his bull. “Dravik. Those are my brothers Nyx and Rhune. The one sitting in the corner is Cin.”
Vhalthor looks at Cin now, curious. “What is wrong with him?”
“We’re not sure,” Nyx says, carefully. “He’s been like that since the creatures crawled out of that pit.” His gaze narrows. “I’m assuming Dagny filled you in on everything.”
“She did.” Vhalthor gestures toward the base of the cliff. “Hence, why we have come to join Dagny and her mates on their suicide mission.”
“It won’t be a suicide mission now that you’re with us.” She cuts him a harsh glance. “We have the numbers. We can make it to the core.”
“Ah, yes. The core. Remind me—what are we supposed to do if we manage to make it?”
Dagny glances at me for the answers. I try to speak but can’t find the words. Truthfully, there are none I can offer.
“Exactly,” Vhalthor says. “We have no plan. No idea what we will find—if anything. It is still a foolish mission, and we are all going to die.”
“No one’s making you help us,” Dagny reminds him, her eyes narrowed in a glare. “If you want to back out, you are more than welcome to.”
“And miss out on all the fun?” His eyes light with a bloodthirsty sheen as a smile spreads across his face, revealing a set of sharp white teeth. “No. I have been bored for far too long. If the world is truly ending, I wish to go out with flair, not sitting like a lump in my fancy castle.”
Dagny rolls her eyes, muttering something about a crazy asshole under her breath.
She walks over and gives me a look, and I follow her deeper into the cave, away from the others.
“He’s really going to the core with us?” I whisper.
“Yep. We asked all of the southern kingdoms for help, and he was the only one who accepted. You saw the army fly in with us. The man is dead serious.”
“But… he’s only helping us because he wants to go out in a blaze of glory?”
“Basically.” Dagny shrugs a shoulder. “He’s crazy, but he’s all we got. It’s good enough for me.”
Based on the size of the army sitting at the base of the cliffs, it is for me, too.
“So… what do we do now?”
Dagny looks at me. “I was hoping you would know.”
“I mean…”
She lets out a breath. “Do you even know how to get to the core?”
“By the way you’re saying it, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like the answer.”
She pins me with a look. “Remember the room I showed you that used to hold the healing baths? The one with the pit that the creatures crawled out of?”
The blood drains from my face. “No…”
She just shrugs. “I told you it wouldn’t be a fun journey. There’s a reason no one travels to the core.”
I take a deep breath. “Okay… At the next sun flip, we should head back to your lair. We can catch our breath, then head inside.”
She nods. “I was thinking the same thing. Okay, we have a plan. Sort of.” She grins now, but it’s shaky. “Better than nothing.”
“Better than nothing…”
After relaying the plan to our mates, we settle into the furs to try to get some rest. My mates and I at one end of the room, Dagny and hers at the other.
Vhalthor opts to spend his last evening down at the base of the cliffs, huddled together with his soldiers.
Something about building character, I guess.
My mates crowd around me, and some of the tension bleeds out of my shoulders. Right here and now, nothing can hurt me. Here, huddled up with my mates, I can almost forget that the world is ending. I can almost convince myself that I’m not the reason it’s going to.
Tomorrow is the start of our journey to the core. Tomorrow, we face the horrors. But tonight, we hold each other tight. Tonight, there is just us, the love between us, and the sound of our racing hearts, beating in time as one.