Chapter 11
I wouldn’t have thought I’d be able to sleep after what happened with Kaito, but we were all exhausted and when Dante and Hendrik took over the watch, the four of us dropped into sleep almost immediately.
Logan, in his wolf form, nosed me awake, playfully nipping at my ear when I tried to bury my face and demand a few more minutes.
They gave me five more and then Hendrik hauled me out of bed, physically, while the others gave him a wide berth. Once I was awake enough to have any semblance of balance, I shoved him, then flipped him off. He handed over a cup of coffee and I promptly forgave him.
“Hey, where did the coffee come from?” Logan demanded.
“I only packed enough for Lily,” Hendrik said.
My heart melted a little more, because I could tell he meant it—he hadn’t even brought any for himself.
If my powers could be used for good, they most definitely could be used for coffee.
While I finished my drink, they broke the camp down.
There wasn’t much to it. Logan had been in charge of deciding what was needed and he’d made it clear that whenever possible, we’d find shelter in whatever way wouldn’t impact the environment while in the Enchanted Forest. He hadn’t mentioned Hell but I had to assume the environment in Hell, like just about everything else, had… well… gone to hell.
Since the cavern had provided nearly everything we’d needed for the camp, all we had to do was roll up the sleeping bags and make sure any trash we’d created was dealt with.
Logan gave the stag head a lingering look and I had to tug him out of the cave. “We are not taking that with us.”
“I’m just appreciating it,” he pointed out. Uni had leaped into his arms and now peered over Logan’s shoulder at the gruesome remains, almost as if he, too, was trying to get one final glimpse. “It’s not every day you see your baby take down a kill.”
With a roll of my eyes, I looked back over my shoulder while Dante worked to bind my wings.
“Everything feel okay?” he asked as he tugged one strap.
“If by okay, you mean confined and cramped, sure.” He circled around me and frowned. I made a face at him. “Nothing is too tight, okay? I just feel… confined. I don’t like it.”
“I understand.” He gave my bound wings a critical look. “I don’t like it either, but right now, it’s the logical choice.”
I pressed my lips into a thin line. If I bonded with Cole, perhaps the binding of my wings wouldn’t have been necessary. He couldn’t unlock my angelic side, but he called to it all the same.
He also definitely couldn’t be trusted, not while we narrowly kept one step ahead of his brother.
With a short nod in response to Dante, I kissed his cheek and moved to the center of our group. My mates all gathered around and waited for me.
“Let’s go,” I said, forcing a smile I didn’t feel.
Logan took the lead, guiding us to the tracks he’d mentioned last night. Just looking at them sent a shiver up my spine; blackened marks of a large male’s footprints. Even I could pick up on the lingering trail of powerful demonic magic emanating from them.
“How far do these go?” Kaito asked, his silver eyes flashing as he looked up to meet Logan’s.
“Not sure.” Logan’s mouth twisted. “I couldn’t follow it for too long.
Didn’t want to risk it.” He reached down and stroked Uni’s head, the small creature wiggling his nose as he stared at the tracks.
“Uni didn’t seem too inclined to follow them, either.
You guys need to see something else, too. Come on.”
We followed, Logan leading the way while my little Uni-Hare hopped along at his side.
It took maybe another ten minutes to reach whatever it was Logan wanted us to see.
The faint trail narrowed and we fell into a single-file line, Kaito behind Logan, then me, then Orion directly behind me and Dante and Hendrik bringing up the rear.
When the heavily forested terrain abruptly opened, I heaved out a sigh of relief.
For some reason, the closeness of the trees made me feel claustrophobic.
“There,” Logan said, pointing at a groove in the ground.
At first, I couldn’t understand what I was looking at. I knelt down so I could look at the oddity more closely.
“Am I seeing things or does this look like a hoof print? Like from an actual horse?” I traced my finger across one print that was more distinct than the others. A jolt of power raced up my arm and I sucked in a breath, yanking my hand back at the same time.
I half-fell on my ass, Logan catching me and helping me to my feet. When I looked into his eyes, I knew without asking that he’d done the same thing, had felt the same echo of power I had.
“What animal left those tracks?” I asked him softly.
“I don’t know.” He pointed downward. “Your new friend might, but I don’t think he can say.”
Uni hopped into the middle of one massive print and started grooming himself.
“Huh. Well, I guess whatever it is, that beast doesn’t freak Uni out.”
Uni chose that moment to look up at me and while I was no expert at reading bunny-like faces, it almost looked like he gave me an approving smile. But it was also possible I was losing my mind.
Crouching by the tracks, I held out my hands. “Come on, sweetie. We’ve got another long day in front of us.”
Uni hopped over and nuzzled my hand, but instead of letting me carry him, he took up position by Logan, then looked back at us impatiently.
“I think he wants to be in the front,” Kaito said, looking both amused and intrigued. “Logan?”
“Not a problem with me. He’s got excellent instincts.”
Well, it seemed my wolf had officially been whipped by a bunny.
We followed Uni into the forest, this time not coming across the same level of murderous flora and wildlife as the day before. Instead of relaxing, the whole thing made me feel uneasy.
We came across a stream and Uni paused at it, his little nose wiggling before he lapped at it.
Logan refilled our skins and we took a break, enjoying jerky strips that Dante had prepared.
After falling into conversation and enjoying a meal, the sense of dread grew in my chest.
Uni’s ears laid back flat and his horn glinted with power.
“Hey, Uni. Everything okay?”
He squeaked in alarm, so we gathered up our things and headed out.
Kaito and Logan started down a path, but Uni bolted ahead of us, stubbornly settling his fluffy butt in the middle of the path to glare at us.
“What’s the holdup?” Logan asked, kneeling to console the creature.
Uni snarled, flashed fang and swiped his deadly horn, scoring Logan across his leg.
My wolf yipped and backed away, his feelings likely hurt more than his leg.
“What the fuck is wrong with it?” Orion muttered.
“Everybody, stop,” Hendrik said, moving to the front of the group and eying the Uni-Hare.
Dante and Hendrik discussed the situation while I glanced at the canopy. A dark, ominous sensation crept up my spine, warning me that something was very wrong.
I took a step forward, stiffening when I heard the audible click.
Uh-oh.
“Get down!” Dante yelled, yanking a magicked blade from his belt as darkness cracked through the branches, bringing with it a deafening roar that rumbled in my chest.
The scent of blood and iron filled the air as Hendrik shot up a hand, working to fend off the worst of the darkness.
I scooped up Uni who squeaked in distress. His warning hadn’t been enough to keep us from triggering the demon-mine.
Now we had to survive it.
Kaito’s eyes blazed with ruby magic, his silver tattoo shimmering with heat and his horns glimmered as the darkness closed in all around us.
I knew that I should do something, but without Cole at my side, without my angelic Virtues, I was powerless against this form of Calamity that reveled in sin and madness.
Lucifer had succeeded in manipulating it for his own devices, at least for now.
I knew that toying with Calamity would come at a cost, one that we would all pay for, but for now it gave Lucifer the upper hand.
Orion blazed like a beacon, shimmering with golden light to keep us encased in the safety of a bubble as the demon-mine activated, roaring around us in a tempest of chaos. He wrapped his arms around me, his presence promising to keep me safe.
The world exploded all around us, the shockwave suctioning the air and making my ears pop.
The force sent Dante and Hendrik flinging into the trees. Logan, who’d shifted and sank his claws into the ground, opened his big maw in a wild, lupine grin.
Orion barely moved and in the safety of his arms, neither did I.
When it was finally over, leaning against Orion, I assessed the damage.
A massive crater charred the ground all around us, sucking the color from the emerald trees and dimming the otherwise cheerful glitter that seemed injected into every part of this realm.
“Okay, Lils.” Logan pushed himself up from the ground, transformed back into his human form, one that was very much naked. “Next time that little beast takes down a kill, if he wants a trophy, he gets it, even if I have to carry it on my back.”