Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Hack
“Remind me why we’re not going at demonic high speeds to get to your chosen?” Slash is like a fucking toddler on a road trip, repeating his own version of are we there yet? until I feel the need to punch him in the throat, which would do nothing but encourage him to continue busting my balls.
“I’m still getting used to this jacked up version of my bond with Sage. I’m not in control of it and I don’t want to waste time hopping all over the fucking place to no avail.”
He grunts, still not convinced, but it’s not his call and he needs to shut the fuck up about it.
“Well, at least we’ve got a great view while we walk across the hippie lands of Narythia.” My foot accidentally—on purpose—clips Slash’s ankle just as he takes a step. He doesn’t fall but his sudden loss of balance drops his sex appeal a few notches.
“Asshole move but you can’t take a demon down.” He corrects his misstep with a weird jump and a spin like he’s inherited Michael Jackson’s soul.
“Keep your dick in your pants. I don’t need you to piss off the females that answer directly to Hekate.” My voice is low in hopes that the Valkyrie, who are walking a few feet in front of us, won’t hear.
“I would never do that.” He side-eyes me like my accusation is outrageous.
It’s not and he knows it. The number of times he’s put me in a delicate situation because his libido is like wildfire during a drought is outrageous. This time, though, it’s literally a matter of life or death, and if that means he has to find another solution to his overactive sex drive, so be it.
“Just fucking behave is all I’m saying.” This time, I give him a shoulder check, at which point he clips me over the head, and soon enough we’re reduced to teenage antics with play fighting and locker room insults.
Slay walks right between us and smacks us both on the temples without missing a single step. “Grow the fuck up. We’ve got a mission.”
Slash throws me a cocky smirk and I wait for Slay to be far enough away before I hook my arm around Slash’s throat and rub the top of his tressed up head with my knuckles.
It seems silly and completely at odds with the seriousness of my fate, but our moments of tension need to be balanced out with the release of some steam and this is my way of avoiding the mass killing of kyn.
Which would be a very bad idea. We may be Samhain’s protégés, but one too many fuck-ups and we won’t see the light of day for a century or three.
“Is this usual behavior for the demon liege?” the valkyrie, Sashayne, with her thick dark-blonde braid running right down her back, asks Pierce, prompting Slash and I to look at each other and grin like fucking idiots.
“Every family has those members you wish you could snuff out in their sleep.” Pierce looks over his shoulder at us then shakes his head. “‘Till you realize you’ll just end up missing them. It’s a damned if you do thing.”
“Yeah, we have one, or ten, of those too.” Sashayne looks over at her sister who’s on the phone, too far for anyone to hear her speaking, and shrugs. “Lathuneh’s heart is big and she loves even bigger. Unfortunately, it opens the door for pain all too often.”
Like a collective of bobbleheads, we all turn to look at Lathuneh. I get it, it’s not difficult to empathize with someone who has so much love to give that even through heartbreak, she continues to put herself on the line.
The only difference between us is that I keep getting my heart broken by the same woman in different lives.
Not this time though.
“Don’t get it. Why would you set yourself up like that when you can get all the pleasure without the pain?” Slash leans his forearm on my shoulder with a grin that tells me he’s about to say something I don’t need to hear. “Unless, of course, it’s the good kind of pain, then I’m all for it.”
Yup, there it is.
“We really don’t need to know about your kinks this early in the fucking morning.” I’m about to push him off me when movement catches my eye; a fishtail sinking back into the water.
We’re in the land of the nauticals so we’ve got kyn above and below ground, something or someone is always watching us because they have trust issues with visitors.
All around us, there’s a mixture of medieval timber-framed hall houses, typical of the British countryside, bonsai trees growing in every corner, and the Viking-style ships leisurely floating down the plethora of rivers in this part of Ryetoh.
The nauticals have a way of influencing the landscape and technologies around the Earth.
It’s a well-known fact for us but the anthros all think they’re the ones with the imagination.
Here, the selkie live half their time in the water but also in these homes.
The mermaids have their homes on land with pools that connect directly with their water sources—rivers, lakes, seas.
The sirens are the only ones who spend all their time in the water, singing and causing mayhem when they want to, here and on Earth.
Just ask Odysseus and how well that worked out for him.
“I’ve never fucked a siren,” Slash announces, and fuck me, I can’t take him anywhere.
“Good, that means we won’t find any hostiles while we’re here,” Pierce calls back, winking at us.
I’m not that optimistic.
“I dunno, mermaids tend to hold grudges.” Slash shrugs like this is all normal. It’s the case only for him.
My chest constricts just as we’re walking along the shores facing the Thousand Island Sea and the undeniable pull gets so strong it overtakes everything else.
We’d come here, to Narythia, thinking this was the right direction, but my bond is a living, breathing thing and it’s telling me we need to change course.
“What’s wrong, demon?” Elysia, the elder liege and leader of the valkyrie trio, senses my sudden change in mood and demeanor.
“We’re not in the right place. We need to…” I turn in a circle, waiting for the pull to give me guidance. Turning south-east from where we stand, I feel it. Like a rope tugging at my heart, it pulls me toward the land of the spirits with a panicked insistence. “Faloria. She’s in Faloria.”
Without question or complaint, everyone makes a U-turn and follows my now-determined steps. Something happened, a kind of opening heightened everything. My bond is strong but something was muting it, despite the magnetic draw between our souls ever since Hekate did her magic.
I can feel Sage like a presence right next to me. I don’t know what made it all so clear but I’m thankful for it.
“There’s a portal about two-hundred troll feet away.” Elysia points west and I nod.
“Summon the horses, you all can have the valkyrie ride with you. I need to save time in case the pull gets muted again.” As soon as I throw out the request—order—we’re all riding our demon horses and heading at crazy speeds to the portal.
Once we cross over the border to Faloria, we are greeted by jokester djinn and free-flowing banshees screaming their heads off with little provocation.
It’s not my favorite land in Ryetoh because I hate unpredictable kyn, and harpies and wendigos aren’t always reliable.
The only spirits I can trust are the totems who are always willing to help when summoned, taking on the form of whatever animal they possess. Sadly, they’re a rare kyn.
With my mind, I tell my brothers that we’re continuing on horseback as we ride up and down the hills of various shades of green and pastel flowers and trees. It’s a pretty territory, hiding the mischievous and unpredictable temperament of its inhabitants.
I bring Cirrus to sudden halt as we arrive at a cave that seems to go deep, deep into the mountain.
“I can feel her. She’s here. Or…” I’m assaulted by a deep sense of longing inside my chest, making me scream loud enough to echo through the mountains, hills, and countrysides. Birds and spirits spring out from beneath the canopy of the trees, escaping the agonized sound of my cries.
We all advance as a unit, finding smaller caves carved inside the mountain.
Some look natural, others are too deliberate to be nature’s work, especially with the steel bars welded into the rock.
Slay walks far ahead of us as the valkyrie check out every last mini cave, searching for clues.
Pierce and Slash are guarding the main entrance in case we have unwanted guests.
“Fuck.” Slay’s curse gets my undivided attention.
“What?” I push my way inside, afraid I’m too fucking late, but as I check my bond, I realize she’s still there, strong in my heart. She’s not dead. There’s still time.
Slay picks up the quartz stone I’d given Sage all those weeks ago.
“Was this hers?” I’d given her that crystal just before she died. He has no way of knowing so I nod, gritting my teeth.
Instead of feeling sadness and despair, my blood boils with rage. No fucking way Sage would have left this behind. Not a chance. Which means it was either ripped away from her or she was taken so suddenly by her kidnapper that she dropped it. Either way, that asshole will be the first to pay.
I take the offered crystal and place it in the pocket closest to my heart, ready to give it back to my chosen as soon as I see her.
And it will be fucking soon.
The emotional rollercoaster I’ve been on these last few weeks—hell, these last few centuries if I’m honest—is taking everything I have to give.
My mental space is filled with only Sage, our bond, and my need to find her and keep her safe for eternity.
It’s a tall order but it needs to happen and it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
That undeniable pull I felt earlier in Narythia is back again, this time forcing my body to turn toward the northeast and feeling like the distance is greater than before.
“Where to?” To my right, the valkyrie who spends half her time on the phone, no doubt falling in love, understands that I’ve felt the pull again.