Chapter 36
It’s been a few days since that extremely embarrassing moment of crying on Kayn.
He forced me to talk about it, and I did.
I’d never been touched like that—ever—even before I was scarred and marred the way I am now.
No one’s hands have ever felt safer than his, and the conversation I’d had with Vendra not even an hour earlier had already crushed my heart.
I fell apart because she’s absolutely right: I won’t be able to go through with it. I’m not going to be able to let him go. Maybe that makes me weak, but how could anyone actually walk away from Kayn Butcher?
He may be full of himself, but he’s so fucking perfect. Whatever God wrote him favored him—and me, I suppose, since he actually likes me.
We’ve spent this time in and out of different vehicles that still had gas, but as we suspected, once we got a few hours into Demour, everything was desolate.
I ate whatever plants or sealed food containers we found, which somehow was enough for me.
We had a few run-ins with Necroth, but most didn’t pay us any mind, and the ones that did lost their heads within seconds to Kayn.
My brute is not fucking around with my safety, and I truly appreciate that. It shows me just how much he cares, not that I really need to see it. I can feel it every second.
Ever since that moment in the truck, any time we stop he’s got his hands all over me. Whether it’s to fuck me, feed from me, or just touch me.
But, as much as he says he doesn’t care, I haven’t been able to shower since that truck stop so I’ve slowly pushed him away. The water may not harm me, but it’s counterintuitive. It’s not clean, so there’s really no point in trying.
What’s a bit of dirt, anyway, considering I’m now standing here looking out at what was once called the Atlantic Ocean. Now it’s forgotten. Only known as the Yulux Passage, named after the lone soul, Amand Yulux, who attempted to reach Old Hearth and never returned.
“I can slightly see the silhouette of Old Hearth from here.” It’s the dead of night, but of course he can see that far.
We’re on an island that broke off from the mainland—barely clinging to the continent by what used to be a bridge—called Atoll.
It maybe spans a few miles in each direction, and there isn’t much here besides a few rolling hills and collapsed buildings.
There weren’t any Necroth, nor any wildlife at all.
I think the only creatures that can survive are those in the reptilian family.
I’m pretty sure I saw a few snakes on our way in.
“Honestly never thought I’d be here,” he says, coming to stand right beside me, his arm snaking over my shoulders and curling around my neck.
I sigh. “Me neither. But we’re here now, and I’m ready.”
However, I’d be a lying Witch if I didn’t say I was nervous as fuck.
This is nothing like opening the passageway to the Vayl.
That’s a singular channel. One way in, one way out.
But the Beyond… it’s so different. It spans dimensions, worlds, and I’ve even heard timelines.
Once I’m in there, I’m completely disconnected from this world and from my God, which will make me merely Mundane.
My spell should stay on Kayn, but just barely—enough to get him through the threshold—and hopefully whoever he’s looking for will sense him.
There are so many unanswered questions, and I’m starting to feel just as crazy as this plan always sounded.
His hand catches my chin and tilts my face up toward him.
“Thank you, Amarah.”
I frown. “For what?”
“Doing this for me.”
My heart swells, heat blooming through my chest.
“Put aside the blood binding. I don’t care if you have to. To me, you don’t. In my eyes, you’re doing this because you care about me. And about getting Luce back.”
He’s right. If we weren’t bound, I’d still go to the Beyond and back for him. Maybe that makes me the idiot, but… that’s okay. I’ll be his idiot.
“So, thank you.”
My smile is bright as I nod. “Anything I can do to help get you back to him.”
He hums, leans in, and kisses me tenderly. When he pulls back, his thumb drags along my lips and down my throat, touching every bit of skin he can reach.
“What do you need from me?”
I let out a long breath. “In the most respectful way possible…”
“Great.” He chuckles.
“…don’t be in my way. And, as painful as this will be for both of us, don’t touch me until we get through.”
I can feel his instinct to argue, but he only nods, leans in for one more kiss, and then steps back. “As you command, my little slayer.”
He gives me a wide berth, and I turn my back to him. The sea fills my view, and for a moment I let the darkness of the scene wash over me.
“Be vigilant in there. Be safe… Things from the Beyond can kill you, regardless of the Hex.”
“I wasn’t aware of that…” I wonder if I could’ve summoned another Demon to end my life before I was captured. There really isn’t any point in wondering about that now, but the thought lingers for a few seconds until Vendra responds.
“Belial and his creatures bypass most Hex laws created on Earth. Nocthariel was constructed by Hexborn, not by Yldarwrights or my Magic.”
“I see. Well, I don’t plan on engaging in any combat. Hopefully we will be in and out.”
“You better. Do not make me break our laws to come fetch you.”
I smile. Knowing that Vendra couldn’t do that doesn’t stop the feeling of protectiveness from flooding over me.
“Will do, Mom.”
“Cute, Amarah. Good luck, and see you all soon.”
The moment I no longer feel her in my mind, I close my eyes and cup my hands together in front of my chest. Silence swallows me whole. No pulse, no waves crashing against the jagged rocks ten feet below, no wind whistling across the barren wasteland.
“Per sanguinem et cinerem, per clamores damnatorum.”
Fire—nothing like Vendra’s gentle warmth—erupts in my chest. I grit my teeth, clenching against it. Her power usually feels like a summer breeze brushing my skin, but this… this is like being thrown into a living flame.
I swallow, and when I open my eyes, I see a crack in the world before me. It looks like one of my own scars, thin and jagged, but beyond it lies nothing but endless darkness.
“Mors pateat!”
“If you need to stop—”
I shove Kayn out of my mind before he can finish. I’ll have to remind him later that I am not a weak woman. Pain and I have been companions for years; I can take this.
“Pande porta Beyond!”
Static screams in my ears as a violent wind blasts across my face. The echo of iron gates creaking open is drowned out by the shriek of a monster I would’ve happily gone my whole life without seeing.
A black demonic hand bursts through the torn reality and clamps around my throat before I can react. The head of the Grimhorn peels itself out from behind the gates, hissing.
“You come to me this time?”
A scream claws at the edge of my throat, and I can swear I hear Kayn shouting for me. But before he can reach me, before I can even release the cry for help, I’m yanked through the gates and swallowed by the darkness.
A sharp pain registers in my shoulder and I know something’s broken. The unforgiving ground beneath me is cold. Nothing like Vendra’s soil I’d been standing on moments ago.
A heavy thump makes me jerk my gaze upward. The space around me is too bright, and he is far too dark.
Darkness, thick as smoke, coils around the Grimhorn as he steps over me and opens his mouth. The vile stench of decaying bodies rolls off him, making me tremble and slap a hand over my mouth.
His fingers stretch toward me, and a spear with a razor-pointed tip materializes out of thin air.
I throw my hand out, reaching for magic, Vendra’s energy, anything to channel… but there’s nothing.
“She will take back what you took.”
He pulled me into the Beyond, and as that realization settles over me, I know I’m not getting out of here. This is his domain, and I’m just a lost soul who was never meant to step foot in it.
He’s going to take me to her, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do to stop it.
“Kayn…” I whisper. “I’m sorry.”
Vendra, please save him.
As the Grimhorn rears its arm back, I decide I won’t close my eyes. If this is how I go, then so be it. I’ll face it. I won’t cower.
But the moment the Grimhorn thrusts its hand forward, its entire body disintegrates before me.
Starting at its chest, it breaks apart into ash.
The decay crawls up its arm, and its shrieks rattle the hall, making the bright, luminescent lights flicker.
Within seconds, it’s nothing but drifting particles fluttering through the air.
“I’ve never seen one of those things,” a soft, female voice says.
I jolt upright, pushing myself to my knees. Pain spikes through my injured arm when I try to brace on it, but I don’t stop because I need to see where the voice came from.
And when I find her, my breath leaves my lungs. My heart stutters. I’ve never felt so instantly, overwhelmingly connected to someone in my life.
“V-Vendra?”
The woman—standing about fifteen feet away—tilts her head. Mid-length, curly red hair slips over her shoulder as she studies me with quiet confusion.
“Oh, no,” she says gently. “I think you may have the wrong person.”
Her voice is ethereal. And she looks exactly like my God is described. Bright red hair, crimson freckles sprinkled across her cheeks, eyes like arctic-blue bioluminescence. Beautiful—Gods, beautiful doesn’t even come close to describing her.
She’s dressed in strange clothes, nothing like anything I’ve ever seen. They look like something from a renaissance festival: a brown leather corset over a white undershirt that only highlights her hourglass figure more, tucked into tight black pants and finished with lace-up boots.
“Are you alright?” she asks, and I meet her gaze again.
“W-Who’re you?” I try to stand, but pain shoots through my hip. It feels like it took the brunt of my fall.
“I should be asking you that. You aren’t meant to be here either, just like that creature.” There’s no malice in her voice; she even gives me a soft, stunning smile. “Am I okay to come to you? I promise not to obliterate you the way I did that… thing.”
My breath catches. “You did that?”
She giggles. “Who else would’ve?”
Only then do I notice the open door to her right. And when I glance around, I realize there are several of them, although closed, lining this impossibly white hallway. Each one is labeled, though my mind can’t focus long enough to read them.
“Be good,” she says through the open doorway. “I’ll bring your friends next time.” I have no idea who she’s talking to.
She closes the door and strides toward me. I don’t flinch but I do force myself, through the pain, to a standing position. I can’t have her towering over me. She just annihilated a Grimhorn—something supposedly impossible to kill.
When she reaches me, I have to tilt my head down slightly to meet her eyes. She’s shorter than I expected. She looks so fragile, so… delicate.
“I think you’re lost.” Her hand reaches for my arm, and I jerk away on instinct.
“Don’t worry,” she says gently. “Your shoulder’s dislocated.
And I think your hip might be, too.” A bright lavender and gold glow spreads across her hand.
As it hovers near my collarbone, warmth vibrates through my skin.
“Luckily, we seem to have the same basic human structure. Healing you should be simple.”
“Who… okay, where am I?” Maybe this isn’t the Beyond. But if not… where the Beyond did that Grimhorn take me?
“This place is simply the Expressway…” She pauses, tilting her head slightly as if listening to something I can’t hear. I scan the hallway, but there’s nothing. “Interesting. Well, it’s safe to tell you the truth. You’re in a different dimension—”
I swear my heart stops.
“—but don’t worry,” she adds quickly, offering another kind smile. “I’ll send you home.”
I jerk my head behind me, seeing nothing but a long, endless hallway of doors, before looking back at the girl.
“May I know your name?” For the first time, I feel terrible I can’t give it to her.
“I’m sorry. Where I’m from, I’m not able to utter my name aloud.”
“Can you use the Gods link?” Hearing her voice through the same connection as Vendra has me taking a step back. It’s in this moment I feel no pain in my bones, and like my body’s been… revitalized. Instinctively, I draw my hand up to my nose and feel the scar across it. “Maybe not.”
“No, I can hear you. But how?”
That smile of hers never falters. “We both have connections to the Gods, it would seem. Can you tell me your name here?”
I nod. “Amarah.”
“Beautiful name.”
My chest feels heavy when I ask, “And yours?”
Her head tilts, and when she looks behind me briefly, then comes back to me, she says, “My name is Azahara. It’s nice to meet you, Amarah.”