Chapter 33
Natural light faded into gloomy dark as she hurled herself deeper into the cave.
Eventually, an enormous wrought iron gate appeared, and two small familiar creatures paced in front of it.
Crusher was nowhere to be found, but her siblings sat down staunchly at Elysia’s approach, tilting their heads in question.
Crusher trailed her constantly when she was in the death realm.
The little dog even slept in her room now, but these two remained Aidan’s shadows.
Tiny growled in the back of his throat, his tan fur bristling along his spine and little pointed teeth showing.
Brutus didn’t bother growling. He instead galloped over, headbutting her legs as if he could move her backward.
Hands on her hips, she pulled out her Georgia Parker voice, chastising them both. “Am I not to be Aidan’s counterpart? Do I not have access to this place?”
Brutus paused, his enormous eyes suddenly uncertain, but Tiny snarled, making ungodly noises as he grew bigger. Thanks to Crusher, she wasn’t caught off guard and recognized he hadn’t grown to even a quarter of his full size. Her gaze narrowed.
“Your threats are empty. You wouldn’t dare harm me.” She skated around Brutus and walked right up to Tiny. “I’m going through this gate, and if you have a problem with it, then go get Aidan and tell him if he had communicated better, I wouldn’t be busting into his wretched prison.”
Tiny gave one more low growl and disappeared, likely off to rat her out, but that was fine.
She only needed a few minutes. The massive gate boasted thick iron bars with little space in between.
Functional, it hadn’t been made to be beautiful.
She touched a brown splotch on one of the bars, her face twisting when she realized it was old, flaking blood, but then the bars hummed.
Stopping, she experimentally wrapped both hands around the bars, and the humming grew louder.
There was an ear-splitting creak as the gate lurched open.
She glanced back to where Grim was approaching. “Are you coming?”
There was a tearing sound, and then wings the same smooth brown as the rest of his skin emerged with lighter markings near the ridges of his bones. He stalked past Elysia into the prison.
“If I grab you, don’t fight me.” Tension radiated off the reaper. Wisely, she slipped through the gate, jumping when it locked shut with a clang, and didn’t argue.
“Understood,” she murmured.
The river reappeared and she stared at it in consternation. Hadn’t the river ended?
Grim flicked his gaze from her to the boiling river. “All the rivers are sentient. They can move and appear as they will. That’s how Aidan called the river to the throne room the day you made your deal. They listen to him occasionally.”
She gave the river a little wider berth. “You’re saying the river could decide to boil us?”
Grim gave her a look that finally sent the smallest sliver of guilt shooting through her. “It’s a prison for the worst people ever to grace the godsdamn realms. Mortals, gods, and everything in between.”
Squinting, she quickened her pace as they came to a split in the path.
“This way.” She turned to the right. The ominous minor chords echoing in her mind did nothing to ease the tension in her body as they hurried through the dark with strange moans and scraping sounds traveling out of the dark.
“It’s just a little further,” she said only to stop abruptly, Grim slamming into her back.
Maya had chosen the first cell, which could have been a kindness…if it hadn’t been a cell in a magical prison for demons that looked like that. She took a tentative step closer to the cell, and Grim swore as he realized what was happening.
“Listen, Aidan would rather read you every single page of that ledger aloud than have you take another step.”
That was probably true. She stood at the rusted bars now, staring at the humanoid creature huddled in the back.
Gray skin and yellowed eyes, she’d never seen anything like it.
Its limbs were longer than a human’s with hands and feet more like that of a rabbit’s.
Between the limbs, feet, and protruding curve of its spine, she imagined it could lope and jump in a manner that would be enough to give her nightmares.
Yellow eyes glommed onto her frame, and she stilled. It was practically skin and bones. Maybe it was weak. Maybe she could just grab the ledger and walk out.
“Elysia, I’m counting to three, and then I’m fucking taking you out of here like a toddler over my back. He’ll kill us both if anything happens to you. And by us, I mean me.”
“Okay, okay,” she relented.
He was right. Whatever that creature was, she didn’t feel like getting eaten by it today.
If nothing else, at least she had likely made Aidan piss himself when Tiny delivered the news of where she was right now.
She wrapped her fingers around the bars, peering in closer to look at the ledger.
She wanted to know exactly which of his ledgers Maya had stuck in there.
“Number fifty-five,” she muttered, but her words turned into a yelp as the bars hummed and disappeared. Suddenly leaning on nothing, she crashed through the open air into the cell.
Frantically, she scrambled upright, shoving backward, but the formerly motionless creature had pinned her in one silent bound, its long curved black nails scoring into her throat and yellow eyes trailing over her.
Off to the side, there was sizzling as Grim shook the bars and cursed.
The demon held her gaze, leaving her frozen and terrified as its rancid breath billowed out over her face.
Inside her mind, she screamed at herself to grab her dagger, but her arms wouldn’t move.
Nothing would move. I’m paralyzed. Fear claimed her, her gaze still stuck on yellow eyes. She was going to die here.
All at once everything went dark as a soot-drenched sky.
There was a sharp slice down her throat as the creature was ripped away, her head lolling now that nothing held it in place.
A terrible wet sound squelched too close to her ear, bones crunching as it slammed into the cell.
Unable to move, she watched the demon slide down the wall, motionless as its blood splattered out around it.
White button-down speckled in gore, Aidan didn’t waste a second glance at the disposed-of creature.
He shoved his hands beneath her body, stopping only to reopen the cell and the enormous barred iron gate.
Still paralyzed, she stared at his bloodied face.
His normally bright blue eyes burned darkly, and his pale face was chiseled into an unreadable mask.
Once outside of the cave, Aidan stopped his heavy, purposeful walk, and traveled them both into the infirmary. Her body buzzed uncomfortably, pins and needles poking her as sensation returned. Setting her on a clean table, Aidan held her upright.
“Can you sit?” Voice gruff and angry, his eyes blazed as he waited for her to answer.
She forced a nod. Fuck. He was incredibly pissed this time.
Walking over to a sink, Aidan rolled his sleeves even higher and roughly scrubbed his skin clean.
He returned, carrying small white cotton pads and a liquid solution.
Aidan soaked a cotton pad before meticulously cleaning the gouges the creature had left behind.
Thumb on the base of her neck, the rest of his fingers held her firmly, guiding her movements as he searched for any other wounds.
Silently, she allowed him to hover, her heart rate slowing to normal as he examined her.
Relenting, he pulled back, squeezing her shoulders as he stared into her brown eyes, emotions flitting through his.
Drawing away, he backed into the table opposite the one she sat on, leaning against it with his hands pressed to its edge. Wordlessly, he shook his head, looking off and away from her.
“Aidan,” she tried, but he waved a hand, his brow creased and mouth drawn.
Unbuttoning his bloodied shirt, he removed it, casting it aside on the table before folding his arms. The blood had soaked through to his undershirt, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“What happened with the fates?” She blurted out the words anxiously, but she didn’t wait for him to answer.
“You’re right, okay? We do need to tell each other what’s going on, and I don’t blame you for not telling me everything immediately.
Or at least, I get that you didn’t at first, but I think we’re past the point where that’s going to work.
You need to tell me everything. The fates, the ledgers, all of it. ”
Aidan nodded, but he didn’t look pleased about it. “Are you well enough to go out?”
Perplexed, her voice lifted in question. “Yes?” The paralysis had quickly worn off, leaving her fine though shaken up.
His shoulders turned inward as he put his hands in his pockets. “Then clean up and meet me at the front door.”
Elysia had never bathed so fast in her life.
Scrubbed clean with wet, wavy hair, she beat him to the foyer.
She’d thrown on the first thing she could find, and now the longer she stood there waiting, the more concerned she became that the dress had been the wrong choice over the functional trousers and sweaters she’d been wearing lately.
Burgundy silk crisscrossed and draped her upper body, flowing out into fluttering sleeves and gentling around her legs.
It was the kind of dress she would have worn dancing in Kava—not that she’d ever gone, though she’d wanted to.
She’d always been envious of the people spilling out of Shakes, the dance hall Remy and Daphne had talked about countless times.
Topp had said he’d rather stab himself than get caught there.