Chapter 4 - ELLA
I shivered and folded my arms across my chest, trying to look braver than I felt. He probably saw straight through it, but it was all I had left. I couldn’t take it anymore. My nerves were shredded, my brain overloaded, and his shifting lightshow wasn’t helping.
“Who are you?” The words snapped out before I could think better of them. “And where the hell am I?”
His black eyes narrowed, as though I’d asked something stupid, but then his voice rolled low and certain, like every syllable was carved in stone.
“I am Zapharos.” His aura was crackling faint gold. “Praetor of War. You stand within Nox Eternum, the Dark Abyss that devours worlds.”
My throat went dry. He said it so casually, like it was an address, like Welcome to Hell, population: you.
“So it’s a black hole,” I whispered. “And I’m alive inside it.”
He didn’t correct me. Just went on, that terrible voice weaving a story I couldn’t quite hold onto. “The Mmuhr’Rhong breed here,” venom dripped from every consonant. “They claw at the veil, hungering for Auris Prime. Every battle, every death, every breath I take is to hold them back."
I tuned out; my heart was hammering too much. I was inside a freaking Black Hole. His words of war and fighting did nothing to reassure me. This was a nightmare of monsters with names I couldn’t even pronounce.
Half the words he threw at me might as well have been static.
Mamma Bangs? Noxertale? I couldn’t tell if it was the stupid translator chip—having this in my brain still freaked the hell out of me—or if he was just stringing together threats and curses in some alien tongue.
None of it made sense, and maybe that was the point. Keep the human off balance.
But it wasn’t his words that unsettled me most. It was the way his aura kept…
shifting. When the gold flared, he looked almost holy, like some avenging angel carved out of light, every edge of him sharp and impossible.
It made my breath catch, made me forget for a heartbeat that he’d just snarled at me like he wanted to break me in half.
But then the red bled through, streaks of molten fury crawling over his skin, and the angel disappeared. In its place stood something else entirely, something darker, more primal. A demon. A predator wrapped in flesh and fire.
And the black… good God, the black was the worst.
When those shadows tore through the light, everything inside me screamed Stay away. A very primal, very undeniable instinct told me nothing good came out of that color. That blackness wasn’t rage or power, it was hunger—a void pretending to be a man.
My head spun. I’d been kidnapped, sold, dumped on a dying world, and now, somehow, I was standing inside a Black Hole with a golden demon-soldier claiming me as his. What in God’s name had I gotten myself into?
It was all too much. I needed to think of something else, something… someone…
“Ed.” My chest squeezed tight. How could I have forgotten about him? “The others—where are they? I need to find them.”
Zapharos’ head cocked, those black eyes narrowing. “Others? What others?”
I stared at him. “The ninety-nine people who were with me. The Cryons sold us like cattle, and then—for whatever reason—the buyers dumped us on that planet.”
His aura pulsed faintly as he supplied the name for that world. “Rotodex.”
I threw my hands up, exasperated. “I don’t care what you call it. Planet, Rotodex, whatever—it doesn’t matter. What matters is they were there with me. A hundred of us. And I need to know if they survived.”
He studied me, his expression unreadable, then he shook his head once, slow and certain. “No one survives crossing into Nox Eternum. Not them. Not your Ed. Only us.”
My chest tightened. “But I’m here.”
His gaze sharpened. “Yes. And that, I cannot explain.”
“Well, maybe humans can,” I shot back, irritation sparking hotter than fear. “So can you help me find them?”
His lip curled, part snarl, part reluctant amusement. “You don’t even know where to begin.”
“Then I’ll figure it out.”
He sighed, the sound rough, like a growl dragged from his chest. “This is stupid.” He dragged a hand through his hair, muttering, “I should be at war, not chasing ghosts with a stubborn little Earthling.”
“Then don’t,” I snapped, heat rising in my cheeks. “I’ll manage on my own.”
He turned back, his aura flaring gray against the shadows. “You won’t last a breath without me. Whether you like it or not, you are mine to guard.”
Even though the words made my blood boil, some deep, traitorous part of me shivered at the way he said them.
“It’s dangerous,” he muttered under his breath, pacing like a storm on legs. “You have no idea what lurks here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, no kidding.” I bent my knees and bounced once. Twice. Then jumped harder, trying to launch myself upward. The ground refused to cooperate.
He stopped, blinked at me. “What in the Abyss are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out how this floating crap works!” I snapped, throwing my hands up. How had I done it in the first place? “Do I flap my arms? Do I think happy thoughts? Am I supposed to just… levitate?” To prove my point, I hopped again, harder this time, and nearly sprained my ankle.
He closed his eyes like a man about to pray for patience or commit murder. Maybe both. “Earthlings,” he growled, dragging in a breath through his teeth.
“Don’t you Earthling me,” I shot back, fists on my hips. “If you don’t want me hopping around like an idiot, maybe give me a clue.”
When he opened his eyes again, the black in them seemed to have lightened a bit; there were traces of glowing sparks, but I had no idea if that was good or bad. His jaw was still tight enough to break a stone. He extended a hand, palm up, fingers steady. “Come.”
I stared at it. At him. “That’s it? That’s your whole explanation?”
“Take it,” he ordered.
Something in his tone—low, absolute—sent a shiver through me.
Against my better judgment, I slid my hand into his, completely unprepared for the heat jolting up my arm like lightning, sharp and alive.
My breath caught, my eyes widened. His did too, though he masked it fast, his mouth flattening into a grim line.
And then we moved.
The jungle fell away in a blur of violet, and the ground vanished beneath my feet. My stomach lurched into my throat, but I wasn’t falling. I was—God, I didn’t even have words. Drifting, sliding, floating through blackness that pulsed and stretched around us.
I gasped, clutching his hand tighter.
“Don’t let go,” he advised.
As if I could.
I didn't recognize the planet we were heading toward until we were landing, and even then, it looked different. Not only were the formerly sprawling buildings nothing but ruins now, but this wasn't the same place the blue lagoon elf-like aliens had dropped us off.
"Now what?" he asked, scrutinizing my face that must have reflected my disappointment.
"This is not it." I managed.
"I assure you, this is Rotodex," he smirked.
That smirk. It made me want to slap him. So arrogant. So self-assured and derisive at the same time.
"I realize that." I hissed. No man, no woman.
No other person had ever exasperated me like him, and I've met a lot of exasperating people.
From grave robbers to black market dealers to entitled millionaires who thought they could keep artifacts for themselves.
None of them had riled me like this man did.
Was he even a man? He looked a lot like a human, but then he also didn't, with his golden skin and black eyes.
"This is not where we were staying," I tried to keep my composure and was proud to keep a lot of the venom gathering inside me hidden.
He sighed again, like a person would with a petulant child who asked to go back on the carousel for the sixth time. Again, he held out his hand. "Close your eyes and envision the spot you want to go."
I did. I concentrated hard, but neither he nor I got lifted off our feet; instead, I felt… a weird tingling sensation in my mind. Like tendrils reaching in. I opened my eyes just as the palace popped up in front of us, and we began to hover again.
"Did you… did you just…" I couldn't put my suspicions into words; I was even less certain I wanted to hear his answer, but I was sure, somehow, he’d gotten into my brain. I shuddered, but then we landed right in front of the once sprawling palace.
The streets that had been laid out neatly—what, hours ago? Days?—were riddled with cracks, some so deep, I worried about falling through and coming out at the other end of this planet—What? I was floating here; nothing seemed impossible.
"Is this it?" he demanded, again in the same tone one would use with a child.
I nodded and looked around. Everything was ruined, destroyed; there were no signs of life anywhere. "Hello!" I called.
My voice bounced off the walls and echoed back at me. "Hello!"
Nothing.
Discouraged, I tried to retrace my steps to find the spot where Ed and I had been separated. Wordlessly, the alien/demon/god followed me.
"I'm Ella, by the way," I said after a few minutes, because the quiet of this place was getting to me. Then, because for the life of me, I couldn't remember what his name was—there had been a lot of jumbo mumbo mixed in with it. "What was your name again?"
I half expected to hear the crazy chanting of the religious group, or the moans and groans of the… orgy people, but there was nothing besides the wind howling through newly wedged openings.
"Zapharos," he said behind me.
"Zapharos," I repeated. "Mind if I call you Zaph?"
"I do." He growled.
Just then, I turned a corner of a house I was sure Ed and I had found refuge in a few nights ago. It was hard to tell with the broken windows and shattered walls, but that wasn't what caught my attention. No, that was reserved for the most gruesome sight I had ever seen.