“May the gods be with you,” Finn states, his eyes staring into mine as he speaks. My heart pounds a little bit, the betrayer, and I strangely wonder if that blessing was just for me. Professor Kate opens a portal, and they both step into it, disappearing into the shadows. The bubble of magic starts shaking, and I grab Poppy’s hand, running right at it and dragging her along. She keeps up, eventually running at my side, and as the bubble disappears, we just make it out. I eye the dusty desert for any shelter, spotting a bunch of rocks in the distance just as I hear the souls make an awful noise.
“Don’t let them bite you or touch you,” I shout to warn Poppy, her hand slipping from mine as I grab my dagger. “Get to the rocks, and I have a plan.”
“To the rocks, got it!” she shouts back. I’m slightly proud of her, that is until she sees the souls and nearly falls over. The souls are disgusting and stink, so I don’t blame her. What is left of their humanity is gone and rotting, so now there is not much left but a shell of glowing green muck that looks almost humanlike. Their eyes glow yellow, and they move as a pack, keeping close together. If they manage to get us, they will feed off our souls, and we will become like them within moments. Not a way I want to end, thank you very much.
I mutter a string of curse words under my breath as I dive into the group of souls in front of us, hearing the screams of reapers in the group behind who are no doubt getting butchered. A big group in a place like this is a bad idea. We need to be further away from them. My dagger cuts through the first two souls with no problem, making them burst into dust that smothers my cloak. Calling my power, I gather up some shadows and smack them into the larger part of the group. They fly across the sand, and I gasp as I suck the magic back in. One last soul charges at me, and I kick it when it’s close, knocking it to the ground. I jump down, stabbing it in the head, and it screams as it disappears into dust.
Poppy is running full speed towards the rocks, and I have to give her credit, she did listen to me about running instead of just freezing. I run after her, keeping an eye out for any new souls, but with the screaming and cries of the reaper group behind me, I’m certain most of the souls are heading straight in their direction. I get to the rocks and use a shadow to make a step, jumping on it and flinging myself onto the highest rock. Poppy helps me climb the last bit, and I sit down, looking at the group of reapers. Several, if not a good twenty of them, are dead and being eaten.
Bile fills my throat as I turn away and look behind us at the mountain. The smart thing to do, which everyone else is going to do, is to run there and climb from the base up. But the base of the mountain looks seriously steep, and without good climbing gear, it would be hard to get up there. There is no way we would make it within eight hours. I eye the mountain closer and make out a pathway at the back of the mountain. The only issue is the back of the mountain is just a fast-flowing river made of blood—gross—and I don’t particularly want to swim in that. Rubbing my eyes, I track the river and grin when I see a row of tiny boats made of bones, by the looks of it.
“I know what we have to do,” I mutter.
“Climb the mountain, the professor told us,” Poppy replies, and I shake my head.
“No, we need to ride the river and jump off onto the back of the mountain. It’s going to be tricky, but I think we can do it,” I tell her, pointing at the boats and the pathway. “Let’s go.”
“I-I...the souls...,” she drifts off, rubbing her arms again.
“Look, I’m going to need your help at the ball and social shit, and you need my help here. Trust me, and I will trust you, okay?” I suggest. She takes a deep breath and lets it out before nodding. I search the rocks around us, not seeing any souls, and I use shadows to jump down. Poppy copies me, and I grin at her.
“You’re learning,” I say. “Now pull your dagger out and let’s go.”
She does as I ask, and we run for it. After running as fast as I can make my legs go for an hour, we stop at a dip in the sand. Breathless, we both lie back and blink at the hot light blasting down at us from the centre of hell. It’s not a sun, it’s a giant ball of flames, and it never really stops turning.
“I wish we had water,” Poppy gasps, and I agree with her.
“We can drink a bath-full when we are back in the city,” I remind her. “You know, alive.”
Begrudgingly, I climb to my feet and hold out a hand for Poppy. She frowns at me like I’m the devil but takes my hand, and I pull her up. We both start off in a jog, heading right for the river in the far distance. A whining noise gets my attention, and I freeze. Poppy comes to a stop next to me, and I place my finger on my lips, telling her to be quiet. Gripping my dagger tightly in my hand, I slowly walk a few steps closer and stare down at the big group of souls. I immediately drop to the sand and wave Poppy down at my side. She slides down but lands funny on her hand, crying out in pain.
And that’s all it takes. “Fuck’s sake, Poppy.”
The souls all run at us, a big group of at least twenty, and I brace myself for what is coming next. To my surprise, the red-eyed guy from the field runs out of nowhere and jumps into the middle of the group of souls, bursting into flames and changing right in front of my eyes into a giant wolf-like creature. But he is on fire. Flames flicker around his black fur, and the souls catch on fire as they get close to him. Two of them get to me anyway, and I dive under them, running my dagger through one of their stomachs. I kick the legs of the other and jump to my feet, slamming my dagger into his neck. As he disappears into dust, I turn around and see the wolf right in front of me.
“That’s a hellhound!” Poppy exclaims in fear, and I don’t look back as the flames surrounding the hellhound get bigger until it’s impossible to look anymore. I cover my eyes, and when the heat is gone, I look up and see a very naked man on his knees in front of me.
“You’re missing your clothes,” I point out, trying not to look down there. At that.
“Ryker Maddock, at your service,” he says, offering his hand and finally telling me his name. I haven’t forgotten this hellhound reaper dude knows I’m half Unseelie fae. I don’t like it when strangers know my secrets. It’s bad enough my eyes give away I have fae blood.
“You’re not a full reaper,” I point out the obvious to him as Poppy comes to my side. I give her the stink eye for nearly getting us killed, and she looks down at the ground. Turning back to Ryker, I can’t help but admire his body. Rippling muscles define his chest and waist, and on his hip is a tattoo of flames that drift all the way up to his ribs. His wrists have matching tattoos of daggers that spread from his elbow to wrist. He is too hot for his own good. “And you’re still naked.”
Ryker clicks his fingers, and black clothes appear over his body in flames, finished with a long black cloak.
“Better?”
Well... “Yep. Why did you save us?”
“That’s another secret. If we start trading secrets, Daesyn Heartlocke, you wouldn’t be able to get rid of me,” he murmurs. Someone calls for him in the distance, a man, but I can’t hear who it is from here. Ryker runs a hand through his hair. “We both know a secret about each other now. I suggest you keep it, and I will keep yours.”
Ryker winks at me before jogging off and disappearing over one of the sandy hills. Poppy clears her throat. “What secret does he know about you?”
“The worst one,” I admit and turn my eyes on her. I want to tell her off, but I know she didn’t mean it. This is a fucked up test for day one. I can’t even imagine how much worse this might get. “Let’s just go.”
Poppy nods and starts jogging with me. We don’t see anyone else, or any other souls, on our way to the river, and it takes us at least another two hours to get there. I wish I had a watch on me to tell exactly how long we have left.
“One of the boats is already gone. The big one in the middle,” Poppy points out, and she is right. I remember there was a line of boats, and now the middle one is gone.
“Ryker must be ahead of us with whoever he is teamed up with,” I say.
“He is close friends with the prince and Torfinn. I heard that from the girls at the bonfire,” she tells me as I grab the blood-covered rope attached to the side of the river and start pulling one of the boats to me. Poppy surprises me by grabbing the rope with me, and together we pull it onto the shore.
“Get in, I’ll push it out,” I tell her.
“This is seriously disgusting,” she mutters as she climbs in the boat made of skulls and bones. I don’t disagree. I try not to vomit as I walk into the blood river, the hot sticky blood attaching itself to my clothes with every step. I pull myself into the boat when it’s out enough, and Poppy hands me a bone paddle.
“How do a reaper prince, a demi-god and a hellhound hybrid become good friends?” I question Poppy as we make our way down the river. The river is quick-moving, soon making our paddling just pointless.
“I don’t know. It is weird they are friends,” she agrees.
“How is your dad friends with a demi-god anyway?”
She shrugs. “My dad is old, like old enough that he was around when the fae war happened. He simply told me he met Torfinn in the fae wars.”
“Fuck, Finn is old as shit,” I mutter. I’m totally crushing on an old man that looks hotter than any guy I’ve ever seen. What is wrong with me?
“He isn’t that old, I don’t think. Time works differently in the worlds of the gods and that Torfinn appeared there for a short while before disappearing. I believe the gods sent him there to do something and then he left. Time travel is apparently a power the gods hold,” she explains to me. “Father said they only send a demi-god to our worlds when great change is upon us.”
