“I wonder if Torfinn knows what great change is coming,” I ponder, “and if we are all going to be alive at the end of it.”
Chapter 13
The river seems to go on forever, and the whole time, both Poppy and I are on edge, watching for anything that might snap out of the blood river and try to eat us. This is Hell after all.
“You seem to know Hell. Have you been here before?” Poppy asks me, never taking her eyes off the blood river. My hands instantly shake, remembering that time when I was in this place. The fear. The sweat pouring down my back from how fast I ran. The soul who bit my leg, where the scar has never left.
“Back on Earth, I worked for an assassin guild of sorts. The training they gave us was brutal, but the punishments for trying to leave were much harsher,” I start explaining, clearing my throat. “I was a favourite of my boss, a powerful demon, and I still was left in Hell for five days on my own when I was twelve.”
“Daesyn...that’s horrible,” she whispers, shaking her head and finally pulling her eyes off the blood river to me. I see the same look of pity and horror in her eyes that I expected, and I turn away.
“It was a long time ago, and it doesn’t even rate in the top ten nightmares that keep me up at night,” I tell her.
“We have lived very different lives up until this point,” she comments, smiling sadly at me. “I used to hate that my parents kept me sheltered, but now I can see they did it for a reason. To hide me from the world.”
“My mother tried to hide me, but it just didn’t work,” I admit.
“When did she die? Or is she alive? I just assumed...,” Poppy drifts off, her cheeks going red.
“My uncle told me he thought she died...but I don’t know. I guess a part of me wants her to be alive so badly I can’t admit anything else,” I explain.
“Where is your uncle now?” she asks. “And your father?”
“I think the friend bonding is all done for today,” I say, avoiding the question. “Our stop-off is coming up.”
“That’s a big gap,” Poppy nervously mumbles, looking over at the gap we will have to jump off and hopefully land on the cliff at the bottom of the mountain. I was right, there is a path leading to the top of the mountain, with at least a million steps. My thighs are going to burn by the time we get to the top. I seriously need to work on my cardio.
“Are you ready for this?” I ask Poppy. There is only going to be one chance, and if she doesn’t jump, saving her ass from the river is going to be a nightmare.
Poppy looks at me and nods once.
“On the count of three,” I tell her, bracing myself. “One. Two. Three.” I push off my feet, jumping as high as I can and slamming into the cliff. I dig my hands into the edge, the rough stone scraping off my skin as I hold on. I glance to the side to see Poppy has jumped, and she is clinging to the cliff near me. Using all my strength, I manage to pull myself up over the edge and roll onto the ground. I give myself a moment to catch my breath before crawling over to Poppy and grabbing her arms. She slips a few times but eventually gets her knee on the ground and tugs herself all the way up. We both breathlessly lie on the ground, looking up at the bleeding orange dust clouds floating around the ball of flames in the middle of the sky.
“I did it!” Poppy cheers, and I grin at her.
“You did,” I agree. We both get up at the same time, dusting our clothes off as we look at the steps. Poppy is still on cloud nine, and she doesn’t see the creature peel itself out of the cavern at the side of the steps, but fuck I do. I harshly push her out of the way when a fireball flies at us, and duck as it goes over my head. Poppy forgotten for now, I run at the creature, slipping my dagger out of the clip and into my hand. The creature looks like a monkey and a whale had a kid, and it’s an ugly ass thing. Its huge body is smooth and round, and its tiny head sits like a ball on top of it. A big fluffy brown tail flips around at its back, and it has dozens of spikes. No doubt poisonous spikes.
It’s beady eyes track my movements, and it breathes out another fireball. This one misses me by an inch, burning my arm, and I grit my teeth through the pain as I keep running. I jump at the last second, landing on its big stomach and digging my knife into its belly. It fights me off as I struggle to hold on, as the knife isn’t enough to kill it. Pulling my power from deep within me, purple energy smothers my body and flickers around the knife. I scream, pushing all my power into the knife, and everything goes bright, the light so enchanting it’s hard to do anything but stare, and then the creature explodes. I slam into the ground, chunks of the creature and green goo covering me from head to toe.
“Oh my god,” I cough from the smell. It smells like rotting dead things, and I’m covered in it. “Poppy?” I call out, wiping the goo from my eyes.
I climb over a big piece of the creature, my hands sticking to it, and I shiver from how disgusting this all is. Poppy is passed out, and I rush to her side, turning her over to see she has a small cut on the front of her head. I think this was my fault, I must have pushed her out of the way a little too hard. I take a deep breath and place my hands on the floor, pulling shadows to me until I can make a flat line of them. I push them under Poppy, and they lift her up. Her long black hair is the only part of her that falls through the shadows, and I look up at the steps, knowing my magic can only last so long doing this. I’m going to be so sore, in so many places by the end of this.
I grab hold of the shadows at the end and start walking to the steps and heading up, knowing I can pull the shadows along with me. Every step seems to hurt more than the last, and by the time I’m halfway up, I’m covered in sweat and still covered in creature goo. My sweat and the goo make a paste that drips into my eyes. I fucking hate Hell. I’m a hundred percent sure no one at the academy is going to recognize me in the state I am in. Groaning, I focus on each step, knowing one of them will be the last if I just keep going. Clueless about how much time has passed, I finally get to the top of the steps and see the portal of shadows waiting for me. I all but throw Poppy into the shadows, knowing they will be safe because they are made by the academy, before standing over it, looking at Hell before me.
The most cursed place in all the worlds, and it still could be considered beautiful. It gives me hope that one day, when everyone knows who I really am and what is in my blood, they might not see me as a monster that should not have been created. They might just see me.
I jump into the shadows, thankful when they pull me into their depths and as far from Hell as I can get.
Chapter 14
Sinking into the lavender and rose-scented bath, I let out a long sigh. The bubble bath does wonders for the burns on my arm that are already healing and the many, many cuts littering my body. I’ve showered two times to get the creature’s green goo out of my hair and off my body, but a bath is just perfect for relaxing.
I nearly scream when flames burst into the room from nowhere, making the shape of a man before disappearing and leaving Ryker in the room. He keeps his eyes on my face and sits down on the toilet, crossing his arms.
Are my nipples showing?
Oh my god, they must be. I glance down briefly and sigh when I see the bubbles are hiding most of my good parts.
“Poppy is good. Thought you’d wanna know how your sis was doing,” he tells me, a teasing note to his voice. He knows that I’m half fae and there is no way Poppy is my real sister. But I am happy she is doing well. The healer told me as much an hour ago when I left her with them. Turns out we were third and fourth place coming through the portal behind Prince Sebastian and Ryker.
“What the fuck are you doing here? I’m in the bath!” I snap at him. He grins, leaning back.
“Being naked isn’t a big deal to my kind or fae, if I remember right. In fact, there is a whole city in the Otherworld where no one wears clothes,” he tells me, and I keep my face passive, not to show him how that is new information to me.
“Ryker, I don’t know if you think helping me with those souls earns you the right to see me naked or some shit, but it doesn’t. Get the fuck out,” I growl.
He holds his hands up. “Don’t you want to know how I know you’re fae? How I know so much about fae in general?”
I pause. The bubbles completely hide my body anyway, and he is right, I do want to know. Ryker knows he has me because he looks smug.
“You have no respect for boundaries, do you?” I answer.
“Usually girls want me around when they’re naked. You’re the first to tell me to get out,” he says, and I don’t doubt for a second he is being honest. He looks like a porn model.
