“And you must remain inside my cloak until we have returned to my home.”

She desperately clung to it to protect her face from the horrible smell as he started to pull it away from her by force.

His strength won out and she took a gasping breath of unfiltered air. She huffed, choking... until she realised it wasn’t necessary.

He’d been telling the truth. She could no longer smell the decay of rotting flesh.

She turned her head up to him with a frown, a pout slipping from her lips.

“See?” He lifted the side of his cloak to create a space at his side for her. “Most of you are not fond of this part, but come, quickly, before the Demons pick up the human in your scent.”

I’m in the Veil. The home of Demons and the place they came from. It must be crawling with hundreds, thousands,

of them.

Nothing else could have made her jump into action quicker than those words, and she tucked herself into his side. His arm came over her shoulder, his large hand spanning her hip, before the cloak fell over her completely and darkness covered her vision.

She attempted to open it so she could see, but he swiftly used his other hand to pull it tight over her.

“Like I mentioned, most of you are not fond of this part, and it is because you will not be able to see where you are going.”

His body and hand kept her firmly against him as he started to blindly steer her.

“Is this so I don’t know the way back?” She tried to take careful steps and knew he was walking slower than normal to make sure she didn’t trip or fall.

“No. It is so that I have masked your scent completely.

Even just a finger out can attract the Demons to us.”

Reia gulped. Fair enough, she would walk blind if she had to. However, she tried to figure out how she was supposed to run from this place if she couldn’t be outside his cloak.

Isn’t it dangerous to bring me here then? What was going to happen to Reia when she arrived at his home? She worried she’d truly be trapped there or stuck inside it forever. Will I never see the sun again? She clenched her hands into tight fists. No, it’s okay. Everything will be fine.

As they walked, there was something she noticed.

Something that took a long time to catch her attention as her thoughts ran rampant through her mind.

“There isn’t any snow here,” she commented.

Although the ground felt freezing cold, her feet weren’t sinking into snow. She vaguely felt grass, sticks, and stones beneath her bare feet.

“The Veil is warmer in the winter than above the surface as the walls protect it from the cold.” She could hardly call this warmer since it was still rather chilly, but at least it

wasn’t threatening to give her frostbite. “And the summer is cool as the shade keeps out the heat.”

Just as she opened her lips to say something, his hand came up to cover her mouth. Actually, it was so large in comparison to her that it horrifyingly covered her entire face. Her hands shot up to clasp his wrist.

She stamped her feet as she tried to pull it away. She could breathe, but she definitely wasn’t comfortable with him doing this! He continued to walk her despite her struggles.

“What have you got, Mavka?”

Ice ran through her veins at the voice that came from outside of the cloak. She stopped struggling, stopped breathing, when she realised they weren’t alone.

“You are returning from a hunt, Mavka. Does that mean you have brought us something tasty to devour? A wolf, a deer, or a human, perhaps?”

Oh, fuck. Is that a Demon talking? She didn’t know they could speak as well!

Reia could hear the brushing of leaves as something heavy scraped its claws over branches at it walked next to them in the trees.

“What I have is of no concern to you.” A soft growl began to rumble right next to her ear from Orpheus’ chest. “Come any closer and it will be you that is eaten.”

“No fun,” it snickered, its voice a mingle of feminine and masculine while it also sounded raspy, as though it wasn’t used to speaking. “I only wish to play with it. I cannot smell it, but I know you must have something if you are returning.

I can hear it breathing. Come, give us a bite. Surely you can’t eat it all.”

Reia was swayed in the air as he held her firmly while his body lunged forward, like he’d reached out suddenly with his arm. The Demon yelped, before she vaguely heard the sound of a thump against the ground.

It hissed before quick fading stomps told her it was fleeing.

Not being able to witness whatever had happened did little to ease her heart’s rapid beat. She was thankful that she’d hadn’t seen it and his scent surrounding her had stopped her from smelling it.

“Border dwellers. They aren’t the most dangerous, but they are generally the ones who hunt you humans above the surface.”

He slowly lifted his hand away from her face to place it against her side once more. Reia said nothing, no longer wishing to speak in case something heard her.

Silence remained between them as they walked for what must have been hours. Every rustle of leaves caught her attention, every snapping of a twig in the distance, every scrape of something against rock or bark. She could hear the rattling of bones, creepy howling in the distance, and the harrowing squawks of a what sounded like the mixture between a bird and a wailing child.

Reia was alert.

If something happens, just run back the way we came.

She thought she could at least do that. She just hoped they weren’t on a winding path and she ended up running further into the Veil rather than the edge of it.

Although she knew it must be daytime still, all she could see was black. There was so little sunlight reaching the ground within the Veil that it didn’t glitter through the fabric of his cloak anymore. All she saw was darkness. Just swallowing darkness.

No, it wasn’t darkness. It had to have been dark grey.

Because, before long, the sun began to set, and she truly understood what it was like to look into the void of nothingness.

“Watch your step,” Orpheus told her when he deliberately slowed.

The toes of her left foot knocked against something hard.

Her big toe grazed against it as she felt over what was at her feet, feeling the sharp edge of a step. She tentatively placed her foot on it and an emotion tore through her heart.

Are we here? They had been walking for almost an entire day. Reia understood she was truly deep within the Veil, was surrounded by it, trapped inside with Demons all around her.

A part of her had been hoping that something would happen so she wouldn’t make it here. That she would have had the chance to run again. But she knew all hope of truly surviving would have been at the edge of this place, not inside it.