“She’s made you soft.” Eire balked, the surprise on her face clear as she sat back in her saddle.
“Life debts are funny things.” He muttered, nudging the horse away. He didn’t owe anyone a life debt, or had he? When she had brought him home for help that should have been the end of it all, yet he couldn’t shake the compulsion to move forward.Answers, he reminded himself. He was doing this to get his answers. The others may not have been on the same page as him regarding the council, but he didn’t believe a word they said. Not after years of questionable assignments, that looking back now, didn’t make sense to him. Of the doubt that had slowly festered with each order to kill. Demitria had been the catalyst to the spiraling questions that surrounded him.
“Help me find her.” Whispering to the horse, Kellan loosened his reins.
As if in answer, Atlas let out a loud snort before exploding on powerful legs and leaving Kellan’s siblings in their wake. He could have smiled as the horse soared over the ground. Atlas may not have wings, but he truly felt like he was flying.
Kellan stole a glance behind him as he buried his hands in the dark strands of the horse’s mane, feeling the coarse hair beneath his fingers. Already nothing more than spots behind him, his siblings kicked up after him in pursuit.
Twenty-Four
DEMITRIA
Pain.
So much pain. Searing through her entire body like she was burning from the inside out. Demitria awoke screaming. The blood pooled around the blade plunged into her abdomen, trickling down her sides and onto the smooth rock below her. Warm. Wet. Sticking her clothes to her body.
The demon lord stood over her, his depthless eyes meeting hers for a short moment. Grinning a wicked, toothy smile, he plunged it deeper. Feeling as the blade tore through muscle. Another scream ripped through her as tears welled in her eyes. Throat hoarse. Dry. Everything ached.
“You’ve been out for a day.” He purred. “I told you we weren’t finished yet.” An entire day? She didn’t want to think about what could have been done to her in that time. She tried to move her body, even an inch, on the stone beneath her, but everything burned.
“What do you want from me?” Demitria’s body trembled, her voice shaky from the pain coursing through her as a wave of nausea took hold.
“I’m sure Reim has mentioned the need for the human soul,” he said. The creature had a name. Reim.Reimhad eaten herparents. She wished she could give Kellan his name in hopes he would kill the demon in a fit of rage. For revenge after the blow he’d been dealt, and evading them since. Demitria committed the name to memory, for whatever purpose it served. She didn’t care who killed him at this point. She just wanted the creature dead.
“We’re harvesting souls for the King. Yours in particular is said to hold great power.” His inky eyes nearly gleamed as he walked around her, trailing a finger along her arms as he did. Giddy, she could see it in his face, hear it in the lilt of his voice. “And once I take yours, my subjects are free to take whatever they wish.” The Demon Lord smiled again, and she shivered, that itch along her neck returning for a fleeting moment. “Reim likes the human heart. Especially when it’s still beating.”
Demitria couldn’t help the gasp that escaped her at the mention of the creature. He was going to eat her, just as he had her parents. It took everything out of her to fight back the nausea rising in her throat.It would have all been for nothing.
“Tell me, girl,” Taking a step back, he walked a slow circle around the rock slab she had been draped over once more. “Do you know the difference between a soul that is broken and one that is whole?”
No words left her mouth. She didn’t have an answer to any of the questions he asked her. Demitria fought back the whimper threatening to spill from her lips. Focusing on the rise and fall of her chest, she kept her breathing slow. The pain coursed through her from her fingers to her toes. She pushed away the thought of the knife and the warmth of her own blood as it dripped from her body.
When she still didn’t answer him, he continued, “The King feeds on souls. It is the base of his power. But a broken soul? They are near magical. The sheer power that radiates from themis like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Through you, he will conquer this world.”
Demitria didn’t understand any of it. Human souls, Demon Lords. Hell, fucking Horsemen of the Apocalypse. She didn’t get any of this damned mess.
The Demon Lord took another step back, eyes zeroing on her face. He stood tall behind the rock slab, shoulders pitched back as he held his arms wide and shouted, “She’s all yours, boys!” Cold fear rushed through her as the darkness around the room morphed into something else entirely.
From out of the shadows stepped eight creatures, scarily similar to Reim. Each one wore a look of hunger as they watched her, as if she was nothing more than a delicacy.
I am exactly that.
Reim was on her first, his claws digging into her skin as he looked her over, as if deciding which part he would eat first. The others waited for him to make his move. He must have outranked them all. Another scream tore through her as his serrated teeth sank in just below her collar bone, tearing through her flesh with ease. His clawed fingers dug into the wound, prying it apart as flesh separated from bone. Demitria’s screams never stopped. She could feel those toxins coursing through her, the blood in her veins sluggish as it spread. In moments, the others joined in, biting into her flesh. Her wrists, legs, stomach. Everywhere.
She was being eaten alive.
“The heart is mine!” Reim roared. The absolute glee in his voice echoed off the walls around them.
There wasn’t one inch of her skin that didn’t feel like she had been doused in a sea of endless flames. Demitria didn’t know how much more she could take.
Twenty-Five
KELLAN
It was the screams that alerted him first.
The sheer agony echoed, erupting from the dark cavern ahead. If it had been anyone else, they wouldn’t have heard her. But with his heightened senses it felt as if he was standing right there. Even from far below the ground, he heard her. Atlas visibly tensed beneath him, like he could hear them too. Knowing exactly who they’d come from. Sensing her fear as she endured gods knew what.
