His arm slid away from me when he stepped forward and bent down. Something made a clicking sound as he felt over the bottom of the rock before rising to run his hands over the top of it.
Another click filled the cavern before Kobal placed his hand in the center of the slab. The slanted Z symbol I recognized as Eiaz materialized beneath his palm on the rock. During one of the times I’d explored the numerous symbols on Kobal’s body, I remembered coming across Eiaz. He’d explained the symbol represented speed, heightened senses, and protection.
Bending again, the corded muscles across Kobal’s back bulged as he gripped the bottom of the easily five-hundred-pound rock and lifted it out of the way. My fingers itched to trace every inch of his chiseled body while I watched him work.
I bit my bottom lip and glanced away when he set the rock aside. Turning back, he held his hand out to me. A small smile played at the corners of his mouth as his skin slid into contact with mine. With his heightened sense of smell, I knew he’d sensed the direction my mind had taken.
I scowled at him, which only caused his smile to grow while he led me past the rock. My eyes widened on the austere space we entered. “What is this?” I asked.
“My chambers,” Kobal said. Releasing me, he waited for everyone else, and the hounds, to enter the cavern before lifting the slab and settling it back into place.
I’d suspected that we’d finally arrived at our destination when he’d used his marks to unlock the rock, but I hadn’t expected his chambers to be likethis.
When we’d been living by the wall on Earth, Kobal’s main tent had been simply decorated with its table, sideboard, lanterns, goblets, and drinks. Books had often been on the table, waiting for him or me to pick up. His separate room had held a large bed, nightstand, mirror, armoire, and other assorted things he’d taken from houses in the nearby town. The possessions hadn’t originally been his, but he’d picked them out and made them his.
There was nothing but rocks here and a fire pit against the far wall. Even with the glow of the flames bouncing off the walls, this place was stark and lonely.
Magnus had decorated his private space in Hell. Corson was different here than he’d been on Earth, but I believed there would still be signs of his personality in his chambers, and that Bale would have something of her own if we ever saw where she lived here.
It was clear how much their time on Earth had changed Corson and the skelleins. Not so clear with Bale, but I had a feeling, if I had known her when she’d lived only in Hell, I would see changes in her now too. I doubted any of the demons saw how different they were on Earth compared to Hell. If they did, they would never admit it.
Kobal had decided that when this was done with Lucifer, he would stay on Earth with me, but I wondered if he realized how much my world had become a part of him too. Living on our plane had changed him more than I’d realized before we ever even met. The Kobal I first encountered had possessed the warmth of an ice cube; the demon who had lived here was the entire iceberg.
“How spartan,” Hawk murmured as his gaze ran over the gray rock walls and empty floor.
“No one will be able to get passed Eiaz to enter here,” Kobal said.
His footsteps rang off the black stone floor as he strode across the room. He walked behind a section of wall that blended in so seamlessly with the rocks, I hadn’t realized something lay beyond. Kobal reemerged with black and red furs tossed over his arm.
“There is water behind there for all of you to clean up with. River and I will be going into my sleeping chambers. You are to remain here. We will rest before leaving to join Morax and the others,” Kobal stated.
He handed the furs to Corson and turned to me. I didn’t have a chance to blink before he lifted me and carried me across the echoing chamber. Rounding the corner of a different set of rocks, he strode down a small hall. When none of the light from the main area pierced this hallway, I strained to see through the darkness while Kobal continued unerringly forward.
My fingers dug into his shoulders as I thought of him sleeping in this place every night. I settled my head on his shoulder, holding him closer as I inwardly wept for the lonely demon who had resided here. The only one of his kind, the one with the weight of Hell, war, and the lives of his followers on his shoulders. He was still the only one of his kind, still had the weight of war on his shoulders, but now he knew he was not alone.
He had not known that here.
He stopped before another rock and set me on my feet before it. Placing his hands on either side of my head, he kept me pinned before him. My breath came faster as his chest brushed against mine while he worked to move the rock aside. My toes curled, and my gaze drifted over his broad chest as he pushed the rock out of the way.
I didn’t turn to look at the room beyond as he lifted me and carried me across the threshold. Lowering me again, he turned to close the rock behind us. I gazed at the small room and the pile of furs tossed into the corner. Nearby was a small pool of water with a lava rock set out beside it. The fire in a pit cast shadows over the walls, but unlike the fire in the main room, I couldn’t see the flames within this pit.
“How long did you live here?” I asked.
“From my birth until I went to Earth,” he replied.
For over fifteen hundred years he’d slept here, yet there wasnothinghere. “Where are all of your things?”
“There’s a small room over there with some of my clothes in it.” He waved at an area across the way, and I saw that, like the larger chamber, the rocks hid what lay beyond.
“What about personal items? Magnus had goblets and furs and a whole carnival to keep him entertained.”
“I have nothing else here.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Why not?”
Cupping my face in his hand, he drew my eyes to him. “Because I sought nothing but my throne while I was here. These rooms were never my home. My home was where my throne is.”
“And now?”
