“You have to feed to survive,” I said.
“I know. I just wish…”
“What?” I prodded when his voice trailed off.
His lips flattened into a thin line. “That I had a choice. And not a choice about being changed. Nothing could have stopped that, but a choice about what I have to do to survive now.”
“I see.”
“Do you? Because I don’t. At one point in time, I would have been thrilled to have an endless parade of women, but I’m not. Maybe that will change too as I become more and more demon.”
“Is that what you want to happen?”
“No.”
“You could meet your Chosen.”
“And feed from her?”
“I don’t know how that would work,” I admitted. “I’m sure there are other canagh demons who have met their Chosen before.”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. “I’m sure there are too.”
Kobal stepped away from the end of the tunnel and turned toward us. “We’ll do it now,” he said as he strode toward me.
Every muscle in my body tensed; a ripple of unease slid down my spine as Hawk and I rose.
“They’re never going to forget you,” Hawk said to me before walking down to join Lopan, Magnus, and Corson at the end of the tunnel.
Kobal had outlined his plan to everyone in Morax and Verin’s room, and I had agreed to it, but I was seriously rethinking my agreement now. If this worked the way he anticipated, he would be going for Lucifer, and I would be remaining here to fight off as many demons as I could.
I’d rather be in on the battle, but Kobal believed my presence below would only be a distraction to his fighters, and I couldn’t deny he had a point. Many of them would be more concerned with keeping me safe than killing. I was quite capable of raining down a fair amount of destruction, but if I was below, I could hit Kobal’s followers. From above, I’d at least be able to aim better and offer some cover for Kobal and the others.
To join the demons below, Kobal planned to scale down the wall, something I couldn’t do with any speed. He might give in and agree to carry me if I insisted on it, but it would only slow him and put us both at greater risk.
Kobal’s fingers slid over the back of my hand when he took it within his. He drew me a step closer to him. The flow of his power caressed my skin, causing the hair on my arms to rise. He hadn’t bothered to put a shirt on; it would most likely be burned off him as soon as he went into battle and would only be something for an enemy to grab. I’d noticed that most of the demons weren’t wearing shirts. The ones who were couldn’t fit a slice of paper between their shirt and their skin.
Kobal’s gaze burned into mine as he lifted his other hand to brush the hair back from my face. “Are you ready?” he inquired.
“As I’ll ever be.”
His fingers stilled on my cheek. He kissed the tip of my nose before turning and leading me to the mouth of the tunnel. I swallowed as I stopped at the end. My toes dangled over the edge while I peered out at the massive cavern for the first time.
CHAPTER 15
River
A few hundred feet across from me was a wall of jagged black and gray stones. Flickering light drew my eyes a hundred feet below me and to a waterfall of fire tumbling straight from the rocks there. My mind spun as I tried to comprehend what I was seeing. If the waterfall had been lava, I could have grasped it better, but the flames rolling over top of one another as they fell made it more difficult to process.
The waterfall tumbled five hundred feet to the cavern below. There, a river of fire streamed through the center of the cavern, dividing the smooth, rocky floor perfectly in two. Where the floor met the stream, sparks floated into the air, but they didn’t make it far before burning out.
A dozen flat rocks started at the floor of the cavern and were spaced throughout the river like stepping stones. Near the bottom of the waterfall, the flames split apart like stage curtains. The stones disappeared beneath those curtains.
“Where do the stones in the river go?” I asked.
“They lead into the throne room,” Kobal replied.
“Have you ever seen the throne room?”
