His fingers skimmed the flesh where the tahanusi had abraded my collarbone. With the way I’d been healing since I’d started coming into my powers and claimed Kobal as my Chosen, the marks wouldn’t be noticeable soon. “I’m fine,” I assured him.
He stopped before me. A muscle twitched in his cheek as a vein throbbed to life in his forehead. “Aside from the lungful of water.”
“Yeah, that sucked,” I admitted and shoved a strand of wet hair out of my eye. “Let me see your back.”
“It will heal.”
“I know that, but I want to see it. Maybe a bandage would help it heal faster.”
“Not likely.”
Still, he turned to allow me to inspect his raw and torn flesh. I didn’t dare touch it. He may be acting like it didn’t hurt, but it must. I rested my fingers on his sides before bending to kiss an undamaged area of his back. He’d sustained this damage to protect me.
He turned and lifted me into his arms. “You are mine to protect, always,” he said, as if he’d read my mind. He carried me the remaining ten feet to where everyone else stood.
Carion had pulled his hood back into place. His eyes blazed as he surveyed the damage the demons had wrought on his boat. “Lucifer and his followers must pay for this,” he hissed to Kobal.
“They will,” Kobal promised as he set me down.
“Are you okay?” Hawk demanded of me.
“Fine,” I said as I ran my hands over my arms.
Pulling his hands away from me, fire erupted from Kobal’s fingers and ran up to his wrists. He made sure the flames didn’t touch me as he ran them along my body. His flames wouldn’t burn me, but they would burn the dress off me, and neither one of us wanted me traipsing around Hell naked.
Two of the hellhounds rose and came closer to me. They pressed against my sides, their warm fur helping to further ease the rattling of my bones. I rested my hands on the hounds’ heads as my gaze ran over the black rocks surrounding us.
“Can we get out of here?” I asked.
“We can,” Bale replied. “Are we still heading to your chambers, Kobal?”
“We are,” he said.
Kobal extinguished his flames as he stepped back. Glancing down at the dress the tree nymphs had given me, I realized I was almost completely dry.
“Lucifer doesn’t know where my chambers are located,” Kobal continued. “He is trying to block us every way he can to get at River. The demons who attacked us got lucky when they stumbled across us here.”
Lifting a piece of my hair, he ran it through his fingers. “But Lucifer will never have you,” he vowed.
I smiled at him, but I had a bad feeling about all of this. My premonitions were never directly about me. However, my instincts screamed at me to get out of Hell as soon as possible.
***
Kobal
Taking River’s hand, I helped to steady her as she climbed over the jagged rocks lining the shore of the Asharún. Numerous abrasions from the rocks marred her skin. Her wounds healed quickly, but the fact she sustained them at all set my teeth on edge. The fine blue veins in her eyelids were now visible and her cheeks had hollowed out, as she labored to fight off the effects of the wraiths. Before she fell into the water, she’d been handling their presence well, but not anymore.
When I got the chance to destroy Lucifer, I would make him pay for everything she’d endured because of him.
Another wraith broke out of the water and wailed before slipping away again. In response, River’s hand trembled in my grasp, but her eyes were defiant when they met mine. It was as if she knew I was considering carrying her so she didn’t have to walk anymore.
When she stepped down beside me, I pulled her closer as I stopped to survey the cavern and scent the air for any new threat. The only odors I detected were the faint hint of brimstone, the Asharún, and River’s crisp scent that managed to break through the aromas of Hell. If there were more demons waiting to set a trap, they would slip into the water again to avoid my detection of them. After what had happened to their cohorts, I doubted any of them were willing to attempt coming at us through the Asharún again though.
I could stretch my hand up and run my fingers over the lethal tips of the rocks above, but a hundred feet ahead the cavern expanded once more. From past travels, I knew it opened into an area with a pathway winding toward the higher levels of Hell. That path would lead us away from the Asharún and the wraiths, but Lucifer could establish another ambush there—one River was far from prepared to handle right now.
“We’re going to change course and go through the oracle,” I stated.
“The oracle?” Hawk asked.
