“The minotaur killed them, not you,” I told her.
“The fire probably killed them,” she said.
Grasping her shoulders, I turned her to face me before taking her chin and lifting her face so she had to look at me. “Thatthingbrought them in there. And if they hadn’t been too cowardly to help us”—I flicked a pointed glance at the newcomers; some of them had the grace to look away, but a few were unperturbed by my words—“they’d be alive now. Their deaths arenotyour fault.”
The sorrow in her eyes tugged at my heart before I embraced her. Resting my chin on her head, I held her close as I stared at the remains of the town. She dug her fingers into my back as she hugged me back.
“Is the minotaur dead?” the man asked.
“Yes,” Caim confirmed while he scratched one of the hounds behind its ear. When the hound turned into his touch and its tongue lolled out, I expected it to start thumping its hind leg in rhythm with the scratching.
“Good,” the man said.
“No thanks to you,” Caim said with a smile.
The man shrugged before speaking. “We didn’t think it could be defeated.”
“Everything can be defeated,” Caim replied. “You just have to be willing to fight, and you were a coward who let others fight your battles for you.”
The man’s face turned red as he started to sputter a response, but when Caim unfolded his wings and embedded his bottom silver tips in the ground, the man shut up. The steely look on Caim’s face made it evident he was fighting for the palitons now, but he would kill anyone who fucked with him.
“Do you want to join us?” Aisling asked them.
“Yes,” a different woman breathed. She shot the man a look as she hurried toward us.
“Now they’re all so eager to be around you,” Caim said and closed his wings as he returned to petting the hounds.
Aisling shot him a look, but I agreed with him; these people and demons were not ones I’d trust to watch my back. However, they may be cowards, but I wouldn’t leave them here.
“We should get out of here,” I said as I kissed the top of Aisling’s head. “With the barrier down, the fire might spread, and we have to tell the others Wrath is gone.”
“Shouldn’t we try to find more of the survivors?” she asked.
“They’re gone,” a demon said. “There’s no one left in town.”
I wondered if he was telling the truth or was eager to get away from here, but it didn’t matter as Aisling said, “The fog people.”
My head jerked in the direction she was looking. A thick fog had spread to block out the trees on the edge of town; tendrils of fog slithered out as it explored its surroundings. Those feelers reminded me of a pit of snakes slithering over each other while they sought out prey. When one of those tendrils came up against something hot from the fire, it would jerk back, and the fog would shift away.
“It’s so…awful,” Aisling said.
“Whatisthat?” one of the humans asked.
“A pit of monsters,” Caim said.
“Amber and her cohorts must have known the barrier and minotaur were here,” Aisling said. “That’s why they stayed in the valley and why they weren’t trapped in the town. I bet those tendrils sensed it.”
“And now they’ve come to scavenge whatever they can from the remains of the town,” I said.
“Theyhaveto die,” Aisling stated.
The steely look in her eyes was so different than the one of moments ago. No matter what I said, she’d always blame herself for the death of those people in the labyrinth, but she’d tear these fog people apart with her bare hands and never regret it.
Caim stopped petting the hounds and walked over to stand beside us as muffled screams erupted from the fog. Some of the survivors must have wandered into its treacherous depths.
“Wearegoing to stop them,” Aisling said.
She pulled out of my arms, threw back her shoulders, and stormed toward the fog. I caught up to her and grasped her arm to halt her. “Wait!”
