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The locket lay just out of reach, and I contemplated scrambling for it again, but my body hoisted up into the air, until my feet were dangling about two yards up from the floor. It felt as if an enormous, invisible hand had lifted me up and squeezed me so tight, it knocked a small bit of air from my lungs. “Put me down! Now!”
My mother opened her mouth impossibly wide and let out one of those spine-tingling screeches, which echoed through the cave. The sound of a stampede had me stilling, listening. A cold sensation brushed the back of my neck, and I turned toward the mouth of the cave, where dozens of Mortunath had gathered. My body flew back in the other direction, toward the door we’d come in through, and I fell, skidding to the dirt. Not a second later, the Mortunath poured in, charging straight toward Soreth. My eyes shot to Vespyr and the boy, who seemed to have gotten lost in the sea of creatures.
“Vespyr! Vespyr!”
Soreth ran toward me and held up his palm again. I flew back another few feet, deeper into the cave. A Mortunath demon leapt onto the angel’s back, and he twisted around, throwing it off him with his invisible force. Another barreled toward him. And another. My mother clawed at him and snapped her teeth.
“Vespyr!” I screamed. “Vespyr where are you?”
None of the Mortunath seemed the least bit interested in me, as they cornered Soreth against the cave wall and a boulder.
From the cluster of creatures, I saw a flash of purple hair, and with the boy’s hand in hers, Vespyr darted toward me. “Go, Farryn!”
The creatures’ bodies flew backward, showing only a brief second of Soreth amid them, where he’d fallen to his knees, his face and palm bloodied, as he reached out for us. The monsters charged again, and his screams hit the air.
I spun around toward the door, but paused. “My locket!”
“Fuck the locket!” Vespyr said, snatching up my arm as she ran past me. She yanked me after her, and the three of us slammed through the door into the corridor.
59
JERICHO
Vaszhago’s arms trembled as he held the Mortunath in a state of paralysis. “Could you be so kind as to hurry it along. I’m getting a fucking cramp. This place is sucking my powers like a ramped-up wraith.”
I strode up to the last three Mortunath, stabbing each three times. The last one exploded into black dust, and I looked around the yard of Farryn’s old house to find a thick coating of black ash covering the grass.
Vaszhago collapsed to his knees and tipped his head back, taking deep breaths. “I’m getting too old for this shit.”
I smirked at that. “You need a minute?”
Shaking his head, the demon kicked one knee up and pushed to his feet. “I’m all right.”
We strode toward the door and landed ourselves back out in the labyrinth’s corridor, both of us walking with a little less pep in our stride after having killed what must’ve been a hundred, or more, Mortunath.
“To think that’s not even a tiny fraction of his army.” Vaszhago said, as I caught sight of another door. “The realms are fucked if he ever wakes up.”
“He’s going to wake. Because I am going to kill my father.”
“Well, if you do, just make sure you have that fucking heart nearby.”
Letifer’s heart, encased in glass at the center of the labyrinth. Had I wanted to invite his debate, protest, possibly even betrayal against me, I’d have told him that I had no intentions of destroying the heart and closing the portal. Not when Venefica required it as payment to free Farryn’s body from Syrisa’s grasp. I didn’t care that it would wake Letifer. That he would undoubtedly assemble his army against the realms. I’d have fought every Mortunath and Eradyean demon, if it meant saving her soul.
Instead, I held my silence, until we came upon the next door and pushed through to a cave. A sound of agony echoed over the stony walls, and we rounded a boulder to find Soreth. His lower half had been entirely consumed, leaving only stringing bits of viscera, which two Mortunath sat feasting on. As we stepped closer, one of them glanced back at us, but seemed uncaring of our presence, too engrossed in its meal. Soreth’s upper half had already turned a dark, corpse color, his eyes the telling blood-red. He made a sound in his throat that still had a small bit of agony beneath the pitched screech.
“Do I put him out of his misery?” Vaszhago asked beside me.
“No. But if you feel so inclined to off the other two, I will not protest.” I scanned over the cave, toward the mouth of it, where something shiny on the ground caught my eye. As I strode closer, I recognized the gold locket and lifted it from the gravel. Popping it open confirmed it was Farryn’s, when I saw the picture of her father.
I didn’t immediately notice my surroundings had darkened, until something moved in my periphery. I turned to find what appeared to be Farryn staring off toward the ocean, her white gown blowing in the wind, hair in a tangled mess as it danced about her shoulders.
So beautiful against the ocean’s glassy backdrop.
She turned around, and my heart stalled inside my chest. The youth and innocence in her eyes didn’t differ significantly, but enough that I could make out the subtleties between her and Farryn.
“Lustina.”
Her lips curved to a warm smile. “Hello, My Lord.” Beautiful stardust eyes, Farryn’s eyes, trailed over me. “My, you’ve grown quite handsome.”
