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With my boots crunching on bone smithereens, I press on, senses heightened to every cracking twig, to how the wind batters my flesh, numbing me to the core. Beneath my skin, frost shards breed while cold ash swirls in my stomach. My chest is a dark hollow of heartbreak and pandemonium to mirror these woods and all recent events. Off to the west is the miles-long iron anaconda wall.
I head toward the tent city but take it slow at first, testing this cursed territory, picking my way through the occasional ribcage of a ghoul, piles of bones picked clean, shreds of vampire wings, and even Fallen blood. Bone-deep shivers curdle in my body at the sight of teeth lodged in the trees. Whenever I find Fallen blood, I make a hasty retreat. Just as I do with the Underground, I cover myself in bone powder to help shroud my scent, though I suppose it won’t do much good in this case.
The monsters always sniff my blood.
In the distance, a shrill scream invades the air, followed by a gurgle. Death gnaws on the back of my neck as everything screams inside me:run and hide and never look back. I enter a small clearing with nothing but moss and a few boulders around me. Severe Déjà vu triggers my spine, reminding me of…no, I refuse to think of Neo and the time he saved me from the Fallen.
How am I supposed to find one demon vampire in these woods that are hundreds of acres in mass, especially when the fabric of reality is thinner here? Just as it is in the Chasm—which is why the Soul Plane holds a mirrored Chasm. I imagine that if he desired, Thanatos could speak to me here just as inside the portal, but I won’t give him another moment of my time. Not when he was playing the long game all along, tempting me for my tooth, my tear, my flesh, my…blood. I rub my chilled arms, refusing to shed a tear on behalf of him, either of them. Neo is a whole other battlefield, but at least I am well-equipped to handle his terrain with Nita and Quillion as my allies. I can’t count on Thanatos anymore.
Behind me, the flapping of wings alerts me, triggering my Halo light. When I strike, it’s a holy fire stake that I ram straight into the ghoul’s chest, silencing its howl to a gurgle. Flicking my wrist up, I shred that fiery stake through its decrepit rib cage all the way down to its pelvis. Blood splatters me as I kick its deformed corpse to the ground. I say no prayers.
Not even when a dozen ghouls swoop into the clearing, knocking against tree branches, some plummeting to the ground, rolling inches to my feet. Adrenaline rocketing into my blood, I shoot stakes at any that fly too close, piling their festering corpses like a mushroom circle around me. Now, the remaining few get wise. They hover in the air, huddling together, crouching. Their shrunken heads remind me of volcanic scars, wings thinner than tattered tissue paper.
Smirking to one side, I delve deep into my heart and acquire several more gold stakes, lethal points sparking. “Bring your pretty wings to me, bogies!” I sing-song, imitating both brothers.
Wicked grin parading in the night, I spin around, dancing into a low, savage crouch when all the ghouls attack. Waiting until the last second to behold the cavernous depths of their missing windowed eyes, I launch the stakes and arrow them into the ghouls’ hearts. Blood spurts. Shrieks pierce the air combining with the sound of their collective bodies toppling back to earth.
I dive into a roll to escape. But I collide with another ghoul that has advanced from deeper into the woods. My chest hitches, heart, skipping whole beats. It opens its mouth in a shrill, raucous scream to bleed my ears—then lunges to sink its gory, chipped teeth into my flesh. With both hands, I rear the stake I’ve gripped up and up until I drive it right into its mouth. Black blood spews onto my chest as I thrash, gnashing my teeth at its screams. Burrowing the stake in, I thrust my righteous fire to travel in a tributary until I sever the brain stem. The ghoul twitches and falls.
Ugh, almost worse than the time I had to drain the ghoul’s canal in Neo’s suite.
“Little angel birthed from heaven…sweet Halo in need of protection.”
Shiiiiiiit.
Definitely worse. I groan, throwing my head back to mark the upside-down demon/vampire/satyr and his buzzing swarm of bees while I shove the ghoul carcass off of me. “Oh, holy foremothers, not you again!”
Scrambling to my feet, I brandish more Halo stakes. But countless more ghouls gather closer to the clearing. I swing my head between them all, prepared to unleash a mighty storm of stakes, whips, chains, and even scythes. Except…the ghouls skirt the edges of the trees. They hover. They don’t cross into the mossy territory.
“Oh, hell.” My heart rams against my rib cage when I realize why. I throw my gaze back to Pan, who slowly tilts his diamond-shaped face to the side, bees buzzing around his trinity-set of horns. The ghouls won’t come anywhere near him.
“Soul Eater hunting this pure-soul delight…we could easily carry her to his never-ending bite.”
Sharp fear slashes into me. I stiffen. Curling my lip back, I summon my flaming whips, daring him to try.
Instead, Pan’s hoodless eyes shimmer like meteor fire, his lips pulling into a grinning, crooked seam—his long, keen fangs whetted when he snickers, “But we owe this little angel a boon…after she took our kiss and carried to Death ourhoneymoon.” Oh! So, that is why he’s not overwhelming me with a hint of that violent emotion as he did inside the Gates.
His bees frolic closer to my body, causing me to cringe. At the moment, fur covers his nether regions, but I know it wouldn’t take him long, so I jerk back when he approaches me. And cringe from him flexing the brawn of his naked blackwood, iron-like chest. “Have no fear from me, star-blessed child…tempting the demons in the dark, so wild. I will lead you out of the Spirit kingdom…and see you safely to the Court of Destruction.”
I shake my head but eye the surrounding area, more ghouls collecting, seeming to breed. In the distance, a few of the Fallen stray closer. “I don’t need to be led out. I need to go furtherin.”
“Hum, hum, glowing girl of heart and soul…what could she possibly want in the Spirit Realm’s hole?” A couple of bees settle on my cheeks, wings teasing my skin, stingers poised but not sinking.
I smile, raising my chin, understanding why he is here. Might as well not waste the moment, so while answering, I vault my stakes into several ghoul hearts and hear their bodies crunching behind me. “I seek a vampire with the power of multiplicity. A Scourge upon the innocent humans outside the Iron Walls.” I chuck a few more haloed stakes, thrilling at the sound of more gurgling. The bodies begin to stack like bloodied dominoes: my little dumping ground.
“To lead you to the Scourge’s lair will cost a price…but are you willing to pay, my little golden bird of paradise?” His member slowly prods from his furs, hinting at what he will do.
I bite my lower lip and grin. With my Halo glowing proud heat in my chest, I quip, “In your words, a riddle will suffice.”
He spreads his lips into a toothy grin. But I don’t drop my guard. I remember Pan’s tricks. How he cannot read my mind—except for that mere moment when I agree to his bargain and how he frames his riddles around whatever thought he’s read. All I consider is the direction I need to go. The Scourge’s lair.
“I have cities but no houses
I have mountains, but no trees.
I have water, but no fish.”
Unlike before, I don’t come to a split-second conclusion. It’s so simple, it shouldn’t be this difficult, but I blame it on these damned Spirit woods, on the demons of this forest inching closer to the circle, on the bees buzzing and interfering with my senses—even on Pan who scents my fear and moves closer to me. My father loved riddles, shared countless, but my human brain can’t be expected to rememberallof them! My flesh is too weak after using so much power to defy the ghouls. My heart short-circuits. Pitch-black thunderclouds swirl in my mind. And I gasp, clutching my arms to my ailing stomach.
