AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Edmund rushed to my side. “Are you hurt? What happened? Elle?”
I sat upright, and Edmund extended his hand, then helped me to my feet. Even Maddox’s eyebrows were set downward. “You’ve been gone for hours. Three demons got out.”
I couldn’t let anything happen to them. They were all I had left. And three demons? I pressed my hands against my temples. My mind wasn’t whole. I couldn’t think straight, let alone form the right words to explain what had happened back there.
Edmund held me up, even though I was more than capable, but the touch, the closeness, I needed. Edmund sighed. “We can’t hold off the demons. More will come. What happened? Is Thalia coming? Raiden and Aziel?”
The words left my mouth before I even realized I was saying them. “No.” I gulped. “Close the portal.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
If Raiden thought I was going to leave him there, he had another thing coming. I wasn’t going to abandon him. I passed the emerald from one hand to the other. Naomi had forged an illusion of sunshine, but it did little to shield them against the cold of the mountain. She snuggled into Maddox’s fur coat. Only he’d been sensible enough to bring one.
He shuddered against the cold. He loved us way more than he’d ever let on, but moments like this warmed my heart.
I cut my hand and dripped blood into the little metal box Edmund had brought. I cut myself again and repeated it several times until it was brimming with immortal blood. “This should work.” Edmund arched a light eyebrow. Snowflakes caught in his ash-blond hair and melted into the golden strands.
“It was your idea, so it probably will.” I smiled and gestured him toward the opening of the cave.
He inhaled deeply, then dipped his fingers in my blood. He smoothed it against the symbols around the opening, and the foggy portal opened.
“You’re a genius.” I grinned at Edmund.
“Simple but effective,” Maddox said. That was considered high praise when coming from him. “You don’t have the dagger. It’s not safe for you to go back in there.”
“I’ll be careful.” I handed him the emerald. “This doesn’t work anymore?”
He lifted it to the sky, examining it through pale light. “No. Whatever spell it held was strong though, a level six if we’d had it.”
“Vault-worthy.” I raised my eyebrows. “Then my only way in or out is through this portal, which means my life is literally in your hands.”
Ferocity hardened Edmund’s strong features. “We won’t abandon you.”
My heart swelled. “I know you won’t.”
Naomi placed her hand on mine as I stepped to the portal. “Elle, are you sure he’s worth it?”
My heart was doing all the deciding. “He has to be.”
Edmund cleared his throat. “Set your watches. We’re going to go back to the forest and build a fire. I will climb back here and open this at ten ten.”
I looked at the time on the watch Edmund had gifted me on my birthday. It was almost six minutes past seven. “If anyone can do this,” Naomi said, “it’s you. You’re the strongest person I know.”
I leaned down and hugged her. “Take care of them,” I whispered in her ear. I didn’t know how to break the news about Aziel. I knew she liked him. At least I thought she did, going by the few interactions I’d seen. “Um, Nai, I need to tell you something.”
A screech sounded at the opening as a demon attempted to escape. It clawed through the fog, its snarling, black tongue and lips tasting the air.
“Later!” I lunged at the creature, falling back through the portal. “Close it!” I shouted out of the opening, and the cave sealed into a void.
The demon grabbed me, wrapping its slimy fingers around my arm as it tried to escape even though the portal had closed. Its matte-black eyes stared into mine, penetrating and soulless. “Goddess,” he spat, sensing my immortality. He was a lesser demon. From what Lucius had said, this creature didn’t strike me as a high demon or whatever. It reeked of desperation.
“I could wipe you from existence,” I said threateningly, a snarl escaping through bare teeth.
It retreated, slimed back against the rugged wall, and slithered away. I smoothed my hair down and sucked in a deep breath.
I sped in the direction of the castle but stopped between two barren trees in the wasteland. Silencing my pace, I moved slower but quieter toward the moat. There was no way I could walk through the doors again without Lucius being alerted. In the distance on the horizon of the wasteland were demons, stalking and searching.
I glared down at the bubbling lava, cringing at what I needed to do. Slowly, with vomit ready to climb up my throat, I stepped into the molten rock. Pain seared through me, but it was tolerable enough to keep going. I waded knee-deep; my eyes wide as heat prickled through my melting skin. It healed, then burned, then healed again in a vicious cycle as I moved through the moat. I looked down and saw one of the bones in my leg, then threw up into the lava.
