“I wonder what Samael is doing,” Mal pondered.
His question was answered a moment later when the door was flung open and a red-faced demon with a shock of brown hair that seemed to have a mind of its own appeared.
“Lord Samael begs you join him.” His gaze swept over us and settled on Keon. “All of you.” He stepped back to allow us through.
Well, looked like Samael hadn’t lost his clout, even if he’d been AWOL for a couple of centuries.
Azazel offered me his arm and the four of us entered as if we owned the place.
It turned out we did. Well, Samael did. He’d bought the tavern, and as the new owner abolished the no daemon rules. Several demons left when Keon entered, but the majority didn’t bat an eye.
The meal was delicious, and the ale was sweet and tangy. We stayed just over an hour and when it was time to leave, Keon pulled me aside.
“You didn’t have to do that,” he said.
“Yes.” I smiled up at him. “I did.”
He slow blinked, and his pupils dilated. “Thank you.”
I took a step back, because if I didn’t put distance between us, I’d do something stupid like hug him, and if I did that then I might not want to let go.
I turned to find Azazel watching me, but there was no annoyance or anger on his face. No, what I saw on his face was worse.
It was pity.
He masked it quickly, but I’d seen it and it made my stomach hurt. Now wasn’t the time to talk about it.
Now was the time to fly.
We landed a half mile outside of the pit region. The skies in the distance were red and purple, a warning of the toxic atmosphere, that by some mystical force, hung over only that area. A dark dot sliced across the sky, moving toward us.
“What’s that?” I pointed at the moving object.
“A bird?” Mal said.
“So close to the pit?” Azazel didn’t sound convinced.
Samael raised his chin to watch the dot zip away and vanish into the toxic atmosphere.
“Probably a creature indigenous to the pit,” Samael said. “If not, then it’ll be dead now.” He transferred his gaze back to us. “Wrap up so we can get moving.”
The air was icier here, but the guys had brought furs with them, which we draped on now. They’d also brought extra soles for our boots, spiked to grip the ice better.
“The pit is the coldest region of the Underealm,” Samael warned us. “Our kind is resistant to the cold and the heat, but this region will effect even the strongest demon or daemon.”
I tugged the furs tighter around me, and then pulled on the gloves and hat Azazel passed me, both were way too big, but they’d do. “Is it uninhabited?”
“No,” Samael said. “There is life which has adapted to the sub-zero temperatures. We encountered the indigenous creatures on our quest to slay Satan, and they are very hostile. Be on your guard.”
Mal hauled the backpack he’d been carrying on his front onto his back. “I have everfire and food.”
“What’s everfire?”
“Blue flame that can burn anywhere,” he said. “It’s pretty cool. You’ll see.”
“We need to drink this now.” Keon held up a small bottle filled with an icky-looking green liquid.
The tincture.
He uncorked it and took a sip then passed it to Azazel. My soulmate’s mouth turned down after he’d drunk but he didn’t complain.
Mal was more vocal. “What the fuck, that tastes like toad bollocks.”
Oh great.
Samael drank from the vial, then passed it to me, but it slipped between our fingers and hit the ground. I scooped it up but not before some tincture had spilled.
Fuck.
I looked at the inch of liquid left.
“Drink.” Samael said. “There’s enough.”
The tincture was bitter making my eyes sting and scraping the back of my throat as it went down. It tasted so bad I was sure it would make me sick, but even though my stomach threatened to rebel, a few deep breaths calmed it down.
Keon studied the leftover tincture, his expression grim. “The effects last anywhere from twenty-four hours to thirty. We were meant to take it in two doses so not as to be sick.”
“I assume we no longer have enough for a second dose of the tincture?” Mal drawled.
Keon held up the vial. There was only an inch of tincture left.
Samael looked worried. “The fortress is half a day’s trek.”
Twelve hours to the fortress and then twelve hours back didn’t give us much time for the actual rescuing of Lilith if our time limit was only twenty-four hours. We’d have to stop on the way to rest, and then if something went wrong…
Fuck.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Cora
Watching Grayson and Hunter pace is almost therapeutic. They cross at regular intervals, neither looking at the other as they take a moment to think.
What we need is Uri to send a phoenix to the Underealm, but Uri hasn’t returned from his trip to the Beyond to gather intel on Eve and her offspring, and we need a way to get a message to Fee, to let her know Cain is on his way.
I rest my elbows on the island in the kitchen and prop my chin in my hands and continue to watch the alpha Loup in their pacing dance.
“I don’t know if they’ll be able to handle this,” Dean says from beside me. “Not being able to protect their mate. It’s a basic primal instinct.”
We’ve been acting normal around each other, but Jasper lingers between us like a bad smell, and I know in my heart that any possibility of Dean and me is dead. I’m not one for crying over spilled milk though—if it wasn’t meant to be then fuck it. We can still be friends.
I shrug. “It’s not like they have a choice. Fee is there and her mates are here.”
“And Cain is headed to the Underealm.” Dean reminds me of our current theory.
“We don’t know that for sure.”
“Uh-huh.” He arches a brow as if to say, you keep believing that.
“Fine. It’s the only logical explanation for what he took and who he took. Super vamps to carry a super virus to kill reapers and demons. But I don’t get why. Why does he want to kill demons? I mean how is that vengeance against Samael and Eve and…Samael.” Oh, wait a second…
“What?” Dean prods.
“Samael helped Eve put Cain down.”
“You think he’s gunning for Samael?” Dean asks.
“Could be. It would make sense.”
“Which makes alerting them even more urgent.”
I could go. I could jump and try to find them. Fee made it clear I was meant to stay here and keep an eye on Cain, but if Cain was going to the Underealm then… Sod it.
“I can go.”
Grayson and Hunter both stop pacing and turn to look at me. In that moment they look so similar yet so different that it makes my head hurt.
“No,” Grayson says finally.
“Why Not?” Hunter asks him. “If she can get there—”
Grayson shoots him a cutting look, one that makes me wither even though it’s not directed at me, but Hunter lifts his chin, lip curling as he basks in it.
“I’m not going to apologize for wanting to protect my mate,” Hunter says. “And considering you’re the one she’s in love with, I’d expect you to want to save her too.”
“Not at the expense of someone she loves more than all of us,” Grayson says.
I blink at him in surprise. Wait, is he talking about me?
“They may have already left for the pit,” Grayson says. “Cora can’t follow them there. The air is toxic. Not to mention she’ll be unprotected. What if she’s attacked.” He makes a slashing motion in the air. “Fee wouldn’t want this. She wouldn’t want Cora in the line of fire.”
I want to say I can take care of myself, but when it comes to the Underealm, I’m not so sure. I have to put more effort into jumps that drain me and don’t always work and getting out is a bitch. But Fee is out there, and Cain is on his way to her, and I need to do something…and she loves me above all the guys? I can’t even…
My heart swells with love for her. “I can go check the keep.”
“And what if Mammon has attacked?” Grayson says. “What if you’re walking into danger? You can’t jump back out, not without help.”
I can’t argue with that. Agitation flares to life behind my sternum and the need to do something makes my knees bounce.
“Don’t even think about it,” Jasper says from the stool opposite me.
Dean jumps in shock at the malevolent spirit’s sudden appearance.
I don’t even flinch. Instead I level a glare at him. “You’re not invited to this discussion.”
“If it concerns your welfare then it’s my business,” he says.
“You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do.”
He leans in. “I can make life extremely difficult for you, Cora.”
“Hey!” Dean pushes back his stool. “Don’t fucking threaten her.”
I’m suddenly flanked by Hunter, Grayson, and Dean, cocooned in an aura of testosterone.
Jaspers eyes narrow. “You think you can keep her from me?”
Oh, for fucksake. “Me going to the Underealm doesn’t affect our deal. If you’re so worried your anchor will get damaged, you can tag the fuck along.”
His jaw ticks and a realisation blooms in the back of my mind. “Wait…you can’t come with me, can you?”
He smiles, cold and empty. “Don’t get any ideas, Cora. You stay away too long and you’ll feel the effects too. Trust me, they won’t be pleasant.”
But he can’t come with me. I’ll be free of him for a bit.
“No one is sending Cora to the Underealm,” Grayson says. “None of us would risk her life. She means too much to us all.”
His words are like a hug that make my eyes burn. Fuck it. These guys.