by Lizzy Ford
“She did.” Darkyn nodded his head to the side to indicate the dead.
Deidre didn’t let her gaze stray, just focused on her bloodmate, whose presence made her feel like she wasn’t about to die for the first time since entering the underworld.
“Great fucking work, mini-demon,” Rhyn exclaimed. “Not to break this up, but we gotta retreat. They’re going to figure out what we did soon enough. Anyone else with you?”
“No,” Deidre replied.
“Congrats, half-breed,” Darkyn purred. “To touch Karma is to be judged. She’s of the souleater class of deities, meaning if she doesn’t like what she finds, there’s a chance she’ll make you dead-dead.”
Rhyn eyed the goddess.
Souleaters? Deidre said nothing.
The goddess was not quite normal yet, with half her hair in tight, cheerful curls while the other was in long, snakelike threads. One eye was human and a pretty shade green, the other filled with black.
“I take it you and I were judged to be … normal? Not worth eating?” Rhyn asked awkwardly.
“Somewhat balanced,” she supplied.
“Lead on, half-breed,” Darkyn ordered.
Rhyn shook his head but obeyed, striking off in a direction leading deeper into the forest. Darkyn motioned for Deidre to go ahead of him, touching her cheek lightly as he did, and trailed, daggers drawn.
“It’s okay, Karma,” Deidre whispered as they walked. “Unless you implode or something from Darkyn being too close, you’re safe.”
“Not implode,” Karma replied in a tight voice.
Deidre glanced back at Darkyn, whose attention was on their surroundings. They were in the middle of the underworld with countless foes pursuing them and her top thought was alone time with her ferocious bloodmate.
Karma giggled.
“Sorry.” Deidre blushed, aware the deity was able to feel her thoughts. “Are you really okay?”
“As much as can be. Karma has been weak for so long …” Karma drifted off. “You help me, but I fears what happens when word gets out she’s alive, and she’s not yet recovered.”
“Because you’re a souleater.” Deidre chewed her lip.
“Death, Dark One and Karma are all souleaters. We don’t necessarily eat them. We just take them.”
“What do you do with them?”
“I eats them.” Karma giggled again. “But it is a better fate than they’ll face in Hell.”
Evil has too many layers to these people. They walked in silence, Deidre’s stomach growling loudly while she kept a hold of Karma’s hand.
They didn’t go far but stopped when a death dealer popped up in their path.
Deidre froze, not ready for another battle so soon. To her relief, the half-demon ahead of her greeted the man with a wave of his hand.
“Landon! We found one. Two. Well, one and a half. Not sure what the half is yet,” Rhyn said with a wary glance at Karma.
“Temporary allies.” Deidre didn’t hear Darkyn move behind her, but she sensed his body heat and instinctively leaned back.
“Imbalance,” Karma hissed.
Deidre broke contact, disappointed but aware she was keeping the two from trying to kill one another.
“Take her to Andre. He’s balanced well enough,” Darkyn instructed her. “Then return to me, love. We need to talk, after I fuck you fast and hard.”
Deidre shivered at the husky note of hunger in his voice, her body crying for the Dark One. She moved forward with more haste than she intended, causing Karma to trip.
The goddess giggled again.
Flustered, Deidre said nothing but followed Rhyn, her blood humming with the idea she was about to taste and fuck her bloodmate after far too long. Only one uneasy thought remained from her uncertainty about an eternity in Hell, one she didn’t know how to bring up to him.
Later. She promised herself.
Chapter Fifteen
With some apprehension, she trailed Rhyn past two lines of death dealers that eyed her suspiciously before they reached a small cottage.
Rhyn pushed the door open, and she entered, tugging a reluctant Karma with her. She recognized the familiar, dark-skinned Andre instantly from the time he’d poked and prodded at her mind to determine how bad her brain tumor had been.
He smiled and stood from a small desk where he was writing with the help of a lantern, his genuine warmth and relaxed air reassuring her they were safe despite the leery death dealers.
“Deidre,” he said with a polite bow of his head. “There is not much here in the way of modern conveniences, but you’re welcome to have a seat.”
Karma was peering at him curiously.
Deidre sat on a bed, the only other place to sit in the one-room cabin, and the deity sat beside her.
“You are?” Andre asked, pulling his chair closer to them before he, too, sat.
“You may not want to get too close,” Rhyn warned from the doorway.
“Karma,” the deity answered.
“The Great Balancer,” Andre said. “A pleasure.”
“She’s really sensitive to those around her,” Deidre said. “I think because she’s relatively weak right now. Can’t really manage her … uh, reactions to people.”
“I take it you passed her test.” Andre offered a friendly smile. “I have nothing to fear.” He held out his hand.
Deidre’s breath caught at the blatant display, while Karma perked up.
“You wish to be balanced?” the deity asked.
“I do.” Andre appeared confident, his gaze steady and features warm.
“You sure?” Deidre asked. “Not that I know anything bad about you, but she has a way of turning people into skeletons and eating their souls, if you fail.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
Deidre released her grip on Karma, cringing when the deity took the Immortal’s hand. While she knew little about him, it was hard to think of a creature that lived thousands of years would be balanced.
Karma closed her eyes, and Andre did the sane.
Deidre exchanged a look with Rhyn, who appeared interested but unconcerned. “He’s the only one of my brothers who stands a chance at passing,” he explained.
The ground beneath the cabin trembled suddenly, the windows creaking.
Deidre looked down then at Rhyn. “Earthquake?”
“I don’t –”
Another quake.
Rhyn straightened. “You hear that?”
She cocked her head to the side. What sounded like the splintering and crashing of trees reached her. Confused by the sounds, she waited for Rhyn to say something else.
“It sounds like footsteps,” he said, turning to face the world outside the cabin.
Another tremble, more crashing.
“Footsteps?” she echoed and rose, crossing to the window. “It’d have to be the size of a dinosaur or something.”
“Giants.”
She sneaked a glance at him. By the severity of his features, he wasn’t joking.
“What kind of giants?” she whispered.
“The kind that want to fucking crush us.”
“This place is like a nightmare.” She shuddered, thoughts on the snakelike branches of the trees.
“Could be worse. Could be Hell.” He winked at her. “Stay here. I have to get to the ogre before Darkyn.” Rhyn threw open the wardrobe next to the door and pulled out a sword as long as her leg.
“Why?” she asked anxiously, heart flipping in her chest. “Is he that hurt?”
“Andre is giving out a Toughest Demon Award. I aim to win it.” Snatching a knife, he strode out of the cottage.
Perplexed, Deidre followed him with her gaze.
“There’s no such thing,” Andre said from behind her. “It was my attempt to keep the two of them focused on their mission here and not killing one another. Unfortunately, they took it a little too seriously.”
She turned, sighing with relief to see him alive. Karma’s hair was in tight, cheerfu
l ringlets, her eyes green. Her features glowed.
“He’s balanced!” The deity all but shrieked.
“And you are a very young goddess,” Andre replied. “You’ll need to learn some self-control.”
Karma rolled her eyes at the brotherly tone.
“I’m glad you’re getting along,” Deidre said, amused.
Another tremble of the earth beneath her drew her attention to the wardrobe. She didn’t know how to handle any of the weapons on display there and wished she did.
“Are there enough people on our side to handle a giant?” she asked. “And where is Gabriel?”
“The forest sent him a different direction,” Andre explained. “The answer to your first question is no. We aren’t currently equipped to face ogres or the amount of death dealers allied with Harmony.”
“Is there a plan?”
“Not to get killed before Gabriel gets this situation under control.”
Worry for her mate made Deidre step out of the cabin. The earth tremors were getting stronger, the sounds of crashing trees closer. The giants came from the direction opposite of the palace, and she saw the loyal death dealers scrambling to form two fronts.
Dread sank into her stomach, heavier than ever. Fully sated after her meal, she nonetheless knew Darkyn had to be all the weaker for not having a chance to drink her blood. He was the most incredible fighter in the universe, but if he was truly cut off from his source of power and injured, he was also vulnerable to fatigue or being mortally wounded.
“Andre, you all need to be ready to move.” A death dealer ducked into the doorway behind her and called. “There’s no guarantee we can hold this position.”
“Understood.”
Deidre looked up at the dual moons of the underworld hovering far overhead. If she was able to fight so well when weak, what could she do now that she’d fed? The steady thrum of depravity was around her, waiting to be tapped into.
Cries of pain came from a short distance behind the cabin, and she whirled.
“Deidre, come with me,” Andre said calmly, joining her.
Karma, too, was transfixed by whatever was attacking from the rear.
“We need to move, ladies. There’s a rendezvous point in case we get separated. The Lake of Souls,” Andre said.
Deidre listened. Darkyn’s faint scent was in the air. He was somewhere near the attacking giants. The fact she as able to smell him so easily made her stomach churn. She’d been too hungry to assess the state of her mate, to understand exactly how injured he was.
“I have to go, Andre,” she said, starting forward.
“Deidre-”
“Take Karma. I’ll be fine.” This time, she knew it to be true. With a newfound confidence in her ability to take care of herself and a full stomach, Deidre didn’t think much of anyone was going to stand in her way of reaching Darkyn.
Andre’s words were lost as she broke into a run. Deidre raced towards the sound of fighting, adrenaline filling her ears with the sound of rushing wind while her fingernails grew. She battled the stubborn forest on her own, and then stumbled upon the path being used by death dealers headed towards the fight. The forest made way for them.
The closer she got, the more blood was in the air, a sign the battle was not going well. She sought out Darkyn’s scent, veering from the cleared path when the shifting winds brought his trail from a new direction.
Her pace slowed considerably as she fought the brush and trees, but she didn’t have to go far. The shadows of some great, ancient creatures soon fell over her, and she froze, staring ahead of her with fear.
“Holy hell,” she whispered, stricken.
The two giants were a head taller than the tallest of the trees, great, ugly creatures headed in the direction of the cottage. One swung a sword large enough to cut a path through the trees while the other wielded a club made out of stone.
Deidre considered turning back, until she caught the scent of Darkyn once more.
He’d come this far to save her. She wasn’t going to abandon him to face these … things alone.
Starting forward again, she soon reached an area where the giants had cleared of trees. Bodies and pieces of bodies littered the forest area and the battleground. Someone had started a tree on fire, and the writhing branches screamed, adding to the sounds of booming footsteps and shouts of death dealers.
She ducked down, searching the chaotic scene for her mate. Her nails were long, her mouth watering at the thought of drawing blood. A look up at the nearest of the two giants reminded her there was no way she’d be able to inflict any sort of damage on a monster that size.
The giants walked slowly, each step making the ground rumble and shake. She shifted to maintain her balance, uncertain how she’d find her mate in the mess.
Deidre bit her thumb and then held it up, letting the wind take the scent of her blood towards the battle. She crept forward and ducked, horrified to see a giant’s sword cleave the five new dealers on the scene in two the minute they stepped into the melee.
One of them dropped a torch, and fire spread slowly around the giant’s shoe. His bellow made her cover her ears with a wince.
“Deidre?”
It wasn’t Darkyn’s voice but Rhyn’s.
“You here?”
“Yes.” She stood carefully, balancing herself against a tree.
The large, half-demon left the cover of a thatch of bushes and ducked behind the tree beside her.
“You shouldn’t be,” he said.
“I came for Darkyn.”
“You plan on rescuing him?”
“Maybe,” she said archly.
“That right there disqualifies him.”
She rolled her eyes, recalling what Andre had said. He was a shrewd motivator, given the combative, competitive nature of the demons she’d met.
“You need to get the fuck out of here,” Rhyn said firmly.
“I’m not leaving. I know he’s hurt, and I know he needs to –”
“Ssssshhh. Get back and don’t move.” The half-demon had gone rigid, his back pressed to the tree.
Deidre sucked in a breath and stood still, peering through the branches of the tree she was behind to see what was going on.
The giant with the shoe on fire was kneeling, batting out the flames. His head was a little too close for her comfort, a mere ten feet away.
“When I say, run that way.” Rhyn pointed to the side of her opposite him.
“Run?” she echoed. “Won’t he come after me?”
“That’s the plan.” He whirled his sword and gripped it with two hands. “You’re bait.”
“Great.” She frowned, her nails digging into the tree.
“And Deidre?”
She looked over at him.
“When I say run, I mean run fast. Just in case.”
With a shake of her head, she straightened and readied herself to run. She sniffed the wind and was somewhat relieved to realize Darkyn was in the direction she would soon be headed. She’d seen him fight in the video tutorials his predecessor, Zamon, showed her in the library in Hell. Nothing in the universe was able to match Darkyn’s agility, cunning and lethality. If anyone could defeat a giant, it was him, assuming he had access to his magic or regeneration ability and wasn’t already severely injured. The reminder of all he’d given up to find her was disturbing. Even without his power, he was a formidable foe.
“Ready?” Rhyn hissed.
She swallowed hard and balanced herself.
“Now!”
Deidre darted and immediately toppled to the ground when the giant took a step. Scrambling up with a curse, she took off, leaping and slapping brush away, staggering each time the giant stepped.
Another pain-filled bellow split the air.
“Duck!” Rhyn shouted.
She dropped to the ground without hesitation, squeezing her eyes closed. The sound of metal smashed through trees not far above her head. Trees groaned and crashed to the ground, and she twisted to
see behind her.
The giant had Rhyn’s sword sticking out of one eye and was pursuing somewhat clumsily, blood streaming down its skewed face. It crashed to its knees, and Deidre flinched, waiting for the trees it hadn’t chopped down to fall over.
“Plan B!” Rhyn grabbed her arms and hauled her up. “Run like fuck.” He pushed her in one direction then took off in another.
She ran hard, following the scent of Darkyn.
The giant stormed off after Rhyn, and she caught herself against a tree, pausing to catch her breath and assess her situation.
The other giant was under attack from a handful of death dealers and a familiar shape she’d know anywhere: Darkyn. He was moving effortlessly, striking at the monster’s tendons and the sensitive parts of his feet and legs, his daggers whirling too fast for her eyes to follow. He clambered up one leg as if gravity had no hold on him and slammed a sword deep into the giant’s thigh.
The monster bellowed, and Darkyn leapt to the ground, sword in hand. A thick rivulet of blood spurted out of the giant’s thigh, and she guessed he’d hit the main artery.
Teetering, the giant swung wildly at the surrounding forest with its club, taking out one death dealer and half a dozen trees.
The wind shifted, taking her scent towards her mate, and Darkyn signaled her back without turning, his focus between commanding the few death dealers willing to face the creature and the furious ogre.
Deidre saw the club move towards him in slow motion. A scream stuck in her throat. The massive stone club smashed into the back of the Dark One with a sickening crunch and threw him twenty feet into the air. As if one blow wasn’t enough, the ogre hit him again mid air, driving him straight into a tree.
She stared, not believing what she saw to be remotely possible.
Deidre stumbled forward, jarred back into the moment by the sound of her own scream. Oblivious to the dangerous battle so close to her, she darted across the cleared area to the still form of her mate.
“Darkyn!” she cried, dropping onto her knees beside him.
The scent of his blood was thick in the air, the sources too numerous for her to identify.
“Darkyn!” she said more softly, rolling him onto his back.
He was alive and growling. His skin was warm, and she wiped blood from his roughly hewn features. His chest appeared to be crushed, along with most of his body.