Of course, Wrath and the other horseman would think it was fine to hide in those rocky tunnels and amid those golden statues. They were sealed away millennia before Mytaz came into existence. They never would have recognized the peril they might face when they entered those caves.
Still, it took everything I had not to slap Wrath upside the back of his head and call him an idiot. He was lucky, that if Mytaz still lived, it wasn’t amid those tunnels and on that level of Eldorata. And then I almost slapped myself upside the head for considering it lucky for him to be alive.
It would have been far easier for me if Mytaz had frozen him before he ever entered the minotaur’s labyrinth. If I never encountered him there, I never would have known he was my Chosen, and my life would have continued on the same as always.
Except now, I was starting to consider my old life a rather lonely one. Sure, I enjoyed going from one partner to the next, but watching my friends and my king with their Chosen had made me realize there could be something more to life. Something I might enjoy having for myself.
Once I met Wrath, I stopped acknowledging the part of myself that had been longing for something more since Kobal met River. However, that longing for more was taking hold inside me again. Unfortunately, it was for someone who didn’t care about anyone beyond himself.
He did save my life and destroy War to keep me safe.
I couldn’t deny that, but he’d probably done it to save himself. If I died, then so did he.
“How did you find Eldorata?” I asked.
“Are you trying to learn my secrets, Bale?”
I started to frown at him, but then I saw the playful smile curving his lips and bringing that dimple back into view. Damn it, why did he have to be so irresistible in so many ways? I tore my attention away from him before that dimple crumpled the last of myself control.
I hated this game we played with each other. This give and take; this push and pull. I yearned for things to be simpler between us. I wanted to claim my Chosen without fearing I was giving a large piece of myself away by doing so. I also wanted my sister back as well as Mytaz and the horsemen dead.
I wanted so many things, but I wasn’t going to get any of them, and the wanting would only leave me bitter. It was better to release those dreams.
Still, tears pricked my eyes as I recalled Fiora kneeling on the ground with her hands raised as if she were handing something to Mytaz. I’d never know why she was in that position, or what transpired between them, but I’d always remember her that way.
Fiora was always beautiful, vibrant, and the opposite of me. She was carefree, where I was serious; outgoing, where I was reserved. She was part of the battle against Lucifer because she was raised to be, but whereas I relished the fight, she hated it.
When we were children, I would spend hours braiding her long black hair and marveling over its shine. I recalled her tiny face looking up at me while I played with her hair. We were only eleven years apart, extremely close in age for demon children. She would stare up at me with her big, green eyes the same color as mine and smile.
Her skin was paler than mine, and she hadn’t inherited our father’s ability to wield or withstand fire. Her visions were stronger than mine and, even as a child, she could foresee things, whereas my premonitions didn’t really develop until I became fully immortal.
However, she hadn’t seen Mytaz coming. She’d experienced countless visions of mundane things and others that helped us in battle, but she hadn’t seen her demise. But then, I didn’t know a single visionary demon who had foreseen their death and avoided it.
“I hope to be as pretty as you one day,” she’d say as I braided her hair.
I always kissed her forehead as I replied, “You’re already prettier.”
“We’ll be friends forever, won’t we, Bale?”
“Forever and ever,” I promised.
I’d always done my best to protect her because I knew she wasn’t as vicious as me. She would have been better off living in the Forest of Prurience with the tree nymphs than fighting every day against Lucifer. She was a far more tender being than me, and I was determined not to see her broken.
Then, one day, her life was extinguished, and it broke a part of me forever.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Bale
“Bale?”
I blinked as I realized Wrath was talking to me. Tearing myself away from the past, I focused on him. I couldn’t do anything more for Fiora, but once we found a way out of this place, I would return to remove her from this hideous place. I didn’t know what I’d do with her after; I couldn’t destroy her, and I couldn’t keep her, but I definitely could not allow her to remain here.
“What is it?” I asked.
His troubled gaze unnerved me more than when he was looking at me with hunger. His desire I understood; it was his instinctual reaction to his Chosen, but this tenderness was everything Wrath was not supposed to be.
This man was a monster, a horseman; he was not supposed to be kind. The whole possibility of him having an ounce of kindness was throwing me off balance more than if he’d punched me in the face. I could take a punch and react to it. I didn’t know how to respond to this.
“Eldorata. It’s in a lake,” he said.
It took me a couple of seconds to recall I’d asked him how they discovered Eldorata. “It’s in a lake?”
There was that damn dimply smile again. “Yes. It’s an island of rock in the middle of the lake, and the entrance is there.”
“How did you discover it?”
“Death found it.”
“In the middle of a lake?”
“He can float.”
I’d almost forgotten that unsettling bit of information about the creepiest horseman. “We never would have discovered you there. Unless one of the angels spotted it while flying over.”
“I know.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I have no intention of returning to it after all this is over.”
“So, when you took me out of the forest, you swam out to Eldorata with me?”
“Do I look like I swim?”
“You look like you do many things,” I said honestly. “And most of them aren’t good.”
When he laughed, I was so astounded by the sound that it took me a couple of seconds to realize I enjoyed the joyous tone of it. His laugh came deep from his belly and was entirely out of place in this golden place. However, I found myself grinning like an idiot in response to his laughter.
When he looked at me again, I forced myself to stop smiling, but it was too late, he’d seen it.
“I do some things extremely well,” he said.
The throaty timbre of his voice, his pointed look, and the innuendo of his words caused my belly to tighten in anticipation.
“You do realize we’re in the middle of a crypt, right?” I asked when I could speak again.
“Hell was a giant crypt too, and so is Earth, if you really think about it. There are a lot of dead on this planet.”
He had a point there. I just wasn’t going to acknowledge it.
“So, how did we get out to the island?” I asked.
“We rode Zorn to it. He’s an excellent swimmer.”
“A horse of a thousand talents.”
“Just like his rider.”
I wasn’t going to acknowledge that comment either. I already knew too much about some of those talents.
“Do you consider yourself Zorn’s master?” I asked, curious about their strange relationship.
“Zorn is part of my abilities and a part of me, but I’m not his master. He has a mind of his own, and he uses it freely. He chooses to stay with me because we are loyal to each other.”
“It sounds like you’re friends.”
“He’s the only friend I’ve ever had.”
That admission made me feel sadder than I would have liked for my enemy. I was probably better off not knowing more about this man, but he was a good di
straction from all the death surrounding us. If I looked closer at the statues, I might find some friends amongst them, so I didn’t look any closer.
“What did you do behind the seal?” I asked.
“We fought, we fed on the scraps of wraiths we got, we watched the hellfire out the windows, we went a little insane, we hibernated, and we fucked. Lust was more than accommodating in that way.”
I somehow managed to keep my face impassive at these blunt words, but jealousy seethed inside me like a rolling pit of hellfire. He was locked behind a seal for twelve thousand years with Lust; of course, he hadn’t gone without, but I’d never considered that they’d screwed their way through twelve thousand years. If she weren’t already dead, I would have gladly killed that bitch, and, once again, I was extremely tempted to smack him.
“At least you had her to keep you entertained,” I muttered.
I felt his eyes on me, but I refused to look at him. I was afraid he would see more than I was willing to share if I did.
“Yes, she was quite the diversion,” he said.
I almost turned my head to glower at him but managed to stop myself. He’d realized he struck a nerve with his revelation about him and Lust, and he was trying to pluck it more. I would not give him the satisfaction of knowing I was jealous. He would use it against me, and he already had far too many weapons to use against me.
“What do you mean, you hibernated?” I asked.
“One or more, and sometimes all of us, would slip into a sleep-like state for… I don’t know how long. Hours, days, weeks, years. When I couldn’t take another second of being trapped behind the seal, staring at the same things, and the endless monotony, I would simply slip away. And after a while, I would come back.”
As unexpected sorrow filled me, I almost rested my hand on his arm but kept my hand restrained. If I touched him, I didn’t trust myself to stop, but I hadn’t expected this sudden rush of pity.
He deserved to be locked behind the seal.
While that was true, it didn’t fortify my walls against him like it did in the beginning.
“That sounds horrible,” I said honestly.
His eyes were shards of black ice when they met mine. “It was a torture I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. The varcolac should have been courageous enough to face us and kill us, instead of being a coward who locked us away and never bothered with us again. None of the varcolacs ever bothered with us again. Once we were locked away, none of them had the balls to face us again and see what they’d done.”
“Kobal did.”
“What?”
“Kobal toured all the seals. He went and looked in on every single creature and demon locked down there.”
“The fuck he did; I never saw him.”
“Maybe it was during one of the times when you were hibernating, but he went down there. I know he did. He looked in on every single seal.”
A muscle twitched in Wrath’s jaw. “Good for him. He still did nothing about it.”
“What was he supposed to do? Free you so you and all the other things behind the seals could help Lucifer? Because that’s pretty much what happened when those seals came down. Some creatures like the púca and drakón are on our side, but the rest of you couldn’t wait to join with the enemy.”
“The varcolac has to pay,” he grated through his clenched teeth.
“There is no reasoning with you. Live with your anger and your desperate need for vengeance; let it continue to destroy your life. You’re right, that’s a much better way to live now that you’re free.”
We didn’t speak again for a while as our bare feet fell silently on the golden floor, but from the corner of my eye, I saw him occasionally scowling at me. I’d struck a nerve. Good.
As we progressed deeper into the darkness, I kept waiting for Mytaz to emerge, but only the shadows and statues continued to greet us.
After a while, he said, “I’m sorry about your sister.”
I glanced at him to make sure he wasn’t being an asshole, but he was serious. “Thank you.”
“Were the two of you close?”
“Yes. Then she was gone. But I guess that’s the way of things. One day, someone you love is there, and the next, they’re gone and you have no idea what happened, how it happened, or what to do with yourself. So you keep going when it’s the last thing you want to do because that’s the only option you have.”
“I wouldn’t know; I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”
“You’ve never lost someone you loved?”
“I’ve never loved anyone before.”
For some reason, I found this infinitely sad. The man was older than any demon I knew, yet he’d never experienced love. I’d never been in love with another before, but I’d loved my parents and my sister. I loved my king and my friends. I may not know how to show it, and I may not ever say it, but I loved them all, and I would grieve them forever if I lost them. I would always mourn my friends Verin and Morax, who perished during the final battle with Lucifer.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“For what? No one has hurt me before.”
“And that’s what I’m sorry about.”
He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind or morphed into a calamut tree. “It is a good thing.”
I wasn’t so sure he believed that. “That’s a long time to live without ever experiencing love.”
“Love is for fools.”
This he did believe, I realized as I took in the steely glint in his eyes. He desired me, and he would until the day one of us died, but unlike many other Chosen couples, he would never love me. I found this infinitely sad and depressing too. And I’d had enough of sad and depressing.
“That sounds like something a fool would say,” I said.
His eyes narrowed on me, but he didn’t respond. The firelight played over his handsome face and the chiseled muscles of his chest and abdomen. His pants, hanging low on his hips, revealed the perfect V of muscle pointing to his groin.
The man was perfection brought to life. I yearned for him so badly it had become a constant physical ache inside me, but I could never have from him what I truly craved from my Chosen.
I tore my attention away from him and focused on the tunnel again. “How old are you exactly?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I’ve been around a long time; after a while, all the years blended, and I stopped keeping track of things like age. I was behind the seal for twelve thousand years. I only know that because other demons told us after we regained our freedom. I was in Hell for maybe ten thousand years before that, give or take a few thousand years here or there.”
“Give or take a few thousand years?”
He smiled at me. “What are a few thousand years in the grand scheme of immortality?”
He had a point there. “So, you think you’re over twenty thousand years old.”
“Probably closer to thirty thousand, maybe older. As I said, I don’t know.”
“What about your parents?”
“I didn’t have parents, or at least I don’t think I did. If they existed, I don’t remember them. None of us remember having them. As far as I know, we are the originals of our species. None of us have found our Chosen and bred with another, and none of us remember someone giving birth to us. Perhaps one of us would have found our Chosen if we weren’t locked away, but just as there had to be the first fire demons, leporcháins, visionary demons, tree nymphs, and so on, there also had to be the first horseman. And we are them.”
He was far older and stronger than I’d realized. He was also far more alone. I’d witnessed the hatred that festered between the horsemen; he’d never had anyone to rely on. I should hate this man, but I was finding it increasingly difficult to do so.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Wrath
I didn’t know how long we walked before a faint glow started to show ahead of us. At first, I wasn’t sure if the light wa
s there or not, but when I doused my flames, I confirmed it was. Bale’s hand reached over her back, but I still had her sword, and I wasn’t giving it up.
If she wouldn’t use it to try killing me as quickly as she would to kill this Mytaz, I would give it back to her, but I didn’t trust her with it. I had enough to worry about in this endless world of golden figures without arming my enemy.
I’d stopped looking at the faces of the demons eternally trapped in this place, but I looked at them now as the distant glow intensified. I swore their eyes were pleading with us not to continue forward, but we had no other choice.
We could return to the hole and see where the other way down the tunnel led, but we had to find out what was at the end of this first. And if there was a light ahead, there might be a way out.
Bale’s hand fell back to her side; I ignored the seething look she shot me. I didn’t care if she was pissed; she was the one who stabbed me and left her sword in my stomach. I had a right to keep it after that.
As we neared the end, I pulled the sword from its sheath and smiled when the blade scraping against the scabbard made Bale scowl. She flexed her hand as if she were about to punch me, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. Then I saw it was her broken hand she was moving; she’d regained full use of it.
Our steps slowed as we neared the end of the tunnel, and we stopped before exiting. My mouth parted at the spectacle that greeted us. There were very few things that had ever astonished me. Finding my Chosen was one of them, the seal finally collapsing was another, and when I was much younger, I discovered I enjoyed watching the human realm.
The humans were little more than hunter-gatherers at the time, but they were fascinating to me. Things had changed a lot between the time I last looked at the human realm and the day I stepped onto it.
Edge of the Darkness (Hell on Earth Book 4) Page 13