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A muscle jumped in Xen’s jaw as he stared at the door, face impassive even though his shoulders remained tense.

For some reason, Evan felt like he was looking at his younger self, hesitating before trying to confront the kid who bullied him for being different. That unease weighing in the stomach, muscles tensing involuntarily, and staring blankly into space, they were things Evan was familiar with.

Absentmindedly, he reached up and rested his hand against the broad expanse of Xen’s back. The hard ridges of muscles somehow tensed even further. When his eyes shifted to Evan, slightly wide and confused, Evan mustered up a half-hearted smile for him. “Let’s go get Reth.”

Xen’s lips parted ever so slowly. Then one corner of his mouth curled into a smirk. Faster than a human brain could register, he moved, yanked Evan into his arms, and grasped his chin.

“My, my," he drawled, voice velvet. "Aren’t you growing comfortable around me.”

Evan was shocked into dumbfounded silence for only a second—a second of relishing being pressed against Xen’s warm, hard body—before he stiffened, face flushing. “You fucking—let go!”

Xen nuzzled his temple. “Make me.”

“You…you… I’ll kill yo—”

Thump. Thump.

Evan froze mid-struggle. Xen stilled.

The ground trembled beneath their feet as Evan’s wide eyes darted towards the direction from where they’d entered the clearing, then towards the temple enclosed within a tree.

An earthquake?

Thump. Thump. Thump.

It sounded like a rock was playing hopscotch. And it was hopping closer, the sound growing louder with each jump.

“What’s that?” Evan’s sensitive ears hurt as the thumping assaulted his senses, the sound echoing inside his skull.

Xen still had one hand around Evan’s waist as he tilted his head, listening closely. Then he made anohsound of surprise. But it was so fake that Evan didn’t even have to look at him to know.

“It’s my old friend,” Xen said, sliding his hand that was around Evan’s waist lower, into his back pocket.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Evan didn’t appreciate the way the word “friend” rolled off of Xen’s lips. He pursed his mouth. “Does thisfriendof yours want to kill you?”

“Perhaps,” Xen dropped his head against Evan’s shoulder as the ground quaked harder, leaves rustling somewhere nearby, creatures shrieking away. “He guards what’s inside the temple.”

Evan’s ears picked up a low growl over the deafening thumping, and he spun around just as a hand popped from behind the tree cradling the temple.

A stony hand. Ahuge,stony hand. Big enough to grab half a dozen men in its fist at once. As a head came into view next, made of rocks of all sizes stacked together, Evan’s heart thundered, trying to jump out of his chest and flee back home.

Xen lowered his mouth to his ear, a smile evident in his voice as he said, “We’ll have to face him first.”

12. A Cursed Guard

“What…is that thing?” Evan’s voice was hushed to the point his words were just breathy squeaks, afraid that the monster might hear him.

“A Hellguard,” Xen mused. “In his original form.”

Evan stiffened further, movements jerky. “Holy shit…”

Other than pondering about Xen’s position in the demon hierarchy, Evan hadn’t spared much thought about other kinds of demons and what they might look like. That purple-eyed demon he’d exorcised from the girl was horrid-looking, and it was only a low-level.

If this thirty-foot-huge pile of rocks, which didn’t seem to have eyes and was grabbing into the air like it was trying to choke something, was a Hellguard, Evan didn’t want to imagine what an Eternal’s true form might look like.

Just like that, Evan was glad Xen was a low-level. Grateful even.