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He stared Servante down. “The sword will never be yours. Keep her.” It was cold. Unfeeling. Necessary.

Hel’s white wings materialized, and he curled an arm around Valeen’s waist.

“Sister,” Servante said to Varlett. “Don’t let them leave your new home. Take your revenge.”

“With pleasure.” She raised both arms upward. “Kill them.” And the host of demons charged once again. The giant hound knocked others aside with its massive shoulders and howled. The fat twin-headed monster stomped toward them.

Hold onto me.Valeen wrapped her arms around Hel’s neck, and they shot into the air. Beasts snapped at their heels, just out of reach. The giant hound ran up the fat monster and launched at them, latching onto Valeen’s boot. She screamed and swung Soulender, slicing into the back of its neck, severing the spine. It dropped like a stone to the ground and green blood splattered all around its body. The others dove in and started eating it, tearing into the flesh, crunching bones and ripping limbs.

She moved her foot around to make sure she felt no sting and breathed a sigh of thanks that the teeth hadn’t cut through the thick leather.

“Did the bite get through?” Hel sounded almost frantic.

“No, I’m alright… We’ll come back for your mother.”

“If that was truly her, we’ll return.”

Hel weaved between trees and rose above the black canopy of the forest into the deep blue-black sky. There was no sun or moon here to guide them, only an eerie glow that seemed to come from nowhere in particular.

“You’re not the only thing that can fly down here, Hel!” Varlett let out a cackle that sent a chill down her back.

I hate that wench. And now she’s a princess. A demon but still a princess.

A swarming dark cloud came up behind them. At first, she thought they were bees but there were at least a thousand bats.They twisted and turned as if they were one mind. The screeches and bellows grated on her sensitive ears.

The buzz of magic in her veins was but a whisper of what it could be. Not even enough to conjure lily at this point. If hers was still this weak, it was a miracle Hel was even able to bring out his wings.

His muscles tensed as he held her tightly around her middle. Determination hardened his features. “I wanted to bring the ring back to save you, not make her a fucking princess of the underrealm,” he muttered.

“I know.”

“Hold on.” His arms tightened around her, she hooked her heels behind his back, and he rolled left. Her stomach clenched, and she squeezed harder around his neck and hips. He twirled again and she held in a squeal. “Sorry. I had to get around that thing. Whatever it was.”

Behind them, a giant gray monster with only a mouth on its misshapen head, chased after them, taking down trees in its way. It roared and jumped, massive three-fingered hands reaching for them. “UP! GO UP!”

His wings beat hard, taking them higher. The monster jumped again, propelling upward with an unnatural force. Valeen squealed through her teeth, leaned back, and swung down with Soulender, slicing through the monster’s fingers. It roared, not in pain but in anger, barely missing Hel’s boots.

The swarm of bats was gaining on them. Together, their wings sounded like a hive of bees, and the closer they came, the louder it was. She reached into her belt and threw a star at a fanged bat with a wingspan as wide as she was tall. The star lodged into its neck, and it went down with a screech. But she only had four more and there were too many to count.

Suddenly, Hel roared. There was asnap, and they were falling. The breath was pulled from her lungs at the rapid plummet.

Hel, what happened? Hel!

His face was twisted in agony, but he wrapped her tighter and angled his back toward the ground as they fell faster and faster. Tree branches broke and buckled beneath their combined weight. She tried to call on her vines to halt them, but nothing came—the spark of her magic wasn’t there.Shadows, vines, anything!Branches whipped her face, cut into her cheeks and tore at her hair.

Hel hissed and grunted, taking the brunt of it all, until they smacked into the ground. He released his hold on her and rolled onto his side, coughing and gasping, trying to suck in shallow breaths.

“Hel!”His wings, gods, his wings.White feathers slowly fluttered from the trees and landed around them. The left one was broken in two places, half covered in black soot. The right side’s feathers were smeared with blood. He cradled his right shoulder and repeated “fuck” at least ten times.

Horrified, she knelt helpless beside him. “Can you tuck your wings away?”

The sound of the swarm grew louder. The stomping of that giant creature shook the ground. The howling of the hounds echoed all around them.

“No,” he wheezed. “They’re not—fuck—I can’t.”

Tears burned. “We have to go. Take my hand.”

Reaching out with his left, she pulled and draped his arm around her shoulder. He outweighed her by about a hundred pounds with those wings, and she felt the pressure of it too. “We’re almost to the door. We can make it.”