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We walked in silence for a long while, until it became too much for me to bare.

“So, you said you’re here helping me for a friend?” I asked, trying to clear the weird tension. It was as if Tyr was holding himself back around me.

“I am,” he replied, making me chuckle.

“I think this is the part where you tell me who.”

“His name has changed, as he left his home realm to live among your own kind… but to me, he has always been known as Geryon.”

I cocked my head a little at this.

“Geryon?” Now where had I heard that name before?

“He is the King of the Realm of Fraud. Although he grew tired of the title, so he appointed someone to rule in his place.”

I would have asked more, but Asher got there first and told me,

“His name in the mortal realm is Clay, and he works for the Vampire King.”

“Wait, he works for Lucius? That’s my cousin’s husband!” I said, excited to know Jared was not facing this alone. My question made Asher nod.

“They too wish to ensure your safety and would welcome your return.”

Oh, I bet, I just wished it was that simple. However, since that ugly bird man had not only stolen my powers but also bound me to this place, I couldn’t see a trip back on the cards anytime soon. Something I would have told them, but then Tyr pointed ahead and told me,

“There, look see, the village of Ananke is up ahead in the Asphodel Meadows.”

“Ananke?” I questioned.

“It means the power of fate,” Tyr told me with a grin, making me wonder what that look was for.

“And what type of people live there? No zombies, I hope.”

He laughed.

“The Asphodel Meadows is a place for souls who are neither particularly virtuous nor wicked…so none of your zombies,”he teased, making me smirk.

“Well, that sounds safe enough,” I commented, making Asher scoff.

“There are dangers lurking everywhere, and any village has its fair share of threats, with bounty hunters and the unruly demons that wish to allude them.”

Tyr’s expression hardened, before he affirmed,

“All of which we will protect her from, Demon.”

Asher gritted his teeth in response, but whatever his thoughts, he didn’t voice them. Of course, it was getting more obvious by the minute that they didn’t like each other. Something that stemmed, no doubt, from Tyr’s obvious flirting with me. But then, Asher was loyal to Jared, so it wasn’t surprising. And even though I was putting it down to harmless fun for the God, I did worry that Asher believed it to be more. Something I was hoping would be a moot point once I was back with my HellBeast. As Tyr would soon see for himself where my heart lay. And if he didn’t get the hint, then I would explain it to him when the time was right. God or no God, he would soon know that there was only one man for me.

Meaning my mind remained firmly on the one who owned my heart, making me sigh internally before asking,

Where are you,Beastman?

8

INN THE MIDDLE

The village of Ananke was surprisingly quaint for what I would have imagined, seeing as it was in Hell. But then I was coming to realize pretty quickly that any human prenotions I had of what Hell looked like, was wrong. Because it wasn’t all fiery landscapes and tortured souls begging for freedom. In fact, it was just like an alternate version of Earth…just a more brutal and monstrous kind.So, it may have been demons and mythical creatures roaming around, but it was a civilization all the same. Meaning there must have been some kind of an infrastructure in place. Enough to build the houses that I saw now and grow food that I could see being sold at the marketplace we were currently walking through.

Like once again stepping back in time, the village square was surrounded by wooden structures with demonic vendors standing behind, selling their goods. These market stalls were nothing more than crates, planks of wood, and sheets of torn cloth hanging over four poles at the corners.