Page 28

“The what ?”

Xen ignored Evan’s question and started walking towards the overgrown shrubbery beyond the abandoned residential area, tearing down the walls of thorns with a flick of his wrist.

Zeev remained behind, waiting for Evan to move. With an annoyed click of his tongue, Evan followed Xen. The Shadow shrunk to a hand and rested on Evan’s shoulder, snuggling close to his neck.

After treading the dense forest for a while, Zeev was the first to speak up. “If I may, sir, what is that in your pocket?”

Evan glanced back at him, confused, then shoved his hands into his pockets and realized the Nightshade’s earring and Aaron’s phone were gone. Probably Aaron’s doing.

Instead, in his left pocket, something soft and wiggly curled inside his palm.

Startled, Evan yanked the thing out of his pocket, ready to send a blast of energy with his free hand. But when he held it up, he squinted in the dark at the little thing jiggling in his hand.

Zeev held up his hand, and a flame ignited in his palm. He brought it close to Evan’s hand, shedding light over whatever was hanging between his fingers.

Evan’s brows knitted when he saw what it was. “You… When did you sneak into my pocket?”

It was the little ball of smoke, the child spirit.

“It seems familiar to you, sir,” Zeev studied the ball of smoke from behind his mask. “If not, I could disperse it for you.”

“There’s no need for that,” Evan cupped his hands together, and the ball of smoke curled like a little kitten in his palms. Its essence was soothing, almost…familiar. “It’s harmless.”

Maybe it was lost or died too young to understand it no longer belonged in this world. Such spirits would seek warmth near human bodies, mistaking them to be their parent.

Zeev inclined his head, acknowledging his order. “As you wish, sir.”

Evan slid the ball of smoke back into his pocket then turned to Zeev. “Earlier, I came across a Hellguard and a hound of some kind. It had three eyes and seven tails. I thought they were trying to stop us from leaving the forest, but instead they started fighting each other. Do you know why?”

Behind that white mask, it was impossible to tell Zeev’s expressions. But Evan had a hunch he was frowning. “I believe the demon was sent to stop and possibly drag you back to where you were initially held. The land acquired by the Covenant of the Nightshades is guarded by such creatures.”

“What Hellguard is free enough to roam in the human world, patrolling the territory of some freak cult? Aren’t they supposed to serve an Eternal or something?”

Zeev gave a brief nod. “Mostly, yes. But not always. If a Hellguard hasn’t pledged loyalty to one of the Abyssal Trinity, he isn’t bound to serve them, and can roam any realm at will.”

So basically, stray dogs.

“And that hound?” Evan asked.

“It was sent for your aid.”

Aid? That monstrous—kind of fluffy—thing was sent for Evan’s aid? By whom, God of Death?

As soon as the question of “who” surfaced in his mind, Evan’s eyes involuntarily drew to the broad expanse of a red-clad back, long black hair, and hands clasped firmly behind.

Of course, the King of Demons was nothing if not dramatic.

It was noteworthy, though. For a Hellguard that size, only a beast of equal stature could battle it. Although the memory of those three eyes sent shivers down Evan’s spine, a subtle relief settled over him when he realized the hound was sent by Xen.

Scratching his jaw, Evan sighed. “Alright. So, where are we going? Do you know where Wren, Rumi, and Nick are being held?”

“The abducted humans are near the Tomb of Ascension.”

Evan grunted. “Fuckers.”

He knew it the moment he’d heard of their disappearance. Who else would kidnap them if not for the freak cult? But the thing stressing him out the most was that all the people kidnapped were men. By the body structure of those cloaked cult members, it was evident they were all men too.

Rumi must be the only girl amidst the horde of men, and that was as unsettling as enraging. Evan’s fingers twitched, patting his pocket for a cigarette. The ball of smoke wiggled inside.

After fidgeting with his hands for a few seconds, Evan tried to shove away the doubts from his mind. He’d made a promise. He would find them no matter what and bring them back safely.

Searching for a topic to distract himself, Evan prompted, “Oh, right. Reth. What happened that day after I…”

Ran away with my tail tucked between my legs.

Zeev let out a silent breath. “We did not find it, sir.”

“You can call me Evan,” he cleared his throat, throwing a curious look at Xen’s back as he walked on ahead of them. “And don’t worry, I will keep my word and find Reth. I’ll definitely find it.”

“Someone already did, sir,” Zeev said.

Even though he knew the answer, he asked, “Aaron?”

Zeev gave a firm nod.

Ugh.

One more thing that Evan had to apologize for on behalf of his friend. He just hoped to bring Aaron back before he did something that an apology couldn’t cover. Like draining blood from innocent people to satiate some imaginary Dark Spirit.

As if sensing his distress, Xen spoke from up ahead, steps never faltering. “He is under an influence. That thing led him to Reth.”

That was hardly reassuring, but Evan appreciated the effort. “But it’s still bad, right? Reth is important to you.”

Something so precious to an Eternal must be powerful, and something powerful in the wrong hands was…catastrophic.

What if Aaron used that relic to do something unforgivable? Even if everyone else dismissed it, saying he was under the influence, Aaron would surely be traumatized for the rest of his life.

“It is certainly a minor hiccup,” Zeev said.

“Minor hiccup?” Evan glanced at his white-masked face. “Do you mean you have a way of recovering the relic?”

“I believe so, sir.”

“What is it?”

“Quite simple, truly. Eradicate the one hoarding the relic.”

Evan tripped in his steps before coming to an abrupt halt. He slowly turned to Zeev. “ Eradicate ? Are you suggesting we…we kill Aaron?”

That white mask on Zeev’s face didn’t give much away, but his voice was flat as he spoke. “It’s the most efficient way of recovering Reth.”

It should not have been a surprise to get such a crude suggestion from a demon. But it still pulled a nerve in Evan’s brain that made him snap. “I mean this with utmost disrespect, but I think the fuck not.”

“At this point, sir, his mind might be too far gone to recover,” Zeev said, in a matter-of-fact tone. “Even if we manage to take Reth forcefully, he might never return to the man you once knew. Wouldn’t it be better to put him out of his misery?”

“He is my friend!” Evan exploded.

“He is a threat.”

“Enough,” Xen had stopped in his tracks ahead, his deep voice cutting through the tension and effectively shutting them up.

After glaring at Zeev for a few long seconds, Evan stormed over to Xen and grabbed his hand to turn him around. He had the same impassive expression on his face, neither tense nor irritated.

“You cannot kill Aaron. You will not kill him,” Evan’s chest heaved with the effort it took to keep his trembling fist from colliding into Zeev’s mask and shattering it. “He is… Aaron is a good man and a good friend. My friend. He has helped me through shitty situations more times than I could count. I won’t abandon him now when he needs my help. He didn’t mean to get kidnapped by the Nightshade freaks or get his brain fried by some spell. What he needs is help, not death !”

Xen stared at him silently, letting him scream his lungs out. Then slowly reached up and brushed an overgrown strand of hair out of Evan’s narrowed eyes. The gesture seemed to be an attempt at placating Evan’s fury, and it almost worked.

Almost.

Trying to even out his breath, Evan spoke. “Give me your word that you will not kill Aaron, nor will your damned servant.”

The warm finger lingered as it tucked that strand of hair behind Evan’s ear, then traced the shape of his jaw before falling away. “You have my word.”

Only then did Evan relax. His grip on Xen’s arm tightened. “I promise, I’ll do everything in my power to bring back Reth. Trust me.”

Xen’s eyes softened ever so slightly, his long hair blowing in a gentle breeze over his shoulder. “I do.”

“Good.”

After a moment of hesitation, Evan let go of his arm and pocketed his hands. Inside his left hand, the ball of black smoke curled into his palm. On his right shoulder, the Shadow Hand kneaded his muscle with gentle pressure. The soothing gesture from both the fluffy creatures eased the tension from Evan’s body bit by bit.

As they started walking again, Xen fell in step beside Evan, and Zeev trailed behind quietly. Patting the Shadow Hand, on his shoulder, Evan asked, “By the way, what exactly is Reth?”

If it was so important to an Eternal, then surely it was something powerful. Maybe like a magic wand or a crystal ball.

Zeev piped in at that. “It’s His Lord’s—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Xen cut him off, tone dismissive. “It’s a vial filled with ash, just remember that.”

Evan wanted to probe more, like what was the ash or why was it so important, but when he noticed the faint clench in Xen’s jaw, he dropped the topic.

A few minutes later, they stopped near a huge rock structure. Zeev tore off the dangling vines to reveal the shape of a head, with two closed eyelids and a huge gaping mouth.

Evan squinted into the mouth and realized it was, in fact, a cave. “The Giant’s Belly, I’m assuming?” A chill snaked down his spine as a cold breeze blew from the cave, rustling his hair. With that gust came a faint, rancid stench like a rotten corpse. Evan’s face hardened. “Are the kids in there?”

“Not inside,” Zeev said. “But above.”

With a lingering irritation from their earlier argument, Evan didn’t turn around to look at him as he asked, “Elaborate.”

Zeev seemed to pause at his frosty tone, then lowered his head. “There’s a protection circle erected around the Tomb of Ascension so no inhuman creature can enter it. There is no way to go around or over, so we’re going through the only remaining way possible.”

“Underground,” Evan glanced at the cave.

“The protection circle I mentioned is a channel of Heavenly Spring Water. It’s deadly against our kind,” Zeev explained. “We will surface fifteen paces outside that circle.”

That was oddly specific. Evan glanced at Zeev, noticing his head hung low as if in remorse for his earlier words.

With a sigh, Evan soothed the icicles from his tone a bit. “How do you know the exact distance? Have you already dug through?”

Zeev slightly raised his head. “I haven’t yet, sir.”

When Evan stared at him unblinking and Zeev awkwardly shifted under his unwavering gaze, Xen explained, “He is a Hellguard, a demon of rocks. He can sense and accurately place the distance and position of another rock and similar elements in his proximity.”

Evan’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?”

Of course. The Tomb of Ascension was a structure carved of rock. If he could place the exact location of the Tomb, then measuring fifteen paces outside would be a piece of cake.

When Evan looked at Zeev again, the black-clad demon lowered his head further. It could have been Evan’s imagination, but he felt like Zeev was blushing hard under that mask.

Was it because talking about his abilities was awkward for him, or because his master had done it in his stead?

What an odd duo.

The trio walked into the cold cave, Evan shivering ever so slightly. After a few moments of burning his brain fuel, he frowned, “Why not just burst through the floor and destroy the summoning array? Then the Nightshade freaks will have no way of summoning anything.”

Xen pressed close to him with his hands still clasped behind his back, and a sudden heat blanketed Evan’s shivering form.

“If something inhuman bursts through the array without going through the complete summoning ritual, they’d be disintegrated to ash within a blink. That’s the power the circle of Heavenly Spring Water lends to the array: protection.”

Although he was speaking of himself getting possibly toasted to grey powder, Xen’s face barely twitched, as if discussing the weather.

“Besides,” he continued. “They’re not summoning any creature in the Tomb. They’re going to summon fire.”

Evan blinked up, “Fire?”

Zeev replied, “Hellfire.”

Even though Xen was supplying a constant and stable amount of heat to Evan’s body, a sudden chill pricked the surface of his skin.

Hellfire…

The visions he’d seen the day through the Shadow while breaking Zeev’s curse resurfaced. Fire, blood, screaming faces, ear-splitting wailings. A figure lounging on a tree.

A burning butterfly tumbling from the sky.

He’d not given it much thought that time because before he could, he’d found out about Xen’s origin and then freaked out. But those flashes of vision…could it be a premonition?

A cold sweat broke out against Evan’s nape, eyes distant as he mumbled something to himself, contemplating whether he was overthinking things.

“Evan?”

Only when Xen’s voice broke through the loud thoughts in his head did Evan return to himself. Giving his head a light shake, he pushed the images to the back of his head. The Shadow Hand on his shoulder tightened in agitation, and Evan patted it. “I’m fine. I’m okay. Why… Why did you say they’re summoning the Hellfire again?”

Xen regarded him with a furrow between his brows. He seemed to want to probe but didn’t and answered Evan instead. “Hellfire is known to be destructive and merciless against everything, even our own kind that worships it. But few know that Hellfire can also birth beings from those very destructive flames. Beings that carry its violence and ferocity in their hearts.”

“Beings like you?”

Xen’s lips twitched.

Before Evan could linger on those perfect lips any longer than they already did, he looked away and coughed. “So, let me guess. The Nightshade freaks are going to…throw those fifteen men into the Hellfire. Consuming the life force of those young, healthy men, something nasty is going to take birth from the fire. The same way an Eternal is born.”

“More or less.”

“But don’t the sacrifices need to be in great numbers?”

The witch’s grimoire had mentioned something about a third of the demon realm jumping into Hellfire for an Eternal’s birth. That had to be tens of thousands of demons, if not multiples of it.

Xen fell silent at that question. The heat enveloping Evan turned up a notch, making a fine layer of sweat break out on the surface of his skin.

A muscle faintly fluttered in Xen’s jaws, his dark eyes vacant. There was so much heat radiating from him now that if one were to touch his bare skin, it would be akin to touching a hot pan that’d been sitting on the stove for an hour.

Sometimes Evan forgot that Xen was—literally—born of fire.

At his master’s silence, Zeev piped in. “In truth, sir, this ritual is a conclusion to the one that began a long time ago.”

Evan slowed in his steps to put some distance between him and Xen when the heat radiating from him became too much to bear. But acting as if nothing was wrong, he casually started walking alongside Zeev again.

“A conclusion to what?”

“The Great Sacrifice, a ritual sufficient for a creature like that to fully awaken in the mortal world, has already taken place many, many years ago. Well, mostly taken place. It was left incomplete that time due to some…hindrances,” Zeev lowered his head as he continued. “This Bloodbath is just a catalyst to rekindle the old flame, to reawaken the spirits of the Great Sacrifice that died without fulfilling their cause. Once the Hellfire is summoned, those spirits, along with the fifteen humans, will enter the flames together, completing the Great Sacrifice.”

And that would give birth to something new. Something malevolent for sure. Nothing born of manslaughter could ever be divine. Although no divine hand was ever completely clean of blood either.

There was a balance in nature, and whenever the scale tipped to one side, neither demons nor gods, only humans suffered.

By the time Evan absorbed the information, they came to a dead end in the cave, the rancid smell growing stronger, making Evan’s head throb. Zeev stepped forward with the flame burning brighter in his palm, shedding light on the huge stone wall before them.

When the scene at the foot of the wall came into view, Evan’s breath hitched.

Several headless corpses were piled high in a corner of the cave, a pool of blood dried like a frozen river around them. Their heads were arranged orderly, upright in the opposite corner, eyes shut and faces carved with a disturbingly calm expression. Blood from the stumps of the necks bled into the faces under them, painting a horrifying picture.

But it wasn’t the gory scene of the bloody faces that made Evan’s heart drop. No, it was the fact that those faces were familiar. A mirror reflection.

It was Evan’s own face.

Boom!

A blast of flame erupted from Xen’s hand, shaped like a giant jaw of fire, and momentarily blinded Evan from the gruesome scene. The jaws of fire engulfed the corpses and the heads, turning them to ash within a blink of an eye.

It was the first time Xen had attacked something with such murderous intent, scarlet eyes blazing down at the charred remains of the bodies with unbridled contempt. It startled Evan before he stepped back, blinking furiously as he tried to make sense of what he’d just beheld.

“What—what was that? Why was my…” Evan rubbed a hand across his face in an attempt to erase the horrifying images of his own face drenched in blood, sitting dismembered from the rest of his body, then being engulfed in fire and reduced to ash.

“Clones,” Xen’s chilling voice sent another wave of dread washing over Evan.

Someone had been attempting to make clones of Evan.

By the looks of it, the creator didn’t really find any creations up to the mark and had simply abandoned them in the cave to rot away. While the bodies were thrown aside haphazardly, the heads were carefully stacked in a corner, as if the creator didn’t have the heart to be cruel with them.

“Who did this?” Evan finally asked, fists clenched to keep his fingers from trembling. “Was it the same person who made Rhea’s clone?”

Perhaps the creator had abandoned these clone bodies because he had eventually created one that he liked and sent it off to lure Rumi, Wren, and Nick away from the group. And the clone of Rhea had pretended to not notice while it happened, successfully splitting the group in two.

But why had Rhea’s clone tried to urge Evan and the girls back home after that? It would’ve made sense if she’d asked them to band together to find the others, then lured them back to the Nightshades clutches.

It was almost as if the creator of the clones didn’t want Evan to get involved in this case any more than he already had.

Evan swallowed the pins in his throat as he stared at the ash and bones scattered before him.

“Don’t, Evan,” Xen’s fingers grazed the back of Evan’s trembling fist before engulfing it in a firm grip. “Eyes on me.”

Evan blinked, then met Xen’s gaze. His expression was as dark as it could get, red sparks flying past his irises, yet his hold on Evan’s hand remained gentle. Soothing.

As Evan opened his mouth to respond, a rumble shook the ceiling of the cave, rocks and dirt raining down on them. Slightly stumbling, Evan managed to steady himself with the help of Xen’s iron grip on his hand.

“We have guests,” Xen quietly moved to stand in front of Evan, staring down at him from his mighty height, hands clasped behind his back. The only audible noises were distant thumps and Evan’s unsteady breaths.

For a moment, everything went dead silent. Evan only had a split second to blink—before the wall behind Xen exploded with an ear-splitting boom.

“ Shit!” Evan covered his head.

Huge chunks of rocks and debris flew in their direction with a terrifying speed, as if backed by an external force meant to pulverize everything in its way.

Evan ducked reflexively, but the hulk of a body standing before him didn’t budge, silently staring at him. The rocks collided into Xen’s back like little pebbles crashing against a boulder.

Nothing made it past Xen.

When he caught Evan gaping up at him, face frozen in shock, Xen’s lips curled into that cocky smirk. He tucked a finger under Evan’s chin and closed his mouth before he could swallow a mouthful of dust.

Zeev raised a palm, as if commanding the debris to halt. And surprisingly, it did. The shards of rock hurtling towards him froze mid-air, hovering just inches from his palm...then dropped soundlessly to the ground.

When Evan saw this, his mouth hung open once again before he remembered Zeev was a Hellguard, a rock demon. If he could sense rocks and similar elements, maybe he could manipulate them too.

But before he could confirm the theory, a familiar sound echoed from the now collapsed end of the cave that opened into a clearing in the forest.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Evan’s eyes widened further, spiritual energy reflexively crackling between his fingers for defense.

Five huge rock structures stomped towards the cave, crushing trees and tiny creatures under their enormous feet, growling and beating their chests as they advanced.

Hellguards. Five freaking rock demons were charging at them, bigger and bulkier than the demon that had fought the three-eyed hound earlier.

Evan’s body shifted into fight-or-flight mode. Since there was no way in hell he was fighting those things, he switched to flight .

In the light still illuminating from the flame in Zeev’s palm, he noticed another opening a few steps away from the shattered wall. Tugging on Xen’s arm, he cried, “RUN!”

But he didn’t make it very far. In fact, he didn’t make it even a single step.

Evan whipped back and came face-to-face with an utterly amused Xen. Lips, smiling. Eyes, crinkled.

“Come on, dammit!” Even after trying with all his might, Evan couldn’t make him budge an inch from his place.