Page 30

B efore the word left Xen’s lips completely, Evan’s body broke out into a run, under the command of their blood bond.

“No! Wait, wait, wait—” His slender body squeezed easily through the gap between the golden spear embedded into the ground and the earth wall, his feet carrying him back the way they’d come. As he ran, he cried to himself. “Stop, dammit!”

But his feet defiantly carried him away.

In the moonlight seeping in from the cracked earth ceiling, there appeared a black smoke silhouette where Xen was, red sparks crackling around his body. A sinister energy burst forth from its depth with a growl.

Evan kept running blindly, stumbling and tripping several times. The earth rumbled above him, as if something was chasing after him, quite accurately placing his steps underground.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!

Now he ran wildly, putting in his own strength along with the force of the blood bond Xen had imposed on him. If the earth collapsed, he wouldn’t survive. If a fork from above skewered his body like barbecue, he still wouldn’t survive. Spiritual power or not, he was still a human.

But he didn’t make it far before the earth ceiling ahead of him crumbled.

Evan barely managed to stop in time, as a huge rock fist punched through the ceiling. Five rock fingers splayed out, reaching inside the burrows, searching for something. Or someone.

Of course there was another Hellguard. It wouldn’t be a surprise if a whole army of rock soldiers was waiting on the ground above.

With an annoyed groan, Evan cried, “Oh, for fuck’s sake, give me a break!”

A glowing shard conjured between his palms, thrumming violently as his anger combined with the overwhelming flow of spiritual energy through his body. If fear could elevate the presence of his spiritual light, fury could double its force, turning his attack nearly lethal.

As the hand rushed towards him, Evan reared back and jammed the shard straight into the palm. And even though it was solid rock, the shard pierced through clean like meat.

A roar rumbled from above as the Hellguard jerked his injured hand out of the hole. It was not a giant wound, similar to a nail piercing a human palm. Though not deadly, it certainly would hurt like a bitch.

With a satisfied grunt, Evan made to run again, but as he passed the hole punched by the fist, a second rock hand rushed in and grabbed him, wrenching him out of the ground.

Evan yelped as the fist tightened around his body, pinning his arms to his side, almost blocking off blood circulation. He couldn’t conjure a weapon anymore. Once he was raised too high in the air, he couldn’t even turn his palm and send an energy blast, because then he’d plummet several meters to the ground. And that won’t be pretty.

The Hellguard hurled Evan back to the place where the golden spear was still embedded in the ground. He struggled in the rock grip, spitting curses. But as soon as his eyes shifted to the flickering lights amidst the forest clearing and witnessed the scene playing out below, his struggle died down.

Zeev hadn’t lied when he said they were just a few meters away. Because their destination was right there.

The four pillars holding up a tomb, a complicated ancient array on the floor drawn in blood, and a channel of Heavenly Spring Water glimmering in the moonlight as it circled it.

The Tomb of Ascension.

It was bigger than Evan had imagined, at least five meters in height and seven meters in diameter. Burning torches were erected all around the clearing, shedding light over the cloaked members of the Covenant of the Nightshade, who huddled in circles around the Tomb, chanting in an ancient language. There were at least two hundred of them.

On the far end of the clearing, a golden bident was struck high up into a thick tree trunk. It was the same fork that had penetrated the ground and yanked Zeev away.

Evan squinted from his place high up in the air, and surely, the bident wasn’t just embedded into the tree.

It had nailed Zeev to the trunk.

His mask lay cracked near the tree, his head hanging low between his bloody shoulders. His demonic energy was way too low, and the bident was wrapped in spell-cast thread and sacred river water. So even if he tried, he wouldn’t be able to release himself without help.

Not far from there, a few men were tied together in a group, the end of the binding rope wound around a nearby tree. They seemed to be in their twenties, all shirtless and bearing a bloody symbol on their foreheads. Other than their ragged appearance and blindfolds around their eyes, it didn’t seem like they’d been beaten or abused.

They were, without a doubt, the men kidnapped for the sacrifice. A ginger head among them stood out to Evan, his skin tan and stature broad. Tiago’s brother. Robbie.

But even after craning his neck and squinting hard, Evan couldn’t find Wren, Rumi, or Nick.

Nor a figure clad in red.

“Looking for someone?”

Evan’s eyes snapped towards the Tomb of Ascension, ears twitching at the familiar voice.

A tall figure rounded the circle of cult members, coming to a stop right before the Tomb. There was a smile on his lips, so familiar yet alien, his eyes blazing purple in the night. Amidst the echoing of the chants, his voice rang unnaturally clear in Evan’s ears, even as he was dangled several meters high in the air.

“Aaron,” his voice took on a cold tone, eyes narrowed at his friend like they’d never done before. He wasn’t even sure anymore if the person standing there and smiling up at him was his friend. If he was gone too far to be brought back. With a muffled curse, Evan barked, “Where are the kids?”

Aaron cocked his head. “What kids?”

Anger seethed inside Evan, his head throbbing. “The three humans you abducted! Where are they?”

“Oh, you mean my pets?” Aaron’s shoulder shook as he chuckled, then pocketed his hands. “They’re asleep in their pet houses, well fed and taken care of. Don’t worry.”

Color drained from Evan’s already pale face. “Pets…? What…what did you do to them?”

Aaron threw his head back and laughed, “Oh dear, what do you mean? Did you take me for a monster? I would never harm my pets—”

“They’re humans!” Evan snapped, blue flickering in his furious eyes as he struggled in the rock fist binding him. “They’re people like you and me. Snap out of it, Aaron! Wake up. Wake the fuck up! ”

“So dramatic,” Aaron said, waving dismissively before swinging his arm out. A flash of white whipped past. He caught it without even glancing away from Evan, then casually propped the thing upright beside him.

The golden spear that had blocked their way underground.

“I never denied that my pets are human,” Aaron traced the spell-cast thread on the golden shaft fondly. “But pets are domesticated for one of two things. Either to be adored without restraint or discarded at will, don’t you agree?”

Evan’s nostrils flared, and blood rushed into his head. His eyes briefly darted around to catch a glimpse of red robes, but to no avail.

This wasn’t Aaron. It couldn’t be him. All that pets and domestication and sinister philosophical bullshit would never occur in Aaron’s simple brain, which sometimes got confused between left and right.

“But of course, I don’t mean to discard my pets. Not yet, at least. Those three are rather adorable. Especially the girl, she’s…” Aaron paused, then snorted. “Feisty.”

Rumi.

A vein surfaced along Evan’s temple, but he forced himself to calm down and wait for an opportunity to strike. Some time when he wasn’t hanging in mid-air from a rock fist.

If Xen wasn’t in the picture yet, that meant he was either plotting a move or…could he be dead?

That’s impossible . The persistent voice in Evan’s head said.

Studying Evan’s conflicted face, Aaron tilted his head and drawled out something unexpected. “Do you think you can save them all?”

Evan stilled. That question, he’d heard that before.

When Aliza Simone had been possessed by the one-eyed demon, it had asked Evan that same question.

Was that demon sent by this thing controlling Aaron?

The cult members continued chanting around the Tomb of Ascension, their voices haunting the open clearing as if an invisible vessel had been upturned above it, trapping every chorus in an endless echo. The trees swayed with their rhythm, and from the depths of the darkness, several pairs of glowing eyes watched the ritual unfold.

With a deep inhale, Evan suppressed his rising emotions and tried in a calm voice. “Aaron, I know you’re in there. Listen to my voice. You have to fight back whatever is controlling you. Make it stop.”

Purple eyes flickered to Evan before crinkling into a smile. “You’re not talking to Aaron, little boy.”

Evan stilled. “Who am I talking to then?”

Aaron smiled. Flipping the golden spear, he caught it mid-air, then swung it sideways. There wasn’t any visible force in that throw, but when the spear flew, energy crackled in its wake. It struck Zeev square in the chest, with enough strength that a crack formed on the tree trunk behind him.

Other than a sharp exhale and spurting a mouthful of blood, Zeev didn’t make a sound.

Those glowing purple eyes shifted to Evan. “Knox.”

The rock fist holding Evan up seemed to tremble slightly. A few of the cult members faltered mid-chanting before quickly recovering.

Knox.

So this abomination of a creation—neither human nor ghost, neither god nor demon—had, in fact, possessed a name.

Evan slowly nodded. “Okay then, Knox, why don’t you tell me what exactly you’re trying to do here? I understand you captured those fifteen men for sacrifice. But why abduct those three kids?”

According to the requirements for a sacrifice, the person had to be a male in his twenties and physically fit. Rumi—being a girl—was already out of the picture. Wren and Nick were only seventeen, so they didn’t qualify either. So why had Knox captured them? And why just them? Celie and Elysia had been spared, even guided to Evan by Rhea’s clone.

It almost sounded like Knox wanted Evan to come and find the kids. To find him.

Knox chuckled, folding the sleeves of his shirt. “You’re right. I have no interest in those three,” his eyes crinkled. “The one I wanted is already here. Thanks to you.”

The color drained from Evan’s face. He wasn’t the one who Knox truly wanted? But hadn’t Knox gone out of his way to create Rhea’s clone, to lure the kids away, knowing Evan would come looking for them?

“You see, the certain someone I wanted was attached to your side like a leech, refusing to come to me even after all the kind gestures I extended to him,” Knox clicked his tongue, then patted his pocket with a smile. “I even took away something precious to him, but he simply wouldn’t heed my urging. So, I only had one way to bring him here: through you.”

Another wave of tremor wrecked the fist holding Evan, but this time due to the spiritual energy oozing from Evan’s body without his notice. His wide eyes were glued to Knox as blue light shimmered from his skin, scalding the Hellguard’s palm.

Those words, “attached like a leech” and “took away something precious” were connecting dots in Evan’s mind that he hadn’t even realized had formed. Recently, only one person had glued to him like a leech. He’d even sucked out his blood like one. And that person had lost an important relic, something precious to him.

Evan’s heart lurched as realization dawned.

No…

Accurately guessing where Evan’s thoughts were heading, Knox clapped, seeming impressed. “Looks like you already know who I’m talking about.”

“A sheep in disguise, a fox to hunt…” Delos’s voice swirled in Evan’s head.

A fox to hunt… A fox.

Xen.

Then Delos’s hushed warning right before they’d parted earlier surfaced. He had not understood what those words had meant until now.

“A sheep in disguise is always a pawn.”

Cold sweat broke out across Evan’s nape. When the last dot clicked in place and he looked at the whole picture, something cracked inside his skull.

Xen was the one being hunted. And Evan was the pawn who’d led him into the beast’s maw. To Knox. Xen was the fox, and Evan was the sheep in disguise. He had always been, since the very beginning.

He had released Xen from containment, allowed him to tag along on cases, and forced him to help find the missing people even when Xen was visibly reluctant.

Of course he was. He knew where those people were taken, why they were taken, and by whom. He knew what would awaken. Those penetrating scarlet eyes that seemed to go on forever must have known.

Xen must’ve known from the beginning that he was the real prey. Yet, he readily followed Evan into the predator’s den.

Why?

Evan shook his head, forcefully dismissing the long string of thoughts. It couldn’t be. His mind had to be making up things. Either that, or that thing controlling Aaron was trying to sow seeds of confusion in his brain.

How could Evan have been a pawn in Knox’s game from the beginning? Knox had only just taken over Aaron’s conscience, quite a while after Xen’s release. If he was really the orchestrator of this story, then shouldn’t Knox have been the one to bait Evan into releasing Xen? That had been the beginning after all.

But he hadn’t. The case of the Greene Mansion had come to Evan coincidentally, unless Aaron—

Oh. Oh no…

Unless Aaron was under Knox’s influence since then.

Evan recalled Aaron’s insistence and almost forceful behavior when the Greenes had come seeking help. Even when he’d turned down the request, Aaron had kept trying to urge him towards the case until at last, he’d given in. And that inevitably led to Evan releasing Xen.

Could it have been Knox’s doing? Had Evan been a puppet on Knox’s strings all this time?

“To answer your question,” Knox pocketed his hands, staring up at Evan with an amused look. “I took away those three pets because I knew you’d come to find them. And if you came, he would most certainly follow.”

Lightning struck the night sky, momentarily flashing a white glare across the forest clearing, and Evan suddenly stilled. His eyelashes quivered.

A shadow was standing directly behind Knox.

Knox’s gaze lowered, smile widening. “Finally.”

A blast of fire struck out from behind Knox, hitting the Hellguard holding Evan square in the chest. With a roar, the rock fist loosened from around Evan, but he didn’t tumble to the ground.

He almost breathed a sigh of relief, assuming it was Xen or Shadow who had caught him. But then he looked down, and he found a glowing purple binding wrapped around his body. The remaining color drained from his face.

Xen flashed below Evan, ready to catch him. But when he remained floating out of reach, those scarlet eyes blazed up and then snapped at the person standing at a distance with a pleased expression.

“Long time no see, Xen’areth,” Knox drawled.

“Let him go,” Xen gritted out.

Knox curled his fingers, and the binding tightened around Evan, stealing his breath. “Come now, the game has just begun.” With a flick of his hand, Evan was flung forward, wrenched away from Xen and hurled straight into the Tomb of Ascension.