Page 63 of Demon Heart: The Complete Series

ROMAN

T he demon resembled a huge gray fish, but with eight white eyes, ten tentacles bursting from its back. It sported teeth the length of my legs and too big for its mouth, dripping with sticky yellow ichor.

“Holy shit!” I cried.

The bird demon squawked, trying to escape. “No! Please!”

The fish whipped its tentacle, flinging her into its waiting mouth and slammed its jaws, chewing her quickly, black blood and feathers spraying, her screams horrendous but cut off in seconds.

The demon burped, its eyes on us.

Xavier put me down and shifted into his spinneret form, firing off a series of silky jets into the demon’s mouth and sealed it shut.

The fish thrashed, spraying the walkway with water.

“Do you need?—”

Xavier cut me off with another jet of silk, smothering the demon’s eyes, then worked on its whipping tentacles. In the end, he managed to glue the mouth and eyes, while fixing every tentacle to the walkway. The wood creaked as the fish struggled for freedom.

“Impressive.” I was going to attempt popping some eyes with my Synth beam.

My hands were relieved to skip it.

A wooden slat cracked beneath my feet. Without a word, I jumped on Xavier’s back and we took off before the fish pulled the walkway down.

Phew.

We reached a dead, hollowed-out tree at the end of the walkway, a metal gate attached to it. A safe distance away from the fish and the swamp, it stood alone in a damp meadow of mud and patchy black grass rolling off into the dark on all sides.

A lonely, desolate place.

“Almost out of here,” Xavier said.

“Thank God.” The air stank of freshly spread horse manure.

Yuck.

“This isn’t the most pleasant location in the demon realm,” he responded. “But it’s nothing compared to some other places.”

“Hopefully we can avoid those. And I thought this was an insectoid level. Where are the big bug demons?”

“Further north. You do not want to encounter them. Lots of ants bigger than houses.”

“Yeah, let’s not go north.”

He led me toward the gate.

“So, that bird demon isn’t really dead?”

“No. She might be food right now, but she’ll heal back at her home. Be herself again at some point. I could have stopped it eating her, but I’d rather she have other concerns than focusing on us.”

“Bigger fish to fry.”

“Sorry?”

“I was trying to be funny.”

“Indeed.”

“It wasn’t me she was smelling,” I said. “My spell worked as it should.”

“I can smell fairy blood on you,” he answered.

“Shit.”

“Fairy blood just works differently. It must have partially leaked through your spell.”

“I…” I had to explain why I was covered in fairy blood. “I… Shit.”

“Don’t worry, Roman. We’ll talk about it shortly.”

I changed the subject. “So, tell me about fly demons.”

He pulled a golden key from his pocket, sticking it into the gate’s keyhole. “When I eat a fly demon, they always restore, ready to be eaten again.”

“Is that their only purpose? To be food?”

“Not all of them. Before I made the decision to leave this realm for good, there was one fly demon who enjoyed giving himself to me. I would build a web and he’d deliberately hurl himself into it, wanting me to devour him in my giant spider form. We had an understanding.”

The stench of horse shit was less sickening than that revelation.

Xavier opened the gate. “Too much information?”

“It’s fine. I asked.”

Ducking through the gate, I found myself face-to-face with a pulley system and some wooden cogs.

Xavier closed the gate behind him, unable to stand at full height. “I often wonder if this wretched elevator ever received an upgrade.”

“Needs one.”

“Cramped, isn’t it?”

I nodded, feeling weak again.

“Sorry. I’m talking absolute rubbish at you.”

“No, no. It’s good to know things.”

He took my hand, kissing the knuckles.

I smiled. “What’s that for?”

“I like kissing you, no matter the spot.”

My hands were stained with fairy blood and grime, plenty of both under my fingernails.

God, I’d been so savage. So angry. But she’d manipulated that medical team, murdered Dr. James for Butterfly’s creation. What else was I supposed to feel other than rage?

The device hummed gently in my chest.

“Roman?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Let’s just get out of here.”

He pulled a lever. To my surprise, the elevator moved down and then sideways.

“We’re going to Level 549. There is a cave not far from the gate. Once we’re there you can relax and clean up. Ismael and Xavi…me, will meet us there with some supplies.”

“That’s great.”

“Then we can decide on our next plan of action.”

So much to do…

“How are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m still standing.”

The elevator moved upward, jolted, then seemed to descend at a diagonal angle.

I turned to face him, taking his hands in mine. “This must be the most fucked up thing you’ve ever experienced. And that’s putting it mildly.”

He gave my hands a squeeze. “Seeing Ismael again hurts. It really, really hurts. My memories are bad enough, but this is worse. Actually seeing the happier memories in the flesh is beyond torture.” He bowed his head. “But I also have the darker memories to remind me of his future.”

The elevator ascended again, shaking as it transitioned.

“I know I shouldn’t think this,” he said, “but I can’t help but wonder what would happen if I told him of his father’s death, of him taking the throne and becoming a monstrous king. Can I stop him? Can I help him?”

The elevator shuddered to a stop. I looked up, frowning at the juddering cogs.

“It does that,” he said. “Give it a few minutes and we will be moving again.”

“Xavier, I understand what you’re saying.

If we’d been put back to before my grandma got sick, I’d do everything to change how things went.

I really would. And Ismael was, is , the love of your life.

I saw that for myself. My God, it comes off you in waves.

But at the same time, interfering with the past…

I don’t know. It’s not right. And this might all come undone soon.

I mean, this is all connected to the device. ”

“Device?”

Okay, I needed to lay down some details.

I explained everything from the device to the fairy’s involvement, the whole thing bringing on a headache.

“There is so much to unpack there.”

A hammer of realization landed a heavy blow. “Turn off the device.”

“Pardon?”

I didn’t want to suggest this, think this shit at all, but I kept on returning to it.

Did I just have to face up to it?

Was it time to die?