Page 30 of Tricky Princess

“On your left!” Sam called from where he was taking down a vampire crossbreed with his claws.

Ros feigned right and cut the other vampire’s legs. Sam, Billy, and Garm were all in various forms of being half-shifted. Their claws and teeth were already coated in blood from their day-long battle. They’d only just gotten Sam cleaned up when they were attacked again.

“We’re close,” she yelled after clawing down another vampire. “They’re trying to stop us from getting across the territory line.”

“Please tell me the next part has less assholes,” Devon called as he enclosed another beast into a hole he’d created in the earth.

Devon had used every bit of magic in this battle, elemental, telekinetic, and even the bit of shadow magic he’d picked up yesterday. Ros added a mental note to work on it with him when they got through all of this—whenever that would be.

“It’s worse,” Billy answered, and all of them glared at her. “Less bloody, but it will be worse…for some of us.”

Fuck.

A line of beasts held strong about fifty feet in front of them. It appeared they couldn’t go any further. They snarled and kicked the ground, waiting their turn to take down the intruders. Ros glanced at Billy, and she gave him a knowing nod. That’s the border.

Ros pulled at the well of magic in the depths of his soul, skimming his charred fingers through the black surface and pulling it up past all the agony he had felt over his long life. Taking all of the inky blackness, he directed it at the thirty snarling beasts that were trying to stop him from getting to Ellea. He thought of her gray eyes and tracing the freckles across her face and her body with his fingers. He thought of how her heart beat with his and how much he missed her. He growled, guttural and inhuman, and the beasts didn’t have time to show a glimmer of shock; they all burst into shadow and black mist.

His roar continued to echo through the otherworldly forest as white-hot rage washed away from him and his breaths came in quick pants.

“Woah,” Sam said, his voice breaking through the ringing in his ears.

Ros whirled around to see only his friends gathering around him, no longer battling beasts.

“What?” Ros asked, dumbfounded as he searched the area around them.

Had he managed to finish all of them?

He glanced down at his hands. His veins were black and red with a fading glow, a sight he hadn’t seen in a very long time.

Fuck.

“That was hot,” Billy said, fanning herself. “Does Ellea hold on to those horns when she’s riding your face?”

“Billy,” Devon scolded.

Ros reached up but only found air. Feeling his face, it felt normal.

“It was only for a second,” Garm said to him.

Ros swallowed once and nodded at his hound. His demon had been bound to show itself sooner or later; every step closer to Hel had it clawing to be free. The years outside his father’s realm had made it easier to hold on to his human side, but as soon as he stepped onto Hel’s soil…it would be a lot harder. He wondered if Ellea would react like Billy had. He doubted it. Who would embrace horns, a tail, and skin that was charred and cracked because it could barely hold the beast and power beneath it.

She will take you anyway, Billy said telepathically. It wasn’t her teasing tone, but a kind and gentle one.

Ros let out a breath and led his friends near the border, where the beasts no longer stood snarling.

“We are going to have to travel through the night,” Billy said, toeing the invisible line. “We can rest for a few hours, clean up and eat. But we can’t stop and sleep here.”

“But when we get to Hel, I won’t be able to stop,” Ros added.

“We will be tired,” Billy answered. “But we will be whole—physically, at least.”

“What do you mean?” Devon asked, forcing water into Sam’s hands.

“The next part will mess with us mentally, pull up our deepest fears or worst memories. We will be able to walk, mostly, but you won’t even know that something has crawled into the darkest parts of your mind and nested there until it’s too late.”

“Then why can’t we sleep?” Sam asked.

“It will make it worse. You won’t know what is a dream and what’s reality.”