Darksoul (33 page)

I followed Ash as he started to walk in a seemingly random direction.
Something simmered between us. Tension. Taut, brittle. He stared straight ahead. I worried the black gem on my ring finger, turning it round and round until the weight of it burned my skin.

“Where are we?”
I asked at last.

“Haelvia.”

I froze. “What?”

He
strode on, deadly wings trailing after him.

“But—”
Quarrel between us forgotten, I scrambled to catch up. It couldn’t be. Although we seemed to be alone, this could be dangerous. Also, we were in Haelvia. We were actually in
Haelvia
. “I’m Nephilim. You’re an angel. I thought it was against the rules—”

“As long as they don’t know we’re here, we should be fine.”

“Yeah, but we’re literally in enemy territory—”

“If they touch me they
’ll be starting a war with Sielae. And if they touch you they’ll be starting a war with me.” He turned a corner. “Now come on.”

“But—”

Suddenly, he stopped. “Oh,” he said, and turned to me. “I almost forgot.”

Before I could stop
him, he grabbed the sides of my face, leaned down—hesitated. Our eyes met. Ice crackled between us.

“Go on,” I said in
a steady voice. “Do what you were going to do.”
I dare you.

He didn’t straighten. “May I?”

“As long as you don’t touch my mouth.”

The pier
ced corner of his lips twitched right before he pressed them against my temple. He whispered the strange, soft words that would give me a
vaehn
mark. Familiar coolness unfurled from the point of contact, curled into my scalp and down my cheek. His mouth trailed to my other temple and the words once again rippled across my skin.

“What are those for?” I asked when he pulled away
. Scowling, I reached up to touch the side of my face, where an icy sensation lingered.

“
I know how to hide myself, and
vaehn
marks can be very useful if placed in certain parts of the body. That certain formation”—he trailed a fingertip across my forehead, connecting the centers of the silvery designs—“will hide you from the most powerful coolheaded half demons we know.”

“Is my face silver?”

“Your face is perfect.”

“Oh.” I touched my cheeks, my nose, as if trying to get a feel for my features. “Huh. Well, thanks. Yours too.”

He let out a soft laugh. “I think we all know that.”

Confidence. Always an attractive trait.

Despite my worries that we would be seen by potentially threatening demons, we seemed to be alone. The whiteness had no end. Neither did the silence.

As we continued on, Ash
said, “I wish I could take you outside.”

I
sped up so I could run-walk beside him. “Why?”

“It’s beautiful. Few things charm me, but Haelvia…” We
swiftly turned a corner and I almost slipped on the smooth floor. “I showed you that day. It’s like a winter wonderland. I wish I’d been born here rather than…”

I couldn’t help but give him a wary glance. “Are you sure you’re not the actual demon? And Hunter is just an
unlucky angel who was born without wings?”

“Hunter is definitely an unlucky angel who was born without wings.” When he saw me raise my
eyebrows at him, he said, “Come on. The guy literally creates cute little creatures and travels in the midst of shining
zokyies
. I, on the other hand…”

“You travel with shadows,” I
said, giving him a thoughtful glance. “I figured.”

“A bit awkward, since
my name apparently means ‘light.’”

“
Your…name?”

He
extended a hand toward me. “Lucien. Pleased to meet you.”

I stared
down at it, and then up at him.

“My friend, the one I’d been wanting to introduce to you.” A half-smile tipped up the side of his mouth. “His name is Nikolai. But
you knew that already, didn’t you?”

“I officially hate you both,” I muttered. Like I’d call them anything other than Hunter and Ash.

At long last, he stopped in front of two glimmering double doors and turned to me, not looking the least winded. “I’m going to show you something very important,” he said. “Although Hunter isn’t keen on letting you know, I feel that…since he and I are your ‘friends,’ as you like to call us, it’s about time we tell you what’s going on.”

“You
are
my friends.” Even if conditionally.

“Ah,”
murmured Ash. “That hideous f-word. Every man’s enemy.”

“What—”

But he’d already turned and walked through the door, the glide of his wings not making a sound. Confused, I frowned, and then warily followed suit. My body slipped through as smoothly as his. I reached up to touch the twin
vaehn
marks on my temples. Huh. Guess these were useful for more than one thing.

“Try
not to move too much,” said Ash. “Hunter is a sneaky bastard. He’ll sense disturbances in the air. Any wrongful slip and you’re toast.”

I didn’t respond. I was too busy taking in the room.

At first, there was nothing remarkable about it. Considerably dimmer than the hallway and frighteningly clinical-looking, it sported none of the chandeliers I’d seen on the way here. No beds, no furniture—very simple in an eerily hollow way. Pale walls, a marble island, and white, smooth cabinets. A sink. Nothing else.

Except for Hunter, who was crouched
in the middle of it.

And in front of him?

In front of him hung a man.

A creeping chill slunk down my back, settled at the base of my spine
and splintered up my skin again. The man didn’t hang by his neck. Rather, his wrists upheld him, bound together by a tight silvery cuff. His feet barely cleared the ground. He was alive. That much I could see.

And then I blinked. A d
og cowered behind the man. Her fur was dirty and mangled. She was badly beat up, had one ear missing—blood encrusted the painful-looking wound, and I tried not to cringe—and I was almost one hundred percent sure that her leg was broken. Hunter was saying something to her in a quiet, gentle voice. I stared, stricken.
This
was what he was doing? Torturing a man, maybe, and trying to rescue a dog? What the—
“I’ll be leaving in a moment,” said Ash, so clo
se behind me that I jumped. “But I want you to watch. This is what he does for the Queen, Hazel. His little animal friend just happened to be a perk of choosing this certain victim.”

Without real
izing it, I was shaking my head. “But what is he—”

“He needs something from that man. And he’s going to get it.”

Trembling, I turned around. “W-Wait—”

But he was already gone, shadows writhing around him and fading away in his wake.
After a shuddering breath, I came to Hunter’s side and crouched. The man’s bare feet hung in front of me. Hunter didn’t even look at him. He was focused only on the pup, eyes uncharacteristically soft, lips still forming gentle words in a language I didn’t know.

She was
making slow, skittish progress. Her pronounced limp made my heart squeeze. I wasn’t a keen animal-lover, but she was painful to look at. After what seemed a long while, she closed in—not looking once at an invisible me—and recoiled when Hunter reached out to touch her. Above us, the man gave quiet groans.

“
Shh…” Hunter soothed, gently tickling her under her snout. She relaxed and leaned into the scarred palm of his hand when he scratched her behind her remaining ear. I watched him. I’d only been kidding when I’d said he liked animals more than he liked girls. But now…

After gaining her trust, he
picked her up and rose to his feet. He cradled her to his chest and, not looking once at the man, moved toward the pristine island.

A non-gendered voice suddenly spoke up in my head.
If you’re wondering how he got his animal friends in Aiere,
then you’d better go watch.

It took me a
second to realize that was Ash. I didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure I could. Sparing one last glance at the half-unconscious man, I followed Hunter and stopped beside him, planting my hands on the edge of the marble slab. He set the dog down beside a bowl and some jars. What was he going to do with those? With the poor puppy?

My mind
sent me disturbing images of dismembered limbs and blood-stained teeth. But Hunter merely touched the girl’s back leg, tested it out, paused when she whimpered.

“What are you doing?” I asked, looking up at him. As expected, he didn’t answer. “Why are you…?”

And then I blinked at what I saw.

Hunter
rested his hand on the wounded leg, letting it linger before moving on to other parts of her body. In the wake of his touch, the fur turned a strikingly familiar silver-white, and my eyes widened. Slowly, he ran his palm over the side of her head. An ear unfurled out of the previously bare wound, whole and just as silver as the rest of her.

I stared in disbelief.
He had the power to heal animals? I mean, that day with the bird—he did help the little creature, but—
“Ash?” I said, not sure he could hear me. “Explain.”

All the animals in Aiere,
came his angel un-voice.
He’s healed them
.
But the healing doesn’t come without a price. As you can see, they lose their earthly colors. And eventually, they’ll develop some kind of anomaly.

“Like the lion’s antlers
,” I murmured. The puppy, suddenly revived, woofed and wagged her tail, looking adoringly up at Hunter. His eyes softened. Just a little. He said something in a language I didn’t understand, and a
zokyie
unfurled in front of him, all wide eyes and confused blinks. He set it down between the doggy’s ears and tipped his head at her in goodbye.

As soon as she was gone, he
collapsed. Well, the Hunter version of collapsing. Which wasn’t much. He took slow, steady breaths and reached into his back pocket, fishing for a cigarette. A slight crease appeared between his brows.

It weakens him
, said a quiet voice.

Oh, God. The self-sacrificing ass. He really did love animals. Probably more than himself.

“You’re really something, Hunter Slade,” I said, reaching up and brushing my thumb over his cheekbone. He ducked his head to light up, and I felt myself soften. “And whoever ends up with you will be the luckiest girl alive.”

He froze.

As if I’d been burned, I yanked my hand back. Did he hear that? I hadn’t wanted him to hear that. What I’d said had been nice. I didn’t want him to know I thought nice things. About him. And shit. Could he see me? Was he just pretending I wasn’t there? Fuck, fuck, fuck—
Blinking, he
touched his cheek. The cigarette between his lips tilted down with confusion. Mouth dry, I took a step back. Then another. It’d only be a matter of time now. It’d only be a matter—
But he didn’t turn and look
me straight in the eye, as I’d feared he would. Letting out a stream of smoke, he simply said, “Lucien.”

There was a moment of silence. Then shadows
swelled over us and withered away, revealing a winged Ash in their midst. He was standing on a slice of
ceahel
and held a cigarette between two fingers. His gaze didn’t once flicker to me.

“You called me?” he said.

Hunter straightened. “Is Hazel standing next to me?”

I took another step back.
I didn’t understand. Why would he jump to that conclusion? Maybe my touch was… electric?

Ash stoically stared down at him, looking like a cold angel who could wipe out three cities with a wave of his hand. And then—unbelievably—a s
low barely-there smile spread across his lips. “Come on, Nik,” he said. “Hallucinating? Really? Are you that desperate?”

“You’re calling me desperate. You,” he repeated. “
You
.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“You know exactly what I’m trying to say.”

Ash stared at him. Hunter returned the stare
.

“This is oddly entertaining,” I
murmured.

Finally, Hunter
turned and went to the center of the room, where the man still hung, his head slumped forward. He wasn’t whimpering anymore. Prickles of ice jabbed the back of my neck, renewing my fear. Ash didn’t look at me as he gracefully glided off the
ceahel
and joined Hunter. Swallowing, I followed.

Hunter reached out and flicked the man’s hair off his right ear.
“You know. I wonder if Hazel realizes that the third ring, the one you used to wear on your middle finger, isn’t there anymore.”