“Yes, the Princes dictate order, but they are unlikely to help a half-blood.”
We fell quiet. Slowly, methodically, I finished my tea and managed to keep it down. The warmth of the mixture soothed my aching limbs and sore bruises. The mental damage would take a lot more than herbal tea to heal. I couldn’t afford to dwell on it now. If I fell apart here or lost control, something bigger and nastier would likely take the opportunity to bite a few chunks out of me.
With the lid firmly on my broiling emotions, I looked up at the white woman. “So what do you want?” She might appear to be the model hostess, but no demon did anything out of the kindness of her heart. It’s not their way. If they can screw you over, they will, and appearances are always deceiving. The white woman had saved me. She looked like a dazzling angel, which often meant there was a devil hiding beneath.
“My name is Yukki Onna. You will reach my son.” She straightened as if waiting for my challenge.
I recognized her name and realized why I’d felt a familiarity in her icy touch. Nica had once told me about Stefan’s mother, an ice elemental, more commonly known as the Snow Witch. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, but nothing quite as otherworldly beautiful as she appeared to be.
I looked up. Thunderous clouds smothered the lilac sky. “I’ll happily find Stefan, but I don’t know where he is.” Snowflakes spiraled around us.
“I know where he is.” She turned her head and cast her gaze out across the lake. Snowflakes nestled in her hair and kissed her cheeks.
“But you said...”
“Do you have family, Muse?” she asked. I almost laughed. It depended on what her definition of family was. She didn’t give me a chance to attempt an answer. “There is no stronger tie that binds, but ties can readily knot. And easily strangle.”
Apparently, her definition of family complimented mine.
She sighed and refocused on me. “My son is beyond my reach.” She looked down at me, tears freezing the moment they skipped from her eyes. “This is my price.”
T
he netherworld heaves
with vicious creatures. The shadows harbor countless nasties that will quite happily take a chunk out of you while you look the other way. Night is even worse there. In the dark, the lesser demons come out to hunt. Anything smaller than them is prey. Survival of the fittest plays out every time the sun sets. Only the strong, the quick, and the resourceful make it through even a single night.
Yukki Onna wouldn’t answer any further questions about Stefan. It didn’t matter. He was alive. After so long, I had confirmation he’d survived, not just speculation and theories. After the events of the last few hours, a heady dose of hope was exactly what I needed.
While Yukki Onna refused to talk about her son, she did explain how the Institute had summoned her and asked her to find me. She’d agreed, on the understanding I reach Stefan. I wondered if Adam had anything to do with the deal. He and Yukki Onna had a history, and considering how he’d reacted to my crass accusation in his office, his feelings—good or bad—were clearly still raw. I was tempted to ask Yukki Onna, but I had no idea how she’d react to mention of Adam. Knowing him as I did, I suspected their union may not have been a happy one. His hatred of demons seemed at odds with the image of the two of them together.
“Yukki Onna...” I stood beside her on the beach. The waters of the lake lapped at the polished pebbles a few feet ahead of us. A warm breeze teased through her ivory hair and tugged at her gown. “You don’t need to appear human for me.”
“But you are half human.”
I smiled. She meant to protect me. “It’s okay. My demon protects me here. I can see all of you without... passing out.”
She gave a little shiver, and my vision quivered. Her image blurred out of focus. I blinked and refocused. Her gown dissolved, revealing a crystalline female figure. Light swirled beneath her skin like a genie in a bottle. Four-pronged gossamer wings unfurled behind her. They briefly beat the air too quickly for me to see each stroke. A dusting of snow fell from their trailing edges. Her white hair became a brittle mantle, glistening with spikes of ice.
She shook herself all over. Snow spilled to the ground. I smiled. She was as beautiful as a winter’s morning, but like all things truly beautiful, she had a deadly glint in her eye. I got the impression Yukki Onna was not a demon to be crossed. Ice burns as readily as fire.
“Night will be on us soon.” Her voice took on a brittle, tinkling edge.
I noticed a dagger and rapier sheathed at her hip. In comparison, I felt decidedly unarmed. My one shredded wing wasn’t going to be of any use either. I had power—lots of it—but wielding it was tricky at the best of times. These were not the best of times.
Yukki Onna withdrew the rapier. “Take it.”
I weighed the sword in my hand, testing its balance. As a blacksmith, I’d made rapiers, but hers was impossibly light, like a steel feather in the palm of my hand. Clasping it tightly, I felt the cool touch of ice seep into the heat of my hand. “It has power.”
“Yes. She is named Kira-Kira. She will look after you. She belongs to Stefan. Or would have, had he been returned to me...as promised.”
Trying to read her expression felt a little like trying to see faces in clouds. I thought I saw regret pass across her features before she masked it behind a half smile. I flexed my grip on the sword, acquainting myself with the balance. “Won’t my element play havoc with the power?”
“If it does, use the pointy end.”
I glanced up and saw her crooked smile. Blue lips ticked into her cheeks. Her eyes were alight with the promise of conflict. I knew then where Stefan had inherited his thrill of the fight and quick wit. All we had to do was survive long enough to find him while avoiding my soul-locked owner, and staying below the radar of Mammon and my ruthless brother, Valenti. I couldn’t help thinking our chances of survival compared to that of a snowball’s chance in hell.
A
s soon as
the sun bowed out for the night, the forest embracing the grove came alive. Insects chirped and chittered. Shadows sighed, and the breeze hissed through the trees. I felt the crawling sensation of eyes on me but couldn’t locate their source beyond the dancing glow of our campfire.
Yukki Onna perched on the stump. The liquid light beneath her skin lent her an iridescent glow. She had clamped her wings closed behind her, their skyward tilt as rigid as the rest of her body. We hadn’t discussed the possibility of attack; there really was nothing to discuss. It was inevitable.
I clutched Kira-Kira across my knees. It had been a long time since I’d had to fight the lesser demons for my right to walk their lands. They would sense any weakness and smell the humanity on me. I had the blood of Asmodeus in my veins. My father was a longstanding Prince of Hell, but while they might smell my lineage, the scent wouldn’t dissuade them for long. I was damaged goods, and they wouldn’t be able to stop themselves.
At least Asmodeus wasn’t on the list of demons who wanted me dead. In his mind, I simply didn’t exist. I was little more than a bug on a windshield to him, something he could wipe from existence with little more than a hand gesture. Thankfully, he didn’t care for me dead or alive. Unfortunately, my brother didn’t feel the same. Family, eh, can’t live with them, especially when they plot to kill you.
A muffled scurry in the snow behind Yukki Onna jolted her to her feet. Her wings splayed. Her element stirred, charging the air around her. I stood slowly and drilled my glare into the thick cover of darkness. The wild netherworld elements tingled across my skin.
The rattle of armored plates spun me around. The substantial bulk of… something swept through the undergrowth. The bushes rustled and then settled. Yukki Onna caught my eye and smiled.
I splayed my left hand toward the campfire behind me. The flames roared higher. In the darkness beyond the firelight, countless pinpricks of glowing eyes glaring back at us. Something large, black, and snake-like burst from the bushes. With a yelp, I skipped back just as black fangs the size of my forearms plunged through the air. I thrust the sword out, but the point skipped off the lesser demon’s snout. It twitched its trailing whiskers and chittered, sounding oddly like laughter. It pulled back and lifted its elongated head, snorting hot air. I’d been wrong. It wasn’t snake-like. I’d seen smaller versions of the demon on Chinese take-out boxes; more Oriental-dragon than snake.
Gathering my element, I cast the rippling power down my arm and flung a whip-like tentacle of flame at its face. The demon roared and recoiled from the blistering heat. The tail swept out of the dark to my left and hooked my legs out from under me. I fell backward and hit the ground hard with a grunt. Steam coiled around me. I was out of practice and feeling it. The bristle-faced demon planted talon-like feet either side of me and bowed its head. I brought the sword around in one heaving arc and slashed the sharp edge of the blade across its jaw. Black liquid spurted from the wound. The demon swung its head around and slithered back into the undergrowth. I didn’t think for a second it had given up.
As I rolled onto my side. A smile crawled across my lips.
Yukki Onna was surrounded by a pack of Sasori demons. Half scorpion, their torsos loosely resembled a humanoid form, but below the waist they were all arachnid. They skittered and scuttled about Yukki Onna. Black lacquered pincers snapped at her wings. She danced back, delight bright in her blue eyes. She let loose a flurry of dagger-like shards of ice that rapidly peppered the beasts.
The cacophony of cries as the lesser demons scrambled away would alert any nearby beasties to our melee. I blasted a few of the Sasori as they attempted to flee. Their scorpion bodies twitched, cries pitching high. Where they fled flaming through the dark, I caught sight of half a dozen eager hunks of quivering demon-muscle complete with murderous gazes loitering in the shadows.
Something swooped down from above. I ducked in time and winced as a curved claw tore through Yukki Onna’s delicate wings. She flinched away and thrust a blade of ice into the sky. Seconds later, the winged demon landed with a thwump beside our roaring campfire. The shard of ice protruded from its arrowhead skull.
A breath of air against my neck alerted me, and I spun, launching a wave of fire at the thing hunkered over me. The dragon demon was back. It huffed at me, green eyes narrowing. I realized exactly what it was: a Larkwrari hatchling, thankfully only a fraction of the size of an adult specimen, which could reach Boeing proportions. It bared black half-moon fangs and spat viscous mucus over me. The fire simmering across my skin blanched white. My element unexpectedly surged through me. I laughed at the thrill of the inferno firing off the pleasure receptors in my brain. So it wanted to play with fire. That, I could do.
Gathering an element is like breathing in when you’ve been starved of air. It’s invigorating, rejuvenating. The power swells and flows and fills every part of you. It’s alive, the very essence of chaos. When it comes, it does so in a way that tips you over the edge of ecstasy and a wild, unrestrained sense of freedom. Calling it was just half the thrill ride. Using it spoke to the chaos swirling at the very center of me, chaos and the raw hunger for more. I spun it around me, whipping up a firestorm, my demon body blazing white at the eye. The whiskered demon stamped backward, thinking twice, but I had it in my sights. I blasted a ravenous wave of energy over it. I tasted its death in the flames as though I’d plunged my hands into its chest and crushed the living essence to dust with my bare hands. My child of fire devoured everything, leaving only ash swirling in the wind.
There’s danger in the lure of chaos. The power had the strength to topple my control and overflow my precisely constructed mortal barriers. Every time I called it to me, let it flow like molten lava through my veins and ride roughshod over my better judgment, the potential to lose myself in it danced around the fringes of my mind.
Burn them all.
Something snatched at my ankle. I twisted and plunged Kira-Kira through my assailant’s soft underbelly, and then flung its hound-like form aside. Another flew at my head. I caught the reflection of fire in its black eyes before I incinerated it with a flick of my wrist. Ash blasted my face. A throaty intoxicated chuckle laced with madness bubbled from my lips. Shortly after, I stopped seeing individuals as they tried to take me down. They became insignificant shadows dancing through the flames. Each and every one, I reduced to ash with little more thought than a throw-away gesture.
Eventually, the lesser demons stopped their onslaught and cowered back. Flames writhed over my body as I watched them slink off into the dark with a new fear burning in their dull eyes.
I stood, feet planted with Kira-Kira in my right hand hissing its displeasure at being drowned in heat. I wanted more. Rage strummed through tensed muscles, fanning the flames at the heart of me. I sensed Damien inside me: a darkness sitting cold and lifeless amidst the lure of chaos. Closing my eyes, I sought his touch. I could burn the bastard out of me and cauterize my soul. I couldn’t physically claw it out, but I could sink metaphysical tendrils into the parasitic touch and pull it free.
“Muse...” Yukki Onna’s cool voice drifted through the maelstrom.
I twitched but ignored her. Fire blanched across my flesh.
Just a little deeper.
I wove my element through me, seeking the seed he’d planted, intent on destroying it like I had those pathetic lesser demons. I could turn his touch to ash, blast him from my being.
Deeper...
I didn’t notice when I fell to my hands and knees. I cast my power further into the dark, riding its weaving, reaching, tendrils. My cocoon of fire withdrew into my skin. My demon peeled apart and exposed fragile human flesh. I barely registered the precarious reveal. All I could see was the poison latched onto my core like a parasite. I reached out to it, clenched it in ethereal hands– A blinding flash of agony ripped through me. A scream punched from my stomach, through my throat and out.
Yukki Onna had taken my face in her hands and launched a surge of her own elemental touch through me. Her ice shocked me out of my mental surgery with an explosion of pain. Power snapped down my spine. Jagged blasts of energy bolted across my flesh. My demon burst from my skin. Fire roared, and I slammed a blast of heat into Yukki Onna’s chest, flinging her away. She caught herself midair with a sweep of her wounded wings and dropped to the ground. I blinked.
I’d tried to kill her.
She pressed a hand against her chest and shuddered. A fresh dusting of snow drifted from her wings. I’d burned her. The smell of scorched flesh hung in the air. I wasn’t sorry. I didn’t care. I felt nothing. I glared at her and saw only another demon armed for battle. A rival. A challenger. It was only Kira-Kira throbbing in my hand that distracted me enough to recall what I was doing crouched on all fours. A gasp of delayed surprise puffed out of me. What was I thinking? I wasn’t, that was the problem. The demon had done the thinking.
Rivulets of water gathered speed either side of me, on their way down to the beach. Around me, the blanket of snow had all but vanished. I’d melted her picture-perfect ice grove.
Yukki Onna’s smile was gone. She straightened up and weighed whether I might attack again.
“I’m sorry...” I was, but a smile slid across my demon lips. I hadn’t meant to hurt her, but I’d wanted to. I still wanted to.
Burn her...
It wasn’t her. She’d done nothing wrong. It was me. I couldn’t rein in my desire for chaos. It skipped around my control, flirting with freedom, and I teetered on the edge of letting it go.
Oh to let go of it all... The pain, the anguish, the shame and disgust... Just let it all go. Embrace chaos.
“You should leave. Now.” Yukki Onna narrowed her dazzling eyes. She tightened her grip on the dagger.
She was right. I couldn’t stay. Not like this.
“Go.”