Darksoul (25 page)

The swords felt heavy and helpless in my hand
s. She stood as tall as Hunter and Ash, and I was tiny under her.

“No, no,” she said, as if in thought. “That will destroy him, and then he’ll become inefficient. Ah. Maybe I should take you with me. Put you in a high tower
, promise him he’ll eventually get to have you…” She smiled, and her eyes crinkled at the corners. “And I could drain you of your blood so you’re not a threat to my kingdom. Yes? Good?”

My breath shuddered
out of me. “P…Please.”

Gracefully, s
he dropped her hand. “Go on,” she said in a voice as smooth as honey, and spread one pale arm toward the hallway. “Run. Make this fun for me.”

I didn’t hesitate.

I was halfway to the stairs when Husq started to chase after me, his claws clattering like crackling cockroach wings. The woman laughed, giving light little claps, and called, “Bring her back intact, my dear. Oh, she’s quite lovely. She’s so, so lovely.”

Huffing
, I clomped down the steps and miraculously reached the landing. Hot breath attacked the back of my neck and I swiveled around, lashing out with my sword and catching the beast just as it leaped toward me. The tip of my blade danced along its snout but left it mostly undamaged. It hurled itself forward. I ducked, rolled out of the way, shot to my feet.

I wanted to fight him. I also wanted to run.

So I ran.

Husq
was hard on my heels when I heard from somewhere behind me, “Oh, why don’t we make this a little more fun. Gvus, would you join in, please?”

Another set of claws joined the chorus. I spared a quick glance back and felt myself pale. The woman was nowhere to be seen, yet her voice had sounded as if it had been over my sh
oulder. And now, two Husq’s chased after me, rows of teeth glinting behind their lips.

Hoping my Nephilim-fast movements would keep me out of reach, I dashed
through the web of hallways. But those things weren’t human, either, and their foul breath gathered around my heels, puffed around the back of my worn boots.

Laughter tinkled from somewhere nearby.
Breathing hard, I turned three corners—I hadn’t realized Hunter’s house was this damn big—and threw myself inside a random room, locking the door behind me. I ran to the window and tried to lift the latch. Jammed. Grabbing the nearest thing, I flung it at the glass and let out a string of curses when it didn’t shatter.

The
door exploded open. In crept the pets, going slowly now, as if they were savoring these last moments. One of them slinked up the wall and curled along a corner, twisting round and round like a diabolical twizzler. The other clattered forward.

They knew I was trapped
. They knew I’d never be able to escape. So did the demon-woman, I was sure. She was nowhere to be seen, but I still heard her laughter echoing in my ears, faint and musical.

My knees threatened to buckle under me.
Steeling myself, I turned around.

The
demons were already rushing forward.

Huffing
, I plunged my sword into one and turned just in time to cut into the other, black muck spilling on my clothes. The wounds hindered them. Slowed them down. Wiping a hand across my mouth, I took a step back.

Right i
nto a cool, familiar chest.

I froze
. Didn’t turn to look. Hunter wrapped his arms around me and leaned down to say three quiet, even words into my ear. “Close your eyes.”

And then the world exploded with a thousand
zokyies
.

They didn’t dance in frenzied
chaos like the time in the car. They were organized now, their individual shapes blurring as they whirled around us. So much light. I couldn’t help but recoil.

And then, a
s fast as they’d come, the
zokyies
dispersed. Like startled fish in the water, they wriggled and fluttered away, and I blinked at the sight.

A line of t
rees. An endless plain. Lit by pale moonlight. One lonely easel stood off to the side, artsy things strewn around it: canvases, paints, pastels, normal Hunter-stuff. Grasses, stars, coldness. But there was something wrong with the dark sky. Something wrong with the place, period. We weren’t outside Hunter’s mansion. That much was clear. So where—
“Don’t turn around.”

I froze. Hunter had let go of me and taken a step back, and I couldn’t feel him anymore.

“
Give me a moment,” he said, and I looked just in time to see him get engulfed by a band of
zokyies
. They whirled around him, swallowed him up. I watched, wide-eyed, as they winked out of sight—taking him with them. Was that how we’d gotten here? What the hell was this place?

A second look at the
sky told me all I needed to know.

The moon—if it even was a
moon—hung so low that it touched the horizon. But it was
huge
, a barely-perceptible sliver that ran the entire length of the sky, glimmering a pale yellow. If I reached out, I swore I’d be able to touch it. So close, yet so far away. It was fascinating. If a little disconcerting.

And not just because
a smaller moon hung over the sliver. That one was a pearly white and seemed to be the primary source of lighting, painting everything a hundred shades of silver. There was another one, too, a bigger one that hung to the side, its edges twinkling a faint pastel blue.

Awed, I turned in a circle
, staring up at it all. Three moons. It made Earth’s night sky seem like a child’s toy.

And then
I heard it.

A
soft rustle.

I
tensed. Hunter hadn’t returned. Carefully, I turned toward the forest, keeping my swords ready at my sides. It looked empty, the darkness within the trunks, but I knew better than to think I was alone.

An
d then, slowly, the lion stepped out of the woods.

At least, I thought it was a lion.
It was so white that it almost looked silver, its shining mane entangled with a hundred
zokyies
. Two antlers stuck out of its head, long and regal and clear as glass, splintering out in all directions like the branches of a tree. Dark eyes stared at me from under a fringe of translucent lashes. It had no claws, as far as I could see, and it made no move to attack me.

As i
t edged closer, my heartbeat spiked. Should I run? Should I kill it?

But I couldn’t bring myself to lift my swords.
Not when it made its way to me and rested a soft paw over my boot. I stayed frozen still, even as my mouth went dry. It would eat me. It would make me believe it was nice, and it would eat me. And I would sit here and let it happen, because the way it blinked up at me reminded me too much of cute, defenseless Io, who’d curled up, exhausted after the chase through Hunter’s house, on my shoulder.

The lion
hybrid leaned down and pressed his muzzle against my leg. His cold antlers brushed my arms. I held back the urge to flinch. But then he pawed my boots as if they were playthings, nuzzled my thigh, and I felt myself soften. He obviously didn’t mean me any harm.

Giving in, I clamped
the hilts of my feather-swords and let them dissolve away. I reached down, patted his mane, ran my fingers through the startling silkiness of it. His
zokyies
slid closer to my hand and kissed my fingertips.

“H…Hi,” I said, and tried to smile. Was this one of Hunter’s friends?

In response, he licked my jeans and rested a paw on my leg. Hearing another rustle, I glanced at the forest.

And stopped on my tracks.

Tens and tens of figures took shape between the trees. I held my breath as another creature stepped into the plain, ducked its head and shyly looked up at me.

A small giraffe. But
its hide was white and unspotted, and from its long neck protruded a string of delicate wings. It came closer. I couldn’t bring myself to run away. Not when it looked at me with those wide, infantile eyes. Not when it bent down, pressed its muzzle against my shoulder in a hello.

“H-Hi,” I said. Hesitantly, I reached up and
smoothed down the silvery hairs on its head. It leaned into my touch.

The others
took this as their cue. One by one, they stepped out of the trees, and my breath caught. A school of silver-white fish fluttered out of the pale leaves, arching over me before rounding back again. Even without wings, they looked like birds in effortless flight. Icy white butterflies flittered out after them. I watched in wonder.

T
hey were the only remotely normal ones. The rest of the creatures looked like the pale, silvery versions of the animals on Earth—with an extra horn here, a row of ice prickles there. They had the same eyes, shy and dark and soft, and I thawed a little. My God, they were cute. For me to raise a weapon against them would’ve been cruel.

When
Hunter came back, I was sitting on the ground, telling them about the time their blonde friend tried to help me make a boy jealous. By throwing me on a stupid bed. Without even knowing me that well. The butterflies were playing with my hair, braiding it this way and that, and the silvery fish kept swimming over us. Sitting around me, they were more attentive than a band of schoolchildren. The lion rested his snout on my thigh.

Behind me, an amused voice said,
“Don’t tell them that story.”

Startled, I shot to my feet and
turned. Sure enough, Hunter stood there, and—
They
were already up and running toward him, unintentionally pushing me along. Even Io fluttered off my shoulder and went to nuzzle the back of his hand. I disengaged myself from the horde and watched as they swallowed him up. He seemed to forget I was here. His eyes softened, and as he patted their heads and scratched them behind their ears, he said gently, “Hello.”

Then h
e started to speak in a silky language, meeting their gazes. I looked away. It was too private, the moment between him and his little animals, and I didn’t want to intrude. But it was over soon. When he was done talking, they reluctantly dispersed, giving him a soft nudge before skulking away.

Taking a deep breath, I came closer.
“What did you tell them?”

“To leave us
alone for a minute.”

I stared up at him.
He stared back, eyes cool and unreadable. “Not that there aren’t more important things to discuss,” I said slowly. “But—what in hell are you wearing?”

He reached up and adjusted
the black scarf he’d wound around his face, covering him from the top of his nose to his neck. That, unfortunately, wasn’t all. He wore a ball cap and a dark sweater that looked too much like Ash’s. The hood was pulled up, casting shadows across his cheeks.

“Are you serious?” I said, incredulous.
All this because of one stupid kiss? “Are you actually serious?”

“I have a…
” Tugging up the neck of the hoodie, he said in a muffled voice, “A slight fever.”

“Really. You go for like an
hour, leaving me alone in this strange place, and then you come back and are wearing that shit and I have more questions than I’ve ever had and—you know what?” My fists clenched at my sides. “Forget it. I’m leaving.”

Just as I was about to storm away—in what direction, I had no idea—he
reached out and grabbed my hand, his scarred fingers warm around mine.

Quietly, he said, “Stay.”

Frowning, I turned on him—and stopped. His eyes were downcast, fixed on the scuffed toes of his boots. Shadowed by his lashes. He glanced up and looked away when he saw me studying him. A
zokyie
popped up and unfurled in the space between us. It blinked at me, cocking its head to the side.

“Please don’t tell me,” I said. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been gone these five days because I did The Grievous Thing That Must Not Be Named.”

“No.” His voice was quiet and steady in the night. “It had nothing to do with you.”

Three long seconds stretched between us.
Then, sighing, I walked past him. My shoulder accidentally brushed his arm, and another bright shape unfurled next to him.

I stopped. Gave him a sidelong glance. After a pause, I murmured, “Hmm.”

He said nothing. The two
zokyies
were restless. So was Io. They looked nervous, flashing around him, bumping against his arms and circling his torso like deranged bees.

“I believe you,” I said
, turning to stare at the moonlit plain. We were on a gentle hill; his easel and stool stood undisturbed, all of his materials left untouched by his horde of unearthly pets. “Who was that woman?”

Nothing.

“You know, I’m used to your silence.” As I sat, I didn’t look at him. “But right now, Hunter, I’d appreciate it if you opened your pretty little mouth and talked. Or should I call you Nikolai?”

He didn’t respond to that.

Fine. “Okay,
Nikolai
, I’d appreciate it if you opened your pretty little mouth and talked.”

After what seemed
like the longest while, he said, “That was the Queen.”

I froze. I’d suspected as much, given her random talk of
a kingdom, but I didn’t think…could I have honestly just met one of the Queens? He’d told me about them, of course, but they’d sounded like figments of a fairytale, like something that couldn’t be real.

“
Queen of…” As he crouched next to me, I took a deep breath. I could guess, but I had to make sure. “Of what?”

“Haelv
ia.”

I paused. “What does she
want with you?”

Another long silence.
Then: “It doesn’t matter.”

“She mentioned something about a job—”

“I said it doesn’t matter, Hazel.”

His voice was even and
cool—he hadn’t raised it, hadn’t let one hint of anger peek through. But somehow, his words still stung, and I looked down before he saw the hurt on my face. It was always like that. I tried to ask questions, tried to push a little, and he shut off like a damn clam.

As if he
could read my mind, he said, “I’m sorry.”

I let out an incredulous laugh. “Words I never thought I’d hear from you.”

“I do something important for her. I’m very…” He spared me an unreadable sidelong glance. “Valuable.”

“So she goes to Earth, visits your house, and destroys your art. You’re valuable, all right.”

“She thinks I’m wasting my time by focusing on something other than her.”

Ripping
out a chunk of grass, I grumbled, “Well, she’s quite the charming bitch. I’ll give her that.”

H
unter’s hand slid in and landed on top of mine. “The land is a living and breathing thing,” he said, and uncurled my fingers for me, letting the mangled grass flutter away in the wind. His eyes were not unkind. Or was the light playing tricks on me? “Please be gentle to it.”

I held back the urge to groan.
“I didn’t realize you were on Tree-Hugger Level 1000. Can’t say I’m not freaked out, Slade.”

“Grass is certainly one of
the few things I care about.”

“What about Hazel?”

“You’re getting there.”

Puckering my lips, I leaned closer. “Let me kiss you again. Maybe that’ll bump me to the top of the list.”

I hadn’t even finished when three more
zokyies
popped up between us, flashing around, darting along the length of his shoulders and wriggling across the back of my neck. Looking as if he badly needed a smoke, he tugged his scarf higher and adjusted the cap on his head.

“I was just…” Slowly, I put my hands up
and leaned away. “I was just kidding, Hunt. Relax.”

I couldn’t see his eyes under
his tousled white-blonde hair.

“I said it to bother you,” I continued. “
See? It bothered you. So I won. Are you going to let me win like that?”

Nothing.

“Clearly.” I reached over and grabbed the strings of his hoodie, letting them slide between my fingers. “Since when do you have one of these?”

At last, he spoke.
“Since Asher gave it to me.”

“When was that?”

“A couple of weeks after we met. Back in the summer.”

I stared at him. “It’s literally a matching sweater.”