Page 304 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

I wince before looking to Rion. “That I owe him a favor he can call on when the time comes.”

“Fucking hell.” Axel growls as flames light his eyes. He steps closer to Soren as if he’s about to go through with his threat. Soren doesn’t even flinch.

“That could be anything,” Luka says.

“It can’t involve putting any of us at risk or in danger,” I tell them, trying to ease their worries.

“We need his help to find King,” I push, trying to move this along.

“Again. Not at the risk of your–” Kai starts, but Soren cuts him off.

“I’ve already promised not to put your little mate at risk, nor would I try to.” Soren glances over his shoulder at the cave. “Now, if we could move this along? Even though time works differently in the Underworld, it doesn’t on this plane. And time isn’t exactly on your side.”

“Why you–”

“Yes, yes. I’m a lot of things right now but the main one is your guide. My main aim is to get you all safely in and out of the Underworld. The favor I call on will harm none of you. You have my word.” Soren looks at each of the guys before stopping on Rion.

Rion walks closer to Soren, staring him down before tilting his head. “I sense no malice toward her or any of us.”

Jax rushes forward, slamming his fist into Soren’s face before casually walking back to us. “Fine. But he stays far away from you.” Jax takes one hand and Luka takes the other.

Soren does his disappearing and reappearing act but narrows his eyes on Jax.

Soren takes a hesitant step back as Kai walks over to him. “If you double-cross us. I’ll hunt you down to the ends of the earth and make you pay,” Kai tells him.

“Understood,” Soren tells him. “Now that the threats are out of the way, let’s get a move on.”

Kai raises a brow. “Lead the way.”

We follow him, heading further into the dark cave. A couple of minutes pass as the light slowly fades from behind us. Axel lights up a hand as soon as it becomes too dark to see. He sends me a wink, making me smile.

The air soon changes, becoming stagnant. A strange energy settles over me, making me want to find it.

“Anyone else feel like they should be making a run for it?” Jax frowns, looking alert for an invisible threat.

Small carvings of weird symbols start to show up on the walls of the cave. More and more appear before they become clusters, all different with strange shapes and swirls surrounding them.

“My skin is fucking crawling.” Axel scowls at the walls around him.

“It’s the wards that’s built into the cave walls. It stops anyone from getting too close. I’m sure a powerful alpha like yourself can ignore a little ward and push through. Don’t be afraid to hold your mate’s hand, should you be afraid.”

“Dick.” Jax growls, making Soren chuckle. He squeezes my hand tighter as we move forward. “I don’t need an excuse to hold your hand.”

“Never.” I smile at Jax, making him smirk. My smile slowly falls the closer we get to the weird energy. I didn’t feel what the others did. Instead of running away, I wanted to run toward it. It feels…familiar.

“How long will it take us to get there?” I ask, worrying about the time we’ve already lost and wondering about Jazmyn and the others.

“We should start seeing the rivers soon. But it will take some time to move through them.”

“Isn’t there a quicker way?” I doubted the demons would take a break while we hunted their new master down.

“The portals were the only other way. But don’t worry, we’ll make the time up once we start moving through the realms.”

“How?” I ask him.

“Time works differently in the Underworld. In some realms, a few days or weeks could be a few minutes in your world,” Soren tells us, not looking back.

Maybe we could make up for the time we lost so far.

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