Page 71 of Samhain Savior
“Unfortunately, no. Once you enter the Void, you have to pay the toll to leave. You’ll wander forever if you try to avoid Astaroth’s payment.”
“So what you’re trying to say is either way we’re fucked, right?” I shrugged. “Might as well see what he wants. Maybe it won’t be so bad.”
“I assure you. It will be bad.”
But Archer still placed his fisted hands on his hips and turned his head from side to side, surveying the landscape as he tried to decide which direction we should go. While he did that, I untied my necklace and slid the wire loop of the first piece of the Fallen Key onto the chain beside my clay pendant. When the two pieces touched, a bright spark burst forth, there and gone again so fast I wasn’t even sure I’d seen it.
“Alright,” Archer said, clapping his hands decisively. I blinked at him, tucking the necklace with its two pendants into my dress for safe keeping. “This way. Follow me and stay close. I have no wish to have to pry you from the jaws of some infernal hellbeast because you can’t do what you’re told.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, offering him a mocking salute.
The growl that he released was more heat than anger, but I forgot all about it when Archer turned and began to stride away from me across the barren wasteland that was the Void.
“Uh, Archer?” I asked, my eyes wide as I stared after him in shock. “Do you have...I mean. Is that a...tail?”
Chapter thirty-one
Archer
We walked for what felt like hours, the ash beneath our feet shifting with every step, small gray puffs that swirled around our ankles before settling back down to await the next doomed traveler.
Behind me, Delilah had kept up a running commentary, feeling the need to remark on every gnarled tree and twisted rock formation we passed. She asked inane questions, ones that I didn’t have the mental headspace to answer, so I coldly ignored her, hating the despondent little sighs she gave when I refused to engage, but unable to give her any more.
How the fuck had Delilah of all people managed to land us here? She hadn’t been wrong when she’d said thatgatekeeping Hell had been the sole purview of the demon nobility. Seventy-two demons who had been given ranks and titles after the Fall, the burden of those positions softened slightly by a marked increase in power compared to the lesser demons and wretched masses that made up the rest of Hell’s population.
In actual fact, even that was a stretch these days. More and more of our abilities had been slowly deteriorating in the last two decades, with only the most powerful of us even still able to access the shadow paths. It was why none of the others were able to open gates; I was the last demon in our contingent with that capability.
A worrisome problem, no doubt, but not as worrisome as how a fledgling witch had been able to accomplish something no noble demon had since Lucifer’s disappearance.
Even believing that the Fallen Key gave the bearer the ability to enter or exit Hell at will, Delilah didn’thavethe Fallen Key, only a single piece. So how had she managed to bring us here, and by accident, at that?
I was still wrestling with the question, my mind wandering to places it had no business going, when a loud, screeching cry rang out across the desolate wasteland.
“What was that?” Delilah asked from behind me, and I turned to see her crouched down, that hideous dressbunched up around her body as she searched for the source of the sound. The trees had grown dense around us, making the view of the sky limited, but even so, I knew the cry.
It had been an age since I’d heard it, but it was one I wouldn’t soon forget.
“It’s a wyvern,” I offered, my own eyes on the sky, hoping to catch a glimpse.
“Like, a dragon?” she asked as she crept closer to me, her tone confused and still a little afraid.
I wouldn’t admit how the vulnerability she so rarely displayed pulled at my emotions while simultaneously turning me on.
“Not a dragon,” I corrected, trying to control the way my cock reacted to her big eyes as they looked to me for guidance. “A wyvern. Similar, but not the same.”
Before I could explain further, a shadow swept across the forest, darkening the area like an eclipse. Above us, the sound of wings, heavy and slow, filled the air. The long, sinuous body followed the sound, blocking out nearly the entire sky as he passed low over the skeletal tree tops, and the creature released yet another loud, shrill noise.
Delilah screamed as well, her hands reaching for me as she leapt, pressing her body against mine in search of protection. Instinctively, I offered it, my arms wrappingaround her torso, my wings going wide, as though I sought to block her from the view of any nearby predators.
I refused to admit that I was the most dangerous predator in the area.
“It won’t hurt you,” I whispered, my fingers digging into the soft flesh of her body, loving the way she molded herself to me. “We must be getting close. It typically doesn’t venture far from its master. Now that it’s announced our presence, we might as well get on with it. If we delay too long, Astaroth will send for us, and that would be infinitely worse than if we simply turned up unannounced.”
She frowned, a small furrow appearing between her brows as she considered my words.
“You make him sound like a king.”
“In the Void, he might as well be,” I grudgingly admitted.
