Kobal
I watched as River washed the blood and flesh from her body. There was nothing sexual in my appraisal of her this time. I simply couldn’t get enough of looking at her as she moved in the water. The pensive expression on her face never changed. She’d been withdrawn since Magnus’s illusion had ended.
“What’s bothering you?” I asked as I perched on a rock at the edge of the small pool.
She brushed a strand of wet hair from her face and glanced at me. “They have too much faith in me.”
“They have as much faith in you as they should.”
“I am mortal—”
“You are much more than that.”
“I am Lucifer’s descendant,” she murmured.
“River—”
“Just because you and the other demons consider him to be my father doesn’t mean I have to,” she said briskly and snatched a piece of the black lava rock we used to clean ourselves in Hell from a small shelf next to the pool.
The abrasive quality of the soap rubbed her skin raw, but she didn’t stop. I covered her hand with mine when she scrubbed at her right arm for the fifth time since she’d stepped into the pool of water.
“Stop,” I said. “Your skin is clean.”
Her gaze fell to her abraded skin; with a sigh, she returned the rock to the shelf. “I still feel like there’s stuff on me.”
“There’s not,” I assured her.
Her amethyst eyes shimmered when she looked up at me. “I identify more with the angel part of me, shouldn’t we be enemies?”
“The angels may be the pricks who started all of this, but they are not our enemies. Their fallen brethren are. We’ve never encountered any angel other than a fallen one.”
“But if you consider me Lucifer’s child, am I not one of the fallen?”
“Do you identify with the more malevolent nature that drove him from Heaven and into our world?”
“Sometimes. I would do anything to protect those I love. Anything.”
“That’s not darkness. That is light. Do you wish for us to be enemies?”
“Of course not! I just feel…”
“What?” I prodded when she stopped speaking.
“When the lanavours took hold of me, they saw all of my fears, and they gave them all back to me.” Her hand unwittingly fluttered up to touch beneath her right eye. Her eyes were haunted. The fading bruises on her face from what she’d endured during Magnus’s illusion made the violet color of them stand out starkly in the candlelight. “They showed me failing, Kobal. My brothers were dead. You turned against me—”
“That would never happen,” I interjected. “No matter what befalls us, I will not turn against you.”
“But the demons will all be going in to face him because of me. Some, maybe many, will die because they believe in me.”
“Many have followed me to their deaths also and will continue to do so. It is the way of our world since Lucifer entered it. He will eventually leave this place, and when he does, you will learn the true meaning of Hell on Earth.”
Stepping away, I lifted one of the thick drying cloths Magnus had brought in earlier and held it open for her. She walked from the pool and into my arms. I draped the material around her and rubbed over her arms to ease the rattling of her bones.
“He will also continue to break the seals. That must be stopped.”
Her head remained bowed before she finally took a deep breath and lifted her face to mine. “What if I lose you?”
I lowered my forehead to hers. “No matter what happens, I will always be with you, Mah Kush-la.”
Turning her cheek, she rested it against my chest and closed her eyes. I enveloped her in my arms and carried her to the thick furs set before the crackling fire. Morax and the others had returned with supplies and weapons. I’d set out a piece of cooked rabbit and some green beans for her to eat when she’d first climbed into the pool.
I sat down across from her and watched as she bit into the rabbit and wiped the juices away from her chin. “Would you like more?” I inquired when she finished off the meat and turned her attention to the green beans.
“No, I’m fine. I don’t suppose there’s much human food in Hell?”
“They brought enough food for you for at least two weeks, and you may be able to eat the prury fruit when we go through the Forest of Prurience.”
She brushed a strand of damp hair from her forehead. “What’s that?”
“The prury fruit comes from the calamut trees. At the very least, it may not taste good to you, but it won’t be poisonous.”
“And what about this forest?” she inquired.
“It’s where the nymphs and the canagh demons reside.”
Her fingers stilled on her food. “The canaghs?” she croaked.
“Not all of them are bad,” I reminded her. “And many of them went above when the gateway opened. Magnus has assured me that though the tree nymphs are still there, the wood nymphs have not returned to the woods, probably because the trees would not allow them to reside there again.”
“The trees have a say in that?”
“The trees have a say on many things when it comes to the forest.”
“How… fitting. The wood nymphs are on Lucifer’s side?”
“Yes.”
“I thought nymphs were supposed to be friendly or something.”
“Some are. The wood nymphs are not.”
She turned her attention back to the beans. With some food in her, the bruises on her face were fading faster. The color returning to her cheeks had nothing to do with her abraded skin and more to do with her body healing itself.
“So we will be going through this forest?”
“It is the safest way to the Fires of Creation and the seals.”
Her eyes widened as they came back up to me. “We will be going to where you were created?”
“We will travel to the chamber where I was forged.”
Taking a breath, I braced myself for what I was about to tell her next. She wouldn’t like what I had to say, but I’d told her I wouldn’t keep anything from her anymore, and I’d meant it. “You and the others may not be able to enter the chamber with me. Only the varcolac and the hounds have ever entered before.”
Her eyes narrowed on me. “What happens if we can’t enter?”
“I will continue onto the seals without you.” I held up a hand to forestall her protests. “I am telling you this because I promised you no more secrets between us, but it is not up for debate, River. We must get to the seals quickly and going through the Fires of Creation is the fastest way. If you are unable to enter, you will still be safe outside the chamber, as Lucifer doesn’t know where it is located.”
“How do you know that?” she demanded.
“Because I am the only one who knows where it is. It isn’t something anyone else would stumble across, and if they did, they wouldn’t know what they were looking at. I like the idea of leaving you behind as much as you like the idea of me continuing without you, but it must be done. With every seal that falls, Lucifer becomes stronger.”
“What if you can’t stop the seals from falling on your own? Or what if you’re walking into a trap?”
“If it is a trap then I will take one of the other ways into and out of the seals.”
“If there are other ways then we will take one of them, together!”
“They are much longer, all well-known, and more dangerous. If I do not return, Morax and the others will come for me one of those ways.”
“Am I to go one of those ways too?”
My claws extended before I drew them back into myself with a steadying breath. “If you cannot enter the chamber then you will wait for me by it with Corson and the others.”
“I will not stand by and simply wait for you to come back from battle and neither will the others.”
“They will if I command them to.”
“Kobal—”
“I promised I would not keep anything from you again. Do not make me regret telling you this.”
“But you’re still trying to order me around.”
“No, I’m not. This is the way it must be, River. The faster we know the answer to what is going on, the better off we’ll all be. If I thought there was a better way, I would do it, simply so I didn’t have to leave you behind. You know that.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I do,” she admitted.
I took her hand, holding it in both of mine as I drew her forward. I brushed the wet hair back from her neck and kissed her nape as I settled her onto my lap. “And if you can enter the chamber, then you will be with me every step of the way.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I.”
I slid the fur away from her to drink in the sight of her beautiful body. Laying her down, I followed behind, determined to drown her apprehension and mine in nothing but pleasure until she was too tired to worry anymore.
“My heart,” she whispered before clasping my cheek in her hand and drawing me down for a kiss.