Demon's Trust (The Chronicles of Arcayos #1) - Raven Dark Page 0,104

anything happen to you. Just let me do the talking, all right?”

I nod mutely.

He gives my hand a gentle squeeze.

We pull up at a small lodging house in the middle of the woods. The lights are all off inside, only one lamppost casting beams across the gravel path. Arcayos parks the car behind a gray truck already in the drive.

“It doesn’t look like he’s here,” I say nervously.

“He isn’t.” He flicks his hand. There is a pulse of light, and Hawk’s image disappears, replaced with Arcayos’ real form, hooded cloak and all. “Let’s go.” He gets out and locks the door. By the time he comes around to the passenger’s side, I’m already standing on the gravel. He scowls at me, but I ignore it.

“Where is he meeting us?”

Arcayos takes my hand and puts my keys into my palm, closing my fingers around the fob. “Do exactly as I tell you. Stick close to me. Say nothing unless there is no choice. If I tell you to run, you run. Take the car and leave me behind.”

Leave him behind? My throat goes dry. Just how dangerous is this Damon?

I nod.

We start through the woods, quickly finding a darkened path. Once we’re well away from the road, Arcayos grabs my arm and throws me onto his back. I cry out in surprise, throwing my arms around his neck.

“Whoa, what are you doing?”

“Hold on,” he growls.

He leaps into the air. We shoot upward, up and up. I let out a pathetically frightened noise and bury my face in his warm shoulder, clutching him in a death grip.

The demon lands high in a tree, wedging himself in a split of a trunk. His hand grips my knee. “Are you all right, Cassidy Morgan?”

It’s strange that he still does that even though he should be out of the habit being in Hawk’s persona so often. It’s also reassuring somehow, a reminder that he is as scary and dangerous as anything out here.

“I think so.” My teeth chatter. It’s a cool night, the wind howling around us.

He leaps, jumping from tree to tree, as lithe and spry as a huge panther.

It doesn’t take long to see why he’s traveling this way. In minutes, we’re deep in the forest, miles of trees spread out all around us. We’ve traveled miles out from the cabin, covering a distance that should have taken an hour or more.

At last, he pauses in one of the highest trees, and his head swivels as he scans the area below. It’s too dark for me to see more than shadows.

“Why didn’t we just go through the gate?” I chatter.

“Humans cannot travel through either Gate. Not while alive.”

I don’t get time to process this. He springs down and lands on one knee on an overgrown path. I slide off him.

Down here, there is a thick canopy that blocks out all but faint slivers of moonlight. We start down the path. It slopes upward, carrying us deeper into the woods.

“How the hell can you see anything, demon spawn? It’s pitch-black out here.”

“Tae’agul see many times better than humans.”

“How much better?”

He glances at me, and his eyes glow like fiery coals in the blackness. “I have sight acuity equal to an eagle and the night vision of an owl.”

I give a low whistle. “You must have been kickass at hide and seek when you were a kid.”

“I did not have a childhood, Cassidy Morgan. And if I did, I would not have been allowed to play games.”

I open my mouth to tell him how sad that sounds, but I click my jaw shut. We’ve arrived at a small clearing at the top of the hill. The space is surrounded by trees and dominated by a series of flat rocks worn down by time and the elements. There is a large, wide stone right in front of us. Arcayos mounts the rock and puts me behind him, keeping me close.

The silence in this place makes me unsettled. Save Arcayos breathing, I don’t hear a sound, not a bird or a cricket. It’s as if the forest is holding its breath. Was it like that the whole way out here and I was just too scared to pick up on it?

“Now what?” I ask softly.

Once again, his hooded head swivels slowly. He scans the trees and then his shoulders relax. We’re alone. I shiver, and not from the cold.

“Now, we wait,” he rumbles quietly.

The huge warrior sits and I join him. A breeze picks up, rustling the

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