Inferno of Darkness (Divisa Huntress #2) - J.L. Weil Page 0,44

opening. Fuck me. Ashor better goddamn appreciate the shit I went through to protect him for once. As if the thought of my mate sent a signal down our bond, a sharp shooting pain went through my back, and I hissed. My palms flattened against the rough stone wall as I rode out the wave of agony.

“Lex,” Angel called, but her voice was so far away, as if she was at the other side of the ocean. She touched my elbow. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

The pain was blowing out my hearing and thankfully only lasted a few seconds. “I’m okay,” I assured, straightening back to my full height. “It’s not me. It’s Ashor,” I informed, ribbons of panic rippling through me.

“This is as far as I go,” Kira said. “Cayden will be waiting at the gate.”

I nodded. “Thank you. I couldn’t have gotten this far without your help.”

An odd expression shifted into her expression. A cross between concern and fear. “I’ll see you when you get home. You still have your end of the bargain to uphold.”

I stepped into the opening, turning to the side to make sure I squeezed through. Like a snap of a finger, the flickering light from the chamber was gone, and I was veiled in utter darkness. Nothing I wasn’t accustomed to, but my family was another story. Angel’s hand slipped into mine like an anchor, keeping us from being separated. Another snap of a finger, and the five of us were surrounded by a dense white mist cold enough to freeze the tip of my nose.

This was the in between—the leg of our journey that would be the most dangerous. It was up to Angel to guide us to Hell's Gate, to the Court of Darkness. A single wrong turn and we might never return—never see each other again. It was a massive gamble, but I didn’t see that we had another choice. My mother had kept her word. I just prayed Cayden did as well.

“Holy shit. I can’t believe we’re back here,” Travis proclaimed. A haze of mist so thick I could hardly make out his form clouded between us, but I heard the tremor in his voice, his body shuddering.

I hadn’t been with them the first time they’d wandered through limbo, but I imagined the memories weren’t pleasant, and I was sorry for it.

“I never thought I would willingly go back,” Emma agreed. They had only come in the first place to save me. Something I was never going to forget. Only family, people who truly cared about you, pulled a stunt like they had.

“None of us did,” Chase said. The doorway behind us was gone, the mist swallowing us whole.

“This way,” Angel said, her eerie eyes glowing bright like little tracking beacons through the heavy vapor.

Sticking close together, we followed her, Chase grabbing onto her hand, tying her to him. We walked blindly for at least ten minutes, and the tension at being discovered started to ease—until the temperature dropped in a familiar chill that made my skin pucker with goose bumps. My heartbeat picked up, thumping against my ribs. I couldn’t tell if it was fear or excitement that caused my pulse to race. “Someone’s coming,” I murmured, halting as I searched through the dense fog.

Travis’s voice was rough when he said, “You’re sure? I don’t see—”

The outline of a dark shadow appeared, a man sitting on top of a horse. The sight brought forth sharp needle-like pains in my chest. I couldn’t pick apart my own emotions, not now, not when I was on the verge of throwing up.

My eyes were glued to the figure, the winds blustering, whistling, and moaning like chained ghosts of the past, turning the air to frost. Snow fluttered from the misty sky like pieces of broken stars, glittering through Hell’s Mist. In the distance, Hellhounds barked battle cries, craving the hunt. Hooves thundered over the dirt, pounding into the ground in ferocity and death.

The Wild Hunt had arrived.

Fuck!

This was not part of the plan.

What was the Hunt doing here? Was Ashor with them? Had something happened to Cayden? Had he sent the Hunt after me? Or was it the bitch queen herself who gave the order?

Was it wrong to hope that just once something would go according to plan?

“I assume our cover has been blown.” Chase glowered at the approaching riders.

My pulse galloped much like the Hellmounts they rode in on, swift and earnest. It was pointless to run, so I stood frozen,