Both smiled, pleased she was finally aboard. “One more question.” She threw out. “What’s an UnHallowed?”
Chapter 13
Moonlight dappled the woods, turning the landscape into a fairy tale filed with imaginary pixies and fae. She chose the fantasy instead of viewing the trees as waking giants and the underbrush as a hidden lair waiting to swallow her whole and spit her out into the underworld without any way to get home. This pixie wonderland was a far cry better than acknowledging the demon and angel hunting her.
Oh, they were kind enough to give her a head start. A head start. Really? As if thirty minutes made a bit of difference against those two. They did it to frighten her. As if this controlled simulation could come close to the conditions of the night where she killed the demon who killed her bestie four long days ago. Was it only four days? It couldn’t be when her body felt it had been a year.
Yet, she ran on while pondering what Seren begrudgingly spilled about the UnHallowed. Fallen angels. He regretted his slip of the tongue because she pestered him every single day about the UnHallowed.
Humph. Angels. UnHallowed. Demons. Hell. Heaven. It was a lot for her poor little mortal brain to take in. Her head ached trying to absorb it all, and she’d just scratched the surface. Agone and Seren piecemealed the information they shared. She couldn’t blame them when she hadn’t exactly welcomed the little they had shared.
The underlying question she kept asking herself was: Did she trust them?
She trusted Agone. Seren though, something was off with him. He wanted her. She could see it in his gold-rimmed cerulean eyes. Yet, he hated himself for it. Hated her. She shouldn’t care. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time she cared about an asshole.
She slowed to a jog because her muscles ached, her feet throbbed, and her lungs protested. She wasn’t an athlete, not even in the most generous sense of the word.
“This is bullshit.” She stopped. Hands braced on her knees, doubled over wheezing, she considered calling it a night and strolling back to the cottage. It couldn’t be more than a mile away.
“Fuck,” she groaned and wiped her sweaty brow. She wanted a cold shower, a stiff drink, and a bed. In that order.
Too bad she wasn’t a quitter, because quitting looked real good right about now.Damn it.She stretched. She’d never quit before and wouldn’t start now, even if the training exercise was definitely bullshit. However, she was done running.
Here I am. Catch me.She limped along on a swelling ankle.
One of them was carrying her back. Hobbling home wasn’t an option, not if they didn’t want the tables turned and them becoming the hunted. A meadow stretched out in front of her. A doe and her calf paused their grazing, then darted away.
“You think I’m scary? Good thing you didn’t see what’s chasing me.” Her watch chimed. Her thirty-minute head start had ended. Any second now, they’d burst from the trees behind her, and she’d pretend to be scared.
The minutes kept ticking, and she kept hobbling along. Halfway through the meadow, she twisted her good ankle and went down to her knees.
That’s it, I’m done.
Refusing to be the damsel in distress that fell when the bad guy chased her, Eden rose, made a one-eighty, and started back the way she came.
The woods quieted. Not a tweet from a bird. Not a chirp from a cricket. Even the breeze stilled. Heart banging in her chest, common sense fled. Instinct ordered her to brace and bring her hands up to fight. Not run. Not flee for her life. The time to run had passed. Now she had to survive.
Something slithered between the trees. Or maybe it was her imagination? Motionless, she studied each shadow and pondered the question. Her spidey-sense tingled along with the tips of her fingers.
Something was out there. Agone? She wanted to shout his name, which had to be the stupidest idea ever to pop into her brain. Sure, shout his name, let him and everything else out there, prey and predator, know her location. She backed up, one foot at a time, in the opposite direction.
To her right, a pair of glowing red eyes drew her attention. She wasn’t afraid. A third set of red eyes quickly followed by a fourth and fifth set appeared. They’d surrounded her. Where were Agone and Seren? They said they’d protect her and here she was surrounded by the same demons who’d attacked her in Florida.
Maybe they’re not the same.
Who gives a shit?
They’re here to snatch you away from Agone and Seren. Take you God knows where and do God knows what.
What should I do?
Stay alive.
That voice wasn’t hers, but a combination of Agone’s and Seren’s.
Stay alive, Eden.
She balled her fists and prepared for battle. It may not be long, and she would certainly get bloody, but she’d take one, maybe more, with her.