“Angel!” I called, my eyes never leaving Lucifer.
My hellhound trotted in with blood and gore all over his heads. He growled at our enemies, about to lunge at Ares to assist Axel and Zak.
Ares swore profusely and broke away from Axel and Zak. My mates didn’t pursue him since I’d gotten in. Plus, we were all wounded. More battles wouldn’t do us any good. But I found a rock in my pocket that I’d brought from Hell. I’d always carried rocks, just in case my blades weren’t enough to ward my enemies. I yanked it out and flung it at Ares before he could react.
The palm-sized rock hit the hollow under his left eye.
The god jerked back. “You little shit!”
Zak and Axel stood shoulder to shoulder, facing him with their swords up, blocking his path to me.
They were my shields forever.
Ares gritted his teeth. “I’ve never met anyone nastier than that hellion in my entire existence.” He turned to Lucifer, looking for sympathy but getting none. His friend was as much a psychopath as him. “That says something,” he concluded for his own ears and retreated to Lucifer’s corner but stayed a few paces from the devil.
“Who gives a rat’s fuck what you think?” Ares yelled at his father.
“Paxton, come in!” I shouted, standing by the entrance to cover his back and prevent the monsters from flooding in.
Paxton stepped through the entry backward, his sword decapitating a crocodile-like creature right at his heels.
A black-furred monster charged toward the sea demigod. Paxton and I struck at the same time, and the monster fell in a heap under our swords. As Paxton and I yanked out our blades, a stream of blood spewed from its mouth. We leapt back to avoid the blood on our persons, even though we were already soaked with blood and gore.
As soon as the monster’s blood hit the threshold of the cave, it sizzled, turning to red mist before vanishing.
“The cave is warded,” Paxton said, trading a relieved look with me.
“That’s an interesting development,” Lucifer called from the corner. “Let more beasts hit the ward and see what happens next.”
“You’re no boss here, devil,” Axel said. “Who wants your opinion?”
He and Zak were still positioned in the middle of the cave with their bloody swords ready, facing our enemies.
“I propose a truce,” Lucifer said, paying no mind to my mates’ attitude. “The beasts of the Void do not differentiate us as we’re merely meat to them. If we all want to get out of here instead of ending up inside the beasts’ bellies, we’ll need to work together.”
I’d bet all my money that the Void hadn’t had a visitor for a very long time, and the monsters wouldn’t be keen on letting the new meat slip through their teeth.
“Like that’s going to happen, dicks,” Axel snorted.
My war demigod was saturated with destructive rage. His father’s betrayal had cut him soul-deep, and he wasn’t going to get over the bruising blow anytime soon. The trauma would stay with him for a long time.
I darted a worried glance at him before turning my gaze back to the monsters outside the cave.
Paxton crouched on the other side of the cave’s mouth, his sword in position to strike.
But the pack no longer charged. They must know about the ward. They stared at us, especially at the sea demigod, with chilling hunger in their mad eyes.
They resorted to waiting us out.
While the monsters sat on their haunches, growling, more of their kind trotted down from the peak of the mountains to join their ranks.
It was unnerving to know an ocean of them wanted our flesh and blood and bones.
“They won’t get you, Buttercup,” Paxton hissed, misreading the look of dismay on my face. “No one gets you.”
I shut my eyes for a second, not wanting him to see the shattered agony in my eyes.
The monsters had swallowed my Héctor.