EMELINE

Before I could even process what's happening, Allegra was preparing a way for us to enter Sparkas without actually going there. Astral projection was what we were going to use she said. I had seen that kind of magic but I had never used it on myself or others.

"What are the risks?" As always Lex was the calculative one, thinking of pros and cons.

"You come back before we wake you up. You will get eight hours at most, time goes there quickly so it might feel like a second when it's already been hours here. Now you may see something that will make you want to come back sooner but keep it in mind, do not wake up without actually talking to this Byron. The other Volkioses will literally lose their mind if you don't come up with an answer."

Oh, God.

I could feel the panic rising deep inside me. As if he could too, he relaxed with a grin. "Anything else?"

Instead of answering, Allegra handed me a small bottle. "Drink this. Both of you."

The bottle was surprisingly heavy for being so small. I shook the thing before opening it. The smell was what got me first. "You want me to drink blood?"

I heard a sound, expecting to see Lex scoff but to my shock, he knocked down the thing with a grimace. "Yuck. I don't remember blood being this disgusting."

"Because it's pig's blood mixed with mine." Allegra said with a straight face.

Damn it. Why couldn't she say it after I took it too? Smelling it wasn't an option so just like he did, I shoved it down to my throat with difficulty. It's a miracle that I didn't just gag, Lex wasn't exaggerating. The taste was absolutely awful.

"Ew."

"Yeah, this will connect you two to me. Take another bottle with you. It's Valentine's order. If you two find Byron passed out, just give him this."

Thankfully Lex took the bottle before I was forced to even go near it. He kept it in his pocket, glaring at her the whole time. "If he kills us after tasting it, I'm coming after you."

She didn't even blink. Sometimes I wondered how she was so immune to things around her. Maybe that's why she was a Volkios.

"If you are done glaring at me, lay down side by side like that day. Remember, eight hours."

With that warning, she started chanting an incantation. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to relax, mimicking Lex who slid under a grave. I didn't know why we always had to do these rituals in a cemetery but apparently, we have less chance of getting interrupted in this way.

Her logic, not mine.

As her voice raised, my eyelids dropped lower. There were blurs of motions, like pictures going faster and faster in my vision and I was almost sure that I was going to sleep when I heard it.

"I am with you. I'll always be with you."

***

I woke up in what looked like a zombie world.

The last time I was here, it was filled with sand and a beach. At most, the sky was red and the people were hiding near trees but now bodies were on the ground where even to walk, we had to tiptoe in the danger of stomping one.

"What the hell happened here?" Lex asked, mirroring the look in my eyes.

"I don't know."

"Wonderful." He cursed, grabbing my wrist suddenly. I must have tensed cause he rolled his eyes. "Relax, I'm just helping you move with all the bodies here. We don't want you puking your guts out."

Damn it. I really would have. 

The bodies were missing their limbs, some even looked like a skeleton. Did Byron do this? The thought made me hold into Lex even tighter. He could be extremely dangerous. Who knew in what state we were going to find him.

"You see someone?" 

"Dead or alive?"

Scoffing, I punched his shoulder. "Alive."

"Nope."

After that, we just walked like miles when it might just be a few blocks. Allegra was right. Time had no sense here. We might be here for an hour and it still felt like years. No sooner than we got out of the woods that we finally found a clearing.

That beach.

Right where I was ripped out of this earth.

Beside me, Lex froze as if he had the same thoughts. 

"Come on. Let's get out here." I should have agreed with him, not trying to walk faster to escape him. I heard rather than see him when he stopped behind me.

"Still the same, isn't it?" 

"Yes." I inhaled, memories poisoning my mind. "Dark magic still taints the air."

"Just as the memories, I assume?" He finished with a bitter laugh.

Suddenly, pain like nothing hit me from nowhere. Maybe it was mine or maybe it was his but we suffered the same. Maybe it was time to get over it. I had to accept that it happened if I wanted to move on. I turned around, watching him stare at me with no emotion.

"Alexei...maybe it's time we talk about it."

"No." He shook his head. "No, you are just going to hate me all the same. What's the point?"

Was he for real? 

"The point is you never knew why it hurt the most!" Once I started, I couldn't even stop. "I-I thought we were going somewhere. That after we defeat Keisha, we could actually have a future. My whole life was in fate's control. I never had anything that I chose myself. Choosing to love you was me being against fate and all the crap she put on me. I was such a fool."

He touched a strand of my hair, putting it behind my ear. "And if I told you earlier? Would we have a future?"

"Yes. Yes, we could have one."

"How?" He wondered aloud, chuckling. "We were prophesized to destroy each other so how?"

If only he believed in me, in my love for him... "We could have figured it out. Together."

His eyes widened. "Until I ruined it."

"Until you ruined it."

"I was the fool. Little soul, I am so-" He was abruptly cut off with a voice that sounded like hadn't been used in years.

"Is it me tripping or do I see a Deshayes?" 

"Oh, would you look at that? Byron in the flesh." Lex sneered, forcing me to look where his attention was. The Byron in question at one point must be out of the world in the looks department cause even battered and almost desiccated, he looked good. Wait...

"Did he see us?"

"He certainly did." Lex assured. Damn it. How was it possible?

"We are astral projecting, Lex. He shouldn't have seen us."

"Maybe the witch changed something." Without warning, Lex was in front of me when Byron started walking faster to reach where we were. As a vampire, I expected him to walk a little faster than that but I guessed this place had its charms.

"Oh, fresh air." He moaned as if he wasn't here a minute ago. "Do you do magic now, little Deshayes? This place has been showing me bodies after bodies for months. This is the first time I am inhaling something other than rotten blood."

What?

Lex had the same thoughts. "What the hell that's supposed to mean?"

"It means I have searched the whole Sparkas and I have never been able to find this place. She did something...who are you? The last time it was Mikhail or that deadbeat boyfriend, whatever. You change men every day?"

Byron must have not seen it coming just like I didn't. Cause he was thrown away a good foot from us when Lex punched him in the throat. "Don't come near her or talk about her that way if you still want to keep your little fangs enact."

Instead of retaliating, Byron let out a cough. "Funny, looks like I got the wrong Deshayes."

"That you did." I said for the first time. "You look uncomfortable. Perhaps, you are in dire need of blood?"

I heard Lex murmur in my ears. "What are you doing?"

"Baiting." I thought in my mind before raising my voice. "If you give us some answers, maybe we could give you some blood."

He looked me up and down with a smirk. "Now why would I do that? Your sister made sure I was locked up here, dying each day in insufferable pain. Even if you promise me blood, I don't think Reaper blood is suitable for me. Tried it once, never trying it again."

"What about the blood of a Volkios?"

"You drive a hard bargain but I need more. Get me out of this place."

"Deal." Lex spoke up before I could scold him. What the hell was he planning? First of all, we were astral projecting and second of all, Allegra along with 5132 would kill us if we somehow manage to bring him back. 

Byron nodded. "Deal. Now ask away."

"Sage and Demos used to talk. Did he ever tell you about what?" I asked, anxious to know what Demos's real plan was. Did he plan to use me somehow? Betray me? I could have found anything to be acceptable but what I heard him say.

"Oh, it's about that? Demos had a vision of bringing every Hell together."

No.

It wasn't possible.

"That means war with the devil. He knows that!" The Demos I knew was happy with what he had. He could never go against the devil knowing all the consequences to follow. Even when Allegra said that I refused to believe it. It was absurd and very unlike...Demos.

"Trust me, he knows that. He just doesn't want to stay as the Demon King anymore, he wants to be the King of Hell. Which starts with the demise of the witches. As long as they are alive, he can't be successful in his quest."

God, no.

This couldn't be happening.

"How do we know that you are telling the truth?" Lex took over, seeing the look on my face. "You were a traitor."

"Let me do a truth spell first." I offered, quickly murmuring the words. "Ertj ki dhk lo pa na fre."

Byron looked offended. "Oh, but what do I have to lose? I am already in my personal Hell. Why do you think Sage suddenly had all the right resources? He brought a contract from Demos. I can show you proof if you want to."

He was telling the truth. Even then trusting him would be foolish but what choice did we have?

So we followed him as he led us deeper into the woods once again. His hiding spots must be good cause every time there was a zombie-like creature after us, he got us to safety. It almost got to the point where Lex started swearing.

"Fucking Sparkas and its fucking tricks. They all should be after you, why the hell are they coming after us?"

"I don't make the rules, mate." Byron rasped behind us.

"Well, it's entirely unpleasing that-" Lex paused suddenly with a curse. I stopped to see what the commotion was when I felt the pain. There was intense pain in my neck but it wasn't me who was hurt.

It was him.

Lex.

I didn't even remember screaming when he fell on his knees. I only stared at Byron behind him, a hint of blood on his lips. Seeing that I had my eyes on him, he smirked. "You two were never going to help me get out of here, do you!?"

"I-I, why him-"

I didn't expect him to run at normal speed for a vampire to grab my throat. Not until I remembered Lex giving him the blood we had with us. Damn it, Lex. Why wasn't he moving?

"Astral projecting, smart but my Hell is different than yours. Whatever I do to you here, your real body feels everything that's happening, like right now he has a broken neck and you'll have the same fate."

No-