Hellfire

Chapter Thirty

I ran. I ran so much that I'd lost count of the turnings I'd took or how many steps I made. Little One just clung to me tight, not once looking up from her crook of my neck, and tried her best to just keep breathing as the walls and floors cascading into nothing but dust. I ran. I ran from the bats, from those piercing blue eyes that split apart the walls, from the howling dark and raging blizzards, from her rage and hate and desire to see me dead.

Until it all just...stopped.

I stumbled into the hall, at first relieved to see something familiar again. It was the foyer of the house with its sweeping staircase and its hallways darting off into all manner of directions. Familiarity seemed to be safe rooms, where Morrigan's influence was at its weakest. But this room seemed to upset Little One more, rather than calm her. She squirmed like a ferret, forcing me to let her go as she dove onto the red steps that went into the deeper floors. There she crouched, gripped her knees tight, and squeezed her eyes shut.

I slipped to her, hunkering around her to give her some sense of safety. 'Little One?'

'He's coming.' She whispered softly.

'Who?'

She made a quiet moan and gripped her head. 'Grandmummy is sending him. She's going to try make you frightened of daddy.' Her small hands snatched at me, gripping me tightly. 'Please don't be scared of him. Daddy's kind and good. Grandmummy hates it. She doesn't like him being nice.'

'So, she's trying to make him like she wants him to be.'

And using his self-hatred for what he did to me against him.

Little One nodded, froze for a heartbeat and sunk deeper into the stairs. 'Grandmummy sees through his eyes.'

I nodded. 'I'll distract him. Walk with light steps like you did before and sneak by when he's focused on me. Get to the door, slip out, and I'll follow.'

She hesitated, a frightened look casting over her small features. 'What if you can't?'

My eyes flickered and repeated myself with a firmer tone. 'I'll follow.'

She looked uncertain still, but she nodded. 'Just...please don't be scared of daddy, no matter what he says. It hurts daddy that you are. Hurts him like I've never felt before.' She pressed her small hand over her heart, tangling her fingers in her plaited dress. 'Hurts him right here.'

I gazed at her small hand over her heart, the worry in her features and the upset pooling in her eyes. I pressed my finger to my chest, remembering the rage I felt when I face him, the accusations he wasn't him, accusations he was a threat to our youngsters. He never deserved that.

'He'll show me he's a man again and that I'm being stupid for being scared of him.' I said firmly, and eyes brimming with flames. 'I'll be mad with him if he doesn't.'

For a moment, Little One smiled, until she paled with terror and ducked further down the steps. I heard distant movement then, making me tense up. Footsteps clicked. Little One said nothing, and wildly stared at me with fear. I pat her head, whispered that she do as I said, and slid from the steps.

I glanced about the hall, noting some of the walls were beginning to crack. Blood was weeping from them, dibbling down in streaks of red, and frost was sweeping in from the west with each crack of those echoing steps. A sign I was learning that meant Morrigan was coming.

I stood tall, tilting my chin lightly and tightening my muscles for a fight. Lucius warned me shades would come. They'd try to kill me or slow me down. But, most of all, I had to keep them from seeing Little One. I didn't know what to expect, I just wasn't expecting a man to come prowling out of the dark.