VISION ✔️ || The Keepers of Astraela #1

43.1 || Of Darkness and Obnoxious Demons

EVA

EVA WOKE TO BLISTERING heat. A heat she had so often felt in her darkest visions, accompanied by flames that had melted the flesh from her bones—except this time, it wasn't joined by the same mental fuzz as her dreams. It was real.

And it was suffocating.

Jolting awake, she pushed herself up on the soft, lumpy ground. Instead of a blazing inferno, it was a cavern with stone cliffs that rose on either side, reaching into the endless, black abyss above. Blue orbs, no larger than the head of a pin, flicked through the air in an intricate dance that lit the area in a minty hue. Stray motes drifted closer, and only then did Eva notice their wings fluttering, so small and fast that their own glow overpowered their presence.

A soft grunt sounded from beneath her. Eva looked down to realize that the "ground" she had forcefully jabbed was not ground at all, but Emrys, who coughed while she leaned her full weight upon his chest. After muttering a quick apology, she slid off of him and onto the stone floor.

While Emrys sat up and stretched out his limbs, Eva wiped at the perspiration gathered on her forehead. Though it was hard to see in the dim, blue cast, light noises indicated that they were not alone—from the gentle trickle of water in the distance to a skittering that echoed off the cavern walls.

"Where are we?" muttered Eva, more to herself than her companion.

Emrys' eyes darted around with an ill expression plaguing his face. The slight green tinge to his cheeks made her wonder if he was about to vomit his donut holes across the rough terrain.

Emrys shook his head rapidly. "We shouldn't have come here. We shouldn't have gone anywhere near that damn mausoleum."

The panic in his eyes increased as he turned to find nothing but stone behind him—and, if Eva didn't know better, she almost expected him to begin climbing the walls.

When the skittering grew more prominent, Emrys pulled Eva against his chest. The panicked thrum of his heart beat through his shirt. "We have to find a way out."

A high-pitched cackle broke their hushed surroundings. The louder it echoed off the stone walls, the tighter Emrys held Eva until she could hardly take a breath.

"Emrys." A new voice spoke in a tone so deep it rumbled Eva's eardrums. "How soon you forget... there is no way out."

The skittering ceased. Instead, it was replaced by multiple sets of footsteps. Distorted shadows rippled along the walls to signal the approach of three tall figures. They sauntered at a painstaking pace, clearly in no rush to approach their trembling prey.

As the first of them neared, Eva pressed closer to Emrys' chest.

The first man loomed above the two behind him, dressed in leather armor so dark that he nearly became one with the shadows. As the luminescent moths drifted closer, their soft light glinted off two twisted, onyx horns: one fully intact, spreading more than a foot beyond his skull, and the other severed in jagged points. Partially concealed under a mop of midnight hair were the skeletal remains of what must have once been a beautiful face. But now, the skin on its right side had melted away to reveal nothing but charred bone.

His solid black eyes met hers with wild pleasure. "You've brought us company, Eva. You've returned the precious Phoenix to his brethren."

"Em," she muttered, not daring to take her eyes off the thing in front of her. "What is he talking about?"

Before Emrys could respond, the horned man knelt in front of them. The stench of sulfur followed, strengthening when he let out a dark laugh. Even the swirling, black pools that filled his eyes churned with malevolent glee as his lips widened to reveal rows of sharpened teeth. From so close, the molten edges of his skin were on full display, along with the tattered remains of his right ear.

Eva swallowed hard. "You're a Demon."

"Smart." The creature tapped a long, singed claw under the point of her chin. "Just like your other half."

Emrys tugged Eva away, but not before the creature purposely nicked her jawline with his talon. Wetness dripped down her neck, and she tried to ignore the sting.

Another sharp, high-pitched laugh echoed as the others stepped forward. Each man-like figure held similarities to the last, with varying degrees of decay and Darkness enrapturing their forms. One stepped up to his leader, with both horns sliced clean off just above his unruly black hair.

"The blood of a goddess in human form." He giggled profusely, his voice unsettlingly cartoonish as he licked his lips with a forked tongue. "I wonder how it tastes—"

"Shut it, Tata," the deep-voiced Demon snapped, cuffing the shorter demon upside the head. Blood seeped from his knuckles. "Unless you want to be boiled in your own Corruption again."

The twitchy one—Tata—snapped his mouth shut in an exaggerated, childish pout.

Eva's blinking grew more rapid as she struggled to make sense of his words. "The blood of... what?"

The deep-voiced Demon turned to his goons. "Bind them."

Emrys scrambled to his feet, yanking Eva with him. Before he could take a step, the Demon scoffed and snapped his fingers. An invisible force froze them in place with such strength that Eva could hardly breathe.

A sharp tsk, tsk left the Demon's mouth. "You always have to do things the hard way, you flaming asshole."

As the two others wound around him, Tata rushed to beat his partner to Eva's side. The deep-voiced Demon yanked him back by the arm. Tata's elbow snapped from his grip, and his arm bent in an unnatural position. It hardly seemed to phase him.

Instead, Tata muttered under his breath and slunk over to Emrys.

The silent and shortest Demon glowered at his brothers before approaching Eva. Clanging chains materialized in his grasp, and he nodded to Tata, who pulled Eva and Emrys apart.

She glanced up at the silent Demon and realized why he had yet to speak: his lips were only half attached to his mouth, sewn shut by dark stitches. The same fate had befallen his right eye, half-hidden under lengthy bangs.

When the silent Demon disappeared behind her, she felt the hot, metal shackles being clamped around her wrists and ankles. Clanking chains to her side indicated that Tata had done the same to Emrys.

Finally, Eva found her voice and stared up at the deep-voiced Demon. "Where are we? Where are you taking us?"

He only stepped forward, holding out his hands. Heavy, cloth sacks materialized in each palm, and he held one out to the side. Tata snatched it hungrily, wasting no time in shoving it over Emrys' head.

The tallest Demon stood unsettlingly close to Eva, practically breathing down her neck while he held his own sack open with the edge of his talons.

"I'm disappointed in you," he said mockingly. "At least our Phoenix remembered his home."

Eva's throat went bone-dry. "Home?"

The Demon laughed and shoved the cloth over her head. As he pulled the drawstring around its opening, her world plunged into darkness, save for what little mint-colored light seeped through the bottom.

"Welcome to Hell."

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