The Touch of Demise │18+

43: What Is and What Was

GRACE

It was dark where they portaled into. She looked down at her boots as she felt her pants become wet. The dark green leggings she wore were barely visible to her, even with her heightened vision. She felt a hand grab her wrist.

Beside her Demise's form towered over her. His black, thick leathered jacket shone from the small beacon of moonlight that streamed into wherever they were. Water splashed to her left where Rosalie fell from the portal. Xerxes entered next. His segundas, Espen, was the final lycanthrope that came through into the faerie realm. Goliath had been here for days now, and she prayed that he was safe and secured himself. He was supposed to meet them wherever they mysted into.

The sound of water falling into water filled her ears and as her eyes adjusted, she realized that they were within a building that seemed to be falling apart. A river streamed through it and to her side was a waterfall that fell somewhere she couldn't see.

Rosalie lit a torch and held it high above her. Her wings flew to her sides and she took off, flying up to see the levels above. At the very top of wherever they were was a dome. She returned momentarily.

"We're alone."

"Where are we?" Grace asked.

Demise shook his head. "House Nyght, but it's darker than I remember."

Xerxes agreed. "It was always dark, but there were natural stars that lit this world. Where have the stars gone?"

"They probably followed wherever the moon and sun went."

The faintest whisper invaded her mind, and she looked at Demise realizing it was his voice.

Goliath, Goliath, Goliath...

She added hers to the chant. Goliath, Goliath, Goliath...

Kairós dé

It was their greeting; a Greek phrase meaning hello. She had never been more relieved to hear Goliath's voice filter through her mind. Her mind wandered to an image and she realized it was of where Goliath was. She saw his hands and then the black rock that he stood on before the entrance to a cave. Goliath couldn't link for long or speak through it when they were this far apart. Demise was the one holding it now and that took energy they needed to conserve.

The image bled away and Demise looked at the others. "We need to find an exit and meet Goliath."

"You know where he is," Rosalie asked.

Demise nodded. "He's about a mile north."

"As opposed to what," Xerxes commented. "Attempt to myst with newly discovered fae-hybrids? We'd end up decapitated."

"Split up. Grace stay by me. Find an exit," Demise ordered. "We could break that glass dome but I'd like to not ruin House Nyght for as long as possible."

Grace climbed out of the river thankful that her boots were high enough and water resilient. She looked at the massive rock and debris that was scattered around the dilapidated building. "What was this place?"

"It was a place of devotion."

"For who? Or what?"

In front of her was an alter that had a skull and old book on it. That book was dusty. Brushing her hand against the cover, she inhaled at the language print she didn't understand.

Espen appeared beside her. "It's Nyghtian; The Prayer of Nyx."

Nyx was the Regent of House Nyght. They prayed to him here. The palm of her hand felt fuzzy, her eyes narrowed as the vines that climbed the wall started to climb over her hand.