Page 40 of Fallen Demon

12

We kept moving deeperinto the underworld for a long time without any other issues. To be honest, I thought it was oddly quiet and kept expecting something awful at any moment.

But nothing happened.

And that only made me worry we would bump into another prisoner with great powers, and who knew what this one would do?

We walked the entire day—per our watches and phones—and didn’t find anything else, no one else. When it was late, we stopped in a large desert area with only a handful of broken, burned tree trunks around us.

Rage made a small bonfire to give us more light. We sat down around the fire and ate our protein bars and drank our water. I counted how many more bars I had. If I ate only when necessary, I would have enough for a week.

It had been two days already. That left another two to go, maybe three if I rationed a little more, before we had to turn back. A sense of despair filled my chest. Would that be enough? If the past two days was any indication, it wouldn’t.

But it had to be. It needed to be.

We ate in silence, everyone lost in their thoughts and stealing glances at the dark horizon. Yes, we were in a wide-open expanse of dry land, but it was dark, and some creatures could sneak up on us undetected.

After we finished eating, Rage divided us in three groups to keep watch while the others rested.

I was in the second group along with Lacey. I lay down with my bag as a pillow, but it was hard to disconnect, close my eyes, and sleep.

I tossed and turned a little, but eventually I fell asleep.

A whistling sound echoed through camp and I woke up with a start, reaching for my magic, only to be frustrated when it didn’t answer.

“It’s okay,” Rage said.

I looked at him—he was seated in front of the dying fire, almost in the same position he had been in when we were eating, his spear resting over his folded legs.

The whistling sound came again and this time I saw it—thin, dark figures running through the sky, like deflating balloons zipping past overhead.

“What are those?”

“Some kind of spirits,” he said. “Naughty, but not evil. They like to scare, but they can’t do anything.”

“Have you seen them before?”

He nodded. “They are all over the underworld.”

The sound echoed again, fainter this time, more distant.

How could one sleep like that?

I glanced at my phone—I had slept for a little over an hour, but I suddenly felt too awake to even try again.

“You should try to go back to sleep,” Rage said, echoing my thoughts.

“I will, but probably after my shift.”

He nodded and looked over my shoulder. I followed his line of sight and saw Mill walking a wide perimeter of the camp.

Deciding it was a promising idea to stretch my legs, I went to the other side and circled around the camp, walking slowly and trying to keep my mind blank. But it was hard when we were in the underworld, at the bottom of a cliff, and at any moment, I expected either to have an evil being attack us, or to bump into Levi.

After a full lap, where I passed Mill, I decided patrolling the perimeter wasn’t my thing and sat down across the fire from Rage.

He was still as a statue, but his eyes kept scanning the horizon.

“How did you come to work with King Tanner and Princess Jasmin?” I asked, because why not? I had nothing better to do.

---