Page 37 of Each Their Own Devil

Both of Val’s arms tensed against her and Aleja realized her potentially fatal miscalculation. Even in his half-starved state, Val could easily overpower her physically. One unexpectedshove could send her tumbling over the Avisai’s side. “I’m going to tell you the truth, and I’m warning you in advance that you’re not going to like it. But I need you to listen to everything I have to say before you decide to act, and remember that you and I have the same goal: to avert the Avaddon.”

“What is this? Why are we headed toward the border?—”

“The Astraelis army has been overrun by mutineers—fanatics who want the Avaddon to come to pass. Your mother is losing her grip on the command. Today, a convoy from the Astraelis demanded we execute you to weaken her, and in return, they offered us the Third and the promise of a permanent peace between our realms.”

“What good is peace if we’re all dead?” Val said sharply.

“Exactly. But you can’t blame the Otherlanders for not trusting the Messenger. Many on my side believe that the Avaddon is a ruse meant to distract us from the war. Our librarians can find no mention of it in their books. The Second claims it’s a distraction. The other Dark Saints were prepared to…entertain the mutineers’ offer.”

“What?” Val gasped, and Aleja wondered if he was going to fall off the Avisai himself. “But you’ve explained to them, haven’t you?”

“Of course I have,” Aleja barked back. “But they don’t trust you or your mother, and the fact that no one on our side has ever heard of the myth doesn’t help.”

“You believe me?” Val asked, his breath cool against the back of Aleja’s neck.

“Yes, but I can’t take you to the Second now. I’ve betrayed the Dark Saints and a direct order from the Knowing One. He might be my husband, but he can’t let that go without weakening his command of his armies. As of right now, nowhere in the Hiding Place is safe for us.”

Aleja could feel Val’s understanding dawn on him from the way his chest expanded against her back, like he was taking a deep breath that he never managed to exhale. “No. I will not go back there.”

“It’s our only choice. The Messenger offered to bring me to your realm once already—this is just a little ahead of schedule. I’m going to need you to get through the wards. And before you tell me you don’t know how, that’s bullshit. You entered the Hiding Place once on your own.”

“My mother’s hospitality will not be what you think it is,” Val replied sharply. “And that’s only if you manage to make it to her protection without another troop of Astraelis soldiers catching you—catching us—first. I don’t need to tell you that the Astraelis don’t generally take people like us alive.”

“We’ll worry about that if we get caught. Do you know where your mother is stationed?”

“I know where she usually?—”

“Good, then you can direct us there. Will it be safer to travel by air or land?”

“Neither, Wrath,” Val began, but the last two letters of the word “wrath” faded into a sigh. “Land, if you must. The Thrones patrol overhead at all hours, and their eyesight is keen even in darkness.”

“Okay,” she breathed. She had hardly noticed their journey over the mountain range, but the moon was at her back, and the jagged peaks cast long shadows on the landscape. “We’ll be close to the wards now. I met your mother near here a few nights ago, so it must be relatively unguarded by Otherlanders. Do you know the area?”

“You met my mo— Never mind. Land there, by the standing stones. I will open the wards, but I will not be accompanying you beyond them. I appreciate you freeing me, but you’re a fool if youthink that anything waits for you beyond the wards except for death.”

Aleja nudged her heels into the Avisai’s sides, and it began its descent, wings tucking closer to its body. “I’m sorry, Val, but I need you. My hellhound is waiting for us in the clearing. Even if you outrun him and escape into the mountains, I promise that you’ll wish you were back in our cell when you understand how unforgiving the Hiding Place can be to those who don’t belong here.”

Val was silent in response, but he finally released a long breath. A strand of hair that had fallen loose of Aleja’s braids tickled the back of her neck.

“Listen to me,” she went on as the ground sharpened into focus beneath them. “If you truly believe that the Avaddon is coming, this is our best hope. The Otherlanders will no longer help us, and the Messenger is still in control of the Third. We may die, but don’t you haveanyoneyou care about but yourself, Val? Anyone you want to save?”

“You’ve forgotten a rather large problem. I don’t know how to avert the Avaddon, because I do not know how to get the First to appear in a corporeal form. It was why I was so desperate to study the Second. We cannot do that from the Astraelis side of the wards.”

“Can’t you study the Third?”

Val’s answer was interrupted as the Avisai landed roughly. There was a sharp pain in Aleja’s tailbone that traveled to the base of her skull. Val’s arms tightened around her, which did nothing to relieve the ache. When he spoke again, it was with a breathless rasp. “I have been under the impression that the Third will take even less kindly to being studied than the Second.”

Val slid off the Avisai’s back with more grace than Aleja. Behind them rose the mountain range where the Second sleptbeneath his mountain, and ahead were the shimmering wards that separated their land from that of the Astraelis.

Aleja had to briefly lean against the Avisai to stop herself from crumpling.Where is Nicolas now? she wondered. Bonnie would know Aleja was headed toward the palace. Had the other Dark Saints already discovered that she had freed Val and fled? One of her hands flew to her chest, tightening into a fist, as if she could beat her racing heart into submission.

“Maybe we can sneak back here to study the Second. It’s possible that…” Val said, when she did not answer him. His sentence trailed off at the sight of Garm, who had appeared on the ridge and loomed over them, eyes blazing.

Val hadn’t tried to run, Aleja noted. “Say it,” she whispered.

“If my mother believed she could transport the Third into your realm in order to kill the Second, then she must have some method for getting him here.”

“Her method wasme,” Aleja admitted. “I was going to let them in.”

---