Page 83 of The Hellbeast's Betrayal

“Remember, my loyal HellBeast, love may make you selfish, but there is nothing to say that good cannot come from a selfish love. As long as that love is given back to you in return,” he said, now speaking in riddles as it sounded a lot like he was talking more about sacrifice. And well, I guessed he was right, as I was selfish enough to know that I could never give Ella up.

I would have to be dead first for that to happen.

Which was why I looked down at the branch in my hand and asked,

“Will this work?”

He shrugged his large shoulder and said,

“I cannot say, for I hear that her sister managed it before, but time is a curious thing, is it not?”

“In what way?” I asked, frowning in question.

“You are who you are today thanks to your greatest enemy, but it has taken you until now to fully understand that the Fate of others can impact us all. Time is the only true test we all must face, but it is what you do with that time given that truly matters.”

“Then I better not waste it,” I told him, knowing what he said was true, if it hadn’t been for Garmr taking Ella in the first place, I would not have become the HellBeast King I am today. Jared Weller would have died hundreds of years ago, as a simple blacksmith.

“No, you must not,” he said, now creating another portal behind me,

“This will lead you back to where you must go,” he told me, holding out a hand towards what I gathered was to be my Fate, whether I was master of it, or not. So, I walked away but before I could step through, he cryptically told me,

“Remember this, Jared Weller, even a well of souls sometimes sparks life.”

I frowned in question but before I could ask what it meant, the portal swallowed me up without me taking a single step.

The question was…

Whose Fate wouldit lead me to next?

29

BATTLE PLANS

“Fuck!”my brother shouted in shock the second I appeared out of nowhere.

I recognized the place instantly, and it was no longer any room that belonged in Lucius’s castle. No, instead I was back at the camp. One that had a lot more people in it since the last time I was here. And speaking of time…

“Where the fuck have you been?!” my brother snapped, making me frown before telling him,

“You know exactly where I have been.”

“You have been gone a fucking week, brother!”

At this my eyes widened as realization hit.

“It must have been a different time sphere. For me it was only an hour, two at the most,” I told him, making him sigh.

“Yeah, well a lot has happened since then,” he said, with only one name coming from me in panic…

“Ella?!”

“No word, but our army is vastly bigger since you last saw it,” he said, now nodding behind me so as I could see that he was right, there were legions of demons everywhere. Whereas the camp was once a quiet broken town filled with village folk and Koro’s soldiers, now it had become a hub for battle.

“Yes, well I fear it still won’t be enough,” Dom’s voice cut through, and I turned to see him enter the room from behind me, doing so with Keira next to him. In fact, all the Kings were here, as clearly, I had walked in on their battle plans. The room had been rebuilt with far more than sheets of patched material. It was now a war room, fit for kings. The large table in the center was filled with an old map of the Underworld torn around the edges. Its red ink lines indicating the borders and rivers, with painted monuments in between. The writing of each placename written in ancient Greek.

“I take it that means you found Hades?” Lucius asked, making me nod.

“Yes, but he will not aid in our fight.”

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