Page 324 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

As if she can sense my indecision she reaches out to us. “Please come with us. We need you.Ineed you. Always.”

She needs me…us. Those three little words are all it takes to break whatever power the gate has over me. I move toward her, our mate, our light in a world of darkness and follow each step she takes.

She glances back at us a couple of times but I’m not going anywhere. The thought of leaving her too much to bear.

Once my body enters the shadows I shift back and take a step into the next realm.

I glance over my shoulder, watching the gate morph back to the large black gates as it was before, the two snakes now slithering from this side over to the other.

“Are you okay?” Kiarra asks me, that worried look in her eyes. A worried look thatIput there. My chest turns tight with the thought of ever leaving her or them, the thought itself sickening me.

“I’m fine.” I take her small hand in mine, holding it tight as I glance back to the gates, now slowly disappearing as if they were never there.

The connection of energy slowly drifting away until it leaves me completely, making me feel nothing but relief. With the pull of the energy gone, I feel like I can take a deep breath again. I look around at my brothers, each one of them mirroring my expression of relief.

Rion comes over and grabs my shoulder. The look in his eyes tells me he knows what just happened.

As we have done since we were children, we silently communicate with one another with just a look.

I nearly left her… left you all.

I would never have let you. None of us would.

I nod. The relief spreading to every limb in my body, slowly taking the weight of guilt away. He’s right. They would never have let me stay.

I glance down at my mate. Her worry is now gone, a soft smile on her face easing the last bit of nerves in my body.

“Where are we now?” she asks, looking around at our new surroundings. The place is empty, not a soul or demon to be seen. Destruction is all around us like the aftermath of a war that’s already taken its toll on everything.

Most of the tall dark buildings are crumbling or nearly completely gone.

“The Infernal Kingdom. A realm that is slightly more civilized with the main population being higher level demons.”

“Civilized doesn’t always mean better. It just makes them smarter about how they kill you.” Rion gives Kiarra a look. One that tells her to stay close and not try anything foolish.

She smiles, shaking her head at him before pulling me along with her as we move further into the realm. I grip her hand like a lifeline, knowing she’ll always be mine. No matter how strong we all are or pretend to be.

Movement from our left catches my eye. I glance over but find nothing there, not even a shadow.

I catch Rion looking at the same spot. He nods, telling me he saw something too.

“Keep your eyes peeled,” I tell everyone. Unlike the Shadow Realm and Realm of the Damned, there are higher level demons here that are smarter, more sly and stealthy about their movements. And even though we were strong, I wasn’t taking any chances in the Underworld. Everything has its limits, including us.

The words are only out of my mouth when chaos descends around us and we’re surrounded.

Men in full-body black armor and a red crest of a snake wrapped around two swords, form a circle around us, their weapons all pointed at us.

Soren gives them a bored look. “Is this really necessary?”

The guards ignore him, not moving from their frozen positions.

I inch closer to Soren, blocking Kiarra from view while keeping an eye on how close the guards are to my family. “Who are they?”

“Higher level demons, guards of the Infernal Kingdom.”

Kiarra moves around me, narrowing her eyes on me. But there’s no anger in them, only warmth. “What do we do? Fight or?”

“We go with them.” Soren rubs a hand down his face. “We’ll get answers quicker if we do.”

---