Page 12 of Outcast

“What happened to you?” I asked him as I shoved him back. The fact I succeeded was telling.

“She took my shadows,” he admitted. The vulnerability there didn’t belong, and I added yet another reason to hate her to my list.

“Well, then, I’ll just have to give them back, won’t I?” I growled.

“We have to get out of here first,” Elkan said. “This entire floor is blocked for us; I don’t think you’d be able to take us out.”

“Then we walk out,” I shot back, turning and heading down the walkway. But I made it no more than a few feet before I froze. My eyes caught on the decrepit demons and gargoyles behind the bars. “What about them?”

“Harlow,” Monty warned. “We can’t save everyone.”

“Like hell I can’t, I’m literally the leader here,” I bit out. If I wasn’t angry before, I was now. It only took a thought before the bars dissolved. Yet nothing moved to get out.

“They have been here for longer than me,” Elkan admitted. “I’m barely able to walk.”

“Then we send for them soon,” I said, shoulders back and chest out as I stormed down the hall and up the narrow stairs. The door at the top was a thick wood, and I shoved it open so hard it slammed into the wall beyond. Every scream I’d tuned out came to a halt.

“How did you get in here?” a demon demanded. From his black armor, I knew he was a guard.

“Hel is gone. This realm is mine. You either obey, or die.”

The ultimatum was met with cries of outrage. But I was not backing down.

A singular guard was bold enough to pull a weapon on me and with a sharp slash of my hand, he was turned to ash. The show of power was enough to drop the others to their knees.

“How can we serve you, my queen?” the closest guard asked.

“Take me to the warden’s office. I have unfinished business with him, and I know he’ll attempt to return.”

And when he did, there would be nothing left of the demon who’d betrayed me so boldly.

I was no longer simply Harlow, I was a vengeful queen ready to fix what Hel had broken.

ChapterSix

Roman

“This would be a lot easier if you had wings, small man,” Achar said as he looked down at Hiro with an unreadable expression. Then his gaze shifted to me. “I’m not even sure those wings would work.”

“We’ll find out eventually” was all I gave him as we trudged our way through the wasteland. If I thought the demons at Dark Haven were unsettling, this was so much worse. Spirits, souls, whatever they were called here, wandered the wastes without a purpose. Every time we passed one, the temperature dropped drastically and bone-deep sadness would take over.

Achar didn’t seem to notice, or pretended not to. I guess if you have only ever existed here, you’d be immune to the creepiness.

In the distance, the howling winds and wailing cries turned into a symphony of horror. If not for our footsteps crunching on the ice for me to focus on, I’d go mad here.

But at least I was here.

I still couldn’t shake the feeling of being glad I went first, that I didn’t have to witness them all die. But they had to see me die and I felt equally as awful for that.

Hiro was himself. I was this new person myself. We were alive again and separate. This was what we’d needed in Dark Haven.

It was still weird to look over and see his face, talk to him and get a response. But I could only imagine the look on Harlow’s face when we got there.

“Do you think Drake or Harlow will be weirded out?” Hiro asked. “I don’t look the same.”

“Neither will they,” Achar supplied. Everything he said was so blunt and purposeful. It was unsettling.

“Then I guess I’ll stop overthinking,” Hiro said more to himself than us. I bumped my shoulder against his in support, forgetting about my wings. He cracked up when I had to steady him after almost flinging him to the side. “You have your own shit to adjust to.”

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