The diluted sun scattered an array of light across the sinkhole. More signs of damage lined the walls leading to the surface. A multitude of cracks and heaved earth offered the sulfur-scented smoke a way out of the Underworld. Pure chaos twined with the noxious gas. The dark mist wove its way around their legs and drifted to the surface above.
Harley swatted at the vapor. The gray fingers tugged at her pants, stretched in hungry tendrils along her limbs and lifted her hair. With a weary sigh, she dropped her hands and trudged along with him.
The sight bothered him, but he didn’t comment on how the pure chaos wound around her in a tempting caress and steered clear of him. Wherever he stepped, the fog skidded away. He swung her into his arms, saving her from the teasing licks that sought a way into her body and soul.
She buried her face against his chest. “Thank you. It didn’t bother me outside the hole.”
“It comes from the same well of chaos Dar stole his power from. My prison”—he glanced over his shoulder—“sits between the realms. As the barrier weakens, elements of the Underworld slip free.”
Her eyes widened. She flicked her gaze from his face to the upper lip of the hole, then back. “It’s getting out.”
“Yes.” He sighed. “It is.”
She gripped his shirt. “I’m guessing that’s not a good thing.” Her shaky voice broke on the last word.
He climbed the natural staircase of earth and stone steps. “It’s not. With every earthquake or volcanic eruption, elements are released. It’s part of the natural cycle, disastrous and deadly, yet normal and as necessary as the sun rising each day.”
“But now the chaos has begun to rush out.”
He nodded. “Among other things.”
She stared at him expectantly. He gave a small shake of his head, not wanting to discuss all the horrors of his home but unwilling to dismiss her silent question. “Sins, disease, nothing good.”
She sucked in a rough breath.
He met her horrified gaze. “Do you see why it so imperative I find Dar?”
“And why the Huntsmen paid the price of the curse in the first place.” Harley brushed her lips over his cheek. “I do see. Thank you.”
Not once had anyone thanked the Huntsmen for their dedication or sacrifices. He closed his eyes and held the two words close. He would share them with his siblings once he could speak to them again.
“What happens after you stab Dar?”
Her question yanked him out of the euphoria and dropped him into their stark existence. “The deterioration of the barrier will halt, my siblings will be released, and the Hunt for Dar’s redcaps and any half-breed fairies remaining will resume.”
“But the evils he’s released will still threaten the world?”
He dreaded seeing how much the chaos and sins had affected the humans. When he’d first taken up the Hunt, they’d been simple farmers, hunters, wanderers. They’d evolved over the ages, mostly under the influence of the sins, especially greed and gluttony. But now? From the images he’d taken from Harley, the world had become a much different place, one where deviant behaviors thrived—exactly as Dar had wanted.
“Yes, the world will continue to suffer, but it’ll heal. The Huntsmen will make sure of it.”
He slid his hand to her bottom. His slight push helped Harley over the rim of the sinkhole and onto the grass above. She extended a hand to him. He didn’t need it, but took it anyway, warmed by her offer. One knee over the lip, he swung his other foot up and pushed to his feet.
A sonic boom shook the world.
The ground beneath him undulated. The heaving knocked him off balance. He tipped, and the earth crumbled under his foot.
“Calan!”
With small hands grasping his waistband, she stopped his tumble into the hole behind him. She tugged him forward, right on top of her. Her breath rushed out with his dead weight. He pushed to his knees and pressed her small frame to his chest with an arm around her waist. He scrambled away from the crumbling edge as another wave rocked the world.
He curled his body around hers and waited out the unnatural earthquake. The last of the trembling eased. He shoved away and rushed back to the pit to survey the damage.
The entryway remained open. The beam above the entrance sagged, but not much more than it had. The destruction, however, showed in the sloping banks leading to it. Heaved earth and boulders filled much of the space. The natural staircase no longer offered easy access. A dangerous path of sharp rocks led the way, and a steady stream of gray mist escaped from between the cracked ground.
Harley rested her trembling hands on his back. “What happened?”
He locked her body to his with an arm around her waist. “I don’t know.” But he suspected it had to do with either him walking out of his prison or taking the blade with him.
What had his departure done to his siblings?
She yanked on his shirt, redirecting his thoughts. He had to trust in Rhys, Tegan, and the others to endure.
Calan backed up with his mate. After a few hundred feet away, he stopped dead in his tracks. The mark of the Hunt on his chest tingled, and the knowledge Riesa fed him chilled him.
His beloved hound had failed him.
Chapter Seventeen
Ian is alive. Harley repeated the words Calan had given her. It didn’t ease her anxiety. Something had happened to him.
She pressed the SUV’s gas pedal to the floor. It didn’t accelerate quickly, but the engine hummed on the straight road doing seventy. She eased her foot off the gas for the worst of the winding drive down the mountain. “Are you sure he’s—”
Calan rested his hand on her thigh. “Yes. Ian is alive.”
She risked a peek at
