What the hell would Caspian be doing out here? And where is he? Frustrated, I grab a rock and throw it into the water. It instantly sizzles, and then the lake starts to boil until hot steam fills air above it. Shapes appear slowly and forge the outline of human shapes. The demonic energy raiding from them is strong and powerful. Shit, what the fuck are those?
I count seven when I step back, and something cracks under my foot. I barely get a second to look down before the ground below me sucks me in and dirt smacks into my face as I close my mouth. Sharp rocks cut across my arms. I struggle around in the dirt, but something is pulling me down, and I can’t fight it.
I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe!
Suddenly, I’m free, and I slam into what feels like hard flat rock with a strangled grunt leaving my lips. I crawl to my feet in the darkness, feeling around my bag for the matches I know are in there while trying to slow my heartbeat down. I’m hidden from the steam creatures, at least. For now, I think. Unless this is where they take their victims to die.
Caspian, if you’re alive, you’re so dead for getting me into this crap alone.
Finally, I get the matches and drop my bag to light a few of them. The flames burn light into the room, and I see that it is a rock cavern and water is dripping down the sides, slowly leaking steam inside. So the demons are chasing me. Great. I freeze when I see a shape on the floor and walk over, leaning down to see it’s Caspian.
“Caspian?” I whisper, a little fear trickling into my chest. Shaking his shoulders a few times doesn’t seem to wake him, so nervously I touch his neck for a pulse, relieved when I find one. Faint, but it’s there.
I come up with an idea that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I lift my hand and slap him hard across the cheek, my matches going out at exactly the same time in my other hand. I can just see his outline as he jumps up and goes still, swearing under his breath.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Lilith?”
I shove my hand into his chest. “Saving your ass even though you left me behind. What the hell is your problem?”
Staring back in the darkness, he doesn’t answer me. I can’t see him, but I can feel his glare burning me to the spot. He doesn’t reply, so I carry on.
“I can’t believe you went on a mission on your own and you clearly got yourself knocked out! You could have been killed, you complete idiot! This is why demon hunters have partners! I don’t want to see you die!”
“You seemed like you were busy,” he answers coldly to my rant like I’m insane and have no reason to be mad. “And I was fine until you came here and told all the demons where I hid.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it!” I snap.
The walls around us shake, and more demon energy leaks in, likely from the steam that is making the cavern warm. The steam demon things will be here soon, and he is still being an ass.
“Why did you come here? What are they?” I ask, needing to put our personal problems aside for a moment before we both get killed.
“Fine,” he snaps with a sour tone. “Late last night I heard about this mission that qualified demon hunters had turned down because these demons had killed an entire village nearby. These are called Lullaby Demons because they use steam to travel and sing you to your death.”
“So you came to them on your own?” I ask. He’s an even bigger idiot than I thought.
“Well, yes, because I know how to knock them out long enough to get them to hell,” he counters, and no one could miss his smug tone. “And this mission would settle us both in the top ten. That was always our end goal, right?”
“How can they be beaten?” I ask, ignoring his taunt.
“They can be revealed with demon light, and then we can shoot them,” he explains with a huff. “I would have been fine on my own to do this.”
“You best make some light then ‘Mr I need no help but looked as helpless as Bambi before I got here.”
He pulls me behind him before he lights up the room, and red beams of light flash out of his hands in two lines that spread down the sides of the cavern. He makes demon magic seem easy when it’s incredible.
I unclip my gun and step to his side just as the end of the cavern is filled with at least ten of the Lullaby Demons. The second they move closer, the steam is washed away with the light, and they look almost real and not so human. They’re more like huge, skinny sausage dogs that stand up on two feet and aren’t the least bit cute. I don’t pause. I shoot three of them in the chest, and they drop like sacks of flour. Caspian uses his two guns to shoot the rest.
“Nice aim. Did Alaric teach you that?”
“No, Eziel did,” I answer just as coldly. “And what do you care what Alaric teaches me?”
He doesn’t answer, but his shoulders tense when he turns to me.
I stare up at him in the magic which highlights so many of his features. “What’s wrong,
