Their bravado both impressed and disoriented him.They dared challenge him when he dwarfed them, overpowered them?
Saer bared his teeth and snarled while they shouted a rallying cry and lurched forward again.The first creature to reach him snapped its fingers around one of the blood-coated spears still lodged in his torso.Red fluid touched his attacker’s flesh, and the creature jolted back, gasping.
Then shrieking.
The being fell to the ground, howling and wiping hands on nearby snow.Grisly, white blisters bloomed on otherwise scarlet flesh whereDaemoenicblood touched.Saer swiped at the being but missed as he stumbled.He flailed his arms at the attackers, shoving them to the ground or tossing them through the air.Wherever his blood touched their flesh, blisters rose and split, oozing yellow fluid to mix with the thick, scalding ichor.
The Hellsfire in his blood protected him.Yet, the more he lost, the more his vision tunneled, like when he fell from the sky.Saer groaned and lurched past the two-legged beings who scrambled backwards, at last rethinking their strategy.
He stumbled past two skinny hares tied to a tree branch, discarded in the snow.Two scrawny hares for that troop of creatures and likely more from where they came from.Is that why they looked malnourished?Had they meant to use him asmeat?His swirling mind reflected on their skinny limbs, the starvation in their eyes.
A last, wretched cry erupted from the two-legged beings, and they charged Saer again.Desperate, he fell forward and gripped their pelt-coated arms.
They had heat in them.Not fire, butheat.He yanked on it with all the metaphysical urgency in his body.
The creatures gasped and shuddered, stiffening.A modicum of warmth slid through Saer while their lips turned dusky.
The beings spasmed and collapsed.With their fall, an abrupt and unnameablesomethingescaped their unmoving remains—an effervescent and glimmering tendril of light.There one moment, then forgotten in a wash of cold.
Saer’s knees gave out.He slumped next to their bodies; the snow crushed under his weight.
No warmth anywhere.He needed fire for strength, heat of some kind to sustain him.None existed in this desolate, frozen landscape.
Pain surged through his body as adrenaline wore off.Blood steamed and pooled under him, melting the snow and seeping into the hard ground beneath.
Was this what the rest of life would be?How could he complete his mission like this?
Lucifer would die if he failed.The conflicting thought squeezed its bony fingers around his neck.
What if another group of those creatures found him?
He’d never see Neyu again.The constriction around his throat tightened, strangling.
Neyu.
Lucifer sent him to find the cure and he’d failed.Defeat coated the back of his tongue with its sour tang, but he’d swallow it if he could see her one last time before he was unmade.
Home.
Saer inhaled as best he could, tasting iron on his tongue and thick blood in his throat.He held the frigid surface air in his lungs and squeezed his eyes shut.
Home.
Just as Lucifer taught, he invoked the ability for travel between Hell and Earth.
Hellsfire overtook him, combusting.The flames devoured his body, blazing on the surface of his black skin.Red and blue ribbons lashed out from his winged form, swallowing him, transporting him.
Back to Hell.
3
Saerarrivedinabroken, bleeding heap on the floor of the throne room.As the Hellsfire dissipated, Neyu’s soft intake of breath reached his ears first.
Neyu.He yearned to see her, but couldn’t lift his head to look around.
Lucifer’s voice broke through his thoughts.“Bring him to me, my Neyuukhan.”
The command confused and enticed him as Neyu’s hooves scraped closer.Did his maker trust him again?Was this a test?
