Sliding the knife from my boot, I strode up behind her and braced.
She curled her fingers into a tight fist and held it over one of the porous stones. Her blood dripped from her palm, landing on the rough surface, and was instantly absorbed. Much like the gateway into Limbo, the stones around us began to roll and reform.
Roxy pulled knives from the sheaths on each hip, twirling them slowly.
“How is it you have a never-ending supply of knives?” I muttered as the last few stones rolled into place.
“I’m Roxana the Blade,” she said, and winked. “It’s magic.”
The gateway finished forming, and Limbo’s forest, still visible through the stone archway in front of us, vanished, replaced by darkness and a cool blast of air that carried on it the fetid stench of rot and the distant calls of creatures I’d never heard in my life.
“Let’s go,” Roxy said and stepped through into the Savage Realm.
I followed and my boots sunk into mud and rotting vegetation. The gateway closed behind us and I took in our immediate vicinity. We were deep in a forest of shadowy trees. Everything was dark and murky, except for what looked like odd-shaped sticks poking from the mud here and there. They were the only things not in shades of gloom.
Roxy reached back and grabbed my wrist, pulling me closer.
I dipped my head.
“Watch out for the bones, they’re old and brittle,” she whispered, her lips so close they brushed my ear, and goose bumps shot up all over me. “You stand on one and you’ll give us away.”
Bones? I scanned the ground again. Fuck. Not sticks. I cursed under my breath.
We picked our way through the shadowed forest, watching our steps as we weaved around black slime-covered trees.
“You hear that? That hissing sound?” I said low, searching the ground.
Roxy pointed to a cluster of deep purple flowers. “They spit acid.”
As she said it, the petals jerked wide and spewed out something thick and gray. The ground where the substance landed sent out a trail of noxious smoke.
“Watch out for the?—”
The ground vanished from beneath her feet.
Roxy gasped as she slid several feet away, then continued to sink. The mud was already at chest level.
“Fuck. Don’t move.” Struggling would only make her sink faster. Though the way she remained utterly frozen, she didn’t need me to tell her that. I grabbed for the tree closest, but my hand slipped off its slimy trunk.
“Quickly, Lothar,” she gasped out, now submerged up to her chin.
Yanking off my shirt, I wrapped it around a branch, quickly testing its strength, then wrapped the shirt around my fist and leaned out over the bog. Roxy’s fingers brushed mine, but I couldn’t grab hold of her. Gritting my teeth, I fucking prayed the branch would hold as I tested it to its limits and stretched out as far as I could. She made a desperate dive for my hand, and I grabbed her, griping her tight. She clung on, wrapping her other hand around my wrist, and with a growl, I hauled her out.
As soon as her feet hit solid ground, she bent over at the waist, sucking in desperate breaths. “Holy fuck.”
That was too fucking close. “You good?”
She nodded, but I could see that she was shaken in a way I’d never seen this female before. She never let you see her truly vulnerable. Yeah, until recently, she’d been sweet and bouncy and loving, but not vulnerable, never that. Lucifer’s right hand had never shown an ounce of fear as long as I’d known her.
I grabbed her hand to pull her close, but she slid it free instantly and straightened, squaring her shoulders. The beast snarled, roaring at me to pick her up and run, to take her to safety. I ignored the fucker inside me, who seemed to have gone completely fucking rogue, and searched the ground. There was deep purple and gray fungus that looked like spindly mushrooms scattered around the quagmire. “I think if we look out for that fungus, we can avoid any more bogs like this one.”
She nodded. “I can’t believe I missed them.” Then she led the way around it, something else the beast didn’t fucking like.
A bubble rose up beside us, making a plopping sound as it burst on the surface. Then another rose up, and another.
“Lothar…”
“I see it.”
