“Thank you,” he says. “I won’t forget it.”
Up ahead, I catch the reassuring but cautious smile Malia throws back to me before she strides up to Adriel’s side and speaks loudly enough for us to hear. “How long has the Demon King been here?”
“Too long,” Adriel replies.
He hasn’t really answered Malia’s question, but he continues anyway. “You must be warned. He will not be as you remember him.”
I don’t remember him. Have never met him. Which means it’s not much of a warning, but a seed of fear grows in my stomach, which is only heightened when I catch the brief furrow in Roman’s brow. Roman rarely looks alarmed, but the tension around his eyes is unmistakable.
“What do you mean, not as we remember him?” Malia asks, her gaze flicking back to Roman and then to Koda, who has fallen silent behind me. Both of them know the Demon King far better than I do, so any changes in the man could hit them the hardest.
“You will see,” Adriel says, his tone not as cruel as before, and I’d like to believe he’s warning us so we have time to prepare ourselves for what we’re about to find.
Once we pass through the initial line of trees, we emerge into a sudden warmth that engulfs me, and I almost can’t believe the beauty that lies beyond.
It’s nothing like the blue-tinged forest we left behind. Everything before us is bursting with color and life. Vibrantly green grass. A big, fiery sun casting the perfect level of warmth and light. Sparkling creeks meandering through the landscape in the distance. And angels scattered about, some of them with their wings spread and catching the light. Most of them appear to be training, their swords and blades visible as they go through drills in groups, carrying out a series of quick strikes and parries, all the while dressed in their white-and-gold-tinged outfits.
They fit the angel stereotype while at the same time far surpass any beauty I ever imagined. It’s one thing to speak of the glow of the angels’ realm—and another to experience it.
As we cross through the open field in front of us, we catch more than a few eyes. There’s no doubt that we’re going to stand out with our dark amethyst armor and far-from-angelic souls. My wolves’ fur is so black against the bright landscape that their forms flicker in and out of view, almost as if the light is trying to claim them.
I suddenly realize that there are no shadows here.
No dark spaces to step into or to shelter within.
Creatures like us don’t belong in the light.
I remember one of the first true warnings Roman gave me and I feel its weight now. Stepping into the purest of light is exposing me and my pack to a danger that I can’t quite quantify yet.
“Is this light hurting you?” Roman asks me, startling me from my observations.
The angel light on Earth had burned me—and him.
“I’m okay. So far.” I’m glad that at least we aren’t burning to a crisp under the heat of the angelic sun right now.
“The angels can manifest their light as a weapon,” Roman says, reminding me of the way the angels blasted their magic at us during the fight with Koda in the cavern on Earth. “But the environment here seems different. We should be careful. Let me know if you start to feel any effect from the glow.”
I nod. “I promise to let you know. For now, it just feels warm.”
“Too warm,” Taniya agrees, edging up behind me. We’ve never been the biggest fans of the summer sun—unlike Malia, who was always the instigator of our days on the coast. Even so, I don’t take Taniya’s feelings lightly. The icy lake already proved that this environment can hurt us, and the warmth is designed to nurture those for whom this is their natural habitat. That doesn’t include demons or harpies.
But possibly… it does include witches.
Ahead of us, Malia gazes at the breathtaking environment before she takes a deep breath and shuts her eyes for a moment. The longer she absorbs the sun’s rays, the calmer she seems.
“These are the training grounds,” Adriel says as we continue on. “Different factions of angels train at different times. These are the border warriors, which is how we were able to respond so quickly to your arrival.”
Like Mortem, there must be parts of Stella-Astrum that are designated for souls, but it seems that we’re passing through a part of the world that’s reserved for angels.
The sound of battle training is our soundtrack, along with trickling water and a very faint chiming in the air. Like constant, gentle wind chimes. Despite the glances we get, nobody approaches us as our guides continue to lead us through their beautiful world. Or at least this section of it.
When we crest over the next rise, a city comes into view, surrounded by a large river. From this distance, the city reminds me of Zilron. Shiny and silvery. But then the clouds clear, the sunshine pours down on it, and it bursts with light.
I’m briefly blinded, and my nightmare energy flares as my instincts respond by attempting to bathe myself in shadow. My demon wolves draw closer, each of them whining softly, their eyes squinting closed. Roman snatches my hand. Some of his darker power seeps into mine, helping to right my equilibrium so that I can breathe again.
In the space of time that I recover, Haldi and Galvin appear on either side of Roman and me, although they give my wolves a wide berth.
“We call the cityLux,” Galvin tells us. “It means simply ‘Light.’ It’s where angels reside. No souls are present there and you cannot enter through the gates without an angel to assist you.”
