It was unfortunate that Ully would be killed as soon as the three shapeshifting demons reached the underworld, but Darkyn didn’t believe in loose ends.
“Guards!” he called to the demons waiting outside the door. “Take Ully away.”
The Council’s scientist hunched as the demons took his arms and withdrew him from the chamber.
Darkyn glanced at the sand in the hourglass. He had one more chain of events to set in motion.
Rhyn uncurled from his position on the cold, wet ground. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep and didn’t expect ever to wake up, not with the magic tearing him apart. He looked around, disoriented. The magic in his blood had stabilized as it did when Hannah and the angel were around, yet he didn’t see them. His thoughts drifted to the second night of the strange dream.
Had a dead woman touched him and somehow calmed his magic?
“I’m sorry, Rhyn.” Toby emerged from the early morning shadows of the forest.
“Go home, Toby.”
“I can’t open a portal.”
Rhyn pushed himself up. He was freezing and drenched. He tested his power and found it wasn’t just calm – it was bound. He couldn’t access its depths, couldn’t call upon a portal to send the damn angel home. Couldn’t destroy this awful place.
“Did you do this?” he demanded. “Bind my magic?”
“I can’t do that.”
“You’re saying we’re stuck here?”
Toby shrugged and then shivered. Rhyn looked him over, noticing the angel was as wet as he was.
“What was your plan?” Rhyn snapped. “Just dive through the portal and then what?”
“What was your plan?” the angel shot back.
“Destroy everything. It’s what I do best.”
“Katie wouldn’t approve.”
Rhyn bit back his response and looked around. No matter what he wanted to say or do, he was stuck with the angel in the forest.
“I’m cold,” Toby complained.
“You should’ve thought of that before you jumped.”
“Hungry, too.”
“C’mon,” Rhyn muttered.
He stalked off into the forest, away from the castle and cliff. Toby clambered through the brush and trees after him, the angel’s footsteps loud where Rhyn’s were silent. Rhyn found a deer path and followed it until he reached a snowy meadow. Crossing it, he continued to look for a place to stash the angel where the kid wouldn’t freeze to death. After another hour of walking, he found a small pocket in the roots of a massive tree.