FOR THE UNKNOWN KINGDOM | BOOK 1

CHAPTER 32

When I finally reached him, we were already in his room again, which was so, so small compared to the ones we'd passed from and completely empty of people.

"We're doomed," Ian murmured, breaking the silence.

I swept a fleeting glance at him, realizing how oppressed he must have been all those years he'd spent here, how quickly and easily hope could be shrunk, ripped apart and driven to death just by spending eternity with your thoughts in a dark and cold room. Coexisting with those men who had been hurting him all along was enough to put him into the worst frame of mind. He was indeed a victim of the Devil's tortuous and fatal plan.

His posture spoke of reservation. I took a step closer.

"What---" I started, but he stumbled against the wall, clamping his eyes shut, holding his head with both hands.

I looked around. I couldn't see anyone. Yet he seemed wholeheartedly scared and it was shocking. Maybe those men in my dreams weren't real. Maybe in my sleep I could take glimpses of his wildest fantasies, as well.

I didn't fall on my knees, trying to comfort him. No one was here. No one could harm him. And I was in enough terror myself to fight his own nightmares, too. I wouldn't show it though. Because in a world who strived for blood and fear, someone must be faithful and feisty enough to survive.

Instead, I rushed into the room we had previously passed from, the one with the few people talking in it. I reached for her, the young woman with the eminent beauty.

🔱

Her extremely long hair covered her back, adding a black veil to her already dark outfit. She was shamelessly laughing, closing her eyes in what seemed to be happiness, and I stood a few steps away from her and her group of acquaintances. They all seemed relaxed, like they weren't in Hell.

For a moment, I stood still, trying to eavesdrop on their conversation, to test the waters I was going to throw myself into, hoping not to drown. I couldn't understand what they were talking about. But they were enjoying every second of it.

"I'm sorry to disrupt you but---" I started, now standing in front of her, totally able to study the details of her face; her full red lips that revealed her white teeth every time she smiled, her flawless skin, her black eyes. Hell hadn't been a catastrophe for her. Hell hadn't managed to steal a tinge of her beauty.

I dragged a hand through my hair as she turned her eyes to me, giving me a confused look.

"You know the guy I was with a few minutes ago, right?" I asked.

The sharpness in her stare transformed into softness the moment she understood who I was talking about. Swarmed with concern, her face wasn't that of a crook anymore. It seemed intimidating. The way demons and angels could coexist in the same person.

"I do," she whispered.

The two men she'd been laughing with when I'd first come here were busy talking to each other. Their long-winded monologues impeded them from eavesdropping on us.

"Awesome," I said and meant it, because if she didn't care about him, I would have to deal alone with his paranoid obsessions, and I had no idea how to do that.

I threw a glance at her before I continued.

"I don't know why but he started panicking out of the blue and said that we were in some kind of danger---" I didn't manage to complete my sentence, nor ask her what I was supposed to do to help him, since she was already on her feet, revealing how short she was.

"Where is he?" she asked, and I signaled her to follow me, something she did with little hesitation.

If the weather in that place had felt frozen to me before, now it was an icy altar. It was incomprehensible how in an enormous building with no windows and doors, my hair was being brushed off by the wind. I didn't know. So I focused on the young woman again.