“Of course it isn’t. Welcome to Hell.”
Eva gave his forehead just a light tap, sending him tumbling into the darkness.
With a head-splitting smile on her face, Eva pocketed the pinky finger. His blood had come in handy before. Perhaps this would as well. No sense in tossing it, in any case.
Eva blinked as she realized something. There was no connection between her and Sawyer anymore. The moment he had disappeared through the portal, she couldn’t sense him anymore.
Which was something of a shame. Eva had been hoping to get a picture of her domain when he landed.
Oh well, she thought. Sawyer might get torn apart without his whistle, if there are enigmas down there. It would be a definite shame. Eva wanted to torture him. A lot. But if he died to enigmas, she supposed that would have to suffice. Maybe one of his necromancy books would have a guide on how to ensure that he had eternal torment.
Something to worry about later.
She was just about to close the portal when Nel shouted.
“Eva! We have a problem!”
“What is it?” Eva asked, even as she turned to seek out the problem for herself.
It didn’t take long to notice something amiss.
One of the vampires down on the ritual field was in pieces. As if someone had taken a razor-sharp cleaver from his shoulder to his waist and then severed one of his legs.
As she stared, another of the vampires just started to fall apart. An arm followed a leg. It ended with the top half of his head just sliding off the rest of his body.
“It’s the haugbui,” Nel shrieked.
“I thought you said that they couldn’t be moved.”
“I said that it cannot move. Someone moved it!”
“Des,” Eva hissed as another vampire fell to pieces. Apparently, the girl had decided that skeletons wouldn’t be enough. Or Sawyer had somehow communicated with her, telling her to bring it along.
That might explain his unwarranted confidence. He was expecting Des to show up with the haugbui. Eva didn’t know how strong the things were. Based on how it was just slicing apart the vampires without even being visible, it might have been able to slice apart even a stronger demon. Perhaps why Sawyer ‘couldn’t wait’ to see what Eva summoned.
“It’s going after the vampires because that’s what Sawyer told it to do earlier,” Eva said, glancing towards Serena. Her body was still intact, though she was still unmoving with her neck crooked. “But that probably won’t last very long at this rate. Into the portal.”
Nel’s head whipped around, eyes wide. “What? We can’t–Sawyer just–”
“It leads to my domain. Just pretend that this was intentional. Act confident.” Eva knelt down, scooping up Serena into her arms while trying to keep her head from twisting into a worse position. “Unless you want to stay and try fighting off that haugbui.”
Nel shook her head. She stepped up to the portal.
And hesitated.
Eva didn’t have this kind of time. Another vampire was being shredded behind them.
Raising a leg, Eva kicked Nel into the portal. Her sudden scream was cut off as soon as her head vanished into the darkness.
Eva jumped in without hesitation, Serena in her arms.
Chapter 016
Eva landed within her domain with far more grace than Nel. Given that jostling Serena might kill her if she wasn’t dead already, that was probably a good thing.
The first thing that Eva noticed was the lack of any ill feelings. Every time she had shown up while Shalise had been residing inside, Eva had felt sick. The same enigma sickness that she felt around the field. It was entirely absent.
There were no tracks in the sand that might have belonged to enigmas either. They had burrowed beneath the sand before, but Eva had still felt their presence.
Eva was quite confident in declaring her domain free of enigmas. And after she had been all prepared to use Sawyer’s whistle too. At least she wouldn’t have to touch her lips to that thing.
Why it was free of enigmas was another matter entirely. She had cleared all the carcasses out after freeing Shalise from Prax. But it had been months since then. Eva had expected there to be at least some buildup.
Prax was around somewhere. Eva could feel him as clearly as she had been able to feel Zagan and the other demons during her treatment. Maybe the lack of enigmas was all his doing. Honestly, Eva hadn’t expected him to stick around for very long. Though with that doll snooping around his domain, Eva couldn’t really blame him.
Surely the doll was gone by now? Maybe he just liked the humbleness of Eva’s abode.
Shaking her head, Eva moved towards the alternate women’s ward building. Sawyer was around somewhere. She could feel him as well, though it wasn’t quite the same sense as that of Prax. If she had to guess, it was her domain providing her with information about an enemy.
Eva paused as she realized that Nel wasn’t following. Turning back, she found the augur just staring at the pitch black sky.
“They’re not going to follow us, are they?”
“As soon as I left the mortal plane, channeling magic to power the transference circle was interrupted. If that wasn’t enough, all the blood making up the portal would have fallen to the ground without me there to hold it up.”
“And she can’t make another circle?”
“If she knows how to,” Eva said with a shrug. “But she would have to know how to target my domain specifically. Otherwise she’ll wind up who-knows-where.”
Accepting that response, Nel took her eyes off the sky and looked towards the alternate women’s ward.
Eva did not miss the frown on her face as she took in the sight.
“So, this is Hell, huh?”
“You lived inside of Ylva’s domain for more than a year. You’ve been in Hell before.”
“That… it was different. I didn’t even know that it was literal Hell for the first several months. After that, it was just strange to think about,” Nel said with a shrug. “Besides, I was expecting something a little more grandiose. I didn’t realize just how attached you were to that prison.”
“I wouldn’t say that I am,” Eva said slowly. “I just needed something for Shalise to live in and this was the first thing that popped into my head.”
“Instead of a regular house or an apartment?”
Eva just shrugged. She had never really lived in either one. The closest that she came to living in a regular dwelling was the Brakket Academy dormitories. With the women’s ward fresher in her mind than anything else, it was a natural and almost subconscious choice.
Something more grandiose, as Nel had put it, would be nice. Her first thoughts on that went towards Prax’s castle. It didn’t fit Prax and Eva didn’t think that it would fit her, but it was along the right ideas.
Eva had to wonder just what Catherine’s domain looked like. Would she have a large castle as well? Eva couldn’t really imagine that for her. Maybe just a small room with a computer inside.
What about Lucy? Or Zagan?
All of them were in the mortal plane at the moment. Before she left, maybe she would go see their domains. It should be relatively safe with them absent. Zagan’s domain especially, now that she had thought of it. Surely that would be a sight to see.
Their domains might give her ideas on her own domain.
It was a thing that Eva decided that she would work on when she found some spare time. Perhaps it would start out as a few doodles in a notebook. Maybe some research into buildings and architecture on Earth. Her domain should be something more impressive and imposing that would intimidate any guests who saw it.
Guests like Sawyer.
A few steps closer to her domain and Eva started smiling. She had found Sawyer. He was present in her blood sight up ahead, just outside of the main women’s ward building.
“Come, Nel. Let’s get Serena into a bed and then have some fun.”