POV The Demon Mate
The air in the realm between worlds was razor sharp and laced with ash.
The demon hunter walked barefoot through the ash plains, eyes black as pitch, mouth bloodied, armor cracked. The souls of the dead screamed in his wake, clawing at the void for mercy.
He didn't hear them.
He didn't hear anything anymore.
Except her voice.
"Find me." Her sweet voice plagued his sense. He grabbed his head roughly.
It wasn't a whisper. It wasn't even clear.
It was a vibration in his bones. A pulse. A calling he couldn't ignore and couldn't fucking stand.
He snarled, slamming a gauntleted fist into a twisted pillar of bone. It shattered, exploding into black shards.
"I don't want this!" he roared into the void. "I don't want her! I don't want to feel!"
But it didn't matter. The Entity already held him in his thrall.
The shadows inside him twisted tighter, laughing in silence. They didn't speak, but their commands were clear. Hunt. Track. Break. Obey.
He had fought demons all his life. He was born to destroy them, shaped to slaughter the darkness. And now? He'd been targeted. Violated. Invades.
Now the darkness wore his skin. Controlled him. He fought tooth and claw with every breath, but it wasnt enough.
He wasn't sure when it started.
The first shadow entered him during the Blood Eclipse, just a flicker, just a breath. He had laughed it off, hunted harder, cleansed entire cities with holy fire.
But it hadn't left.
It had waited. It had grown stronger.
And now it pulsed inside his chest like a second heart, black and cold and hungry.
Every time he heard her voice, it flared.
Every time her scent hit the wind...moonlight and stormfire...it clawed up his throat like rage. Pushing him. To hurt. Kill. Destroy. Demanding he hunt her down and destroy her. Rip her throat out. Ruin her.
"Find her." The shadows hissed. "Break her..." They had been extra pushy lately and it took everything inside him to continue the fight and not fall into the void.
He crossed the Veil in a blaze of fury.
The fae realm of Andopeer greeted him with silver clouds and cold wind. He didn't stop to admire it. His boots scorched the ground. His power cracked trees as he passed.
The demon inside him howled. He tried to fight.
The man inside him screamed back.
Somewhere, deep inside the shell of magic and rage and chains and shadows....his soul curled in on itself. Watching. Fading.
But not gone. Still holding on. Barely.
He saw her in flashes.
A voice. A heartbeat. A warmth that used to calm him in dreams. Someone with fire in her eyes and blood on her hands.
He didn't know her name.
But she burned behind his eyelids like starlight.
And that light made the shadow inside him snarl with rage.
"Break it," the Entity whispered in his corrupted dreams. "Break her. Take her. Drag her home."
He tore through three villages in a day. Following nothing. Hunting nothing. Always almost catching the scent....and then losing it like smoke in his hands.
And each time he failed, he raged harder.
He didn't know he was being manipulated.
Didn't realize his path was being redirected.....
Veering around her, not toward her.
The Entity wanted him to destroy her.
The Goddess made sure he did not. She used as much power as she could to continue to veer him off course and help him fight the pull, but she could only do so much from the god realm.
The Entity continued to push the Demon, unaware of the Goddess meddling.
That night, the hunter knelt in a crater of his own making, surrounded by the corpses of shadow beasts he didn't remember killing. His chest heaved. Blood coated his arms. His demon form crackled along his skin, flickering between bone armor and burning brands.
"Find me" Her voice was like the stars. He thought he caught the scent of starlight on the breeze. He was going mad.
He slammed his head back and screamed.
The demon form burst forth....horns curling, wings tearing from his back, black smoke swirling in tendrils.
But somewhere, under it all, the man gritted his teeth.
"No," he growled. "Not yet. Not like this."
For a moment, just one....he stopped moving.
The shadows hissed. The Entity snarled from across the void. The leash tightened.
But he stayed still.
Didn't go to her.
Didn't find her.
He refused. He fought back.
The Entity roared his frustration, sending shadow tendrils out to snatch the Demon mate into his domain. He snarled, "I'll chain him, break him, and use him to destroy her."
The demon roared, fighting the Entities hold, but he was to weak, and shadows descended as he lost consciousness and darkness took over.
And in the distance, beneath a moonlit sky, Rhiannan raised her head.
Eyes glowing.
Heart breaking.
Knowing he was near. She sobbed as she felt his pain as her own, and fell back into sleep.