Daevas -I- ✔️

Chapter 7.5: Lost

Even as Ari tucked his head deep into the wool and fur covers, he could not sound out the noise coming from the forest. His ears were ringing, causing his head to hurt. If it was a demon, it was one Ari never came into contact with before and he did not ever wish to.

Ari rose once the screeching sounds stopped and nothing but silence filled the air. His eyes were heavy and his lips were tightly drawn from the lack of sleep he had gotten for the past few days. Was that Nolan's way of torturing him, Ari wondered before shaking his head. No, that man was many things, but Ari knew he would not do something to make him hate him even more.

Ari pressed a weary hand to his head and sighed.

Instead of trying to go back to sleep, Ari washed his face in the bowl of water sitting atop of a worn table. He sat back down on the bed and put on his black boots littered with dirt. He did not want to go out, but isolation was something Ari always feared as a boy. Out of all the punishments, Nolan had ever given him, that was the worst one and Ari had not the slightest idea as to why.

"Ari!" Ari heard Berit's voice say before he burst through the door. "Quickly, you must go!"

Ari looked at him with wide eyes. Berit had scratch marks going up his arms and a bigger one at the side of his stomach. It was fresh. Ari could tell by the smell of it.

"Go where...?"

"Anywhere but here." Berit grabbed his arm and tugged him forward.

"Why are you trying to help me?" Ari snatched his arm back and looked at him full of distrust. He could trust no one but Freir.

"Help you?" Berit laughed. It was a dark one that caused goosebumps to appear where his hand had just touched. "Do not take me as someone who is charitable. Why else would those things be coming here?"

Berit took his arm again and pulled him out the room Nolan had kept him in. Ari could not help but hope that it was Auovin or Cyrus but something in his gut told him otherwise. It made his stomach turn.

"To hell with this! I am not fighting off those things for you. If they want you, they can have you. What your kind and the others have against each other I do not know and I would like to never come to know either."

"What... What things?" Ari asked, not really wanting to know the answer. He knew there were hierarchies and levels of demons and some of the lesser ones thought of them as delicacies but that was as far as his knowledge went. There was only ever demons and humans and nothing in between.

"Things? As far as I am concerned, you are all demons. I draw no lines or markers," Berit uttered.

Fear was nestling deep in the pits of his stomach. Ari moved his arm away from Berit with ease and took cautious steps away from him.

"Listen, I have nothing against you. I do not. You are young and agile. Freir and Rein had trained you, after all. You will find some way to survive out there, I am sure." Berit's brown eyes bore into him, waiting for his response.

Ari looked around and saw the Sanclii that had been guarding him were laying on the ground. The candles were all blown out save but a single one by Berit's head.

"Is this not what you want?" Ari's heart was beating through his chest. "Even freedom has its price, Ari. Go now and I will make sure Freir is looked after. I swear to you this on Oliya's good name."

Ari looked down the dark, silent hallway before looking back to Berit.

"I swear I will. Just leave now before needless blood is shed. They are getting close now." Berit handed him two blades causing Ari to shake with nerves. He had never gone anywhere without Freir since his training days. But as Einar said, it was time to let go.