It felt strange to watch everything crumble before my very eyes, to then have hope restored in the flicker of a second. Whether Nevis had come back with the intention of releasing us or had decided to do so after Cason insulted him, it didn’t really matter at this point. We were free, and the daemons that had come for us weren’t.

In fact, some of them were dying a slow and agonizing death, as the frost prevented them from breathing. They were going to suffocate soon—not that I felt sorry for them. Cason was helpless, his mouth covered and pure hatred blaring through his fiery red gaze.

“Thank you,” I breathed, looking at Nevis.

“I’m not comfortable with this decision just yet, so, please, do not thank me,” Nevis replied.

“Nevertheless, thank you. We won’t forget this. I won’t forget this,” I said, giving him a weak smile.

He smirked, crossing his arms. I had a feeling I’d actually gotten through to him, and that, deep down, he wasn’t as cold and heartless as he pretended to be. His posture reminded me of Heron when someone was kind to him. He was shy, and probably all soft and gooey on the inside.

“What’s going to happen to them?” Heron asked, nodding at the daemons as he came to stand next to me. His hand settled discreetly on the small of my back. It was enough to reassure me that what was happening was all too real.

Nevis groaned, rolling his eyes, then started rubbing the back of his neck. He hadn’t thought this through, it seemed. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “I’ll have to let them go. I can’t deal with Shaytan’s wrath right now, which is exactly what I’ll have to do if I kill this imbecile,” he added, pointing at Cason.

“What will happen once we’re gone?” I asked, suddenly finding myself worried about Nevis and the Dhaxanians. Nevis was quick to notice.

“You’re concerned for my wellbeing?” he replied, raising an eyebrow. His blue eyes shimmered with amusement.

“You’ve proven yourself a friend of GASP. You bet your ass I’m worried,” I shot back.

“We’ll be fine here. Cason will have to find another way to catch you. I doubt Shaytan will rush to attack me. Capturing his enemies was never part of our agreement, anyway. Our alliance was always about staying out of each other’s territory. Besides, he’s stretched too thin right now, after what happened in Infernis,” Nevis said, then produced a small snowflake-shaped pendant in the palm of his hand, and offered it to me. “Take this.”

I put my hand out, and experienced chills as the frosted snowflake touched my skin. It didn’t melt, and it came with a fine, equally frozen chain.

“What is it?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off it.

“Consider it a token of friendship,” he replied. “Cast it into the northern wind when you need my help. It will find me and bring me to you. Nothing travels faster than the winds of the north, Avril. It only works once, so make sure you call me out for a good reason. I will not take my Dhaxanians out of Athelathan otherwise. Don’t make me regret this.”

I was speechless. Not only had he set us free, he’d also offered his support in our fight for freedom. “I… I don’t know what to say,” I breathed, humbled and, at the same time, grateful that my pleas had actually paid off.

“You’ve said more than enough.” Nevis smiled, then glanced at the others in my team. “I took your words seriously. I just needed a few minutes to make a decision. Which is why it irked me to come back and find the Druid trying to get you out,” he added, narrowing his eyes at Patrik, who responded with a shrug. “Nevertheless, I do understand your reaction. Daemons were coming for you, after all.”

I nodded. “You’ve made the right choice, Your Grace,” I said. “You’re a friend of GASP now, and you and your people will be treated as such. You have my word.”

“I’m taking a huge risk with you, Avril. I need you to prove yourself to me. Make me feel better about my choice,” Nevis replied. I had a bad feeling about this.

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t make this too easy for you. I need to see you’re capable of tackling a throng of daemons. Otherwise I’ll be forced to assume that your Infernis stunt was simply dumb luck. I can’t sour my relationship with Shaytan for a bunch of weaklings.”

“What are you trying to say?” I replied, feeling my anger come back with a vengeance, after our earlier discussion.

Nevis smirked, then nodded at the tunnel behind us. “I’ll give you a five-minute head start. Your Imen friends are loyal, and, to my surprise, still alive, waiting for you at the base of the mountain by the western ridge. That tunnel will take you to them, though you’ll have to poke your way back to the surface at some point.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Patrik scoffed. “You’re letting us go just so you can watch us run from daemons?”

It was Nevis’s turn to respond with a nonchalant shrug. “Get rid of the daemons, and I’ll know you are capable of seeing this task of freeing Neraka to the end. If you die before you get back to the Lagerith plains, at least I’ll be able to salvage my alliance with Shaytan. If you survive, I’ll know exactly what I’ll be fighting for.”

“Seriously, Nevis? After all this?” I replied, resting my hands on my hips.

“You have my attention already, Avril, much to your lover’s dismay. If you want my undivided loyalty, you’ll have to earn it.”

I heard Heron’s low growl, and I knew he put in a lot of effort to stifle it.

“Well, it’s not like we have a choice now, huh?” I sighed, and Nevis shook his head. “Okay. Five minutes, you say? Cool.”

I put the frosted necklace around my neck, slipping the snowflake under my combat suit. It pressed cold against my skin, but it was also strangely comforting. I then looked at my team. “Are you guys ready for a good ol’ fashioned run?”

“From daemons? Anytime,” Scarlett replied with a grin.

“Hundurr and I will stay at the back, Heron in the middle,” Patrik said. “You and Scarlett take the lead. The tunnel will take us through the underground, but Dion and Alles are above somewhere. We’ll need you to sniff them out.”

I nodded, and briefly checked that my sword and belt satchels were intact, along with my knives and the other trinkets and swamp witch artifices I had with me, including my reserve of invisibility spell and the red garnet lens. The latter was essential going forward, especially with a horde of daemons tailing us.

“Despite your… test, I can’t say this enough: thank you, Your Grace,” I said to Nevis, following up with a curt bow.

He smiled. “Please, call me Nevis.”

“Oh, first name basis now. Whoop-tee-doo!” I giggled, then moved to the front of my group with Scarlett. I gave Nevis once last glance over the shoulder. “Thank you, Nevis. We’ll see you again, soon enough.”

“Five minutes, Avril. Don’t let me down.”

I darted through the tunnel, keeping that last smirk I’d reserved for him to myself. Scarlett ran right behind me, followed by Heron, Patrik, and a particularly gleeful Hundurr. That wolf was eager to run, but I could tell from the look in his red eyes that he was equally thrilled to rip into some daemon throats.

We had five minutes to make a clean break. We were fast, and we were resourceful. Fortunately, we also had Dion and Alles waiting for us on the surface, along with the horses. Once we got back on our indigo stallions, the daemons stood zero chance of catching up with us.

Most importantly, we were running through a tunnel.

Tunnels had a tendency to collapse, if properly poked.