My lighters were in full swing, setting incoming daemons on fire, enough to not only cause serious damage but also to give Scarlett, Heron, Avril, Hansa, and Jax the wiggle room they needed to cut them down.

Blaze was quite big for this part of the gorge, which didn’t exactly work to our advantage, but he made the best of it, using the spike on his long tail and the sharp fangs in his strong jaws to wipe out daemons in clusters of two or three at a time. Yet more daemons were pouring through from the crevices, and it was beginning to feel like a never-ending stream of enemies by this point.

We stayed out of Blaze’s way, while Harper and the newly arrived Caspian handled a string of daemons on their own.

It made me nervous whenever one got close to Blaze’s head; they were offputtingly fast. Their clawed blows left large holes in the ground whenever I dodged them, and some threw knives at us between hits. It was slightly easier now that we could see them, but the daemons were twice as ferocious.

I put one lighter away and drew my sword, using one hand for a fire whip and the other to slash at the daemons trying to reach Blaze. I could see their red eyes fixed on his as they tried to move around and get better angles. Blaze’s skin was tough, nearly impenetrable, but his eyes weren’t. I lashed at the fiends while executing 360-degree turns to increase the speed of each hit, the incandescent tip of my fire whip taking hefty bites out of the daemons’ flesh.

I blocked an attack with my sword, then slid down on one knee and directed a lash at a daemon dashing toward Blaze, who was busy stabbing several fiends before they reached one of the crevices. The fire whip burned through the daemon’s thigh, enough to make him scream and for Blaze to turn his head to the right to see the beast, then impale him with his tail spike.

We didn’t spot the other daemon, coming in hot from the left, until it was too late. He moved in a zigzag pattern, tapped his foot against a slab of limestone, and launched himself upward. He stabbed the corner of Blaze’s left eye with his claw, and I screamed.

Blaze roared from the pain, making the entire gorge shudder with echoes of his agony. He shook his massive head, enough to make the daemon fall to the ground with a thump. Jax rushed over and pierced the fiend’s neck with both swords, cursing under his breath.

“Everybody back off!” I managed to shout. I saw Blaze’s neck stiffen and swell as blood poured from his injured eye. It was about to get really hot for the twenty daemons left.

The team immediately reacted, dashing off to the sides. I pulled myself back several feet. Blaze growled and spat out a column of devastating fire over the remaining daemons. It happened fast. The creatures didn’t stand a chance; Blaze’s dragon flames rained down as liquid fire and obliterated every hostile in that part of the gorge.

Black smoke billowed from the daemons’ charred remains as they disintegrated and scattered across the hard ground. Blaze then grumbled, his scales twitching as he shifted back to his normal form. He fell to his knees, one hand covering his left eye.

I ran to him, putting my sword and lighter away, while Harper and Caspian brought the remaining horses out. Jax, Hansa, Patrik, Heron, and Avril gathered around us, their swords out. They scanned the area for more hostiles, but it seemed as though we’d managed to survive our large-scale daemon attack.

My chest tightened as I lowered myself in front of Blaze. He was in pain, and had already broken out into a cold sweat, his face pale. Blood glazed his left cheek and trickled down. There was a puncture wound at the corner of his eye. Scarlett joined us, biting into her palm to open a gash for him to drink from.

“Hold on, Blaze,” she said, then pushed her hand against his lips. “Drink.”

Blaze drank some of her blood, while I rummaged through my backpack for bandages and Patrik gave him a healing pellet, along with a small, purple dried fruit.

“Eat this,” the Druid said. “It’ll help with the pain.”

“Hold still,” I said softly.

He obeyed, gritting his teeth, and put his hand down, revealing his injured eye. The eyeball had only been grazed, from what I could see, and it would heal faster with vampire blood and healing herbs from the Druid. It was red and a bit swollen, blood still trickling from the puncture wound. It hurt me on the inside to see him like this, but I took comfort in the fact that we’d been able to give him two effective treatments. Hopefully he’d be healed soon. I bandaged his eye, wrapping the thin fabric around his head, then wiped his cheek and neck.

He watched quietly as I cleaned the blood off his skin, then backed away. Heron handed him a pair of pants—we’d all packed spares in the satchels on our horse saddles, just in case. We knew there would be more than one instance in which Blaze would have to go full dragon in these gorges.

“Thank you.” He gave me a weak smile, then nodded at Patrik and Scarlett.

“Thank you, Blaze.” Hansa patted his shoulder. “You made our work much easier.”

“Just take care of yourself,” Jax added, gripping the reins of an indigo horse. “The daemons are twice as fast and vicious if they’re visible, as we’ve all learned just now, and they will actively look for weaknesses. We need to be more careful, going forward. This won’t be the last time they try to take a swipe at your eyes.”

Blaze nodded, then stood up and slipped into his pants, while we all looked away. I couldn’t stop my cheeks from flushing. Even in those circumstances, I seemed to be highly reactive to his presence and his body.

“At least we know we can beat them.” Blaze shrugged, buttoning his pants.

“Now let’s quickly address the elephant in the gorge.” Harper raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked at Caspian, whose hood and mask were still on. “You can take those off, Lord Kifo. I already had to tell my team about you.”

A few seconds passed as Caspian’s jade eyes scanned us, followed by his head and shoulders dropping. He removed his mask and pulled the hood back, revealing himself with an irritated expression.

“Clearly, I cannot trust you to keep a secret,” he muttered, resting one hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword.

“Not when you give me meranium pendants for the whole team and expect me to figure out a good explanation,” Harper replied.

“Harper hasn’t told us much, other than the fact that you’ve helped us twice now, and also gave us the pendants to protect us against daemons trying to consume our souls.” Jax frowned. “For that, we are obviously thankful. Rest assured that we won’t tell anyone outside GASP about what you did for us.”

“That being said,” Hansa added, “we have a lot of questions for you. First off, what are you doing here?”

Caspian gave Harper a sideways glance, pursing his lips. He seemed genuinely cross with her.

“I figured you might need an extra pair of hands, and I was right. Had I not shown up, your sentry here would’ve been torn to shreds,” he said.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion, but thanks anyway,” Harper retorted.

“Why are you helping us? What do you know about the daemons? What aren’t you telling us about the Exiled Maras?” Hansa continued her drilling.

Caspian heaved a sigh, then looked around.

“I’m just going to tell you the same thing I told Miss Hellswan,” he replied. “Get your vampire back, if you can. And then get out of Neraka. You are in over your heads, and there’s nothing I could tell you to make it easier for you.”

“And I’m just going to tell you what Harper has probably already told you,” Hansa replied, her scowl highlighting the gold flakes in her emerald eyes. “GASP can help with whatever is going on here, even on a large scale. Blaze is not the only dragon we have. You’ve seen us by now; you know we won’t back off.”

Caspian glanced briefly at Blaze, then gave Hansa a nod.

“Tell you what,” he said, “if you make it out of this gorge alive, I’ll reconsider your offer to help. Until then, however, your focus should be on your survival and on getting Miss Achilles back, not on my knowledge or motives regarding all this. I imagine Miss Harper has already explained that I do not seek to obstruct your investigation, nor do I wish to harm you. We seem to be, more or less, headed toward the same objective, which is the salvation of my people. But I cannot trust you. Not right now. Not until I see what you’re really capable of. This daemon scuffle was light. You’ve seen them, now. You know what they’re capable of. There is worse to come. Prove yourselves. Survive this mission and we’ll talk. In the meantime, however, I must stress the importance of withholding my involvement from anyone outside this group. Innocent lives depend on it.”

“Fair enough,” Jax replied, then patted his horse’s neck. “We need to go now. The tracking spell is still moving.”

We all looked ahead, and saw the light orb hovering a third of a mile away.

“We’re short on horses, though,” Patrik muttered, gripping the reins of another indigo mare. There were six left, and more of us.

“I’ll take one,” I said, then looked at Blaze. “You can ride with me. This way, you’ll have some time to heal.”

I got on one of the horses, and Blaze swiftly joined me, climbing behind me. I pulled on the reins and directed the creature toward the tracking spell. Patrik took Scarlett on his horse, while Jax and Hansa reluctantly shared her mare. Avril and Heron each had their own, with one stallion left for Harper and Caspian.

Blaze’s warmth simmered through me as he wrapped one arm around my waist for support. My breath hitched when he tightened his hold on me, his lips by my ear.

“Thank you, Caia,” he whispered.

I blushed and thought about a response, but the only thing I could come up with was a faint nod. He slowly leaned against my back, gradually relaxing in the saddle. Our horse trotted forward, the motion seriously not helping, as each movement somehow made Blaze slip even closer, his thighs rubbing against mine in the process.

Well… This is going to be an interesting ride.