Evie
“The women won’t come out, they are too frightened,” Nix says as I walk to his side, looking in the cage where he has opened the door. The women are huddled together in the corner, none of them looking my way as they hide. I glance over to the other cages, seeing Trex and Connor walking three little children over to us. Trex is even making one of them smile, and it’s not what I expected at all. Who knew he had a soft spot for kids? Azi is kneeling down in one of the cages, talking slowly to a little boy who doesn’t seem to want to move.
“They likely don’t speak English,” I comment, looking back at the women just as one of the women look up, and she stands up slowly. The woman has long, dirty red hair that is barely held up in a ponytail. There is dirt all over her face, but it doesn’t take away from her strong green eyes and tight-lipped expression. Her eyes widen when she looks at me, and then to my side.
“Karaisa?” the woman asks, looking at the little girl who is still holding my hand. She lets go, running to the woman who grabs her, and holds her tight. Her eyes full of tears meet mine, standing up, and holding the little girl.
“I speak English. At least some,” she says slowly and clearly struggling to think of the words. I go to speak Latin but decide that Nix might want to hear what she has to say. He helped save them after all.
“Is she your daughter?” Nix asks, and she nods, giving him a fearful look. They are all clearly scared of men, I can see it, and I feel sorry for them. Hopefully in time, they will forget being here.
“It’s okay, we mean you no harm. You are free, all of you,” I say firmly, and she gives us a confused look as Connor, Azi, and Trex walk to us. The children run into the cage, and the women grab them when they are near, crying as they hold their children. “Free,” I repeat firmly.
“Thank you. Can I have your name?” she asks.
“Salvator,” Karaisa says before I can answer, and her mum nods, repeating the name louder. All the women and children repeat it, as they stand and walk out of the cage, each one bowing their heads at me. Karaisa and her mum are the last ones to come out, and she stops right in front of me.
“We return to our husbands. We never forget, Salvator,” she tells me, and walks away. I look at my old sword on the ground, running over and picking it up and running after the slaves. Karaisa pulls her mum’s hair when she sees me, and her mum turns around, giving me a confused look.
“This is yours. It will keep you safe, or you can trade it,” I say, pushing the sword into her spare hand.
“We never forget,” she says, and I know it’s her way of saying thank you. I watch her turn and walk away until she has disappeared into the market of people that watch us carefully.
“Do you think they will be safe?” Connor asks, as he walks to my side. The others come over as well, and I look up at Connor.
“I hope so, but we gave them a chance. Everyone deserves a chance,” I say, and he places his hand on my arm for only a second.
“You’re right,” he whispers, and steps away.
“Time to go. I don’t want to be on this level of hell when it gets dark,” Trex tell us as he walks ahead, and we have no choice but to follow.
“Azi, you should go in front,” I say to him when he stays near my side.
“I know,” is all he replies, but he stays right next to me. Nix and Connor walk behind us, and I keep flashing my eyes back to them, remembering how I’ve kissed them both, and we have been interrupted each time. I would like not to be interrupted at some point.
“You like them, the Protectors,” Azi comments, and I look back at him, playing ignorance.
“I don’t have a clue–”
“I like it,” he interrupts me, and I laugh.
“Seriously? Sharing was not something I had you down for,” I say, still chuckling as his red eyes stare down at me. “Not that sharing is even an option for us as we aren’t together.”
“We will be together, and I think you will be with them also. I see the way you look at them, and how they look at you. At first, I wanted to cut their dicks off, but now, I believe they are good for you,” he says, his eyes watching my own as I look up at him. I don’t even want to touch the cocky subject of him thinking we will be back together.
“Why do you think they are good for me?” I ask, curious.
“They bring out this side to you, a different side than the defensive Vi I’ve always known. You never let me in, not ever, not even if you tell yourself that you did. There has always been this wall, and I think you need more than one person to knock it down,” he says.
“I didn’t put a wall up with you, I gave you what I could,” I argue, but it’s weak.
“You can’t even see the wall because it’s been there since you were a baby. You don’t know how to trust, how to fully love. Life for you has always been a fight, a struggle, and you never had someone fully at your side that you can trust,” he says, and I look away.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” I say, stepping in front of him, and he doesn’t stop me. We walk in silence up to the entrance of the pyramid, and Azi finally steps in front of us all as we pass through the open stone door. The pyramid is empty inside, with sand floors and one spiral staircase that goes all the way up to the top. At the top, is a gold light, but it’s so bright that I can’t see anything else up there.
“The only way is up,” Azi says, walking to the staircase and walking up. I jog to catch up, and the others follow as we walk up the dusty, sand-covered steps. The steps are huge, causing me to have to pull my legs up high to make each step.
“What where these steps built for? Giants?” I mutter, making Azi laugh.
“No, there used to be a royal family of hell, and it is said the very first queen of hell was a goddess. There are no royals around to tell us if that was true or not anymore, though,” Azi tells us. Royals of hell? Sounds like a terrible inheritance. It takes ages to climb all the steps to the top, and I’m out of breath by the time we get to clearing.
“You should do more cardio, you clearly need it,” Trex comments.
“You need the stick that is stuck up your ass removed, but you don’t hear me offering you advice,” I reply as Trex glares down at me, going to step closer.
“Enough,” Azi snaps, making me look away from Trex, to see him waving a fire-covered hand over what looked like an empty circular space. The ward or whatever it is burns away with Azi’s touch, and a bigger room appears. This one isn’t empty, no it has five doors, and polished stone floors with fire in pots around the room. Four of the doors are wooden, nothing special about them, and the one in the middle looks like it’s made of solid glass. You can’t see anything other than smoke through it, and if I had to guess what a door to heaven looked like, this would be it and not the door to the deepest level of hell.
“Azi, my man, what do we have here?”