The world was nothing but churning and darkness. Rosalyn’s lungs burned, and she struggled to keep herself from screaming. The water felt like ice and somehow Hex’s arms felt like napalm, and the contrast made her want to thrash away from both.

All she could do was hold on, hope to hell that Hemlock could hold his breath properly, and trust. Trust.

When they broke the surface, she sputtered and gasped and sputtered some more, tendrils of steam coming off of her in the warm air.

“Jian!” Hex bellowed, his voice carrying across the water. It was almost a strained, desperate sound, and Rosalyn found herself looking around at the bobbing bodies swimming alongside them for a familiar face.

“Here.” He was behind them, arm around another demon who looked to be unconconscious, head lolling back and forth.

Hemlock settled up against Rosalyn’s throat, and she relished in his warmth. The water didn’t feel so cold anymore, especially at the surface where the air was so warm, but the furrball was a comfort, no less.

They were in a deep quarry, and though she was terrible at gauging distance, she was certain that had she jumped on her own she would have ended up broken or dead.

“Are we safe down here?” she rasped, staring up at where they’d jumped from. She didn’t see any fire columns, and nobody seemed to be jumping after them.

“We will be.” Hex’s voice was clipped, and she decided to keep her mouth shut. She had no idea what he’d seen in the missive, but she had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the attack.

An attack that they could have prepared for better had she not hid the message for so long.

Did he know that? Did he suspect she’d known?

She swallowed hard as her breathing finally evened out.

She didn’t know where they were going, but away from whatever fire shit was happening back there was probably ideal. She didn’t have a good track record with demons so far, but this particular pack had been the kindest to her so far for the longest period of time…so she had to assume they weren’t going to start torturing her now, right?

She closed her eyes, and it almost hurt to look at KC’s message. There was nothing else. Nobody else was talking. And he hadn’t sent anything more.

She wanted to ask him what the hell was going on, but she couldn’t just yet. She was so glad that he was still there, though. That meant there was still hope.

Soon, the splashing water began to echo, and Rosalyn opened her eyes, finding them in the mouth of a cave. It was overgrown with vines and flowers hanging from above, likely difficult to spot from the outside.

As they swam deeper into the tunnel, some of the flowers began to emit light. At first she’d thought it was just her eyes adjusting to the darkness, but soon it was clear that many of the plants were glowing. Some snaked in and out of rock like bioluminescent lace, some were large flowers or mushrooms, but soon the entire exposed part of the tunnel was giving off a soft patterned light to guide them.

“Wow,” she couldn’t help but breathe the word.

“Old magic,” Hex said, startling her. “It only lights the way for allies.”

Allies of who? she wanted to ask, but bit it back. “That’s handy.” She wondered if it would still light up for them if there were one interloper in the group. How did it know?

What even was it?

Soon, their movement changed from bobbing and kicking to something more solid, and she realized he could touch the ground.

“I can…” she began hoarsely before clearing her throat. “I can walk. If that’s like, easier.”

“You’re okay,” he replied easily, but he didn’t look down at her.

She ran her eyes down the line of his jaw, studying his body language. She wasn’t quite sure if he seemed tense, but she couldn’t help the sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t just being nice, that he wanted to keep her close.

Hemlock seemed pretty chill about it all, though, and that was comforting. The furrball was the one who knew to give Hex the missive, after all. Trust, trust, trust…

The water lapped lower at her body and they began to emerge, headed towards a shelf of rock off to the side of the tunnel. A few demons were already pulling themselves up onto it, wringing out their clothes.

“Jian,” Hex murmured, and his companion pushed ahead of them.

“Let’s get a head count,” he called, and began rounding everyone up as they reached the shelf.

Hex set Rosalyn down gently on the edge before hauling himself up.

“Stay there,” he instructed, and headed off towards a row of crates along the back wall.

The rock was cold against her bare ass, and Rosalyn realized that at some point she’d lost the towel. She shivered, and Hemlock nuzzled her cheek. A moment later, something soft and fluffy encircled her, and she looked back at Hex as he wrapped her in what could only be described as a moss blanket. It was so comfortable that she just wanted to curl up right there and go to sleep.

No such luck, though. As Jian checked the survivors over and organized them, sending them further away into deeper caves, Hex plonked himself down right next to Rosalyn. He let his feet dangle into the water, swishing them back and forth.

Promise you’ll drag me out if I fail spectacularly, her words to KC all those years ago on his birthday echoed in her mind.

“You know who I am,” Hex finally said, quiet but firm.

Rosalyn froze. It hadn’t even been a question. She sucked in her cheeks, unable to find her voice, but that seemed to be answer enough for him.

“You understand how important it is that nobody knows.”

At that, she nodded, curling further into the moss, wishing she could just hide in there like a turtle. Tentative hope blossomed in her belly, because if he was confirming that she would keep his secret, surely he wasn’t going to kill her to keep her quiet, right?

She had a feeling that this conversation wasn’t over, though. He’d want to know about the missive, and how exactly she knew who he was. And she didn’t know how much she should tell him. She could tell him about the woman that sprung her giving her the missive, and about the conversation between Rhizaid and the King about Hex, but she wasn’t sure about Zalrimith.

She absently rubbed her chest, where the magical ropes of fire still threatened her, threatened to drag her back to that monster.

Should she tell Hex that? How would he react to knowing that her life was tied to delivering his to the very people that had taken his kingdom?

“When I was young, Jian and I used to go swimming in underwater caves all the time,” Hex said suddenly, breaking Rosalyn out of her thoughts. “The castle is right by the sea, and we’d sneak off and jump out of one of the windows below the back guard tower by the docks. They probably saw us, we weren’t all that sneaky, but never bothered to say anything, because I was just the youngest child.” He looked down at his hands, turning them over in his lap. “With three older brothers and an older sister, there was never any danger of me being even close to the crown.”

Her heart clenched painfully at that. From a peaceful life to losing his whole family and suddenly bearing the weight of the crown. On some level, she understood the panic and insanity of having one’s life flipped outside down, since just being sucked into a video game and being under constant threat of death was pretty damn jarring—but at least it was just her she had to worry about.

Hooves clicked on the stone behind them, and Rosalyn looked back, finding Jian approaching, the rest of the demons gone. He held another moss blanket, and leaned down, draping it around Hex’s shoulders with a soft grumble.

Rosalyn couldn’t help a tiny smile. He was frustrated because the Prince had brought her a blanket and forgotten one for himself. Hex talked about when they were kids—which meant they’d been close their whole lives.

You’re like, if someone ripped a chunk of my heart off and shaped it into a person-shaped person, she’d once confessed to KC while they were young and high. He’d never let her forget the stupid way she’d tripped over her words, but secretly she loved that he kept teasing her about it after all these years because of the look on his face when he brought it up.

Homesickness punched her in the gut, and she was struck with the sudden urge to tell Hex everything, even where she really came from. Tell him about what her life was like, about KC, about how many people could be watching them right now, everything. Even if he didn’t really understand, even if she couldn’t make him really understand…

Because one didn’t have to fully grasp someone’s else’s whole world to understand the bare human feelings, right? Well, they were demons, not humans, but it seemed as if they had the same kinds of emotions as she did. And despite it being painfully clear that Jian and Hex were closer than friends, they would still understand her close bond with her best friend who was still out there trying to communicate with her.

“Mira is taking care of everyone, getting them settled in for a few days until the heat blows over.” Jian’s words seemed to jog Rosalyn out of her fantasy of coming completely clean and having everything be okay.

This situation was well and truly fucked, and she had to play her cards just right so she could get home. She needed to talk to KC, but she couldn’t do that until she was alone.

“I think we need to keep moving,” Hex replied. “We need to find the oracle. They sent the message stick. I need to know what to do to save my mother.”

Jian stiffened, but Hex tilted his head in Rosalyn’s direction.

“She knows,” he said. “It’s alright. She was in the message.”

It was Rosalyn’s turn to stiffen. Her eyes widened and she turned to him, peering from her little bundle of moss.

“The oracle sent you a vision of this human?” Jian demanded.

Hex nodded, and met Rosalyn’s gaze, something in his eyes that sent her heart racing into overdrive. “She sent me visions of a lot of things. But this one is important.”

She swallowed hard. Oh, fuck.