Neither of them slept that night.

It wasn't just because of their encounter with the demon, but their conversation haunted them both. The weight of her final declaration settling on Aiden's shoulders and his words running through her head again and again.

At some point in the night, she realized what he meant in deciding to go with her.

You will leave that castle alive no matter what. Even if I do not.

She had no intention of adding another friend to the long list of deceased that trailed behind her.

Before the sun had fully risen, they had packed their few belongings and began their march. Selene had spent the night sharpening her blades and checking her supplies, occupying her hands with anything she could to keep them from shaking. But now as they walked, she was still as stone, her mind blank.

This was the final day of her life.

In her head, she had devised a plan to get Aiden away from her. If everything went the way she wanted it to, he'd be a far enough distance to survive her blast. She hoped.

Hours passed, each step like thunder in her ears until finally, Aiden held out his hand to stop her.

They were well within the tree line, yet ahead of them, Selene could see where the live trees ended and the dead ones began. Where the ground changed from sprouting roots to black, charred obsidian.

And through the trees, it sat.

A castle of black stone rose high into the side of a mountain, its walls eating away at all light that came from the rising sun. Its towers and spires looming over them in greeting and its bridges alight with torches as dwellers, humans, and things far taller and fouler patrolled their way across. The bridges lead back and forth up the cliff face and eventually to the front gate, its metal curling as if it had fingers that clawed at its own face.

The castle of a Demon King.

They had arrived.

***

A plan. They needed a plan.

Selene had hoped that they'd be able to push their way through, both of them skilled enough fighters. But looking now, at the sheer amount of distance and people they'd have to get through, they needed another way. She had known it would be like this.

Scaling the cliff was an option, but they'd be free-climbing for hundreds of feet. One false move and one of them plunged to their death.

Selene looked over to Aiden to see him thinking the same thing. Yet there didn't seem to be another option.

Stealth and surprise was their advantage, so the cliff it was. That also meant something had to be done about Selene's white hair. Aiden blended in much better, so he cautiously went out into the dead trees and grabbed two handfuls of the black charcoal that littered the ground. Selene rubbed it into her hair until Aiden and her practically matched. Then, they tightened their pack straps and crept out of the cover of the trees.

The guards were still far enough away to not be able to see them, but they were taking no chances. One call from them and the castle became impenetrable. Black as night, they sprinted quietly towards the cliff face and grabbed onto the wall.

Aiden didn't hesitate before he began to climb, but Selene paused and stared up.

There was no turning back now, even if she wanted to. So she climbed.

Thankfully, the cliff supplied a supple amount of nooks and crannies for them to shove their fingers and toes into. The question was whether they had the stamina to make it to the top... unseen.

Selene knew she could. Cyan had made her climb down and up the canyon that occupied their surroundings in the Wastes many times. But Selene didn't know Aiden's limits, especially now when he was ill.

Glancing over to check on him, he seemed to be doing fine. His muscles tense and taut beneath his sleeves, his brows furrowed as he calculated where his hands would go next.

She knew that at some point he had been trained. Perhaps he had been drafted into the army and deserted. That would explain many things, like why he had been so uneasy around the soldiers. Maybe be was a deserter. That would explain him being so against joining Cyan's army.

That would also explain why he was so good with a sword.

He looked to be doing fine, so she focused on her own climb. And what awaited them at the top.

Looking up, she spied a guard walking across the bridge above them, his steps slow and his head low. He must be finishing off his shift, tired and weary. Easy to evade.

They kept climbing until their muscles screamed and shook, the rocks sharp as knives beneath their fingers. The wind thrashed them around, yearning to pull them off the cliff and down to their deaths. Selene told herself not to look down, just as she had during training. But despite herself, she took a quick glance.

And immediately wished that she hadn't.

The ground sat at least five hundred feet below them, with nothing to save her if she should fall. Nothing but open air and then nothingness. She swallowed and kept climbing.

Hand after hand, they made their way closer to the castle. They'd have to find an entrance other than the main gate, someplace secretive. Walking through the King's front door didn't exactly fit in with their new "stealth and surprise" plan.

Just before they reached the ridge, they stopped. Aiden signaled something with his hands.

What?

He rolled his eyes and pointed upwards. Selene still didn't understand him.

"Go look and tell me what's up there," he hissed in a whisper.

Cheeks heated and eyes narrowed, Selene slowly peered over the cliff's edge. Her arms screamed from the effort, but she ignored it as she took in their enemy.

They were on the plateau that held the castle, but not by the front gate. That laid about two hundred feet away and heavily guarded by ten men. None seemed to be near where they clung to the cliff face, but they would easily be seen when they hauled themselves over the side. Unless the guards were distracted.

She lowered herself back down to Aiden's level and told him her plan.

A look crossed his face, one that screamed 'are you serious?' but they didn't have the time to come up with anything else. Selene felt as if her arms were going to rip out of her shoulders at any second.

So she went with the only idea she had.

Aiden readied himself to run and Selene closed her eyes, willing away the pain in her arms and the wind blowing through her clothes. She willed it all away and sunk into the raw magic in her tattoo.

She had never in her life used the raw magic to physically touch anyone except for herself, only to find and sense people, but they had no other choice. No one could know they were here, not yet.

So she took that power and molded it into shape, she focused all her remaining energy on the shape until it became something she could use.

A hand.

Then she reached out with it towards the guard farthest of the ten.

She wasn't moving, wasn't breathing as she let the magic pass through his skin and his bones until the raw magic wrapped around his heart and squeezed.

She couldn't hear the alarmed guards rushing towards their comrade as he clutched his chest and fell to the stone. She knew they would search for a wound, some sort of sign of attack but see nothing. Only a man having a heart attack.

While they were surrounding their friend, for that brief moment before they searched around, Aiden hauled himself over the cliff, dragging Selene with her as she fought to return to her senses.

The one downfall of using that part of her magic to reach out to others was that she had to leave her own body, had to become that magic as it traveled out. And returning was no easy task. So, Aiden was in charge of getting her over the cliff ridge and out of sight.

Even after the long climb, he had no problem carrying her into the shadows of the castle. It was when he put her down that his arms shook with the effort and he struggled to catch his breath.

Both of them were worn, but they couldn't rest long. They needed to figure out a way into the fortress. And fast.

Well enough to walk around again, Selene quietly pushed herself up, back against the stone, and made her way across the wall. She didn't know what she was searching for. Maybe a secret entrance, a servant's passage, or a window that no one was standing by. She made sure she listened for any approaching danger, knowing that they'd have to kill anyone that saw them. That would compromise their plan.

A guard who found a dead body on an unguarded side of the castle would raise the alarm and with it, every person in the castle would be looking for them. Demons included.

Something felt off to Selene about the demons. They hadn't seen any near the castle. As if the King didn't want them near it, yet she knew that thousands most likely lingered inside. But why not out here?

She kept that thought in the back of her mind not letting it distract her but knowing that it could mean something.

They made their way across the wall of the castle, feeling nothing but unnaturally smooth stone beneath their hands and behind their backs. She heard movement ahead, a guard walking towards them making his round.

She looked around for somewhere to go or hide. There was nowhere.

She looked up the wall, towards a balcony that sat above them, far out of reach. It was the only option. If she had time, she would use the rope attached to her pack and throw up her dagger to the railing, but she didn't.

But Aiden was already on it. He shot up an arrow, her rope tied to its head. Wrapped around the railing, and the arrowhead fell back down to them with the rope successfully secured. Selene grabbed it without hesitation and began to hoist herself up, Aiden close behind her.

They pulled themselves up and over the railing, taking the rope with them, just as the guard rounded the corner.

He wasn't human but similar. His skin was a blue color and his hair yellow. Taller than Aiden, but not overly muscular. The weapon he had strapped across his back was strange. A curved ivory sword.

"A goblin. And a young one at that," Aiden whispered over her shoulder.

Selene glanced back down at the goblin boy. He did look young, now that she looked closer at him. But she'd never seen one of his race before. Part of her was fascinated, another was sinking into dread.

"Another race has joined Icarus' forces," she said, her voice cold.

"It seems so," he responded.

She turned away from the Goblin and took in their new surroundings.

The balcony they were now on led straight into a curving stairway. They heard no guards approaching, no signs of danger, and decided to keep moving.

Aiden went first into the hallway, looking both ways before walking up the stairs.

She didn't know why he went up instead of down but chose to trust his instincts. Besides, Icarus wasn't likely to keep his throne room on the bottom floor. Or so Selene hoped.

Every so often, Aiden would hold out his hand, waiting for a few guards to cross through a hallway in front of them before they kept walking. Without him, she would have been caught before she even entered the castle.

Though she didn't want to admit it, she was glad he was there. For now.

They reached a large corridor, velvet carpets lining the floors and paintings, mirrors, and tapestries she didn't want to look too long at hung on the walls. And utterly empty.

"I don't like this," Aiden whispered.

Selene crept out into the middle of the hallway, her sword drawn and her eyes alert. Nothing.

Then something. A force, Like oily tendrils, a foul, powerful magic reached for her. It crawled along the hallway, inching for her as if she were water and it hadn't drunk in a long, long time.

"Aiden do you feel that?" she asked a tint of fear in her voice.

He must have sensed it because he was immediately by her side, pushing her behind him with an arm. Drawing his bow, he made his way down the hallway, Selene guarding his back.

She knew where the magic would lead them. Now would've been a good time to leave Aiden and go ahead, but not quite yet. There was no one around to distract him. She had been hoping for more guards, more of a fight. She grit her teeth. If they weren't here now, she'd have to bring them. As her feet touched the ground with each step, she set her magic flowing through them. She left trails of her fire behind her, but the thing that would bring the guards is what happened beneath them.

She knew her Moonfire was powerful enough to burn stone, she'd seen it done before on the columns of the waste. She had shoved her magic through the crevices of the stones, cracking them apart just so she could put a spark there. It would catch and set its surroundings ablaze, growing until the hallways she hadn't even seen were on fire. Faintly, she swore she could hear surprised shouts and cries of pain.

All they had to do now was follow her trail.

Selene said nothing as Aiden pushed onward, following that intense magic. She knew that the King could sense her. Why else would his magic reach out for her as if it were starving? It craved her power. It was why he wanted her so desperately.

Since the King knew she was here, there was no point in trying to be secretive anymore. So when she saw the guards running towards them, she smiled. There were at least a hundred of them and they were of all shapes and skin colors, some human some not, some something in between. And they came at the two of them from both sides of the hallway.

Aiden cursed and readied himself for the ones in front of them, Selene for the ones behind them. The first row of guards never reached them. She burned them to nothing in a matter of seconds. To their credit, they hadn't screamed. She didn't let her first human kills bother her.

She drew her sword from her hip and launched herself forward, she met with a tall, broad, human man. Their blades clashed against each other with a clang. Her arms shook with the impact and she yielded one step to him. He swiped at her, but she blocked it faster than the eyes could follow. She almost laughed at the fact that he was weaker than Cyan and even weaker than the bats she had just fought. Parrying each blow he struck, and lashing back twice as fast, the warrior crashed to the ground not long after their battle had begun with her sword buried in his gut.

She didn't let the other warriors take it in before she was on them, swiping and dodging and blasting them with her magic. She took on three men at once with ease, she wasn't even out of breath yet. This was her first actual battle, and she was flying through the ranks of men. Selene would have kissed Cyan if she would have ever seen her again.

Selene glanced over her shoulder at Aiden to see him doing fine, almost as well as her in fact. It was about time she left him here. She knew he could handle the rest on his own.

As she killed guard after guard, blood of all colors covering her and her sword, the fact that she was about to leave him hung over her.

She had no choice.

Cutting open a goblin's gut, Selene backed up and closed the gap between their two groups. The battle became chaotic as the guards tried to find the two enemies amongst so many. Easier to fight for the two of them, only a few guards could reach them at a time. But also easy for her to get in front of Aiden without him seeing. She doubled her effort and killed guards twice as fast, until there was a pathway to the front of the battle, past Aiden and most of the guards. She could see the hallway, feel the oily magic that still yearned for her.

So she pushed through until she made it out, turning just in time to block a blow to her spine. She beheaded the man with her sword and without wasting another moment she held out her hand.

"!"

Aiden's roar came from within the crowd of guards. They all turned to look at her as she let the magic flow from her palm. Quicker than anyone could act, she lifted her hand, feeling a sudden pressure at the amount of magic she now summoned, and created a great wall of roaring blue fire.

She saw him through the flames once before the hallway was completely sealed up. Pain and utter betrayal showed on his face. And grief. She watched as the hope drained from his eyes, only to be replaced with something colder than even her Moonfire. He now realized that there was nothing he could do to stop her.

This was my choice, Aiden, she thought, praying he understood.

Then she slammed her foot into the ground and the remainder of those sparks of fire exploded behind the fighting guards, burning a large number of the remaining men. Leaving only a few for Aiden to pick off. The wall made sure he would never be able to come after her, even when he killed the guards off. And if all worked out, it would serve as a shield against what she was about to unleash.

A pain tugged at her heart as she turned her back to the wall of fire and began her walk towards her tomb.

She blocked out the sounds behind her. Of a man screaming her name and trying to reach through the flames but stopping as the cold became too much. She blocked it all out.

All there was now was her and the King that sat on his throne behind the doors that were at the end of the hallway in front of her.

She tightened her grip on her bloodied sword, letting her magic flow through it as she stalked towards the throne room.

Then she was at the grand, black, stone doors. This was it. This is what she had trained for.

She was about to push through them when they swung open for her, revealing a throne room as dark as the rest of the castle, yet more sinister.

A voice echoed off the walls and hit Selene like claws on marble.

"Finally, you have come to me, my dear Daughter of Night."

She raised her eyes to meet his.

Icarus, King of the Demons.