Zero felt like he couldn’t breathe.

Because he actually couldn’t.

His throat was constricted, being crushed, invisible fingers digging deeper into his flesh and impeding his airway. He tried to force the oxygen in, but it refused to budge, teasing on the tip of his tongue. His vision was becoming blurry, dark, and fading. He could feel himself dying.

Actually dying.

A feeling he had yet to experience.

One he knew he would never come back from.

And there was nothing he could do.

Again.

Please not again.

Not when they were so close this time.

The pressure on his neck slipped away as the oxygen rushed back into his lungs, allowing his vision to become clear again as the life returned to his body.

But his mind was still in a fog.

He watched the woman frantically scurry to the place that the girl had just been moments before.

Where the devil had grabbed her.

Disappeared with her.

While he did nothing.

The vixen’slong, red hair jerked and whipped around as she spun wildly, her nose in the air, her eyes despairing and neurotic as she searched for something that was not there. He could see her mouth open, even sense the vibrations that carried through the air against his skin, but he couldn’t hear her screams.

He could feel the pull from his throat moving behind him until the pressure was removed and his body was all his again, the flesh and bone returning to normal. The large hands that clamped against his face, tearing him towards ocean blue, the clouds beginning to swirl around them.

Like a storm on the beach.

A place he had been with her.

But where was he now?

Where was she?

He began to hear his name, just the hints of a whisper that grew in volume until his ears began to ring against the boom.

“Zero.”

“Zero.”

“Zero!”

Everything suddenly rushed over him. They had been walking, just as they had always done, on the way to the next town. They had planned on staying at an inn, looking through the library, asking around. Sakura and Ren had been arguing, and for once, he had actually taken interest and listened to their back and forth squabbling. She wanted to head further east if nothing came from the town. He wanted to continue north. She accused him of trying to trap her back in Hollis. He had tried to change the subject but the devious tone in his voice had said it all. Ivy had been holding Zero’s hand, her fingers laced through his as she hummed, and he silently hoped that Ren would get his way this time. As his thoughts lingered, she had pulled away from him and he had let her go, watching as she drifted further away, carried off by the tune.

How beautiful she was.

How he wanted to go home with her.

To create their own.

At long last.

And then he would be impaled.

Killed once again.

Like so many times before.

He would feel the cracking and splitting of bone and skin as his horns pushed their way free, his teeth sharpen against his tongue, his claws in his hands. He would stare at crimson, the same color as his. He should have felt fear, been well aware of what those blood red eyes meant, and what was to come. But all he could notice was how the devil looked in comparison to his father.

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This devil was lankier, without the bulk of muscle that his father had had. His limbs seemed longer though he wasn’t as tall. The hair was shorter but just as dark and coarse with horns that didn’t reach so high but still twisted from his skull. He was different, but he reminded Zero of his father, both of them having similar, formidable auras and cruel eyes. But that devil wasn’t him. His father had only ever come for him or his mother. This one hadn’t.

He had come for Ivy.

Like he had been waiting for her.

And Zero had let her go.

What had he done?

“Zero!”

He looked at the angel, finally seeing him.

“Move!” Ren yelled, his voice panicked, his face twisted in a way the boy had never seen. Afraid. Anguished. “We have to go! We have to get her! You have to move!”

But he couldn’t.

He was still trapped.

He felt a hand grasp at one of his horns and rip him down, gazing momentarily into emeralds that leaked down the woman’s cheeks before her opposite palm came up and smacked against his face, the sting snapping him back.

“You said you’d protect Ivy!” Sakura screamed, her voice shrill in his ears as she jerked his head around. “You promised! You gave me your word! So do it! Go find her! Bring her back! Now!”

Find her.

Ivy.

And he was gone.

The demon’s hands hung before her, the boy no longer holding them up. Nothing to keep her on her feet as she fell to the ground in a tangle of her own despair, wailing and ripping into the earth.

Ren stared aghast into the distance where the devil had been, where Zero had followed. The man had fought a devil before. Killed him with little hassle due to the madness that had engulfed his mind. Took his son and cared for him like his own. But he had never seen a devil that hadn’t been driven into the madness or one that didn’t act much like a devil at all. However, the one that had been in front of them was one that every being knew about and feared even though most would never come close to being in one’s presence. Fast, powerful, intelligent, and calculating. He had only been there for a moment before disappearing with Ivy.

But why?

Devils don’t leave behind survivors.

They don’t take hostages.

So why did this one take Ivy? Why did one take Zero’s mother?

What was so special about them?

What set them apart from everyone else?

He looked down at Sakura as she writhed and thrashed, her screams and cries primal as she began to tear at herself.

Like a mother mourning the loss of their child.

Completely consumed by the grief of losing the most precious part of herself.

Ren fell behind the woman, pulling her into himself, holding her tight as he whispered in her ear. He needed her back. He wouldn’t be able to find them without her.

They had to find Ivy. They had to find Zero.

They had to get them back.

How could they ever live without them?

What would be the point if they were gone?

The man grabbed her face, drawing them closer together. “We don’t have time for this,” his voice rushed but quiet, coaxing her back to reality. “We have to go. We have to go now. You need to get it together. You need to follow them.”

Her will to fight dissipated as her body went slack against his. “I let her go,” Sakura whispered, her eyes empty and despondent. “It’s my fault. I killed…”

“Stop it!” He snapped, unable to remain calm as his anxiety rose with her putting their greatest nightmare into words. “You didn’t. She’s still alive. You need to tell me which way they went!”

“I can’t smell them. Their scent ends where they were. He was too fast. I can’t follow her.”

Ren glanced back to where they had been.

That devil had been too fast.

But Sakura had followed Zero before.

“Can you smell Zero?”

There wasn’t even a moment of hesitation before she was pushing away from him and rushing down the path, chasing after the boy’s scent. The angel followed behind, pulling off his bracelet, onyx wings erupting from his back as she ran further ahead. She stopped suddenly, staring up through the trees and into the blue sky.

“Zero went up into the trees,” she mumbled, unable to comprehend why he would choose such an unconventional path when the ground would be quicker for him to travel.

The angel wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and launched into the sky. “Of course he did. He wants us to follow him.”

The boy was quiet.

But he was clever.

Always thinking two steps ahead.

They flew low, just barely grazing the tree line, following the trail that Zero had left for them; his scent lingering on the branches that he had intentionally snapped along the way. This one was much easier to track than the one the boy had made when he had been the one to take off with Ivy. At that time, he had known that they would pursue him, and he wanted to buy as much time as possible, twisting and winding them through a never-ending maze that was meant to keep them running in circles.

But this devil hadn’t expected anyone to follow.

He had been so quick that even Sakura hadn’t had the time to register hearing or smelling him. The spear he had thrown had deadly accuracy, piercing through Zero’s throat lengthwise, destroying his trachea, esophagus, and vertebrae of his cervical spine, essentially decapitating him. The devil hadn’t been concerned with the angel or demon, not seeing them as a threat to his goal, or, possibly, not even noticing them at all. Not when there was a greater threat, another devil in his way, which he terminated without haste.

The devil had been confident that he had done so.

There was no way for him to know that Zero wouldn’t die.

And it was the only thing that would keep Ivy alive.

“What if he doesn’t make it?” The question barely there.

“He’ll make it.” Ren said, trying to convince her along with himself.

He had to.

“What if he kills her?”

Devils don’t take hostages.

But sometimes they do.

How long had Zero’s mother lived for?

How long did she suffer?

Long enough to birth a child and leave behind vague memories of herself to him.

Ren shook his head while carefully scanning the land below. “He won’t. He wants her for something.” What he suspected; he couldn’t bring himself to say. “He wants Ivy alive. If he didn’t, she’d already be dead.”