Caeden stood under the burned remnants of an abandoned watch post left behind by the knight and mages when they quarantined the Ashen Fields. The post and its surroundings were half buried in ash and soot. He stood a fair distance from the encroaching wall of fire. Despite Oswin's magic barrier, he could still feel the heat blasting from it. Without the mage’s protection absorbing and redistributing much of its effect, he was sure he would be cinders by now.

His eyes darted between the missive he was writing to his brother and Oswin at the wall of fire. The mage was trying to attune his magic to it to adjust his barriers accordingly, allowing them to pass through it safely. The grey-white fields beyond were quiet. Eerily so. The only disturbance was the low rumbling beneath his feet and the Red Mountain spitting dark smoke and fire. He could not see the Wyvern. It must have disappeared back into the belly of the volcano. Or Ava had already collected it, but he doubted that. Something was not right here.

He could not shake the uneasy feeling that made his hair stand on end. He felt like he would unknowingly walk off a precipice and he could not determine where the sense of danger was coming from.

They would need to be alert once they pass through the wall. His missive was to warn his brother to do the same. If they do pin down the threat beyond the wall, it would be hard to pass missives back through it since the enchanted paper’s edges were already blackening and curling just being this close to it.

His attention was drawn to their horses, they whinnied and screamed, eyes wide with panic. They bucked and strained against their reins. Caeden fingered Ava’s sword and walked to calm them, scanning the area warily. He wanted to call a warning to Oswin, but three, muffled blasts echoed against the inside of the flame wall.

“What in Holden’s name?” Oswin exclaimed. His brows furrowed in perplexity.

The wall flashed blue as waves of fire rippled out from the areas of impact. He and Oswin watched the changes in confusion. Oswin backed away from the barrier and Caeden reached out, indicating to the mage to get behind him. He slipped his shield on his arm.

Three blasts hit the barrier again. The first blast occurred too fast for his eyes to catch, but he caught the latter two. Fireballs. Ones that appeared out of thin air. Such a thing was not possible, unless…

Clawed fingers appeared amid the wall, ripping it apart. The flames seemed to flare and recoil from the dark aura surrounding them, creating a gap for a fully grown demonkin to fly through. Once it was clear of the wall, its hand went to the injury on his upper left arm.

Caeden’s heart stalled, then beat like a maul against his chest. He found himself frozen in place, incapacitated by the sheer terror of the demonkin’s maleficence. He felt helpless, vulnerable and small. The weight of all the world’s hate and malice that emanated from this single, dread figure felt like it would crush him. It took all his willpower to stifle his panic and form rational thought.

The demonkin’s wound was not a gash made by Ava’s dagger or an arrow but was a round puncture that could have resulted from one of Beast’s protruding fangs. Coming face to face with a creature such as this did not bode well for Ava or Beast.

The demonkin turned to them when he drew Ava’s sword. Its pained scowl turned into the cruel expression of a child glaring down at a snail it was about to crush beneath its boot.

“Ah, it seems the boy prince has come to save his damsel in distress. Would she not be pleased,” it mocked melodiously.

“What have you done to Ava?” he ground out.

“Is that not a question reserved for your mother?” he responded with a knowing smirk.

Caeden reeled from the unexpected response. He had had suspicions, but very little proof and the sudden implication had taken him aback. No, to trust the word of a demonkin would be folly. It was trying to distract him, divert his attention toward its chaotic purposes.

“If you have harmed her…” Caeden threatened.

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“The parasite dares to walk in the footsteps of gods and now has the gall to threaten me,” it spat, its patience snapping.

The amusement was gone and the demonkin’s aura darkened. Caeden’s knees buckled from the onslaught of maleficent force blasting from the creature. Its clawed fingers twitched as it tussled with the last remnant of its willpower, and then it paused, listening.

“Silence!” it roared.

Caeden flinched at the sudden outburst and shot a querying look at Oswin, who gave him an imperceptible shrug and continued to watch the demonkin with terrified curiosity.

“I should cut you down where you stand!” it growled and calmed. “But then they will never see the truth.

“I bid you hurry. She is waiting.” It flicked its wrist toward the wall of flame in a semi-clockwise motion then reversed the motion before yelling, “I look forward to the day we meet again, and you greet me as A’za’el. But I doubt you will live long enough to fulfil your destiny.”

The demonkin lifted higher in the sky but took a sudden sharp turn, irritation etched on his face. The creature dove into the panicked horses, slashing one through the neck and then took off, flying toward Castle Caedence. The creature’s manic laughter drifted back to them.

Oswin was at his side, conjuring a fireball to fling at the demonkin’s retreating form. Caeden stopped him with a hand on his forearm.

“Save your magic. Our priority is Ava and the Wyvern, more so now. We cannot let that creature waylay us now. A hunt for it will begin once both are safe.”

Curses. Ava’s mission had drawn the Reaper’s dark gaze. Or the interest of one of its devils at least. Its involvement in this battle with Azael was understandable, given the Reaper's motives for chaos, but not its methods nor its perceived allegiances. Who was this ‘they’ that it spoke of?

“Finish my missive to Kael, warn them of the demonkin. Ask him to have a party track it if he has one to spare and send it off as Elise instructed. I will put the beast down.”

Caeden walked to the suffering horse and gave it peace. He watched the dark figure as it flew into the distance. There was something irregular about the way it moved. The flaps of his wings were unsynchronised. The wing on the right was slightly slower than the left by a hair. A result of the injury, perhaps. But judging by the way it spoke with itself, it could be due to the creature having two minds, ones that no longer coexisted in concert. Could it be that demonkin were possessed beings, rather than cursed agents of the Reaper? A question to ponder at a calmer time.

The folded missive zoomed past him as he walked from the horse, its enchantment taking it back to its owner.

“Prince Caeden!” Oswin exclaimed. His voice raised with alarm.

Caeden moved into action before he could fully comprehend what was happening. He rushed to Oswin, pulling the retreating mage back by the collar as a horde of afflicted pushed through the flame barrier.

They landed in a heap just before reaching them, darkened husks crawling toward them. The sight and smell of their burning, rotting, diseased flesh falling from the bones was enough to curl his toes and turn his stomach. One managed to push through the barrier still standing and alight. It wobbled toward them.

Oswin twisted his forearms around each other building a fireball between them and flung it into the afflicted, pushing it back through the barrier. It fell on the other side, fully engulfed in flame.

Caeden walked to the shuffling mass before him, silencing them with Ava’s sword through their temples. But their movement disrupted the barrier, and its renewed heat picked up a dry wind around it, disturbing the ash piles and exposing the burnt bodies beneath them.

His brows creased in confusion as he looked with growing disbelief at the fields. Hordes upon hordes of diseased dead shuffled among the ash and flame. The demonkin had left the entire Empire blind to the threat growing at its centre.

The hordes further in were shuffling with purpose now, moving toward the Red Mountain. The Wyvern was now visible at its red tip, spewing flaming brimstone haphazardly into the hordes that walked the fields below.

“How in Holden’s name would Ava have gotten through all that chaos?” Oswin asked in disbelief.

“Not without great difficulty, or assistance. If I were to trust the words of that demonkin, she and Beast could still be alive. She has the instincts of a hunter. She would probably find a place to hole up and reassess her path forward,” he guessed. Wandering through that battlefield aimlessly would be folly.

“My guess would be the mine or the mining town?” Oswin suggested.

“The Mining Town. The mine itself would leave her cornered. Continue your work with the barrier Oswin. We need to get through.”

[Note from the Haelionthyne, the Original Author of The Hybrid: Chasing Destiny: This novel is only published and freely available to read on My Patreon, Royal Road and Tapas. Support me directly with your readership there. No other websites or reading platforms have my permission, express or blanket, to publish my novel or distribute it further.]