Chapter 118: Walking in Circles and Vanishing Companions
Chapter 118: Walking in Circles and Vanishing Companions
Elyn’s POV
"You said you know the shop we are going to, so obviously we’ll walk there."
"Walk?" Zorathys said like just the thought itself was absurd.
"Yes, walk."
Zorathys stared at me for a while, and I stared right back. Then he nodded once.
"Just so you know," he said. "I’m in favor of the option that we just teleport. Walking is for humans."
"And you are forgetting I’m human."
Zorathys gave me a look. "That’s highly debatable," he said lowly.
I glared at him, and he oh so conveniently avoided my gaze like he knew.
Then, without looking back, he turned and started walking back toward where the main activity for the festival was taking place, muttering about how much his legs would hurt.
It’s not my fault that Karen basically made me like this! It’s not my fault that I can’t even seem to stop being an assistant when I really want to. I swear it’s not my fault; it’s just that Karen must have given me something—something that I was sure affected me even in this new world I was now living in.
But it wasn’t like Zorathys would care. He would just tell me to leave things as they are and instead torture the others working with me or under me.
Choosing not to dwell on that, I turned to Azerion and stretched my hands out. He quickly closed the distance between us, holding onto my hands excitedly like he had been waiting for that exact moment, even though this wasn’t the first time I was actually holding hands with him.
"Just so we are clear," I said to him. "Don’t even think about wandering about, okay?"
"I don’t wander," Azerion told me.
He really didn’t, but I didn’t trust him not to do so, especially if there were snacks involved. And this was a festival, after all—I was sure there would be snacks involved.
And that was how everything started. At first, everything was fine. Zorathys was at the front, Azerion right next to me as Zorathys led us through the busy streets.
And let me tell you, when they said festival—even though little—these demons meant festival.
The streets were filled with demons of every kind. Beasts, hybrids, cryptids, whatever they were, they filled the streets, moving with the crowd.
Every single place in the Best Territory was alive with motion. Everywhere I looked, there was activity going on. And don’t even get me started about how beautiful this place was.
There were narrow bridges of black stone crisscrossing canals filled with glowing, slow-moving water; lanterns strung from twisted iron poles. It wasn’t the shiny opulence of Aelthryn—this was different.
The trees were lush green and well taken care of. The air was filled with the smell of delicious snacks, and that made me hold onto Azerion more. I couldn’t have him going out of his way to steal the snacks right now.
Zorathys moved ahead of us, unbothered by the stares he occasionally got. Even in disguise, there was something about him that stood out—the kind of quiet gravity that made people instinctively step aside. And some swooned.
I’m not joking: one demon actually collapsed when Zorathys told her to excuse him. And he wasn’t polite about it, he wasn’t rude either like Grivessa. He had just said it, and she swooned.
But while that was entertaining and comical, I was getting suspicious about something.
"Are you sure you know where we’re going?" I asked after what felt like twenty minutes of weaving through streets.
"Of course," he said.
Another thirty minutes passed.
I started to notice familiar stalls—a fruit vendor with eyes on his hands, the same demon who was selling some sugared candy, silver in color. And I’m not even going to lie, I wanted to try it.
Azerion noticed too. "Didn’t we already pass here?"
"No," Zorathys said calmly.
"Yes," I said at the same time.
He ignored me.
Another forty-five minutes later, my patience began to fray.
"Zed," I said pointedly.
He didn’t look back. "Yes, El?"
"Are you lost?"
"I don’t get lost."
"You’re leading us in circles."
"I’m surveying the terrain," he said smoothly.
"This is not surveying. This is poor navigation. I thought you said you knew the shop?" I asked him.
"I do. But then you didn’t let us use the way I knew," he told me.
I gave him a dry look. "We’ve already established the reason why we didn’t use that."
Zorathys was quiet after that, and we continued circling the streets for hours, I’m sure, and I was already fed up. So I tried to call out to Zorathys, but that was the only thing—I tried and didn’t succeed.
The street was still bustling. Voices rose and fell around me. The air smelled faintly of food, and everyone went about their day.
I took in everything around me, but—
Where were they?
Zorathys, who had been barely ten steps ahead of me, was gone.
Azerion’s hand—which I’d been holding in mine—
I froze, then turned to where Azerion had been holding my hand some seconds ago. He wasn’t there.
My gaze darted around, scanning the crowd. Demons in dark cloaks. Winged shapes. Shadows that moved wrong. None of them were familiar.
"Zorathys?" I said quietly under my breath.
"Zed?" I called out loudly. "Azrael?"
But there was no reply. I turned around in a full circle, and I still didn’t see them. There was nothing at all. No trace of them at all.
I looked at the shadows along the streets to see if perhaps Zorathys’s shadows lingered, but there was nothing too.
This whole situation was, in one word...strange.
How had I missed them leaving? They were just—there.
I pushed through the crowd, scanning every face, every figure, my pulse starting to race. The noise of the streets suddenly felt too loud.
My brain started coming up with different scenarios about where they could be, and mind you, none of the scenarios involved either of them getting hurt, because there was one thing I was sure of: both of them could protect themselves. I was more worried about them blowing our cover.
Oh shit!