The Dark World

Chapter 24: The Gatekeeper

Marisoll

I lay on the rock sweaty and breathless and noticed Cairn’s bloody and clawed back. “I’m

So sorry,” I said, gently touching it.

He laughed, leaning his chin on his folded arms and mumbled, “that’s nothing, don’t worry about it, love.”

I would never ever admit it out loud, but I almost swooned when he called me that, who would have thought I would be so soppy with romance and relationships.

I was afraid to ask, but I did anyway, “can you hold me?”

He looked at me with a raised brow and then shifted onto his side and held his arm out to me, I went over and cuddled against his chest and breathed a sigh of both contentment and relief when he held me close.

It felt so good being in his arms, I felt safe, cared for, and I enjoyed the very male scent of him.

Just how loud were my thoughts? I blushed hard when he grinned at me with that heart stopping grin and asked, “are you enjoying lying in my arms?”

Screw it I nodded and surprisingly, he held me tighter. “Me too,” he whispered.

“There is one thing you still haven’t done yet,” I grinned.

He looked down at me in his arms and asked, “oh yeah? What’s that?”

“Kissed me.”

“Hmm, pretty sure I gave you lots of kisses and tongue.” His hand traveled between my legs and I s.lapped it away laughing, “not there! I mean on my lips.”

“Pretty sure we kissed during our crazy makeup s*x after that fight.”

“I want a meaningful one, that was a ‘you want to ravish my body’ kiss so it does not count.”

“Quite demanding for a mate, aren’t you?” He teased.

It took me a second to understand that by mate he meant lover, partner. “I never said I would be easy to be with,” I grinned.

“Lucky for you I like a challenge,” he murmured, bringing his lips down on to mine and kissing me softly.

He was an amazing kisser, it was slow and soft, and I melted into it when he teasingly danced his tongue over mine. It was not long before he was back on top of me, sliding inside of me and thrusting slow and gentle, bringing me to climax for a second time as we made love for the first.

It seemed to always be permanent night here, since the darkness there was no sun to be seen or blue skies, only endless night or on rare occasions cloudy dark days.

As we lay under the full moon, Cairn looked up at it and said, “I know I can be cruel and harsh, but never doubt me Marisoll when I tell you that you are the stars to my moon.”

I fell even more in love with him in that very moment, and then he said, “do you know why our love is the most powerful emotion?”

“No?” I whispered.

“Because it is where all emotions meet as one, fear, sadness, hate, happiness, joy, pain, and we have all of that between us don’t we?” He smiled, still gazing up at the moon and the stars.

I smiled, “we do.”

He turned to look at me and winked. He sat up, and I knew this rare moment of tenderness and openness from him was gone.

“Let’s head back,” he said, pulling on his clothes and throwing mine at my face.

Rolling my eyes, I pulled my top off my head and got dressed. While we were walking back Cairn leaned in and whispered, “maybe keep the whole lovey-dovey stuff between us?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’m just saying there is no need to tell Ezekiel or anyone about the lovemaking, right? Or what I said, just say we f.ucked.”

I gave him what that comment deserved and punched him in the groin. “F.uck!” He winced grabbing his crotch and I walked off leaving him there. I.diot.

Ezekiel was watching us and when I reached him, he asked, “trouble already?”

“Don’t ask,” I sighed, making him laugh.

We carried on with our journey and a heavy air of silence and dread filled all around us, we had reached the gatekeeper, the being that guarded entrance to where the dark lord resided. It felt surreal to finally be so close to our destination and trepidation filled me, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

Cairn came up beside me, his shoulder brushing against mine, Ezekiel on my other side, his shoulder touching mine too, it was comforting having them beside me.

The place was just a big land of dirt and ruins, ahead of us what once must have been a castle was now just a crumbling ruins, some walls were completely missing meaning we could just walk inside without using the big gold brass gates. Cairn thought this and started walking ahead, “come on, let’s go.”

Ezekiel called out, “no don’t!” But it was too late, Cairn was halfway to the gates when the gatekeeper came crawling down from the crumbling walls.

“Oh s.hit,” Cairn whispered.

I shook my head smiling, Cairn was one of those people you either got or you did not, you would love him, or you would hate him, I adored him.

He withdrew his sword, and we all followed suit, I do not think he realised that he was more a leader than the rest of us.

The gatekeeper was a hideous creature, standing at almost ten feet tall it had long emancipated arms, sharp metal claws, long thin straggly brown hair, a face that I could not tell whether it was male or female. Its body was the worst, it was naked with ribs that protruded painfully from its body, not just ribs either, the skin moved like things were crawling underneath, I realised with horror those things were souls, we all stared as hands pushed against its skin as if trying to escape, then heads, with gaping mouths that looked like they were trying to scream.

“By the gods what is that?” Ezekiel whispered.

Mystic Zerena answered, “a sin eater, it eats the souls of the damned.”

“Careful,” Ezekiel said to Cairn, he looked back at Ezekiel and snarled, “f.uck you!” He swung his sword towards Ezekiel, who blocked it with his own.

Mystic Zerena snapped, “now is not the time for petty fights!”

We all looked back at the sin eater standing in front of the gates guarding, it had not noticed us yet, and I realised that was because it had no eyes, no sockets.

I wondered how it could guard without sight. We soon found out, Cairn accidentally kicked a small rock and its head swivelled towards us, it could sense things through vibrations on the ground.

It withdrew a sword of its own, a gigantic sword bigger and longer than its own body, the sword was triangular in shape, a strange design with symbols etched on it that glowed a soft sea green colour.

It swung the sword in a sideways motion, and we all ducked. Cairn rolled towards the sin eater, our best bet was to get as close to it as we could, making it harder for it to use the sword.

It swung the giant sword again lower this time making me and Ezekiel have to jump over it, mystic Zerena had found a safe place to cast spells from.

Her blasts didn’t seem to bother it so she cast a spell of a thousand cuts bleeding it. Cairn slashed the back of its ankles, but the sin eater did not fall, the most Cairn had managed to do was slow it down a little.

I tried to get closer, but it back handed me with its hand sending me flying into the air and hitting my back against a wall, winding me.

Ezekiel slashed at its hand making it screech and s***h its metal claws at him, he jerked back but one of the claws caught his cheek leaving three gashes as blood dripped from his face.

Mystic Zerena launched a fireball spell at the sin eater causing a little damage but not much, she threw more, helping to distract it so that myself and Ezekiel could get closer.

I jumped back in horror when one of the souls within pushed its head against the sin eaters skin, snapping teeth as if it could bite me, and perhaps it could, I shivered and then dodged as more faces and hands pushed against its chest trying to grab for me.

When a hand pushed out again I cut it making the sin eater screech and reel back, an open wound I had left became an exit for all those souls, and they shot out, not looking for freedom but attacking us.

We slashed and hacked at them while Cairn kept busy attacking the sin eater. It still seemed to have control over them and I came to the conclusion that if we killed the sin eater, then they would die along with it, or at the very least dissipate entirely because as much as we attacked they did not stay gone, they kept coming back.

Cairn was the more agile of us all, and he managed to jump onto the sin eaters back, I ran for the wound I had created and struck my blade in again and then dragged it down, tearing its insides open.

Ezekiel cut off its elongated hand when it tried to swipe at me. Cairn lifted his sword and struck down stabbing it through its head and kept going until the sword pierced through its chin.

It roared and dropping the sword, it used its remaining hand to grab him and threw him off.

I heard his back crack as it hit against the wall. “Cairn!” I cried out. Mystic Zerena rushed towards him and Ezekiel drew my attention back to the fight, “we need to kill this thing before we can check on him,” he yelled.

I nodded, he was right. We ran towards it and I changed into a bird and flew up onto its back and changed back to human, I was lucky that worked and so fast, but it left me a little dizzy and I almost fell off.

I grabbed its hair steadying myself, and it roared again, I quickly reached its head sitting on its shoulders, and then I cut the head off, it dropped, and I fell with it, Ezekiel ran underneath and caught me in his arms before I hit the ground.

“Thank you, kind sir,” I smiled.

Laughing he kissed my cheek and put me down on my feet.

Cairn! We both ran towards him now the threat was over.

“Is he ok?” I panicked as mystic Zerena gently held his head and carefully poured a potion down his throat, he was unconscious.

“He is a werewolf and strong, he will heal fast, but this healing potion should help speed things along as I do not think it a good idea to hang around too long.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Ezekiel asked.

“He broke his back, a leg and has a concussion.”

“We should find somewhere safe to let him rest and heal, we all need to be at our full strength when we go up against the dark lord,” Ezekiel said.

Mystic Zerena nodded and with his help, she lifted Cairn carefully, and we found a secluded spot not too far and with enough shelter we would not be easily seen.