Zuri couldn't believe what she saw right now. It was Aaron. The devil came with the alpha and Flo.
"Chaos..." Aaron sighed when he called his name. "I was looking for you. I thought you had disappeared. I am glad I found you here." He opened his arms, as if he was welcoming an old friend with a grin on his lips.
On the other hand, Chaos didn't give any reaction. It was not clear whether he did not even recognize Aaron or he simply didn't care about the devil.
"How can he be here?" Zuri was certain that Chaos was careful enough not to reveal their whereabouts, especially to their enemy, thus for Aaron to be here, in this secluded part of this world, it was questionable.
"Because he tracked you."
Zuri almost jumped when she heard someone speak, as his voice was so close to her. She whipped her head around and found Hades leaning his head toward her as he smiled innocently.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!" Having Aaron here was already too much, she didn't need another devil.
Hades's smile fell. "That's what you say to me after we didn't meet with each other for so long? You truly hurt my feelings."
Zuri grimaced to see him.
"I even answered your question," Hades said pitifully. "Aaron tracked you, he must have done something to you when you met the last time."
Zuri met with Aaron and Flo not too long before this; when she confronted Nikolai, but she didn't realize that he did something to her to be able to track her here.
"He is very cunning, don't you think?" Hades mumbled, but loud enough for Zuri to hear him.
However, before Zuri could reply to that, three white wolves had charged toward Hades and he dodged them in time, as he disappeared from the place where he was standing and appeared a few meters away from them.
"Who is that?" Tia came to her, while the three wolves growled at Hades, as they circled Zuri and her.
"Can you tell them to train their dogs!?" Hades shouted angrily.
"Nothing, just another nuisance," Zuri said, dismissing Hades's attempt to complain to her. But, when she saw Tia was not satisfied with her answer, she grumbled. "Just another devil like him." She nodded toward Aaron.
"Come here, Chaos!" Aaron opened his arms to Chaos. "I know that you will not be able to hold back the darkness in you for any longer. You don't need to hold it back anymore. You can unleash your anger and satisfy your desire."
Zuri gritted her teeth, she wanted to rush toward Chaos, but Tia held her back.
"What now?!" Zuri snapped at her. "You shoved me to Chaos earlier and now you are holding me back when I want to go to him. Make up your mind, granny!"
Tia glared at her. "I really regret having you come here! I thought you would be a sweet granddaughter."
Zuri rolled her eyes. "You should be thankful I am not that sweet, if I were, you would not have a granddaughter now. Don't you know how harsh the outside world is?"
She would have been dead by now if she was the timid granddaughter that she imagined her to be.
This time, it was Tia, who rolled her eyes at her comment.
"Can we kill them?" Tia asked Zuri again.
"No."
"What? You don't want to tell me how to get rid of that pest? Come on! You don't want to tell me how to stop Chaos and now you don't want to tell me about this too?!"
Now, Zuri realized where she got her feisty character from.
"No. You can't kill him, not because I don't want to tell you how! If I could, I would have hunted him down myself and killed him long ago!" Chaos had done the killing part countless times, but the devil simply couldn't die. It was so annoying.
Tia clicked her tongue. "You don't need to yell at me!"
Zuri was speechless.
However, she didn't have time to argue with Tia, as she swatted her hand and rushed toward Chaos. She grabbed his arm tightly.
"Chaos!" Zuri hoped there was still a little bit of memory of her somewhere in his mind. "Chaos, stop this!"
"You lost him already, Blue," Hades commented, as he watched everything unfold here, leaning his back against the rock wall behind him.
He indeed only came to watch and didn't even pick a side.
"Chaos!" Zuri shook his body and then cupped his face to force him to look at her. "Chaos, look at me!"
Chaos looked at Zuri, but those eyes were so cold. There was no emotion in there and this sent chills down her spine, since it reminded her of what happened in the East Draghar not so long ago.
"Let's go back, okay. Let's go back." Zuri nervously pulled Chaos away, but he didn't budge at all, instead he walked toward Aaron, who was smiling triumphantly.
"That's good! That's right!" Aaron chirped. His golden eyes brightened with delight.
However, instead of him, it was Flo, who came to Chaos. She walked closer to Chaos calmly, eating up the distance between them, as she smiled innocently at Zuri.
"Hi, Zuri. I didn't have time to greet you the last time we met!" Flo said cheerfully. "If you don't mind, can you step aside from him for a while, please?" she tilted her head.
"Get away, Flo, or you will get hurt."
Flo pouted her lips. "I don't think so."
And after the end of her sentence, Zuri felt there was something that pulled her away so harshly from Chaos, her body flew in the air and if it was not for Hades, who caught her, she would have hit the rock wall that surrounded this place.
On the other hand, Tia and the rest of the pack didn't have time to come for rescue, as everything happened so fast and unexpectedly.
"Zuri!" Tia's eyes stared at Zuri intensely, but she sighed in relief when Hades caught her body in time.
"You should thank me, I have saved your life countless times, you know," Hades lamented, as he put Zuri down on the ground that was covered with snow and the girl immediately put distance between them.
"Thank you," Zuri said unpleasantly, it was the most insincere thanks that the devil ever heard and this made him laugh.
"You don't need to mention it," Hades said, playing along.
Meanwhile, Flo approached Chaos, she looked very confident for a girl around her age.
How old was she? Zuri tried to remember... was she eleven? Twelve? She was around that age, but the vibe that she gave off was way more mature than her actual age. Where were her parents?
Zuri remembered when July sent Flo away because Chaos would take her soul. She was with her parents, but why did she end up with Aaron now?
"Don't," Hades said, as he grabbed Zuri's arm before she could go forward and approach Chaos again. "You will not be able to do anything about it. Aaron put protection around them and your granny and her pack are trying to dissolve it." n-.O--v-(e-.L--B-.1-(n
Because her focus was solely on Chaos, Zuri didn't see the whole situation.
Only when Hades mentioned it, she studied her surroundings.
"You will not be able to get closer."
"Can you enter the circle of protection that Aaron created?" Zuri turned toward Hades.
"Of course!" he said proudly, which sounded very annoying.
"Go then."
"For what?" Hades tilted his head. "I am not on your side, remember? Unless you agree to be my bride. Then it will be a different case and I will help him." Hades grinned when Zuri shot him a dagger look. "Oh, come on, you know the deal. If you can't help them, just watch how everything unfolds. Come here, this will be a good show."
Zuri was in disbelief to see Hades' attitude, he was like someone, who was excited to watch a movie with popcorn in their lap.
But, realizing the way Zuri stared at him, Hades shrugged his shoulders.
"Go on. Do you think you can do something?" He smirked. "You can't. This is out of your league and if you want to help, you can help by not interfering." Hades nodded at Tia and her pack members. "Your granny is trying to do something with her power already, so with you meddling, you will only get in the way."
Zuri hated it when Hades said the truth and he looked so smug to see how defeated she was after listening to his logic.
"Hello, Chaos! We meet again!" Flo said cheerfully. She was standing right in front of Chaos, while he didn't do anything. He would glance toward Zuri occasionally. When this little girl stood in front of him, he didn't seem affected at all. "Do you want to shake hands with me?"
Flo extended her hand, there was no trace of fear at all on her face, she seemed to fully trust Aaron that he would come to her rescue if things went south.
"Let's shake hands as a greeting." She boldly took Chaos hand and grabbed it without hesitation.
But then, something happened.
A beam of warm light emerged from their joined hands and it grew brighter, as the air around them became suffocating and Zuri realized what was going on almost immediately.
This was something that would happen whenever Chaos got back his soul, but this time it was way more stronger.