Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is two days late! I ended up loosing wifi for a few days! The fanart for this week is from @julie_o_star28 on IG. I love this picture of Vandel so much! He looks so sassy!!! I especially love his little smirk, haha. 

Vandel

We'd been marching through the forest all day. Honestly, if I hadn't thought it would make me look like a total pussy, I would've probably turned into a bird by now. I glanced down at my boots, now realizing my folly in only buying decorative clothes. These shoes (as well as myself) were most certainly NOT made for extensive walking.

Behind us, the humans and demons were marching side by side but still refused to speak, a tense silence hanging between the two factions. There were about fifty of them in total, a mixture of both the demons' and humans' best fighters. I prayed that they'd be enough.

Ridley looked to me now. "Are you doing alright?" he asked kindly. "You look a little worn out."

"I'm fine," I muttered. "I always heard a little fresh air and cardio was good for the complexion. I'm as perky as a peach."

Ridley stared at me moment, agape. "You're...what now?

"I DON'T KNOW, RIDLEY! I was trying to come up with a metaphor and clearly the one I came up with was terrible! I'm tired! You can't expect my usual charmingly, witty, and often hilarious commentary to be top notch under these conditions!"

Ridley arched a brow. "So you are tired? Want me to carry you?"

"Already thought of it. I'll look like the lamest motherfucker on the planet if I turn into my bird form now."

Ridley blinked. "Oh...your bird form? I hadn't even thought of that."

"Wait...you were thinking of carrying me all the way there normally? How the fuck did you think you were going to do that--"

And that's when I suddenly tripped over a stick and plummeted headfirst towards the ground.

Just my fucking luck.

I was about to hit the dirt when suddenly I felt a familiar arm wrap around me, pulling me up into his arms princess style like it was nothing.

"Like this," Ridley said with a smirk.

"You dick," I snapped, hating the fact that I could feel the immediate flush rising all the way up to my ears. "Saying something suave like that and then smirking is MY thing! You're stealing my thing! Now put me down this instant!"

"Alright, alright," Ridley chuckled, gently lowering me to the ground. "You know, I actually did carry you once. It was back when Queen Annette and I kidnapped you."

"Ah yes, you mean the day I got knocked out by my own captive using a plate. Yeah, that definitely wasn't my finest moment."

"And then after you escaped I yelled at you for eating my bread," Ridley continued with a laugh.

"Oh yeah...didn't you call me an asswipe?"

Ridley flushed now, lowering his head in embarrassment. "Yes...I suppose I did."

I let out a snort of laughter. "Glad to see even back then our adventures still consisted of us being complete dumbasses--"

That's when I suddenly froze.

Ridley looked to me immediately, concern flooding his gaze. "Is everything alright?"

I swallowed hard. "Yeah I just...I need to check on something. Keep leading everyone east. I just need to um...I'll be back."

"Should I be worried?" Ridley asked slowly.

"Maybe...no...I don't know. I just...I just need to figure out what's going on." I nervously glanced behind me. "I'd tell you but we can't risk having any of our men overhear if what I suspect is true..."

Ridley still looked concerned but he gave a small nod. "You don't need to explain. I trust your judgment. Go figure out what's going on."

I gave him a stiff nod in return before I slipped off from the front. I tried my best to act as casual as possible as I made my way down the line of knights and demons. Finally I approached one demon soldier in particular who was lingering near the back.

"Hello there," I said flatly, letting my face betray nothing.

The demon looked nothing like her but I wasn't an idiot, I could feel her magic practically radiating off the soldier.

"Oh," the demon said, "took you long enough."

I glanced around quickly to make sure we weren't drawing attention to ourselves. The last thing we needed right now was for the humans to discover that the Demon Queen was hidden among their ranks.

My mother smiled thinly, "I put up a minor block so you couldn't sense me when I first arrived, but I still can't believe at how long it took you to notice."

I crossed my arms. "What are you doing here?"

"It's none of your business really. I've been wanting to go to the Bone King's territory for quite some time and let's just say this scenario...grants me the perfect opportunity to finally deal with some unfinished business." She laughed coldly. "So don't worry your little head. I'm not here to thwart any of your plans. In fact, for the first time in a long while, I think our goals might actually align with one another."

I opened my mouth to reply when suddenly I stepped on something that broke with a sickening snap. I froze, glancing down before my face immediately turned ashen.

I had just stepped on the skeleton of a fish.

"EWWWWW! EW! EW! EW!" I squealed, jumping backwards only to be met with another horrible crunch as I stepped on more bone.

The sounds had started to echo around me, the others reacting to the minefield of disgustingness on the ground as well. I looked ahead and realized with a start that the bones and animal skeletons were increasing. They stretched out before us, piling on top of each other until they completely covered the ground like heaps of snow.

"This is so fucking disgusting," I whined, cringing at each step's crack and crunch. "Well if these boots weren't already ruined from the walking they sure as hell are now...HOLY SHIT!"

I let out a screech a little less manly than I would have liked as I nearly walked directly into a skeleton. It hung from a tree, tied there by thin white ribbon. And it wasn't the only one...throughout the trees around us dangled countless skeletons, big and small, draped off the barren branches as if they were the leaves of a weeping willow.

It was almost impossible to see the ground now, I was ankle deep in bones. I had always prided myself on having a strong stomach but even I felt like vomiting. Clearly I wasn't the only one. A few demons and humans alike had buckled over. Some looked ready to faint, others appearing hesitant to take another step forward.

"Keep moving," I called out to them, attempting to keep my voice level. "If you don't, you'll be stuck here alone which I imagine literally none of you would want."

It smelled awful, the air thick with the rotting stench of death and decay. Even my mother appeared taken aback, her mouth pressed into a hard line. We kept moving forward, the bones still crunching and cracking at every step.

"Alrighty...not gonna throw up, not gonna throw up, not gonna throw up," I muttered to myself.

That's when I noticed something up ahead, a large tunnel made of bone. At its entrance were the gaping jaws of a massive serpent.

I swallowed hard.

The soldiers were already hesitantly entering the tunnel.

When we finally arrived at the entrance ourselves, I nervously glanced to my mother.

"What are you looking at me for?" she snapped.

"I don't know...this is just...well...fuck." I let out a shaky exhale. "I really don't want to go in there."

"You're their prince," my mother said slowly. "You need to be the one to lead them."

I took a deep breath, anxiously glancing to the other hesitant soldiers around me who had hung back.

I could do this...I could do this...I could do this...I was used to pretending to be way cooler and calmer than I actually was. I was the motherfucking Demon Prince Vandel.

I looked to the nervous humans and demons, casting them a smile. "Come now, all of you. Let's kick some Bone King ass! Then, once he's dead, maybe we can finally do some serious cleanup around here."

My faked confidence seemed to actually do the trick because, as I stepped into the tunnel, I heard the soft crunch of their footsteps behind me as they followed.

It was almost completely pitch black but I could see pale white light at the end.

Finally we emerged into a large white chamber. Like the tunnel, it was made completely from bones. Multiple corridors broke off from where we stood and around the room's edges, massive broken bones shot up into the air above our heads like pillars. I nervously glanced around at the corridors. There were so many of them. Which was the right one? Maybe Ridley had some ideas.

I moved up to the soldiers that had arrived before us. Normally Ridley was quite easy to spot in a crowd. Now however, I strangely found myself having trouble.

"Ridley," I called out. "Ridley? Where are you?"

There was no response.

Trying to bite back my nerves, I pushed my way through the knights and demons towards the room's center, still unable to find him. "Have any of you seen Ridley?"

An uncomfortable silence fell between them.

"I asked you a question," I said sharply. "You will answer me with a simple yes or no. Have you seen Ridley?"

A mumbled reply of 'no' echoed through the room.

Panic seized my gut.

"He led you all in here, how the hell did none of you see him leave?" I snapped.

Finally one knight in the back spoke up. "When we entered..." the knight explained nervously, "there was a white haze...it was almost like fog. It was so thick you could hardly see anything."

The others nodded quickly in agreement.

"It only lasted a minute," a demon added. "And by the time everyone at the rear arrived it had already cleared.

"We thought he had just doubled back to check on everyone that wasn't inside yet," another knight chimed in.

If I had thought I might throw up before it was nothing compared to how I felt now.

"There was one thing..." a knight stammered. I looked to him, recognizing him as one of the soldiers that had been standing almost directly behind Ridley and I while we had been marching here. The knight swallowed hard. "I thought my eyes were probably playing tricks on me because of the haze but..I could've sworn the second we entered into this room, Ridley's eyes went completely white."

My blood ran ice cold.

This was bad.

This was really fucking bad.