There were three things that happened once their feet touched ground.

One, they ran because the cave was under an outhouse beside Boleskine House and workers would definitely come to see what the noise was and check for any damage.

Two, Bonnie came to the realisation that she had indeed killed a demon, and she wasn't entirely sure how to process that.

And three... Kimaris asked for his arrow back.

"I don't have it."

Bonnie knew her voice would shake before she even spoke. She could see that these things were important to him, but hoped his life was worth more.

Kimaris came to an abrupt halt making Gremory run into the back of him.

"What?" he asked, turning to her with brows almost touching and lines deeper than she had ever seen as he shoved the blonde off of him. "What do you mean 'you don't have it'? I gave it to you to hold!"

Bonnie looked over at Gremory whose own brows were almost in his hairline, his mouth pulled in a grimace that explained she was in for a tough time.

"I mean I don't have it, I threw it at a demon."

They were standing on the edge of a hill that, if Bonnie hadn't just been running over, she would have thought looked beautiful. They obviously couldn't have gone back the way they came, after all they hadn't been allowed through the gate let alone anywhere else. Plus, she had a feeling that the groundskeeper was already going to have them in mind if they needed a suspect, so they'd taken off the back way, towards the wilderness.

Her legs regretted that decision. And her arms—she hadn't exactly dressed for high altitude.

"Are you serious?" Kimaris asked, his shoulders scrunching as his fingers wrapped into his hair. "Why in all hellscape would you do that!"

Gremory quickly held his hands out, trying to calm him down as he went to push past and head back down the hill they'd just ascended.

"Hey! Hey! You can't go back there!"

"Did you not hear that she just left one of my arrows there because she tried to throw it at a demon!"

"Yes," Gremory grunted, shoving him back with force and making him stumble a few steps. "But that would be stupid—Bifrons is contained in there, if you go he'll overpower you, you know that!"

They continued to struggle until Kimaris let out a growl and turned to look at Bonnie, his seething anger making his stormy eyes even more volatile. "What was the point?"

Rage engulfed Bonnie as he stood shouting at her, his teeth gritted and waiting for an answer. The laugh that left her was dark as she threw her arms out, gesturing wildly around her.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Next time a demon is about to smack you down from the air like a little fly, I'll make sure to do nothing and let you crash and burn. Suppose a puny human like me should stick to doing nothing anyway, huh!"

Kimaris forced himself to cackle, turning his back as he let out his frustration at the air above him, ignoring her completely. Meanwhile, Gremory stopped trying to calm him down and turned to Bonnie, suddenly.

"Did it work?" he asked, shushing Kimaris who had tried to talk over him.

"What do you mean did it work?" Bonnie replied, her voice a few notes too high for her usual tone as her body got tenser.

"I mean what happened?" Gremory pressed, taking a step towards her. "When you threw the arrow?"

"Well, I..." Bonnie swallowed loudly, her fingers twisting together as she fidgeted with them. "I threw it, it hit him, he got pinned to the ground and then... well he exploded."

There was only the sound of the wind whistling.

Bonnie's heart pounded. Kimaris didn't turn to look at her, but she could see the side of his face as he listened, the frustration in his expression growing. Gremory meanwhile stepped closer, making her bring all her attention to him and his expression of wonder.

"You killed a demon?"

Bonnie swallowed. Then she nodded. "It looked like it. Bifrons seemed pretty pissed."

Gremory's face broke out into a smile, and a sound of excitement left his lips, making him spring into the air. Bonnie flinched back at the abruptness of it as he skipped around her, grabbing onto her arms. She'd never quite seen someone frolic in a hillside, but he was doing pretty well in her books.

"Bonnie do you have any idea how amazing that is!" he half squealed, making her grin. "Not just anyone can do that!"

What?

"Hang on!" Kimaris' voice halted their celebration as he came back to them, his arms stubbornly folded across his chest. "Let's just take a minute before we start re-enacting The Sound of Music okay? It could have just been my arrow or your powers."

Gremory shrugged his shoulders at his words and took off running again, his face tilted up to the sun, and blonde hair blowing in the breeze.

"Right," Bonnie scoffed, copying Kimaris' stance. "Because it couldn't have been me."

"I'm not saying that," he quickly interjected, giving her a deadpanned look. "I'm just saying maybe we should slow down on the celebrating before we think this through. What exactly happened?"

"Like I just said: He jumped, I threw the arrow, he fell, then he went boom. What's hard to comprehend about that?" Behind her Gremory let out another cry of glee, making her giggle as he threw a hand full of grass over Kimaris' frowning head.

"Gremory—stop," Kimaris complained, brushing it from his hair. "We need to stay focused and not get ahead of ourselves."

"Oh, would you let me hopeful for one second Kimaris!" Gremory shouted, his joyful tone replaced by an irritated one as he glared. "Honestly, would it kill you to be a little positive?"

Kimaris sighed as Gremory walked away from them and across the hill, muttering complaints under his breath that no doubt were directed at the pessimistic man. When he turned to look at Bonnie again, she motioned for him to continue talking, and to her surprise—he did.

"Like everything, there's people who have an affinity for summoning and a connection to the other realms. You might call them witches, psychics, mediums, satanists, there's really a thousand different names you've come up with, but they're the same thing. Its people who are more susceptible, or more open to the connections from other worlds, so to put it. But there're levels—people who just witness it, either in small pieces or constantly, or... well people who can harness some of that power, to summon or cast enchantments and curses and things."

"So, you're telling me that witches are real?"

"Not in the way you're thinking," he quickly corrected, scratching his neck. "There are no schools, or people who have the power to cast a spell and kill you or anything like that. They can just be influenced by 'higher' beings. If anyone has ever had the powers of a 'witch' then they were most likely beside a daemon or had one helping them along the way. The only time they can do things by themselves is through summoning, or using a sacred object."

Kimaris slid one his arrows into his hand, rolling it over his palms.

"They are items that are from another realm, every daemon has them. They're ones that can harness power capable of killing beings that are otherwise untouchable. By using one of these to kill a demon, it means that you can harness that power. That, or we got lucky because Gremory was holding you."

She looked over at the blonde who had sat down beside a long patch of heather, his shoulders slumped forward. "And Gremory is hoping it's the latter."

Kimaris nodded, his eyes softening a fraction. "He's hoping you can summon someone for him."

Bonnie wanted to ask who, but she felt like that question should be given to Gremory. After all, it appeared it was incredibly important to him, and Kimaris was silent at the best of times.

But, that meant that she at least had some connection to the other realms. Even if Gremory's power had just flown through her, she could at least help. Even if she couldn't summon someone, what if they gave her a weapon that she could use in another situation that risked their lives? Wouldn't she be able to fight? Gremory had his belt that shone in the same way, so surely she should hold on to something just in case. And if Kimaris could give her another one of his arrows—

Bonnie winced. "They're from another realm. That means you have a limited supply, doesn't it?"

Kimaris nodded, carefully putting the weapon back into its safe place. "Yes. A few thousand years ago I had an endless supply, but things have changed. After a couple hundred years up here, and the split between the daemons, its been a long time since I've got any new ones. I'm down to only a few left."

Now she understood his panic. Wouldn't she have reacted the same if someone had left something that valuable behind of hers? Something as irreplaceable as a life saving weapon that was thousands of years old? Although, she might have outweighed that with the saving her life part.

"Is that what the box Bifrons had was?" she asked, remembering the way it glowed. "A sacred object that let him harness more power?"

"Not exactly the same." Kimaris' expression was now tainted with concern, he was staring back at the place they had come from with a grave shadow on his features. "That was a totem—an object engraved with the sigil of a daemon. They're incredibly rare to find and even harder to make. Think of them like an amplifier of a daemons strength—used in the right way, they can help them heal in an instant or can let their powers swell with only a small amount of help. That box was Bifrons. But I have no idea how he got it. If I thought for a second he could have it, I never would have given him as much basil as I did. Let's be grateful that I didn't give him dragon's blood too."

There was a noise over from the direction of Boleskine House, the sound of sirens gradually getting closer in the distance. With a panicked shared look, the pair continued walking in the path Gremory had taken, bracing themselves against the growing wind, and desperate to get out of view.

"Yeah, are we going to talk about the basil?" Bonnie asked, reminded of the bizarre exchange as she moved to not trip over a rock. "Because if this means the supermarket is a hot spot for demons then I'm going to start getting delivery."

She thought she saw the ghost of a smile on Kimaris' lips as he shook his head, tucking a piece of hair behind his ear that had fallen from his bun. The walk was getting steeper, and it was getting harder for her to walk and talk at the same time.

"In other eras the herbs were a little more difficult to find, so it didn't seem so silly, but no—you will not run into many demons in the middle of Tesco. Each daemon has a plant that brings them nourishment and revitalisation. However, they can't get it for themselves, and demons aren't allowed to gather them. If either tried, then they'd be burned where it touched. It's why humans have always been so relied upon to worship or follow gods, there's a lot that we can't do for ourselves on earth."

It was such a strange conversation to be having so casually, but it was almost starting to feel normal to Bonnie. But then again, perhaps that's just because she barely ever spoke to anyone, anyway.

"How did you do it then?" she asked, balancing herself slowly so that she could start walking down the steps made of old wood and pebbles.

"How did I do what?" Kimaris asked from behind her, making her roll her eyes.

"The basil!" she pointed out, turning to try to see him over her shoulder. "If daemons can't touch it, then how did you—"

With a yelp, Bonnie's foot slipped, and she felt herself tip over, her arms flailing wildly as she tried not to tumble down the side of the hill. She leaned backward to regain control, but the uneven ground below her made her heel skid along it. In an attempt to help, Kimaris let out a sound and reached under her, trying to hold her up. But clearly even a daemon was vulnerable to gravel and his balance was lost too, and both of them ended up plummeting to the ground.

While his entire back hit it immediately, the top half of Bonnie was cushioned and she only felt a sharp pain up her back as her bum hit the floor.

"Ow," she chuckled, lifting herself up enough to rub a hand along her butt cheek. "That was sore."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Kimaris' gruff voice replied, and she quickly shot him a sheepish look as he rubbed the back of his head. "Those steps could have broken the back of a mortal like you."

"Well then," she laughed sarcastically, softly hitting his chest. "Good thing I had the big bad daemon around to break my fall. I'll add it to your list of useful attributes."

Kimaris' lips curved up into a smile and Bonnie felt herself chuckle, it really was a bizarre sentence to leave her mouth.

"Thanks, I need some good publicity seeing as my old ones are a bit dated," he joked, putting a hand to his chest in fake modesty. It surprised both of them when he did not touch his own body, and instead hit Bonnie's hand that was still resting there.

Almost immediately her laughter subsided, instead taken over by a rush of nerves that brought goosebumps out along her skin. It was only now she realised how close they were. His legs were on either side of her, and one of his arms remained wrapped around her waist, where he had tried to catch her, almost encircling her in his body. Their faces were only a foot apart, and her other hand was resting on his leg where she'd balanced herself to turn and talk to him.

From this distance, she could truly see into his eyes. She had thought they were merely grey; as shadowed and hard as his personality, but now she could see the colour in them. The flecks of life around the pupil, illuminated in the light. As the wind whispered through the small space between them, it brushed his hair from his face.

She felt her breath through her whole body; it shuddered as she took in his thick brows and the small line between his chin. The wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. She wondered how a creature like Bifrons and Kimaris could be the same, when he looked as though someone had sketched him from a dream.

And she felt him study her. She watched his gaze flicker to the freckles on her nose, the beauty mark at her temple, and then down to her lips which she knew had parted in a breath.

She felt the pressure as he barely squeezed her hand, his fingers gently wrapping around the sides of her own as if he wasn't sure he should. Her ears filled with the pounding of her heart.

"Bonnie! Holy moly are you okay?"

They pulled apart instantaneously as Gremory shouted to them, his footsteps making their way up the steps. In a blink their hands disconnected and Kimaris raised to his feet, shuffling out from under her as carefully as he could. Bonnie shook her head and then began doing the same, brushing off her trousers as she tried to find her footing and ignore her heartbeat. Kimaris offered her a hand when she hesitated on standing, and she took it without looking at him, both of their eyes on Gremory.

"She's fine," Kimaris answered, clearing his throat. "I might need to send her the bill for my chiropractor though."

Bonnie gave a tight smile. "Add it to my tab. I already owe you a couple hundred, anyway."

Kimaris' lips twitched at her reply, and she quickly noticed the hot feeling across her cheeks as she bit her lip, unable to look at him fully. Gremory looked between the pair with a suspicious brow, his own mouth twitching as it made a small incomprehensible noise.

"Right then," Kimaris said, far louder than before. "I'll find a path down to the road, hopefully there's a bus stop near we can wait at." He hesitated for a second, looking between them before giving a final nod and then taking off down the hill, not another moment wasted.

Bonnie watched him walk away, his figure not looking quite as tall in amongst the clumps of trees stretching beside him. She had never noticed how toned his shoulders were.

Quickly, she snapped herself out of the thought and brushed her hands together, knocking off the small pieces of gravel that had embedded into her skin as she cleared her throat, turning to Gremory with a smile. Gremory's brow pulled higher, and he sucked his teeth as his head tilted to the side, surveying her.

"What?" she asked with an uneasy chuckle, running a hand along her pony tail and flattening any stray hairs.

"Nothing." He shrugged casually, his mouth quirking up at one side. "I've just never seen a woman take Kimaris down before."

Bonnie rolled her eyes and laughed, knocking a shoulder into him and then immediately catching her balance again when she shook slightly. Goddamn jelly legs.

"If that's all it took to take him down, then I think you might overestimate his strength."

Now it was Gremory's turn to laugh. He offered an arm to her as they started walking down the steps, although much slower than she had previously been moving.

"Maybe you've got a special power," he teased. "Maybe you're the key to breaking through that stubborn exterior of his."

"I think you'd need a sledgehammer for that," Bonnie pointed out, her eyes finding him as he disappeared from view at the bottom of the hill and into the trees. "It might be impenetrable."

Gremory made a noise of agreement, and although they were joking, it sounded as though it was lined with real disappointment. Bonnie ripped her attention away from Kimaris, and towards the person letting her grip onto his arm for dear life. The skin between his brows was wrinkled and she bit the side of her mouth, trying to think of a way to ask.

"How much did he tell you?"

Surprised at the calm tone of his voice, and the knowledge of what she was thinking, Bonnie quickly looked away, trying to appear nonchalant. When she opened her mouth to deny anything, Gremory gave her a look that told her to not bother.

"Just that you think I could summon someone for you. I didn't want to ask anymore, it felt too... personal."

A grateful smile pulled his lips apart as he took a breath, his gaze remaining on the steps in front of them.

"His name is Amdusias," Gremory said after a pause, a warmth in his words that felt as though he was touching Bonnie's soul. "He's... everything."

Oh.

Bonnie could feel the emotion. Like a crackling pastry it fell off of every syllable he spoke, scattering at their feet. She did not want to speak, afraid that this was so incredibly personal and one interruption would break him apart. Instead, she held his arm tighter, hoping to reassure him he could talk.

He squeezed her hand, his chest exhaling with a breath.

"He's a daemon like us, he's actually a Duke too, we met a long time ago. At first we were friends, comrades in arms that led their legions with strength and laughter, looking out for each other no matter what. He used to treat me as an equal, even though I looked the way I did and everyone else often dismissed me, he never did. He wasn't the strongest of them, but I looked up to him. I always thought he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen—especially when he played music." Bonnie felt as though she could see Gremory's eyes twinkle at the thought. "His affinity is music, something so light and beautiful even in the darkest of places, and I was in awe. I used to sit and listen for hours, longing for him to look at me as more than just a friend, wishing that my gift would work on him. Little did I know he already did. He felt for me exactly what I felt for him. And I didn't even need to persuade him to feel it."

Kimaris' words from before came back to her—that Gremory's power was ironic because it did not work on the subject of his desires. She had thought he meant humans, but he had meant a man. One man. Amdusias.

They continued down the steps, their feet become steadier as the hill levelled out, letting them walk at a calmer pace beside one another. The birds around them sang and Gremory smiled up at the tops of the trees where they sat, inhaling the crisp air that felt as though it soothed the lungs.

"He used to be on earth with me. For a long time we travelled, exploring the new place for ourselves, amazed at what had grown here and what opportunities lay. We had always dreamed of it. Somewhere we could be ourselves and not have to serve a higher power. Me, free to live as I wanted and him, to play music he loved and not what he was ordered to. Earth was like a haven. It was the happiest years of my life."

Her spine stiffened. She wanted to blame it on the cold wind of autumn ending, but she knew it was the chill in his voice that caused it. The warmth she'd felt at his story was gone, only dread seeped in now.

"What happened?" she whispered, already afraid of the answer.

"Someone banished him, someone sent him back to our realm. I've tried to get him back, to find someone who could do the incantation and had the strength to pull him from the abyss, but there's been nobody." A dark cloud passed over him, hardening his bones. "Somebody incredibly powerful sent him there, and they did everything to make sure he couldn't return."

"Could you go to him?" Bonnie asked, her mind trying to figure out why someone would do such a thing. "Back to your realm I mean, to see him?"

Gremory stopped walking, a pained expression on his face that tore at her heartstrings. She had never seen him look like this, even when Kimaris had upset him. This was loss. This was defeat.

"A daemon has limited power, we're not invincible or strong enough to do whatever we please. When we're banished from somewhere, it's very difficult to return, especially if someone knows what they're doing. The only way I'd be able to return would be to be banished there by someone stronger than anyone I know, and I'd never be able to come back here. Even if I managed, I could be killed the moment I stepped foot there for being a traitor." His voice cracked. "And if they kept me alive, I'd be forced to live there forever in my true form, abiding by their every rule."

He looked at Bonnie, and her heart broke at the sadness carved into his skin. He looked like a scared child, one that had suffered such horrors and was walking in to a living nightmare. His hands shook.

"I can't do that Bonnie. I can't go back to that place."

She did not know what had exactly happened to him. She knew by the pieces of information he let slip that he felt like there was no place for him there, but this was more. This was a person who was so afraid that they couldn't comprehend returning. It shut him down.

"It's okay," she hushed, quickly grabbing him into her and wrapping her arms around as much of him as she could manage. "You don't have to. You won't ever have to."

He clung onto her as if his life depended on it, burying his head into her neck. Bonnie blinked away the tears that had sprung into her own eyes as she looked up at the sky above them, trying not to imagine what was down there waiting for him. They only stood for a moment, but it seemed like it was all Gremory needed to calm himself, and when he stepped back from her, his eyes had some of their usual sparkle to them.

"That's why Kimaris told me to calm down earlier," he said, his nostrils flaring with the breath he took. "Because I have looked for over a hundred years for someone who might be able to pull him back here, and I've never found them."

"Couldn't you just use your ability thingy?" Bonnie asked, tapping the side of her head. "Persuade someone to do it?"

"No," Gremory smiled, a sad one that barely lifted the corners. "Summonings need to be from the heart, they can't have any connection to other beings or else the power can't be harnessed. If I even tried to convince someone to do it, it would make it impossible for it to succeed. I could trick someone, but for the strength this needs, it would be a million to one."

"I see," Bonnie replied, trying not to let the worry of how difficult this sounded make its way onto her face.

"But now we have you!" Gremory exclaimed, relief stretching his smile. "And if we help you, you might just be able to do it. After so long, I could save him. We could save him."

"I really hope we can," Bonnie smiled, swallowing the ball of nerves in her throat. "I'll try."

"I know you will," he replied, squeezing her once more before slapping his hand into her back and turning from her. "Now enough sad talk, let's go and see if Kimaris has found a way out of here, shall we?"

As they followed the trail into the trees, the tune of song birds trailing behind them like love letters scattered on the ground, Bonnie sent a prayer up to whoever was looking down on her. Begging that if anything, she could be enough. Because if she wasn't, Gremory's heart might just break all over again.