Chapter 16

"A little bit of heat?" Matthew echoed in a pitch that was a tad too high for his liking. Yeah, just like how there's only a little bit of lava.

Ivan stole any chance of regret as he scooped Matthew up, and leaped into the opening.

"Oh, no, no-!"

"Ha-ha! Wee!

Matthew shoved his face into the demon's scarf, too terrified to persuade him not to drop him into the searing magma that they approached way too quickly. Just when he could imagine that his body caught on fire from the heat, Ivan's wings shot out from his back, cutting the air as they swooped downward. Matthew could only hold him tighter as they shot up, and then down again as they descended toward a long stretch of ground.

Ivan roughly landed on the bridge of soot that gave way to a deeper drop-off towards a wide lake of lava, and stumbled forward with the encumbrance of both their weights. He let out a hiss between his teeth as he dug his feet into the squishy ground, and was able to stop himself from completely messing up the landing within feet of the cliffside. He laughed, "That was a close one!"

When Matthew did not respond, or even move for that matter, Ivan shifted to plant his luggage on the ground and began peeling the fingers latched onto his scarf. "Matthew?" He pushed Matthew's shoulders and even poked the side of his face. "Are you broken?"

Feeling started to creep back into Matthew's legs, and he slowly lifted his gaze from staring down the front of Ivan's coat to the side, where a drop-off of ever-shifting magma threatened their lives with its sizzling and popping. Already, he felt sweaty, and let go of his death grip to swipe his forehead and make sure his glasses were still on his face. "I think I left my stomach up there."

Ivan craned his head back to look up to their drop-off point, and seemed much more pleased from the ordeal. "Did you want me to go get it?" He let loose a loud laugh that echoed through the cavern, and patted Matthew's head.

"Let's...let's keep going," Matthew managed against the sheet of heat sinking into his pores. "At least away from the lava, or I think my eyebrows are going to catch on fire."

"Ha-ha!" Ivan latched onto Matthew's bicep and towed him away from the cliff. "Is the heat bothering you already?"

It was hot; they were surrounded by sea of molten rock. Of course the heat was bothering him! However, if Ivan braved through the icy winter, then he wanted to show he could handle himself, too. Matthew peeled off his sweatshirt with a big sigh of relief, "So much better."

Ivan stayed in place when Matthew dug around the book bag he carried to shove his over shirt inside. "If you need to take anything else off, I understand."

Matthew gave his bag a decent push to urge the big lug forward, away from the boiling pools. "Oh, be quiet, you..." He glanced to the slimy green stalactites aimed at their heads, and gently prodded Ivan forward again. When he stepped outside his house, even in the dead of winter, the wind blew in his ears and cars rumbled on the road. Besides the shifting of rocks against magma, the hot air was eerily silent. "Where is everybody? Aren't there other demons?"

"Yes, when we get to my home, you will see my sisters."

"I mean other demons flying around, or even animals for that matter."

Ivan did not reply, so Matthew hurried to his side to peer at his face. He had his usual smile against his cheeks, but kept his gaze forward whether or not he noticed the eyes on him.

"Ivan?"

"They are not here anymore."

"What do you mean? Did they die?"

His smile grew limp. "No, they left."

With all those terse answers, Matthew dropped the subject to look around again. A little ways from the lava, it was easier to breathe, whether from the lesser chance of falling into it, or the slightly cooler air, he was glad to leave it behind. As far as he could see, ridges and sharp hills mixed blue-green rock into dark red-browns, and it was a marvel, for a supposedly damned place.

Matthew observed Ivan, but he did not seem to have the same awe. His gaze latched onto something else. Sharp, dark and smooth shapes jutted out of the nearest mountain side, almost easy to miss if someone's eyes ran by too quickly. "Whoa! What is that?!"

Ivan immediately brightened again. "That is my home, Matthew."

"It's huge!" Closer, the walls were pocked with divots and grooves, like it was carved out of the mountain, and almost just as tall. "Wow, it's as tall as..." Matthew held out a hand with his mouth gaped open, "It's as tall as a really tall thing. I'm not good with analogies."

"That is fine. We need space to stretch our wings, do we not? You humans build everything so...narrow and short."

"I can only imagine what is inside."

Ivan put a hand against Matthew's lower back, urging in a low voice, "There is no need for imagining anymore. Stay close to me."

Matthew almost let out a gasp of delight, but held himself back with a rosy smile. "I was planning on it."

Suddenly, Ivan kicked the middle of these two slabs, and whoops, they were doors, doors that were at least twice his height, and the center popped inward. The side parts swung from the force, revealing a grand hall leading inside the building. He strode into his home, but then stopped halfway to the next doorway to watch his guest scrutinize everything, from the stems and leaves engraved on the columns supporting the ceiling to the simple benches against the walls.

"Amazing..." Matthew took a step back when he realized the lines looping around the ceiling where not mindless scratches. "These pillars...and those designs up there! They're giant flowers!"

"You like them? I had them put in very recently."

"Since when?"

"Around the time we first met."

"Right, recently..."

"Matthew, this is just a hall. Are we going to stay in here long? The journey was tiring, and there are more rooms..."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry." They're just walls...walls that no other human has possibly ever seen before with their own eyes! Yes, even looking at the walls proved to be an experience, but like Ivan hinted, there were other parts of the house to see. Matthew hurried to his side to urge him to continue.

The next doorway opened to an octagonal (Matthew counted each side) room with more archways below railings that was the second floor overlooking what happened below. All the way at the other end of the room, two grand chairs sat beside one another, dark and largely built just like everything else. Matthew raised his eyebrows at the rich red seats. "A throne room. You have a throne room. This is what these are for, right?"

Ivan seemed surprised at his vocal observation. "Yes?"

"Um, yeah!" Matthew lightly scoffed at the demon's bemused expression, and circled around the chairs, tempted to sit on their wide and soft looking cushions, but did not dare to hint at his desires.

Ivan stole clothes off of people's wash lines. He was starved enough to eat almost an entire pot of Francis' stew. Yet...

"I didn't know you were filthy rich."

"Filthy? Matthew, I practice good hygiene habits-"

"It's a figure of speech."

Ivan clamped his mouth shut. "Of course. Are we going to go on?"

"Do you use these? Like, do you sit in these chairs and boss people around?"

"No, that can be done anywhere, but I am sure the parents of my parents often used them."

"They're just decoration now? How come?"

Ivan looked up to the railings wrapping around the top half of the room. "Because I do not sit in them a lot? I do not know what you want me to say."

"Well, I mean, since you have chairs here, why don't you sit in them anymore?"

"We do not get many visitors, so there is no need to stay in this room."

"Oh, so this is like a greeting area?"

"Yes. Are you ready to move on now?"

Matthew furrowed his eyebrows at the unnecessary urgency. "Uh, sure, where to next?"

"We should go to my bedroom next." Ivan quickly added from Matthew popping open his mouth in shock, "To rest! Yes, it was a long walk here! Do your legs hurt?"

"Um, not really," Matthew grinned at how pink his host became from his usually pale self. "I was being carried, remember?"

"Yes." Ivan curtly turned away, leaving Matthew to follow behind like a little duck. "The stairs are this way."

Into the adjacent room, Matthew groaned at the sight of the jagged steps twisting in a spiral up to the next floor. "Even the stairs are fancy."

"Thank you."

Besides that, the duo was quiet from fatigue and awe. The center of the upper floor was the wrap around balcony that overlooked the throne room, but the floor around the railing led to various doors and another wide hall that led to a lounge area. It was unusual for Matthew to look forward to waking up, since getting out of bed was awful, but there was so much to explore and so much to do.

Ivan opened an unsuspecting door, but stopped to look back at Matthew frozen before the room. "You can come in."

"This bedroom is bigger than the ground floor of my house, Ivan," Matthew shook his head from the exaggeration. "Are they all like this? How many bedrooms do you even have?"

"There are three others. You will stay in mine while you are here, okay?"

Matthew glanced to the vast cushion with dark drapes bunched around its surrounding pillars. "If that means I can sleep on that, then I have no problem."

"That is were you are supposed to sleep." Ivan slipped the backpack off and dropped it onto the mattress with a roll of his shoulders. He turned to his guest to put a hand on top of his head. "Silly Matthew."

Matthew grinned and shrugged off his hand. He was going to ask how bedtime sounded at the moment, but noticed a figure standing in a corner at the end of the room. At first, he thought it was a statue, until the she-demon slowly blinked. Her hands clenched into fists that balled up the hem of her skirt. He quickly glanced back to Ivan with a nervous smile. "Would that be one of your sisters lurking in the corner?"

Ivan gasped and whirled around, but she spoke first, seething, "Brother, you have returned. Why did you not take me with you if you were going to hunt for so long?"

'Brother' looked behind himself in horror at Matthew's confused face. "Matthew is not food!"

When the she-demon's blank expression shifted to him, Matthew's arms erupted in a fury of goose bumps despite the pressing heat. The lady seemed mildly shocked at Ivan's horror, "He is not? Why bring a human all the way here? Is he a slave?"

"Not any of that sort!"

She pushed from the wall, marching toward the pair, and Ivan held out an arm, backing away. "You are not going to eat him, either, Natalia, okay?"

"What?" His sister, Natalia, stopped her looming in disgust. "I would never eat a human. I would not be able to get the taste from my teeth or mind. You said you were bringing a visitor of some sort. I thought of a pet, not...one of them."

"Um..." Matthew did not know what to say if he did not want scary demon ladies ripping out his throat.

Before he could think of something to persuade Natalia not use those claws of hers, Ivan pushed him behind himself. "Matthew is a friend. He will stay with us for a little while."

"What is 'a little while?' What will you do with him after a little while?"

Ivan let out a tired sigh, but before he could explain anything, the bedroom door flew open and bounced off the wall. Another she-demon (probably the other sister) loomed in the doorway, bursting with a jubilant cry, "Vanya! I have scented you returned!" Her expression fell to a strong tangle of the brows, "Why did you not tell us you came back, and so soon, too?"

Without taking her glare off of Ivan, Natalia announced, "Brother has brought a human with him!"

The other sister gasped and gawked at Ivan, then to his feet. "Is that why you have another set of legs behind yours?"

Matthew peered from behind Ivan's shoulder, still aware of the wings stretching protectively around him. "Yeah, hi."

"Oh!" The other sister took a few steps forward, but stopped without getting too close. "What is this about?"

Ivan said, "The both of you should leave."

"But-"

"Get out of my bedroom! We will talk of this later!"

Matthew cringed against Ivan's back. The room seemed to get just a bit darker, and just a bit colder, which was kind of funny when it should have not been, since he was in Hell.

Natalia curled her lip, revealing fangs, "Yes, we will. Irunya and I will be waiting in the throne room...whenever is convenient for you." She stomped to the door, snapping, "Irunya!" when her sister hesitated to hover worryingly over the new, mysterious presence.

Both she-demons left quickly, and once the door closed, Ivan and Matthew let out sighs of relief, and the former dully noted, "I was hoping that would go much more better than it did."

"Ivan, if I'm not welcomed here-"

Ivan spun around to cup Matthew's face, "I am the one that let you in, not Irunya or Natalia. If I say you are welcome, then you are."

It certainly did not feel like it so far. Matthew glanced toward his feet. "Sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?"

"I...it's the nice thing to do."

"Oh?" Ivan tilted his head a little, but Matthew just closed his eyes, encouraging his bodily warmth to chase away the drama. Ivan's voice drooped as their foreheads pressed together, "I should be apologizing."

"Hm, what?" Matthew kept his eyes blissfully shut as the hands on his cheeks drifted to give his biceps a squeeze. "No. Siblings can be difficult, and if anyone knows that, it us. Are you...are you going to go talk to them now?"

Ivan's gaze flickered to his bed, forlorn. "Yes, it looks like sleep will have to wait."

"Do you want me to come with?"

"Oh, no, Matthew, these are my sisters. They would destroy us both. I need one of us left to tell the tale."

"Good luck, then. You'll need it."

"From you? Yes, please."

They shared a childish giggle to indulge themselves with the brief moment of peace. Matthew let himself be trapped into the demon's eyes, gazing from a breath away as it brought a rise across his skin. Oh, wow...

Ivan cracked a grin, and Matthew tore himself out of whatever trance those dark glints drug him into. "Jeez! I, uh..." He hoped he didn't say anything stupid aloud...

"Is there something else?"

"Nope!" Too quick, too loud. Matthew dove into his book bag and rummaged aimlessly. "Just going to go to sleep! Good luck! Oh, wait, I already said that, heh, heh. Goodnight!"

Of course, Ivan had to get a few chuckles out of whatever blight tormented Matthew. "Yes, sleep. I have a lot of things I want to do when we wake up."

Matthew only vigorously nodded, deciding that he didn't need to speak anymore that night, or perhaps in general. The door shut, and he slumped onto the fur covers with a weary groan.