I had stepped into a portal of fire and I didn’t know what I had been expecting, but it wasn’t the dull roar of a crowd assaulting my senses. Light poured down on us, blinding me as a gust of warm air wrapped around my body. The glittering ashes of my past drifted in the wind, settling on the baked earth around me. I pressed my toes into it, curling them inward. My hands shook at my sides as I took in what I was looking at.
“Where are we?” Moira yelled.
The reddish-brown earth spanned out before me, shifting to rocks of various heights and then past those, farther up, were stands…seating. I turned in both directions, both awed and terrified at the rows upon rows of demons. They surrounded me so fully and their cheers were deafening.
I thought back to what the Horsemen had told me, about what exactly the gate to Inferna was. It was only when Bandit let out some horrible screech in warning that I knew where we were.
“The coliseum,” I muttered. “We’re in the coliseum!”
“Run!” Laran yelled. Morvaen took off at a dead sprint. I only got a glimpse of something large and dark as my feet stumbled and she half-dragged, half-carried me. Bandit held fast to my chest just as I clutched her, trying desperately to pull my knees up, only to feel the burn of skin being shredded by friction against the rocky ground. I let out a grunt and put everything I had into hooking my feet under me and putting on a burst of speed.
I found traction, just as a massive rock loomed before us.
“We need to get on top of it,” I panted, gripping the Seelie woman’s hand for dear life and praying that Laran could handle whatever that thing was. In a fight between demons and monsters, I was no longer the biggest one of all. I was the weak link, and I hated it.
“We must jump.” Morvaen sounded like this was a mere walk in the park to her and it occurred to me she was going slower so that I wouldn’t fall behind. I was going to owe her a damn debt before this all was over.
“I’m not…a great…jumper,” I panted, completely out of breath. Her plum-colored lips curved upwards in a feral grin.
“No worries, my lady,” she called out. Her hand tightened around mine as she sped up. I was just starting to stall out when she bent her legs and launched into the air, dragging me with her. My arm felt like it was being torn from my body as we went airborne. I dangled helplessly beside her and Bandit let out a cry of dismay as the flat top of the rock was closing in too fast.
Morvaen landed lightly on the balls of her feet as my own body hit the stone in a heap. Bandit, for all his strength, was flung from my chest and into the low layer of dust that filled the coliseum below us.
I couldn’t see him, but I could sense that his presence was there. Given that Bandit was better equipped to protect himself than I was, it shouldn’t have worried me as much as it did.
I scrabbled to my feet despite the bone-deep exhaustion. Pain prickled over my fresh wounds, but even without my powers they were healing incredibly fast. Small blessings, I supposed. Weak or strong, at least I was hard to kill.
I pulled myself up so that my knee wasn’t bent at an odd angle, flinching when it popped loudly. A slight burn spread around it telling me that whatever my crash landing had fucked up would be fixed soon.
“Your mate is strong,” Morvaen commented as the dust settled enough to see Laran. Naked and covered from head to toe in both his blood and my own, he stood alone against a hellhound of epic proportions. This thing made the one in New Orleans look downright small as it towered over him, drool dripping from its jowls. Crimson eyes watched him with malicious intent as it stalked around him in circles. The hellhound made no move to attack, but its raised hackles gave notice that it could at any given moment.
“That thing could swallow him whole,” I answered in a voice that sounded far calmer than I felt.
“He is War, is he not?” Morvaen asked. She didn’t sound worried, but we were far enough back from the fight now that we were as close to safe as you could get in an arena of hell beasts.
I swallowed hard and nodded. I had to trust him, just as he trusted me. “He is War.”
Storm clouds swirled overhead as the skies darkened and the first hint of rain misted. The winds grew rough, sweeping away the dust to reveal Moira and Jax fighting their own battles on the other side of him. Morvaen gasped as the creature they were backing into a corner became visible.
“Is that a—”
“Cerberus,” I answered with a grave nod.
Hellhounds were one thing. The damn things were vicious to the bone and only obeyed the call of its master. A Cerberus was in a whole other category of its own. Unlike the savage Hellhounds, taming a Cerberus was near impossible. Legend had it that each head possessed a different ability and a mind of its own. Getting all three minds to agree on a master was not easy. That had led to their near extinction.
Or so I’d thought.
By the looks of it this one was in rough shape. Blood dripped from its side where claw marks had slashed through the skin. Moira stood before it, hands on her hips. I couldn’t see her expression from here, but I got the distinct impression she didn’t want to kill it. Hellbeast or not, she had a soft spot for dogs…even the ones with three heads.
A rumbled whine drew me back to the hellhound. The beast no longer looked like it wanted to kill Laran, rather like it wanted to…play. The great giant sat back on its haunches and lowered its head. He reached forward and pet its snout. I couldn’t hear him from where I stood, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that he was speaking to it much like he had Epona.
“Where are the horses?” I asked with a jolt. They’d gone first. Was there a chance that it ate them? I shuddered in horror right as Morvaen pointed to another peak to the right of us.
“They fled behind there.” I let out an exhale and nodded, but that still left one.
Bandit.
I looked behind us but there was no flat ground, only jagged rocks, and none of them held a black and blue raccoon or any sign of blood and fur. My pulse quickened as I turned back towards the rest of the arena. He wasn’t known for staying out of trouble. The hellhound’s ears perked up suddenly, glancing to a spot on the left side of us.
Oh no…a ball of fur and fury launched itself across the coliseum.
“No!” I shouted as the dog took off like a hound on a hunt. Bandit was fast, though, diving between its legs—narrowly missing the paws that could kill him with a single step as he went straight for Moira. No. Not Moira…the blood drained from my face as he went for the Cerberus.
Three sets of large green eyes swiveled to Bandit as he ran full speed, stopping right before it. Dread filled me as I judged the distance. We were a good twenty feet up and several hundred out. Powers or no powers, I needed to get off this damn rock. Sinking to my butt and never taking my eyes off Bandit, I slid forward. The sharper edges of the rock sliced through my naked skin with ease, but the drop was harder. The impact jolted straight through me as my feet hit the ground. Still I ran.
Hobbled. Broken. Bleeding. I ran.
And then Bandit did the most peculiar thing of all.
He rounded on Moira and Jax, snapping his teeth. Jax took a step forward and blue fire shot out from Bandit’s mouth as he started to grow in size. Five feet. Ten feet. Twenty. He kept growing. His body becoming so large it surpassed the Cerberus that was huddled behind him. From this angle I could see his tail, the way it flicked back to wrap around the three-headed beastie.
He was protecting it.
But Moira was not the greatest threat here.
The hellhound watching him was.
A pounding started in my head, combatting the dizziness from blood loss and over exertion as I ran as hard as I could. My fists clenched so tightly the nails dug into my palms. I only barely felt the prick of skin breaking. My single focus was to get to him. To reach him in time. I didn’t know what I could do, but I just couldn’t be useless again. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
A whisper of something foreign raced through my
veins. The pounding continued, growing so loud it was all I could hear. It was all I knew. A flash of pain raced through me, starting at my palms and spreading through my entire being. I grit my teeth, sprinting as fast as a I could. It happened in the blink of an eye. The impossible.
I went from over a hundred feet away to standing inches from a snarling hellhound.
Each of its teeth were as large as my face. I swallowed hard against the urge to run as I took a step back. It let out a loud harrumph, its rancid breath blowing the stringy, blood-caked pieces of my hair away.
It took a step forward and I took a step back. Fur brushed against my naked body and I recognized the scent of Bandit immediately. I didn’t know what just happened. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it, but somehow—someway—
“Ruby?” Moira asked, her head whipped around to where I had been just a moment before. “How did you—”
“I don’t know, but we’ve got bigger problems at the moment.”
Moira nodded, raising two fingers to her lips. I frowned right as Jax clapped his hands over his ears. Her whistle sliced through the crowd like a knife through butter. The crowd fell silent. The hellhound stopped. Everything in the arena seemingly froze.
A slow clapping began. I looked around, trying to find where it was coming from as the clouds overhead cleared. A single beam of light shined down into the center of the coliseum and that’s when I saw her. Dressed in battle leathers, an oversized battle-axe strapped to her back, wearing that strange half-smile I hadn’t seen in two years.
“Dina?” I asked, squinting in disbelief.
“Hello, Ruby. It’s been a blink since I last saw you.”
Chapter 16
Laran groaned, running his hand over the stubble on his face. “You know her?”
I nodded. “That’s Dina. She was my mentor. She taught me everything about tattooing…”
“No, babe.” He shook his head, looking at her as he said, “That’s Hela, the Deadly Sin of Wrath.”
I looked back and forth between the two, my mouth hanging open as slow realization set in. My lips pressed together as my feet began to move. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do when I came to stand before the woman who’d been my teacher and friend. The woman who’d bought oranges by the dozen because they were the closest thing to human skin a novice could tattoo on. The woman who spent countless hours shaping me as a person and an artist.
No. I had no idea what I would do, but the rage inside me did.
A crack split the air and I looked from my hand that I hadn’t noticed moved, to the darkening blue palm print on her cheek. I couldn’t find it in me to be sorry or feel scared.
“That was for lying to me about everything,” I said.
The coliseum was quiet. A dead sort of silence filling it. I’d already died twice. The veil didn’t scare me. A second crack snapped me from my own controlling anger as a second bright blue palm print appeared on her other cheek. Dina—or Hela—didn’t look quite so happy now. “That was for leaving without saying goodbye.”
Her eyes softened as tears gathered in them. “I deserve that,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pulled me close. I let her, not because I forgave her, but because I needed to feel something—anything other than this anger and grief and despair so sharp and deep that I feared I’d bleed out from the inside before I could ever recover.
So, I let her hug me and I embraced her fiercely in return—but I didn’t cry. The time for tears was over. I’d lost it all, and in the depths of rock bottom I was regaining it piece by piece. I needed to hold together, and if I cried, I would come apart at the seams.
“I’ve missed you, Blue,” Hela murmured softly against my hair.
“Why did you lie to me?” I asked in a scathing tone. She pulled away and took any semblance of peace with her. The blue of her eyes shined so bright, far more vivid than it ever did on Earth.
“I had no choice. None of us did.” She smiled even as a single tear slid down her cheek. She brushed it away and turned to wrap an arm around my shoulders. With her other hand she lazily drew a circle with two fingers and a ring of fire appeared. I tensed. “It leads to my home,” she said, answering my unspoken question. I eyed her warily and then turned to look for the others. Laran watched Hela with a neutral expression. Moira looked downright pissed and that probably had to do with the same reason I was. Morvaen was slowly making her way to us, eyeing the hellhound that hadn’t moved a single inch since Hela had appeared.
“Does your house have clothes and a bath available without anyone trying to kill us?” Moira asked. Hela eyed her with fading amusement as she really took in the state of us. Something like guilt flashed in her eyes, but I couldn’t be certain.
“Of course,” she said before looking back at me. “The other Sins would like to see you, though. If you’re up for it?”
“Do I get an actual choice?” I asked, already knowing what I was going to do but needing to ask it anyways.
“Yes.” The tightness around her eyes showed me how much that question pained her, but there was understanding there too. “You have always had a choice. Just as we have always been watching.”
I frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
She smiled but it was filled with trepidation. I didn’t get the same feeling I did in the Garden; an unknown sense of impending doom I never had any chance to prevent. Instead I felt...anxiousness. “You’ll see,” she answered, stepping forward into the flames. She left me there to decide for myself, the hellhound following after her. I looked back at Bandit and motioned for him to come to me. Usually it only took once, but he looked uncertain, glancing around us before eventually shrinking down to his usual size. The Cerberus whined as he brushed against her before coming to me.
I arched a brow, glancing between the two of them as Bandit bounded up to me.
“Of course, you choose a damn hellbeast to get cozy with.” Bandit waggled his eyebrows, casting a last look of longing over his shoulder. I scooped him up and turned for the portal. If he wanted a girlfriend, he’d have to wait.
Moira came over beside me and squeezed my shoulder. “It’s been a long day, Rubes. You just gotta last a little longer,” she murmured under her breath for my ears only. I nodded, staring into the bright yellow flames.
“It’s not me I’m worried about.”
We all followed after her and into the portal as one. When we stepped out there were no crowds or coliseums. The sudden hush of silence apart from bare feet slapping against the sleek surface was uncomfortable. The towering pillars only served as a reminder as to how small I was. Hela stood before us holding out several thin robes. I took one without speaking, not that it stopped her from looping her arm through mine and guiding me down the hall. I kept my head slightly turned making sure no one appeared behind us.
“Time has changed you, Blue.” It was a simple statement, but it cracked through my armor, if only for a moment.
“You have no idea,” I snapped, trying to shrug her arm off. Hela didn’t let go. She was assertive. She always had been. “I’ve been fighting my ass off for months just to survive while you’ve been doing what? Hiding here? Playing gladiator in a devil-damned coliseum? What the fuck?”
Her skin grew hot against mine as her eyes flashed with streaks of lightning. The hellhound trailing behind us let out a growl and Bandit returned the sentiment. “There are many things you do not understand, Ruby. I cannot blame you for that when we are the ones who chose to keep you in the dark, but I can ask you to at least hear us out.”
“You left,” I said harshly. “Walked out. Poof.” I snapped my fingers. “I needed you and you disappeared overnight without even a note or a goodbye. Do you know how much that hurt?” I yanked my arm roughly and she finally dropped it. “You don’t get to make demands of me.”
Hela stalked ahead of me, lithe and graceful even in armor. “You don’t want to listen to me?” she called over her shoulder. “Fine.” She stopped
in front of a pair of doors that were ten feet tall and black as onyx, a silver pentagram adorned the center, divided by the seam. She grasped the handles and flung them open, breaking the star. “Maybe you’ll listen to them.”
My heart skipped a beat, suspending for the moment it took me to look at the four women standing around the longest dining table I’d ever seen.
“No fucking way,” Moira blurted out. “Sadie?”
“You two have gotten into far too much trouble ever since you moved out of my house,” the green-eyed shade said with a smile. The tips of her fangs toyed with her plump bottom lip. She’d been the house mother at the orphanage where Moira and I had met.
Another woman scoffed. This one I didn’t recognize. “They got in too much trouble in your house. There’s a reason it was me Ruby came to every week.” She smiled, and it was a cruel thing. Her beauty was too much to be real. Her white-blonde hair and pale skin made it difficult to tell what she might be.
“That’s only because I wasn’t there anymore,” another woman smarted off. I took her in. Her black hair was striking against her pale skin and ruby red lips. I knew this wraith. Mere. She was one of the orphanage mothers I’d spent the majority of my formative years with until I’d gone to Portland.
“Oh, please,” the cruel beauty smirked. “Hela and I are the only ones she actually missed.” Her sharp brown eyes landed on me. “Aren’t we, Ruby?”
“Uh…”—I stifled a yawn—“I don’t know who you are.”
“A nightmare,” not-Mere said flippantly.
“I’d rather be a nightmare than a wraith,” the beauty snapped. The Horsemen had said that the Sin of Greed was a nightmare. Her true name was Saraphine. “At least I’m not haunted by the souls I send to the veil.”
“That you know of,” not-Mere muttered under her breath.
The fourth woman, a banshee sitting in the corner, let out a cackle as she leaned back in her chair to kick her feet up. Heavy boots hit the long wooden table with a thunk, mud and grass falling in clumps while she leaned over and grabbed a handful of grapes, plopping them in her mouth. “You’re all jealous, yet I’m the one that’s green. Oh, the irony,” she smirked. The blonde nightmare rolled her eyes and slowly her form changed…
Brimstone Nightmares (Queen of the Damned Book 4) Page 15