The Infernal Games

by Reed Logan Westgate

  If she was screaming, she couldn’t tell as the pain wracked through her body. It felt as if it were her very soul burning in the pits of hell. Her breath came in painful gasps, hot sulfur and ash filling her lungs with every labored breath. The demon seemed amused, if not content, and it brought its thick purple tongue to her eye. She could feel its coarse, slimy texture as it circled her exposed eye, lapping up her lifeblood. Then to her horror, she could feel the tip of the bloated tongue pressing in from the side of her eye, forcing itself between her eye socket and the milky white orb that screamed with pain. With a watery pop, the demon thrust its tongue deep into the socket, ripping her eye free. Her vision went black as waves of agony rolled through her. Her remaining eye came into focus just in time to see the demon crush her eye between its jagged teeth in a burst of gore as the fluids dripped down its exposed maw.

  She collapsed, her body overwhelmed with pain. She longed for the days before demons, before the mark, but the creature was not nearly finished. He slapped her roughly. His massive bronzed hand grabbing her by the chin, he forced her to look up at him as his free hand carved a hole in her neck just above her collar bone. She could feel him pluck away a chunk of flesh as her lungs began to fill with her own blood. A massive finger dipped into the newfound hole, sliding down behind her ribs. There were no words to describe her pain, no air to extoll her screams, only a gurgle as the taloned finger found its way to the organs below. The world grew dim, and she wondered if there was any truth to that whole dying in your dream myth as her consciousness faded into darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Cold Grasp Of The Dead

  Xlina’s eyes flung open, and she gasped greedily for air. She instantly became aware of the rental car’s back seat, aglow in hot flames as the nightmare energy sheathed her entire body. Her clothes lay in ash on top of her, and the car filled with smoke. She could hear the panicked voices of Amber and Lexxes as the car swerved off the road and lurched to a stop. The vivid nightmare still flashed in her mind, the image of the demon searing into her thoughts. She closed her eyes once more, trying to regain control of her energy, but doing so simply brought back the images of her eye being crushed between the creature’s teeth, and a phantom pain shot through her eye as she winced.

  Rolling off the back seat, she found her body wedged between the front seats and the floor, but still the nightmare energy flared in all directions. The sudden hiss of a fire extinguisher shocked her back to the now open passenger door as a billowing cloud of cold white rushed in, smothering the seats. The driver’s side door swung open to reveal Amber, still protected by Brick, reaching in. She wrapped Xlina in a hug around her torso and pulled with all her might, dragging her from the burning car thanks to the supernatural strength Brick afforded her. The couple collapsed backward as Xlina’s body was wrenched from the car, and they collided heavily with the dirt shoulder of the road. Xlina lay prone on top of Amber, her nightmare energy still pulsing wildly from her body as Amber struggled beneath her.

  “Snap out of it, X,” Amber called, her voice sounding so far away.

  “Come on,” Lexxes called from the passenger’s side as she emptied the extinguisher into the burning backseat of the car. “That’s a hell of a nightmare.”

  “Hell,” Xlina stammered as her mind raced. She called for Valeria in her head, certain that only she could stop the flood of images. It was a cry of desperation, a cry of anguish. Valeria answered by sending cooling pulses of soothing energy from the choker until the nightmare energy subsided, leaving a smoldering Xlina in tattered and scorched clothing.

  “Xlina, come on; stay with us, girl,” Amber called, her voice filled with panic as she patted her hand on Xlina’s cheek. The memory of the skin being peeled off shot through her, and she found herself swinging with all her might. Her fist balled as Xlina, overfilled with rage, connected with Amber, sending the girl spiraling down in a heap. Xlina could see only rage, however, and she struggled to get to her feet, cursing the demon with all the venom she could muster.

  “Woah, X,” Amber called from the ground, her hand rubbing her jaw where Xlina’s strike had landed. “We come in peace.”

  “Hell,” Xlina gasped. As the world around her stilled, she stood panting on the side of the road, surrounded by Mist. The fog was so heavy that she could barely make out Lexxes’ silhouette on the far side of the car. “I saw it. I was there.”

  “It was only a dream,” Lexxes said reassuringly.

  “No,” Xlina protested. “It was hers.”

  “The demon?” Amber asked as she wobbled to her feet. Thankfully, Brick’s presence as a passenger had prevented most of the damage. Xlina felt a wave of guilt as she looked at Amber, seeing a bruise began to form.

  “Yes,” Xlina nodded. “I think it was her memory.”

  “Demons don’t dream,” Lexxes continued. “In all my wanderings, I have only ever walked human dreams. What you’re saying isn’t possible.”

  “Her mortal coil was damaged,” Xlina explained. “Oxivius used magic to put her inside of me.”

  “Wait, the demon who marked you is inside?” Lexxes asked in disbelief. “What in all the nine hells were you thinking? How desperate could you have been to make that choice?”

  “She was dying,” Xlina continued. “Her mortal coil at least. But if she left the Earth Realm, then her patron would come to claim my mark. It was the lesser of the evils.”

  “My girl,” Lexxes lamented. “When presented with the choice of drinking arsenic or Drano, there is no lesser evil. Both are incredibly stupid.”

  “Duly noted,” Xlina gasped, hunching over to look at the smoldering rental car. “How far are we?”

  “We are back in Portland,” Amber sighed, examining the damage. “At least on the outskirts. My god, how are we going to explain this?”

  “Spontaneous combustion?” Xlina asked dryly.

  “Engine fire,” Lexxes offered seriously.

  “I sure hope you sprung for the insurance,” Xlina teased with a whistle as she examined the wreckage. Her burst of nightmare energy had caused the back seat to go up like kindling, unleashing a veritable fireball in the back of the car. Topped off with the thick white foam from the extinguisher, there was no denying the extensive damage.

  “At least your thrashing warned us in time to pull off the highway,” Lexxes added. “This could have been terrible on the interstate.”

  “I’ll call an Uber to pick us up,” Amber replied, retrieving her cell phone from her purse and flicking roughly on the screen to pull up the app. Xlina could feel the rage seething from her, but she had no idea what to say or how to apologize. Instead she waited patiently for Amber to finish her task, and when Amber looked back up from her phone, Xlina was there, arms outstretched. Amber fell into her hug and giggled the nervous laugh that comes when your world is utterly falling apart, the type of laugh that is the only thing holding back a tidal wave of tears. Xlina squeezed her tight, not knowing how to fully express her gratitude for everything and sensing that Amber needed consoling.

  “I would suggest we alert the rental company,” Lexxes chimed in, breaking the silence with her motherly voice. “We tell them Xlina fell asleep in the back with a lit cigarette, and before you know it, the car was ablaze.”

  “I don’t smoke,” Xlina replied from her hug.

  “It’s more plausible than you exploding with nightmare energy,” Lexxes remarked with authority. “Come collect your things; we must get to the courthouse.”

  “Wait, the courthouse?” Xlina protested. “We need to save Burglecuts and Oxivius from the wraith. We are returning to the Hearth.”

  “There is no time for that,” Lexxes countered. “We don’t even know that the wraith will target them. We know what Puc is intending, and gods be damned let us hope he isn’t still in league with the damned devil and his wraith.”

  “You think they mean to strike at the Council?” Amber asked.

  “I think Puc has a hold on one cove
n,” Lexxes answered gravely. “Who knows how many of the others are compromised in some way. Without my voice, the Heart’s Hearth doesn’t stand a chance.”

  “Feels like the wolves are circling,” Amber replied.

  “You tipped their hand,” Lexxes answered, removing Xlina and Amber’s bags from the trunk of the rental and tossing them on the curb. Xlina pawed though her bag, looking for suitable replacements for her burnt sweater.

  “We save people first,” Xlina stated with authority. “You can go on ahead to the Council if you wish, but there is no point in saving the Hearth if all its residents are dead.”

  “You asked for my help,” Lexxes replied firmly. “We don’t even know if your friends will be there. You’re wasting our time.”

  “Penny doesn’t leave the Hearth,” Xlina continued to Amber. “My guess is, knowing that Puc is about causing trouble, Burglecut isn’t going to leave her side.”

  “And if the whole Council of Magic were to come calling for their heads,” Amber reasoned. “Then I would venture we would find our necromancer in the doorway.”

  “Saying something brash like ‘over my dead body, love,’” Xlina finished in agreement.

  “Will you listen to yourselves?” Lexxes stammered. “You’re being distracted by the pawns while Puc plays at your king.”

  “I’ve had enough of the games,” Xlina barked back. “We are not pieces to be sacrificed; we are not pawns to be so easily discarded. We are not letting Ertigan take out Oxivius and the Burglecuts just to gain favorable positioning.”

  “Agreed,” Amber sounded back resolute and firm. “This isn’t a game.”

  “My sweet children,” Lexxes replied grimly. “I pray you understand that the powers you’re up against don’t see it that way.”

  “That’s why they will lose,” Xlina responded adamantly.

  The headlights of an oncoming car broke the conversation as a black Jetta pulled cautiously through the Mist. The driver peered over his steering wheel, struggling to see the road ahead through the dense blanket of fog covering the ground. Amber waved her hand as if she were landing a jet, and the car pulled to a stop.

  “It’s your call, Lexxes,” Xlina said flippantly as she approached their ride. “But we’re saving our friends.”

  “Wonderful,” Lexxes remarked, sliding into the rear passenger seat.

  “Strange weather we’re having, eh?” the driver commented to Amber as she got into the passenger’s side on the front. He gave her an appreciative once-over, drawing a snicker from Lexxes in the back, but Amber just rolled along, smiling with her perfected fake charm and asking to be brought to the church just down the way from the Hearth. The driver smiled back and pulled away, leaving the smoldering rental on the side of the road. Amber fumbled with her phone, calling the rental company and explaining the unfortunate incident with a cigarette. There was a good deal of shouting and arguing, and even the lecherous driver was uncomfortable enough to avoid sending his eyes in Amber’s direction. By the time the Jetta pulled to a stop in front of the church, Amber had unleashed a scathing tirade on the poor rental clerk about the rental being unsafe and a veritable tinderbox waiting to burn them alive. Xlina marveled at the girl’s ability to play the grand charade to get what she wanted and smiled as she clicked “end call” on her phone, fighting the urge to slam the expensive device down.

  “Let’s hope we are not too late,” Xlina said, exiting the car. Amber thanked the driver and made payment on her app before retrieving her bag.

  “We won’t be,” Amber said reassuringly as she headed in the direction of the Hearth, leading the way back to their home.

  “Any ideas on fighting a wraith?” Lexxes asked skeptically.

  “Keep it hungry,” Xlina replied, echoing the advice she had received from Valeria.

  On seeing the door to the Heart’s Hearth, she broke into a sprint, rushing ahead of Lexxes and Amber. Her hooded blue warm-up jacket wrapped was around her in place of the burnt away university sweater. The days of the university were behind her now as she embraced her life in the Otherworld; the burning of the university sweater was perhaps symbolic in its timing.

  She reached for the door, eager to spring into the foyer and find her friends waiting. But when she grabbed the knob, her hand recoiled at the cold metal. Hesitantly she looked back at Amber and Lexxes; they noted her concern and picked up the pace. With a resolute breath to steady herself, she pushed through the front door and entered the foyer, staggered at the sight before her.

  She could see her breath in the air with each exhale as she cleared the doorway to the foyer. She could hear the frantic steps of Amber and Lexxes behind her on the walk outside, but she struggled to find her voice. The dining area was frozen, quite literally, in place. The hearth itself was covered in a blanket of ice. Oxivius sat at a round table, hunched over the tome he had been studying recently. His skin was dark blue, and ice collected on his chin and brow. A slow but steady wisp of visible air escaped his lips as he stared at the tome, frozen in the moment. She scanned the room anxiously, stopping to note Burglecut on the floor, similarly blue; the giant of a man had a handprint burned into his flesh. Unlike Oxivius, no wisps of warm air hovered around him as his body lay motionless on the floor. Amber’s gasp drew Xlina’s attention back to scanning the room.

  “We’re too late,” Amber whispered, just loud enough for Xlina to hear.

  “Brick,” Xlina commanded, springing into action. “Brick needs to light the hearth!”

  “Got it.” Amber nodded as she hunched forward, allowing Brick to burst out in a roar of flames. The six-foot-long flaming wolf spirit paced anxiously with a slight whine at the icy state of the hearth before bounding into his home. A sharp sizzle of flames hitting ice filled the room as the firebox sprang to life. Amber shrunk from the cold, no longer having the protection of the fire spirit within her.

  “Keep your eyes open,” Xlina said firmly, moving with cautious steps toward the center table where Oxivius sat frozen in place.

  “We must be gone from this place,” Lexxes voiced in as loud a whisper as she dared. “It’s already too late.”

  “He is still breathing,” Xlina replied stoically, working her way toward the table and weaving through the dining area. “And I don’t see Penny.”

  “Spiders go dormant in extreme cold,” Amber replied, making good use of her biology classes. “They can survive extreme cold, but their eggs can’t. Perhaps she is still here and just dormant from the cold.”

  “Where is the wraith?” Xlina asked hesitantly as she approached Oxivius. His eyes remained fixed on the tome, and she cautiously reached out to touch him. Up close, she could see a burn mark similar to the one Burglecut bore on the nape of his neck.

  “Is he...?” Amber asked with a shiver rubbing her arms for warmth.

  “I don’t know,” Xlina replied. “He breathes but just barely so.”

  “This room is a tomb,” Lexxes replied cautiously, staying near the door. “Gather your friend if you must, and let us be gone.”

  “If the wraith is still here,” Xlina answered grimly. “We can’t let it leave.”

  “Lexxes, you can go to the Council,” Amber replied. “We can’t leave now.”

  “You’re both fools,” Lexxes continued, stepping hesitantly into the dining area. “Soon to be cold, dead fools.”

  “Oxivius,” Xlina said, ignoring Lexxes’ tirade and shifting down to the table in an attempt to look the necromancer in the eye. His glare remained intent on the book lying before him on the table as thin wisps of breath trickled up from his lips. She wanted to grab him by the face and avert his eyes, but she feared injuring the frozen man. “Dammit, Oxivius; stay with me.”

  “Xlina, it’s too late,” Lexxes appealed softly. “The wraith has him trapped in a web of despair.”

  “Not fully,” Xlina denied, a tear rolling down her cheek and freezing to her skin. “Not yet; he draws the slightest breath. He is still clinging to something.”
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  “We’ve lost,” Lexxes said sadly as she slumped down into a chair by a table. “The odds were ever too great after all.”

  “Lexxes, don’t talk like that,” Amber chided through chattering teeth.

  “Look at them,” Lexxes replied, her skin turning pale and her breath becoming shallow. “It’s a tomb in here.”

  “Oxivius Soulforge,” Xlina continued, calling to the necromancer. “You faced centuries of exile, tormented by your peers. You wandered the Otherworld alone, but you are not alone now. You found me. You saved me in the fight with the cephalopod; you saved us again from the Cu Sith hounds. I walked the halls of your crypt, and you cooked me the most wonderful breakfast. You can’t leave yet. We haven’t finished. There is still more of this world for us to see together, the death eater and the Baku.”

  “It’s the wraith,” Amber shrieked, pointing at Lexxes as she slumped down at the table mumbling incoherently. The ghostly apparition of Morticae stood over her, eyes sunken and hollow save for a dim red emanating from deep within the skull. Its hand extended to touch Lexxes on the back. She descended, allowing her despair to overwhelm her.

  “Oxivius, I need you,” Xlina called back to the frozen necromancer. “I don’t know how to fight this.”