Divinity Falling

by Nour Zikra

  Addy didn’t seem to care about the cold. Her pupils dilated. With a smile stretching the corners of her lips, she dropped back against the pillow and lay there breathing the fresh, icy air. No words came out of her for a while. I watched her with both awe and fear brimming inside me. Then she said something I didn’t expect.

  “I don’t feel cold anymore. Not completely. Not since I went to hell.” She stared at the white ceiling and traced the sheets underneath her with her hands by her side. “It feels really hot all the time now.” She looked at me. A shimmer flashed in her big eyes and she stifled a sob. “Am I . . . am I evil?”

  With the fire that had been in her eyes a moment ago gone, her shrunken pupils searched my face for an answer, good or bad. For the first time in the past two days, I saw her for what she was: a small, delicate human. I was a lot like her now that I had lost my wings and my angelic strength.

  I reached over and lightly nudged her hand with the tips of my fingers. “Hey, you’re not evil. Evil people don’t worry that they’re evil. You’re the same person you’ve always been.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just know.”

  She closed her eyes. “Maybe. Maybe not. If it’s all right, I think I want to be alone for a little while.”

  I moved my hand away and stood up, feeling a tightness in my chest. If she was the key to entering hell, we’d discover it soon enough.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ADELAIDE

  Adriel had called it the gateway. I thought about that for a while, envisioning the massive wooden gate from my dreams. Was that the entrance to hell? Had I had the answer this whole time?

  When Saleos, Lucifer’s minion, had taken me to hell, the portal looked nothing like the gate in my dreams. It was simply a hole through space that encompassed our bodies and swallowed us with it. Perhaps my gate was a different entrance, like a side or back door.

  Wind brushed my loose curls against my face. I closed my eyes and told myself to fall asleep, even though it was still early morning. I needed to get to that gate. I needed to test my theory, or we might never find our way to Reed like Adriel had promised we would.

  It took a long time before my mind quieted. I opened my eyes, finding everything hazy. Picture frames, which were supposed to be hanging around the room, had fallen on the floor like someone had come in and struck them from the wall. Broken glass lay scattered everywhere. I got up, put my slippers on, and moved toward the door, crushing glass with each step.

  I stopped. The gate appeared in place of my door, open like the last time I saw it in my dream.

  Is this the gateway to hell? Or am I dreaming even now?

  Red flames led me through the entryway. I took steady steps like before, my heart thumping at the knowledge that once I made it inside the chamber, there would be no ground to stand on. Sweat marks grew all over my shirt, making the fabric stick to my skin.

  To my surprise, when I made it through, the ground that had collapsed and pulled me down with it the last time was actually there. Unbroken. Not a single crevice in it. Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the center of the room and looked around. If I was in hell, there had to be a way to find Reed.

  “Hello?” I called out.

  “Hello, hello, hell-o-o-o,” my voice echoed back in response.

  Adriel’s vision showed us both in hell, and yet here I was, all alone, trying to find my way in. Was he wrong? Did he just assume that he would be with me when that was not the case?

  In the back of the chamber, I noticed something shift, like a body running and hiding in the shadows. Near that area was a column that grew among the cave’s icicle-shaped formations hanging from the ceiling. The column was vast toward the top but thinned out at the bottom, like a giant needle meeting the ground. If I squinted enough, I thought I saw bare feet peeking out from behind the column.

  I moved one step at a time, my slippers barely scraping against the ground. When I made it a few feet away from the column, the person jumped out. Or at least, I thought it was a person; then I saw the wings. And the face. I screamed and jumped back, nearly falling on my behind.

  Adriel stood before me, his eyes looking right through me like I wasn’t even there. His white wings flew open, revealing a solid, lean chest.

  “What now?” Adriel said.

  The question wasn’t targeted at me. When I looked behind me, I realized whom he was talking to.

  “Now you learn how to kill several demons with a few strokes,” Lucifer said. He stood parallel to Adriel with great white wings of his own. His eyes were brown like mine, not black and empty.

  Out of nowhere, demons emerged, seeming to crawl from the cave’s shadows. They were clearly not fallen angels. They looked like a human and crocodile half-breed with long talons, sharp teeth, and thick green scales where skin should’ve been. Two of the demons rushed at Adriel, moving past me like I was invisible. A horrible whiff hit me, smelling a lot like decaying meat. Another demon, standing on two feet, reached with its claws to slice Adriel’s flesh while the other two grabbed each of his legs and went in for a bite.

  “No,” I shouted, storming in to stop them. When I tried to grab the tallest demon, my hands went right through its torso.

  I stumbled forward, my entire body passing inside the demon like it was composed of air. The demon’s talons swung. I watched with horror as he slashed Adriel’s throat and blood oozed out. Adriel cried out in pain and flung his wings out, tossing the demon quite a distance. The other two demons still had their sharp fangs sunk into his legs. He kicked them off, hurling them away after their ugly friend.

  “You are doing it all wrong.” Lucifer sprinted toward the three demons hissing on the ground and used his wings to fly in the air. He kicked two of the demons back. The third demon reached out with its talons, but Lucifer grabbed its head and broke its neck. Bones cracked, and the demon slumped to the ground, its head hanging at a bizarre angle. He chased the other demons down and did the same quick motions, killing them before I even had time to blink. He wiped his hands together, dusting off any dirt. “That, my friend, is how you do it.”

  Adriel clutched at his bleeding throat, his chest rising and falling violently. He frowned in the direction of the dead demons. “So, the trick is to grab them before they grab you. Is that it?”

  Lucifer grinned. “You are a quick learner.” He marched to Adriel’s side and drew Adriel’s hand away from his neck. “Let me have a look.”

  Adriel let him. He dropped his hand, tucked his wings behind him, and let Lucifer touch the wound.

  “You are getting stronger.” Lucifer trailed a finger through the blood dripping from Adriel’s neck. “But there is much to learn.”

  Adriel’s eyes gleamed, and he smiled. “Will you teach me everything?”

  “Yes, my friend. I will teach you, and then you will help me with something.” Lucifer’s grin bore white, spotless teeth that glinted in the dimness of the cave.

  “I will do anything you ask. Just name it.”

  “Very well. First, let us make a better warrior out of you, and then we can continue.”

  My heart pumped in my ears, blocking out any other noise. I had shared my bed with that man. I retreated from the two angels and moved toward the entrance, where the hallway was lit by flames. What had I just seen? I couldn’t tell if hell made people hallucinate or if this was some sort of vision from the past. If it was the latter, what did that make Adriel? Was he Lucifer’s friend? Was he collaborating with him behind my back?

  This time around, I ran back the way I had come without thinking about the fire blazing on either side of me. The heat assaulted my body, but Lucifer was behind me, and I didn’t want to stay in the same room as him. A couple of burns were worth me escaping.

  When I reached the end, the gate was shut. From this side, there was no handle to pull on, no way to exit. I banged on the door, which reminded me of the sounds I’d heard just a few nights ag
o at Reed’s dorm moments before he was taken. Had it been a monster lurking behind the gate that night, or was it just me trying to get out? Perhaps the dream I’d had was a vision of this moment, of me stuck in hell.

  The gate loomed over me, mocking me for being on the wrong side.

  “Help,” I shouted, but I didn’t know who would hear me. I had walked here in a dream where no one could follow.

  I kicked at the gate, hoping it would snap out of the wall. No such luck, though, and I found myself sagging to the ground with my toes curled in pain.

  “Oh, God, no.” I placed my forehead against the wooden surface of the gate and closed my eyes. Right behind that door was my room, just out of reach.

  A loud explosion made my ears ring. I was thrown high into the air and came crashing down a few seconds later on top of a smooth, cold surface. Dust and embers rained down on me. Standing up, I squinted and realized I was back in my room. And yet, it still felt hazy, like a dream. Broken picture frames lay everywhere.

  “This is when you wake up, Addy,” I said to myself.

  I moved to look out the open window. However, when I touched the glass, my room shifted around me like the static on a TV screen when it loses signal. The gray spasm kept going until my room merged with another location that looked a lot like the cavern I had just come out of. My room clashed with the cave’s columns, my bed and other furniture disappearing every few spasms. Adriel—this time without any wings—walked in through the broken gate, which also happened to be where my normal bedroom door was.

  “Addy, what’s going on?” He took long strides toward me, his eyebrows furrowed with worry.

  The room was in chaos. Still, Adriel had somehow managed to stay without becoming part of the static.

  I flinched back and collided with the window when he closed in on me. “No, don’t touch me!”

  He reached his hands out and steadied me. His fingers felt cold around my arms. “Don’t worry. You’re just going through the gateway.”

  Blinking a few times, I realized what he was saying.

  “You figured it out, Addy. You got us into hell.”

  Shaking my head, I tried to push him away. “Let go, or God help me, I’ll kill you in this dream.”

  Adriel’s grasp tightened. His eyes clouded over, a deep crease appearing between his brows. “Addy? What dream . . . ?”

  “Don’t say my name.” I shoved one last time, but he pressed his body against mine, and then I couldn’t move.

  The room shook. I felt my body contract like a piece of clay being balled up in a person’s fist. Adriel grunted something and wrapped his arms around me. I couldn’t fight him anymore, not with my ears ringing and the world growing so vast as I shrunk into a freckle before bursting up back into my normal form. His hands were on my hips when we emerged in hell’s damp cavern. He stared at me for a few seconds. I pulled away from him, my palms raised, keeping space between us.

  “Did I do something?” he asked.

  I opened my mouth to answer when a shrieking scream erupted from behind me. Adriel’s eyes grew wide. I swiveled around and saw nearly a dozen demons creeping on all fours toward us.

  “Run!” he yelled, taking my hand and pulling me after him.

  I yanked my hand free but ran with him. The demons screeched and hissed, their noise shaking the caves. Looking back, I saw their claws digging into the ground as they sprinted after us. Adriel and I moved through tunnels, and I wondered if he knew his way around. He’d been close to Lucifer all along; he’d lied to me. I hurried my steps and ran past him, ignoring him when he called my name.

  At the end of the path, a forked tunnel came into view. Both sides were pitch-black with no sign of life. Taking a deep breath, I ran into the right tunnel, hoping there weren’t any slumbering demons there. Adriel stomped behind me. My hands moved in front of my body in search of monsters and walls I might come crashing against. I could feel cuts gathering on my fingers and arms as I scratched against things in the darkness.

  “Addy.” Adriel’s voice came from not too far away. I felt his hand brush against my back. “We need to find an exit.”

  In that instant, my hands hit a wall. I stopped, my hands pressed against solid metal. Adriel followed, his body colliding with my back. The demons squealed behind us, sounding closer and closer with each ticking second.

  Adriel’s hands felt the wall and occasionally touched my own. “It’s a door. Help me push.”

  I put my weight against the metal door and shoved as hard as I could, with Adriel doing the same beside me. The demons hissed in the tunnel. They were getting close and sounded like starved hyenas on the prowl for an easy kill.

  In front of me, the door budged. I shoved harder. Adriel grunted, pushing with all his might. The door finally pulled loose from the tunnel wall. Light swarmed in from the other side. We both jumped through just as the demons came leaping after us. Adriel hurried to close the door, but a demon dove inside, his pointy teeth bared at us.

  With the door shut, Adriel and I faced the demon alone. The hideous, reeking monster surveyed the two of us, almost like it was deciding whom to eat first. When it started moving toward me, Adriel pushed me back and jumped in front of the demon.

  The unsightly beast growled at Adriel, its crimson gums drawing back and revealing the actual size of its teeth. It stood tall like a human and moved on its hind legs. With only two feet separating them, the demon grabbed Adriel with its claws and opened its mouth wide. Adriel let out a cry. When the toothy monster tried to take a bite, Adriel grabbed it by its scaly neck and cracked its skull.

  Or at least, he tried.

  An angry snarl resounded from the base of the demon’s throat. It shook its head out of Adriel’s grasp and moved to jab its talons into his chest. Adriel looked pale.

  “Stop!” I screamed.

  The demon’s vertically slit pupils zeroed in on me. Its claw hovered near Adriel’s flesh.

  “I’m Lucifer’s daughter,” I said. “You will obey me.”

  Adriel exhaled when the demon pulled away. For a second, all seemed under control, then the demon crawled over to me with snot dripping out of its nose. It moved around my feet, sniffing at me in between hisses. I closed my eyes and stood still, waiting for the end to come.

  “Addy,” Adriel said after what felt like a long time. “Addy, we’re good.”

  I opened my eyes to find the demon no longer near either of us. Instead, it crouched in the corner of the small chamber, chewing on the claws of its hind leg, sharpening them. Adriel grinned at me.

  Waving my hand at the bizarre demon, I said, “Hey, can you take me to see my brother?”

  The demon stared at me while licking its jagged claws with its long tongue.

  “Reed,” I said. “He’s human. Yay tall.” I raised my hand a foot above my head. “Has hazel eyes, which is a color close to light brown, just so we’re clear.”

  A growl escaped the demon’s throat, and then it was on all fours again. It bobbed its head up and down like it understood what I was saying and started moving toward the door we had just come through. Adriel and I followed, pulling the door open and walking down the empty tunnel. The other demons must have gotten tired of waiting and left.

  While the demon moved ahead of us, Adriel reached out and took my hand. He leaned close and whispered, “Is this a good idea? Following a demon?” His warm lips nearly grazed my ear.

  A rush of warmth passed up my spine, a sensation I’d only ever felt with Devin back when we were happy. I looked at my hand in Adriel’s. I wanted so badly to hold on tight to the feeling, but I had seen the vision of Lucifer teaching Adriel how to kill demons, and I didn’t know what to make of it. Was it real? Were they close? I drew my hand away and fisted it by my side.

  Adriel frowned, but he didn’t ask any more questions.

  “Here.” He poked my hand with a small metal object.

  When I looked down, I saw it was Reed’
s Swiss Army knife.

  “When I saw the gateway opening, I grabbed it from your bedside table. I thought you might want it.”

  Nodding, I took it from him. “Thanks.” I tucked the knife into one of the front pockets of my pajama shorts, thankful that they even came with pockets, and continued marching after the monster.

  Maybe I would give Reed his knife back and buy one for myself once he was safe. I was so close to finding my brother. In no time, he’d be back home.

  All would be right again.

  Chapter Fourteen

  ADRIEL

  We faced another door after walking through tunnel after tunnel. As we walked, Addy’s eyes darted around, scanning the ceilings and shadows as we passed by. Whenever the demon paused, she’d wince like it was going to turn around and attack; when it continued, she’d take a deep breath and follow. Now, it seemed like we had reached our end point. The demon bowed low and sniffed at the edges of the door.

  “Is Reed behind here?” Addy asked, her voice low.

  The demon snorted, spewing rancid snot on the ground. Both Addy and I moved away. The fiend began digging at the foot of the door, its talons pushing grainy rocks and stones out of the way.

  “Okay.” Addy pushed forward, touching the door while keeping her distance from the beast. “We’ll open the door if you’ll just step back,” she told the monster.

  When the demon crawled a few feet away from us, I thought about telling Addy she was a demon whisperer, but then thought better of it. Encouraging her to be like Lucifer was not a good idea.

  Avoiding the snot on the ground, I helped Addy get the door open. It didn’t take too much effort, nothing like before. When we pulled it ajar, Addy rushed into the room without trying to be discreet. If a demon was hiding inside, she didn’t seem to care.

  “Addy, wait.” I reached an arm out to stop her, but she was already gone.