by Kristie Cook
Then the same images and screams that had filled my head before returned, bringing me to a screeching halt and down to my knees. Tristan gripped his head and fell into a crouch next to me as his own guilt-ridden memories from his Daemoni past overcame him. I knew because my mind was open to his, and I experienced them along with my own. Tristan had already relived the horrors enough times, though, regurgitating them as a form of self-punishment. I’d brought him past that, and I couldn’t bear for him to suffer through them again. Thrusting them away, I grabbed his hand and squeezed.
“We choose to leave, remember?” I pushed myself to my feet, pulling him up with me. Just in time, as Demons flocked at us.
We ran in the darkness again, although whether we actually made any progress was unknown to us, our only light still coming from the Demons’ flaming weapons. They swooped down often, swinging their blades and bludgeons at us and trying to grab us with their claws. We ducked and turned, rolling when necessary to avoid the blazing swords and spiked balls swinging for our heads. One caught the edge of my wing, and my body lurched forward as I cried out in pain, at first from the cut and then from the oxymoronic sear as the remaining feathers went up in flames.
But the physical pain was nothing. It wasn’t real.
The screaming in my head, however, was very real, and it lifted louder and beyond my skull into tortured wails coming from everywhere around us. Long, nerve-splitting, heart-wrenching howls, hundreds or thousands of them echoing each other. As we ran, gray-skinned, bloody-nailed fingers reached out of the darkness for us, but when I slowed and tried to grab a couple to help, they disappeared into smoke. Yet their agony remained, filling my nose and mouth with each inhale, slicing down to my lungs, shredding my heart and soul like sharp talons slicing up the fabric of life. When I didn’t think I could take any more, the walls closed in around us, creating a black tunnel, and the icy floor began slanting upwards.
“Come on,” Tristan said, pulling me along. “Up must be good.”
The slope was steep and the floor slippery. We slid backwards several times, barely catching ourselves before we lost all footing. Although the tunnel was pitch black, I sensed something undulating in the walls even before the rumbling started, and then shapes in the walls pushed out at us, bumping into our arms and knocking us off balance. The ice of the walls seemed to form like a skin around some kind of Hellish beasts behind them—or within them—that tried to break free. They growled and snapped at us, their anger growing as we tried to pass by. I had no idea how close to the top we were when a head-shaped part of the wall pushed outward and swung toward me, slamming into my body and throwing me backwards. I rolled end over end all the way to the bottom. Tristan slid down to help me back up.
I felt as though we’d been running for hours, maybe days already, and the slope may as well have been Mt. Everest. And here we were, at the bottom of it again. Every part of my body ached, and I tried to tell myself it was all in my head, but everyone else’s screams drowned out my own inner voice.
Tristan gripped my chin. “We can do this, ma lykita. No giving up.”
But I was so close to wanting to give up. The tormented screams, the endless running and fighting the Demons, the inability to know if we were even getting anywhere or simply providing entertainment to Satan … If Tristan’s soul weren’t on the line, perhaps I would have stopped trying. Curling up in a ball and losing myself to the madness might have been tempting. But his soul was on the line, so I would keep on. For him.
I nodded. “I won’t. I do it for you.”
“And me for you.”
He gripped my hand and began climbing again. We moved slower, avoiding the monsters in the walls as they pushed out at us, teeth clacking. As though they also feared the tunnel of beasts, the Demons didn’t follow, except one. It flew behind us, quickly closing in, and a hoof rammed into my head, knocking me to the side. Large, bear-like paws stretched the membrane of the wall as they tried to grab at me. I sprang away and crashed into the solid body of Tristan, who had the Demon by its tail.
The creature’s deafening screeches echoed down the tunnel as its wings flapped desperately. When it began to lift Tristan, I jumped up and latched onto its tail, too, and between the two of us, we were able to tug it back down. Then we whipped it to the side, slamming its body into the wall. The things inside the barrier roared and came for the Demon. It tried to fly out of our grip again, but when we let it go, it swung around with its blazing sword.
“AHH!” Tristan’s shout of pain silenced the Demon’s screeches.
It then began to laugh—if the sound of rocks sliding was a laugh—before diving down for Tristan. When I saw what it went for, I lunged for my husband and the fiery blade that had been lodged into his back. The Demon beat me to it, and Tristan yelled again when it jerked the sword free. But I was close enough to grab the end of the blade before it swung out of reach. Biting against the pain as the flames both seared and froze, I jerked it out of the Demon’s hand. I flipped it in the air to catch the hilt and swung the blade out, decapitating the flying beast. Its head fell and rolled down the slope, and the body chased after it. Demons couldn’t be killed, but they could certainly be inconvenienced.
As the walls of the tunnel disappeared, the tilt of the floor grew steeper, causing us to use our hands as well as our feet to climb, yet I still held onto the sword. The higher we clambered, though, the sharper the incline became until we were scaling the vertical face of a cliff. Darkness swallowed everything below, and although we’d been on the ground only minutes ago—I thought, anyway—we were in Hell. Everything could change at Satan’s whim, and I had a feeling a fall now might never end. Too bad my stupid wings were useless.
Carrying the sword made it difficult to climb, but the flames lapping off the blade provided our only light to find hand and footholds. So, I held onto the weapon as I followed Tristan upward, and when I felt the warmth, I thought at first the Hellfire from the sword put it off, but then realized the wall itself was warming. I craned my head back to see up ahead, and a wave of heat blew my hair and blasted my skin, feeling like a bad sunburn.
Then we suddenly hit the top and passed from hanging onto a frozen, icy wall to stumbling toward a low, swinging bridge of fire that crossed a flaming lake. And this fire was hot. I couldn’t tell if we were in a high-ceilinged cave or not—the light of the fire surrounding us did nothing to illuminate the blackness above. To our right and left, fire and molten rock covered the banks that sloped down to the lake. We had no choice but to cross.
“Keep going,” Tristan ordered, and still holding my hand, he sprinted across the bridge.
We ran as fast as our legs could push us, hurdling flames that leapt up in front of us and swinging at the Demons swooping down, knocking some into the flaming lake and others into the darkness beyond. The harder and faster we ran, though, the farther away the shore became. Hands reached up through the fiery surface of the lake, grabbing at the low bridge and our ankles. New cries and howls, moans and whimpers filled the air. Heat singed my nose and throat raw, along with the souls’ agony I breathed in, tearing me apart further from the inside out. I stumbled several times, and so did Tristan, but we kept running. And the distant shore kept stretching farther and farther away.
A large group of Demons gathered at the far end and charged at us. We stopped, and I looked over my shoulder, really not wanting to return the way we’d come, and another group chased us from that direction. We had one flaming sword and powers that were useless against them. The cries of the tortured souls around us grew louder, the number of hands reaching out of the lake at us multiplied, grasping with more desperation than ever. But we couldn’t help ourselves, let alone anyone else. As my body began to sink from the weight of our seemingly hopeless situation, the flames licking at my legs forced me back up.
Tristan turned toward me, his face twisted with the same agony I felt, more on the inside than the physical outside.
“We need to get out of h
ere,” he yelled.
The Demons behind him closed in on us, and I felt the ones behind me quickly approaching, too. The lake of fire surrounded us. Up seemed to be the only way out—although I couldn’t be certain if there was anything that way either.
“How the hell do we get out of Hell?” I shouted above the wails filling my ears and mind, not sure if I sounded any differently than them.
And I wondered if the souls in the lake, crying for help and reaching out for us, had been others who’d tried to escape. Had they been like us, souls that didn’t belong in Hell, but couldn’t find their way out? Had they eventually succumbed to the inevitable and let the fire consume them? Would that be us in the future? If so, it would be the very near future—the Demons swarmed in.
“I love you, Tristan,” I said before I never had another chance to tell him, and I closed my mind to his to give me the element of surprise. I grabbed his waist, and his arms came up to wrap around me in an embrace. I ducked under his reach, and with all the strength I could muster, which was a hell of a lot for my size, I thrust my legs up and launched him into the air. “Go! Save yourself!”
His legs shot out into Aikido form as he soared over the Demons’ heads, kicking several out of his way. He landed on the far side of the group, but instead of running toward the shore, as I meant for him to do, he charged back toward them and me.
His voice thundered angrily in my head. “No way in hell am I leaving you … in Hell.”
Shit. I should have known. But I’d had to try.
The Demons’ attention split between the two of us, their heads swerving side to side as though they tried to decide which one of us to attack first. Tristan glanced at the fiery blade in my hand and looked back to my eyes. I gave him a small nod. He distracted those closest to him by attacking with his fists and feet. While he fought them hand-to-hand, I sliced and stabbed the fiery blade at those in front of me, cutting my way toward him, severing a head here and an arm there. They returned my blows with their own weapons, but they must have been blind as bats, because their blades and spikes barely grazed me, if reaching me at all.
But that thought came too soon. The moment Tristan and I shoved the last Demon between us into the lake, a stabbing pain pierced throughout my lower back. I’d ignored the group coming from the other direction for too long, and one of the Demons had nailed me. I lurched forward and fell downward, my face only inches from the flames when Tristan’s arms swept around me. He lifted me, but I could barely hold my weight, leaning on him as I tried to swing at the Demons.
They bared their yellow, jagged teeth in grins wide enough to expose their black gums. They knew they had us. I looked down at the lake of fire, wondering if it’d be better just to dive in rather than fight these beasts anymore. We’d die quick, at least … except, we wouldn’t. We’d be like those other souls baying for our help. Dismissing that idea, I returned my focus to the Demons just as one’s claws reached out for my throat. I batted at them with the sword and sliced them off. The Demon flew up and out of sight in the blackness. As my eyes followed it upwards, I automatically prayed for a miracle, although I knew prayers didn’t work down here. They didn’t work anywhere. And miracles would never come.
A bright light shot down toward us, followed by another, and I knew I’d been fooling myself that up was a way out. I envisioned dozens of Demons sitting on ledges on the sides of cliffs that reached high above us, reinforcements waiting impatiently to have their turn at attacking us. Then I realized how stupid that idea was. Why would they wait to take turns?
These had to have been some new kind of monstrosity sent to finish us off.
The Demons on the bridge screeched a horrible sound and lost interest in us. They sprang into the air, flying toward the white lights. Others came from seemingly nowhere, and they swarmed the white beings, swirling around them as though trying to snuff them out.
“We have to go,” Tristan ordered in my head, not to hide his plans because our thoughts could not be hidden from those in this realm, but so he could be heard over the cacophony of shrieking Demons and howling souls.
He took my hand, and we ran again for the far side of the lake. Both of us constantly looked over our shoulders to ensure the Demons remained distracted by the lights twisting and swerving around them. When they came closer and began to take shape, I stumbled and stopped, pulling Tristan to a halt.
These were not Demons. They weren’t Hellish at all. They put off a white light, a pure light, glowing from the inside out. Their wings were not black or brown and leathery, but white and feathery, pulled back behind them for the best aerodynamics as they shot like rockets in an extreme nosedive toward the lake of fire.
At the last second, they swooped over and hovered above us.
“You don’t belong here,” a male voice said, and the Angel who it belonged to grabbed my wrist and bulleted straight upward.
“Tristan!” I yelled, but the other Angel grabbed his upper arm and followed us.
A great rumbling sounded from below, and the fire lake churned like a sea, the flames growing and licking higher and higher. Some of the flames came together and took the shape of a hand the size of a bus. It reached for us, along with another hand, and then a horned head as big as a house. Lava poured off the colossal beast as its muscular torso rose from the lake.
Satan’s voice boomed across the surface like thunder. “Bring them to me!”
The sound came from the behemoth, and I realized the monster was the true embodiment of Satan. But as hard as he tried to reach for us, he apparently couldn’t break free of his own Hell. The rumbling turned into a furious roar that shook the very air and reverberated into my heart, making my breath catch.
Dozens of Demons screeched in response and chased after us. The Angels flew faster, but the Demons did, too. Talons groped for our arms and legs, trying to pull us back down. I kicked one off, and it tumbled in the air, only to latch on to Tristan. Another grabbed him, too, while two more attacked Tristan’s ride. The fire below glinted off the Angel’s sword as it lashed out, decapitating both Hellions with one powerful swing. But additional beasts swarmed onto Tristan, and the more he and the Angel fought back, the harder they twisted and pulled, until eventually they yanked him out of the Angel’s grip.
“No!” I screamed as I hit at the forearm holding onto me, but my Angel ignored me, seemingly oblivious to what happened below us. My eyes blurred as tears filled them while I watched my husband fall away from me. “Tristan!”
His hands reached up for me and for his Angel, as the Demons pulled him down, down, down. His Angel flew after him. Tristan and the Demons crash-landed on some kind of land bridge that stretched across the abyss, far below me now. Hoping it would help, I threw the fiery sword to him.
“We have to go back,” I yelled at the Angel carrying me away, but he ignored me and everything else, even his fellow Angel who’d gone back for Tristan.
We continued up, up, up. Up and away from Hell … away from my husband. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I kicked and twisted my body, trying to yank myself free, but the Angel’s grip was too strong. I swiped the tears away with my free hand and watched in horror as my big, powerful warrior grew smaller and smaller below me, using the sword he’d caught to fight the Demons with the Angel by his side.
Don’t give up, I silently called to him. I’ll come back for you.
The promise echoed in my head as I watched helplessly while being pulled away from my love, my heart, my soul, leaving him in Hell.
Chapter 4
The ascent lasted for eons, it seemed, even longer than it’d taken to fall. Which, I supposed, was true for anything in life. Tumbling down was easy. It was the getting back up and making the climb again that required effort. I yelled and thrashed the whole way, hoping to annoy the Angel until he turned around, but he acted as though he forgot I was even there. Except his grip—it remained tight as ever.
When we finally entered the Earthly realm, I expected the Angel t
o drop me into my body since I’d already been told I didn’t belong in Heaven, but we zipped on through the realm without going through my body. In fact, I never saw it or Tristan’s. For that matter, I didn’t recognize where we flew through at all.
The crash of metal on metal resounded in my ears, and I suddenly realized we’d only passed by the physical realm. We hadn’t actually entered it. We were still in the Otherworld, now in that space surrounding Earth where the battle between Angels and Demons carried on. The Angel dipped and lifted, twisted and swerved through it, narrowly avoiding Angels’ swords and Demons’ claws. My foot kicked a Demon’s horn, and it chased after us, but at the moment its black nails scratched down my calf, two Angels ambushed it and carried it away. Finally, we passed through a blinding band of white light and then into the foggy area where I’d been before. The Angel deposited me at Mom’s and Rina’s feet, and I collapsed in a heap.
“Tristan!” I cried as I pawed at the beautiful creature’s leg, trying to latch back on. “We have to go back for him.”
The Angel shook me off and replied in a deep, smooth voice, “He has what he needs. Souls that do not belong there must make the choice themselves. He must decide where his faith lies.”
My mouth fell open as I stared up at him in disbelief for as long as he allowed me to before he disappeared from sight. His words repeated what Tristan had told me in Hell, but if they were true, why hadn’t he escaped yet? I spun on Mom and Rina.
“We have to save him!” I deplored.
When they opened their mouths as if to respond, snakes tumbled out. Their eyes blackened, and horns grew from their heads. I screamed until darkness consumed me.
* * *
Monsters came at me with enormous snake-like arms that wrapped around me, constricting my lungs. I tried to fight them off, but the more I did, the more their squeeze on me tightened. When I finally broke free, their faces mutated to Mom’s and Rina’s, and I watched their bodies fall to the ground as bullets punched a million holes into them, spraying blood over the grass … which began to undulate, each blade becoming a tentacle that tried to wrap itself around me.