by Diem, J. C.
He grinned when my back hit the wall, revealing long fangs and a forked tongue. “If circumstances had been different, I would have made you my queen,” he said and stroked a talon down my face. I cringed away from his touch. “But you were created to be my enemy. You were far easier to manipulate than I had anticipated. It was almost laughable watching you traipse through the nine realms. Little did you know that you were searching for the device that I require to break my servants free.”
Hearing an amused caw, I somehow wasn’t surprised when my feathered nemesis fluttered over to land on Satan’s shoulder. I’d been correct when I’d assumed it was the Hellmaster’s eyes and ears. My only mistake was believing the bird was a spy for the new master of the underworld. It seemed it had been the Devil’s pet all along.
“Yes,” Satan said to my unspoken words. He stroked the mangy bird with a finger. “I was the one who sent the raven to guide you where I needed you to go.” Holding out his hand, he called the metal device to him rather than walking over to retrieve it. He held it out for me to see. “I do not understand how you managed to disobey me and assemble this yourself, but it does not matter.”
“What is it?” I asked. I was still hurting from whatever had happened to me when I’d slid the final piece into the puzzle. About the length of my forearm when I was human, it was smooth on one edge, but the other was jagged. One end was pointed, but the other was rounded. Instead of being tarnished, the silver was now shiny. It looked like it had been freshly forged.
“It is a key,” he replied with a sly grin. “Or should I say it is the key. It will lock or unlock any door that has ever been created. God gave it to his angels and commanded them to watch over it. Now that it is in my possession, I can unlock the hellgates and set my minions free.”
“What about the Hellmaster?” I croaked. “He was powerful enough to beat you once. He can overpower you again and send you back to your cage.”
He gave a gravelly laugh. “I allowed myself to be captured. Everything he has done has unknowingly been at my behest. I was the one who gave him the idea to usurp me in the first place. He created the Nephilim simply due to an observation that I made. I knew that you would be the result and that you were the only being who could achieve the end that I desired.”
He’d been manipulating everyone even before I’d been born. He was just as skilled as Fate at making people do what he wanted. I had no idea what the end was that he was talking about.
“My usurper might appear to be powerful,” he went on, “but his strength comes from something that does not belong to him. Once I strip it from him, I will become the most powerful being that has ever existed. Not even God will be able to stop me from eradicating the human vermin from Earth.”
The fanatical look in his eyes spoke of his insanity and need to subvert everyone to his will. He’d always been vain and had sought power. Soon, he would have it and I’d been the one to hand it to him.
“If you will excuse me, I have a world to conquer,” he said. Taking me by the shoulder, he propelled me towards the cage where he’d been imprisoned since before my birth.
Sy gave a cry of horror when I was shoved into the cage. He rushed in after me. Satan slammed the door shut, but it was almost drowned out by the scribe’s screams of agony. Reactivating the spells, his laughter floated to us as the Devil left us to wither beneath the onslaught of angelic grace.
₪₪₪
Chapter Forty-One
Without demons inside me for the grace to destroy, I wasn’t badly affected as Sy was. He’d fallen to his knees and was writhing in agony. Smoke was wafting off him from the close proximity of angelic essence. He looked at me, beseeching me to save him.
Being surrounded by the holy essence was making my skin burn. I would soon begin to feel pain that would quickly escalate to debilitating agony. If I didn’t do something about the grace, Sy would be stuck here for eternity. He would burn, but he wouldn’t be able to die. I wasn’t sure what would happen to me and I’d rather not find out.
A crazy idea came to me, but I couldn’t think of any other solution. In desperation, I closed my eyes and imagined I was in the shadowlands of my mind. To my intense relief, I found myself standing in front of the arena. Raziel’s house was too small to hold the influx of essence that would hopefully soon be rushing into me. The arena was the only container that would be strong enough, and large enough, to withstand what I was about to do.
Opening the door to the arena, I threw out mental arms and called the grace to me. Sensing a soulless body that they believed they could possess, temptation won and they surged towards me. A barrage of thoughts and memories assailed me as they began to appear inside the arena.
Remaining in their spirit forms, they floated around in agitation. I closed the door before they could try to escape. They’d been forcibly harvested, which had left them unable to assume their corporeal bodies. The vessels of most of the angels that had been stripped of their grace had been murdered. I had no idea what would happen to their essence once I set them free from my mind.
It was pointless to worry about it now. If Sy and I managed to break out of the cage, I hoped the arena would shield the angelic grace. Hopefully, it would keep them safe in the same way that Raziel’s house kept its occupants from being burned to a crisp.
Sy had stopped screaming. Hearing him breathing harshly, I opened my eyes to see him lying on his side. He seemed bigger than normal, then I realized I’d shrunk back to my human size. Looking at my hands, my talons were gone and my skin was white. My armor had disappeared and I was wearing boots, jeans and my faux leather jacket with the hoodie beneath it. Having so much grace inside me had suppressed my demonic half completely. I was now effectively a human again.
Hurrying over to Sy, I knelt beside him. He was a little scorched, but he’d stopped smoking. “Are you okay?” I asked.
Cracking an eye open, he looked around and realized the angels were gone. “What happened?” he asked in a croaky voice. “Where did all the grace go?”
“I took them all inside me,” I said with a grimace. The angels knew who I was and they’d been furious when they realized that I’d ingested them. Only two hadn’t been horrified that they were being imprisoned inside me. One had belonged to Asteraoth. I was fairly sure the other grace belonged to Sophia. They’d both seemed warm and familiar before I’d shut them inside the arena.
“You look human again,” Sy noted and struggled to sit up.
“I’d noticed,” I said dryly.
“Can you still use your camouflage?” he asked and I shrugged to indicate I had no idea. To test it, I touched his arm and became a duplicate of him. “Good,” he said in relief. “That means we will be able to sneak out once we are free from this cage.”
“Satan locked the door and he took the only key that can unlock it,” I informed him.
“Are you certain of that?” he asked slyly. “Now that the angelic grace is gone, my spells might work.”
“It can’t hurt to try, I guess,” I replied without much hope.
Drawing his dagger, he pricked a finger and drew the symbol that would create a magical doorway. When he was done, he activated it and couldn’t contain his glee when a misty doorway appeared.
Standing side by side, we clasped each other’s shoulders and stepped through the doorway. Once we were through, it faded and disappeared. I was so weak now that I hadn’t even felt the usual tingle in my head when he’d performed his magic.
Sy went to head for the passageway that led to Dantanian’s office, but I stopped him. “We still have to save the imps,” I reminded him.
I could see he was reluctant to help mere imps, but he didn’t argue with me. Even when I was in my diminished human form, I was still his master. Drawing my dagger in the hope that it would warn me of impending danger, I headed for one of the other tunnels.
Wending our way upwards through a series of passageways, we eventually reached a dead end. Sy found the switch to open it
and it swung open. I took on his form and slid my dagger back into its sheath before we stepped out into the open.
A cacophony of voices echoed throughout the city as the soldiers prepared to leave. This time, it wasn’t from panic that I’d killed their leader. Instead, it was to get ready to invade Earth.
Now that Satan had the magical key that could unlock any door, he wouldn’t need to challenge any new gate he came across. He’d just have to touch it while holding the key and it would open for him. He already seemed to know where all of the gates were. He could head straight for the closest one that led to New York where he’d chosen to begin his war against humanity. I had to return to Earth and warn everyone that the apocalypse was upon them, but I had a duty to the imps first.
Sy knew the city well and took the lead. “The pit is this way,” he said. I kept close to his side as we headed across the city. We heard snippets of gossip as we travelled and paused to listen in when we heard something interesting.
“I cannot believe that Satan has finally returned,” a servant said to a group of her peers. “The new Hellmaster should be quaking in his hooves by now.” From the look on her face, she was terrified of her former master.
“I wonder where he has been all this time?” another servant said.
“I heard he came storming out of the Scriptorium,” a third demon said. “Perhaps Dantanian and his scribes had buried him beneath their precious scrolls.” They all sniggered, but I exchanged a look with Sy. They were closer to the mark than they’d realized, except it was the new Hellmaster who had arranged for Satan to be jailed. Then again, if what the Devil had said was true, he’d been behind his own imprisonment all along. “The scribes were flocked around him like crows,” the servant added, “clutching armfuls of their runes.”
“I heard the Hellmaster’s carriage was seen fleeing the city shortly before Satan appeared,” the first servant said. “I could almost pity him when our master catches up to him.”
“I wish I could be there to see them battle for supremacy,” another one said wistfully. As lowly servants, they wouldn’t be joining the battle. Only the soldiers and scribes were gearing up for the invasion. They’d been preparing for this event for tens of thousands of years, if not longer.
Continuing on, we almost made it to the gate when a captain stopped us. “Where are you going?” he demanded. “Have you not heard that all scribes are to follow our master to Earth for the invasion?”
Looking around, I made sure we weren’t being watched. Bending down, I pulled my dagger and rammed it into his chest before he realized he was in danger. Sy grabbed hold of the captain before he could sprawl to the ground. We carried him to a small, shabby house and dumped his body in a corner.
“You might not look particularly dangerous right now, but you are still deadly to our kind,” Sy said as we headed towards the gate again.
“I wish I could have used my dagger on Satan,” I replied. “He’s not like other demons. He can compel me to obey him, at least to some extent.”
“You resisted him enough to construct the key yourself. No other demon has ever been able to defy his orders.”
“I’m only half demon, though. Maybe he can only compel full demons.”
“With the number of angels you have inside you now, he will probably not be able to control you at all anymore,” he pointed out.
“I guess we’ll find out when I see him next.” We shared a grimace. Neither of us was looking forward to that prospect.
₪₪₪
Chapter Forty-Two
When we reached the peak of the bridge, I searched for the pit. I saw one to the left and another one to the right. The gigantic grate that covered the one on the right indicated it was where we’d find the imps. There was too much noise coming from the city for me to hear the groans and cries of pain from the souls that were being tortured.
Hurrying down the steep slope of the bridge, we angled to the right. As we drew closer to the pit, an ominous silence came from within. Sy had to struggle to keep up with me when I broke into a run. Fearing the worst, I reached the grate and peered down through the crisscrossing iron bars. Far below, imps were crowded in with human souls. They were packed in like sardines, but they were whole and unharmed. Any damage their torturers had given them had healed.
“It appears the guards have joined the exodus,” Sy said.
I switched my attention to the ladder that stretched from the ground all the way up to the edge of the pit. It wasn’t being guarded. “Good. Now let’s see if we can break their cage open.”
Hearing my voice, heads tilted backwards and whispers began to spread. “Hellscourge?” a voice called out. “Is that you?”
“Rashida?” I called back, recognizing her. “Are you okay? Is Max there?”
“I am fine and Max is with me.”
They both waved and I waved back. “Sy and I are going to try to unlock the door,” I told them. “We’ll get you out of there soon.”
Rounding the pit to the ladder, I saw a small door that was just large enough to allow the soldiers and guards to fit through. A padlock held it shut and it was covered in runes. Sy crouched down and frowned. “I am not going to be able to unlock this,” he said in a low voice. “These runes are very powerful. They can only be deactivated by the one who created them.”
If I’d still had the magic key, I would have been able to open it. It had deactivated the spells that Dantanian, or the Hellmaster, had placed on Satan’s cage.
“Fantastic,” I said and kicked the padlock in annoyance. We both froze when the glow from the runes faded and the padlock clicked open. “What just happened?” I asked.
“I believe you unlocked it,” he replied in a shaken tone.
“How? I barely touched it.”
“I do not know, but it must have something to do with the key. There has to be a reason why Satan commanded you not to assemble the fragments. I saw you double over in pain when the final piece clicked into place. What happened to you?”
I’d almost forgotten about the tingling sensation I’d felt as each piece of the puzzle became joined. The pain when the final piece had slid into place had been excruciating. On a hunch, I drew my sleeve back.
Sy gasped when he saw the markings that had been etched onto my skin. “They look like the same symbols that adorned the Princes,” he said in a disturbed tone.
Lifting up my clothes, I saw the marks were on my stomach as well. They covered the scar from the Wraith Warrior. Sy checked my back and nodded in confirmation that they were there, too. Checking my scarlet bracelet, I saw that it was now completely covered in markings. “What does this mean?” I asked.
Sam answered me. It must have something to do with the warning the Princes gave you.
They’d told me their deaths would ensure the demise of humanity. “When I killed them, their power was transferred to the key,” I said in dismay. “I must have charged it up with their evil essence.”
“You bear their markings and can open locks that no key should be able to unlock,” Sy said. “I believe you are linked to the key. You do not need to be in possession of it to use its power.”
“Then why couldn’t I get us out of the cage?”
“You did not try to open the door,” he reminded me. “I used a spell to break us free.”
Our time was running out. Satan and his army were marching on Earth and I had to get there before him. “Let’s worry about this later,” I decided. “Help me open the door.”
Sy reached down and we both hauled the heavy door open, but the scribe did most of the work. Imps began to ascend the ladder in an orderly fashion. Rashida and Max worked their way through the crowd and I gave them both a hug. I introduced them to Sy and they all nodded at each other mistrustfully. For my sake, they would pretend to get along.
“Thank you for saving us yet again, Hellscourge,” Rashida said.
“We are indebted to you once more,” Max added.
“You guys don’t o
we me anything,” I replied. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re even.” My watch had stopped working the moment I stepped into the shadowlands, but I automatically checked it anyway. “I’d love to stay and chat, but Satan is on his way to invade Earth right now. We’ve got to get back to the lords and hitch a ride to the hellgate.”
Only now did it occur to me that we needn’t have waited for the nightmares to recover. We could have simply switched to two of the other lords’ carriages instead. I resisted the urge to slap myself in the forehead and turned to Sy. “We need to get going before Morax comes looking for us.”
“Too late,” a deep, gravelly voice said from behind me. I turned to see all eight lords closing in on us. “What happened?” Morax asked when he took in my human form.
“I’ll fill you in on our way to the gate. We have to warn humanity that the apocalypse is about to arrive.”
Morax had come to the same realization that we didn’t need to wait for his and Flauros’ nightmares to recover. He nodded at two of the other lords and they called on their equine servants. Two carriages appeared nearby with nightmares ready for action.
“Take us with you,” Rashida pleaded. “We can help you fight the demons.”
Taking in their numbers, there were far too many for us to be able to transport them all. “Some of you can come with us,” I said. Morax rolled his eyes, but he didn’t protest when imps swarmed over the carriages. They sat on the roof, the front and the back and clung to the sides like ticks.
Several empty carts were headed out of the city on the nearby road. They would be going to the forests and dormant volcanos to bring back more petrified wood and volcanic rocks. “Why don’t the rest of you commandeer some carts?” I suggested. “You can follow us to the gate.” Imps were far lighter than the wood and boulders and the nags might have a chance at keeping up with us.