I spun around, braced my legs apart, and held my hands up in preparation for the attack. At the last second, I took a step to the side and drove my fist into the back of her skull. She shrieked again when her body smacked into the pathway with enough force to crack the rock beneath her. Humans scrambled to get out of the way of her bouncing body before she crashed into the wall.
Bale leapt forward and drove her foot into the woman’s side. Her body rose three feet off the ground from Bale’s kick before thumping down again. She remained lying prone on the rock. Corson’s talons extended as he walked over and sliced through the woman’s neck with one fatal blow. Her head rolled until it stopped a few feet away from Bale.
My shoulders heaved and my teeth scraped together as I spun to watch more of the creatures flying toward freedom.
***
River
Wincing, I rested a hand on my bruised ribs as I pushed myself into a seated position against the wall. Within the flow of light, a rush of winged old women flew by me. Their screams filled my ears as their wings flapped.
The lanavours, also thrown back by the explosion that had rocked Hell, were regaining their feet. That strange chatter sounded approvingly from them as they watched the women soaring higher into the air. Rolling to the side, I pushed myself up and stumbled toward where Hawk lay, unmoving against the wall.
I fell at his side and gently pulled on his arm to roll him over. Blood trickled from a gash on his forehead, and a bruise marred his right cheek, but his chest rose and fell steadily. Gripping his wrist, I felt the beat of his pulse beneath my fingers.
“Hawk.” A couple of the lanavours turned to look at us when I spoke. Rising to my feet, I grabbed his other wrist and began to drag him backward. I ignored the wrenching pull on my arms as I dug my heels in and moved further away from the lanavours with him. “Hawk, get up. We have to go.”
He groaned and cracked one eye to look at me. “What happened?”
“I think another one of the seals gave way,” I muttered and pulled on his arm again, dragging him closer to me when a lanavour moved toward us. “We have to go, now. The lanavours are coming again.”
He pulled his wrist away from me and shoved himself over. His head hung down as he knelt on his hands and knees. Resting my fingers on the wall beside me, I drew on the flow of life within this place as I warily watched the lanavours. The flap of wings drew my attention to the flying women as one of them hovered at the edge of the roadway, inspecting me.
My stomach twisted sickeningly as the snakes she had for hair slithered upward, their tongues flicking out to taste the air. Normally, snakes didn’t bother me. Seeing them attached to someone’s head though was more than a little unsettling, as was the dog snout the woman had for a nose. Her wings made me think of angels as they were covered with white feathers, but the malice she radiated was far from angelic. Some of the other creatures flying past had wings like those of a bat while others had wings of assorted colors.
“What are they?” Hawk inquired.
“I don’t know, and right now, I don’t care. We have to get out of here,” I said.
The woman smiled at me. “Someone is looking for you.”
With those words, she nosedived at us.
***
Kobal
The light faded away, leaving behind only the black of the pit once more. Behind me, the humans shuffled and moved about.
“What was that?” Vargas asked.
“That was the seventy-eighth seal,” Bale said.
“Seventy-eighth?” someone squeaked.
“Yes,” I said, my eyes assimilating to the darkness once more. “Which means the wood nymphs are out.”
“Lucifer has lost his mind,” Corson said.
“So seventy-eight of them have collapsed?” Erin asked.
I stared above me toward the faint rays of sun I could still see from the earth. An earth that would never be the same now.
“Shit is about to hit the fan up above,” Corson said.
“The demons and remaining skelleins will fight them,” I replied.
“What were those things?” Vargas demanded.
“Erinyes,” I said and faced the humans. “You probably know them better as furies.”
“What can they do?” someone asked.
“They’re demons of justice and vengeance. They punish their victims by driving them mad and torturing them,” Corson replied.
“Wonderful,” someone muttered.
“Why were they locked behind a seal?” Erin asked.
“Because when they ran out of rightful spirits and demons to punish, they turned on those who didn’t deserve it in order to keep themselves amused. One of my ancestors was able to capture and seal them off,” I replied.
“So they’re pissed, and now they’re free,” Vargas said. “How many of them are there?”
“Nine now,” Bale said and kicked the head of the one Corson had decapitated into the pit.
“Why didn’t your ancestors just kill them?” another human asked.
A screech rent the air from somewhere below us. “River,” I breathed.
CHAPTER 14
River
I darted to the side and nearly tripped over a rock in my rush to avoid the woman diving at me. I flung myself to the ground, rolling over and rising back to my feet. Hawk leapt up and ran toward me with his head down and his arms pumping.
The woman pulled up before she crashed into the wall and spun toward me. Her claws clicked together, and the snakes around her head all swiveled to look at me. They hissed as they felt at the air with their forked tongues.
Flames burst from my fingertips; I lifted my arm and released a ball that crashed into the woman. She spiraled head over heels into the lanavours.
“Let’s go!” Hawk shouted and grabbed my arm.
Spinning me around, he kept hold of my arm as we raced down the roadway. Our rapid breaths and the loud slap of our boots against the dirt echoed off the rocks. I had no idea where we were going or how deep we were traveling. All I knew was we had to stay away from that thing. Otherwise, I’d find myself sitting face to face with my ancestor.
Something whistled behind us. I jerked to a halt, shoving Hawk backward and pushing him into the wall as the woman rushed past us with her angel wings folded against her once more. Resting my hand on the wall, I tried to control the adrenaline kicking through me in order to draw on the soothing presence of the life flowing through the rocks.
I latched onto that life, drawing it deeper into me. There was something almost familiar about the life filling me. My head fell back as my gaze went to the sunlight and the world above that I could no longer see, but I knew it was up there, and… in here?
Heaven, Hell, and Earth had all been one entity when the world was first created. Then Hell had broken away, followed by Heaven, to form their own planes. But they’d once all been interlocked together, and I could feel those interlocking bonds now. I had no idea if I was drawing life from Hell right now or if I was somehow pulling it down from the Earth above, but it was familiar, and the power was mine for the taking.
The shadows withdrew from around me as the midnight blue sparks I drew forth lit the ground. The creature spun toward us; her own forked tongue slithered out at us before she launched forward. Hawk tried to pull me back, but I spun my hand around, lifted my palm, and released a blast of energy. The air around us crackled and became electrified before the ball slammed into the woman’s chest.
Her hands clawed at her chest and her wings beat at the air. She rose three feet off the ground as she released an ear-splitting shriek. I threw my hands over my ears as she bent backward before collapsing onto the roadway.
Lowering my hands from my ears, I gazed in wonder at her crumpled body. On the air, the rank scent of something rotten burned into my nostrils, and I realized it was from the black blood oozing from the grotesque woman.
“We have to go,” Hawk said.
I pushed myself away from t
he wall to step cautiously around her body. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the pile of snakes surrounding her leathery face. My throat became drier with every tip-toeing step I took around the carcass until I was sure there was nothing but dust within my mouth.
Then, one of the snakes shot up only inches before me. It struck at me, its fangs missing my leg by mere centimeters. My scream lodged in my throat as I jumped back from it. Hawk’s hand flew to his heart, and he staggered away.
The snake’s red eyes burned through the shadows. Its tongue slithered out as it tracked me. It struck at me again, the force of its momentum dragging the dead body it was attached to a few inches forward. I stumbled further away from it as it went ramrod straight before collapsing beside the tumbled mess of its friends.
“I could have done without that in my life,” Hawk muttered.
“You and me both.”
A rock clattered against something from somewhere behind us. My head snapped up as the first lanavour stepped back into view. Lifting my hands, I managed to get a small ball of fire to form, but the creature jerked backward and disappeared before I could throw it.
I cursed and nearly stomped my foot in frustration but managed to stop myself in time. I really freaking hated these things. Turning, we plunged back down the roadway until we came to a place where the road split in two.
***
Kobal
Rounding another corner, I skidded to a stop when I came across the body of a furie with a scorch mark in the center of her chest. Fire hadn’t taken her down; the furies had an especially high tolerance for flames.
Her body was confirmation that River could draw on the flow of life in Hell too. I hadn’t known if it would be possible, and if it was possible, I didn’t have any idea what it would do to her. What it might be doing to her now.
“Eight left,” Bale panted from beside me and kicked aside one of the snakes.
“I’d almost forgotten how ugly these things were,” Corson said.
Turning away from the body, I broke into a run again. Driven forward by my need to get to her, I almost didn’t realize the pathway branched off in two different directions until I skidded to a halt a few feet down the left-hand path. I scented the air for River’s crisp, fresh rain scent. Amid the harsher scents in the air, hers was easy enough to pick up and follow.
“This way.” Turning to the right, I moved in the opposite direction. My heart pumped faster as I realized where River and Hawk were heading. I had to get to her before she walked straight into a pit of deviousness and torment; one she might not survive unscathed. If she survived at all.
***
River
“What is this?” Hawk rasped.
“I have no idea.”
My skin felt as if I’d been doused with ice water, a feeling that should have been pleasant after the unending heat of Hell. However, there was nothing pleasant about any of this. I’d distinctly heard the bolt of a lock sliding into place the minute the door we’d stepped through had closed behind us. The lanavours were still back there, somewhere, but they would not be making it in here, and I knew instinctively we would not be exiting that door.
Finally giving into the urge, I looked behind me to confirm there was nothing but a solid wall of rock with a single door in the middle of it. Hawk grabbed the handle and jerked on it. The door didn’t budge. Releasing the handle, he gave me a look that clearly stated he believed we were screwed. I was afraid he might be right.
From in front of me, something clicked and the tinkling sound of high-pitched music filled the air. Every hair on my body stood on end. I was so electrified with panic that the hair on my head would have been standing up too, if it hadn’t been so dampened down with sweat.
“Shit,” Hawk breathed.
My head swiveled back to the carousel in the middle of the boulder-lined room. The intricately carved creatures on the carousel had begun to rise and fall as it started to spin before us. Some of those creatures looked more like horses than others, but even the horse looking ones had two heads or two tails. Others had six legs, some of them only had two, and more than a few of the “horses” had snouts instead of muzzles or fangs and claws instead of hooves.
I’d never imagined anything like these creatures before, yet the carousel looked like any other I’d seen over the years with its intricate designs etched into the wood at the top and bottom of it and golden poles holding the creatures in place. The colorful, twinkling lights in the ceiling reflected in the glass floor in a nearly blinding display that caused me to rub at my eyes.
I’d been on a carousel once, when I was five. My babysitter had taken me to the mall to meet with some of her friends. She’d put me on one of the wooden horses and stood nearby to talk with them while she watched me. I’d laughed as I’d gone in circles, rising up and down on the horses while I went repeatedly around on it.
She’d continued to give the man running the ride money to let me stay on, because I hadn’t wanted to get off. By the time I was done, she’d spent more money on me than she’d made babysitting me for the day. When I’d gone home raving about how much fun I’d had and chattering about the pretty horses, my mother fired the girl. I’d cried myself to sleep for a week after, and I never again told my mother about something I enjoyed.
The carousel of my childhood had been magical. This one was anything but.
“Where do we go?” Hawk asked, his eyes riveted on the spectacle before us.
“As far from this thing as we can,” I muttered and edged toward the side.
It was only when I saw more walls beyond the carousel and no door other than the locked one we’d come through that I realized there was no other way out of this room. My hands ran over the thick, unrelenting black rocks as I circled around the spinning carousel while eerie, tinkling music continued to play.
I tried to ignore the carousel as I searched for some chink in the walls, some weakness that would get us away from the creepy music and endlessly rising and falling creatures, but it was impossible to shut it out completely. My hands scrabbled at the rock while I struggled to remain calm and not start screaming my head off.
This was Hell, anything could happen, anything. There could be a freaking carousel in the middle of nowhere even. Those things on the carousel could come to life at any moment.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths.
“I hate this place,” Hawk said.
“So do I,” I murmured.
Having made a complete circle of the room, I stopped in front of the door again. I rested one hand against the door and the other on the cool black rocks. Hawk stood beside me as I pulled life from the rocks and focused it into my palm against the door. Sparks danced over the smooth rock door, illuminating its gray surface, but they did nothing to warm or bend it in anyway. Nothing to get the thick metal bolt to slide free of its lock.
“I can’t get it to move,” I whispered and dropped my forehead against the door.
Hawk took hold of my arm, drawing my attention to him. “Look.” I followed where he was pointing to the carousel. “Wait ‘til it comes around again.”
I watched the flashing lights as the carousel spun around again. My breath caught and I bit my lower lip as a door came into view in the center of the carousel. “I have a feeling that’s our way out of here,” Hawk said.
“And into where?” I inquired as the door turned out of sight.
“That’s the million-dollar question.”
I glanced around the rocky room again. We could stay here and wait for Kobal to come for me, as I knew he would, or we could take our chances with that doorway. The room was unnerving, but it wasn’t hostile.
Yet.
Already I detected a change in the music as it became increasingly louder and screechy. Were the creatures rising and falling faster or was I imagining it?
Then, one of the creature’s heads turned toward us. I couldn’t stop myself from jumping and sucking in a breath as my heel connected with the door. I had not imag
ined that.
“Bullshit,” Hawk grated from beside me. “This is bullshit.”
“I don’t think we’re going to be allowed to stand here for much longer, and I don’t want to find out what’s going to happen if those things somehow manage to pull themselves free from there and come at us.”
“Neither do I.”
Another head turned toward us. Nostrils flared as the creature released a breath that plumed in the air. Is their breath hot or cold to make it do that?
Its black eyes burned red as it watched us before it rotated out of sight. I didn’t think my heart could take much more of this, and we were going to have to step onto that carousel in order to get to the door.
There was a good chance I’d have a coronary before that, but we didn’t have much of a choice.
“Come on,” I said and took Hawk’s hand. “I’m not going to be trampled by these things.”
“Can you burn them?”
“Not in these close confines. I could take us with them.”
“Then use that handy dandy little suck the life from things and zap them with it talent you have,” he replied.
“Handy dandy?” I inquired.
He shrugged a shoulder, but his eyes remained riveted on the creatures bouncing up and down and coming more alive as we spoke. “It is, and hopefully it works.”
Another head swiveled toward us. The sound the creature released was unlike any other noise I’d ever heard. Part growl, part guttural hunger, it made my stomach plunge into my toes as its eyes burned like embers of coal. That thing would eat us after trampling us beneath its cloven hooves.
Working on burying my fear, I rested my fingers against the rock wall. Life swelled beneath my hand as one of the two-headed horses snorted loudly and jerked to the side. The pole holding it bent and broke with far more ease than I would have thought possible when we’d first entered this room.
Its hooves clinked against the glass lining the bottom of the carousel when it set them down. The pole still went through its middle, but it no longer kept it pinned in place. The creature shook its heads and turned toward us with what I swore was a smile on its black lips.
The Road (The Road to Hell Series, Book 3) Page 11