“It has to stop,” I breathed, and Magnus cried, “Enough!”
When the three remaining lower-level demons took a step toward Magnus, the hounds leaned back on their haunches and flung themselves into the air without so much as a sound of warning. The demons screamed as they beat and fought against the hounds. Crunching bone and the rending of flesh could be heard throughout the cavern, but the demon’s shrieks continued to sound as the hounds didn’t immediately go for the killing blow.
Some of the other hounds relentlessly stalked the last two demons while three of them launched at Lucifer. Before they could reach him, they were all thrown back by an unseen hand. Telekinesis, I recalled Kobal saying about Lucifer’s abilities.
“Kill them already,” I whispered when the wails of the demons rose to deafening levels while the hounds played with them like a cat with a mouse.
Corson’s muscles flexed beneath my hands. I could feel the immense amount of life flowing through him, but I didn’t dare draw from him in case it somehow tipped off Lucifer as to who I was. Plus, it wouldn’t be enough to replenish me in time to take on Lucifer. At this point, I didn’t think I’d be able to take out a barta again.
Another hound released an ear-splitting yelp, and its lifeless body was tossed aside by Lucifer’s ability. The frenzy of the hounds grew louder; the sounds of their feeding rose to nearly drown out the shrieks of the demons. Corson pressed me closer against the wall as something within the darkness of the rockslide drew my attention.
An imposing figure rose from beneath the rock avalanche to stand on top of the pile. Covered entirely in black dust, it was impossible to make out any features until the figure lifted its head, and Kobal’s amber eyes burned hotly from deep within the shadows.
My grip on Corson’s shoulders loosened as my heart stuttered. I’d never seen Kobal look so lethal or bloodthirsty before. The savagery pulsating from him caused the hair on my arms to stand up.
With every step he took down the rocks, he emerged more from the shadows that embraced his body as if he were a part of them. And he was a part of the darkness, I realized. He was Hell and it was him.
When he stepped into the light, the screams of the demons ceased as the hounds finally delivered their killing blows, and I realized they’d been masking the sound of Kobal’s rising. The silence that descended over the cavern held the heavy air of expectancy as nothing and no one dared to move.
“Now, these numbers are a little more even,” Kobal growled.
My eyes were drawn back to Lucifer as he tore his spikes from Hawk’s body and turned to face Kobal. Hawk slumped to the ground; his head fell back against the wall. Kobal’s white teeth flashed before he broke into a run and leapt forward. I could only watch with a mix of wonder and horror as he and Lucifer collided in midair.
***
Kobal
I slammed into Lucifer with far more force than the rockslide I’d just crawled out from under. One of my ribs gave way beneath the impact, but I barely felt it as my hands clasped around his throat. His wings beat against the air, drawing us upward with every thrust before he turned and dove toward the cavern floor again.
I didn’t look down. I couldn’t as my claws pierced his skin and dug deep through the sinew of his neck. I hacked at him as the wind whistled around us and whipped against my skin and hair.
“Kobal!” River shrieked seconds before Lucifer propelled me into the cavern wall.
Another rib gave way, causing one of my hands to be knocked free of its grip on his neck. Lucifer’s black eyes filled my vision before his wings pulled back, and he turned the bottoms of them up, pointing them toward me. Before he could drive those spikes forward, fire burst out of my hand still holding him, and I sank my fangs into his throat.
A series of concussive blows battered my chest as he pummeled me with his powerful fists. Unable to get a clear thrust at me, his wings folded against his sides as he worked to free himself from my hold on his neck. Ripping backward, I tore out a chunk out of his throat and spat it away. Driving my head forward, I smashed my forehead off the bridge of his nose.
Lucifer’s hands flew up to cover his nose. I twisted my hands into his shirt when he released me and dragged him down with me. We landed in a tumbled heap on top of the pile of remains littering the floor.
The impact of the ground broke my hold on him, and he rolled away from me. The hounds leapt forward, snapping at him, but they were quickly tossed aside as Lucifer swept his hand in a clearing gesture.
The world lurched around me, and I swayed as I rose to my feet with the intention of rushing at him again. It took me a second to realize the ground was still stable, but Lucifer was using his ability to warp my perception of reality against me. The cavern became a wavy haze around me until I couldn’t see the walls and didn’t know where they were anymore.
He’d used this ability on me before. The last time, he’d gotten the drop on me and torn my arm from my shoulder. This time, I focused on the things I knew were real. The bodies and parts beneath my feet were real, so were the hounds snarling close by. I didn’t dare look toward where I’d last seen River standing behind Corson; it would throw off what little I did know about the world right now.
“Senché.” The hounds fell silent at my command to do so.
I remained unmoving, refusing to look at the rippling waves of altered reality surrounding me. The smallest fluctuation in the air had my head falling back as Lucifer descended like a spider from above me with the bottom spikes of his wings aimed at my shoulders. I braced myself for him when an invisible punch bashed into my chest and flung me into the wall.
Fucking hate telekinesis.
I shook my head to clear it of the distortion all around me as my concentration had been broken by Lucifer’s blast. I’d just started to get my bearings again when a spike tore into my shoulder, piercing through my muscle and bone to the rock behind me. Lucifer’s ability to twist reality caused River’s scream to barely register in my mind.
Fire burst from my free hand. It blasted across Lucifer’s face, searing his eyebrows and singing his hair. He threw his other wing up to block the next blast I shot toward him. While he was distracted, I reached up and snapped off the point embedded in my shoulder.
Black blood spurted from the hole I’d torn into the bottom of Lucifer’s wing. It dripped down my face and onto my chest like a waterfall. He shrieked, and his wing flapped in the air as if he were trying to shake off the pain. Lunging forward, I wrapped my hands around his throat again and shoved backward before he could regain control and come back at me with his telekinesis. We tumbled over the remains as we fell in a heap with me on the bottom.
He punched and kicked at me, but his ability to alter the world had weakened as he became more focused on trying to dislodge me, and I could see things more clearly once again. The hounds nipped at his heels as I released his throat and drove my thumbs up, pushing my claws into his eyes. My fingers tore at his blistered and peeling skin. Layers of flesh raked away beneath my claws to reveal the muscle and bone beneath.
Lucifer grabbed hold of the spike still sticking into my shoulder blade and gave it a twist. I roared in fury. Bracing my legs beneath me, I thrust upward to flip him over onto the pile and regained my feet as he rose to face me.
Though blood seeped from his damaged eyes, he still saw well enough to pull his palm back and slam it into the spike, driving it deeper. Lifting his fist, he swung it at my face. I managed to catch his hand before he could connect with me. Flames licked over my hand, engulfing his. Another invisible punch hit my chest, flinging me upward and over his head. I scrambled to right myself before he could leap at me again.
When I spun to face him, his wings were already flapping to lift him into the air. This fight was meant to be between the two of us, but I could not allow him to get away.
“Achó!” I shouted, and the hounds leapt forward to attack him before he could flee.
A blast of telekinesis rocked the cavern,
throwing the hounds aside and causing me to stagger backward. My snarl drowned out those of the hounds. Racing forward, my eyes narrowed on Lucifer while he soared higher.
I jumped after him, but he had already risen out of my range. His brutalized face tilted down to look at me. Hate blazed from him before he flapped his wings again.
“Fucking coward!” I bellowed after him so loudly the walls quaked.
He didn’t look back as he flew out of sight.
CHAPTER 45
River
I finally succeeded in shoving Corson out of my way as Lucifer rose into the air and the hounds lunged forward. Hawk staggered forward to intercept me; his arms encircled my waist and dragged me against his chest. I thrashed against his hold, but though he’d been stabbed, he was still surprisingly strong.
Kobal’s bellow shook the cavern as Lucifer vanished into the opening above us. Hawk set me on my feet and let me go. I ran through the body parts. My foot got caught up on something I wouldn’t have been able to recognize if it was alive. I almost fell but managed to catch myself in time. I had just righted myself when a set of strong arms enveloped me and lifted me from the carnage.
I threw my arms around Kobal’s neck and hugged him. “Are you okay?” I demanded as I ran my hands over his dust-covered skin. He’d been buried beneath a ton of rock, stabbed in the shoulder, and was steadily bleeding, but he seemed unaware of his injuries as he pulled away to look at me.
“I’m fine, Mah Kush-la. Are you hurt?”
“I wasn’t buried in an avalanche,” I retorted.
He smiled at me. “It would take much more than that to keep me down.”
“Hmph,” I replied, not at all pacified by his words. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that we had to cut him off from his allies if we were going to escape here. It didn’t work out quite as I’d planned.”
“So you didn’t plan to be buried?”
“No one plans for that, love.”
I grasped his cheeks as I studied him carefully. Lucifer’s black blood and rock dust streaked the angular planes of his face. I wiped some of the debris away from him with my thumbs as he lifted one of my hands and kissed my knuckles.
A jolt of power went through me as he flooded my drained body with the strength of his essence. The fight between him and Lucifer had been the most brutal thing I’d ever witnessed, yet he was still filling me with life.
I went to touch the spike still sticking out of his shoulder, but I jerked my hand back before I accidentally hurt him. “I’ll kill him for this.”
He kissed my forehead as he carried me from the center of the chamber and set me down away from the avalanche of rocks. “So ferocious.”
“What of your back?” I asked as he stepped away from me.
“It’s healing already, and my shoulder will start to repair itself as soon as I get this spike out. Where is the wraith?” he demanded of the others.
Corson walked through the crowd of body parts to retrieve the malformed wraith from the ground. He lifted it to show Kobal, who nodded and turned away from him. He clasped the inch of spike protruding from his body.
“Kobal—”
“Stay back, Mah Kush-la.”
I folded my hands into the skirt of my dress, twisting the fabric while he worked the spike out of his body. I winced as it slid further from him, but his expression remained blank. After what felt like hours, but was probably only a minute or two, he finally succeeded in pulling the lethal, foot-long spike from his body and absently tossed it aside.
He stretched his hand out to me; I took it as he pulled me against his body. “Shh, River,” he soothed when I trembled against him. “Flesh and bones heal. I will be fine.”
What he said was true, especially for him, but what I’d witnessed tonight between him and Lucifer had rattled me. They were both so powerful, so ruthless. I didn’t know how it would ever be possible for the both of them to survive a battle to the death.
“I should have done more,” I whispered.
“You’re barely standing right now.”
He was right. I’d never felt so exhausted in my life, however… “I could have done more.”
His hand tightened on my shoulder. “No, you couldn’t have. The others were right to keep you away. Next time, if you are strong enough, we will fight him together, but if you’re not at your strongest, you are to stay away from him.”
“I’m here to fight him.”
“And to survive it,” he growled. “You would not have survived it in this condition. He would have taken you if you weren’t accidentally killed first.”
“But—”
“No buts,” he said firmly. “You’re to stay away from him unless you’re at full strength. Now, there is something I must take care of.”
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the gaping wound in his shoulder when he took a step back and reluctantly released me. Blood oozed from his injury, trailed down his chest and lower over his abs. It stuck in the layer of dust coating him. When he turned away from me, I winced at the flesh still splayed open down the center of his back. No blood trickled from the wound anymore, and the frayed edges of it were already knitting back together.
Magnus and Hawk approached me as Corson and Bale followed Kobal over to something I couldn’t see on the ground. Corson held the wraith in his grasp as he moved. The skelleins kept their attention focused on the spiraling tunnel above us, searching for any sign of Lucifer and his cronies returning. Relief filled me when I recognized one of them as Lix.
I scanned Hawk’s injuries. “I’m sorry I didn’t say something to stop him.”
“You pretty much told Lucifer which one of us was you without saying a word,” Magnus said as my face on his started to fade away. He shook back black hair that turned platinum halfway through the motion in an unsettling sight that caused me to turn away. “You certainly don’t have a poker face. You must learn to keep your emotions guarded.”
I didn’t have the energy to scowl at him, and after what he’d done to protect me today, I didn’t have the heart to either. The guy could be a class-A prick, but he was loyal to Kobal, and had gone out of his way to try and keep me safe. I couldn’t be too irritated with him right now, but I was sure he’d say something soon that would push him back into my dislike column once more.
“River will never be able to keep her emotions guarded,” Hawk said, drawing my attention to him. “And I’m fine. Being a demon does have its advantages.”
“Next time—” I started.
“Hopefully there is no next time,” Hawk said.
“If there is, you will remain more guarded, and I will somehow manage to work up a tear or two of sympathy if I must,” Magnus said with a sigh.
“You’re going to turn into her again?” Hawk’s voice rose with the question. I was glad I wasn’t the only one who found it so unsettling to see such an identical and solid version of me walking around.
Magnus’s silver eyes were unrelenting when they met mine. “I will do whatever is necessary to protect my queen. Even if she would like to choke me most of the time.”
I released a very unqueenly snort. “Not most.”
“A lot of the time.”
“Maybe,” I hedged.
He grinned at me as he stepped closer. “I do tend to grow on people.”
“So do warts,” Hawk replied, and for the first time, Magnus shot him an annoyed look.
Kobal knelt by something near the wall of the first seal. “What is over there?” I asked.
“A hound,” Magnus replied.
Kobal lifted the large creature and draped it around his shoulders. “No,” I breathed as the hound’s head fell limply against his side when he rose.
The other hounds pressed closer against his sides; their whimpers tore at my heart as Kobal walked across the cavern. Magnus rested his hand against my arm when I took a step toward them. Kobal stopped before us; the tension in his locked jaw and amber eyes was unmista
kable as he held the hound. When he moved closer, I could see blood matting the thick coat of the hound’s stomach.
“Was it mated?” Magnus inquired.
“No, she was young,” Kobal replied briskly. “Will you carry her so I can take River?”
“I’ll walk,” I said. I tried not to shed the tears burning my eyes as the hounds cried for the loss of their friend.
Kobal shook his head, but my hand on his arm stopped him from lowering the hound. “I will walk,” I insisted.
Turning away, I forced myself not to breathe too deep as the stench of the dead filled my nostrils. I threw my shoulders back and resolutely started picking my way across the remains with the others.
***
Kobal
Without another word, River walked through the carnage beside me toward the tunnel. To anyone watching, she looked unfazed by her surroundings, but the slump of her shoulders, the increasing blue lines around her eyes, and the darkening of the circles underneath them screamed her exhaustion.
My hands clenched on the paws of the hound when the others brushed against my legs. The hole her loss had created in the intricate bond connecting all of us tunneled through my chest and into my heart. I’d lost hounds before, and I could still feel every one of their deaths within the bond. Thankfully, she had not been mated. I would have lost two today if she had, as mates did not survive without each other.
The hound’s warm blood seeped out from her chest and slid down my back. My fingers patted her thick fur as my gaze fell to River. I wanted to draw her closer against me, to give her strength, but she remained resolutely focused ahead.
Reaching the tunnel, River inhaled a sharp breath and rested her hand briefly against the wall when she stopped walking. I went to take hold of her elbow, but she waved me off and pushed herself away from the wall. We continued forward until we reached the entrance to the Fires of Creation.
Shifting the hound on my shoulders, I was able to rest my hands against the slab blocking the way. Light filtered out from my palms to illuminate the carvings before the rock slid away to reveal the chamber.
The Road (The Road to Hell Series, Book 3) Page 32