Waltzing into Damnation

by Rita Stradling

  “What?” I ask as I take my first good look around. A giant cylindrical trench encircles us. The ditch spans probably thirty feet wide and is twice that in height. Rings of blackened metal spikes stick out of the wall at all angles, looking very much like rotten fangs. Below us, fissures in the stone belch flames and smoke.

  “He’s going to get someone—that’s what Barbas told me when he left us here. He also said he wasn’t going to be long.”

  “I think I know who he’s going to get,” I say as terror thrums through me. Just to be sure, I ask, “Who decides which greater demon takes Andras’ place on Earth?”

  “Satan controls all the demons in hell,” Cassidy says.

  “Yeah, well . . . Barbas wants Earth—that was his plan with Andras all along—turn him human and take over Earth. Barbas is going to deliver me to Satan.”

  Her brow furrows as she leans in toward me. “Barbas was talking about Earth. He said we were going there soon. He was actually bragging to me about it—because I’m going to be in his harem apparently.” She wipes more blood off her face as her expression hardens.

  “That’s not going to happen, Cassidy.”

  She squeezes her eyes closed and shakes her head. “Of course not, but if Satan gets the Keys to Death and Hades, Heaven loses, the apocalypse still happens, and all souls go to Hell, Raven. We’ve got to go.”

  “Okay . . . okay,” I say as I try and fail to stand.

  “Here.” She grabs on to my hands, and I grab hers.

  My head swims. Blood drips to the stones below, but I don’t know if it’s from her nose or my mouth. The whole world seems to waver as heat rises all around me.

  “I’d transform, but I think we’re going to have to climb these things, and for that I’ll need hands.” Hopping over the cracks in the stone to the nearest spike, Cassidy begins to wedge her body between the sharp points.

  “Wait,” I say, heading after her. As I leap over the crack, a blast of sulfurous steam scorches up my legs. When I’m to her, I breathe, “We’ll never get up those spikes alive, but I have an idea. I can send people to hell. I can open a portal inside me and send people to hell.”

  “Raven, we’re in hell,” she says through a mirthless laugh.

  “Exactly,” I say, and I’m laughing too. “So if we take the portal, it’s not like we’re going to end up in a worse place, right?”

  She pauses for a second as the edges of her black hair sizzles. “It’s hard to imagine a worse place, but I’m sure there is one here.”

  “What if it takes us to the gates?” I ask. “It’s a key to death and Hades. Don’t you think that means we’d show up at the entrance to hell or something?”

  “What if it takes us to Satan’s throne?” she asks in return.

  It’s a really fair point because both times I’ve opened the portal, Satan spoke to me—or my own voice spoke to me, but I was pretty sure it was Satan’s words.

  “There’s another problem too, Raven.”

  Leaning over, I vomit more blood and then cough out, “Something more than this?”

  “When we went into hell . . . I crashed into both you and Andras. He came with us I think along with—”

  “Stephen,” I interrupt as I sniff back the acid in my nose. “You mean Andras and Stephen came with us.”

  “We don’t know it was Stephen.” She shakes her head, but from the tone of her voice, I can hear she doubts her own words. “But I felt Andras’ body come with us, and then it was gone.”

  “He was holding on to me,” I whisper.

  I close my eyes. Everything is so wrong, the hell around us, the terror and hopelessness that reigns over my mind. I pulled innocent people into hell with me—all because I couldn’t kill Andras. “We have to find Stephen. We need to go through the portal.”

  Cassidy’s hand wraps around my wrist, and I open my eyes to stare up into her tortured expression. “You can’t be taken alive, Raven,” she whispers. “And I refuse to be.”

  “If I die . . .” I trail off as I realize what she’s getting at. “No, no—”

  “Yes. Raven. If you die, you go to purgatory, and the angels can get the kleis tou thanatou kai tou adou. If it looks like we’re going to be caught, you have to kill me, and then yourself.” A tear drops onto her cheek and immediately sizzles into steam. “Only if there’s no other choice. I’ve never had a clear answer on where a soul goes if they kill themselves, but many say it’s purgatory, and Barbas could get me there.”

  My breaths come fast, and the smoky air burns my lungs. “I can’t do that.”

  Her hand tightens around my wrists. “Raven, if anyone is capable of doing what it takes to protect the people they care about, it’s you. I had to kill my little brother . . .” She sobs. “He was ten, and he managed to hire a magician to summon Barbas because he wanted to save me from my infection. Barbas tricked him into the circle and took over his body. I got fourteen Leijonskjöld soldiers, all my friends who didn’t turn their back on me, and an entire coven of witches to help me trap him and exorcize Barbas. Stephen was on a mission in Guam—that’s the only reason he wasn’t there. They died, all of them died—my little brother ripped out most of their throats with his teeth, and I just watched. I couldn’t make myself kill him until the very end.”

  Cassidy dissolves into sobs, and I hold her to me as our clothes sizzle between us.

  “Cassidy, you’re giving me way too much credit. I would have done the exact same thing as you.”

  She pulls back from me as more blood drips down from her nose. With the blood smeared across her face and the dark circles under her eyes, she looks like she’s dying. “No. Please, Raven, you have to be stronger than I was. If we’re going to get caught, will you just do it before we get everyone we love sent here permanently?”

  “Yeah, I’ll do it, okay?” I shake my head. “But only if there’s not another choice. I’m not going to kill you if I see some other way out of this—and I’m not going to leave hell until I find out if Stephen’s here either.”

  I’m not going to leave until I find Andras, but I don’t tell her that part.

  She nods as her hands fall to her sides and clench into fists. “Okay, take me through this bloody portal, then.”

  A loud roar rips through the air from above, and I look up to see a lion the size of a two-story house above the pit, baring its massive teeth.

  “Now, Raven! That’s Barbas!”

  Reaching forward, I grab onto Cassidy. “Hold on to me if you can, okay?”

  A loud crashing resounds behind me, and the air fills with sparks and dust, but I don’t turn around. Closing my eyes tight, I search inward for the great abyss, the deep, deep darkness inside me.

  It doesn’t take long to find it. The deep darkness sits just inside me, ready to consume the world. It welcomes me hungrily.

  My mouth doesn’t stretch. Unlike before, I don’t feel any physical change come over my external body. But, when I grip onto Cassidy and dive back into the great darkness within, we slip through as easily as if we were diving into a pool.

  The approaching thunderous roar fades away, and I send out into the darkness, ‘Take us to Stephen,’ but there’s no response but the sensation of falling. My stomach flips, and I grip onto Cassidy while she does me.

  A light opens up above us, and when I peer up toward it, our descent slows.

  “What’s happening, Raven?” Cassidy calls as her arms squeeze me.

  “There’s a way up and a way down?” I whisper it more as a question.

  Like we hit the end of a bungee cord, Cassidy and I swing up in the other direction.

  A small circle of colorful light grows in the distance.

  “Do you think that’s heaven or Earth we’re heading toward now? And what about Stephen?”

  “What if I can push you out and then—?”

  “No,” Cassidy interrupts as she clutches me so tightly to her that my bones rub against each other. “If you’re going down there, so am I.
We’re in this together—either we both go down to save Stephen, or we leave him, but we do it together. I’m not going to let go of you, either way.”

  “Damn it, fine.” As soon as I look back down, we swing in the other direction, speeding up.

  And our speed keeps increasing.

  “Can you slow us down? This feels like skydiving, Raven—and we don’t have anything like a parachute,” Cassidy says, breaking the absolute silence that engulfs us. “I need to get under you and break your fall—this portal is meant for dead people, right? Slow us down!”

  “I don’t know—” I start to say, but before we can do anything, the air around us erupts in fire once more and we crash into stone. My whole left side smacks into the rough, hard surface, screaming with pain. A sharp agony stabs into my chest, like a knife sticking through my ribcage. I cover my mouth and attempt to swallow the screams.

  “Anything broken?” Cassidy says in a whisper as she crawls over to me.

  I can only manage a nod as I whimper into my hand. She again hunches over me, her hands checking me for injury.

  We lie in an open field of stone. Spires rise from the rock, twisting into jagged spikes. Thousands of people trudge by us, chained and wailing, in a macabre parade. Demons buzz around them on leathery wings, diving into the crowds. The humans moan, sob and scream as columns of fire erupt in their midst, melting them into ash.

  “Where’s the break? Is it your legs?” Cassidy whispers into my ear, grabbing back my attention.

  I shake my head. “Ribs.”

  “I’m sorry, Raven, but you have to fight through it and get up. Now.”

  When I try to sit up, that feeling of a knife in my side is joined by several more blades, stabbing into me. Stuffing my fist into my mouth, I muffle the whimpers of pain.

  Cassidy’s arms embrace me, helping me stand, and we limp our way over to the nearest obsidian spire.

  As I push my back against its smooth surface, I wheeze out, “There’s something I never really understood: how can people be in hell if they’re waiting for the final judgment?”

  Cassidy shakes her head as she holds me steady against the column. “The final judgment means all souls return to their bodies and then ascend or descend in their final form. Even the most evil get another chance at redemption; it’s the final promise. But in the meantime, all these souls go to Hell—Damn!”

  “What?”

  She ducks back behind the pillar. “We were both right—and it looks like Satan went after Stephen and Andras first. It’s probably why we were kept in that hole.”

  Pushing against Cassidy’s half-supportive, half restraining grip on my forearms, I hobble over to the edge of the pillar.

  Cassidy helps me, whispering, “Don’t let them see you.”

  I peer past the gleaming obsidian. When we were lying on the ground, all I could see was the crowd. But standing now, I see what the demons are driving them toward. A giant throne sits facing the crowd, and a man lounges across it. He’s larger than any man I’ve seen before—twice as large as the angels. His features are so inhumanly beautiful, my eyes literally hurt to look at him. Wings of the purest white extend out to either side of his throne. Flaxen curls fall about pale, sculpted features. Ruby red lips curl in a sneer as his electric blue eyes slide over the crowd with bored indifference.

  Hanging on either side of his throne, two cages swing like human-sized dangling earrings.

  A man stands in each. I can’t really see the dark-haired man collapsed in one, but I immediately recognize Stephen in the other. He faces the angel, and Stephen’s mouth looks like it might be moving. Even as hopeless as this situation is, the idea that Stephen might be talking his way out of this brings me a glimmer of hope.

  “Look the other way,” Cassidy whispers. “The gate is right there.”

  I don’t need to look. Of course Satan would stage this with hope just beyond our reach.

  Ducking back behind the pillar, I scoot along the smooth surface. More pillars line up all around us, interrupting a vast open field of singed stone.

  “We need to get Stephen out of that cage . . . if we can get all three of us together, I can take us back up the portal to those colorful lights.”

  “What if that light is Heaven?” Cassidy whispers.

  “I don’t think it is . . . but we’ll just have to figure it out when we get there.”

  “Okay, then what’s your plan for getting him out of that cage?”

  “Räum.” Looking down at my arm where my singed, tattered sleeve exposes my demon mark from Räum, I whisper, “He said he gave this to me to guide me when hope is just out of reach, and we’ll both get what we desire most. Earth, he wants Earth . . . and he’s the only greater demon up there. He sees the future.”

  “What are you talking about?” Cassidy breathes as her eyes go unfocused. A trickle of blood seeps from the corner of her mouth.

  “Stay with me, Cassidy.” I wipe the blood from her chin and grab her arm. “We’re going to get out of here, okay? But I need you to do something first. In Thailand, Richard Jones knocked me out by pinching my neck. Do you know how to do it?”

  “Pinch your . . .” She blinks rapidly as if she’s trying hard to wake up fully and failing. “What if you don’t wake up, Raven?”

  “You wake me up, then, whatever it takes.”

  “We’re dying here,” she whispers what I already know.

  “Then at least I don’t need to kill us . . . but I think Räum gave me this mark to achieve his goals. He sees the future, and the best way for him to take over Earth is for us to beat Satan now. Otherwise, Earth goes to Barbas. Doing this—we’re helping Räum takeover Earth.”

  “You say that like it’s a good thing—Räum is even more ambitious than Andras,” Cassidy says.

  “Andras isn’t an option anymore thanks to you guys. You need to pick your poison, Räum or Barbas.” Blood bubbles out of my mouth at the words. Letting my legs do what they want, I collapse to the stone floor while holding tight to my shattered side.

  “Not even a choice,” Cassidy says as she slides down to sit beside me. “What if I put you to sleep and you don’t see a prophecy?”

  Closing my eyes, I whisper, “Then my theory is wrong, and we’ll head over to Satan and bluff our way through.”

  “Well, when you put it that way . . .”

  There’s a sharp pinch at the back of my neck, and darkness takes me.

  Chapter Thirty

  Day Four

  I open my eyes to Andras’ face over mine—the face of the Andras Elena loved. Tears drip down his crooked nose as his red-rimmed eyes bore into mine. Their emerald depths shine brighter than I’ve ever seen them before.

  He clutches me to him, and the blood that pours from my opened stomach drenches his front.

  I lift my hand to his face, smearing blood there. “He wanted me to kill you . . .” I whisper up to my husband’s beloved face. “Never fall in love, Andras . . . if you fall in love, you die. Fill your heart with hate—fill your heart with hate and live forever. Swear to me you’ll never fall in love . . .”

  His lips quiver as he stares down at me. He shakes his head.

  “Promise me,” I rasp.

  “I promise nothing. I’m going to bring you back.”

  My limbs spasm, then my whole body convulses uncontrollably.

  And then I only hear his screaming, screeching a bellow of rage that shakes the Earth under me. His head explodes into black feathers and a razor-sharp beak, and that’s the last thing I see before it all fades away.

  The blackness subsides around me to be replaced by the image of my hand on a giant mirror-like circle as sigils light across the smooth surface. Multicolored lights surround me, and . . .

  “Raven!”

  I hear the screaming, but it’s so far away.

  Pain radiates through my body, and someone’s screaming in my face. “Wake up!”

  I open my eyes once more to look up at Cassidy. Over her shoulder,
a familiar demon smiles down at me with razor-sharp teeth.

  Chauncey.

  Her fingers twine into Cassidy’s dark, curly hair, gripping a handful.

  Something hard presses into my hand, and I look down to see Cassidy pushing a gleaming black rock against my palm. The piece of obsidian finishes in a sharp edge that bites against my fingers as I close them around it.

  Chauncey pulls Cassidy’s head back, and the word, “Now,” drops from Cassidy’s lips like the final grain of sand in an hourglass.

  “It’s not time yet,” I tell her, and then it’s too late anyway because Chauncey yanks. Cassidy stumbles up to her feet.

  Sharpened claws unsheathe from Cassidy’s fingers as the muscles and bones shift under her skin. Cassidy swipes at Chauncey, her hands elongating with the movement, tearing into flesh, ripping it away like Chauncey’s skin is nothing more than clothing made of soft tissue. The tattered strips of skin pull away to reveal gray, smooth skin with webs of thick blue veins.

  “You ruined my puppet,” Chauncey says. Pulling back her fist, she punches forward, and her hand collides with Cassidy’s transforming face.

  With a whimper, Cassidy collapses to the ground, her sharp talons clicking over the stone. The seams of her suit rip, displaying a stomach sheathed in fur. The fur spreads up her body as she slowly shifts more into a lioness.

  Chauncey growls down at Cassidy’s prone form before she reaches up and pulls at the ragged bits of sinew hanging from her stomach. Chauncey’s skin splits up the front, displaying mottled gray flesh formed around a gaunt chest. Bones show grotesquely through her skin. As the skin tears away from Chauncey’s chin, a lipless mouth overflowing with sharp teeth opens wide. The creature that inhabited Chauncey had no nose, only a wide open hole. The demon’s crimson eyes burn from lidless sockets.

  It wiggles out of Chauncey’s body, leaving her flesh in a pile on the floor. Leathery wings shift out of its back.

  “Hello, Lamira,” I say as I step between her and Cassidy.

  “Hello, Birdie.” She raises a claw at me, dark blue nails flashing blades. A long crimson tongue licks out between her fangs.