by Ivy Asher
Only Toreon and I are in Hell, and the thing keeping us apart is a plan to destroy the realms and a snake-haired psycho with too much power. Not even TSA is as bad as this.
More light at the room’s entrance catches my attention, and my eyes dart over to see a handful of other demons leaving. They’re all dressed in the same attire that Delta is. More fake servants to infiltrate the party.
I try to discreetly scan the room again now that our numbers are so much smaller, looking to see if I can spot Morax, but all I do is gain a greater understanding of the “finding a needle in a haystack” analogy.
Another group splits from us and heads to the door, and I realize all that’s left in this massive room of alcohol is: me and my sisters, five of the black armor clad babysitters, Shateel, Vudu, Toreon, and the Brogue demons guarding him.
Is Morax hidden amongst us, or did he already leave?
Shateel watches and waits, while the guards continue to scan the room, alert for any noises. I contemplate for a beat if maybe we should put up a stand here. Would it be worth the risk to call our scythes now and end this small gathering of guards around us? Even if Morax is here, we could take him...right? Or maybe he’d just slip out, and we’d spend the rest of our lives being hunted by him. Again.
But before I can run through a full pros and cons list of how best to play this, Shateel nods to herself and then looks to our armored guards. “It’s time. Kill him.”
My head snaps in the direction of the sudden command, and confusion floods me. Kill who? I inwardly chastise myself for momentarily breaking the facade of the brain-dead character I’m supposed to be playing right now, but I’m too overcome with panic to stop the way my eyes swing to the Brogue demons she’s talking to. I’m bewildered, my mind trying to catch up to what’s going on.
What’s happening? Why did she just order them to kill Toreon? He’s supposed to build a portal!
It’s like time slows down, and I watch things as they move frame by frame. My panicked pulse pounds in my ears, but instead of turning on Toreon, the Brogue demons move to surround Vudu, and my heart drops so fast it falls out of the bottoms of my feet.
No!
24
Vudu stiffens beside the opening of the tunnel as the red-skinned demons stalk over to him. There’s a mix of confusion and accusation in his red eyes as he glares across at Shateel.
She bares her teeth at him in a sneer that poses as a smile. “Did you really think the Ophidian didn’t know what you were up to?” Shateel says in an annoying saccharine voice. “Did you think he’d let you get away with plotting against him?” she snaps, her face morphing into malicious delight.
My breath sticks in my throat. They know. They know that Vudu planned to sneak Toreon out.
“You’ve fulfilled your usefulness with the tunnel,” Shateel tells him as the Brogues converge. “The Ophidian sends his regards.”
Dread fills me at her declaration, but I’m frozen as my head wars with my heart. Part of me is in denial, like this is some kind of mistake or another test. I mean, they can’t kill him. Vudu is bonded to Toreon, killing him means killing Toreon, and that makes no sense with the portal to Heaven that Morax just announced Toreon was charged with making.
But...what if they don’t know about their bond?
Time slows as the massive red demons finish circling around the gargantuan protector, cornering him like a wild animal.
“You fucking bitch!” Toreon screams as he tries to rush her, though he’s immediately stopped by the two guards who stayed behind to hold him back. Vudu’s face grows enraged as he watches the guards manhandle Toreon, but when the giant raises a hand like he’s about to use his power, a warning stops him.
Shateel shakes her finger at him. “Uh uh uh. You use your power in here, and you risk this whole place crashing down on your Gatekeeper friend,” she says mockingly. “Not even you can hold up all this earth.”
A frustrated scream sits in my throat as Vudu pales at the thought and his power sputters out. I’m poisoned with indecision. If this is a test, then I’ll mess everything up by trying to stop it. I’ll betray my sisters and maybe the one chance we’ll get at trying to best Morax.
But if I do nothing, if I stand here like the mindless puppet I’m supposed to be, I could lose Vudu and Toreon, and that feels like a fate worse than death. Worse than the torture I’ve endured for weeks on end, or the shell of a life I’ve lived up to this point.
With a hiss, gleaming red short swords are pulled slowly from sheaths hanging from the Brogue demons’ waists, and they all ready their blades for Vudu. A growl rumbles in his throat as he bares his teeth at them, Toreon screaming in the background, Shateel smirking, and just like that, every ounce of debate in my mind is shoved away by the need to take action, to stop this.
That’s my mate.
I don’t care that nothing has been decided or discussed, that I don’t know every nook or cranny of who they are. I feel that fact in the pit of my scarred soul. And I’ll be damned if I let anyone hurt him or Toreon, Morax can shove his test down his snake’s throats.
Toreon continues to struggle against the two guards who stayed back to keep him in line, his face filled with terror and rage and heartbreak. He tries to use the scythe gripped in his hands, but the weapon fights him, or maybe he’s fighting the weapon. I’m sure Morax’s compulsion is to blame, and it hurts to watch him practically fighting with the parts of him tainted by the Ophidian’s power.
My body tenses, my mind ready to give in to my instincts to act, but a hand reaches out and snags my arm, making me freeze in place before I can even move. I risk looking over and find that it’s Delta’s hand resting on my forearm. Her eyes are foreign in her disguised face, and even though she’s looking right at me, I can’t read what she’s trying to silently communicate.
Is she telling me not to help Vudu?
Pain ricochets in my chest, and my head pounds. I have seconds to act before blood starts to spill, and I’m left with an impossible choice. Choose my sisters or choose my mates.
Agony quickly gives way to anger at the abhorrent situation I’m stuck between. As soon as the fury takes hold in me, a familiar presence in my mind hammers at the door to my consciousness, demanding entrance that I can’t stop.
The feel of Ire’s signature arrogance in my head is unmistakable, but I don’t have time to go tit for tat with him. There’s a chance I’m about to lose everything in one fell swoop.
I don’t know what Delta sees on my face, but whatever it is makes her frown. “Fuck this. Clearly, my new face isn’t working right,” she grumbles, and then I feel it—her tugging hard on our connection. But she isn’t telling me not to act. She’s telling me she has my back.
My heart surges in my chest at the same moment that chaos erupts.
The red demons strike, but Vudu is ready to block, a sword made of stone raised as shouts and fighting erupt in the cellar.
Shateel seems more concerned with the noise level than anything else as she stays on the sidelines, watching with rapt interest as Vudu tries to keep the demons who outnumber him from striking a killing blow.
Tiny pebbles streak forward from the tunnel we just crawled through, a red haze around each small rock. I try to track them as they zoom in and around Vudu’s fight, some of them acting like bullets as Vudu uses his power to shove the pebbles through a Brogue demon’s body. The crimson demon bellows at the pain caused by the tiny rocks piercing his body, and then one last pebble through his skull silences him.
The group converges on Vudu, and I lose sight of him. My heart falls when I see that the pebbles are no longer floating around marking their next victim, but have dropped bloody to the ground. Maybe it takes too much concentration to use his power with such finesse, and the horde he’s now fending off is making focusing nearly impossible.
Behind me, Delta and Medley move closer to me, at the same time that two of our babysitter demons in full black armor move forward to intervene.
>
“Don’t think so, y’all,” Medley calls, and in a blink, her scythe appears and she swings, turning one of them to nothing but ash.
A vicious smile spreads across my face. Guess we’re doing this.
“No!” Shateel’s voice cries out, snake eyes wide as she realizes we’re not under compulsion.
At any moment, I expect to hear Morax’s voice ring out with power demanding that we stop and bow down, but when it doesn’t, victory floods me. He’s not here. The arrogant bastard isn’t freaking here! Finally, a little bit of luck.
I waste no time capitalizing on our opportunity. Delta is lifting her hand too, and I see my sisters’ actions for the green light that they are. Hiking the long skirt of my dress up in one hand, my feet pivot as I run for Vudu to back him up, my scythe immediately appearing in my open palm. Power and knowledge flood me upon contact, the wood feeling like a limb I didn’t even know I was missing.
One of the armed demons tries to step in my way, but with two flicks of my scythe, he’s a dust cloud, and I don’t even break my stride running through it to get to Vudu.
Snarls and clanging metal fill the room. Vudu has one of the Brogue demons in a chokehold in front of him, and he’s using the demon’s body to fend off the half-dozen attackers surrounding him. He knows how to move, using his weapon and the armored plating on his skin to take the brunt of the attacks, but the Brogues are working hard to flank him, and he’s horribly outnumbered. Every time they try to corral him, he struggles to keep his back blocked, but that means that he’s now up against one of the shelves.
Toreon is trying to fight against his demons too, but they have him completely occupied. I sidestep another babysitter as I rush toward Vudu, just as one of the Brogues shoves him back, causing Vudu to smash into the shelf behind him. I cringe as the shelf topples, crates and bottles flying and crashing to the floor, the sounds of shattering glass joining the sound of fighting in a deafening roar.
Please don’t let any of Morax’s Abdicated be around to hear this.
As soon as I get close enough, I wrap my arched blade around the neck of the nearest demon and yank it back, holding my breath as he dissolves into a cloud. I can hear Medley and Delta dealing with the rest of the babysitters behind me, and I flip my scythe and swing for another red demon as it leaves the fray around Vudu and comes for me.
Shateel snarl-screams for the demon to stop his attack on me, but he either doesn’t want to listen or can’t hear her, because he twists the sword in his hands and snaps his bared teeth at me, like the threat of his bite is enough to make me run screaming away from him.
Without missing a step, I bring my scythe above my head, twisting it as I leap for him. I have no idea how or why I feel so skilled at wielding this weapon, but a sheen of shadow is over my eyes, darkening my vision like I’m wearing sunglasses, and I know the darkness inside of me has come out to play. Not even being dressed in formal wear can slow me down.
The demon lifts his sword like he’s going to cleave me in two mid-air, but my scythe is already coming down on him, and he’s underestimated its reach. The tip of the curved blade sinks right between his eyes, and then his solid body poofs into a cloud of ash as I land on my feet, searching out my next target.
“Sable, to your left!” Delta shouts, and I drop immediately, trusting my instincts that are telling me to do so. The darkness helps me to home in on every movement, and I sweep out with my weapon, catching a demon’s heels and resetting his soul before he can take another step toward me.
Just as I push up from my crouch, time slows again as a demon launches at Vudu. The move catches him by surprise, and he can’t do anything to stop the aerial attack as his hands are already preoccupied with three others. A shout pops out of my mouth just as the red blade sinks into Vudu’s chest.
My eyes lift to movement behind a stunned Vudu, and I see another red bastard that’s sneakily climbing the crates behind him. Before a warning can pour out of my throat, the demon jumps off, slamming into Vudu and burying another sword in his back, right between his skin’s plated armor.
Vudu and Toreon both release a pained bellow, and I feel like the air was just punched out of my lungs. Vudu staggers from the two brutal blows, and I waver on my feet. But then my sisters are there, hacking away at everyone separating me from him. Brogue demons poof to nothing as Medley and Delta work in tandem to rid the room of threats.
I’m frozen for the briefest of seconds, and then I fall into step with them as we reset Morax’s followers and clear a path to my mates with violent determination.
Something clicks in me as I fight side by side with Medley and Delta, each of us in tune with the other and cutting through demons like we’re scythe-wielding dancers. Our movements are effortless, our rhythms in perfect sync. It’s like we’ve been doing this with each other our whole lives.
We were separated at birth, kept away from one another to guarantee each other’s safety, but we’ve defied the odds and snapped back together right where we always should have been. We’re stronger as a triad, and as we cut down the enemy with graceful brutality, I can hear our connections sing in my chest like a vow.
This is how it’s supposed to be. This is what we were made for.
Two guards surround Shateel as she screeches about how we’re supposed to be killing the Sins, not Morax’s followers. Judging by her frantic voice alone, I can hear that the situation has moved way out of her hands.
“Call them off!” I yell as I get closer to her.
“Morax is going to make you suffer,” she seethes, and the threat causes my eyes to flash and my hackles to rise. She growls and swipes at me, but I dodge her claw-tipped fingers.
“He’ll gut you long before he guts me if you take out his Gatekeeper,” I snap at her. “Now call them off!”
At my words, her eyes dart over to Toreon. The blood drains from her face when she sees him on his knees, clutching his chest and panting hard, suffering from a wound that isn’t there. “What’s happening?” she screeches.
The sight has her face etched with confused horror, because she knows I’m right—that if anything happens to Morax’s precious Gatekeeper under her watch, she’s dead.
I have no sympathy for her. She did this. She carried out Morax’s order to kill Vudu. She’s hurting him and Toreon both. And that knowledge has me flicking the blade of my scythe so I can make short work of this snake-haired bitch in front of me.
“Sable, no!” Medley screams from somewhere behind me as I thrust my blade at Shateel, but the next thing I know, there’s a scythe stopping me from connecting with Morax’s minion.
Medley’s disguised eyes are wide as she pushes my strike’s trajectory away from Shateel, and I miss Morax’s little bitch by a hair’s breadth.
“If you kill her, we won’t be disguised anymore. We need these faces if we want to have any chance at getting Morax,” she quickly tells me as I pull my weapon back and ready it for another strike.
Understanding dawns in my eyes, followed closely by frustration, and I growl, my hands gripping my scythe and lowering it in my hands. Medley nods, understanding exactly where I’m coming from.
“That’s right. You need me,” Shateel proclaims arrogantly, but the wobble of fear in her tone gives her away.
“What are we supposed to do with her then?” I ask, my scythe practically vibrating in my palm with the need to mete out the call for retribution flowing in my veins.
Medley hands me her scythe, and I hold it for her as I watch her curiously. She turns to Shateel whose smirk slightly wavers, and then in a blink, Medley cocks her arm back and slugs the snake-haired demon right in the face.
Shateel’s head whips around so fast that I hear a cracking sound, and I don’t know if it was her jaw or her neck. “Whoopsie daisy, I can hit harder than I thought,” Medley says sweetly as we watch Shateel slump to the ground.
“She’s still breathing,” Delta says with a shrug. “That’s more than she deserves.”
&n
bsp; Medley nods with her job well done, shaking out her fist slightly before I hand her scythe back. The guards with Shateel seem to snap out of their stupor at seeing their unresponsive leader on the ground, but Medley and I dust them before they can manage a step in our direction.
The room is now eerily quiet as the cloudy remains of the demons we just reset settle around us. I take a fraction of a second to feel a sliver of relief, and then panic floods me at the sound of a pained groan.
My mates.
25
Chests heaving, I search for them amongst the destruction. We’re surrounded by multiple piles of ash that used to be demons, broken wine bottles, an upended shelf with crates spilled all over, and Shateel’s body sprawled out, totally unconscious. It’s a complete disaster down here.
The hissing sound of pained breaths reaches out to me like a lure, and I track the noise, frantically searching for the source. My heart wrenches when I find Toreon. He’s on his knees and clutching his chest, teeth gritted and face way paler than it should be.
No.
My first instinct is to run to him, to check him over, but I can see he has no physical wounds. The protector bond is doing this to him, which means I need to help Vudu in order to help Toreon.
Whirling on my feet, I spot Vudu by the knocked over shelf, and I tighten the hold on my skirt again before I sprint over to him, letting my scythe disappear right as I skid to a stop next to the huge armor plated demon.
He’s sitting slumped against the broken wood of the shelf, a wine bottle broken beneath him and seeping into his pants. I hurry to kneel down in front of him. The hem of my dress and my palms sink into the liquid, and shock slams through me when the liquid is warm instead of the cold it should be from being stored in this room. Horror fills my chest, and I immediately realize my mistake. This isn’t wine.