by Izzy Shows
“I don’t see why that’s relevant.”
“Everything’s relevant when you want something. Tell me, dear, why do you need to go to hell?”
Damn it. I’d said need, hadn’t I? Shouldn’t have said that. The tiniest little things can fuck you if you aren’t careful.
“There’s something I need that I can only find in hell.” The back of my neck itched. For some reason, I’d never been able to lie. And while I hadn’t technically now—Malphas was in hell—it was close to it.
“Oooh,” she cooed, eyes flashing. “You must mean hellfire. Very dangerous, but so very powerful.”
I grunted, shrugging noncommittally. I couldn’t outright confirm something that wasn’t true, but if she chose to believe so because I didn’t say otherwise…
“Well, you could always contract me to go and get it for you,” she said, examining her nails. “That would be far easier than going to hell yourself.”
“No, I’m going. I just want you to tell me how to get there.”
“Be that way, then.” She let out a little huff and pouted. “There is a way for you to get to hell, other than dying, at least. But it’s dangerous and would likely put you on the very outskirts. You’ll have to go through the Trials of the Seven Realms to reach the lake of fire, which is the only place you can harvest hellfire. And the Seven Realms are just teaming with all of my kind, none of which will be pleased to see you, and all of which will want to make your stay forever.”
I arched an eyebrow. “I’m not afraid if that’s what you’re getting at. But back up a second, what about seven realms? There are seven realms in hell?”
“Of course. Each of the brothers rules over a realm of hell. Seven brothers, seven sins.”
I frowned. “There are more than seven Fallen, aren’t there?”
She looked bored. “Yes, of course. But the brothers are the most powerful, aside from our Lord, of course, may he reign forever.”
Lucifer. I fought the urge to shiver at the mention of him. He was one Fallen I did not ever want to meet.
“All right, if I need to travel through all of them, then I need some sort of layout or map, something, to know where I’m going.”
“And I can provide that for you and tell you how to get in. But first, we discuss my fee.” Her eyes gleamed.
A sickening feeling churned my stomach. I wasn’t going to like whatever she had in mind. But this was for Malphas. I would pay whatever I needed to save him.
Luckily, haggling with a demon was a well-established thing, and whatever she asked for first wasn’t necessarily the only thing she would accept. There were some demons with very high standards, but it was unlikely a cambien would fall under that umbrella. Besides, I could just summon another demon if that were the case.
She licked her lips. “A piece of your soul. The information you want is very sensitive and requires a high price.”
I snorted. “Lady, that is so not happening. I’m not giving away my soul for a map to hell.”
“You are no fun at all.” She pouted. “It’s not as if you’d miss it. Your soul would regenerate over time, no lasting harm.”
“I’m not giving you a piece of my soul,” I snapped, glaring at her. “Forget it. What else?”
The look she gave me could have melted stone, but eventually, she seemed to give up.
“Your name, then. Your full name.”
I hesitated. That was something not entirely out of hand to ask for, but it was still a high price. There was power in a name. If you knew the name of someone, you could call them to you no matter where the summoned person was, or what they were doing. If you knew someone’s true name, you could even control them. Kill them.
Aidan had taught me that much.
But even I didn’t know my true name, so I couldn’t give it away. She hadn’t asked for it anyway. And if I kept pushing her, she might leave.
“Fine.” I glared. Even though I was willing, I had to pretend not to be happy about it—which I wasn’t—otherwise, she’d think she hadn’t asked for enough. “Do we have a deal?”
She drew her nail just above her left breast, making an x. “We have a deal.”
“Blair Sheach.”
“Ah, ah, ah. Your full name.”
“Blair Iona Sheach,” I growled.
She grinned, practically gleeful, and snapped her finger. A scroll appeared on the floor at her feet.
“There is your map. Don’t worry; it can survive most anything, except hellfire. So be careful not to piss off any fire demons, and don’t toss it in the lake, or you might not be able to get back home.”
“And how do I get there in the first place?”
“There are two ways,” she said, rolling her eyes. “There is a spell you can conduct to open a gateway, but it requires the Sacrifice of Blood.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not killing anyone.”
“Ugh, you mortals. So touchy. No, the Sacrifice does not require you to kill someone, nor that you kill yourself. It simply requires your life force. Not all of it, but a great deal.” She smirked.
I frowned. “All right. Give me the spell.”
She snapped her fingers, and a second scroll appeared on the ground. “There you are, darling. Easy as a paint by numbers. You shouldn’t have any problems with it.”
“And what’s the other way?”
“Oh, you need a backup option? Fine, fine. The second way would be to ride on the tails of someone going to hell themselves—someone just about to die. Of course, you should feel no qualms about such a thing since the person in question would have had to have done terrible things to condemn themselves to death.” Her eyes sparkled. “I’ll give you a free little bonus. There’s a sinner not too far from here who will die tomorrow night at eleven your time. His name is Daniel Jameson, and, oh dear, is he a bad boy. The things he’s done to women, the children he’s killed…he is very deserving of his fate. Isn’t it just delicious?”
My stomach turned. “You’re sick.”
“No, darling, I’m a demon.” Her eyes flared full black—not an inch of white to be seen. “Have fun!”
She vanished.
Chapter 8
Emily was pissed.
Actually, pissed was putting it lightly. We’d argued for most of the day, unable to agree on how to get to hell, and now we were walking the streets of London in tense silence trying to find the sinner.
“It’s not too late for us to stop this,” Emily said, apparently having enough of the quiet between us.
I glanced at her, one eyebrow raised. “We’re doing this, Emily. I don’t want to make the Sacrifice of Blood. It’s dangerous. It wouldn’t kill me, maybe, but it would leave me weak as hell afterward. I don’t want to be weak when we’re going in there. We don’t know if there’s going to be anything we might need to fight.”
She pursed her lips and let out a heavy breath through her nose.
“This is wrong. We cannot stand by and allow someone to die.”
“It’s not like the wanker doesn’t deserve death,” I said, for the umpteenth time. We’d had this argument already today, but apparently, she wasn’t giving up on it yet.
Before, it had ended with me calling the argument over and saying I was doing it with or without her, and she’d had no choice but to follow if she wanted to come along to hell.
That hadn’t made her any happier about the whole thing.
“It is not your place to judge whether someone is worthy of death or not,” she said. “That is reserved for God and God alone.”
“I don’t believe in God,” I snapped. “I’m just fine doing my own judging, thanks.”
She looked mad enough to hit me, but I quickly shushed her.
The pendulum in my hand jumped sharply toward an alley we had just passed. I frowned. Darting a look at Emily, I jerked my head toward the alley, before turning and walking back.
It was ten minutes to eleven, and the alley was darker than the street we’d been on. The s
hadows were hard to make out, but after a few seconds of walking, I heard a man moaning farther down. I hurried down the alley toward the sound.
He was slumped behind a trash bin, his hand covering a large wound on his side and a dark stain slowly spread across his shirt.
“We should call,” Emily said, her voice tinged with anger.
“It wouldn’t do any good,” I said. “Too busy of a night. It would take paramedics at least twenty minutes to get here, and from what the demon said, he only has eight more. Just wait it out.”
She glared at me. “We can’t just stand by while he dies.”
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
“Please…” He moaned weakly, struggling to reach out a hand. It fell limp back to his side.
Emily shot me a furious look, then knelt beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Daniel Jameson. You have committed terrible crimes in your life, but there is yet hope for you. Renounce your sins and embrace the love of your Heavenly Father, so that he can forgive you and welcome you into his home.”
“Emily!” How could she do this?
“Yes…I repent…” he whispered, his eyes fluttering closed.
A moment later, his chest stilled.
“How could you!” I didn’t wait for a response. Spinning on my heel, I stormed out of the alley. She rushed to catch up, but I didn’t slow.
I had longer legs than her, so she had to work double time to keep up with me. It wasn’t nice, but I was too angry to care. What had she been thinking? This had been our one good way to hell. No innocent bystanders harmed, and no need to weaken ourselves.
She did it on purpose. She doesn’t want me to go to hell and save Malphas.
I stewed in my dark thoughts. Of course, that was what this was about. I should have known. She wanted him gone for good.
“Blair!” She grabbed my arm and spun me around. “Slow down for half a second.”
“No.” I wrenched my arm out of her grasp and kept walking. It would take ages to get back to my car, and I was in no mood to talk. I just wanted to go home.
We had no choice now but to do the spell. We’d wasted the entire day arguing for nothing.
A whole day during which he could have died.
Was that what Emily wanted? For him to die? No, that wasn’t Emily’s style. But what I couldn’t understand was how she could intentionally sabotage me when she knew how important this was. She knew how much I needed to save Malphas. She knew I was torn up inside at the thought of him dying, and she’d wrecked everything anyway.
How could she?
“Blair, you’ve got to calm down and listen to me.” She huffed out a breath as she hurried to keep pace with me.
“I don’t have to do anything,” I snapped. I sounded like a petulant child, but at the moment, I didn’t care.
“You have no right to be so upset about this.”
I spun and glared. “You had no right to intervene. That man didn’t deserve mercy or peace. He hurt children.”
“It is not our place to judge,” she said stubbornly. “I will not condemn a soul to an eternity of suffering when they are truly repentant. If he reaches our Father, and he is not, then God will judge him.”
“Ugh!” I threw up my hands, then rubbed my face. “That was our ticket to hell. Don’t you care about that? Malphas could by dying this second, and you stopped us from getting to him. Is that what you want? You want to keep me from going to hell, is that it?”
She flinched. “No, I’m not trying to stop you. I want to help, Blair, I really do. But I can’t compromise my morals to do so.”
“I never should have asked you to come.” I stalked away. As far as I was concerned, the conversation was finished.
But Emily was nothing if she not tenacious.
“Blair, everyone should be offered a chance to change. Even the Fallen deserve that chance. Do you not think Malphas’ crimes are worse than that man’s had been? Do you not think he has caused more pain and suffering than any one human could ever mete out? And yet, you want to save him. How could I rightfully help you do that and not at least offer peace to a sinner?”
I made a harsh noise but kept walking.
“Why is Malphas’ life worth more than that man’s?” Emily demanded, her voice sharp.
“Because I care about him!” I stopped, my heart breaking all over again. ”It isn’t fair to weigh two people’s lives against one another because objectively I can’t decide between the two, but I sure as hell can when it’s someone I care about. If your child were clinging to a ledge and a stranger right alongside them, you’d be a fucking liar if you tried to say you’d have a hard time choosing which one to save. When it comes down to a sinner I’ve never met and Malphas, I’m going to pick Malphas every time.”
“Just because you care about Malphas doesn’t mean his life is worth more.”
“It does to me.”
She sighed, shaking her head. “We aren’t going to agree about this.”
“It doesn’t matter. I have no choice but to do the spell now. I’m going to hell with or without you.”
I didn’t look back when I walked away.
Chapter 9
How did you prepare for hell? There wasn’t exactly a guidebook, no helpful pointers telling you to pack a sweater or make sure you packed plenty of sunscreen. We had to play it by ear, but I wanted to be ready for anything we could need.
I’d spent the rest of the night working. I had spelled two water bottles to never empty and two lunch boxes so there was always a sandwich inside when they opened. Maybe it was a silly little detail, but you couldn’t eat the food in hell—or at least, I didn’t think you could.
I didn’t want to end up like Persephone.
We each had our bottle and box packed into a satchel, along with a change of clothes and a coat. Sure, hell was supposed to be eternally hot, but you never knew what to expect. There could have been a section of hell that was freezing cold. Better to be safe than sorry.
Emily was standing at the ready fully suited up—in quite literally shining armor—with her great two-handed sword strapped to her back. She was taking no chances about what we might encounter, but she also wasn’t giving us an opportunity to blend in.
I didn’t have any armor, so I wore my usual: ripped up jeans, a tank top, and combat boots. Not exactly combat ready, but at least I wasn’t wearing something stupid like ballet flats. My tank top would keep me cool if it were as hot as everyone said.
“Are you ready?” I asked, giving her one last chance to back out.
She gave me a tight smile. “As I’ll ever be.”
We still hadn’t come to any kind of resolution for our argument last night, but we had decided to let it go. I wasn’t going to change her mind, and she wasn’t going to change mine.
With nothing else to do but get on with it, I gestured for Emily to step into the large silver circle, then stepped in beside her. I walked the inside of the circle, calling it to life. It snapped shut with the small push of my will.
Contained.
Panic threatened to well up inside me. The first time I’d done this had been the night of Tyburn Tree. Aidan had directed me, but he’d done it so there had been no way I could break the circle. I’d been trapped inside of it unable to do anything while monsters had carried him off to die.
I’m not trapped this time. I can get out of this circle in two seconds if I want to.
I took a deep breath. Everything was all right. Straightening my shoulders, I began the chant to call the gateway to hell and tugged the blade free from its sheath on my belt. Without hesitation, I sliced deeply into my forearm and held it out, so the blood could drip freely onto the ground.
Or, in this case, pour.
It was a deep wound. If it weren’t for the fact calling the gate would inevitably seal it, I would have had a lot to worry about. I stuttered over a few words of the chant as the blood loss began to affect me.
Emily touched my shou
lder. I looked over at her, my lips never ceasing their movements. Her features were tight with concern, and I could tell she wanted me to stop.
No can do.
I had to do this. She’d seen to that.
I fixed my gaze straight ahead and kept going, my arm growing cold as the blood continued to flow.
Just a little bit more. Almost there.
The blood on the floor ignited and rushed to the ceiling in a tower made entirely of flame. Then it parted to reveal what I thought was a passageway. It was a translucent mix of red and black. I couldn’t see through it, but there was something on the other side.
I looked down at my arm. My self-inflicted wound had closed, and there wasn’t even a sign of a scar. Nifty.
“Here we go.” I took a deep breath, then stepped through the gate.
Pain erupted all over my body. I wasn’t on fire, but every nerve ending screamed. That alone made me feel faint, but add in the blood loss, and it was a miracle I stayed conscious.
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to keep moving. This was temporary, I told myself. I would get through to the other side any second now.
And then the pain was over, and I was on the ground. I’d fallen at some point. My hands were braced on the same blackened earth I’d seen when I’d used the locating spell. Only this time it was up close and personal.
I heard a clanking sound and saw Emily’s boots in my peripheral vision.
Good. She’d made it through.
A part of me had worried that she wouldn’t be able to get through the gateway; maybe her status as one of the Seven would keep her out. But she was here with me, and we were all in one piece, so far.
“Who dares to enter?” asked a thundering voice.
I let out a hoarse scream, clutching my hands to my ears, afraid they might be bleeding. It was hard to tell, and I couldn’t think with that voice ringing in my ears.
Dimly, I thought to look up and find the source of the voice.
A giant.
No, not a giant. Giant in size, yeah, but it didn’t look human, at the least. Or even humanoid.