Into Hell (The Road to Hell Series, Book 4)

by Brenda K. Davies

  I knew I broke free of the Asharún only because I felt the rush of air against my cheeks, but I still couldn’t see anything. Water spewed from lips as I coughed it out of my brutalized lungs.

  Whatever was between my legs slid away. I fell back beneath the surface before I could stop myself. More liquid filled my mouth and nose. Something else slipped beneath me and feeling as if I were seated in a swing, I was lifted again.

  Breaking free once more, water sprayed from my lips and ran down my chin when a round of coughing racked my body. Every one of my bones hurt, all my muscles and organs felt bruised, but I was alive.

  My hands fell onto the scaly body of one of the tahanusis, my dress kept me protected from its rough skin as it slid beneath me. It held me above for a second more before slipping away. This time, I managed to weakly tread water instead of plummeting beneath.

  All around me, the wraiths broke free of the surface. One of their hands fell through my shoulder, causing my teeth to chatter. I expected the Asharún to start icing over around me, but the current remained flowing steadily onward, taking me with it.

  I tried to figure out where I was in the river, but I couldn’t see beyond the twisted souls encroaching on me. My kicking slowed as the wraiths steadily weakened me. More of the wraith’s hands fell through me. More twisted faces whirled before my eyes.

  If I didn’t get away from them, I would go under again, and this time there would be no coming back. I tried to draw on my fire or the flow of life, but both eluded me in this world of water and death.

  CHAPTER 5

  River

  Through the sea of black, I saw two lower-level demons slicing across the water toward me. I jerked when an arm locked around my waist and my back was pulled against a solid chest. Even before Kobal spoke, I knew it was him.

  “Easy,” he murmured, his lips brushing over my ear. “I’ve got you, Mah Kush-la.”

  His familiar endearment for me, meaning my heart, briefly warmed me. My feeling of being safe didn’t last long as the two demons reached us and a third burst out of the water in front of us. Kobal curved himself protectively around me. The thuds of fists hitting his flesh sounded. He grunted, but made no other noise.

  “K… Ko… bal?” I managed to chatter out.

  He didn’t respond as he released me with one of his hands and swung out behind him. Craning my head, I watched as he sliced his claws across the neck of one demon before driving his fist through the chest of another and tearing out its heart. The third sliced its claws down Kobal’s side.

  I cried out and lunged for the demon. I may not be able to do much with the wraiths and the water all around me, but I’d choke that thing to death for hurting him. Kobal’s powerful legs kept us both afloat as he seized the demon’s arm and snapped it back. Lunging forward, he sank his fangs in the demon’s throat, reared back and spit the demon’s flesh out.

  Resting his hand on the Asharún, Kobal released a wall of fire from his fingertips. It raced over the water in a fiery blaze that illuminated the cavern. The demons screamed and fell back as the fire whipped around us to create a half-circle of protection. The popping sizzle of their flesh and the burnt stench of it filled the air.

  Keeping his arm locked around my waist, Kobal’s powerful body cut through the water while fire continued to stream from his hand. I lost sight of the demons and the wraiths vanished when Kobal approached. I spotted the others standing on the shore with the hounds, waiting for us. The rattling of the tahanusis ceased, but the arched back of one slid out of the water a few feet away.

  “They saved me,” I said when Kobal’s body further eased the chill in me.

  “They may not like us in their water, but you are their queen,” he replied.

  “I knew the demons accepted me as their queen, but these creatures too?”

  “Any who are loyal to me will be loyal to you, without question,” Kobal said.

  “Where are the rest of the demons who attacked us?”

  “If the tahanusis didn’t feast on them, then they’ve fled like the cowards they are.”

  The idea of being feasted on by a tahanusi made me gulp.

  When we made it to the shoreline, Kobal carried me onto it. Despite the heat of Hell, and him, I continued to shiver in his arms. His hands ran over my body, rubbing my back and arms to defrost my limbs.

  I craned my body to see over his shoulder and gasped at the flayed open skin of his back. He shifted to hold me so I couldn’t see it again. “You’re wounded!” I cried.

  “I’m fine,” he said gruffly.

  “Kobal—”

  “It will heal soon,” he said and set me gently on my feet. Water dripped from his hair and down his face as he clasped my chin. His golden eyes surveyed me from head to toe before he circled around me. He kept his back from my view as he moved.

  “I’m a little wetter than before, but no harm done,” I said when he stepped in front of me again.

  “Hmm,” he grunted in response.

  His fingers skimmed the flesh where the tahanusi had abraded my collarbone. With the way I’d been healing since I’d started coming into my powers and claimed Kobal as my Chosen, the marks wouldn’t be noticeable soon. “I’m fine,” I assured him.

  He stopped before me. A muscle twitched in his cheek as a vein throbbed to life in his forehead. “Aside from the lungful of water.”

  “Yeah, that sucked,” I admitted and shoved a strand of wet hair out of my eye. “Let me see your back.”

  “It will heal.”

  “I know that, but I want to see it. Maybe a bandage would help it heal faster.”

  “Not likely.”

  Still, he turned to allow me to inspect his raw and torn flesh. I didn’t dare touch it. He may be acting like it didn’t hurt, but it must. I rested my fingers on his sides before bending to kiss an undamaged area of his back. He’d sustained this damage to protect me.

  He turned and lifted me into his arms. “You are mine to protect, always,” he said, as if he’d read my mind. He carried me the remaining ten feet to where everyone else stood.

  Carion had pulled his hood back into place. His eyes blazed as he surveyed the damage the demons had wrought on his boat. “Lucifer and his followers must pay for this,” he hissed to Kobal.

  “They will,” Kobal promised as he set me down.

  “Are you okay?” Hawk demanded of me.

  “Fine,” I said as I ran my hands over my arms.

  Pulling his hands away from me, fire erupted from Kobal’s fingers and ran up to his wrists. He made sure the flames didn’t touch me as he ran them along my body. His flames wouldn’t burn me, but they would burn the dress off me, and neither one of us wanted me traipsing around Hell naked.

  Two of the hellhounds rose and came closer to me. They pressed against my sides, their warm fur helping to further ease the rattling of my bones. I rested my hands on the hounds’ heads as my gaze ran over the black rocks surrounding us.

  “Can we get out of here?” I asked.

  “We can,” Bale replied. “Are we still heading to your chambers, Kobal?”

  “We are,” he said.

  Kobal extinguished his flames as he stepped back. Glancing down at the dress the tree nymphs had given me, I realized I was almost completely dry.

  “Lucifer doesn’t know where my chambers are located,” Kobal continued. “He is trying to block us every way he can to get at River. The demons who attacked us got lucky when they stumbled across us here.”

  Lifting a piece of my hair, he ran it through his fingers. “But Lucifer will never have you,” he vowed.

  I smiled at him, but I had a bad feeling about all of this. My premonitions were never directly about me. However, my instincts screamed at me to get out of Hell as soon as possible.

  ***

  Kobal

  Taking River’s hand, I helped to steady her as she climbed over the jagged rocks lining the shore of the Asharún. Numerous abrasions from the rocks marred her skin. He
r wounds healed quickly, but the fact she sustained them at all set my teeth on edge. The fine blue veins in her eyelids were now visible and her cheeks had hollowed out, as she labored to fight off the effects of the wraiths. Before she fell into the water, she’d been handling their presence well, but not anymore.

  When I got the chance to destroy Lucifer, I would make him pay for everything she’d endured because of him.

  Another wraith broke out of the water and wailed before slipping away again. In response, River’s hand trembled in my grasp, but her eyes were defiant when they met mine. It was as if she knew I was considering carrying her so she didn’t have to walk anymore.

  When she stepped down beside me, I pulled her closer as I stopped to survey the cavern and scent the air for any new threat. The only odors I detected were the faint hint of brimstone, the Asharún, and River’s crisp scent that managed to break through the aromas of Hell. If there were more demons waiting to set a trap, they would slip into the water again to avoid my detection of them. After what had happened to their cohorts, I doubted any of them were willing to attempt coming at us through the Asharún again though.

  I could stretch my hand up and run my fingers over the lethal tips of the rocks above, but a hundred feet ahead the cavern expanded once more. From past travels, I knew it opened into an area with a pathway winding toward the higher levels of Hell. That path would lead us away from the Asharún and the wraiths, but Lucifer could establish another ambush there—one River was far from prepared to handle right now.

  “We’re going to change course and go through the oracle,” I stated.

  “The oracle?” Hawk asked.

  “It’s a lake of fire where Earth can be looked on by those who reside in Hell. It’s the central focus of all the heat in Hell,” I explained. “Before I left here, there had never been an angel spotted near the oracle.”

  “But they could frequent it often now,” Hawk said.

  “They could,” Corson replied, “but it is unlikely. It’s a place to look upon Earth, and in case you’ve forgotten, the fallen angels really dislike your former species.”

  “They really dislike all species other than theirs,” Magnus said. “And let’s face it, they don’t like their own kind much either. They wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

  “True,” Corson agreed.

  “We’ll go through the oracle and on to my chambers. We’ll rest there before joining with Morax and the others,” I said.

  “Have you spoken with Morax recently?” Bale inquired.

  “Yes,” I replied crisply. It didn’t matter that Morax was five-hundred-twenty-years old and had followed me since he’d been old enough to fight, didn’t matter I knew he would do everything he could to defeat Lucifer, I hated letting him into my head. Most times, I kept my mind shut down to any type of telecommunication, but it was necessary to stay in contact with Morax now. “They are battling Lucifer’s troops. They’ve sustained losses, but they’re holding their own. They haven’t gained much ground against him.”

  “Are you thinking about bringing down more of the demons still on Earth to join us?” Bale asked.

  River stiffened beside me, and I knew her thoughts had turned to her brothers. If there were less demons guarding the gateway and the wall, there was a better chance something could happen to her siblings.

  “No,” I said. “The seals may not be falling anymore, but far too many creatures escaped them before we stopped their collapse. We can’t leave the humans guarding the gateway above unprotected. We also need the demons at the wall to remain there. They won’t be able to stop everything from getting past them, but they’ll stop a lot of it.”

  “The humans outside the wall will learn of our existence if the wall is breached,” Corson said.

  “You mean when the wall is breached,” I replied. “There will be no stopping that from happening.”

  “No matter how many walls are built, there is no stopping the truth. It always comes out,” Magnus said.

  Bale scowled at him. “That’s insightful, coming from one of the most manipulative beings I’ve ever met.”

  Magnus spread his elegant hands before him. “I manipulate what others see. I get them to do my bidding, or punish souls with their worst nightmares. A manipulation of the mind is one thing, but I will always give you the truth if asked for it. I can create images, I can make myself something I’m not, and I can make others something they are not, but eventually those images fade and the truth comes out.

  “I brought my carnival to life and made it a real thing hewn over centuries of magic, practice, and work. It is no longer make believe; it is reality. However, even I cannot make a lie a truth, Bale. Though I thank you for believing me powerful enough to do so.”

  Bale’s eyes became slits as she stared at Magnus. Over the centuries that they’d fought by my side, there had always been an animosity between them. Bale was a ruthless fighter; she went at everything head-on. Magnus was more strategic with a wait and see approach to combat. They were complete opposites who would battle each other until the day one of them died.

  When Magnus retreated from the war with Lucifer three hundred years ago, he’d never revealed that he was doing so because he wanted to become better at weaving his illusions. Magnus’s reasons for retreating were sound, he’d proven himself loyal since, and put River’s life and safety ahead of his own, but Bale remained uncertain of him.

  “Play nice, children, or I’ll take your toys away,” Corson said, drawing lethal looks from Magnus and Bale.

  “Enough,” I said. They all stopped speaking and looked to me. “The humans will learn at least some of what has happened. There is no stopping that. We can only continue with what we are doing here, and traveling through the oracle is the best way to go.”

  I slid my arm around River’s waist as I turned away from them. Her hand settled on my stomach as we continued along the shoreline and past the pathway leading out of here. Wraiths and tahanusis continued to occasionally break the surface of the Asharún, but the tahanusis’ rattle did not sound again.

  “Your back is a lot better,” she said as she craned her head to look at it.

  I had always been a fast healer, but the strength of my Chosen bond with her caused me to heal at a much faster rate than I had before. “It is.”

  “Will I be able to see my brothers through the oracle?” River asked.

  I wanted to tell her yes, to give her that bit of hope in this place of despair, but I couldn’t. “It doesn’t work that way. The oracle only reveals what it decides to reveal.”

  “Did you ever look into it and want to see something?”

  “No,” I admitted.

  “Then maybe there is a chance it will show me my brothers.”

  I brushed a strand of hair over her shoulder. She smiled at me and took my hand to flatten it against her face. Healthy color crept across her cheeks as she drew on my life force. My gaze fell to her mouth when a sigh parted her full lips, and her black lashes swept down to shadow her eyes.

  For a minute, I was lost to her, but then my attention returned to the cavern when it started to widen out. The angels had never been seen at the oracle before, but that didn’t mean demons couldn’t be waiting ahead.

  CHAPTER 6

  River

  Kobal led us away from the Asharún and through a side tunnel. The tip of some of the black and red rocks scraped my skin while I walked through it. Before me, Kobal turned sideways to avoid the rocks before being able to walk straight again. More of those deadly rocks hovered above our heads, waiting to break free and slice someone in half.

  The further we moved away from the Asharún, the less I felt the effects of the wraiths. Midnight blue sparks raced across my fingertips when I ran them over the rocks and drew on the pulse of life in them. The ache in my brutalized lungs eased with every breath I took, yet I was beginning to lag.

  I thought I’d been hot in Hell before, but it was nothing compared to now. Sweat ran down my fore
head and back, adhering my dress to me. I pulled at my soggy collar, trying to get some air against my skin; it didn’t help. I wiped the sweat away from my eyes, but no sooner had I done so than more of it stuck my lashes together.

  For the first time, I understood what a lobster felt like when it was first thrown into the pot, and I vowed to never eat the crustacean again.

  When Kobal glanced back at me, I forced a smile. I didn’t need a mirror to know I looked like week-old dog crap, but I refused to let him carry me through here. I’d let him carry me across that cavern filled with the dead monsters who escaped the seals. I wouldn’t let him do it again. I had to stand on my own in this place; it would eat me alive otherwise.

  I might take a wraith right now though. They may drain my abilities and weaken me, but I would almost welcome their wintry presence to ease my increasing discomfort in this suffocating heat.

  I glanced over at Hawk, but he wasn’t sweating anywhere near as bad as me. Because he’s a demon now too, I reminded myself.

  Still, sometimes I forgot that this man, who had once been more human than me, was now more demon than me. Hawk could be changed into a demon and have their immortality. If other humans survived the change, they could also have the demon’s immortality too. I would never be able to have it without risking my connection to all living things, and Kobal refused to take that risk with me.

  I understood why; the last thing I wanted was to become like Lucifer and the other fallen angels, but I would give almost anything to have an eternity with Kobal. I couldn’t deny that I still harbored a teeny hope that we would discover it was possible to turn me into a demon without severing my connection to all life.

  My gaze landed on Kobal’s broad back. I watched his muscles and his markings bunch and flow with every step he took. He was the strongest and most powerful being I knew, yet not even he would be able to stop my eventual death.

  Whether my demise be tomorrow or a thousand years from now—some of my ancestors, such as Noah, had managed to live far longer than they should have—I would still die. My ancestors’ lengthy lives most likely came from their ability to draw on the flow of life, even if they hadn’t known they were doing it at the time.