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

by Brenda K. Davies

  He’d giggled when he revealed this and steepled his fingers before his nose to study me over the top of them. “I never stopped you, because Kobal would have.”

  And I knew he was right. No matter how many more seals fell, Kobal would never allow me to die to close the gateway, even if it was the best for everyone.

  But Kobal wasn’t here now, which was the reason I’d agreed to leave him behind. If I succeeded in closing this gateway, Kobal would be able to form his own gateway to exit Hell. The remaining seals would still fall, but they wouldn’t be able to leave Hell and roam Earth. All those I loved would be safer.

  Corson shoved me further back when Angela rested her hand over her heart in a gesture I knew meant to show me love and support.

  “Tell Kobal I love him and that I’m so sorry for this. Please take care of my brothers. Make sure they’re safe,” I said to Corson as I felt the swell of life flowing into my feet and surging up my body toward my hands. Sparks danced across my fingertips as renewed vitality flooded me.

  He turned his head to look at me over his shoulder. “What are you talking about?”

  I met Corson’s gaze head-on. “I’m sorry.”

  Before he could react, I hit him with a ball of energy. It hadn’t been strong enough to maim him or knock him out, but it flung him ten feet away from me. Spinning toward Caim, I ripped the small sword from his side before hitting him with a blast of energy as well. I didn’t know if he would try to stop me or not, but I couldn’t take the chance he might.

  Running forward, dirt skidded out from under me as I fell to my knees at the edge of the gateway. My heart shattered when my gaze landed on Kobal, only fifty feet below and coming fast. Tipping his head back, his gaze latched onto mine.

  CHAPTER 32

  Kobal

  My mouth parted as I met River’s eyes. Tears streaked her face, but a strange sense of peace enshrouded her. Her love for me radiated from her as the golden-blue light crackling around her fingers illuminated her face.

  From the other side of her, a blinding light walked toward her. My heart plummeted when I realized the glow came from a child, and exactly who that child was.

  “What is that?” Magnus breathed.

  “Angela,” I snarled.

  “The angels,” Bale stated.

  “Yes.” I continued running, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from River as her head fell back and Angela’s golden aura bathed her.

  Over River’s head, the drakón circled and roared again. Its cry was echoed from the fires below.

  I drew on the power of Phenex and Crux within me as I raced forward. River’s head bowed, and the look of resolve on her face propelled me faster when our eyes met again.

  I love you, she mouthed to me. She may have spoken the words aloud, but I didn’t hear them over the blood rushing through my ears. Lifting her hands, she revealed the small sword she held.

  “River, no!” I bellowed as she turned the sword and plunged it straight through her heart.

  ***

  River

  The blade tore through my flesh and scraped bone as I drove it into my chest. Spasms racked me. I opened my mouth to scream, but the sound strangled on the blood clogging my throat. My fingers clenched the handle as I sought to pull it free so my blood could flow faster. Blood spilled from my mouth when I succeeded in yanking the blade out.

  Kobal’s words echoed in my head as I slumped onto the ground. The dirt beneath me stuck to my cheek and clogged one of my nostrils. The scent and sound of the worms churning beneath the charred earth, drifted to me as I labored to draw air into my lungs.

  I’m so sorry, the apology became a mantra in my head.

  I had condemned Kobal to a life of suffering and loneliness by doing this. That realization hurt far more than the physical pain racking my body. However, if I didn’t try to close the gateway, I would condemn millions to death.

  I knew Kobal would survive without me. He would be miserable; he may even hate me for the rest of his days for doing this, but he would continue to live because he was a leader and the well-being of his followers came before his own. No matter what, I knew he would find my brothers and keep them safe too.

  Tears streaked my face. I’d never dreamed of finding love before, never believed myself capable of falling as hard for someone as I had for Kobal, but I couldn’t recall what it had been like not to love him, not to feel him in every part of me.

  He was my heart, my soul, but this had always been bigger than the two of us. We had always known one, or both of us, might not survive.

  Golden-blue light danced across my fingers, mingling with the blood beneath my hands and turning it pink. More of my blood seeped across the dirt and spilled into the gateway.

  I kept waiting for the hole to close, for something to happen, but it remained open and unchanged.

  Lucifer lied, I thought frantically. The angels weren’t trying to tell me to do this, or maybe they did want me dead. Maybe they had only intended to end the last of Lucifer’s line. Or maybe they had all truly believed I could close the gateway, but they’d all been wrong. I couldn’t do it.

  I may have killed myself and devastated Kobal for nothing. No one would be saved, none of it would be stopped. I wanted to will the blood back into my body, to turn back time, but there was no changing what I had done.

  Confusion filled the air and the thunder of a large creature battered my eardrums. From where I lay on the ground, I watched feet racing toward me. They did an odd stutter step away from Angela who remained by my side. Blue flashed by me and I dimly realized another dragon broke free.

  I failed. Failed! And I’d broken my promise to my brothers and torn Kobal’s heart out of his chest in the process.

  Then, the golden-blue light encircling my hands became the golden-white sparks they’d been before I journeyed this close to Hell. Those sparks swirled over my blood before following the trail of it into the gateway like fire racing over gasoline. There, the sparks became entirely gold in color as they surged into the air.

  The feet racing toward me skidded to a halt and staggered back as the sparks rolled across the gateway like a wave breaking on the beach. From within the gateway, a shriek pierced the air.

  ***

  Kobal

  I kept my shoulders down to barrel through the light flowing over the gateway. A sizzling sounded in my ears. I realized my flesh was burning seconds before a blast of energy flung me back. The force of my body bouncing off the rocks tore boulders free of the wall before I came to a stop against it.

  Smoke drifted from my charred skin; I took a second to steady myself before leaping to my feet. I prepared to lunge back at the opening and tear my way through it. A púca shrieked when it hit the golden light. Smoke streamed from its scorched body as it was flung back. It made no sound when it spiraled into the pit.

  Already dead, I realized.

  My eyes narrowed on the swelling power of life above me. There would be no tearing my way through that. I might be able to break through it with a wall of fire though.

  “What is that?” Bale demanded as she gazed at the growing light.

  “River.” Anguish tore at my chest as I recalled her plunging the sword into her chest. No matter how fast she healed now, she couldn’t survive that, not while she was still mortal anyway.

  I stumbled back as around me the rocks quaked and a grating noise filled the air.

  “What has the World Walker done?” Lix breathed.

  “What the angels guided her to do,” I growled. “I’ll tear every fucking one of them apart for this!”

  Rocks fell and clattered about my feet as the grinding noise became louder. The hounds all snarled when larger boulders broke free around us. The boulders bounced down the path. I jumped out of the way of one that crashed into a demon behind me and rolled him off the side.

  Fire burst from my hands and raced up to circle my wrists before slithering over my shoulders. My markings all shifted toward my fingertips in pr
eparation for trying to break through the wave of power cascading over us.

  I was about to unleash my wrath when I realized that the closing of the gateway was the source of the grinding noise. My flames burned hotter as I stared at the shrinking hole over my head.

  No matter how badly I wanted to get to River and do whatever it took to save her, I couldn’t stop the gateway from closing.

  This was what we’d been working for, and River had figured out how to do it. If there was any chance for demons and humans to survive, the gateway had to be closed. I roared in fury, but the fire encompassing me died away.

  “I think it would be best for us to get out of here,” Lopan said as more rocks fell and shattered around us.

  Some lower-level demons raced past us, screeching and grunting as they ran toward the light. What happened with the púca didn’t deter them from their course. They never made it to the gateway as the golden glow spilled down the rocks in a cascading waterfall.

  It’s following River’s blood, I realized when the light flared outward from there and across the lower-level demons. Three of them were flung off the pathway. The one that fell against the rocks near my feet still had smoke coiling out of its now empty eye sockets.

  “Best to leave now,” Magnus said.

  The grinding sound of the Earth continued as more and more debris tumbled around us and the gateway crept closer together. Screeches filled the air as creatures and demons rushed toward their closing escape.

  ***

  River

  I struggled to keep my eyes open, but my lids grew heavier with every passing second. Then I realized they weren’t closing, but blackness was coming and going over my field of vision. In the beginning, the blood rushed out of me with every beat of my heart. Now, only a small trickle ran down my flesh with every slowing thump.

  My mouth parted, I tried to draw a breath, but it was too much effort. Coldness seeped through my limbs, but it wasn’t the same kind of chill as the wraiths. This coldness felt… inevitable. Terror clutched at my chest. I was dying. This was the end of everything I’d ever known. I’d chosen this course. I knew it was the right one, but still I didn’t want to die. I wanted the life I would never have.

  The golden light spreading in front of me flared higher before abruptly dying away. Gazing across the scorched Earth, I saw nothing but dirt before me.

  In the following silence, I realized my heart no longer beat.

  Despite the fact these were the last seconds of my life, a smile tugged at my lips as I realized the gateway was closed. My blood, and my connection to all things living, had succeeded in stopping the mass exodus from Hell. Dirt had never looked more beautiful to me, and if I’d been able to, I would be laughing while rolling through it right now.

  A golden aura filled my vision as Angela knelt by my side. Her hand didn’t touch my cheek when she tried to hold it against me. She now had enough power fueling her to be seen by everyone, but she was still only a figure the angels had conjured to guide me.

  And they had succeeded in guiding me on how to protect the others and give them a chance for a better future.

  I hadn’t dared to let myself dream too far ahead throughout all of this, but I mourned the loss of dreams I hadn’t realized I had. A field of green grass rolled out before me. Children’s feet ran by me; their laughter floated on the breeze. I didn’t know if it was my brother’s laughter or that of the children I could have had with Kobal, but never would. Whoever it belonged to, it made me smile more as I thought of the numerous children who would get to laugh and run now.

  Then, the children and the field faded away and I was left with only Angela’s white light. I would never have my dreams, but millions of others would.

  Peace settled over me, my eyes slid closed, and I knew nothing more.

  CHAPTER 33

  Corson

  Blinking rapidly, it took my burnt retinas a minute to adjust after the blinding radiance River emitted seconds before. When my vision finally cleared, I wished it hadn’t. I gazed between River’s unmoving body and the smooth patch of Earth where the gateway had been. My mind spun as it tried to process what happened and how it happened.

  “Ri… ver?” Erin whispered, her voice hitching as she edged toward River.

  I didn’t tell her that River wasn’t going to answer her. She was as aware of it as I was, but it wasn’t something I wanted to acknowledge, and neither did Erin. What had River done? Why?

  Even as I asked myself this question, I knew the answer. Because she had to.

  Because closing the gateway was the only way to stem the tide. The only way to right some of the wrongs inflicted over the course of so many years. If there had been another way, River would have chosen it, but there was no other way.

  Lucifer had opened a gateway into Hell six thousand years ago; now, the last of his line had closed the one he’d intended to use to destroy humanity. It would be oddly fitting it happened that way, if I wasn’t staring at River’s bloody, lifeless body. If it hadn’t been River who had to be sacrificed to close the gateway.

  It should have been Lucifer lying there now, but the gateway wouldn’t have closed for him. The powerful magics used here had required a connection to life and a sacrifice. River had known that when she rammed the sword into her heart.

  “River?” Erin whispered again. I gripped her arm when she inched closer, drawing her tear-filled eyes to me. “She’s—”

  “Gone,” I said.

  And she may have taken Kobal with her. I tried not to recall the desolation on my mother’s face while she’d watched my father’s demise. She’d thrown herself into the Hell fires rather than go on without her Chosen.

  What would Kobal do? If he didn’t choose death, he may raze the entire planet to extract his revenge.

  No, he wouldn’t do that. River had sacrificed herself for this planet, for all of us. He wouldn’t dishonor her sacrifice by destroying what she died to protect.

  It shouldn’t have been River. She deserved better than this. She deserved to be able to live out whatever life she could with Kobal and her brothers. She deserved happiness and love. She hadn’t deserved a sword through the heart and dying in this burnt-out wasteland.

  The sorrow twisting inside me was something I hadn’t experienced since the death of my parents, at least not with this intensity. My queen, my friend, was gone and it made my chest feel like a vise squeezed it. I’d enjoyed living on Earth with the humans. I was aware it had brought about changes in me, but not of how much I’d come to care for others.

  Angela kept her hand close to River’s face before she pulled it away. Lifting her hands, she dropped her head into them. Her shoulders hunched up as if she were crying. The angels may have led River to this, but they appeared to be grieving her death. Wasn’t this their goal for her?

  My gaze slid to Caim. “Did you know this is what the angels planned for her?”

  “I’m not exactly on speaking terms with my estranged brothers and sisters who reside above,” he replied.

  “Did you know this is how the gateway had to be closed? Did you know what Lucifer had done to open his gateway?”

  “No,” he said, his black eyes resigned when they met mine. “I had no idea how Lucifer entered Hell, or that this is what would be required of her.”

  “Would you have stopped her if you did know?”

  Caim opened his mouth before closing it again. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “The gateway had to be closed.”

  “No,” Hawk said as he strode toward River. “I will not allow this to happen.”

  Shax stepped in his way. “We can’t change this.”

  “We can turn her into a demon,” Hawk said. “I was turned. She can be turned too.”

  “Not without her losing her connection to life,” Caim said. “I have suffered the severing of my bond. It would destroy her as surely as death.”

  “You can’t know that!” Hawk exploded.

  “Yes,” Caim said, “I can
know.”

  Vargas draped his arm around Erin’s shoulders and pulled her close when tears spilled down her cheeks.

  “She can’t stay like that,” I said as I stepped away from Erin.

  I started toward River. I would kick, punch, or claw away the thing kneeling at her side if I had to. I didn’t care what it took to get the guide away from her, but I wanted it gone. A vivid golden glow emanated from the child as I moved closer to them. Like the blood and life flowing from River earlier, the light increased until it was impossible to look at it anymore.

  Stepping back, I threw my arm up and turned my head away from the increasing glow.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another gateway opening almost fifty feet away from the one River had closed. My throat went dry when Kobal rose from the bowels of Hell. His amber eyes were the same color and nearly as radiant as the light spreading across the ground from Angela. Behind Kobal, the others emerged with the hounds on their heels as the new gateway started to close.

  I stumbled back when a bolt of lightening pierced the earth next to River. Thrown up by the impact of the strike, dirt and rocks pelted me. They stung my face and body as they bounced off me. Grunts of pain and cries of surprise filled the air as the lightening continued to pummel the ground.

  The sizzling electricity filling the air caused my hair to stand on end. The loud crackle of it became all I could hear as jagged white bolts broke off from the initial blast. Like arms, or some kind of feelers, those smaller white bolts stretched out to connect with the ground.