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

by Brenda K. Davies

  Her fingers brushed over my crumpled cheekbone. “Look at what he did to you.”

  “Some might say it’s an improvement,” I murmured, succeeding in coaxing a smile to her lips.

  “Not me. We… we did it,” she breathed. “I mean, I know there are still some angels and craetons out there, but Lucifer is dead.”

  “Yes, Mah Kush-la, we did it.” I smiled at her as I ran my finger over her bottom lip before bending to kiss her. I inhaled her sweet breath as I tasted the salt of the sea on her mouth. My tongue stroked hers as I drew her closer.

  “Pittah!”

  The shout caused River to pull away from me. She spun to face Gage as he ran toward her with Bailey on his hip. Stepping forward, she opened her arms to her siblings and hugged them close when they barreled into her. Words, questions, and tears flowed so fast that I couldn’t follow what they said to each other, but they seemed to catch it all.

  Over their shoulders, I watched as the others walked through the bodies on the ground. They dispatched of any enemies who still lived, while pulling free any allies who required help. Some of them ambled around the thrones, examining them.

  It was time to take my rightful place on my throne. To finally claim what was mine for the first time in my fifteen hundred sixty-two years of existence, but I wouldn’t pull River away from her brothers. I’d waited this long to sit on it; I would wait longer.

  River stepped away from her siblings. Her hands ran over their faces as if she couldn’t believe they were there. Then, she turned to me and the radiant smile she gave me robbed me of my breath. This woman had endured every single horrific thing thrown at her with more courage than any other being I’d ever known, and she was mine.

  She stretched her hand out to me. I clasped it and rested it over my heart. “Gage, Bailey, this is Kobal,” she said. “My Chosen.”

  “I’m not sure what that means, but hi,” Gage said with a shy wave at me.

  “Hello,” I replied.

  “A Chosen is like a husband, but he’s also more than that,” River said. “I’ll explain it later.”

  “Yeah you will,” Gage replied and grinned at her.

  Bailey stuck a saliva-covered hand out to me, and I clasped it in mine.

  “You have funny eyes,” he said and giggled as he dropped his head into the crook of River’s neck.

  “That’s not polite, B,” River admonished and kissed the tip of his nose.

  “It’s true; to humans, I have funny eyes,” I said, and Bailey giggled again while Gage gazed back and forth between the two of us.

  “You are going to tell me what is going on with everything, right?” he asked River.

  “I’ll tell you everything,” she vowed as she started walking beside me toward our thrones. “I’m not sure you’ll believe it all.”

  “Bailey was just bounced on the knee of Lucifer, and a skeletal dragon plucked you out of the sky. I’m sure I’ll believe anything you tell me,” Gage replied and River laughed.

  “True,” she agreed.

  The humans, demons, and angels stepped back when I led River around to the front of the thrones. “It’s time to claim what is mine,” I said to her.

  She kissed Bailey on the cheek and slid him into Gage’s arms. Bailey frowned at Raphael when he spotted the angel near the front of the crowd. “You told me I had to let her go, but she’s still here,” Bailey said to him.

  River froze beside me, her eyes narrowed as her gaze went from Bailey to Raphael. “What is he talking about?” she demanded.

  “He told me I had to let you go,” Bailey said, unaware of his sister’s hostility toward Raphael.

  “They told me I have to let you go,” River whispered as her gaze shifted to me. “When Gage and Bailey came to see me before we left the wall, Bailey said those words to me. I’d assumed it was the soldiers, or Gage, or someone else who had told him he had to let me go.” Her eyes latched onto Raphael again. “But it was the angels telling him that.”

  “Yes,” Raphael admitted. “Ariel briefly communicated with the child to offer you and him comfort. We knew it would be difficult for all of you to be apart, and if your mother could be spoken with, then we thought one of the children could be reached too.”

  “The angels can communicate with Bailey,” River murmured. “What about Gage?”

  “No angels are talking to me!” Gage blurted.

  “He does not possess the ability,” Raphael confirmed. “Whatever power he possesses hasn’t shown itself yet, or it is so latent it will never be known.”

  “You tell the angels to leave Bailey alone,” River commanded. “Look at the damage they did to our mother.”

  “He is young—”

  “Leave him be!” she shouted.

  “There is no reason for them to communicate with him now,” Raphael murmured.

  “Make sure it stays that way,” she said.

  “I cannot promise that. There is no way to know if it may become necessary for them to speak with him in the future.”

  I rested my hand on River’s shoulder when fire blazed over her hands and up to her wrists. A protective demon mother had nothing on River right now.

  “Whoa,” Gage murmured and Bailey’s eyes widened on her.

  “No matter what happens, we will be here to guide Bailey and Gage through it,” I promised her. “Your mother had no idea what was happening to her, but they will know it all.”

  River’s fire died away as she looked to her youngest sibling. “Are you okay with that, B?”

  He smiled back at her. “Sure.”

  “Gage?” she asked.

  “Uh yeah, sure.”

  River turned to me, and I took her hand. Leading her to the smaller throne, I helped her settle on it. She gasped and her hands clinched onto the arms. White sparks burst to life on her fingers, but gold marked the tips of the energy flowing up to her wrists. From there, the energy wrapped around the arms of the throne and swirled around to the back of it as if it were binding her to the chair.

  I doubted any other Chosen had received this reaction from their throne, but then they would have been entirely demon. River was not, and the being had forged the angels as well as the varcolac and these thrones. The throne was reacting to the knowledge that a more angelic queen now sat on it.

  “Amazing,” River breathed, her eyes a deeper shade of violet when they met mine. “There is so much power here.”

  “There is,” I agreed.

  “Oh, you are definitely telling me everything,” Gage said as he watched his sister with fascination.

  Walking over to my throne, I turned to face everyone before sitting on it. Power immediately lashed into my body as all the symbols on the chair shifted toward me. The symbols felt like water flowing over me as they slid effortless into my flesh before running into the throne again.

  Fire flared to life from my fingers. It encompassed my wrists before becoming the umber light that had poured forth to grant me entrance to the Fires of Creation.

  That glow spread to the entire throne. Lucifer had sat on this throne for six thousand years, within the throne room, and never been able to unlock the power either of them possessed. If he had, he would have leveled Hell thousands of years ago, but when he’d severed his bond with life, he’d severed any connection he might have had to the thrones and the being too.

  River possessed that connection though. Reaching out, I rested my hand over hers. Her power spread out to my wrist at the same time mine fastened onto hers. The umber and golden-white lights swirled together until it became impossible to separate one from the other.

  All around us, the demons, Vargas, and Erin went to one knee and their heads bowed. Caim, Raphael, and the remaining humans remained standing until the humans also went to one knee. Gage looked to River before holding Bailey closer and kneeling before us. River made a move as if to stop them, but I gave a small tug on her hand. We couldn’t show any favor to anyone. Raphael and Caim glanced around before the two angels al
so went to one knee. Their wings unfurled behind their backs and they pressed a fist to their foreheads.

  “Rise,” I commanded as the initial rush of power between River and I ebbed and the light faded away. However, the vast power was still there, waiting to be tapped into again if it became necessary.

  “The king and queen of Hell are now also the king and queen of Earth!” Corson declared, and a cheer ran through the crowd.

  CHAPTER 58

  River

  Three weeks later,

  I set Bailey down in the vast hall. He immediately ran for one of the walls, his short, chubby legs carrying him far faster than they looked like they could. He ran his fingers over the markings within his reach. Above him and all around me, more markings had been etched into every inch of the wall.

  Each one of those markings had been chiseled by Kobal’s hand, then stained with his blood as well as mine. The power within this room could never be as strong as what I’d felt in the chamber housing the Fires of Creation, but every time I stepped in here, it made my breath catch.

  Energy sizzled over my skin, creating sparks at the tips of my fingers while Bailey continued to trace the symbols. At the end of the room, the hammering stopped as Corson, Hawk, Bale, Magnus, Caim, Raphael, and Gage lifted their heads to look at us. They were all working on finishing the last of the dais. My throne had already been placed on it. Lopan sat on the edge of the dais, swinging his small legs back and forth as he sang to himself. Kneeling beside him, Calah hammered a final nail into place.

  So much had happened in three weeks that it felt like years had slipped by. Before we’d left my town, I’d made sure that everyone Lucifer slaughtered was given a proper burial. It had taken four days to dig the numerous graves and to create whatever headstones we could to mark the loved ones who lay there. It would have taken longer, but the demons and angels worked far faster than the humans could.

  I’d kept Gage and Bailey away from the field until all the bodies were removed, but I knew they had seen far more than they should have. Gage still had a haunted look in his eyes and jumped at things that never would have caused him to jump before, but he liked it here and he liked the demons. Bailey had woken screaming every night since Lucifer had taken him. The only thing that gave him any real comfort was being held by me, Gage, or Kobal, or coming to this room so he could trace the symbols. I couldn’t deny his connection to the angels, but I hoped to keep him sheltered as much as possible until he was older.

  Unfortunately, while we’d been removing the bodies from the field, we’d also uncovered the bodies of Hawk’s family and his town and buried them. Caim and Raphael had taken to the sky to survey the towns further out on the Cape. The town of Sandwich had also been destroyed, their bodies mixed in with those we worked to identify before burial, but the people in the other towns were still alive. Lucifer’s wrath hadn’t progressed that far.

  A set of mated hounds also perished in the battle. Kobal had stood with the other hounds, watching as their bodies burned on a fire he created. The hounds all howled and whimpered while they mourned their loss.

  When we’d finally finished burying or burning the dead, I reclaimed Lisa’s duffel bag, filled it with more pictures and some things for Gage and Bailey. Then, we’d returned to the wall. When we arrived, Kobal ordered my mother taken to another section.

  I didn’t argue the order. I couldn’t leave her to rot, but that didn’t mean I wanted to see her every day of my life either. Our lives would never intertwine again. Gage hadn’t protested the decision either, and Bailey had yet to ask about her, though he’d asked after Lisa and Asante more than a few times.

  Tears burned in my eyes at the reminder of the loss of my friends. I’d found their bodies amongst the remains of the others, along with Lisa’s parents. I made sure they were all buried together and had wept over their graves. Never forgetting them was the best way to honor them, and I would make sure their memories lived on for as long as I did.

  Verin had also been laid to rest in the field, in a fire that Kobal created. The demons didn’t believe in memorial services, but I’d asked for one for her and Morax. We didn’t have his body to burn, but I’d assembled a small grave marker for them both. They’d died to bring an end to Lucifer, and Verin died saving my brother. They needed something to honor them and to mark them as together again in the end.

  I knew angels and demons didn’t go through the same birth and death cycle as humans, knew there was no afterlife for them, but I still chose to believe Verin and Morax were reunited now.

  The door behind me opened and closed. A few seconds later, Vargas and Erin smiled at me as they strolled past with bundles of wood in their arms. Skelleins flanked Erin. They were still determined to get her to fail at answering a riddle, but I believed they’d run out of riddles before they stumped her.

  Each of the skelleins wore some article of clothing or accessory that marked them different from the others, though they all had a flask hanging at their side or in their hand. They’d returned to their more jovial nature now that they were back on Earth. So had Corson, but he’d stopped wearing earrings.

  The candles flickering in the sconces on the walls cast shadows across the wood floor as I followed Bailey. More ghosts than I’d anticipated arriving at the wall had shown up. More continued to arrive daily from all corners of the world, much to the annoyance of the demons and the dismay of the humans. The humans were still trying to get used to the sometimes abrasive, often selfish apparitions who unfortunately discovered they enjoyed materializing through walls to scare people.

  However, in this hall, Kobal didn’t want electricity. I thought he wanted a small piece of Hell on Earth, and this place was it, even if it was aboveground. I preferred the much cozier feel of the candles in the hall too.

  With his throne in hand, Kobal strolled in from the hallway connecting this building to the house my brothers had moved into. I knew Kobal hated living in human homes, but I couldn’t bring myself to be apart from my brothers anymore.

  In compromise, Kobal had torn out a wall on the lower floor of the house and connected his tent to it for us to sleep in. We were no longer on the hill with the other demons, but the house was far enough away from the other humans that he assured me he didn’t mind it.

  Kobal set his throne beside mine and stepped forward as Erin climbed the steps of the dais to him. They spoke briefly before Erin set the wood she’d been carrying down. She dug into her pocket and pulled something out. Kobal took it from her, said something to the others on the dais, and they all rose.

  “Come on, Bailey!” Gage called to him.

  Bailey tottered forward until Lix scooped him up and climbed the steps of the dais with him. Despite their lingering trauma over what had been done to them and our town, my brothers were both handling everything well. Gage was fascinated to have the king of Hell as a brother-in-law, and Bailey was fascinated by every demon, angel, and Hell creature he encountered. The skelleins were a real favorite of his, much to their joy.

  They all disappeared down the hallway, and I heard the click of the door shutting. Kobal descended the stairs and strode toward me, a smile curving his mouth. My toes curled when I recognized the ravenous gleam in his obsidian eyes.

  “I have a present for you, Mah Kush-la,” he said as he stopped before me.

  “Really?” I inquired eagerly.

  Lifting his hand, he kept it fisted in the air before opening it. A shell necklace fell to dangle from between his thumb and forefinger. My hand instinctively flew to where my shell necklace had once hung. It had been torn away from me before we’d entered Hell.

  “How?” I breathed.

  “Before we left, I gathered shells from the beach,” he said.

  I recalled strolling the beach with him. I’d been unable to leave home without going to the ocean to say goodbye. I’d absently watched Kobal as he picked up and either pocketed shells or tossed them aside like millions of others had done with them while walking the
coastline. Maybe one day I’d be able to return to the sea, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon. For now, we would remain at the wall, making sure it stayed secure until the threat of the remaining angels and the worst of the seal creatures were eradicated.

  “I’ve been working on drilling holes in them and threading them into a necklace for you. Erin made the clasp,” he said.

  Tears filled my eyes as I lifted a hand to run my fingers over the polished pink and white shells. Each shell handpicked by him. “It’s beautiful!”

  “Turn around.”

  I did as he said and lifted my hair to let him slip it around my neck and clasp it there. He bent to kiss my nape. My nipples puckered in anticipation as a wetness spread between my thighs.

  “I love it,” I breathed.

  “I must admit, I have a selfish reason for it too,” he said as he cupped my ass before sliding his hand between my legs from behind.

  My head fell against his shoulder as he leisurely stroked me. “And what is that?”

  “I missed seeing you wearing only shells.”

  “Then I will do it as often as I can.”

  He turned me in his arms and claimed my mouth. Lifting me against him, he carried me across the room to the dais. His feet thudded as he climbed the steps to the wood stage. Walking over, he set me down in front of his throne. He made quick work of stripping my clothes from me before stepping back. His gaze raked me from head to toe while I stood before him in only the shell necklace.

  A smile curved his mouth as he removed his clothes and tossed them aside. Drawing me against him again, he turned to sit on his throne and pulled me in between his legs. The heavy length of his shaft pressed against my inner thigh when he drew me into his lap.

  The flow of power running through the chair came to life as he took hold of his erection and teasingly rubbed the head of it over my already wet opening. My hands rested on his shoulders, and I brushed a kiss against his lips as he slid into me.

  My body jerked when we were joined together. Energy flooded me and my golden-white light rose around us. He clasped the back of my head and sank his tongue into my mouth while he thrust deeper into me. The power we generated seeped out to make the symbols shift on the walls as the orange glow flowing from him mixed with my light.