I walked up and stepped around the remnants of the wall. Inside the box was a coil of silver chains. The links were longer than my thumb and five times as big around.
Adrianna lifted the chains from the golden box. “They sure are heavy,” she said. She held one end of the chain and wrapped it around to her elbow until she formed a manageable circle. She put both hands through the center and held the chains on her forearms as we walked back to the chasm.
“More rope,” Adrianna shouted.
Chandra threw down another length of rope.
Adrianna tied the rope around her waist and secured the chains. She climbed. Kiran’s hand supported her back until she climbed out of his reach.
He and Nash ascended, one at a time.
I was nervous to climb back up, afraid Chandra would wait till I got to the top and drop me, although I knew she wouldn’t. I assumed I needed to be alive for my angel death touch to work.
I clasped Nash’s outstretched hand as I reached the top.
A bright white light, brighter than Metatron’s Orb blinded me. A violent shutter of wings sounded above us, and when I opened my eyes an angel hovered before me.
She was beautiful. Her pale skin glowed in the light, and her white hair matched the ivory of her wings. On her elegant face was a look of utter disgust. Andromeda.
“Adrianna, get the weapon away from her,” Nash yelled.
Chandra threw Adrianna her sword, and Adrianna darted away as Andromeda plummeted towards us head first.
I hadn’t realized she would know so soon. I thought maybe we’d have a week before she arrived or at least a day.
I tried to back away, but stumbled to the ground.
Nash pulled me up. “Your sword,” he screamed.
I looked at the others. They all had their weapons drawn.
I pulled the sword from the sheath at my side. The blade felt heavier in my hands than usual.
Andromeda landed on the ground before us. “Worms,” she said. “Why did you come?”
Nash stepped in front of us.
My heart fell.
Andromeda swung her leg. Her foot hit Nash in the jaw, and he twisted in the air. His outstretched hands stopped his face from meeting the ground.
Chandra yelled and threw her sword against Andromeda as Nash stood. Andromeda raised her shielded forearm to block the blow. The Arcadian Steel sparked against her arm bracer.
Angels have Arcadian armor, I realized, and we didn’t.
Kiran swung his sword at Andromeda. She deflected the blow with her armored forearm. They dodged and jabbed, moving like eels in a fish tank. Their movements were swift, controlled, and confined.
Nash interrupted the dance.
He let out a whirlwind of slices, faster than I had ever seen him wield a weapon before. But Andromeda blocked each one. Until one landed and sliced through her arm. A trickle of silver blood seeped from the wound.
Andromeda’s teeth were set in a grimace. She glared at Nash and looked to where Adrianna ran. Andromeda’s large, white wings swept into the sky and sailed toward Adrianna. Adrianna was a fast runner but despite this Andromeda was above her in seconds.
“Let’s go!” Nash shouted. “We can’t let her get her hands on those chains.
Andromeda was upon Adrianna. We could see them in the distance as we ran towards them. Kiran was in front of us.
Adrianna drew her sword and slashed at Andromeda. Andromeda grabbed the sword in her bare hands.
She screamed as the blade cut into her flesh. Silver blood, as slick as oil, covered the blade’s surface. Andromeda wrenched the blade from Adrianna’s hands and tossed it. The blade flew several yards away. I didn’t see it land.
Andromeda smacked Adrianna across the face and sent her spinning to the ground. Adrianna rose and wiped the blood from her lip and faced Andromeda once more. Adrianna ducked and dived for Andromeda, wrapping her hands around the angel’s waist. She tackled Andromeda to the ground and tried to trap Andromeda’s legs in hers.
Andromeda beat against Adrianna’s back with a flurry of blows, but Adrianna held strong. Andromeda reached for the chains and pulled them from Adrianna’s waist.
The chains were surrounded in flames as soon as they touched Andromeda’s hand.
Adrianna must have felt the weight of them leave her or maybe the heat of the fire. She let go of Andromeda’s waist to pin her arm to the ground. But Andromeda was too fast. She saw her opportunity and rolled on top of Adrianna, whipping the chain behind her and bringing them down near Adrianna’s face.
Adrianna wrapped one leg around the side of Andromeda’s waist and pinned the other against her thigh. She tilted her body and flipped the angel onto her back. Andromeda’s wings were flared out against the ground as she held her head up. Adrianna walked her foot up to Andromeda’s shoulder and wrenched Andromeda’s hand from around her.
Andromeda pulled back her arm as far as she could, and the chain hit Adrianna on the back, ripping her shirt and the skin beneath.
Adrianna screamed in an agony that I never heard before.
Andromeda landed another blow to her back before the first scream ended. Andromeda tossed her against the rocky ground and stood as we arrived.
Kiran raced to the ground beside Adrianna. Her eyes blinked open and closed as if she had trouble keeping them open.
Andromeda swept her chain at us, but Nash’s blade collided against it. The chain wrapped around his sword and pulled the blade from Nash’s hand. Nash withdrew a second sword from his side.
Kiran rose to his feet and roared. In his mouth and nostrils embers burned as if he was on fire from the inside. He rushed at Andromeda, and his blade sent sparks against her arm bracer as she blocked him.
Andromeda raised her chains above her head.
I knew what I needed to do. I pushed pass Chandra and Tom.
Andromeda didn’t look at me. She didn’t know what I was.
Right before her blow landed, I reached out and threw myself against her. I made contact, but I landed hard on the rocky ground. I used my hand to break my fall, and an audible crack sounded as the flat of my hand hit the rough terrain.
Andromeda’s wings burst into flames. Her chains hung at her side. She screamed. I thought I couldn’t imagine a scream more agonizing than Adrianna’s, but Andromeda’s was.
Andromeda flew into the air and sailed away as the fire died to embers and left her feathers black and ashy. Those feathers would soon die and fly away from the bones like blackened confetti. Andromeda would only have one place to go—Hell.
MY shoulders slumped. I had either been very brave or very stupid. Adrianna was on the ground gasping for breath but alive. Nash stared at me. His eyes were wide with a look of quiet gratitude. As hardened as he was, he didn’t want anyone to die.
Kiran dropped his sword and ran back to Adrianna’s side. She had marks all over her body and a long cut on the side of her face. Blood cascaded from the cut down to her ear and jaw. She bled like any human, but the blood was black like that of a fallen angel. Blood pooled around her on the ground and leaked out of a fatal wound around her stomach. Andromeda’s Chains cut away the fabric of her shirt and left deep gouges in her flesh.
Warm tears wet my cheeks. She wouldn’t survive this. Chunks of flesh were missing from her body and spurting blood like soda from a shaken can.
“We have to go back!” Kiran yelled.
“We can’t,” said Tom. “If we open the portal right here, right now we’ll be in the Ninth Circle.”
“We can’t let her die,” said Kiran. “She’ll go to the Pit.”
Nash’s jaw was set. He didn’t say anything. He opened the portal.
“What are you doing?” Tom asked.
On the other side was a barren plain of ice. The chill bit my skin. The cold air fought against the humidity of the Islands.
“He’s right,” said Nash. “We don’t have a choice.”
Tom’s eyes were wide. “Nash, we could spend an eterni
ty there. If anything is second to the Pit, it’s the Ninth Circle.”
“I’m not going to let her die,” said Chandra. “Pass her to me on the other side.” She stepped through the portal and disappeared through its center.
Kiran lifted Adrianna from the ground. Her body slumped in his arms. Her head lulled against his chest. She was too weak to grimace from the pain. I’d heard the body will protect itself from pain after a while so the mind wouldn’t fall to pieces. He put her through. His arms disappeared on the other side.
I walked forward as I clasped my hand gingerly around my wrist. I think it was broken. Nash put his hand on my shoulder. “No,” he said. “Tom, take her back with you.”
“What?” I said. He wasn’t going to leave us, was he? We were a team. “I’m going with you.”
Nash narrowed his eyes. Was he angry with me? “I can’t let you come with us. The punishments in the Circles are designed for immortal souls, not for you. If you died, that could mean the Pit for me.”
If the Ninth Circle was second only to the Pit, I couldn’t comprehend the tortures they might face there.
But they had to do this for Adrianna. I hoped she would be okay. The whole thing was crazy to me. She could die on Earth, but not in Hell. Would she be able to regenerate or something? But if she did, what would happen to her and the others once they were in the Circles? Would the demons let them leave?
My breath caught. What if Nash became stuck there? Would I ever see him again? Would Lucifer make me join a new team and fight with strangers?
Nash climbed through, and the portal disappeared.
TOM and I boarded the plane. In Sheol, although many places on its outskirts were like Earth, the Circles were another matter, and the area that contained them was much greater than its outer edges.
The thought that Nash might not come back from the Ninth Circle entered my mind again. Was he lost forever?
I thought back to the battle. We nearly lost. That angel could have killed us all. Adrianna. Was she going to die? I couldn’t imagine she would survive those wounds on her back and stomach. A human would have died in an instant. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that she wouldn’t die if she died in Sheol.
And Andromeda was a lesser angel. The only angel I spoke to was Adriel, and I didn’t know what rank he was. But if Andromeda was powerful enough to take on five trained fighters, how much stronger was Raphael?
I gulped.
Not to mention, if Raphael found out what we were doing, he could come after me. What if, Andromeda warned him. She flew away. Nash and the others hadn’t been able to do their fallen angel bounty hunter thing. Would she go to the gates of Heaven and warn them, tell them where I was?
Raphael’s army would find me. All my friends would die and become destined for the Pit. If they died, I would never be free. My soul will be lost forever in Lucifer’s chains. We better find the other weapons fast and pick the angels off one by one before we go up against an army of angels bent on destroying us.
Tom cracked open a book and poured over its pages. How could he read at a time like this?
“Tom?” I asked.
“What?” He didn’t take his eyes off the book.
“Will you look at me?”
Tom picked up his head. “What is it?”
“What is it?” I stared at him. “Our friends are lost somewhere in the Circles, and we’re not going to talk about it?”
“What is there to talk about?” He held the book open in his lap. I knew he wanted to look back down at it. He wanted to escape my eyes and my judgment. Or maybe he didn’t care. I hoped it was the former.
“Tell me about the Circles.”
“You want a lesson on the Circles right now?”
“Yes.”
“It won’t clear your mind.”
“Just tell me.”
Tom closed his book and placed it on the small table beside him. He grabbed the pen and pad of paper at the end of the table. “Imagine that Hell is a circle.” I moved to the chair opposite him as he drew a circle on the piece of paper.
“This region here—hey, what’s wrong with your wrist?” He watched me as I cradled my wrist in my lap.
“I think I broke it.”
“You need to go to the hospital.”
“That’s going to be difficult while I’m thirty thousand feet in the air,” I said. “Can’t someone in Sheol set it for me.”
“Sure,” said Tom. “But that would require me to tell them that you’re human.”
“Would that be a problem?”
“We’ll stop at a hospital in the city. Soon as the plane lands. I wish you would have said something before we boarded.”
“I was more worried about Adrianna,” I said. “I’m still worried about her, about all of them. Please, distract me.”
Tom eyed me curiously, but he didn’t ask. “This region here.” He pointed to the edge of the circle. “Is the Outer Region where Lucifer and a few honorary demons, such as myself, live.” He drew another smaller circle inside the larger one. “Here.” He pointed to the edge of the second circle, “is Limbo, and this…”
“Wait,” I stopped him. “What’s Limbo?”
He shook his head. “This is going to be a starting-from-scratch type lesson, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know a lot about religion,” I said.
“This isn’t religion. This is Hell.”
“Well, I don’t know a lot about Hell either.”
He sighed. “Limbo is located right outside the Outer Region. It’s the First Circle of Hell. Religion will tell you Limbo is a place for non-Christians and unbaptized babies, but that isn’t true. It’s an intake office.”
“A what?”
“Where people first go before they’re assigned to a Circle or obtain a contract. Lots of paperwork. If you obtain a contract, you have to follow the tenants of said contract which will perhaps earn you a place in the Outer Region instead of an eternity of torture.”
“Why doesn’t everyone take the contract?”
“Morality is a funny thing,” said Tom. “There are some things people aren’t willing to do in the face of the unknown. No one knows how bad the tortures of the Circles are until they experience it themselves. Also, some people just don’t get offered contracts.”
“What about the unbaptized babies? If they don’t go to Limbo, where do they go?”
“Babies go to Heaven.” Tom smirked. “Baptisms don’t mean much. Well, they don’t mean anything at all. The mechanisms for getting to Hell are much more complex than that. But I thought we were talking about the Circles.”
“Okay, so what comes after Limbo?”
“Thought you’d never ask.” He drew yet another circle within the smaller one.
“I think I can do without the diagram,” I said.
“Fine.” He crumpled up the paper. “Right outside Limbo pass the river is the Second Circle. It storms there, gets awful windy. The winds are so rough they can rip the skin from your bones.” He said it like he was telling a ghost story.
My mouth formed a hard line.
“If you don’t believe me fine,” said Tom, “but I’m going to tell it the way I want to tell it.”
“Who’s in the Second Circle?”
“Adulterers mostly, mixed with a few others who use sex appeal for immoral gains. There are a few marketing executives down there and not because they cheated on their wives.”
“Seems like a silly reason to go to Hell.”
“There are lots of silly ways people have gotten to Hell. Cerberus, the three-headed dog, presides over the Third Circle, reserved for the gluttons who are forced to doggy paddle through his shit.”
I crinkled my nose as the image hit me, hard to avoid although I tried.
“The Fourth Circle houses the hoarders and the money grubbers. Hades runs a tight ship. His demons place heavy weights on the chests of the tortured. There are a lot of priests down there.”
“I though
t Hades is from Greek mythology.”
“Mythology is just a word for a religion that’s no longer practiced. Hades bears more than a passing mention in ancient Greek religion, but he’s existed before the world was made.”
“Hoarders don’t deserve to be in Hell. I mean, the people on the show are slobs, but they’re sick. They’re not evil.”
“If only evil people went to Hell,” said Tom, “Lucifer would only have a few thousand psychopaths down there.”
“How many Circles are there?”
“Nine, and they get worse with each level.”
Nash and the others went to the Ninth Circle, the worse one. No wonder Tom acted so hopeless. “Tell me about the Ninth Circle.”
“But I haven’t gotten through the others yet.”
“I don’t care. Just tell me if they can make it.”
Tom shook his head. “Not likely.”
“But…”
“What they did for Adrianna was a Hail Mary,” said Tom. “If she died on Earth, she would be banished to the Pit. Torture is better than that, even Ninth Circle level torture.”
“So, what happens now?” I asked, my voice a whisper.
“All we can do is wait.”
Before Tom and I went back to Sheol, we stopped at a hospital in the city where a doctor set my wrist and put it in a cast. She said I had a fracture. My wrist and a large portion of my forearm would be in the cast for at least three weeks. When Tom and I arrived back at Nash’s house, a black sports car was in the driveway. Bob kept his promise to take care of Sim.
Bob rolled down the sleeves of his shirt when I opened the door. He grabbed his coat off the rack.
“You’re back,” he said. “And in one piece.” He smiled devilishly.
“No,” I said. “We have a problem.”
Bob’s smile dropped faster than a bowling ball from a Ferris Wheel.
“Nash and the others are in the Ninth Circle,” I said.
Bob tilted his head to the side. “What are they doing there?”
“Adrianna was injured,” said Tom without emotion or urgency.
What was wrong with him? Hopelessness was one thing, but I thought he cared about his friends.
“And they entered the Ninth Circle so she wouldn’t die on Earth,” Bob concluded. “That’s a shame.”
The Wings of Heaven and Hell (The Arcadian Steel Sequence Book 1) Page 13