by Kyoko M
At last, our horse made it to the other side of the river. We jostled back and forth, encouraging it through the rank mud and past the suffering souls trapped in it. Gabriel dug his heels into its sides and the hellhorse barreled up the hillside towards the graveyard of blood rain.
Gabriel stretched his wings out so the horse could see through the storm and I buried my face between his shoulder blades to shield it from the downpour. We made it through in several minutes thanks to the horse’s speed and then entered the dark forest.
“Don’t slow down!” I panted out. “If Cerberus catches us, we’re done for.”
“How many arrows do you have left?”
I checked my quiver. “Eight. Why?”
“Listen.”
I concentrated to hear past the hoof beats. Ghostly baying in the distance. “The hellhounds in this realm have caught our scent.”
“Shit,” I hissed. “Can we outrun them?”
“We have no other choice. If they converge, they’ll tear us apart.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t come all this way to die crossing the finish line.”
We had just broken through the tree line when the hounds became visible. Each was about the size of a mountain lion, had two heads, red glowing eyes, and short, sleek black fur. Ropes of drool hung from their open jaws as they raced after us. There were six of them—three directly behind us while the other three ran ahead and tried to close in on each side. I shot at them, hitting one in the eye and the other in its throat. I looped one arm around Gabriel’s chest and swiped at the others with the end of the bow, smacking their thick skulls and rapping their legs enough to slow them down.
I heard the distant rumble of thunder and then we rode up towards the great lightning storm and the columns. My hair flew upward and my body followed suit. The bow and quiver of arrows were blown out of my hands before I could react.
“Gabriel!” I shrieked as the tempestuous winds tore me from my seat. He whirled and caught my wrist just in time, snatching me back down towards him as the horse galloped around the torture circle. We reached the exit and tore through the cave until we reached the valley of bones.
From the base of the hill, I could see the gates of Hell. They were hundreds of feet high and they were not made of iron, bronze, or gold. Dozens and dozens of withered dead men and women were stacked upon each other, speared through with some sort of metal to hold them in shape of a gate.
The aching pain in my chest spiked, hard enough that I touched my ribs to try and staunch it. My soul tether only had three threads left.
The hellhorse neighed in panic as it tried to ascend the hill, but its hooves couldn’t find any traction on the skulls and shattered skeletons. Gabriel calmed him with soothing words and dismounted, nearly falling when his bare feet hit the ground.
“We must…continue on foot from here,” he said, sounding far less assured than ever. I looped one of his arms around my shoulder and supported as much of his weight as I could. The pain inside me tripled. My eyes watered. My vision blurred until the gate seemed like a pinprick on a black horizon.
“Come on, Gabe. We can make it. I know we can.”
We waded through the dead souls in tandem, taking large steps and helping the other person up when they stumbled. We made it halfway up when the hellhounds—the ones that hadn’t gotten sucked up into the vortex of the lightning funnel—caught up.
“Shit,” I growled, lowering Gabriel’s arm. “Keep going. I’ll fend them off.”
“Jordan—”
“Don’t argue with me! Just go!”
He frowned, but obeyed. I grabbed a skull and hurtled it at the nearest hound. It hit him right on the snout and he tumbled back down the hill, dazed. The other three came tearing after me. I found a sturdy thigh bone and swung it like a baseball bat. I slammed it into the ribs of one beast and then broke it over the head of another one. I jammed the sharp end of it into the last creature’s stomach and the hound yelped, crumpling to the ground. Panting, I turned towards the crest of hill yet again. Gabriel was near the gates. Thank God.
“Jordan…Amador.”
Two words, five syllables, all of them spoken from the most inhuman voice I’d ever heard. I whirled. There, at the bottom of the valley, stood Mulciber. Her chest heaved with every breath. She was dripping wet with blood, water, and filth. The arrow I’d put through her eye had finally broken in half. Dark red blood poured from her eye socket and splashed onto her clavicle. The tip of arrow in her thigh was still there, surrounded by a huge patch of blackened skin. Her whip was gone, but that didn’t mean a damn thing. The look in her remaining eye was enough. I saw my death in it.
Mulciber’s lips parted and a horrible sound like a hiss slithered out. She took great, solid steps up the hill towards me, her hair sweeping aside any bones that hindered the path between her and me. I scrambled backwards as fast as I could, falling down twice. I gave up and crawled on my hands and knees over the bones.
“Jordan…Amadooooooor…” Mulciber said again, closer this time. She was catching up. I didn’t have any plans left. I couldn’t even stand up. I had to make it to Gabriel and the gates or everything would end. Everything.
The extra adrenaline from my fear got me farther than I’d hoped. I was about fifteen feet away from Gabriel, who had started back down to help me, when Mulciber’s fingers closed around my ankle.
She yanked me towards her and broke my left ankle with one swift movement. I screamed as a sharp pain shot up my leg and spread through every nerve. I shoved my right foot into her belly and kicked as hard as I could over and over again, trying to get her off me, but she wouldn’t budge. She grabbed my wrists with her hands and pinned them on either side of my head. Her hair tendrils wrapped around my neck and squeezed.
“Jooooooordaaaaan Amadoooooooooor!” Mulciber roared as she strangled me with all her might, her face twisted into something no longer anything near human. The bones in her face pushed out stark against her copper skin and her teeth were all sharp like a shark’s. Whatever shell that kept her intact had shattered and now there was nothing but the monster. I choked on my last bits of air and the silky voice of Hell caressed my ears as I did.
Let go. You’ve lost. It’s all over. Hell is your new home.
Two words slipped past my bluish lips. “Fuck home.”
I head-butted Mulciber right in the eye. The force of the blow shoved the protruding half of the arrow out the back of her skull. Her body went stiff above me, stricken with either shock or agony. I didn’t care to wait around to see if it had killed her. I used the last ounce of my strength and kicked her off of me. She crumpled on her side and her black hair unraveled from around my neck. I coughed several times as the humid air returned to my lungs.
Mulciber stirred where she lay, attempting to push up on her hands.
“No,” I said. “No more. Stay down, bitch!”
Frenzied, I groped for the shriveled up apple that the demon kid had given me and jammed it in her ear. Mulciber screamed and grabbed at it, but then there was a flash of bright yellowish light. Her entire body bent in on itself. Her bones snapped and cracked as they were forced inside a hovering void. The apple had created some sort of portal that sucked her inside it one limb at a time while she mewled and whimpered like a dying coyote. It flashed one final time and then she was gone.
I crawled all the way up to Gabriel. He wedged his large hands under my arms and lifted me, cradling me against his body. “Are you alright?”
I let out a reedy chuckle. “What is it with you angels and that question?”
“What was that thing?”
“Something a creepy demon kid gave me.”
Gabriel blinked at me. “Demon kid? Describe him.”
“Four-feet tall, blond hair, wore RayBans and was obsessed with 80’s toys. He made me play Candyland before he’d let me go.”
“Jordan, that was no demon child. That was the archdemon Beelzebub.”
I gawked. “You’re shi
ttin’ me, right?”
“I’m afraid not. Clearly, you appealed to him somehow. That weapon he gave you is one of the most powerful things in Hell. It can send someone to the innermost circle reserved for traitors. That is where they sent Belladonna when she arrived.”
“You saw her?”
He nodded with a grim expression. “She tried to appeal to Mulciber, but it was in vain. Her soul is trapped down there for all time.”
“Serves her right, you ask me.”
“Do you have another one of those apples?”
“No. Why?”
“I only ask because we have company.”
I glanced upward to see something flying towards us—something large, dark, and unidentifiable. There was nothing left that I could do. All I had was one thread left on my soul tether, a broken ankle, sore ribs, and a defiant attitude.
The figure landed in front of us with a thud. Gabriel tensed, moving me aside as if to defend me, but then he went slack.
“Michael?”
I blinked rapidly. My husband was drenched from head to toe in black goop that made him damn near unrecognizable, but then he wiped his face clean and I could see him.
“What the hell happened to you?” I asked.
He offered me a sheepish grin. “The river beast ate me. Whole. Turned out to be a poor career choice.”
A wave of affection and relief doused me. “I bet. Now let’s go home.”
His expression sobered. “I wish it could be that simple.”
“What?”
He turned his head and lifted his gaze to above us. I followed. Then I saw him.
Belial.
Holding Moloch’s severed head in his fist.
His great raven wings parted the air as he landed a foot away on the hilltop. He was covered in wounds from the swordfight and blood had soaked his nifty kimono, but he was still in one piece. Moloch’s mouth hung open with saliva and blood dripping down his chin, his sightless eyes rolled back so that only the whites showed. Belial hadn’t been lying. He certainly knew how to handle himself, even against the archdemon of war.
Belial’s pale eyes settled on each of us in turn. “My, my. You look awful.”
“Likewise,” I said. “We were just on our way out.”
“I noticed.” He glanced at Michael.
“Did you say goodbye?”
Michael winced. “I was about to.”
My body went cold and numb. “What’s going on?”
Michael didn’t answer. Belial did. “Your husband made a deal with me while you slept. He predicted that you would pass the Test, but with all of Hell closing in to stop you, you’d still be trapped. He asked me to ensure that you and Gabriel made it to the gates and he would remain here in your stead.”
“No,” I said slowly. “No, he wouldn’t do that. We promised each other we’d go in together and leave together. Tell him, Michael.”
Belial sighed. “Jordan, how do you think you were able to evade capture? How did you think you could get through the other circles so easily? It was of my will and my will alone. I kept the lesser demons off your trail while you escaped.”
I shook my head. “No. We’re going home, all three of us. Get your ass over here. Now.”
“I’m sorry, Jordan,” Michael whispered. “But it had to be you. Human life is so short. Too short. I can’t let you rot here forever. You need to live for the both of us.”
“No. No, I don’t accept that. You’re coming home with me. After all that we’ve been through, we’re going to get our fucking happy ending if we have to pay for it in blood.”
Michael glanced at his brother over my head. “Go. She doesn’t have long before her body expires without her soul.”
“Michael, please don’t do this,” Gabriel said, his blue eyes shining with tears. “Please, brother. Think about what you’re doing.”
“Everyone has a price. This is mine to pay.”
I tore away from Gabriel. I fell. Michael caught me before I hit the ground and lifted me. “You stupid son of a—”
He kissed me with all his might, folding my weary body against his chest. There wasn’t an ounce of selfishness or lust in it—just warmth and beauty and solace. He kissed me like I was the most precious thing in the universe and he had to let go of it forever. In that kiss, I knew he wasn’t lying.
He sighed into my mouth and let me go. I caught one last thing before Gabriel gathered me in his arms and pulled me through the gates of Hell to the other side.
“Goodbye, mi amor.”
I woke up screaming.
Nothing in the room registered when my soul ascended back into the real world—not Faust, not even Gabriel’s newly recovered body next to us. I bolted upward with crazed eyes and glanced beside me at Michael’s unmoving form. No.
His hand was still wrapped around mine, but his skin was cool and dry. I knelt beside him, shaking his shoulders. “Michael, wake up. Wake up!”
“Jordan?” Faust asked. “What happened?”
“He s-said he made a deal with Belial to get us out,” I stammered, unable to lift my eyes from my husband’s blank face. “He said he was going to stay. Send me back. You have to send me back.”
“Jor, I…I can’t.”
I looked at him then. “What?”
“A soul tether is a one way ticket to Hell. You can’t go back unless you die and your soul is damned through Judgment.”
His words washed over me. I didn’t say anything for several seconds. Then I spotted the knife lying beside him and grabbed for it. When it registered what I was about to do, he batted it away, growing angry. “Jordan, no! You can’t kill yourself so you’ll go to Hell. It won’t help.”
“Then what will?” I hollered. “I’m not leaving him there. If he’s dead, I might as well be! We’re in this together. I am not leaving him there, do you understand me?”
He thumbed through the book, searching. “I…I don’t know anything else that I can do. If he made a deal, it’s a verbal contract. You can’t reverse them.”
My body began to tremble, starting in my hands and traveling through all my limbs. I couldn’t breathe. I was hyperventilating. Michael was trapped in Hell. Michael was trapped in Hell. Michael was trapped in Hell without me.
I lifted his head and cradled it against my chest, running my fingers through his dark hair like I used to do when we were happily married. I closed my eyes and tried to feel his pulse, but there was nothing. The whole room disappeared from my consciousness. It was just him and me.
“You can’t leave me here,” I murmured, eyes closed, ignoring the hot tears dripping down my cheeks. “You can’t. Because you promised we’d do this together. You promised. Angels can’t break promises, remember? Please don’t go. You taught me to fight for what’s important. I need you to help me fight. We all do.”
Someone’s hand rested on my shoulder. The gentle weight belonged to Gabriel. He wrapped his arm around me from behind and pressed a kiss to my hair. The three of us stayed there for a long time with no other words exchanged. There was nothing left to say, after all.
Then, a quiet, scraggly voice broke the silence.
“Nice speech. Gonna use that in your wedding vows?”
I looked down. Michael’s sea-green eyes opened and an exhausted grin stretched across his lips. His skin flushed with heat. He was alive. Alive.
“You bastard!” I sobbed, burying my face in his neck and breathing in his scent. He wound one arm around my waist and the other he clasped with Gabriel’s, creating an awkward three-way hugging pile. It took more than a little effort to let go, but I had to so I could grill him.
“What happened? How did you get out?”
Michael pulled himself into a sitting position. “Wedding present.”
My jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”
“When I first made the deal, Belial told me the price for your freedom was my soul. I agreed. After you crossed over, I expected him to lead me back into Pandemonium. Instead, he told me tha
t he would alter the deal in exchange for one thing. He wants to give you a wedding present when the time comes. After I agreed, he let me go.”
“Let you go?” Gabriel asked. “Won’t that make Lucifer beyond angry?”
“Not after what Mulciber’s done. Belial did exactly what he set out to do. He proved himself worthy of his title. He beat Moloch. Mulciber’s deal with us will be brought down on her head, not his. Plus, she broke the deal when she tried to kill Jordan. Her demonhood has been rescinded. She’ll be a human soul for all eternity.”
“Good riddance,” Gabriel and I chorused.
Michael nodded to Faust. “Well done, doc. We couldn’t have done this without you. Where are the others?”
“They had to go outside to fight off the demons. They’ve been out there for nearly an hour.”
We stood up one by one and steadied each other. Everything was stiff from the damage my soul had sustained, but at least my body parts still worked. I got out my Glock and handed Gabriel my back up pistol. Michael drew his sword.
“Count of three?” Michael asked.
“Why not? Not like it’ll kill me.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “One…two…three!”
We burst out of the double doors, guns drawn, ready for trouble. We were met with an entire floor covered in dead bad guys. I counted at least thirty of them. Avriel and Myra were playing cards in the center of the room, as if they’d grown bored waiting to see if more lackeys showed up. It was more than a little hilarious.
Ace noticed us first. He leapt up with a happy bark and barreled towards me. I nearly fell over as he propped his huge paws on my shoulders and licked the right side of my cheek. I laughed and pushed him back down, scratching his head. “Nice to see you too, mutt.”
“You’re alright!” Avriel exclaimed, leaping to his feet. He shook Gabriel and Michael’s hands heartily and then gave me a spinning hug that made me giggle. “Thank the Father. We were worried sick.”
“As the card game clearly indicates,” I said, arching an eyebrow.
He blushed. “Myra said it would take my mind off my anxiety, so I indulged her.”