Kobal
Everything flashed by me in a blur as I raced deeper and deeper into Hell. The longer she’s in here…
I broke the thought off. She couldn’t be that far ahead of me, and she was strong enough to give anything in here a run for its money, including Lucifer. The heat of my home enfolded me, brushing over my skin as the familiar scents of fire and brimstone assailed me. They were scents I could never forget; I bore them on my skin and in my genetic makeup.
Turning a corner, I leapt over the charred and mangled remains of a lanavour lying at the edge of the pathway. River. She was still out of their grasp, still moving deeper, or at least she had been five minutes ago judging by the smoke curling off the remains.
I didn’t look back at Corson, Shax, and Bale as we traveled further into the pit. Hell had been my home for over a millennium, the place I’d been created to protect and rule over, yet all I wanted was to find River and drag her from here as fast as I could. This was not my home, not anymore. She was my home, and she was in danger.
I was moving so fast, I nearly crashed into Erin when I turned another corner. Her blue eyes were bloodshot and her face looked sunburned, but she remained standing when many of the other humans were leaning against the wall or each other.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
Erin adjusted her grip on the woman she and Vargas carried before pointing down the hill. “Leading them away,” she croaked out. “Hawk’s with her.”
So she could withstand Hell well enough to keep moving through it, and Hawk could too. Bale and Corson exchanged a pointed look. Shax clutched Erin’s arm when she swayed on her feet.
“We couldn’t keep going,” Erin rasped, sounding as if she’d eaten a pound of dirt.
“Shax, get them out of here,” I commanded. “When you get above, have Morax contact me.”
Shax lifted an eyebrow at this. They all knew I didn’t tolerate anyone else in my mind, but there would be no help for it now. Most of the time, I kept Morax’s ability to communicate telepathically resolutely shut off in my mind, and Morax knew better than to speak with me in such a way without approval or necessity. Otherwise, I’d make him eat his tail. However, this situation definitely qualified as necessary.
Turning away, Shax nudged Erin aside to take hold of the shoulders of the woman I now saw was the one who had become attached to Hawk. A purplish bruise marred her temple. I turned away, not caring what had happened to her, just as the earth beneath my feet trembled.
Small rocks broke free of the walls and rattled down the pathway. I didn’t have time to wonder what had happened before the earth gave a mighty heave and the ground lurched three inches to the side. I took a step forward to balance myself. Screams rent the air as some of the humans were knocked off their feet and others flung themselves against the wall.
“Silence!” I commanded and took a step closer to the edge of the path. A couple more whimpers sounded before they all fell quiet.
Bale, Shax, and Corson stepped closer to the edge with me. Below us, a pinpoint of light emerged where none had been before. My fangs lengthened as the light at the bottom of the pit spread.
***
River
“What was that?” I gasped as I pressed my back and palms flat against the wall behind me. I ignored the stones digging painfully into my flesh. My chest heaved with every one of my breaths as my heart beat wildly in my chest. The ground surged again before settling back into place.
“I don’t know,” Hawk muttered from beside me.
Glancing at him, I noticed he was paler than he had been up until now, but he took a step away from the wall and crept toward the edge of the roadway. “Hawk!” I hissed when he stopped at the edge and leaned over the pit with no railing and no bottom. “It might have been an earthquake,” he said.
“Probably not the best idea to stand so close to the edge then,” I replied.
He didn’t pay me any attention as he stared into the bottomless pit. “There’s light down there.”
“What?”
I peeled myself off the wall and took a cautious step forward. Whether it had been an earthquake or not, I didn’t like the idea of the earth moving beneath my feet one little bit. I was terrified it was going to happen again, but this time it would fling us both over the edge. Despite common sense, I was still drawn irresistibly forward by my curiosity and the perplexed look on Hawk’s face.
Reaching the edge of the road, I leaned forward to peer into the abyss below. What had only been darkness before now had a growing wave of light emanating from it. Knowing I should move away from the edge, I still found myself gawking at the illumination spreading over the walls and rising steadily toward us.
“What is that?” Hawk muttered.
“I have no idea, but I don’t think it’s anything good.”
Glancing behind me, my stomach dropped when I spotted the lanavours rounding the corner and coming toward us. “We have to go!”
I grabbed Hawk’s wrist, drawing him away from the edge as one of the lanavours bore down on us. At the same time, the world exploded in a wash of light from beneath us. The ground lurched out from beneath my feet again, and I was thrown backward.
***
Kobal
“Get back!” I shouted when light shot up toward us.
Turning, I spread my arms wide to protect as many as I could when the glow increased. I felt no heat against my back, but the world around me was brighter than I’d ever seen it in here. The humans ducked and covered their heads. Dropping the girl, Shax threw himself over Erin, using his body to shield her while Vargas draped himself over a couple of others.
Air rushed up around me, tearing at my ruined clothes and beating against my skin as it battered my body. Screams rang in my ears; it took me a minute to realize they weren’t coming from the humans but from the radiance illuminating the jagged walls around us. Turning my head, I watched as, within the light, winged creatures rushed past me, heading toward the gateway. The flapping wings blew my hair back as they propelled the creatures toward the surface.
Most of the faces going past us were weathered and wrinkled. Their heads were tilted back to look at the world above, but one lowered her head to glare at me while another released a shriek, folded her wings against her side, and dove at me. The air around her tapered body whistled as she came at me like a missile.
I spun around, braced my legs apart, and held my hands up in preparation for the attack. At the last second, I took a step to the side and drove my fist into the back of her skull. She shrieked again when her body smacked into the pathway with enough force to crack the rock beneath her. Humans scrambled to get out of the way of her bouncing body before she crashed into the wall.
Bale leapt forward and drove her foot into the woman’s side. Her body rose three feet off the ground from Bale’s kick before thumping down again. She remained lying prone on the rock. Corson’s talons extended as he walked over and sliced through the woman’s neck with one fatal blow. Her head rolled until it stopped a few feet away from Bale.
My shoulders heaved and my teeth scraped together as I spun to watch more of the creatures flying toward freedom.
***
River
Wincing, I rested a hand on my bruised ribs as I pushed myself into a seated position against the wall. Within the flow of light, a rush of winged old women flew by me. Their screams filled my ears as their wings flapped.
The lanavours, also thrown back by the explosion that had rocked Hell, were regaining their feet. That strange chatter sounded approvingly from them as they watched the women soaring higher into the air. Rolling to the side, I pushed myself up and stumbled toward where Hawk lay, unmoving against the wall.
I fell at his side and gently pulled on his arm to roll him over. Blood trickled from a gash on his forehead, and a bruise marred his right cheek, but his chest rose and fell steadily. Gripping his wrist, I felt the beat of his pulse beneath my fingers.
“Hawk.” A couple of the lanavours turned to look at us when I spoke. Rising to my feet, I grabbed his other wrist and began to drag him backward. I ignored the wrenching pull on my arms as I dug my heels in and moved further away from the lanavours with him. “Hawk, get up. We have to go.”
He groaned and cracked one eye to look at me. “What happened?”
“I think another one of the seals gave way,” I muttered and pulled on his arm again, dragging him closer to me when a lanavour moved toward us. “We have to go, now. The lanavours are coming again.”
He pulled his wrist away from me and shoved himself over. His head hung down as he knelt on his hands and knees. Resting my fingers on the wall beside me, I drew on the flow of life within this place as I warily watched the lanavours. The flap of wings drew my attention to the flying women as one of them hovered at the edge of the roadway, inspecting me.
My stomach twisted sickeningly as the snakes she had for hair slithered upward, their tongues flicking out to taste the air. Normally, snakes didn’t bother me. Seeing them attached to someone’s head though was more than a little unsettling, as was the dog snout the woman had for a nose. Her wings made me think of angels as they were covered with white feathers, but the malice she radiated was far from angelic. Some of the other creatures flying past had wings like those of a bat while others had wings of assorted colors.
“What are they?” Hawk inquired.
“I don’t know, and right now, I don’t care. We have to get out of here,” I said.
The woman smiled at me. “Someone is looking for you.”
With those words, she nosedived at us.
***
Kobal
The light faded away, leaving behind only the black of the pit once more. Behind me, the humans shuffled and moved about.
“What was that?” Vargas asked.
“That was the seventy-eighth seal,” Bale said.
“Seventy-eighth?” someone squeaked.
“Yes,” I said, my eyes assimilating to the darkness once more. “Which means the wood nymphs are out.”
“Lucifer has lost his mind,” Corson said.
“So seventy-eight of them have collapsed?” Erin asked.
I stared above me toward the faint rays of sun I could still see from the earth. An earth that would never be the same now.
“Shit is about to hit the fan up above,” Corson said.
“The demons and remaining skelleins will fight them,” I replied.
“What were those things?” Vargas demanded.
“Erinyes,” I said and faced the humans. “You probably know them better as furies.”
“What can they do?” someone asked.
“They’re demons of justice and vengeance. They punish their victims by driving them mad and torturing them,” Corson replied.
“Wonderful,” someone muttered.
“Why were they locked behind a seal?” Erin asked.
“Because when they ran out of rightful spirits and demons to punish, they turned on those who didn’t deserve it in order to keep themselves amused. One of my ancestors was able to capture and seal them off,” I replied.
“So they’re pissed, and now they’re free,” Vargas said. “How many of them are there?”
“Nine now,” Bale said and kicked the head of the one Corson had decapitated into the pit.
“Why didn’t your ancestors just kill them?” another human asked.
A screech rent the air from somewhere below us. “River,” I breathed.