River
“This is…” Corson’s words trailed off as he stared at the slab before us.
My eyebrows drew together as my eyes were drawn back to the rock. Taking a step closer, I tried to see more of the rock, but I saw nothing marking it as anything other than what it appeared to be.
I may not be able to see anything special about it, but the skelleins weren’t bringing their torches any closer as they stared at it. Corson and Bale flanked Kobal, and the look of amazement on their faces mirrored the one Magnus wore.
Despite its innocuous façade, my fingers itched to touch it as I sensed power washing off it. I remained unmoving with the others as the crackling fire of the torches became the only sound within the tunnel. Their flames cast shadows all around us, and for the first time, I realized the shadows that had slithered and danced throughout Hell didn’t surround us anymore.
“What is it?” I whispered.
“The entrance to Hell,” Kobal murmured as his gaze ran over the rock.
“Aren’t we in Hell?”
“This is the Hell only one demon alive and the hounds have ever seen before,” he said. “The center of creation.”
“Who has seen it before?” Hawk asked, his voice low and respectful like the others when he spoke.
Kobal didn’t answer. He didn’t have to, at least not for me; I already knew who it was. Resting my hand on Hawk’s arm, I drew him back a step. He glanced at me questioningly, and I gestured toward Kobal. Hawk’s eyes widened before they went back to Kobal.
“This is the entrance to where you and the hounds were created?” I asked.
“Yes,” Kobal answered.
“How do we get inside?”
“Only Kobal is able to do so,” Corson replied.
“Are we allowed in there?” Hawk asked.
“Only myself and the hounds have ever entered and left before,” Kobal said. “But this is the fastest way to the seals. If the rest of you are unable to travel through with me, I will go on alone.”
All the demons glanced at me. Kobal took hold of my hand and briefly entwined his fingers with mine and gave them a squeeze.
“It will let us in,” I whispered.
“No matter what happens, make sure she stays safe,” he commanded the others.
“With our lives,” Corson vowed.
“Should we take her back to the forest?” Bale inquired. “With the trees to protect her, she may be safest there.”
My head whipped toward her, but her gaze remained focused on Kobal. “I will not be kept in hiding!” I retorted. “If we can’t go through here then we will find one of the other ways to reach the seals.”
Around me, the other demons and skelleins shuffled nervously. Kobal and Bale remained focused on each other before he looked at me. “No,” he said after a minute. “She will remain here.”
My shoulders sagged as I inhaled a harsh breath. Bending, Kobal rested his lips against my ear. “You would not have stayed in the forest anyway, Mah Kush-la.”
I gave him a tremulous smile. “You’re right.”
Kobal squeezed my hand before releasing it. Taking a step forward, he lifted his hands and rested them against the slab. Beneath his palms, an inner light radiated outward. It shone across the rock to illuminate it like a light placed behind a diamond. The glow spread steadily over the solid surface.
Awe filled me as I took a step back to look at the slab, now aglow in a striking umber color that reminded me of the leaves in October. My breath became trapped in my chest as beneath the spreading light, intricate carvings within the surface of the rock were revealed. Carvings strikingly similar to the ones on Kobal’s right arm.
Then I spotted the mark of Ziwa. It was etched into the stone amongst the others, and I knew these carvings were the ancient language of the demons. More than that, I knew they were a part of Kobal.
Against the rock, the muscles in his forearms and biceps bulged. His head bent as his shirt strained across his back. The rending of the material giving way was the only sound in the cavern aside from the crackling of the torches. Sweat slicked his bronzed skin, making it shine in the light from his hands.
I’d always known Kobal was a force to be reckoned with, but watching him now, I knew the well of power in him ran far deeper than I’d ever realized. He’d once told me there was much the demons could do, more than they’d revealed. How much more could he do? Would I ever know everything he was capable of? Would he? Because I was beginning to think he may not even know the depth of how deep his powers ran.
I resisted the impulse to rest my hand against his arm, to feel that flow of power and add my own. There was no way to know what that influx of power would do, and I couldn’t take the chance it would have a devastating effect.
My breath caught in my throat. I bit my lip as the symbols on his arm all turned and twisted toward the rock. His arms took on the same hue as what was emanating through the rock. As if the symbols on his body had been a set of keys sliding into a lock, I heard a clicking of something on the other side of the slab before it started to vibrate beneath Kobal’s palms.
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the stark beauty of him as the slab slid to the side. Thrusting his shoulders back, Kobal tossed aside the ruined remains of his shirt before turning to me. He didn’t say a word as he held his hand out.
My gaze ran over him once more before I slipped my fingers into his. Power jolted from him and into me. His fiery scent flooded my nostrils; it had increased from his exertion, but he appeared unaffected by what he’d just done.
Pulling me closer against his side, he locked me there possessively as he stepped forward. I braced myself to be magically thrown back, to spontaneously combust, or simply cease to exist, but none of those things happened as Kobal led me into the large chamber.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the others standing at the edge of the doorway, peering cautiously inside. They all looked so small as their gazes ran over the massive room. Corson was the first to take a hesitant step inside, followed swiftly by Magnus and Bale. When I saw they weren’t going to explode or be tossed aside either, I turned to focus on our surroundings.
I somehow managed to keep walking as astonishment shook me. Instead of the black rock of Hell I’d grown accustomed to, what surrounded us now were rocks that shone like quartz in the light of the chamber.
There were white, nearly see-through rocks, purple and pink ones, some were red and others were an orange color that reminded me of the glow that had released from Kobal and lit the slab. Firelight danced over the crystals and rocks surrounding us, causing them to sparkle and reflect colors the likes of which I’d never seen before. The vast color should have been overwhelming, but it wasn’t.
The source of the firelight came from a hole in the center of the chamber. No flames appeared out the top of the hole as sparks danced in the air from the center of the circle. We were too far away for me to be able to look into it, but I felt an irresistible draw toward the hole.
The chamber was easily a two-hundred-foot-wide circle with a high, crystal dome in the center of it. The dome arched over where the fire danced within the hole. As we moved closer to the circle, I had to crane my head all the way back to peer into the upper level nearly a hundred feet over my head. A tingle ran down my spine when I saw the top of the dome was charred and burnt. Smoke stains slid out from the center, obscuring the beautiful, quartz-like stones above us.
Sparks burst to life at the tips of my fingers when power rushed up from the ground to flood me. My eyes widened when I realized the light at the end of my fingers was golden-white once more. I curled my fingers into the wall of muscle on Kobal’s chest as I sought some stability. “I can’t stop it,” I whispered.
He enclosed his hand around my head and cradled me protectively against his chest. “This is a place where life is created. There is much power to be found here.”
“Yes,” I murmured. I felt as if my body were being zapped with little electrical currents as the sparks on my fingers grew to encompass my wrists. “Kobal,” I whispered. “Will whatever created you think I’m the enemy if I can’t stop this?”
“You are my Chosen. You could never be the enemy.”
As if in response, a low rumbling filled the cavern. I jumped and nearly fell when I tripped over my own feet, but Kobal managed to keep me up. My head shot toward the source of the noise as the slab settled back into place, effectively closing off any retreat we might have made.
“Easy, Mah Kush-la,” he murmured in my ear. “You will be safe here.”
“How do you know that?” I demanded.
“There are more than rocks guarding this place. I may be the key to getting in and out of here, and I may be the only one who knew what lay beyond that rock, but if someone is not welcome here, they will not survive it.”
I didn’t think he realized those words weren’t exactly comforting.
The clicking of the skelleins bony feet on the quartz surface drew my attention back to the others as they continued to creep forward. Their mouths gaped open as they tried to look everywhere at once. I’d never seen anything amaze the demons, until now.
Kobal was the only one who strode forward with barely a glance at our surroundings. He kept his arm around my waist, drawing me onward. Walking past the circle in the center of the dome, I dug my feet in, pulling him to a halt near the edge when I realized the black around the circle was actually lava rocks surrounding the open pit.
“I want to see inside,” I murmured.
Kobal didn’t try to hold me back when I took a couple of steps toward the circle. As I neared, I saw all the rocks around the pit were carved with the same symbols as on the slab, and some of them were the markings on Kobal.
“Who carved the symbols onto the rocks?” I inquired.
“I assume the first varcolac to rise from the fires did,” he replied.
“Hmm.” It was all so odd, but who was I to judge? I was a little odd myself. “Is it like magic?”
“It’s power,” he said.
The light playing over his face emphasized the angles and planes of it, making him look more lethal than he was. His arm remained locked around me; his obsidian gaze focused on the fires. Though no emotion showed on his face, I sensed a wealth of tension in his rigid muscles.
Reaching out, I traced my fingers over the symbols on his arm. They were all still pointed in a different direction than they had been before. His head turned toward me; his nostrils flared as he watched me.
I glanced at the light swirling up from the center of the rocks when a pop sounded and sparks danced into the air before us. Moving closer, I stopped and cautiously stretched my hand out in search of some invisible barrier the carved rocks may be emitting, but finding nothing to stop me from continuing forward.
Stepping over the rocks, Kobal turned back to me, placed his hands on my hips, and lifted me over them. I didn’t breathe as, yet again, I waited for some invisible force to strike me down, but I didn’t burst into flames when Kobal lowered me to the ground on the other side.
I looked back to find the others walking toward us. They stopped outside the circle to watch us as we moved within the center. Sweat beaded across my brow and caused the dress to stick to my back. I’d become accustomed to the heat of Hell, but I’d never experienced it quite like this as I neared the edge of the ten-foot circle. Across the circle, and beyond the rocks, shadows danced over the cavern walls, obscuring anything twenty feet away.
A trickling sound drifted to me from somewhere within the cavern. “Is that water?” I inquired.
“There is a small pool of water within the shadows,” Kobal confirmed.
He drew me up when I was a foot away from the edge. Leaning cautiously forward, my mouth dropped open when I spotted what lay beneath us.