ALEXA COULD ONLY SEE THE thing’s head and part of its torso, if that was even how it could be described. Its small head was covered in milky-white eyes, and its skin was bone-white, with a suction-cup-like mouth full of teeth. It was the most nightmarish thing she’d ever seen.
Vaguely humanoid, but equally misshapen, a lumpy body slowly drifted towards her, through a column of twisting, whirling black water.
The last of Alexa’s courage fell out of her to be replaced by pure, unthinking terror. She turned to one side and gauged the distance between herself and the shore where Milo was still running. The distance was too great. She’d never make it before the creature devoured her.
The only way out was to go around the creature and back towards the shore she’d been swimming for. But the white demon was only fifty feet from her and closing the distance fast.
Thick, pale liquid spewed from its mouth. It thrusted its small head back and made a sound between a howl and a suction noise like water from a drain.
Alexa was swimming again. With her eyes on the shore behind the creature, she kicked as fast as she could, redoubling her efforts as she willed her tired legs to kick faster, and faster.
From the corner of her eye, she could see the white thing, the white demon as it thrashed in the water angrily, realizing that she was making for the shore…
If only she could make it to the shore. With her feet on solid ground, at least she’d have a fighting chance.
She swam for what felt like hours, but then her feet touched solid ground. She was pulling herself out of the water, and then she was running on the ash and rock landscape. Glowing white embers sparked up between fissures in the black granite ground, multiplied into many stabbing, darting flames. A loud shuffling sound came up behind her, and she knew the creature had made it to the shore. But Alexa didn’t have time to turn around and look. She had to find a weapon to use, something to protect herself.
Her ribs bleated in agony as she scrambled away as fast as she could in the opposite direction of the white demon. She searched the grounds, her mind pounding with exertion, but she saw nothing but ash and rock, nothing she could use as a weapon. Her mind raced, considering her options. How could she defeat a demon with her bare hands?
Her boot caught a fracture in the hard granite, sending a long piece loose the size of a small dagger. She halted and bent down to snatch it up—
She slammed into the ground, her hip colliding painfully with the rock surface. Desperately, she reached back and snagged the loose rock again. Ignoring the pain in her knees and hands and the terror that pulsed through her, she twisted herself around on the ground.
The white demon stood before her. She could see its lumpy, deformed body clearly now. Its long arms grazed the ground with suction cups at the ends of them instead of hands. Its legs were short with webbed feet.
And then it spoke inside her head.
At last, an angel soul all to myself. It laughed in a hoarse yet familiar voice, advancing again. You have delivered to me that which is mine. Your soul. I can feel the power of it. It’s marvelous. Do yourself a favor and give up. There’s nowhere to go. You’ll never complete the trials.
Alexa pushed herself up and held the sharp shard in front of her like a dagger. “I don’t give up that easily, demon, even if these trials are rigged. I’m going to finish them. You can count on it.”
You can’t complete the trials if I devour your soul, said the demon with a taunting voice.
Alexa gritted her teeth against the pain in her back where she suspected the demon had taken a bite out of her. “I’m going to complete them. Right after I kill you.” She surveyed the creature with a mix of apprehension and disgust. “What kind of demon are you anyway?” When it didn’t answer she added, “Do you have a name?”
I have no name, nor do I need one.
A hellwing screeched high above her. Alexa braced herself for the winged beast’s talons, but it circled above them instead, gliding in a gust of wind. The other hellwings flew in a circle shrieking, like a murder of crows alerting a predator.
Alexa tried to ignore the hellwings as she said, “Do you know how to complete the first trial? Does it have something to do with this collar? Do you know how to remove it?” She doubted it was going to give her a straight answer, but at this point she was desperate to try anything.
The demon cocked its head to the side. Your questions are meaningless. There is no way for you to escape me, not even through death. You will be mine. Forget the trials. You will never complete them. You are weaponless and I can sense your angel life diminishing. Admit defeat. You have lost.
“I have not lost,” said Alexa angrily. Not yet, she thought.
The white demon twisted itself and thrust out an arm.
Alexa leaped to the side, barely missing the teeth-infested suction cup. She spun and hacked at the thing’s flesh with her shard.
Liquid boiled from its white flesh, like beads of sweat. Small plumes of black smoke spiraled from where she’d cut it, bringing with it the stench of burning hair.
The white demon growled and blinked its many eyes, its great muscles flexing. It hissed at her.
You are a fool, angel. You cannot defeat me with that rock. You’ve failed. I will draw out your soul like the sucking of water through a straw. Oh, it will be painful, painful for you, but terribly delightful for me.
The demon’s many eyes were pinned on her. Its mouth was a suction cup, but Alexa could swear it was leering at her. It settled low onto his haunches, preparing to attack. She knew the stone in her hand was no match for the white demon. And it knew it too. She was his prey. Not an opponent or a real challenge.
Alexa drew her makeshift weapon. It wasn’t even close to a dagger, but it was the best she had. She would not show fear to this demon. She stared him down.
The hellwings had gone silent. Alexa rotated her weapon.
“Come on, you ugly, white bastard.”
The demon lunged in a blur of white limbs, suction cup maws and teeth.
Alexa had to pitch herself sideways onto the ground to avoid its mouth. She was up in a second, parrying its mouths at the end of its hands with her tiny rock.
But she wasn’t fast enough. One of its arms wrapped around her chest, and she felt teeth sink into her flesh. The creature was so close she could smell the carrion on its breath.
Alexa stabbed it in quick successions until it let go.
She stumbled back. Her stomach throbbed, and she felt liquid trickle down her abdomen. She felt dizzy, nauseated, too small and too large all at once. She was sweating, and the sweat on her chest felt uncomfortably like angel essence. She raised the rock in her hand, but a sick feeling rushed through her so powerful that her muscles slackened and she nearly dropped it. She had no strength. Her legs stumbled, but she stayed upright as she dared a glance at the demon, at the suction cups at the ends of its hands, and at the clear liquid that dripped from them—venom.
The white demon began laughing, and she felt the reverberations of its steps as it walked around her, taunting her.
Is this all you have to offer? The Legion are fools to send a child angel as their champion. Fools. But lucky for me.
A cold sweat formed on her forehead. Her weapon slipped in her hand, and she had to concentrate to keep from dropping it.
Tired already? asked the demon. You are even weaker than I thought.
“Screw you,” growled Alexa.
The demon came at her. She had no choice but to meet its blows, but she barely had the strength to raise her weapon each time. How much longer did she have? How fast would the venom work? If the demon’s bite had been a lethal dose, she’d have been dead by now. The demon’s venom was just enough to disorient her, not to kill, not yet.
Alexa blinked. She couldn’t focus, and her body became cold and limp.
Swallowing her scream of frustration, she blinked through her tears and felt the collar around her neck tighten, squeezing her like a noose.
She dared a glance over her shoulder to the other side of the lake, but all she could see was a moving wall of the dead, Milo was gone.
A trickle of fear formed in the back of her mind. Milo…
The demon turned, fast as a spring, and hurled itself at her again.
But Alexa wouldn’t surrender to her fear.
I will not be afraid. I am an angel.
Full of rage, she took off, sprinting across the hard surface before she launched herself at it, meeting it head on. She hit it with everything she had, punching with her left, stabbing with her right, never stopping as she jumped and spun around the demon like a top.
She leapt back a step, slicing open the demon’s arm with the broken end of the shard, ripping through muscle and fluid. He swatted at her with his other arm, but she moved aside, cutting its chest as well.
The demon cried out, thrashing wildly, and it lunged just as Alexa jumped back. She was getting the hang of it. Her tiny rock was as sharp as any soul blade. She almost smiled.
You think you can defeat me? said the demon, and Alexa sensed the annoyance in its voice. I doubt your little pebble would greatly increase your chances of success. You are no champion. You are nothing… a newly born angel that is about to die—
It struck in a blur of limbs and teeth.
Alexa had enough sense to whirl to avoid the venomous maws, but she was caught by one of its arms on the side and went flying. Her shard was wrenched from her grip as she pitched forward and hit the dirt. She slid, her face scraping on the sharp rocks.
You have failed the first trial. You will never return to Horizon. Your soul is mine.
The demon circled her, its white eyes surveying her and its mouth moving mechanically as though it was preparing to taste her flesh. It was drawing out the inevitable, a predator playing with its kill before eating it, savoring every moment.
The Legion sentenced you to death, said the demon as it moved closer, its shadow falling over Alexa. Accept your defeat. Accept death.
Alexa, sprawled defenseless on the ground, could only stare in terror as the demon’s suction cup maw slowly opened and reached out for her—
But the bite never came.
The demon wailed, a terrible sound so loud Alexa could feel it in every bone. It backed away from her, thrashing madly as it tried to pull out the two sharp objects that perforated its chest.
“Alexa!”
Milo stood above her. His hair and clothes were dripping in black water.
“What took you so long?” she said as she scrambled to her feet. She tried to smile but the pain in her chest made her grimace.
“An army of the undead?” he answered and then his features twisted. “You look bad.”
Alexa frowned. “Thanks.” She fought a wave of nausea. “How do we kill this thing?”
Milo shrugged. “Never seen this kind of demon before, and I lost what I was using as weapons. We need—”
A white arm shut out and wrapped itself around Milo’s chest while another looped around his neck. His eyes widened, and then he was pulled back against the white demon. It lifted him off the ground, and Milo kicked out with his legs but never made contact.
“Milo!”
Two champions, said the demon. The Legion always loves to break the rules. But I will have both.
Milo thrashed but he couldn’t get free. He couldn’t escape the jaws that latched on to his chest and neck. White essence dripped down his neck. He didn’t stand a chance as the demon closed its jaws around his neck.
It was all happening too fast. Milo had one last thrash, one final attempt to pry himself free, and then his body went limp. His eyes rolled back in the back of his head.
“Let him go!” Alexa threw herself against the creature. Her hands slipped on the demon’s oily skin as she tried to pry its arms from Milo’s neck. The arm loosened—
The demon struck her with immortal speed. She took a blow to the stomach, soared in the air and hit the ground hard. Her face slammed into the ground, inches from the flames of a small fire.
She blinked, black spots forming in front of her face. The pain was everywhere. The world shifted, and for a moment she didn’t move. But the poison was churning in her veins, burning up. Each pulse of pain in her body made it worse.
She looked around. The white demon still had Milo in its grasp, and he was silent and still like a corpse.
She had failed.
The hellwings had all but disappeared. Alexa could barely make out their tiny forms up in the cloud-covered sky. And when she looked across the lake, the dead army stood at the shores. They didn’t follow Milo to this shore. It was as though they too were afraid to go near the water. But maybe it was something else.
Alexa’s mind raced. Somehow, she knew she had to defeat this creature. The Legion wouldn’t have designed three trials if the first one was impossible. Their weapons had been removed on purpose, which meant the Legion expected them to use something here, in this place, to kill it. What else was there apart from miles of rock and ash and fire.
Fire.
And then Alexa was up on her feet, tearing off her jacket. She tossed it in the fire, and just as she feared she’d been wrong, the fire blazed higher as it consumed part of her jacket.
She grabbed a fistful, ran around the demon, and tossed the flaming jacket onto its back.
The demon’s back blazed in white flames as though she’d just doused it in gasoline.
It dropped Milo and thrashed wildly, trying to put out the flames. But the fire grew, devouring the creature like a hungry beast.
The demon yelled in a strange, guttural demon language. It roared, cursing at Alexa, beating its hands against the flames. Still the fire grew, taller and wider, until the white flames consumed the demon completely.
And then just as fast as the flames took to the creature, the fire flickered and went out.
The demon’s flesh cracked. He crumpled and fell apart, even his bones flaking away to soggy ash until all that was left of the white beast was a pile of white ash on the ground.
“How did you know fire would work?” rasped Milo. His voice trembled as he stood on shaky legs.
Alexa looked up from the ashes. “I wasn’t sure it would work,” she answered, feeling her nausea disappear, as though the demise of the demon took away its poison. “But I took a chance. The Legion took away our weapons, so I figured they had to assume we’d find something here to fight with.”
Milo squeezed his fingers under his collar and rubbed his neck. “Well, I’m sure glad you did. That thing nearly did me in.”
Part of Alexa wanted to reach out and press her fingers against his neck, and she wondered what his skin would feel like under her touch…
Alexa moved her gaze across the lake. “The dead are gone,” she said and looked to the sky. “So are the hellwings. Do you think this means we’ve passed the first test?”
But she never heard Milo’s answer as the world shifted and everything went black. She couldn’t see anything. There was only darkness and a constant pressure as though iron bands were tightening around her chest. And then darkness consumed her.