Descent, page 8
“Maybe not,” I growled, leaning in until our faces were inches apart. “But I’ll make damn sure you lose.”
Skull’s laughter echoed through the clearing, mingling with the pounding in my ears. “You know, Raven had a lot to say about what happened. The fact that some willowy little bunker bitch managed to catch her off guard. And the fact she rescued you? Fucking demon whore. I’ll sell her as fast as I can — but not before my men have had a go at her first.”
My vision turned red. I reacted without thinking—my fist met his jaw with a satisfying crunch. Skull came back, fists slamming into mine. We traded blows like feral beasts.
“You care about her, don’t you?” Skull sneered, blood dripping from his mouth. “Fucking idiot. You know better. Or did you learn nothing from Raven? Now, because of this little slut, I have to get involved personally. Do you know how infuriating that is?”
His words cut deeper than any wound I’d earned. But I had no time to hurt—I had to fight. I landed a solid punch to his ribs, feeling him grunt, but he didn’t relent. Instead, he grabbed my throat and hoisted me off the ground with ease.
“You think you’re something special?” he growled, breath hot and rancid against my face. “You’re just another monster in this fucked-up world.”
My fingers clawed at his arm. Vision spinning, breath slicing away, but I refused to lose. Not here. Not now.
Suddenly, a ferocious snarl slashed through the air. Silence broke free from her earlier restraint and lunged at Skull, fangs sinking into his arm. His grip faltered, and I crashed to the ground—but rolled to my feet in an instant, ready to finish this.
“How long have you been watching?” I rasped, pressing forward.
Skull bared his teeth, struggling as Silence tore into him. “Long enough,” he spat. “Long enough to see how fucking innocent she is. How much I’ll enjoy watching her bleed on my dick while I fuck her raw until she begs to stop. Then I’ll pass her off to George and Boyd and all of them. And I’ll make you watch, knowing you can do shit about it.”
Rage exploded through me. While Silence kept Skull off balance, I stepped forward for the kill—but even as I lunged; I knew this fight wasn’t over yet.
He threw Silence off with a roar and turned to face me once more, bloodied but defiant. Our battle raged on, each of us driven by our own twisted motivations and the relentless desire to survive in this hellish world we called home.
Everly let out a grunt of pain. My heart lurched as I whipped around, eyes wide, just in time to see Raven bring a rock crashing down on Everly’s head. The sound was sickening, and Everly crumpled to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.
“Everly!” I roared, but my voice barely reached her as she lay still.
Silence reacted faster than I did. The Hellhound’s snarl tore through the air as she lunged at Raven, teeth bared and ready to rip her apart. Raven barely had time to react before Silence was on her, snapping and clawing with all the fury of a wild beast.
But my distraction cost me. Skull took advantage of my momentary lapse in focus. He barreled into me with the force of a freight train, knocking me off my feet and sending me sprawling onto the ground.
“Don’t worry, D,” Skull said, his voice dripping with malicious glee. “We’ll take good care of her, yeah?”
Before I could muster a response, his fist collided with the side of my head. Pain exploded in my skull, and the world spun around me. My vision blurred, dark spots dancing at the edges as consciousness slipped away.
I fought to stay awake, to keep fighting for Everly. But Skull’s relentless assault was too much. Another blow landed square on my temple, and everything went black.
I was out cold before I even hit the ground.
I came to with the ground hard against my back and the stench of blood and ash thick in my nose. My head throbbed like I’d been kicked by a damned Hellhorse—each pulse sharper than the last. Groaning, I sat up slow, every joint in my body reminding me just how mortal I still was. The world tilted, spun, then righted itself like it always did. Eventually.
“Everly,” I rasped, voice rough like gravel under boot.
I looked around—nothing but blackness and silence pressing in on all sides.
“Everly?” I called again, louder.
No answer. Just the hiss of wind through broken places and my own heartbeat pounding too damn loud in my ears.
“Shit.”
I hauled myself to my feet, body screaming protest with every move. No sign of her. No footprints. No blood. No wreckage. Just… absence. A hollow space where she should’ve been.
Panic clamped around my ribs, sharp and uninvited. I hated that. Hated feeling helpless. I started pacing, scanning the area like a madman, calling her name with more desperation each time.
“Everly!” I bellowed. “Answer me, damn it!”
Nothing. No sign. Not a fucking whisper.
My knees buckled, and I hit the dirt fists first. The rage came quick and loud—raw and hot like fire licking through my chest. I slammed my fists into the ground again and again, uncaring if the rocks split my skin. Pain was easier to handle than this goddamn failure.
“I promised you,” I growled into the dirt. “I promised I’d keep you safe.”
But promises didn’t mean shit if you couldn’t keep ‘em.
I sat there for a moment, letting the fury simmer, letting the guilt twist around my insides like barbed wire. Then I forced myself up. Because wallowing wasn’t gonna bring her back.
She needed me.
And I didn’t give a rat’s ass what stood in my way—I’d tear it all down to get her back.
I pushed forward, scanning every shadow, every whisper of sound. My head still pounded. My limbs still ached. Didn’t matter.
Then I heard it. A faint sound—barely there.
A whimper.
I froze. Tilted my head. There it was again.
I moved toward it, quiet and sure.
“Hang on, Everly,” I muttered. “I’m coming.”
My eyes adjusted to the dark, and there she was—Silence. Crumpled in the dirt like some broken relic. Blood soaked her fur, thick and dark, masking the shine that used to ripple when she moved. Her chest rose in shallow jerks. Barely.
“Goddamn it,” I muttered.
She wasn’t just some mutt. Silence had torn through demons like paper, dragged me outta fire more than once. And now? She looked… small. Weak. Vulnerable.
I crouched beside her, boots crunching over dried blood and rock. She whimpered, a sound that made my stomach twist. I hovered a hand over her ribs, felt the heat radiating from the gashes.
“Should put you down,” I said low, gravel catching in my throat. “Be easier.”
My hand twitched toward the knife at my belt.
But then—damn it—I heard that voice. That damn girl’s voice, curling through my skull like smoke.
No, Walton. Don’t you dare.
I rolled my eyes at the sky. “Perfect,” I grumbled. “Gone soft and crazy.”
Still, I didn’t move. Didn’t finish the job.
Instead, I ripped a strip off my shirt, cursing as the seams gave way. I pressed it against the worst of the wounds, and Silence whined but didn’t snap. Good girl. Still fighting. Maybe I owed her the same.
I kept working, hands sure despite the shaking. The storm in my chest quieted with every wrapped wound.
This wasn’t about Everly. Hell no. It wasn’t.
Except… it was.
Damn her.
That girl had wormed her way into the cracks, made me believe in something again. I didn’t ask for it. Didn’t want it. But now here I was, patching up a dying Hellhound in the middle of ruin with nothing but spit and sheer will, because the idea of giving up made me sick.
So I kept going. Kept Silence breathing.
And once she was stable, I sat back on my heels, jaw clenched.
“I’ll find her,” I muttered, more to myself than anyone. “And I’ll tear down every last bastard who laid a hand on her.”
Even if it meant facing Lucifer himself.
Chapter 9
Everly
Agony bloomed across my cheek like fire beneath the skin, dragging me up from the blackness. My head throbbed so viciously it felt like someone had buried a drum inside it, and I couldn’t open my left eye no matter how hard I tried.
“Fuck, finally,” came a voice—low, sultry, unmistakably Raven.
I blinked open my right eye and found her standing there—tall, fierce, and radiant in a terrifying sort of way. Her wild hair framed a face like a dagger’s edge, and her armor bore the scars of more battles than I could count. She looked like she belonged to the world outside—unbreakable, unapologetic.
And yet, it was her eyes that truly unnerved me. They were devoid of warmth. Just ice and calculation, like she was always two steps from sinking her claws in.
I tried to breathe through the panic rising in my chest. The room was dark, damp, and smelled like metal and old stone. I was tied down—arms, ankles, everything. The ropes dug into my skin, making it impossible to move more than a fraction.
Raven stepped closer. Her boots struck the concrete with a rhythm that made my heart race faster.
“Look at you,” she said, her voice laced with mocking sweetness. “Not so high and mighty now, are we? Don’t have your precious Runes now, do you?”
I struggled a little—instinct, maybe—but the chair creaked ominously under me and didn’t give an inch.
“Where am I?” I rasped, my voice cracked and barely audible.
“Somewhere you can’t escape,” she said with a smile that made my skin crawl. “Your knight in evil armor can’t save you here.”
The thought of Walton struck me like lightning. Where was he? Was he hurt? Was he… I shut the thought down before it could spiral. I had to believe he was still out there. Alive. Fighting.
Raven crouched suddenly, her face so close I could feel the heat of her breath. “I wonder what he sees in you,” she said, and her fingers brushed a piece of hair from my face. The touch was so gentle, so at odds with everything else about her, that it sent a shiver down my spine.
I clenched my jaw. I wouldn’t cry. Wouldn’t break.
Her smile stretched, wider now, like she was enjoying the tension rolling off me. “Are you angry, Bunker Bitch?” she asked, almost like she was curious. “I didn’t think it was possible.”
She stood, her eyes still on mine as she turned and walked away, leaving me alone in the shadows with nothing but the pounding of my heart and the pain anchoring me to this cold reality.
But I was still alive. And I still had faith.
Then she turned back, smirking.
“Skull is still trying to decide whether to keep you or kill you,” she said. “But while he decides, I get to hurt you.”
The words knocked the breath from my lungs.
“Why?” I asked, and despite myself, my voice shook.
“Because you have a penance to pay,” Raven said, sneering like it was obvious.
“Me?” I gasped. “I’ve done nothing.”
That did it. Her face twisted with fury.
“You’re utilizing resources no one has access to,” she snarled. “Safe in your bunker, while Earth is literally a hell. Demons run rampant. The law is nonexistent. And girls and boys? They’re ripped from their parents and sold… or their parents sell ‘em.”
“Children?” I asked softly, the word catching in my throat like a fragile leaf caught in a storm.
Raven’s sneer deepened, and I saw something almost mournful flicker in her eyes before it turned to scorn. “How I envy your ignorance,” she said, shaking her head slowly. “Let me guess. You’re still intact? Or did you actually fuck a demon?”
Her words made the air feel too tight to breathe. Heat crept up my neck and into my cheeks, but I forced myself to meet her eyes, to stay still. I wouldn’t let her shame me, no matter how cruel the angle of her attack.
“No, you wouldn’t, would you?” she pressed, her voice like velvet over broken glass. “Your pussy’s too precious to taint it with the likes of him. You missed out, girlie. He knows exactly what to do to… Well.” That smirk again. Cold. Knowing.
Something flared inside me—shame, confusion… jealousy?
“Don’t like hearing about him, do you?” Raven purred. “You like him, don’t you? What a scandal. And here I thought you Purifiers are supposed to remain pure for your husbands.”
Her words landed like thorns in my chest, each one prickling and painful. But still, I managed to whisper, “How would you know that?”
Raven’s expression changed—tightened. Her teeth clenched, and the anger came in low and bitter. “Rumors,” she muttered. “You think you’re the first Bunker Bitch I’ve seen?” Her head shook slowly, eyes dark with something old and raw.
“You’re lying,” I said, but even to me, it sounded more like a prayer than a truth. My heart pounded. We were supposed to be safe. We were told no one ever got out.
She let out a dry, bitter laugh and leaned back, arms crossed like a final judgment. “Believe what you want,” she said with a cruel little shrug. Her tone was a knife coated in disdain.
My mind swirled. I couldn’t tell what was real anymore—truth and fiction folding in on each other like ash in the wind. The ground beneath everything I knew felt like it was crumbling.
Then she moved in close again—too close. Her breath touched my face as she whispered, “This world isn’t what you think it is, little girl.” Her voice wasn’t loud, but it echoed in my skull like thunder. “Everyone’s up in arms trying to find your sister because she’s worth something. Skull wants to use you to bring her out. Then, we can make a trade — two birds for a hell of a lot of stones. But I… I want you dead. And I want you to suffer.”
Her words sliced deeper than any blade.
I blinked up at her, barely able to understand the hate in her expression. “But why?” I asked, my voice weak and shaking, like I was trying to hold together pieces of something broken.
Raven’s face twisted with disgust. “I hate everything you represent,” she spat. “Purity. Innocence. God. It’s all a fucking joke. And you’ve never had to suffer. You don’t know what it’s like to be up here. You probably didn’t even care, did you?”
I opened my mouth, searching for a defense I didn’t have. “I… I didn’t think to ask,” I admitted. My voice wavered, tears blurring my vision. “We weren’t told much.”
Her hand cracked across my face, the impact sudden and violent. My head snapped to the side, and the world tilted for a moment. Blood filled my mouth, hot and sharp, and I tasted iron and fear and guilt.
“How convenient,” Raven said coldly, watching me sway in the chair. “To keep your head down. What is the worst thing that could happen in your precious bunker? A marriage of convenience? Having babies?”
She scoffed, the sound hollow and cruel.
Then her eyes narrowed and her voice dropped to something far more intimate—and far more dangerous.
“Let me ask you, girlie. What happens after the wedding?”
I blinked, vision swimming, trying so hard to keep hold of the moment—of consciousness—despite the awful, pounding rhythm in my skull. Everything felt distant, like I was underwater, and Raven’s face was just out of reach, warping around the edges.
“Huh?” she pressed, leaning in so close I could feel the heat of her breath against my cheek. “What. Happens?”
“I don’t understand the question,” I whispered, my head drooping forward no matter how hard I fought it. My voice barely made it past my cracked lips.
“Fucking idiot,” she muttered, and it stung more than I thought it would. “Do you ever see them again?”
I tried to think through the fog. “See who?” I asked, barely able to push the words out. My throat felt raw, and my body so heavy.
Raven stood straighter, her face twisting with something ugly and wounded and furious all at once. “Your… I don’t know,” she snapped, waving a hand like she couldn’t be bothered to make it specific. “When someone gets married, then what? Do you meet their… intended? Do you see them still? Where do they live?”
Her questions pierced something I didn’t expect—something deep. Because… I didn’t know. I’d never asked. We weren’t supposed to question. Everyone in the bunker said it was God’s will. His plan.
I stayed silent, and that silence made her snap.
“You really are clueless,” she said with a bitter laugh, turning her back on me. Her voice was raw and mean, but I heard something else beneath it. Not just hate. Hurt.
I let my eyes close for a moment. Just for a breath. The pain and fear swirled around me like smoke, thick and choking. But something stirred beneath it. A small, stubborn flicker in my chest—determination.
“Stop it,” I breathed, so soft I wasn’t even sure I said it aloud.
Raven turned, eyes narrowing. “Stop what?” she said mockingly. “Telling the truth?”
“What are you insinuating?” My voice cracked and shook, but I met her gaze the best I could. “Whether you want to hear it or not, we were chosen by God—”
Her hand struck me hard. White light exploded behind my eyes, and the pain rolled in like a tide. But even through that, I kept the truth in my heart.
“If God gave a shit about you,” Raven hissed, her face suddenly too close again, her voice trembling with fury, “why isn’t He here to save you? Surely you know the pain you’re feeling now is just a fraction of what I plan to do to you.”
I shut my eyes tightly and focused—not on the pain, not on her hate—but on something bigger. Something eternal. Words came back to me like a prayer spoken in my mother’s voice.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” I whispered, “for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
Another blow, sharp and hard. My head whipped sideways, the taste of blood heavy in my mouth. But I didn’t stop.
