Hellion, page 30
Excitement and hope blossomed in my chest, and I stole another glance at Alaron to make sure his back was still to me. Standing, I moved swiftly along the cave wall, my stockinged feet making no sound against the stone floor.
The first thing I did when I reached the back of the cave was check on Orias. He was alive but unconscious, and no amount of shaking would wake him up. I finally had to accept that he couldn’t help us. We were on our own this time.
I pulled Hamid’s jacket to me and stuck my hand into the inside pocket. My whole body trembled when my fingers closed around a wooden hilt. I couldn’t breathe as I cradled the knife in my hands as if it was the most precious object in the world.
A distant roaring reached me. I stared at the tear in the barrier, which was now half a foot wide.
Gathering up the knife, my sword, and my combat boots, I cast a regretful look at Orias and hurried back to Hamid. I hated to leave anyone behind, but I couldn’t save them both. I’d feel guilty about it later – if Hamid and I somehow got out of this alive.
Hamid’s head was turned toward me, watching me approach. Orias? He asked when I knelt and quietly laid the weapons and boots beside him.
Alive but I couldn’t wake him up. I turned my back to Alaron and held up the knife for Hamid to see. But I have this.
Hope filled his eyes, and he closed them for a moment. Then he fixed me with a determined stare. Take the knife and use it to escape.
Blood loss must be addling your brain because you know I’m not walking out of here without you. Excitement built in me as an idea began to form. Lie very still. I’m going to try something.
I glanced over my shoulder at Alaron whose attention was riveted on the tear in the barrier.
Keeping my back to him, I grasped the sheath and uncovered an inch of the blade. I didn’t dare unsheathe it completely for fear the demon would sense its presence.
Ever so slowly, I brought the knife down until it was inches from the shackle on Hamid’s left wrist. Hamid grunted, and my hand stilled.
Are you okay? I asked him.
Yes. Do it.
I inhaled deeply. Moment of truth.
I lowered the blade to the shackle. Before it had even touched the metal, sparks flew. Hamid’s body jerked and convulsed, and his eyes rolled back in his head. I laid the knife down and leaned over him. My heart nearly stopped when I saw he wasn’t breathing.
Hamid! I covered his mouth with mine and forced air into his lungs. On the fourth breath, he inhaled, and I nearly collapsed on top of him.
The roaring in the barrier grew louder. I lifted my head to see the hole was over two feet high and expanding quickly.
Hamid wheezed. “You have to leave.”
I looked down at the open shackle. “No. I can do this.”
“You can’t free me without killing me.” He coughed weakly and looked at me with pleading eyes. “Please.”
I shook my head fervently. My heart felt like it had been ripped in two, and I gasped from the physical pain in my chest at the thought of losing him.
“Yes!” Alaron shouted triumphantly.
I stared at the hole to see it was almost as tall as me now.
“Look at me,” Hamid ordered. I did, and he reached up with the hand I’d freed to cup my cheek. “We are almost out of time. You have to leave me.”
“No. I won’t.” My chest tightened painfully. I just needed to think about it, and something would come to me. I had always excelled at escaping traps in training. This was no different.
Hamid turned my head to make me look at him. “I love you, my fierce mate, and I will carry your love with me from this world. Someday, we’ll see each other again, and we will have eternity together.”
“Don’t talk like that.” I pounded his chest as hot tears scalded my cheeks and dripped onto his skin.
He smiled tenderly as he wiped away my tears with his thumb. “I thought you never cry.”
I sniffled. “If you tell anyone, I’ll deny it.”
His hand slipped behind my head and pulled me down for an achingly sweet kiss that was over too soon.
“It’s time for you to go,” he said hoarsely. “The world will need warriors like you in the days ahead.”
There was a loud sucking sound and a pop, followed by the howl of wind. I looked up and forgot to breathe when I saw the window had grown into a doorway that was six feet wide and at least fifteen feet tall. Beyond it, shapes moved in the ghostly netherworld light, but none of them tried to come through the hole like they had the first time.
A huge shape caught my eye, and when I got my first look at Alaron’s body, I knew immediately why the other demons were staying back.
Covered in red scales with legs the size of tree trunks, the archdemon was as tall as the doorway and just as broad. Large horns curled on either side of its head, and a pair of massive wings were half unfurled from its back. I couldn’t make out the facial features, but I saw enough to know I couldn’t let that abomination enter our world.
I shoved my feet into my boots and laced them up in a frenzy. I gazed at the face of the man I’d come to love more than my own life. Leaning down, I kissed him hard, pouring every ounce of my love into it. Then I got to my feet, clutching the sheathed knife in one hand and my sword in the other.
“What are you doing?”
I gave him a watery smile. “Saving the world, of course.”
I drank in his handsome face one last time, memorizing every feature. And then I turned and sprinted for the hole in the barrier.
Alaron didn’t spot me until I was halfway across the cave. “Stop,” he bellowed as if I would obey. When he didn’t come after me, I realized he couldn’t. He had to stay where he was, doing his spell to keep the barrier open.
I stopped in front of the hole and felt the coldness pulling at me. From here, it was like looking through a shimmering waterfall. Only there was nothing pretty waiting for me on the other side.
I tossed a grin over my shoulder at Alaron, who was staring at me with a mix of shock and rage. “I’ll see you in hell, demon.”
And then I dove through the barrier.
Chapter 20
Hell was – for lack of a better word – a shithole. I landed on some kind of coarse black sand, and all around me jagged black rocks protruded from the ground, making me glad I’d taken the time to don my boots. There were no trees or vegetation, just rocks and sand as far as I could see, and the sky was blood red. It was also freezing here. I thought hell was supposed to be an inferno, but this place was colder than Idaho in February.
And oh God, the smell. If you mixed sulfur, roadkill, and sewage together, it still wouldn’t be as bad as the putrid stench in this place. It was no wonder demons wanted to leave here.
Speaking of demons, about half a dozen of them waited for me, including a Drex, a Kraas demon, something that looked like a giant gray squid, and others I couldn’t identify. A few distant shapes swirled in the sky, and from here, they resembled pterodactyls. Whatever they were, I hoped they stayed away. I had more than enough to deal with here.
And then there was the archdemon that looked twice as big up close. His face was as monstrous as the rest of him, with a wide bony brow lined with spikes, glowing red eyes, and a snout like a boar. The other demons were giving him a wide berth, even though he was just standing there. Was the archdemon’s body even cognizant of its surroundings while its essence was possessing another body?
Someone shouted, but it sounded garbled and distant. I turned to see Alaron through the hazy window into my world. He was holding out his arms and making frantic summoning motions with his hands, but his body seemed to be in no hurry to comply.
A noise behind me drew my attention back to the demons to see every one of them, except the archdemon, focused hungrily on me. A few of the braver ones rushed at me, the lure of fresh meat clearly overcoming their fear of the archdemon.
I brought my sword up and assumed a fighting stance with the sheathed knife in my other hand. Once I bared the angel blade, everyone would know it, and I wasn’t ready to tip my hand yet.
The squid demon was one of the first to reach me, and one of its barbed tentacles went straight for my throat. My blade sliced through the tentacle, and the demon hissed loudly when the clawed tip fell to the ground.
The demon withdrew its injured limb as it lashed out at my legs with another tentacle. I jumped back and tripped over a protruding rock. I managed to keep my grip on my weapons as I fell backward and rolled to my feet.
I came up swinging, my blade taking two more tentacles from the demon that had rushed in for the attack. It hissed again and pulled back behind the other demons waiting for their chance.
A Drex demon came next, bellowing at me as it charged, shoving aside or trampling other demons in its path. I didn’t wait for it to reach me, running out to meet it halfway.
My aggression must have baffled the Drex demon because it stopped mid-stride to stare at me. Taking advantage of its confusion, I struck fast and hard, driving my sword deep into its stomach where its heart was located.
I pulled my sword free and retreated as the demon let out an agonized sound and toppled over. Its body was still twitching when the remaining demons descended upon it, ripping into it with teeth and claws.
Now that they were busy with their meal, I turned my attention to the real reason I was here. Alaron’s mindless body was slowly lumbering toward the hole, its dragon-like tail dragging behind it.
I took a deep breath and switched the knife to my sword hand before I slid the blade free of its sheath. “I hope you’re as good as they say.”
The knife thrummed in my hand as if it knew it was in the presence of evil. I could feel its divine power in every fiber of my being as the blade cast a white glow around me. My Mori whined piteously and shrank away from it. The other demons must have felt it, too, because they stopped their frenzied eating and watched me warily.
I looked from them to the massive demon and mentally prepared myself for the fight of my life. I couldn’t think of Hamid or what could be happening in the cave right now. My only priority was to stop the archdemon from crossing the barrier.
“God, please let me be worthy of this weapon,” I said before I took off after the demon.
Running toward the thing, I scanned it for a soft spot between the scales where I could stab it. Its armpit looked promising, but I had no way to reach it.
Catching up to it, I took a swing and tried to pierce the scales on the back of its knee. The blade glanced off the diamond-hard scales without leaving a mark.
I grunted as the demon’s tail slammed hard into my midsection and sent me flying. I slammed into the side of a large rock and slid down to the ground. Blood trickled down the side of my face from a cut on my head, and I had some new bruises, but I’d seen worse. At least, I hadn’t lost my grip on my weapons. And my question about whether or not the demon was cognizant had been answered.
Pushing up off the ground, I looked at the rock and shuddered. I’d hit the flat side of it. If I had landed on top of it, I would have been impaled and it would be game over.
I turned back to the archdemon. Before I could take a step, something landed on my back, knocking me to the ground.
I rolled, trying to shake the thing loose, but claws dug into my back and arms, holding it in place. I couldn’t use the angel blade on it while it was attached to me or I’d die, too.
I managed to get to my knees and push myself up to my feet. Then I rammed my back against the same rock I’d hit.
Teeth bit down on my shoulder and I screamed at the pain, but I didn’t stop. Two more times I bashed the demon into the rock until I was able to dislodge it.
As soon as I pulled free of its claws, I heaved it over my shoulder. It was a Kraas demon, and it was stunned but not dead. I ran to it and touched the angel blade to one of its flailing legs.
The demon let out a horrible shriek as its skin turned gray and glowing cracks formed in the surface. It thrashed wildly and tried to scuttle away, but it didn’t get far before it exploded into a million pieces.
I brandished the knife at the other demons that had crept closer to me during the fight. The knife cast a white glow around me, and the demons cringed away from it as if it burned them. I took a step toward them. “Who else wants some of this?”
They all turned tail and ran.
I bent to retrieve my sword, which I’d lost when the Kraas demon had tackled me, and I winced when pain shot down my arm from my injured shoulder. Dropping the sword, I tightened my grip on the angel blade because it was the only weapon that would work against the archdemon anyway. At least, the Kraas demon hadn’t bitten my sword arm, or I’d be in even worse trouble now.
I ran at the archdemon again. The tail slashed at me, but this time I expected it and I leaped out of its path. Every time I tried to get near the demon, the tail kept swatting me away. And with each step the demon took, it got closer to the hole.
My stomach hardened with desperation when I saw we were less than twenty feet from the barrier. On the other side, I could see Alaron beckoning his body, his voice raised in excitement.
I raced ahead of the demon to an outcropping of rocks and climbed them. The sharp edges cut into my hands, but I kept going. I made it to the top just as he came abreast of the rocks, and I flung myself onto his back.
His tail swiped at me, and it would have dislodged me if I hadn’t grabbed one of his thick horns. Clinging to him with one hand, I raised the other and stabbed at his shoulders and neck over and over to no avail.
Is there no goddamn way to kill this thing? What if Eldeorin was wrong and the blade couldn’t hurt an archdemon?
The demon stopped walking. One of its hands came up and grabbed my calf, and agonizing pain shot through my leg when claws pierced my flesh to the bone. He wrenched me from his back and dangled me upside down before him.
I slashed at him with the knife, but he held me out of reach. Being close to the angel blade didn’t even faze him. Things were not looking good for me.
And they were about to get a lot worse.
The demon lifted me higher and flung me away from him. I sailed through the air, and fear squeezed the oxygen from my lungs when I saw the glassy spikes I was headed for.
A loud screech came from above. I barely registered the sound of flapping wings before claws wrapped around my waist. I was yanked upward, seconds away from hitting the deadly rocks.
The ground fell away as the flying demon rose into the air. I didn’t need to look to know it was one of those huge pterodactyl things I’d seen when I got here. I also knew I was dead if I didn’t get away from it in the next few seconds.
I looked below me and saw a stretch of sand. Gritting my teeth, I braced myself. Chances were this was going to kill me. But at least I’d die on my own terms.
I touched the blade to one of the claws digging into my stomach. My body went rigid as a current of electricity shot through me. Stars exploded before my eyes as my numb fingers lost their grip on the knife and it fell to the ground.
A second later, I was falling, too. By some miracle, I landed on my feet, but as soon as I touched the ground, my legs gave out and I crumpled to the sand. I lay on my back, struggling for the breath that had been knocked out of me as ash floated down around me.
Distant shouting forced me to my feet. I looked for the archdemon and saw I was at least a hundred yards away from him. The hole in the barrier looked smaller from here, but I could hear Alaron calling to his body.
I scoured the ground for the knife and found it buried to the hilt in the black sand. As soon as I pulled it free, the glow surrounded me, filling me with renewed strength.
Limping on my injured leg, I ran to the demon that was slowly moving toward the hole again. He was nearing the last group of rocks, and after that, there was nothing but sand and no way for me to jump on him.
I put on an extra burst of speed, ignoring the burning pain in my leg. This was my last chance. If I didn’t stop him now, he’d reach the hole.
Sprinting past the demon, I scaled the rocks just in time to jump on him as he passed. I grabbed onto one of his curled horns and used my momentum to swing me around to his front. Dangling from his horn, I found myself face-to-face with him and choking on his rancid breath.
Red eyes burned into mine. I didn’t know if there was any intelligence in the body, but for a fleeting moment, I thought I saw some recognition there. I also saw the weakness I’d been searching for.
Tightening my grip on his horn, I raised the hand holding the knife.
“No!” screamed Alaron from the other side of the barrier.
I looked over my shoulder and saw him running toward the hole he’d created.
“Fuck you,” I shouted at him as I turned back and thrust the angel blade deep into one of the glowing eyes.
A blast of white light from the knife blinded me as a jolt of power hit me square in the chest and sent me flying backward. I landed hard on my back, unable to breathe as convulsions seized my body.
An explosion rent the air, and the ground shook. I opened my eyes in time to see bits of archdemon raining down around me, and I covered my face with my arms to protect it.
Rolling to my stomach, I forced myself to my hands and knees. When I’d come through the barrier, I’d known it was probably a one-way trip, but now that the end was near, I wasn’t ready to die.
I was surrounded by a sea of demon parts that smelled worse than this place. I gagged and started to stand when I saw a wooden handle amidst the gore a foot away. I grabbed it and staggered to my feet, fighting off the waves of dizziness that assailed me.
“Jordan!” Hamid bellowed from far away.
I spun and found the doorway was half its original size and getting smaller by the second.
My steps were uneven as I ran for the barrier with every ounce of strength left in me. It was Hamid’s voice calling to me that gave me the final burst of energy I needed. I reached the doorway and dove straight through it a second before it closed with a loud popping sound.
