After dragging Raquel through the tower’s arch, as was usual during the transport, Adena was left feeling like she had passed out, yet remained standing. When she regained her senses, she was nauseous and had a minor headache, temporary side effects that hadn’t lessened in intensity since she first used the portal eight years ago. The demons claimed it was instantaneous, but even holding a stopwatch, her brief disorientation had always made it impossible to verify.
The two of them were inside a vast underground chamber made of black stone. Down here, the air was especially stifling, though with the high temperatures she’d trained her flames to reach, the climate didn’t much bother Adena. Other than the portal behind them, its symbol in the image of Hell’s alleged first ruler, visible on this side, and the torches along the walls, the space was empty. Ahead of them was an opening to a lengthy tunnel that led up to the surface.
As if just remembering the danger she’d last seen Jett in, Raquel ran back to the portal. After nothing happened, she eyed Leech, still in Adena’s hand. “We have to go back!”
“No,” Adena said firmly. She could tell Jett had noticed how bone-tired she was. How fighting the necromancer’s experiment would have drained what meager strength she had left, delaying them hours more. But for whatever reason, it was also personal for him. “He was scared, but he chose to pull his weight and fight. He didn’t want us sticking around as a safety net. Live or die, it was his— ”
“There’s no time for lame excuses!” Raquel spat, leveling her pistol at Adena. “I’m done losing my family piece by piece. If you’re not coming, gimme the scythe, and I’ll go alone.”
Adena’s eyes narrowed, and Raquel shuddered, the gun in her hands, Flint’s gun, shaking slightly. She knew the girl was being driven mad with grief, because the same had happened to her when she lost her twin. As much of a nuisance as Flint had been, since she’d always been home-schooled to avoid the risk of revealing her Flair, he was the only person her age she saw regularly. In the vacuum his death had left in her life, she had become putty for Misery and Jezebeth to mold as they pleased, filling her naive mind with half-truths and turning her against her own.
But surrounded by billions of demons, Raquel’s overconfidence and trigger-happy attitude would form a noose for her. Adena herself had killed for less than having a weapon pointed at her. Far less. “I realize you’re not as quick-witted as Carlito was, but I think you know better than to shoot the best chance of ensuring your living brother’s safety. I warned you about taking the time to rest and prepare. You wouldn’t listen, and now that things are in motion, Jett will have to take care of himself.”
Raquel’s jaw moved, but nothing came out for several seconds. Eventually, she pulled back her garish pink coat and holstered her gun. “What’s in motion?”
“I’ve been in contact with the High Lord of Erodis, one of the six great cities,” Adena said. “He’s an old mentor of Resent’s, and has been looking to rebel for as long as Misery’s been on the throne. But he doesn’t have the numbers for all-out war. We’ve been using his Blight as a liaison to trade information since Resent’s resurrection. According to the last text I received from him in our world, a carriage was going to be waiting here to take us to Erodis.” And she was counting on those priceless hours of sleep she would get on the ride there.
Raquel blinked, then huffed a bitter laugh. “You always sound so smart, but are you actually just a moron with a fancy vocabulary? Why would you be crazy enough to trust a random demon? I don’t even trust Resent.”
Despite Raquel’s sass testing her patience, Adena had to respect the girl’s skepticism. Maybe there was a little more between her ears than she gave her credit for. “Good. Don’t trust any of them. Trust in their self-interest. This high lord rules over the smallest of the great cities, and having Resent on the throne would only benefit him.”
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“Whatever. I guess it’s not like we have any better options,” Raquel said, glancing around. “Anyway, where are all the demons? You said this is one of the main portals they’re using to invade us, right? Shouldn’t the place be busier than Grand Central?”
“At this point, the demons who were going to invade already have.” Still, if they lingered there too long, they were bound to run into the stragglers trickling in or those returning early with captured slaves. Adena reached around her neck, unlatched her fade periapt, and stretched it out to Raquel. “Put that on. Invited or not, if the demons see a free human wandering around, it’s sure to cause problems. At least with that they can mistake you for possessed, or a shape-shifter.”
Raquel lifted her brows, not yet taking the amulet. “What about you?”
“Like you saw the other night, my status as a Blight is known throughout the great cities, so most demons will think twice before hassling me.” She pulled her mask out of her bag and slipped it on over her face. Even if the illusions it created weren’t as effective against large numbers of demons, it made her instantly recognizable to many.
After Raquel put on the fade periapt, placing it inside her shirt, they left the chamber and entered the tunnel. Walking through the broad passage illuminated by blue flames, they could see the debris, shattered weapons, spots of dried blood, and even the recently trampled skeletons of varying sizes that littered the tunnel. All left where it fell, to serve as a warning to those who would try to leave Hell without permission. After all, like many of the preceding rulers, Misery’s original end goal was to inherit the earth before irreparable damage could be done to it, but not until mankind’s technology was advanced enough to reverse the harm already done. Yet the royal agenda meant little to the average demon. Were they allowed to come and go as they pleased, the human race of old would’ve been eradicated long ago.
Intellectually, Adena knew earth was Hell’s past. She’d had years to move past the existential crisis that knowledge caused and come to terms with it. And yet, even if it resulted from the largest war the planet had ever seen, the invention of the demons, and the rising sea levels caused by the increase in heat and the melting of Antarctica’s ice, she still found it difficult to believe it wasn’t another world entirely. Because of the demons’ success in erasing nearly everything of human origin that predated their creation, from their technology to their historical records, it was impossible to say how many thousands of years had passed since the 21st century. Regardless, that the remaining shrunken continents of the old world had somehow been crushed together like Pangaea, the supercontinent that broke apart 175 million years ago, was something the scientists of her time hadn’t foreseen happening for at least another 200 million years. And that was one of the dimension’s milder mysteries.
It was about five minutes later when they came to the tunnel’s end, reaching a spiral staircase. Unlike the ones from the tower, these steps were much wider, and there was no flimsy guardrail. When they got to the top of the steps, a large portcullis that led outside had been raised and waited in front of them. Adena was used to the hound-drawn carriages that Misery sent to retrieve her being in plain sight before even stepping through the gateway. Not being able to see the high lord’s carriage put her on edge.
She held a finger up for Raquel to wait, and hoped the girl wouldn’t argue, or do anything to give away her presence. Normally, formidable guards were on either side of the gate, monitoring who came and went. They likely abandoned their posts given how much unregulated use the portal’s been seeing lately.
Adena raised her mask onto the top of her head and rubbed her eyes. Even caution was strenuous at this point. She stepped over the threshold to the outside, where a bright red sky hung overhead, as if the sun were setting despite the early time of day. The surrounding land was desolate, and far from civilization. Which was fortunate, because if the portals were in the cities, even under guard, the allure of an alternate world would’ve attracted far more demons than the occasional stray.
As Adena glanced to her right, she froze as blood-ringed orange eyes stared back. Not ten feet away, Verin leaned against the stone wall, arms crossed as he watched her with a smirk. With his speed and the element of surprise, he could have killed her the millisecond he saw her. But, no, like all that gaudy gold armor, still damaged and lacking the helmet from his fight with Resent, suggested, he wanted to be seen. And he wanted her to make the first move. All to give her a humiliating death for her part in his brother’s demise.
Without taking her eyes off Verin, Adena tossed her scythe far over Raquel’s head, feigning panic that had long been ironed out of her, as she screamed, “Run!”
Verin’s smirk faltered, proving he had been relying on his energy sense rather than listening for footsteps. As he dashed forward, curious to see who could be important enough to make a callous Blight risk her own life, Adena summoned Leech back to her with a thought, intending to bisect Verin at the waist by using his own momentum. But with as sluggish as she had become, her hands were too slow to grasp it. The scythe clattered to the ground.
The counterattack came so fast, all Adena saw was a blur of gold before the world returned to darkness.